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[Feco]

Onra Thran - "The World of Dawn"

Hey everyone.  This is a fortress story I've been sharing over on the ArmageddonMUD forums, and it's ongoing.  I thought I'd start crossposting here, mostly because I like attention.  The first 38 entries will still link back to the ArmageddonMUD forums, but I'll post in both places from now on.

Right now, I'm dorfing people who are interested.  I've been writing the story as journal entries, mostly from the perspective of the expedition leader.  I'm also trying to write little blurbs to go with each journal entry.  I haven't done many so far.  If anyone finds the stories interesting, I invite you to claim a dorf and/or write a story.

Welcome to Splatteredhelm!

- Link to original thread -

Table of Contents:

Chapter I - Splatteredhelm

• Part 1 - The World
• Part 2 - The Settling
• Part 3 - The First Year
• Part 4 - WE WANT BOOZE!
• Part 5 - Ushat Tunber, Manager, and Other Beasts
• Part 6 - Zan Nileslogen, Esteemed and Noble Mayor of Splatterdhelm
• Part 7 - Goblins!
• Part 8 - Defense and Supply
• Part 9 - The Smashening
• Part 10 - Intermission: Legends
• Part 11 - Splatterdhelm: Open
• Part 12 - Intermission: Legends II
• Part 13 - Goblins! II
• Part 14 - The Return of The Momentous Works
• Part 15 - Baron Bloodbeard, Captain of the Guard
• Part 16 - Year 254 and The First Sign of Elves
• Part 17 - Blood, Booze, and Books (Also, a report on defenses as commissioned by Baron Bloodbeard, Captain of the Guard)
• Part 18 - Aran Absamsanus the Sun of Ivy, Cyclops.
• Part 19 - Elves!
• Part 20 - The Worried Crusher of Paper
• Part 21 - Goblins, Mayors, and Beasts
• Part 22 - Forgotten Queens & Forgotten Beasts
• Part 23 - Wealth & Blood
• Part 24 - Dwarven Child Care
• Part 25 - Spring and Early Summer 257
• Part 26 - Splatteredhelm's New Face
• Part 27 - King Urist Sealfocuses
• Part 28 - Death of a Founder
• Part 29 - Castle Splatterdhelm & Vampire Hunting
• Part 30 - Leopard Meat
• Part 31 - Moe Gets His Legs Blown Off
• Part 32 - The Minecart Grinder
• Part 33 - Intermission III: The Fortress
• Part 34 - Onward Toward Fall
• Part 35 - The Autumn of Blood
• Part 36 - The Winter of Blood
• Part 37 - The Winter of Blood II
• Part 38 - The Smashening II
• Part 39 - The Improved Trap Hallway Is Blooded
• Part 40 - Albatross & Armor Stands
• Part 41 - Datan Kodok, The Radiant Throat of Stockades

How to be involved:

• Get dorfed! - Give me your name and profession, and any traits you're looking for.  You'll be given as close a match as possible.
• Make suggestions - All suggestions will be submitted to the expedition leader, mayor, or noble, and replied to with each batch of journal entries.
• Write a short story - Pick one of the journal entries and tell us what happens.  Ask for details from status screen or legends and ye shall receive.

Project Goals:

• Bring dwarven civilization back to this horrid world!
  
• Build a fortress, play it until forced to abandon, defeated, or stability and retirement (AKA, so safe it's boring)
• Follow this with an adventurer, until death or suitable retirement
• Provide the world files.  Repeat ad nauseum
• Write short stories for each journal entry.

[Feco]

Completed Short Stories:

1 Galena, Year 251:

A group of 10 dwarves, heavily bundled and dragging their feet, slowly make their way through the snow.  But ho!  Up ahead!  A small gate in the distance, and the faintest of lights shining through the darkness.  Likot brushes some snow from his beard.  "Splatterdhelm.  We've made it Urist."  Urist nods and plods on, tugging a donkey.  He's hungry -- they all are.  They've been weeks... no... months... on the glacier.

The wind howls -- one of those storms again... Damn, the horking... there's the horking.  We can see their eyes in the distance -- if they weren't so hungry for the flesh of their own kind, they'd come for us too.

They pass a broken wagon -- the rotted corpse of oxen and dwarf alike.  The older dwarves keep the children's eyes ahead, to the fortress.

