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[denito]

So I started a really silly fortress - I embarked on a human town and intend to live in their basements.  Of course, they don't actually HAVE basements, but I dug some out for them.  Anyhow since the fortress makes no sense from a technical standpoint, I'm role playing it, and I thought I'd tell the events of the fortress as a story.  Since it's a story, I put it here instead of the Fortress Mode forum; I'm hope this is the right place for it?

Story begins...

Ihhithetal.  A quiet human town on the banks of the Enchanted Skirt.  We came in the night, over the eastern hills opposite the river.  We scuttled our wagon on the far side of a hill and approached, on foot, an isolated cottage on the outskirts of town.  The house was abandoned, but a human child loitered outside.  I gave him a mischevious smile and put my finger to my lips:  "Ssshh... Tell no one!"

Quickly we set about deconstructing part of the floor, so we could dig stairs down into the sandy loam beneath.  In short time we cleared the space under the entire cottage, and set about hauling the supplies from our wagon.  It was a cramped space, but by dawn we had everything inside.  We all breathed a sigh of relief as the last barrel was rolled down the stairs: above ground, we had to hurry ere the rising sun reveal us; below ground there is neither day nor night.  I could not suppress a small laugh, and soon we were all laughing raucously together.  "Enough!"  I said, "There is yet work to do."

From our rough hole beneath the cottage we dug tunnels, downhill towards the center of town.  If a house had a proper basement, it became part of our network.  Any house that did not have a basement grew one overnight like a fairy circle.  We tried, once, to dig deeper then basement level.  Water welled up from the ground and filled the hole immediately.

Some of the more well-to-do houses had furnaces in their basements.  Well!  Dwarves know furnaces.  Simple human designs, these, easy to improve upon.  We set about using one house's furnace to convert wood to charcoal, and outfitted another house furnace so that it could double as a metal smelter.  We even turned the human Axelord's house's furnace into a forge!  Ho ho, these humans will have naught to complain of in winter, when below them a fire burns hot enough to melt copper!

One evening after a bit too much celebratory drinking we got the idea to disguise ourselves and go drink in the human tavern for a change.  How hilarious it would be, to sit next to the very humans whose houses we undermined, whose beds we surreptitiously nap in while they're out in the fields working, and all the while they have no clue?

Well it didn't take long before Olin and Vucar started rough-housing, and then one of the Dishmab's said something that offended the other Dishmab, and they started fighting for real.  (Honestly, how am I supposed to mediate dispute between them when I can't keep straight who did what?  The two girls have the same name, for Armok's sake.)  In no time it was an all out dwarven bar fight, with the human tavern customers looking on in alarm as they realize we're not ordinary travelers.

(This is as far as I've played the game so far.  I dug out the basements, and discovered an aquifer just below that so I really am stuck with just the basements.  I designated the human tavern as a barracks and trained my starting seven up in wrestling - hence the bar fight scene.  Hopefully I'll have another post in a few days continuing it from here.  You won't want to miss the part where I intend to train hammerdwarf and swimming at the same time.)

[Haspen]

Oooh, nice one!

I hope there will be more of this.

[denito]

Oooh, nice one!

I hope there will be more of this.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Story continues...

One of the town guards, attracted by the commotion, entered the tavern and shouted something unintelligible from the doorway.  I thought they'd lock us up for sure.  (Not that we had reason to worry; their jail wouldn't hold us for long.  It has dirt floors! Hahaha...)  But to my surprise a big bear of a human suddenly interposed himself in the doorway between us and the guard.  "Wot Destis?  You think I can't take care of me own tavern?  Yon patrons just got a little overexcited; I'll soon put a stop to it.  Be off with ya!"  The young guard stammered a feeble protest, but the tavern owner closed the door in his face.

Then he turned to face us.  The guard's shout had startled us enough that we all stopped what we were doing.  The tableau caught me with a bar stool raised above my head, about to smash the table that Kubuk the metalsmith hid under.  I had no stake in the dispute that started the ruckus, but a dwarven leader must set the first example in any situation.  But the tavern owner just stared me down until I lowered the stool sheepishly.  "I'm Batow," he growled, "You lot - come with me, lest you want me to turn you over to our Hammerman."

