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Author Topic: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Novel Length Story)  (Read 108934 times)

RabidAnubis

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The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Novel Length Story)
« on: November 20, 2011, 01:33:51 am »

Posts will be done three times a week, preferably Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

The Age Of Myth:
Goldenhold
Insert Awesome image here.

Chapter 1: The Twisted Twins
Chapter 2: The Cackling Captain
Chapter 3: Living Forever
Chapter 4: Three Thousand Feet
Interlude 1: Friendly Competition
Chapter 5: A Perfect Situation
Interlude 2: Prying Eyes
Chapter 6: Dwarves are Snacks
Chapter 7: An Arrow Legendary
Chapter 8: Lake of Fire
Chapter 9: Ale After Agony
Chapter 10: Fire Versus Water
Chapter 11: Remedy For Pain
Chapter 12: Don't Want Steak
Chapter 13: Fear of Dissent
Chapter 14: War of Deeps
Chapter 15: For the Fortress
Chapter 16: Sea of Ichor
Chapter 17: Cut In Earth
Interlude 3: Nauseated Nobility
Journal 1: Karakzon
Chapter 18: Symphony of Metals
Chapter 19: Bypass By Bridge
Chapter 20: Pull the Lever
Chapter 21: Praise the Miners
Chapter 22: Long Jump
Chapter 23: Hanging Around
Chapter 24: Retching Death
Chapter 25: Savior Has Arrived
Chapter 26: Courage Above Sense
Chapter 27: Drop by Drop
Chapter 28: Divine Battle
Chapter 29: Courtroom Regicide
Chapter 30: Inspiring Speech
Chapter 31: Temporary Truce
Chapter 32: Burning Legion
Chapter 33: Storm the Castle
Chapter 34: The Fortress Main
Chapter 35: The Juggernaughts
Chapter 36: Melting Silver
Chapter 37: Residential Pillage
Chapter 38: The Slade Throne
Chapter 39: Trial By Demigod
Chapter 40: Age of Myth
Chapter 41: Behind a Dwarf
Chapter 42: Many Enemies
Chapter 43: That Awkward Moment
Chapter 44: Walling Yourself In
Chapter 45: Greater Versus Lesser
Chapter 46: Menacing Spikes
Chapter 47: Fire From Earth
Chapter 48: Closing the Hatch

Battledragon
Insert Awesome image here.
Chapter 1: Big Bad Bronze
Chapter 2: A Strange Projectile
Chapter 3: New Year

The Age of Myth
Goldenhold

Chapter 1: The Twisted Twins

   They saw two massive gates.  But he didn’t.  No, he saw an opportunity.   This “he” was General Zeon, a man of unbelievable will and strategy.   He had fought a thousand wars and won them all.  Sieging Goldenhold was going to be no different.

   He was not going to lose to the Dwarves, short, creative creatures, with little magical talent for anything.  But what they could do, was mine.  They could mine out and live in the ground, deep below the surface where few things dare to dwell.  It was often dangerous to live down there, but the dwarves were daring, even if it led to disaster.  Because to them, diamond was like the ocean, and gold more beautiful than the prettiest forest sung by the elves.

   And if gold is beautiful, then Goldenhold was worth more than heaven.  The streets over fifty feet wide at some points, curbs of silver, and in-between the rpads were indoor creeks, filled by pumps.  The bottoms of the canals were crystal ruby, brilliant flames beneath them, making the sides of gold shine in a most magnificent way, splitting light into the room, constantly reflecting off of the platinum walls of the roads, giving the feeling that light was coming from every direction, radiating as a person would expect from something holy.

   People who lived there had furniture of bronze- in the poor parts.  Middle class?  Silver.  Upper?  Platinum.  With a side of diamond.  King?  Oh my.  Everyone in the city had more than enough to eat, and the heating system that went through the floors and walls was of magma.  In the kings hall there was a fabulous chandelier, lava ran through parts of the glass, giving it a feeling that the grand hall glowed.

