8th Galena, 201, Late SummerIt's started raining - the first real rain I seen yet. This is a blessing - everybody's acting better now - saw a smile earlier today on Splint's face. I think his sweet Stova is getting better. I'm actually starting to like her, all jealousy aside. I can only hope that this keeps up.
17th of GalenaWe've gotten a human caravan comin' over - wagons and all. So much better than elves. Anyhow, they gotta walk through the blood all the same. I feel bad for the barbarians that got spread like butter on a pecan's eye. Everybody's in higher spirits, though - I'm takin' advantage of it and helping us get a lot done.
I told the miners to mine out a bunch of stuff belowgound - it'll serve as a graveyard of sorts, and it'll help us get our coffins put somewheres we can actually use them. Armok knows we'll probably need them...
We're also buildin' a few more rooms down yonder, past the hallway with the bedrooms. Might need some more space for migrants, you know? Can't be too careful. If we can get more migrants, we're prob'ly saved.
Since we need to start a major weapon making industry (that's the right word, right?), I decided to build a new room down south of the forges, where we can build even more forges. That oughta get us some armor in a jiffy.
Meanwhile, all our soldiers are back to training. We've got a full battalion now - ten soldiers. And they're learnin' right quick, too. Things are looking better... but there's always that threat looming on the horizon... just like a mint sliding down a drainpipe...
27th of GalenaNow that the humans are inside, I'm closing the bridge. I don't want anybody sneakin' in like they did when the elves were here.
We traded a whole fuggle-ton of mugs for some weapons, shields, and booze. I figure we can do without the meat for now - we've got enough animals to slaughter. You can see how I built a butcher's shop in the bottom left hand corner of the drawing above - that's where we do our killin's.
We're finally gettin' the war dogs trained! I want one by my side at all times. I don't wanna risk getting chopped up somewheres, just because I didn't never put on no armor.
11th of limestone, early autumnby the gods... it was Stova... she... oh, gods... Stova turned into one of Holistic's Spawn... Splint couldn't bring himself to come see - he knew what happened. He knew she might do this... The human caravan guards didn't know what to make of it, but they started on her right quick. She was still fightin' them, even when they cut off her arms - she'd bite them wit her teeth, and she kicked like a demon... oh, poor Stova! What a horr'ble way to go!
She looked so hideous... she was so beat up, and she just wouldn't die! I dunno how she survived it... but she was writhing, and her shirt was ripped apart, her chest split open... it was like teeth! it was so horrible! She's still out there now... The entire militia is workin' on her, but she won't give up!
14th of limestone, early autumnThe battle's lasted three whole days before they finally put an end to her. She didn't die 'til they stabbed her through the heart from behind. It was awful...
The Master got wounded... bitten by her, in fact.
I barged in on Splint afterwards, in his office - he said right quick that he didn't want to talk about it, but I got in his face and kept bugging him. He finally told me that when a Spawn bites somebody, they get infected with the demon's soul... and then that soul takes 'em over, if they're not strong enough to fight it. This is somethin' we're gonna have to watch for from now on... I only hope The Master doesn't wind up turnin' on us, too.
27th of limestoneIt's been close to two weeks... I'm still trying to get over what happened... That image... the way she looked... her gaping body ripping limbs off of the human soldiers, devouring them, spitting them out, biting... oh, gods...
I'm starting a little mining project to the left of the bedroom area - hopefully we'll find some more ore. We absolutely need more iron to smelt - we need weapons. I haven't found any flux stone yet, but there's gotta be some somewhere... The miners say there might not be, but I'm holding out hope... against hope.
We've found a lot of other stuff, at least.
6th of SandstoneWe got migrants! This is extremely good. Hopefully we can keep 'em around long enough to get everything going the way it's supposed to be. Some of our older migrants have had thoughts of leaving... I promised 'em things would get better - I hope it weren't a flat-out lie.
Anyhow... I'm starting a little project. It's a set o' walls, they're going to keep enemies from getting to the fortress right away. They have to go through a curvy path to get there - long enough for us to be guaranteed able to close the gates.
23rd SandstoneHere's the report on everything, thus far. 46 people in Spearbreakers, but strangely no children... They do say barbarians are child-stealers, so mebbe that's why we ain't seen any yet.
Anyhow, Juunya decided to start some secretive project... I only hope she designs somethin' for us we can actually use.
I've also started work on two more projects - over there on the left, you see my fancy artwork rendition of what our new archery room is going to look like - it's just a little ways off from the path that leads to the tower (bottom left). On the right... well, yeah, they still haven't dug the room for the new forges. It's been two months, for crying out loud!
