10th of Felsite 1101I have finally made it back to the overlands by following that trail of coins that I had left. I was immensely surprised to discover that it has only been a few days since I entered the caverns. It feels like I spent years wandering around down there!
As my final expedition, I decided that I would visit the abandoned fortress of Tongsrace. Many rumours I have heard throughout my life, as well as the stories written in the museum, have led me to believe that it is overrun with demons, and is immensely dangerous. Sounds like
!!FUN!! to me...
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I have arrived at the boundary of Tongsrace, as it is marked on my map. And, of course, as is the tradition nowadays, the first thing I spotted as soon as I took a step forward was a dead dwarf, lying half-buried in the dirt. A closer look confirmed that several other corpses were strewn around carelessly, barely visible amongst the weeds that had been left to sprout freely in what was once a dirt road. This place had evidently been abandoned long ago-or so I thought. A sudden scream shattered the ominous silence that had fallen upon the place. Sensing that imminent danger was nearby, I ordered the corpses around me to rise once more so as to combat whatever had been their bane, and moved forward cautiously.
As I neared the river that marked the boundary of Tongsrace, I was met with a scene that was both humorous and terrible at the same time. The dwarves had been defeated long ago, it seemed, but the local wildlife fought on still. A single Snail Monster was standing by the river amongst a network of webs, surrounded by an army of hippos that were each trying, with varying but minimal degrees of success, to kick it to death. Behind the demon, waiting in the river, was gathered another army-this one made up of alligators, milkfish and carp. As I neared the demon, an alligator crawled out of the river to join the fray, successfully tearing the skin off the demon’s wing. The snail monster leapt at the alligator and fell into the river, where it was met by by the second army, with the hippos already charging into the river after it. Meanwhile, an unconscious dwarf on my side of the river was being kicked to death by another hippo.
I plunged into the river after the snail monster, drawing the adamantine sword. The snail monster was particularly annoying to slay, as it kept webbing everyone. Eventually my undead army followed me into the river and began slaughtering all the living creatures, so I had to animate all of them. The demon was eventually killed by bleeding out-through successive tears in its flesh, as well as a stab in the heart.
We ran into a second snail monster further down the river. By now I had gathered a huge army of undead (mostly fish) to protect me from the webs. This time I got lucky enough to hit its brain.
The third snail monster we faced webbed me right after I stabbed its heart, but it luckily bled out before it hurt me. However, some random undead fish got the credit for the kill, as it bit the demon before it bled out.
Having finally gotten out of the river, I looked around me. In front of me lay a glorious sight; a fortress, constructed out of pure adamantine! Even the roads were paved with the stuff. No wonder it had come to be infested with demons, for such is the final result of greed, Dwarvenkind's eternal curse.
I moved downwards, observing a trade depot and a few workshops. Then I saw something that I had only heard about in legends before. Moss! The rare green stuff that grows in ancient fortresses. I had never seen it before, and had come to doubt that it even existed. (OOC:Well, there we go, solid evidence that moss actually does grow in old fortresses in this version)
I entered the fortress and climbed upwards, where I was surprised to meet a dead end. Looking closer, I realised that the open spaces were arranged in the form of an arrow, pointing towards a hole in the ceiling.
What’s more, I realised that below me was the roof of a building adjacent to the entrance building, with a down stair.
Knowing that I would feel no pain, I jumped, landing safely on the roof and descended through the stair. I found myself in a room with two locked hatches and two ramps.
Going down the ramps, I found myself in a narrow hall with a few bins in the centre. Insides some of the bins were pieces of amour, forged out of adamantine. Finally! Armour that would fit a dwarf! I wore the finest, noting that it was not a full set. Extra armour remained. Picking up the bins, noticing that some also contained weapons, including a masterwork axe, I moved on and pulled a lever on the edge of the room, which unlocked the hatches above the stairs. There was also an up/down staircase that was blocked on both ends.
I climbed back up the roof and jumped off the side of the building. It seemed that I had seen all there was to seen. The rest of the fortress had probably been sealed off, for I could find no entrance to it.
As I explored the rest of the area, I ran into a fourth snail monster. I was surprised to see this happen:
And I didn’t even attack the thing. All hail the Carp God!
I also discovered a winged Forgotten Beast made out of jade:
whom I slew with the adamantine sword. I also accidently killed a turkey zombie when the jade corpse fell from the air. Woops…
Some time later, I found another forgotten beast duelling a Brute of Salt.
This forgotten beast I had once heard rumours of, for it was Kusut Webveiled the Ungodly Heart. Since I hate seeing squabbling creatures, I slayed both of them.
As I continued exploring the area, I came upon the mutilated corpse of an adventurer whom I identified as Kamca, remembering a picture I had seen in the museum. The poor man had been chopped in half-his lower body had been completely severed off. Yet, it was evident that Kamca had not gone quietly; nearby were the corpses of two demons which neither I nor my army slew. Lying on Kamca’s corpse was a sharp obsidian rock, still caked with dried blood.
I picked up both the corpse and the rock, deciding that I would entomb the hero in his proper place.
I have now explored as much as I can of this place, and have slayed one more demon-one in the form of a firefly. I do not know if anything else is hiding from me, biding its time, but the sun is setting. It is time for me to leave this accursed place once and for all.
Author
Topic: The Museum: Adventure mode succession world (DF 34.11) (Read 820118 times)