   The mountain the Dwarves of Goldenhold lived in was by the sea, part of a land bridge between two continents, and a major center of trade, and turned into a fake island.  All throughout the multiple stories of Goldenhold there was a multilevel canal system, pumps able to shoot water up at high enough pressure to make an upward current until it reached the next story of the wealthy metropolis.  And as the barges of trade went from level to level, they would collect items from wealthy crafters, ores from the powerful smelters, and coals for massive furnaces, until they reached halfway up the mountain, where the canals stopped heading upwards, and they would slide down a massive water slide after a thorough customs check, into the glimmering ocean.  How they returned, no outsider knew.  Some even thought that Goldenhold was so wealthy that they could afford to lose the ships, able to re-produce the battleship size barges over and over again. 

   All everyone knew was that they got paid in a massive tribute by barges from other nations, ships stopping beneath the lengthy mile long bridge that accessed the mainland, cargo heading up ramps of silver that lead to the massive gates from both sides, twins just as the gates were.

   While most viewed these twins as wonderful, Zeon’s army thought them- Treacherous and tyrannical, tricky and twisted, testing the courage of his army simply by looking at them.  The gates themselves were wondrous, wonderful images carved into it’s surface of steel, which must have been over fifty feet thick, forcing the strength hydraulics to open it.  Above this gate was a tower, multiple tiers of the hundred meter wide structure having batteries of protected ballistas, catapults, and machines of death.  Some shot globes of lava.  Others shot ten foot poles that flew a million miles an hour for long distances, hitting their targets with a THWACK, so precise they could kill a person from miles away.

   And they didn’t even know what was behind those doors.  They didn’t know about the trenches of lava, the greatest gorge, the ferocious dragons, or the hidden traps.  They didn’t know a godlike champion would rise to defend the fortress.  They didn’t know however, that their success was measured in blood, theirs, and their enemies, gods measuring the red liquid seeing how much had been spilled.  And they didn’t know either, that the gods were going to be measuring for over a millennia, and that while they were measuring the life liquid, that they would fall out of power, the world passing onto an age of mortals.

   Unbelievable?  Of course.  Unsiegeable?  Defiantly.  But Zeon and his army were about to write a history, craft a legend, and transform into myth, himself eventually blown out of proportion to that of a god, some even worshiping him, sending him their most personal prayers.

He was going to write a history.

A history of wealth and treachery.
A history of love and betrayal.
A history of divinity and death.

The death of millions. 
« Last Edit: January 11, 2016, 02:50:59 am by RabidAnubis »
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The Age of Myth: Goldenhold

ImBocaire

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2011, 10:33:33 am »

Sounds promising so far! Is this based on an actual fortress, or is it just inspired by DF in general?

Also: HAIL ZEON
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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RabidAnubis

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2011, 11:05:36 am »

Sounds promising so far! Is this based on an actual fortress, or is it just inspired by DF in general?

Also: HAIL ZEON
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Mostly Dwarf Fortress in general. 

Except I'm doing it backwards.  Rather than starting small and then going nowhere (As Boatmurdered did.  Hilarious) I'm starting about perfect and then everything goes to hell.
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The Age of Myth: Goldenhold

ImBocaire

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2011, 11:56:35 am »

Yeah. And what's amazing is that your description of the fortress sounds impossibly decadent and wealthy, not really achievable through DF, but then you look at Copperblazes or Flarechannel and realize that even the fortress you described is not unheard of in the annals of actual gameplay.

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of this.
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RabidAnubis

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2011, 04:58:17 pm »

(Actually, I would enjoy some criticism.  I'm probably going to do each chapter from a different perspective- One from the invaders, one from the defenders, and one from the citizens.  Oh joy!)