On a different matter, Fischer and Draignean are very unhappy... Fischer came to me and told me he wanted to know everything about the Spawn that I knew. I was forced to tell him - I didn't see any other option. He deserved to know. Apparently he also confided in Draignean... both of their moods have gone horribly down. I'm tryin' to figure out how to fix it.
7th TimberYep... Juunya is an idiot. She made somethin' totally worthless to us.
Why? Why would you make a bunch o' dwarves somethin' like this? Come on, after all, we don't make blow darts. It's hardly worth anything, too.
It's apparently Dwarven STUPID Day. Loud Whispers (bottom left) decided to take a tromp through the mud and blood to get clean - and then tromp all the way back. She's still just as filthy (filthier, really) than a pig with a washcloth.
I suppose the fact that she tends to avoid crowds might have somethin' to do with it... she bein' a private person, and the well always havin' people around it.
And guess what! The liason and wagons from the mountain home finally arrived! We're in great luck! We're going to feast tonight!
18th TimberSpawn! An ambush! Oh, gods! Poor Nomia is out there - they found her! She doesn't stand a chance... I've ordered everyone inside - I'd raise the bridge, but the merchants still aren't inside yet! Fuggle, what do we do??
There were more out there than just that... One of our war dogs discovered a second ambush lying in wait. I have no idea what to do - I'm just going to have somebody raise the bridge. Whatever's out there can die, for all and whatnot. I don't care. I just want to live!
We raised the bridge, what little we have built of our outer wall defenses making it so the spawn just barely missed comin' in! If it hadn't been for those walls I put up, the whole ambush woulda made it inside. As it is now, they're all chasin' a little cat - Nomia's cat - they're going to slaughter it. But it's keepin' them away from us...
28th of timberThey're sittin' out there, mocking us... They know we can't keep the drawbridge up forever. There's at least fifty of them... okay, maybe more like fifteen or so... but they want us. They want our blood... gods, what do we do?
Pretending nothin' was wrong, I traded with the merchants. We got some booze, some weapons an' armor, and some meat. That was about it... They didn't have much we could use, and we lacked money. I sold a lot of my mechanisms, and a lot of Frog's masterpieces... he's actually a pretty smart dwarf, as far as dwarves go.
20th moonstoneIt's been a month... I had to lower the bridge. I'd hoped that the merchant's escort would be able to take care of the Spawn. I was wrong... They're still fighting - on our bridge. One of the traders decided to make a run for it...
He didn't last long... they caught up with him easily. There are so many dead, but at least they took down a couple spawn with them.
23rd moonstoneThey slaughtered all the escorts, an' everyone else in the caravan - nobody was left save one brave marksdwarf who refuses to leave his post. I ordered the bridge to be raised... I didn't care if we were trapped in here with some of them - I sent out our military to kill the spawn off. Fischer would know how to take care of them... Or so I thought...
Softa charged into battle first, her iron spear held firmly in her hand. She saw the monsters and briefly faltered, but charged onwards. She's harly any mor'n a recruit... how could she survive the damned? HARD followed close behind, wielding an iron pike. I felt for them... my gods, what have we done to come here?
With the spawn distracted by the marksdwarf from the mountainhome, Softa had the advantage of surprise, and stabbed the first creature repeatedly with her spear, though only in the leg. For the moment, we had the upper hand. HARD began stabbing another of the three demonic creatures - one of the thrusts piercing straight through the back of the Spawn's open mouth, and going through the back of the head. The spawn only smiled a terrifyingly hideous smile, spear still in it's mouth - a scene I'll remember to the day I die - and kicked HARD away from itself.
Draignean, The Master, Gemblade and Obok Meatboy all rushed in as well, wielding their weapons. I prayed that we'd survive this unscathed. I wanted desperately to talk to Splint - as if he knew the solution. I knew he didn't, but where was he?
My gods... Oh, these evil memories... The spawn, one of them was missing every single limb, and yet it lived, somehow managing to move like an inchworm towards Draignean's leg. He saw it in time, stabbing it in the head - but nothing happened.
The Master charged bravely into the battle, stabbing one of them through the body, then through the cheek, then through the head with his beloved wooden pike - and the spawn turned, spear still lodged through the skull, and bit The Master hard on the upper leg - hard enough to cause the blood to gush. oh, gods, he was dying right there in front of me and there was nothing I could do! He was struggling to his feet, and the spawn bit him in the arm instead, literally taking away a chunk of the flesh. with the spear still lodged through its head, the spawn continued to bite The Master - and the monster didn't even have any arms.
Obok Meatboy was bitten soon after... he fought bravely, though. Softa was bitten three times at least, in the lower body, and both her right arm and foot. Then, for some reason, Obok Meatboy and Draignean fled from the battle, screaming, terror in their eyes. I yelled for them to return... knowing full well it could be their death sentence. I feel such deep guilt for that, but what choice did I have? Even so, they refused to come back.
