So I tried doing a fort without ANY weapons or metal recently (pump components do not count). It led me to some interesting discoveries and practices in machinery. More importantly, the progress of the fort led to an interesting story, which I tried to type up but I think it is not very good. Still, I'd like to know what Bay12 thinks of it. So, without any further ado, here is the story of Water Chamber, an RNG blessing of a fort name.
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Prologue
Melbil pulled the wagon to a stop. Getting out, he examined the snowy surroundings. Yes, this was a good place. Nicely sloped hills, plenty of trees, and best of all, a sizeable pond. Sure, it was frozen at the moment, but that was of no consequence. The plentiful oaks and maples spoke clearly that the thaw was inevitable. "Hey, get over here! We have work to do!" he shouted at the dwarves peering out of the wagon. They shuffled out nervously, teeth chittering uncontrollably in the cold. "Cog, I want you to start chopping those trees immediately. See if you can get anything useful from the shruberry, too. Urist, make yourself useful and dig out some space for us to store our supplies safely. We are NOT losing anymore wine to Armok-damned raccoons. The rest of you, do something to make yourselves useful."
Grumbling and shivering in the cold, the dwarves set to work. While looking for the next shrub, Addor started walking over the frozen lake. A sinister crackling whispered for a moment, then the only sound was of walking and labor, punctuated with occasional grunts.
A loud sharp snap echoed out, followed by a splash. Cog looked for the source of the sound, and saw the hole in the ice of the lake. She panicked and ran over. Addor's frantic splashing and gasping echoed through the hills. She treid to help, but she didn't know how to swim, and neither did anyone else. Clenching her hands in frustration, she shouted "Help! Anyone! Are you just going to let him drown?" "What do you want us to do about it? Jump in and pull him out?" said Rakust sarcastically. Melbil came over to determine the cause of the disturbance. Gazing upon the drowning dwarf beneath him, he spoke quietly "Looks like thaw came earlier than I thought. Say, I have an idea. Rakust, come here." Melbil sat down on the ground and began sketching some plans. "What do you think?" "Well," spoke Rakust, "that looks a little ambitious, but you've got me interested." Melbil shouted, "Urist, come. We've got a lot of digging for you. Cog, pull yourself together and get over it. We're going to need some buckets."
The First Arrivals
"I could have sworn it was over here somewhere. Look, see that windmill over there? Told you there was an outpost here." Risen spoke to his trading partner. "There better be. We did not travel hundreds of miles for scenery. Besides, have you seen how the mercenaries we hired have been acting? I don't want to be the one to tell them we can't pay them their fees. I, for one, do not look forward to a bronze hammer to the face, thank you very much." "Medtob, you are such a spineless coward. Where's your faith?" "Look, if it turns out that it's just a bunch of drunks in a hole with nothing even remotely useful, I will kill you myself first." "Ooh, sharp. Well, the door is over there. Let's go already." Risen and Medtob led their animals through the door, into a what seemed like a halway of some sort. There were grates along the floor and a faint sloshing sounded from beneath. Behind another door was a fairly sizeable hall. The entire place was a mess and the stockpiles were little more than just heaps of the same kind of item. One corner had a dwarf sitting silently on a chair. Not doing anything, just sitting and staring at the piles. "Hello! We're here from the mountainhomes to trade! We've got quality goods!" None of the dwarves said anything. In fact, there wasn't any sound at all, except for a distant noise that sounded vaguely like pumps. One of the dwarves came over and spoke to Risen "The trade depot is over there. We'll bring something to trade soon." After the merchants unloaded, the dwarf that was staring at the stockpiles came over. "Everyone, bring the mechanisms!" After a few minutes of hauling stone mechanisms, the dwarf spoke to Risen. "I'm Melbil, not that that has any importance. These mechanisms are what we offer. We want all your meat." "You're joking, right? These mechanism are garbage! That one doesn't even work right at all! There's no way this will pay for all the meat." Risen couldn't believe this was happening to him. He'd always had luck with trades before. This was ridiculous! "Besides, I can't sell it all to you anyway. Unless you're willing to give us those plump helmets over there. We need some rations for the trip back." Melbil glared at Risen. "You should give us your meat. You can take the mechanisms. If you don't, you won't need the rations." "Are you threatening me?" Risen barked at Melbil. Normally, he didn't lose his cool like this. Medtob tapped him on the shoulder. "Look, let's just go. I'm sure we'll find another place to trade." "Medtob, didn't you say you would kill me if we didn't make a profit here?" Medtob shifted around uncomfortably. "Look, I don't think this is a good idea. Let's just go." "What's gotten into you? I've never seen you like this." Medtob coughed. "It's the dwarves. You might have been too busy arguing to notice, but they haven't said or done anything since we've arrived. See that guy over there, the one next to the barrels? He's been standing there for half an hour now. I don't think he's even blinked. He's just watching us. Let's just pack and go." "Alright, if you insist." Risen and Medtob packed their belongings back on the camels and headed back for the door.
Risen pushed the outer door of the fortress and found it annoyingly unobliging and locked. The door behind him slammed shut and a faint click meant that it, too, was locked. Risen started panicking a little; breathing quickly, he shouted at the door: "Melbil! This isn't funny! Unlock the doors!"
Above him, the ceiling made a clanking sound. Water rushed out, pressing against Risen and Medtob, soaking through their +silk cloth shirts+. It quickly rose above his head, filling the room. Risen tried to swim up to the opening in the ceiling. "Almost there..." he thought, desperately grabbing for grip. The hatch cover slammed back shut. Risen's hand broke, and as he screamed in pain, the bubbles of air escaped away from him. The world turned dark and he passed out.
Epilogue
The snow fell thick that winter. No migrants came to Water Chamber. No one knew it was there. An occasional elf trading caravan would stumble upon it and never be heard from again. Humans ignored the place entirely, and the roving bands of goblins learned quickly not to trust an unguarded door with a kitten tied close to it.
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So here's the background. I embarked at random, just picked a spot, play now, the whole shebang. The symbol of my home civ was the windmill, which ended up powering the pumpstack in the fort. The name of the fort was Water Chamber, and Rakust's name means "Tomb". Also, that dwarf that drowned could have been saved had the miner not been on break. His name means "Drowned", which is hilarious in retrospect. So with this combination of events, I did what any good dwarf would do: make a fort defended only by a drowning chamber. It was fairly amusing. The first dwarves refused to give me the meat for the mechanisms, so when they got pissed and left, I drowned them and took their stuff. This also worked wonderfully on the elves, who were angry about a wooden decoration on one of the items that the dwarves left. I drowned them as well. A goblin thief showed up one day in the booze stockpile, and thus, I decided to use one of the kittens to spot for ambushes, etc. Due to the low fort wealth and population (no immigrants showed up since I drowned the dwarven merchants), no sieges or anything else interesting happened. I got everyone in the drowning room except for one dwarf, had him pull the lever on his friends, and watched as he went berserk when all his friends drowned, one by one.
DWARF FORTRESS: Histories of Murder and Profit
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Topic: So here's a little story of a place. (Read 922 times)