The gate slowly opens, made of ice it is, sturdy and freezing.  The ice holding it in place cracks loudly as it lowers, and the group of dwarves sigh in relief -- a bit of torchlight ahead; a passage; a rounded out room with a grand staircase.  All carved of the ice -- there's a warmth to this place, but it quickly settles in that this is only because it's so *cold* outside.

~"Hibbledy-dibldy doop and dock, I've got a pig-tail for a cock!"~ -- An off-key musical voice quietly echoes ahead.

Urist pats his child and presses it ahead, "On child -- to food and safety."  He eyes the passage carefully before waving his compatriots on.

~"Slip and dip and eat your poo, Splatteredhelm will come for you!"~

The dwarves pause.  It was louder that time.  Urist grunts and pulls the donkey onward, and it isn't long before the group is in the main, circular chamber.  A child screams.

Here he comes -- a short sturdy creature, fond of drink and industry... but no!  What is this?!  He leaps up the stairs and down the hall, shoving one of the children to the ground.  Likot looks to Urist as he grabs his own child, "Urist, where are his clothes?!"

Urist eyes the creature as it darts by -- no pants, no shirt, only a cloak and one sock.  He watches in horror as the creature runs by, struggling to tear off his last sock, then finally his cloak as he reaches the gate.  The moment he gets outside, he howls -- a horrible howl... how horrible.  In that same moment, hurried footsteps come from the stairs.

Zasit the woodcutter pulls out his ax -- damn, what foul place have they found themselves?  Is this truly the last bastion of the dwarves?

A dwarf quickly steps out, reaching for the lever near the stairs -- he pulls it without any hesitation.  The gate slams shut, and the odd screams and chants fade away, as does the wind, and at least a bit of the cold.

The dwarf is dressed in ragged clothing, though it's all there.  He's muscular, his hair is dry.  His very long sideburns are braided.  His medium-length moustache, and very long beard, are neatly combed.  Ice clings to him.  His long hair is tied in a pony-tail.  He grins -- a happy smile -- his gold eyes almost blend into his copper-skinned face.

"I'm Avuz, the expedition leader -- welcome to Splatteredhelm!"

No one speaks -- the children softly cry, and Urist struggles to keep his donkey calm.

"Say, any of ya' have experience as a Manager?"

10 Limestone, Year 251:

Zoltig and Zasit sat on the freshly smoothed ice, tugging quickly on a rope -- the rope extends over a pulley and down into a platinum-block well -- the mechanisms squeak rhythmically.  "I feel euphoric seeing this fine well," Zasit thought to himself.  He grinned.  A fine piece of dwarven engineering, this.  He’ll not be discouraged.

*wicky-wicky-wicky-wicky-wicky-wicky-wicky*

The dwarves scramble to their feet as the wooden, gem-studded bucket is pulled to the surface. Alas... Failure.  Dwarves scurry up from all directions, peeking into the bucket.  Zoltig wipes a hand over his face. "It's filled with ice again."

"It's freezing on the way up."
"No, it freezes when it gets here."
"I'm thirsty."
“I’m thirstier.”

Orders came down to do it again.  Deeper.  Saellyn and her squad of miners are dispatched downstairs to clear an area -- it's still icy there, but the floor seems to be made of stone.  Warm enough?

*wicky-wicky-wicky-wicky-wicky-wicky-wicky*

The newly constructed well is in action.  Zasit feel uncomfortable – he can feel his dwarven brethren breathing down his neck.  "Armok damnit."  Zasit grumbles and lets the bucket fall with a loud *SPLASH.*

“YER DOIN’ IT WRONG!”

A dwarf a stout cold hand shoves him out of the way -- *wicky-wicky-wicky * -- the bucket rises quickly!

“We’ll I’m cancelin’ my job!  There ain’ no water source!”

A dwarf replaces him, the bucket falls – this one seems to catch it before it hits the ground -- *wicky* -- “We’ll I’m cancelin’ MY job!  There ain’ no water source!”

Like a humming swarm of bees, a cacophony of dwarven voices starts to fill the cramped room. “No job!,” “No water source!,” “There ain’ no water source!”  The ground is slippery with half-melted ice – ten dwarves, no twenty… thirty dwarves are all packed in here!  Zasit is crammed between two Engravers – he can see Zoltig has joined the mob – “There ain’ no water source!”

