Turn 147The Tale of Kol Brightpelt27th Slate 1108They call me Kol the cunning. I am a loner at heart, a ranger to trade and I have found myself in a semi-abandoned dwarven fort, on the lookout for work. I am a sell-sword. A mercenary. I will take on many jobs, not for coins or trinkets, but for fame and fortune, for that is the true gold. This place seems to be infested by greenskins, and I will need to clear them out to gain access to the famed dwarven forges. I am on my way to the Nations of Honoring, to the west, to meet up with my contacts in the capital.
I find a goblin loitering outside and quickly strangle him. I wonder how many more looters lurk in the fortress? In the lower levels I find the armoury and help myself to a well crafted steel sword emblazoned with the blueberry image of The Walled Dye. I find also enough steel ingots to bodge together some new armour to replace my dented bronze. I am no armoursmith, but it will do.
Time to leave and head west, to Mong Uthros. Before I do I stock up on fruit wines and a large stack of exceptionally minced raspberry wine roasts. Delicious.
28th Slate 1108I head south west in the general direction of Drillshrine, sleeping by campfire to the soft grunts of wild kangaroos. At dawn I arrive at the first human village on the northeastern border of the Nation of Honouring. Sensualvised is deserted, but I find a nice crossbow and bolts. Further south in the monastery of Twineweaver, I divine the dice of the human god of balance who is so prevalent here - Ala. He grants me improved equipment! My previously patchwork and poorly crafted armour is now gleaming! I spend another night beneath the stars as I head south towards the capital.
1st Felsite 1108I stumble upon a porcupine in the night. I wrestle with them until I am panting and bruised, many cuts and wounds from the vicious quills. I feel much stronger than before, and ready to face more deadly challenges.
I arrive in Atticmuffins at mid day to find a group of priests slaughtering each other! What in the blazes is this? One in the melee is pale of complexion and has a soulless expression - a foul blighted thrall! I quickly take his head. The priests devolve into two factions, hacking and bashing at each other until a handful remain.
Posa Fencedwoods picks fragments of brain and skull from his iron flail as he rests on the floor, his hip mangled. He greets me warmly, perhaps happy that I slew the thrall? He seems unnaturally calm at the devestation around him. A farmer appears, also looking way too gleeful at this situation. It suddenly dawns on me that these two have suspiciously long teeth. Vampires! I hack at them and the farmer quickly loses his head. The priest is made of sterner stuff but eventually his head sails off in an arc. The remaining priests are horrified. I regail them with stories of the vampiric menace, and they calm for a while. I clear up the mess as best I can and move on. If the thralls have settled in Atticmuffins, perhaps my contact in Drillshrine is at risk? I head there at once.
I arrive at Drillshrine to find a number of Hands of Planegifts and three blighted thrall cabinet members amongst them. The elven law giver and her husband the guild representative flee at once and the thralls make a beeline for me.
I note with interest that the lady consort and chief executioner are unmolested... vampires! This place is infested with them! I put down the thralls and turn my thoughts to the bloodsuckers. Neither denies they are creatures of the night.
2nd Felsite 1108When the dust settles, I speak with law-giver Mawada at length. She has been looking for a mercenary for a mission of sorts. It seems the husband of the druid of the elves of the Squeezing Ford has been captured. While still techinically at war with The Nations of Honoring, things have been thawed for many a decade since the actions of the elf Tirin Nightwhisper to excise the goblin taint from the Ribiromini. She suggests that if I were to rescue this Mafi Soothedroared, then this would help cement bonds of trust between the two peoples. And certainly give me some measure of fame! I agree. I will head to Balancehammer, where Mafi's ill-advised troops attacked around 30 years ago, and where he was last seen.
I travel due east through the lands of The Nations of Honouring. Balancehammer is not to far from Northmanor where I last camped, and is close to the elven forests to the far north east. Hopefully it will be a simple enough task to free Mafi. The journey is uneventful, and I spend the night in Distinctlashed.
3rd Felsite 1108I thank the local farmers for my board, and head north towards the imposing spire of Balancehammer, arriving at noon. There is an impressive stone tower here jutting skyward, and I have heard rumour of many devilish traps. Judging by the many beak dog and goblin skeletons littered outside, these dwarves are experts in defending sieges. Why the elves decided to attack this bastion is unclear. Perhaps finding this elven prisoner will be more tricky than I had thought.
I negotiate the trapped entranceway as carefully as I can, but still manage to set off many traps! Ancient steel spears and axe blades swing at me from all angles. I desperately bat them away, but one spear fractures my skull! I feel dizzy..
I press on. There are many dwarven skeletons here. This fort is clearly in decline. I find a handful of malnourished looking militia commanders and a strangely cat-like general. If I have to rescue Mafi by force, I think I can take on these frail dwarves, should it come to it. I head on deeper into the fortress, through a deep waterfall enshrouding a central staircase. It is dark and cold down here... I prefer to feel the sun on my fur.