Gemblade remained unharmed at first, stabbing and attacking anything evil within reach, roarin' like a madman. The Master was down with serious injuries by this time... By the gods, it was horrifying to watch... I couldn't e'en find the strength within me to scream in terror. Gemblade went down right afterwards... The spawn were biting him viciously... He managed to struggle to his feet, and he fled for his life. What are these beasts, that can invoke such terror?
By this point, HARD was the only one still on his feet... And he had actually slain one of them. Fischer was missing... I have no idea where he was, but he certainly wasn't at the battle. The Master fled as well - all our brave soldiers running from their lives, when they outnumbered the enemy two to one. Ashsaber managed to stab one of them a few times before being bitten, and then he too ran.
At this point, Feb rushed into the battle, wielding a pitchblende warhammer. He managed to knock off the arm of one of them with a lucky swing, but he got bitten as well. it's unnerving to watch these monsters... They coil themselves almost like a snake, leaping towards their victims, hideously sharp teeth bared... And their chests... gods... Oh, gods help us. Feb killed one of them, and rushed back towards HARD, who had been bitten a few times already. There was another Spawn there - I have no idea where it came from - perhaps as had happened with Stova, one of our allies had transformed. Whatever the case, both remaining Spawn were missing their arms and feet, and were walking around on stubs for legs - and makin' it look easy as natural.
Somehow, the two warriors, HARD and Feb, managed to destroy the two beasts by themselves - Feb mightily swinging his pitchblende warhammer, and HARD stabbing everything with his pike. There was blood everywhere - the dwarves themselves were covered with it - and nothing remained of the mountainhome's trading expedition.
There was one Spawn stuck on a ledge, though... not sure what we're gonna do about him. And the other spawn - a group of about seven or so - are still hangin' around, just out of reach of crossbowshot. We can't lower the bridge. There were severed limbs and teeth everywhere around the depot... It'll take a month or more to clean. But we survived... we survived an ambush with only one casualty.
16th opal, 201, midwinterWe still can't lower the bridge... The spawn are hangin' around still (bottom left), and in the meantime, there's miasma all around the depot. I've had dwarves workin' fulltime on the corpses and bodyparts, but it's still not done. Not only that...
My "genius" refuse stockpile is full. I don't know what to do here. I need to quit... but I can't just abandon everybody. gods, I'm going to lose my mind...
There are four dwarves in the hospital still - Draignean, Obok Meatboy, Gemblade, and The Master. Our doc, Simon Tam, is takin' good care of 'em all, though. I hope they don't turn...
28th opal, 201, midwinterWe found Fischer! Turns out I'd locked him in the armory somehow... probably while I was tryin' to keep the soliers from fleeing...
Anyhow, we're goin' to expand the refuse stockpile. We need it a lot larger... we don't really have any way to dump stuff outside anymore. This is the best I can do. Miasma is all through the fortress now... It's a mess, everyone is complaining. Some people are miserable.
9th obsidian, 201, late winterMomuz has gone berserk! Our butcher, Momuz, finally decided he had enough, and started trying to kill everyone. Fortunately we managed to get there before he caused any real harm... sad, though... we had to kill him. And Nomia's body is still out there on the hill... that's two dwarves dead from this madness.
13th obsidianFeb's been taken by a fey mood. I begged him to make something useful for us, but he wouldn't talk about what he was doing - he said it wasn't open for discussion.
23rd Obsidian...He made us a mug. A MUG. I swear, I'm tired of mugs. I've seen 'em everywhere, I've seen too many. I cain't take the doggone things anymore! They're ugly, disgusting... (no offense to you, Miss Bombzero) Ugh. Anyhow, Feb proudly bragged that his mug was worth 16800 coppers. However, he was outraged when I suggested we sell it... so, worth a lot or not, it's still worthless. Looks like he just wanted to be able to drink his enemies, maybe?
At least the spawn have left...
27th of ObsidianI cain't take no more. I gotta get me a nice beer and a room to sleep in...my nice cavy room... How I miss my cavies... oh, gods, what if the spawn got to a cavy... oh, gods...
I spoke to Splint and he said if I thought it 'd be best for me to retire, it pro'lly would be. I've given leadership over to Mr. Frog - he seems the most capable here, and he's a mechanic same as me. I'm sure he'll do a great job... I just want me a cavy. I asked him nicely to maybe buy one for me... I dunno if he will, tho'...
Anyhow, I'm givin' him this journal, too.. He deserves to know all that's gone on. I only hope he won't go addleheaded from it all...
Oh, and afore I forget, Mr. Frog - Nomia's ghost was seen roamin' around Spearbreakers... ya might wanna watch out for it.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2273199 times)