*Ker-SLPASH…. SPLASH.*

The room falls silent – the well has been removed right at their feet – nothing remains but a dark hole in the ice, leading one level down into the grey stone.

“Oi.  I think I fell in!” … “BARK!”

The children softly cry, and Urist struggles to keep his donkey calm.

20 Limestone, Year 252 - An Original Work by Swirdnabsuo the Swiddorf, Destroyer of Cyclops:

Bright light stings the eyes
War hewn stone hews the sinews
Vomit flowers bloom

24 Obsidian, Year 255 - An Original Work by Swirdnabsuo the Swiddorf, following the rampage of the hell-turtle.

Mountain was its shell,
Would that crotch kicks win again,
Friends, attacks are missed.

[Feco]

Part 40 - Albatross & Armor Stands

7 Timber, Year 260



The screams from Tobul's learning center stopped last week.  We opened the pris-- I mean center -- up, and found him thirsted to death.  I guess we didn't pack away enough booze.

Hrm.  I'll make note of that somewhere so we can fix the problem.

3 Moonstone, Year 260



Some albatross were husked, and one found its way into Castle Splatteredhelm.  It caused some grief and minor damage before being put down.  These flying creatures are problematic.  A dome a glass would be best to avoid such things, but we'd have to import it all.

5 Moonstone, Year 260



Damnitall, a second husk found its way in today.  This time, Saellyn the miner put it down.  She smashed the things skull in with her mug.



13 Moonstone, Year 260



We added a system to control the speed of the minecart in the grinder.  If it's going too fast, it'll slow itself down on the outer loop.  We're going to install some brakes now so that it doesn't take so long to slow.  This coupled with some extra accelerators should guarantee that the system is never jammed.

8 Opal, Year 260



Duke Bloodbeard has demanded a sterling-silver armor stand in his tomb.  I suppose he's thinking ahead seeing as we've lost so many good soldiers lately.

Thankfully this is something we can do -- we'll just melt down some copper goblin gear and get to work.

2 Obsidian, Year 260



The Dumpling of Farms is finally getting rooms to rent out.  We still haven't had a visitor... but if we do, they'll want accommodations.

21 Obsidian, Year 260



We've completed Duke Bloodbeard's demand, and given him a weapon rack as well.  In addition, we've carved out extra tomb space.  We'd run out.  Pray to Armok we won't need it.

1 Granite, Year 261



Spring is upon us, and a welcome spring it is.  The fortress is strong.

6 Granite, Year 261



Damnitall, elves!  We've smashed a few with the traps, but we'll have to deal with this bunch.  There are no doubt more -- let's hope we can get them to go toward the trap hallway.

To be continued...

[Feco]

Part 41 - Datan Kodok, The Radiant Throat of Stockades

6 Granite, Year 261



Gods damn it, we charged the elves.  Those flimsy wooden spears; those silly pointed ears; we knew we could take them.  The militia ran a minecart over them.  Har!



Two of the pointy-eared bastards had books with them -- one of them had three!  Turns out, they wrote these books, and were carrying them around.  The dwarves seem reluctant to destroy them for some reason, so they've been placed in the library.



It turns out this "Efami" turd was pretty "important."  Quite the "philosopher," his books tell.  Psh.

16 Slate, Year 261



We've started work on the "Notable Dwarf Quarter's."  Granite houses will be built for each notable dwarf, and the quarter will be walled off like the rest of the fort.

3 Hematite, Year 261



Those bastard goblins returned today, in force!  Roughly 160 of them showed up -- a mix of goblins, humans, and trolls.



One of the sodding builders wouldn't get down off the houses, so the goblins started shooting at him.  The crazy bastard jumped to the walls!



It didn't take long for those bastard goblins to to climb the walls and kill the builder -- poor bastard.



He probably had it coming -- look at all the loot he had claimed for himself!  Greedy dwarf was probably trying to join them.



Bah, but it wasn't just goblins that came.  Trolls climbed the walls too -- the militia quickly took care of them.



Datan Kodok, one of the Sandals of Constricting, was spotted outside the trap-hallway.  We've no idea why he was there.  The bastard has been fighting the enemy all day, with no sign of stopping!

