What are Rocs? GearedSpread Pt. II: A Story of Valor and Birds
Aden, The Legendary Roc from Antartica, circled high above the bustling town of GearedSpread. After taking a moment to consider its appetite, it descended.
It started by picking off the outsiders. Various travellers who enjoyed idling in the AngelLand countryside made easy targets; the beast gorging those he passed.
A dwarven mercenary was the first to raise his sword. Sure, it's a flying beast, but that didn't deter this young dorf. Seeing the beast flying above the treetops, he climbed to the top, ran along the branches and did duel with the Roc in the trees. Blood rained from the skies like a barn owl eviscerated by a growing tree, and despite competent strikes against the Roc, the dwarf was slain.
Weakened but strong, the beast flew confidently over the moats and walls of GearedSpread. The alarm bells rang loudly from the keep, and a flock of citizens ran to cover, some to the keep, some to the Fortress, and some to the tavern. The Roc burst into the tavern, squawking and tearing at the kitchen staff, chasing stragglers down into the lower tunnels that were being forged for basement space.
The Military moved in, SpearedThrusted leading the charge. The rookies picked up whatever looked sharp and menacing and stabbed, speared, chopped and stomped the beast until it fell unconcious. Masons sprinted to the opening of the tunnel and sealed the beast inside, where it could lick its wounds.
"This is great!" I exclaimed. "Now I can try out Adventure Mode, maybe get a few trophies or possessions back in the name of GearedSpread!" And so, I retired the fort.
10 minutes of Adventure Mode later, I quit adventure mode and unretired the fort. (It was inevitable)
And it turns out the Forgotten Beast's position isn't remembered, and so the first thing I see is a very pissed off Roc gorging out the vital organs of anything that passed over my main bridge! Well, here we go again. Entire military rushes across the bridge. One
zerg human rush later, the Roc lies down.
Do I tell the military to stop? Not this time. We may not have a Roc, but we've got a dead roc. A dead roc as dead as a... stone.
I did try to capture it with cage traps. Either I do not know what I'm doing, or this is one cunning Roc. It refused to trigger the traps, and it was very difficult getting a human to build a trap before the beast woke up. So it's dead.
Whilst I am typing this, "Solid as a Rock" is playing on the work radio.
I'm going to pump out statues for my new Fortress of this battle to tell the story. Can I make anything substantial out of the bones? Like a statue of the Roc made from the bones? I may make a bunch of crafts from the bones and put them in a goods bin in the hall or SpearedThrusted's room.
We also had a Goblin invasion! Just a little one. I felt Europe was a little dry, what with our "Peace" with the nearby Elven factions and the Goblins being deep in Eastern Europe, I made a lil' gobbo fort a bit closer to home. I haven't investigated, but I think that was where the goblins came. 15 years and no goblins! Not even a baby snatcher! Needless to say, the Goblin invasion was absolutely crushed with very few fatalities on our side.
GearedSpread now operates under Military Service; almost every citizen now trains in weapons in our new Mudstone Fortress on the outskirts of the town for two months a year. I'm drawing up on plans for Europe. Skirmishes into the White Ticks territories in Eastern Europe have been successful, although have amounted to little more than harassment raids.
I'm a little more busy than before, and the save file is open to anyone who wishes to colonize new territories or continue their previous forts. Or should anyone like to undertake an adventure. PM me for the save file or post here.
I will be checking with legends viewer and posting some of the happenings at 20 year intervals, so we can see how the world compares to how it used to look. It is currently 115AD.