Whisperletter was to be the location of the last stand of the dwarves. The fort was built originally by worshipers of the death god: The Spry, who was also Tumam. They fled persecution and later it would be inhabited by refugees with the war against the forces of hell. Then later by even more fleeing the war against Cor and her undead armies. Finally, it took on a large goblin population. Survivors of the Plagues of Forking and its most elite warriors came to this fort for employment. They found they preferred the anarchy of these tribe and bandit filled plains over orderly human or dwarf lands.
Once a dwarven lifetime ago the dwarves had waged war against the Plagues of Forking and drove that particular goblin kingdom into non-existence. Tumam's actions had also driven the dwarven kingdoms into non-existence. Both races were now kingdomless, but Tumam was not satisfied with merely destroying kingdoms. In this final battle the best of the dwarf and goblin kingdoms were lined together. Both had armor encrusted with the finest of gold and jewels. It is hard for a non-goblin to comprehend the thinking of the evil race or what might motivate them into a last stand like this, but one thing is for certain: Whisperletter would become the site of one of the greatest battles to be fought upon this planet.
When Tumam raised every corpse in the fort a pillar of necrotic energy rose into the air. His powers were nearly unleashed in their full and an unintended consequence came to pass.
As Tumam's horde approached Whisperletter within the very same night, intending to find a sleeping fortress like before, instead they found a pitched battle.
Every corpse in Whisperletter had already been resurrected and was now locked in fierce battle against the living. Among them was the zombified forgotten beast that Tumam had lost track of some weeks ago; Perhaps drawn there by the vast quantities of necrotic power in the area that also fed its own existence.
This was a mixed blessing. On one hand his forces were now massively amplified, but on the other his strategy was now entirely thrown out the window. The undead had awoken every single dwarf and goblin the fortress and they were now all fully engaged in combat. Tumam surveyed this all from the front gate and decided he didn't have time to mull over on what he should do. He looked to his horde behind him and then the one battling inside the fort's main hall and then he charged ahead into battle.
By the time he reached the battle half of the new undead force had already been slain and the forgotten beast that destroyed a city in life now lay slain again upon a small pile of dwarf corpses. This was no hold of farmers or gaggle of useless nobility! These were the greatest warriors left of goblin and dwarfkind, and they were proving that in the slaughtering of an entire horde within the minutes it took Tumam to reach them!
The necromancer understood the odds were now firmly against him, but he was now fully committed to the battle. He raised those who freshly died and were still in usable condition and charged the front door with his nearest zombies behind him.
The dwarves had created a wedge formation around the door. The moment one walked in they were surrounded on all sides. The defenders had also packed so tightly together that the moment a zombie entered the wedge formation they would find themselves attacked many times over within the span of a few seconds.
It was a kill zone of most devious creation, But Tumam's horde did not posses the intelligence to resist the call to battle and would charge regardless of his commands. This was his second severe miscalculation.
His third was with the number of dwarves and goblins. His horde was outnumbered now! Severely outnumbering the enemy was the only advantage the zombies had and they had lost it entirely.
All Tumam could do was keep swinging his weapon and pray, to himself he supposed, that the defenders would become exhausted enough to turn the tide upon.
He continued to raise the dead behind the wedge formation, but there weren't enough usable corpses to distract a meaningful number of defenders.
Again and again death was traded with the undead taking the majority of it, but now and again a defender was picked off or claimed by Tumam's morningstar.
A goblin spearwoman encased in gold encrusted armor danced along the line and slew zombie after zombie. It was only as she wandered too close that the horde tried to grab her. She pushed a living dwarf in front of her and dodged back as the zombies ripped the man apart! She laughed and continued her lethal dance.
In another area of the line an axedwarf passed out finally after killing 12 zombies! A goblin zombie that had just hours ago killed many zombies himself before succumbing now picked up a pair of copper chain leggings off the ground and beat the dwarf in the head over and over until it exploded into gore.
The goblin zombie turned wraith kept the leggings in hand as a blunt weapon and would kill several more defenders before dying again.
Pictured: Iron cap from earlier turned into an improvised weapon
There were no corpses left to reanimate behind the defenders and the zombies behind them had all been slain and rendered useless, but Tumam held out hope! The defenders were weakening and falling over in exhaustion.
His excitement was short lived as the defenders shifted attention to him. Within the space of a five seconds 30 attacks flew to Tumam! He had never swung his morningstar and shield so fast in his life. Parrying and blocking at speeds he did not know he could do, but unable to dodge due to the sheer mass of zombies behind him.
Unfortunately, blows did find their mark and his wing was cut open, his arm and head bashed upon. He was forced to drop his shield, and he knew in another five seconds he would be dead if he didn't do something.
It was a risk, but the white stork man decided to turn his back to the enemy and press with all his might through his own horde and escape back to the outside world. As he escaped he sucked in fresh air and tried to reorient himself.
The battle was not lost. The rest of his horde was still streaming in and the defenders would be worn down. As they did he would reanimate those and it would turn to his favor!These are all things Tumam thought, but reality would deny him.
For behind him a great horn blew and as it did a great chorus of goblin and dwarf voices roared together. The defenders were charging and they would not permit Tumam to escape!
OOC:
One of the most common complaints about fortress mode military is how squads don't use tactics and just run straight at the target. Here was the most coincidental use of tactics in the most epic way.
In real life ancient military this kind of a wedge formation would actually be just as lethal as we are seeing here. It creates kill zones that funnel the enemy in and limit their movement while allowing the maximum amount of your own people to strike out.
I literally had zero dodge options, because the amount of zombies all around me crammed into that small space prevented the game from offering dodging as an option.
This is either gonna be a two part or three part battle. Like I said the scale was unbelievable! I've never had an adventure mode battle get this crazy and it took a solid minute for my computer to load even one action in this game, because of the sheer amount of stuff happening within one moment.
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Topic: In Search of Fairy Tales - Adelaathira - The End of Dwarfdom (Read 36422 times)