LimestoneI managed to catch Fikod just before he pulled the lever to open the gate. With a yelp, I ran down to him with my sword held aloft. He looked at me in terror, raising his pick defensively (can't blame the lad) but I steered toward the control mechanism and smashed it with the blade, rendering the lever inoperable. It will not be repaired until proper security measures are put in place.
The miner looked incredibly worried, so I breathlessly explained the situation. First, as I watched from our lookout post above the fortress walls, I noticed a strange heliotrope mass emerge from the bubbling Blueness. The creature let out a loud screech and tore off toward the hapless traders with unbelievable speed. It was on them in moments, tearing the arm from a guard and stampeding him down. It was then when I saw a few goblins appear at the top of the hill marking the edge of our territory. Then a few more goblins appeared, and a few more, until there were about sixty goblins, some mounted on beasts of war, declaring themselves with their battle drums.
No doubt our attackers came here for Battlefailed, but the humans fighting the titan drew their attention quickly enough. Before long the local undead were attracted by so much commotion and threw themselves into the fray. It didn't take long for all the humans to die. The giant purple arachnid (I call it Pado) was overrun in the end, covered and rendered to greasy dust by the swarm of invaders. The goblins were clearly victorious. It's truly regrettable we could do nothing to prevent those innocent deaths, but I won't risk our lives or limbs at this critical time. Nonetheless, the event has so troubled me, I've been taking too much of the numbing stuff as of late.
15th LimestoneThe month has been busy enough for three times our number. We've been smoothing down the stone of our most frequented areas. I have Meng slaughtering some of our animals since we have far too many and it's one of the only things he does well. I have every dwarf producing various items the fortress needs, to be stockpiled until ready. It's my hope that future rulers will be free to worry about things other than whether or not we have any ballista parts. Fortunately, a huge metal stockpile was discovered in the forge room, our prayers being answered by a previous overseer who'd been smart enough to realize we'd need it. I must learn this dwarf's name and build them a platinum tomb.
Since so many of our dwarves have a fondness for the True Metal, we've started planning for adamantine extraction.
We don't need much of the empyreal ore for so few of us, just enough to fashion a few garments and blades and pieces of armor, so I've told the miners to only dig very little for now. Unfortunately, there have been a few delays.
Thank the stone, the magma hasn't gone anywhere it can kill us.
Meng will be turned into a useful dwarf yet or my name isn't Creiydrek. I've come to pity the bastard more than I dislike him so I'm trying to teach him to be a mechanic. At my request he's actually presented to me a plan for cutting off the endless flow of seawater filling our home.
I just hope it works unlike everything else I've tried to do here. I once commented during our days of success that our fortress' name was ironic. Fate seems to embrace sincerity.
Our two wounded dwarves died of thirst, our only drinking water having somehow been tainted.
Limestone 28Our besiegers are still out there, camped on the killing field as if waiting for us to open the gate. They probably expected a fight from us; they cannot know we've lost three quarters of the population since last they came. I hope they give up and go home before the caravan from Dastot Cog arrives. From the lookout post, I've been watching the leader of the invaders, a larger greyskin mounted on top of a Rutherer, and his three personal guards.
They've engaged in the worthy task of cleansing the land of our undead problem. Moreover, they seem to be succeeding. Goblins may be filthy brutes, but they apparently have their uses.
No skeletal elk on the plain today. Just plain, regular elk. I showed them to Edzul today, she'd never seen one before.
In the coming month we should meet the Dwarven caravan, assuming our unwelcome visitors have left our doorstep by then. I hope they decide to go soon, because we have a dire shortage of lumber and it's been holding up my attempts to rescue the forsaken miners.
Our hope is that the traders make it here safely, that we may unload on them our growing pile of junk, now that our hoard has come to resemble a garbage dump of tattered clothes and barrels stuffed with reeking animal fat.
I turn eighty in a few months. The big eight-oh. Just what I need right now -- middle-age. As if this job wasn't giving me enough gray hair already.
((Seriously guys, the INSTANT I started digging into the Adamantine vein we uncovered a 9-level hollow tube leading directly to Hidden Fun Stuff. It's the single most useless demonic containment barrier I've ever discovered. And Fikod took that job right after digging the one tile into the adamantine I designated.
All I wanted was some nice adamantine clothes for our barely-stable dwarves who love the stuff. I wasn't trying to break into Hell, I was trying to avoid it. We are seriously unprepared for this. Anyone know if HFS is still FPS death?
What do I do? I want to try dealing with Hell the Dwarfy way before giving up and savescumming/reclaiming/calling it quits. I haven't even unpaused or looked at our options yet because I figured this was a good point to take a quick break.
If something does go wrong I have a backup saved not too long before the HFS, and one at the beginning of Autumn.))
Poll
11 (28.2%)
Author
Topic: Battlefailed (Succession) Legendary Clusterf**k, free for all reclaim (Read 633024 times)