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« on: November 04, 2009, 08:02:31 pm »
I'm going to make some short stories based on stuff that happened to me on Dwarf Fortress and put them here. Please comment on them so I can improve my lousy writing skills.
Rakust's Last Hunt
By Jervous McLeechman
In the small outpost of Suvaszasit, "Lusterknife", the bustling outpost was working hard making bolts. The outpost was comissioned by the King to supply weaponry, armor and ammo to his armies. Since farming was a waste of time to these new dwarves, he would send hunters every year to get food.
Rakust was a huntsdwarf that had a normal life in the small home. He had many dwarven friends, and even had a few tamed pets the adopted. He would go out everyday and hunt small animals out in the clearcut forests with his masterpiece wooden bolts and would kill a few foxes or goats. He was an ambitious fellow and if he saw an animal, he'd go after it.
One day, while stalking the woods he stumbled upon a one-humped camel. The outpost manager had specifically told him not to go near the dangerous animals, but Rakust had a crossbow. As I said before, he was ambitious, but also fearless. He pulled up his crossbow with a grin and fire a bolt into it's furry hide. The bolt broke off and fell to the ground. The camel turned, enraged and charged towards him. Rakust, frightened, decided to grab a steel bolt instead and fired it straight towards it's head. The bolt struck the beast's left ear and tore it straight off. The camel wasn't phased. It slammed headfirst into the dwarf and knocked him into the stone wall behind him and began to stamp on his body. Rakust grabbed his crossbow and for the final time, fired a bolt straight through it's brain and ended the beast.
Rakust struggled to stand up, and found a pool of blood beneath him. He held his wound and walked back to the entrance to the outpost, leaving pools of blood beneath him. The blood trail thickened and grew long and wide, but he finally made it to the gate and went straight to his room. He lept onto his bed, and held his crossbow close to him, dreaming of his kill. Then he remembered he forgot his kill back in the wilderness.
Frantically, he jumped up from his bed, fell unconsious from blood loss, and bled to death.
Some dwarves say that when the hunters come back from the forests bearing their kills, they leave a long blood trail with wounds. Some say it's Rakust's spirit, searching for his lost kill. Noone can be sure.
Morul and the Lizardmen
By Jervous McLeechman
Morul was another hunter sent by the mountainhomes. Unlike Rakust, he was a veteran marksdwarf and had fought in many wars. He wasn't a champion, or elite at his craft, but was a strong hunter with an iron will, and fierce in battle.
One day he was out hunting camels, a few days after Rakust's death, and when the chimes of bells came from the outpost, Morul knew that the caravans were arriving and he'd have to get his game in quick. While he was running back in the woods, another alarm was sound. One for a siege. He turned and jumped behind some bushes, he had just stumbled upon a lizardman raiding party. Led by axelizards, the groups divided and Morul knew he had to do something fast. He loaded his crossbow with amazing speed, and with accuracy so direct he could pierce the pupil of an eyeball, he fired bolts directly at the lizzies. The lizards scattered and many fell and were shot down, Morul kept leaping backwards and the lizardmen couldn't touch him. Another fell, and another! They fled as fast as they came, and left Morul standing around a pile of scaly corpses.
Then, Morul turned and looked at the many camels in the area. He grinned and tackled one, before gouging out it's eyes and mangling it's hump with his crossbow. He loved this job.
The Lovely Roaches
By Jervous McLeechman
In the outpost of Lusterknife, there were of course the weirdos. Shorast Idatir was one of them. He was a woodsman, and actually one of the founders of the fortress. He was probably one of the greatest woodcutters ever to live, I think. He was legendary at his craft, and easily clearcut every tree in the woods in the second year. He was friendly among all of the dwarves and especially friendly with Stakud Lorbamshalig, a farmer. She was a founding mother aswell. They were married soon after the Violent Siege of the Lizardmen.
Unfortunately, in the first few weeks, Stakud found some weird things about Shorast... First of all, when Morul came back with animal traps filled with creepy crawlies and pretty birds, Stakud asked Shorast if he could get her a cardinal. Shorast thought about it, and instead he grabbed an animal cage filled with three large roaches. Stakud screamed! She hated roaches, purring maggots, flies and all other gross things. Stakud asked him why on earth he got the disgusting roaches, he replied simply with: "I love their ability to disgust."
Later, when Shorast was assigned to engraving duties along with Stakud, he stared at the engraving Stakud did. Then he went over to a smoothed wall and began engraving madly. Stakud went over and peeked over his roach ridden shoulder, to see a engraving of a very stout dwarf being milked for dwarven cheese!
Stakud stayed as far away from Shorast as possible. She wanted a divorce, but the outpost manager told her that divorces were not possible, and they're together forever. Needless to say, she got melancholic and jumped into the moat...and drowned.
Diamondbowl the Permanency of Bowing
By Jervous McLeechman
Tulon was a miner, and a busy one at that. When she wasn't working she would always go around to the side of the mountain and start chipping away at the schist walls, always intent on finding gems and other pretty ores inside the stone.
One day, she didn't come back for drinks, so her 'friend' Alath went looking for her. He found a strange tunnel and decided to go inside. He found Tulon in a fetal position holding a shining white gem. She kept saying the same thing as he pulled her away to her room. "Diamondbowl..." As soon as they returned, Alath put her to sleep and left to work on the new tower the dwarves were building.
Suddenly, she lept from her bed and ran into the Mason's workshop, where Shorast was working at the time. Tulon picked him up and threw him out of the room and began working on an object. She grabbed a piece of stone and chiseled it, then grabbed some silk cloth and spun it around the stone. In the middle, she embedded the large gem. On the cloth, she engraved images of crescent moons and diamonds. She ran outdoors and raised it to the sky, loving her new creation!
That is, until the raccoons came. The trading depot was directly beside the finished goods stockpile..directly where Tulon put her idol. A large league of raccoons raced for the beautiful idol, marveling at it's shininess. They grabbed it and bolted, and when Tulon came back, she couldn't find it anywhere!
She wept for days, crying about her loss. Suddenly, the door to her bedroom swung open and Morul was standing there, holding a leather raccoon-furred bag filled with fluffy tails in one hand, and her idol in the other. He grinned at Tulon, and she swung her arms around him. After he left, she dug a small hole in the ground and put it in. Then she covered it over with stone, deciding it was too valuable to be left lying around.