Goldenhold
Chapter 2: The Cackling Captain

   A dwarf sat in a throne, made of solid gold, diamonds encrusting the edges of it, his arms resting on rests made of giant cave spider silk, soft to the touch of any creature, prized by many.  In front of the short creature was a desk, the top of it made of glass in order to keep it smooth, making moving papers an effortless task.  The main body of the desk however was of obsidian, contrasting nicely with the shininess of the throne.  In the center of the room there was a legendary heirloom, a masterfully crafted rug of bronze.  The cloth was durable as steel but soft as cotton to the touch.  Above it hung a large ruby chandelier, illuminating the entire circular room with a comforting glow from the lanterns that hung from it.  The walls of the room were actually of one-way glass, looking like the stone of the gigantic tower it was in from the outside, but from the inside it gave a spectacular view of the lands surrounding the mountain, but it also allowed whoever was in the room to spot attacker’s movements. 

   It might have been helpful if the captain was actually looking outside.  But because Goldenhold hadn’t been invaded in a while, he considered the people outside to be trading weapons with them.  Maybe they had a new invention to give to Goldenhold.  He shrugged it off, ignoring it, busy with various papers of reports, crimes, and, of course, his payroll.

   “Sir!  Sir!”  A nervous, but tired voice yelled from the stairway.  It was quite clear from the heavy breathing that whoever this person was had sprinted all the way up the tower to deliver the message, probably close to dying of exhaustion.

   Not understanding the urgency of what was going on, the captain pulled on his beard lightly, which was almost three feet long.  “Why don’t you sit down, relax, take a break.  Surely after running up the tower you must be tired!”  The captain got out of his chair for a moment, going over to the eternally cooled nether-cap chest, and handing the small lad a drink.  The dwarf must have simply been a recruit to the guard.

   “But sir-” the recruit stammered, trying to convey the urgency of his message.  But before he could continue, he was quickly interrupted by the captain. 

   “I command you take a drink at once.”  The captain said this with a strong voice, that denying it would have been suicide to the brain.  The lad, partly relieved, and partly worried, drank the cool ale as fast as he could from the nether cap mug that he was handed.

   “We-” The recruit said this too quickly however.  He hadn’t sat down yet.  After the captain corrected him, the recruit sitting in a simple silver stool, the captain continued with a calm voice, saying the words slowly,

“So, what..... what is the problem?  I’d like to know.”  The captain kicked back in his throne, putting his feet on the desk, crossing them to be comfortable. 

   The recruit was on the verge of yelling at the captain, but he didn’t want to be punished for being rude to his superior.  “Sir, we are under attack.”  The lad said this in a very serious voice, and the captain looked at him with a serious face.  Then the captain broke out laughing, booming so loudly that the walls seemed to shake.

   “Who would try and invade Goldenhold?  It’s impossible!  You know what, why weren’t you a comedian?  You coulda been rich!”  The captain had a wide grin on his face, happy that young people still had a sense of humor. 

   “Who would try and invade Goldenhold?”  Who would?”  The recruit could stand it no longer.  The captain was ignorant.  Couldn’t he understand a threat?  All this rage built up inside of him, ready to be released like a dam.  But a clever response was always better than an angry one.  “Sir, the people over there appear to be readying siege weapons.  Also, if you look to the left you will see a rather large army of people crossing the bridge right now.”

   The captain laughed more.  “They are probably just merchants trying to look fancy!  Good for them!  I hope they get a good deal!”  The captain said this while turning around, watching them charge across the bridge in a very orderly manner, a third of the way across it right then, the knights showing off their horseman skills, but the foot men were holding back, watching the knights as if they were a show.  “Don’t worry-”

   His last statement was broke off.  At that moment he heard a ballista’s loud THWANG.  Then he heard a crash and a scream.  The captain then damned himself for not paying attention to the recruit, cursing his bad luck.  “Call the soldiers to arms!  Load the upper two levels of our equipment with engineers!  Close the gates!”

   The recruit sprinted out of the room, hurrying as fast as he could.  The captain looked outside the one-way glass, donning his armor.  He hadn’t worn it in a while, the high quality steel collecting dust. 