7 Hematite, Year 261



Armok's shit, Datan fought the enemy alone for 4 whole days.  He kept fighting, and fighting, until one of the goblins finally got him.  We thought he'd rout the whole siege by himself!  Shame he died -- best fighter I've ever seen.



A lasher did him in -- right to the spine.  They beat on him mercilessly after that.  It's said he was still happy with improvement to his fighting ability even as he was paralyzed and on death's door.  That salty bastard never gave up hope.



Aye, but he inspired our forces.  Traps be damned, the troops charged, littering the ice with the blood of our foes.



And the siege was broken, that it was!  They ran quicker than usual, and we cleaned them up as they did so.



It's said in total that Datan Kodok, now known as The Radiant Throat of Stockades, killed 62 in his service to Splatterdhelm.  He'll be given an engraving and slab fitting of his service.

Gods these bodies will take a long time to clean up.

To be continued...

[Feco]

Part 42 - Marble Villas

3 Hematite, Year 261

Have a problem.  A bug keeps appearing on the 17th of Granite.  The whole map is revealed, spoilers are spawned, every civ noble, and every merchant that's ever visited are spawned on the map, and all carved structures are turned back into solid ice.

It's really odd.  I'm trying to find a way to fix it.  I have backups, but when they get to that date, the same things happens.

Yay, problem solved!  Found a backup from just before the goblin siege that doesn't seem to crash.  Turning on backups now incase it happens again.

I had the strangest dream last night.  I dreamed the goblins came... and that one dwarf -- Datan, the Radiant Throat of Stockades -- died a heroic death fighting back the goblin hordes.



But it was no dream, no!  It must have been a premonition sent by Armok himself!  A warning, and a sign!  Duke Bloodbeard and Commander Ooze ordered a charge, for they knew they could be defeated -- and they were.

We lost one dwarf, and had a couple injuries.  Datan has taken to calling himself "Doubledown."  It seems fitting.

11 Hematite, Year 261



Another child died... hrm... perhaps they need more to drink.

21 Hematite, Year 261



The humans came today, and we were able to get rid of all the troll-sized clothing, as well as most of our rotten garbage.  Can you believe those tall fools paid good money for it?  Har!  We got plenty of food, drink, wood, and glass.  We'll be making windows for the tavern, we will!

24 Hematite, Year 261



We slaughtered some of the prisoners today.  It made for good training for the new recruit, and a good show for the children.

28 Hematite, Year 261



Increased foot traffic to the arena has increased spear-training for the children.  Seems one had her ears blown off -- good.  It'll make her tougher!

14 Malachite, Year 261



Renovations have been completed for the Portals of Extrication, near the gate to the caves.  A spartan style seemed appropriate.

The tavern is called "The Ancient Fragrance," and the small temple "The Temple of Crowding."  Captain Cogslaw has also had personal quarters built off to the side.  These renovations lie above the gate, and below the firing area for the gate.

1 Galena, Year 261



Fog is a real problem in the important dwarf quarter... it doesn't get inside though, so we're not too worried.  Perhaps we shouldn't install rooftop taverns, though.

17 Galena, Year 261



Our library is no longer filled with vague "scholars," no!  We have the first dwarven philosopher in... well.. a long time!  This is a good day for the dwarven people.

18 Galena, Year 261



The Marble villas are complete!  Each has a combined bedroom/study, and a second floor bedroom.  Each has a balcony, but they're best not used due to the fog.  Everything is a bit... messy... but hopefully they won't mind.  Moe, Saellyn, Adam Bluebeard, and Doubledown have all been assigned a house.  Commander Ooze will get personal quarters somewhere near the barracks.

Speaking of, we've added a wall to the barracks, and some roads to Castle Splatterdhelm.  Below is an artists rendition of our above-ground fortifications.  Snow is really piling up; I wonder if we can convince a dwarf or two to shovel it away...



To be continued...

[Bearskie]

Hoy, another Grim Fortress user!

Cool (heh) progress so far. I like the way you're keeping everything overground. Ice makes for some really impressive visualizer screenshots.

[Feco]

Thanks!  And it's my favorite tileset by far!  I love the colors suggested for it as well.

There's actually a pretty significant underground portion as well, last shown in detail in Part 33.  The underground city is in desperate need of love, though.  I made the mistake of not making it deep enough, so despite having a hollowed out ice-cavern of sorts, I can't make neat roofs and the like very easily.