In the darkest depths, I can feel the warmth seeping through the rocks. I am near the heart of the world. This is where the dwarves dig greedily. I cannot see any sign of a prison, but suddenly I hear the hammerer barking at a prisoner. In the forgehall I see him, frightened and alone. Mafi Sootheroared the elf. I urge him to come with me before the many militia commanders or indeed the hammerer find me.
A cool sweat forms under my fur as I bump into the hammerer on the ascent to the surface, Mafi a few levels behind. The hammerer feigns ignorance of his own prisoner, and puts up no resistance as we sneak into the night. If we manage to escape without bloodshed, all the better. I have no quarrel with these dwarves, they've always done right by me.
I urge the elf to find a sword and some armour, and he obliges much to his disgust. We slip into the night unmolested. It appears I now have to return this elf to his wife in Glacialtempests, far to the north.
4th Felsite 1108The Worshipful Jungle spreads out before us. Mafi is uncertain of the way home. How an elven merchant thought he could sack a dwarven fortress I will never know. We have a decision to make. Head south and round the great bay, or swim across to one of the two large islands to the east.
I am not convinced either way is appealing. There is a camp to the north east where centuries ago the legends say a mad monkey conducted a strange ritual. It is known as Monkeycurse to this day. We will head here and see how Mafi fancies a swim.
The camp is spooky but thankfully deserted, bar a few dismembered crabs. Mafi thinks he will manage the short swim to The Dreamy Island, and so we set off while the sun is still high in the sky.
The sun has set by the time we make it to the island, exhausted but in good spirits thanks to a reserve of plum wine. It is strange that in over a thousand years no civilisation attempted to colonise this island, one of the last true wildernesses of Orid Xem. We camp for the night.
5th Felsite 1108We set off at a leisurely pace, safe on this island from thralls or goblins. We follow a river eastwards to a small peninsula. From here, we can see the mainland to the east and Mafi's keen eyes make out a forest retreat.
This swim will be less arduous. We arrive soon at the forest retreat of Feedforded and find many refugee camps on its outskirts. This place has been fought over between the elves and the humans of the Realm of Silver in the past. I am unsure who currently lays stake to it. We spend the night at the delightfully named Shrine of Puke and rest our swim-weary bones.
6th Felsite 1108We inspect the refugee camps and find them largely abandoned. Perhaps the humans have gone home, or died of old age as they are want to do.
We continue northwards, in the direction of Glacialtempests. We travel for many hours through the mountains to the east and arrive at an ancient dwarf fortress. This must be Lancesavage, one of the most northernly dwarven settlements on the main continent. I wonder if dwarves still walk these halls? Even better if they left booze behind. The wine is running low and river water just doesn't hit the spot.
We spot a lurking goblin near the entrance to the fort. I strangle him quietly, then Mafi lops off his head. That's the way to deal with goblins. The fort is a confusing maze. We do not find any living dwarves, and press on northwards. The dense forests are lush this far north, and we spot herds of majestic unicorns darting amongst the trees. Truly we are in the elven heartlands now. We rest for the night by a riverside, a calming breeze drifting us to sleep.
7th Felsite 1108Glacialtempests, ancestral home of the elves, befouled by goblins.
It takes a while but we find the druid's home tree, and within it some goblins. I promptly grab the goblin interloper and toss him from the tree. Mafi finishes him off. I have found the druid Thelire Quicknessstone, defacto leader of the elves of Riborimi. Mafi is delighted to be back home.
I visit also the home tree of Queen Adela. She confirms war with Morul Kan but seems to believe it is over the ownership of some book I have never heard of. The Diplomat confesses it was her children who attacked Balancehammer without provocation, leading to Mafi's capture.
[OOC] Here is the annoying part.
In fort mode before this turn, elves ambushed The Eternal Citadel. For some reason the elves declared war on Morul Kan some decades previously. Leading this ambush was none other than Yawo Rainstir the Bane of Meanness, an elven warrior and adventurer of the Museum (tonnot98). I captured him and placed him in a cage trap. The next part of my turn was going to be Kol rescuing this "general" for Queen Adela, but when I checked legends viewer, Yawo had teleported back to his forest retreat of Jawbride. I am not sure why this happened, but it ruined my story particularly as tonnot had mentioned he wanted a new turn to play as Yawo again...
All that being said, could I be added to the turn list again, Bralbaard? I'm thinking of bringing Yawo Rainstir back from his century of meditation.
I didn't get to the Museum and I didn't get to explore any of the new forts. There were repeated crashes, particularly around the elven peninsula.
Oh, and almost immediately - like literally
three days after I rescued him - Mafi Soothedroared decided to attack Balancehammer, again, and got captured, again. *sigh*
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Topic: Museum III, adventure succession game (DF 0.47.05) (Read 416820 times)