   Now that the leader thought about it, everyone’s armor must have collected dust.  The dwarvern metropolis hadn’t been under siege in a while, most people too scared to call an invasion upon the fortress.  But this was real.  This was in front of him.  He hadn’t ever really fought in his career to defend the city, mostly doing security work, and as he prepared himself, donning his armor and his mind, he thought one thing.

   So it begins!
« Last Edit: November 20, 2011, 09:03:18 pm by RabidAnubis »
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The Age of Myth: Goldenhold

Loud Whispers

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Story)
« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2011, 08:36:24 pm »

Posting for bookmark! :D

RabidAnubis

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Story)
« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2011, 08:45:23 pm »

If you post, I'll let you guys mend the story with me.  I actually have no clue how many people are reading this, so I'd enjoy some stuff.

Loudwhispers- Next part will be from the civillian point of view.  What profession do you think the civilian should be?

Imbocaire- What should the name of the Captain be?

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The Age of Myth: Goldenhold

Loud Whispers

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Story)
« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2011, 08:50:52 pm »

A retired adventurer (leads to plenty of possible plot rails). Fisherdwarf... Possible Forgotten hero? :P

RabidAnubis

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Story)
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2011, 08:55:07 pm »

A retired adventurer (leads to plenty of possible plot rails). Fisherdwarf... Possible Forgotten hero? :P

Let's Examine this from two points of view.

A fisherman with some capabilities for fighting

^^^ What a normal person sees

A fisherman who hunts gigantic sea monsters in expansive underground caverns for the rich, from barges with gigantic ballistas that shoot out harpoons, the second (Now third) most dangerous job in the fortress. 

^^^ What a rabid god of burial sees
« Last Edit: November 20, 2011, 09:13:56 pm by RabidAnubis »
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The Age of Myth: Goldenhold

RabidAnubis

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Story)
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2011, 10:59:36 pm »

Goldenhold
Chapter 3: Living Forever

   A gigantic splash was heard, somewhere far off in the distance, but to untrained ears it sounded so loud that you would have thought it was much closer.  Every five seconds, echoes went off the dark cavern surfaces, reverberating a gradually lower and lower tone, the water making waves, acting like a speaker.

   Then after the echoes, all was silent once more, and the darkness was with it.  It was eerie, being on a fifty foot long, twenty foot wide, 10 foot deep barge, and knowing you weren’t the biggest thing out there.  And your job was to hunt it.

   Big Game fishermen learned early on to make almost no noise, everything was done in silence.  One of the good things about being a dwarf was that you could feel your surroundings with your beard, antenna for vibrations like echolocation of bats.  The beards used to be more effective, but over time they slowly lost their functionality.  However, fishermen in caverns often learned how to use their beards to maximum effectiveness.

   The oarsmen on the barge continued to push it forward-  by using long poles almost a hundred feet long to hit the sides of the cavern silently, pushing the seemingly frictionless glass bottom of the barge forward without making the slightest hint of sound, and barely a vibration.

   Another splash.  Louder.  Closer.  More Echoes.  The barge pulled closer to the edge of the wall, letting a smaller dwarf with a covered lantern off onto a preset path.  They didn’t want creatures to know where they were until they were ready to hunt.

   Another splash.  Louder.  But the barge was quietly deploying all ten of it’s ballistas, and loading them with sharp harpoon harpoons.  Then they slowly pulled the ropes into tension, building up the hunting equipment’s strength.

   Another splash.  Louder.  But they wanted the beast now.  Everyone knew that the beast had located them, and was waiting for another signal before striking, making sure it had it’s prey before giving the first, and most important strike.  To the beast, this was it’s one sure opportunity to get it’s prey.  To the hunters, this was a chance to trick it. 

   Silence.  A sure sign the beast was waiting.  Someone threw a ball into the water, as far as they could.  But this was no ordinary ball.  No, this ball was hard as steel, and designed to make a large noise when grabbed.  It also had spikes sticking out of it, curved at the ends like hooks.