He led us out the back way of the tavern, and along the way hissed warnings to the few human patrons left inside that they better pretend they didn't just see seven mythical creatures engage in a bar fight.  (For dwarves are rare enough in this part of the world to be barely more than legend.)  He led us out the back alley, to his cottage behind the tavern.  "In here."

"You're probably wondering why I sent the guard away."

I simply smiled and attempted to wrestle him to the ground (for I was still quite drunk).  Rather than helping, my fellow dwarves laughed and discussed placing bets on the match.  Batow was Very Strong, and Unbelievably Tough, and I could not hold him.  He reversed my hold and put me in a headlock.  He continued his speech while I choked and gurgled.  "Oh, I've known you were here all along.  That human child who saw you break into that abandoned cottage?  That was my son.  He told no one, but, he told me.  I've been waiting for the opportunity to... talk... with you ever since."

Batow released his hold and spun me around to face him.  "Dwarves are no friends to the Elves, correct?" he suddenly demanded.  He did not wait for an answer but continued on, "The boy you saw?  The Elves killed his mother.  ATE her.  I've sworn revenge ever since.  But the mayor of this town, he doesn't understand the seriousness of the Elven menace.  He won't help me, even forbids me from taking vengeance.  Every Spring those pointy eared bastards come to trade trinkets and bring their horribly mutilated animals, God knows what unspeakable things they do to cause the animals such injuries...  And every Spring I watch those cannibals come through my town and I can NOT do anything about them.  The mayor knows my intentions, and has the guards keep an eye on me.  But YOU, you could do something about them.  And with dwarven engineering... who knows..."

"So here's what I'm offerring you:  you help me deal with the Elves, and I'll keep your secret and even lend you the use of my tavern and my cottage.  Deal?"

I smiled and said, still hoarse from the choke hold, "Dwarves need no prodding when it comes to killing Elves.  What do you have in mind?"

"This," he said, and with a flourish unrolled a large parchment on the table, blueprints, I now saw.  I looked them over and then looked up at Batow, "Nice.  This plan is... very dwarvish."  Batow understood it as a compliment, and beamed.  "But of course it'll never work," I finished.  Batow became crestfallen; ironic that my words hurt him more than my wrestling.  I gave the plans another look, "Well, it's just this part here:  the roof of your tavern is 2 Z-levels high; you can't get a wagon up there with a single ramp."  Dishmab the carpenter, who is also a Competent Building Designer, leaned in.  "This cottage has a flat roof," she said, "What if you build a ramp to the roof of this cottage, and then from there another ramp to the tavern roof."  "OK, OK, that could work," I said, "But what about the cave-in?  You'll punch right through the tavern."  Dishmab scribbled on the blueprint.  "Central pillars," I said, "I like it."

"Wait," I said, "We're not accustomed to building in the open.  Digging is one thing for us but how will we disguise this thing above ground?"  Batow grabbed the quill and scribbled his own addition to the blueprint, "Fortifications...  Here, here, and here.  They'll block view from ground level of what we're building on the roof."  "And we can train markdwarves to make use of them for defense too!" I realized, "But there's still the problem of people seeing us."

Batow laughed, "I'll let it be known I've hired foreign contractors to spruce up my tavern.  You stilts to disguise your height work well enough - when you're not hitting each other over the head with them!!"

[rickvoid]

This is pretty good. Most forts built on a human town ussually collapse it for the wood.

Can't wait to see what the town looks like after the first Elven siege.

[calrogman]

This story is excellent so far, have you considered using the aquifer for anti-elven engineering?  I'm sure the Humans would appreciate it, although hiding it from them would be tricky...

Does the Human town have a temple or keep?  These would be ideal for converting into a "trading" plaza, once you get "planning" permission of course.

[Riversand]

i'm going to be watching this intently.

[Zed Di Dragon]

I rather like this! Some screenshots (to give a feel for the area and constructions) would do wonders to break up the walls of text, but they're certainly well-written, interesting walls of text.

[Riversand]

This is a masterwork story, it is made of an epic plot, and has spikes of awsome. On the story are hanging rings of fun.