   A splash!  The sound of metal!  The beast had gone for the ball, thinking it was the prey.  The spikes dug into it’s mouth, great pain building up in the creature.  The short man with the lantern suddenly took off the cover, exposing a small flame.  The dwarf quickly put a stick into it, then pressed it against the wall.  Suddenly, the cavern lit up, revealing veins of mined out metal, igniting the red-stone. 

   All the dwarves in the barge saw the creature in the air, now bright as noon would be on the surface.  “Dowhakus!”  Yelled several of them.  The creature was like a gigantic shark, slightly sleeker in it’s design, it’s eyes were smaller however, not necessary to be large in a dark cavern like this.  It’s meat would be expensive.  The hide?  Priceless.  The military often used Dowhakus hides as light armor for Goldenhold’s archers, waterproof, light, and harder than steel, making the sound metal does when meeting other metal.  The Dowhakus also tended to be large- at least twice the size of the barge.

   Commonly people asked the fishermen why they called it that.  They never told any outsiders, but the explanation was rather simple.  While a small amount of people were hunting one, the boat was destroyed.  One dwarf was about to be hit by it’s tail, and while drowning yelled “Don’t Whack us!” except to the observers it sounded like “Do whak us” so therefore that was what it was known as from then on.

   The leader of the barge yelled out an order to fire the harpoons.  That’s what everyone did, at the same time releasing the spears like bolts of lightning, slamming with loud chinks into the side of the monster, the echoes sounding like a battle between two massive armies.

   Finally, the monster returned to the water after it’s initial hop.  For a second nothing happened.  Then, the barge began to tip over suddenly as the monster hit the floor of the cavern.

   The dwarves desperately tried to reel it in.  But then, the Dowhakus for a moment was seen by all the passengers below the glass floor, coming straight at them.  Expressions of surprise struck everyone’s faces.  Then fear.  Then death.  The shark slammed into the bottom, and for a moment it seemed as if the boat would simply be lifted high into the air.  But then it shattered, the floor of glass breaking, falling into the water along with the dwarves on top of it.  They screamed, yelled, kicked, but most drowned.  If they didn’t, then they were quickly eaten by the Dowhakus or other dark creatures of the deeps. 

   A few men however, grabbed the side rather than starring dumb found at the creature.  One of these dwarves was Stonehand, who had an axe with him, for cutting through reeds and vines.  His double braided beard was soaked from the waves however, annoying him greatly.  He was holding on for dear life on the inside, but to an observer it would have looked like as if he was calm, composed, as if holding on to the end of the ship highest in the water was all part of his plan.

   The mighty oversized shark jumped at him, along with anyone who had been holding on to the side of the ship.  And there was a split second.  The Dowhakus opened his mouth, two hundred meters from the ship.  One hundred.  Stonehand took out his axe with one hand, and threw it.  Fifty meters away, the axe entered the monsters mouth.  At that moment, Stonehand turned into legend.

   The monster’s eyes rolled into it’s head.  It’s mouth closed.  It turned downward faster than it should have, hitting the base of the part of the barge the surviving dwarves were hanging from. 

   And at that moment, when the remaining dwarves flew off of the remaining bit of the barge- Stonehand laughed.  The boom of it echoed through the caverns, seeming like a omnipotent being, coming to everyone without direction.  And before he hit the ceiling and would have to be rescued, everyone there realized one thing-

   That fighting against the greatest odds and surviving them was living forever.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2011, 12:14:06 am by RabidAnubis »
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The Age of Myth: Goldenhold

Joost66

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Story)
« Reply #10 on: November 21, 2011, 12:25:48 am »

I like this story, good stuff. I will be watching.
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RabidAnubis

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Story)
« Reply #11 on: November 21, 2011, 12:56:25 am »

I like this story, good stuff. I will be watching.

Thanks XD

Any criticism or u want to be dwarfed?  Hummied?

I will be totally willing to put readers in as characters.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2011, 09:59:52 am by RabidAnubis »
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The Age of Myth: Goldenhold

RabidAnubis

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Story)
« Reply #12 on: November 21, 2011, 03:14:03 pm »

Goldenhold
Chapter 4: Three Thousand Feet

   The invaders had just fired their first ballista shot, hitting one of the pieces of siege equipment, shattering it to a thousand pieces, one of those parts killing a poor dwarf man, knocking him to his death a thousand feet below, screaming the whole way down.

   But no one heard the splash he made, or the cracking of his bones as they slammed into the water, and the snapping of his body when it hit the rocks below.  No one knew the first casualty had even occurred.

   What they did hear, was the sound of hooves as they bounded across the bridge, Zeon’s horsemen galloping across the bridge for the opening assault.  They had three thousand feet to go to reach the gates.  Fifty elite soldiers could do quite a bit of damage if they got past the gates.

   They traveled for a minute or so, when suddenly they heard a loud trumpet go off.  The signal of defense.  However, if reports were correct the dwarves would be out of practice and not ready for this... maybe if they were lucky they could just make it in on time.

   Another minute went by when one of the riders yelled “Look!” pointing his finger at the large tower.  The dwarves were scrambling to get in position.  The riders thought they were doomed.

   When they were one and a half thousand feet away, they heard the first shot.  They weren’t thinking Oh Armok.  The elite's thoughts were more along the line of What the hell took them so long?  Later Zeon would figure out that the battery leader was too busy drinking to take the siege seriously.

   So when it missed horribly, the only thing it could do was raise the morale of the riders.  Not only were they late, but they were failing.  “Are they out of practice or what?”  Everyone laughed, the wind blowing against them.  It seemed as if nothing could go wrong.

   They stopped when a pole hit the lead horsemen straight in the middle of his head, flying right through and hitting the bridge, shattering into a million pieces.  The pieces would have torn apart people wearing lesser armor, but the metal reflected them off. 

   The gates had started to close, hydraulics pulling them shut, a loud creaking sound coming from the mountain.

   Zeon observed from the main camp, standing on a small hill.  The telescope he was looking through was engraved with all his previous victories.  He had already commissioned this battle to be put on.  When he saw the gate start to close he cursed himself for not sending the ambush in sooner. 

   He noticed the horseman’s body as it fell of the bridge, flying back from the impact with the pole.

   The general yelled at one of his couriers.  “Tell our engineers to target their siege equipment!”  The courier ran off as fast as he could, jumping on a nearby horse.  He noticed that by the time he turned back ten of the fifty horsemen were dead in a pile, on fire.  One of the flying orbs must have hit them. 

   Damnation.  It may have been a good thing he wasn’t thinking that it couldn’t get any worse- because it did.  On each side of the gate, twenty by one foot panels of stone were lifted, exposing dwarvern crossbows beneath them.  A moment passed by, the leader seeing the troops who had been under hidden battlements.  They shot.

   Then the bolts flew up into the air, the steel tips of them shinning as they went against the sun, then falling down straight onto his calvary.  At least twenty of them must have been hit, some desperately trying  to get up from their dead horses and fall back, only the bit hit by a precisely aimed bolt.

   By the time the horsemen made into the gate, there was only ten left.  But they still made it.  And he expected that they would reck havoc once they were indoors.  They were wearing heavy armor, right?

   He didn’t know they didn’t even last a second in there, ramming straight into a wall of dwarvern spearmen.  Lazy as the captain of the guard was, once he was on task he was a deadly foe.

   The gates made a loud pound as they shut against each other.  The General couldn’t help but think, My catapults will do nothing against that.  How will I get in?
« Last Edit: November 21, 2011, 03:17:41 pm by RabidAnubis »
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The Age of Myth: Goldenhold

Argonnek

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Story)
« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2011, 05:25:36 pm »

This is really well written! An idea for the next perspective: a silk merchant.

Joost66

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Re: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Story)
« Reply #14 on: November 21, 2011, 05:38:34 pm »

I don't really care about being Dwarfed, the story is really nice though.
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