Soon he arrived at Dinnerwandered outskirt, the capital of some human civilization he had never heard before. Well, there were houses there and there, mostly abandoned of course. Still, Ushat wanted to get a new companion and maybe some food, as travelling alone isn't the best idea.
He spotted a working inn, which looked all fine, quiet and peaceful... at first. As he opened the door, he saw a very interesting picture:
There was a big fight, and by fight I mean all kinds of zombies: animated hands, arms and even skin were piling up onto all other, non-dead creatures here. There also was an evil-looking figure in adamantine gear, which smelled foul, and some strange guy standing right under a big sign that said "Vampire Hunter". They all tried to rip each other's throats, so Ushat's intuition told him that it's better to just close the door and let them sort it off by themselves.
OOC: seriously, I've found THAT one house where all adventurers resided purely by chance
Some local folk told him about Tower of Seers, the enclave of mountain-folk inside the city, so Ushat headed there because dwarf is always better than a human.
The Tower of Seers appeared to be in complete disaster. Corpses were piled onto other corpses, tons of torn garbage and other grimy stuff. Ushat went into one of defence burrows to check whether there is some hero guarding this place from complete destruction, but he only got a cage that fell onto his head - it seems the place was trapped. Still, he found no signs of any threats that could kill so much dwarves so fast.
Still, the Tower that named this site was quite good-looking, with neat balconies and elegant spire. There was a strange hole on the top, leading down and down and down, and Ushat didn't dare to test it out.
He found there a potter that was gazing onto the city that spanned before him.
'What happened?'
'I don't want to talk about it, really. Does that really matter?'
'Join me on my adventures!'
'Well, then lead me to glory or death. I think there might be some survivors scattered, they'll be more than eager to join you'
They scouted the area, found an underground stockpile in the soil layer with stuff like food and wooden crafts and interesting bridge over an artificial pit that led to dormitory complex. There was some deranged major that refused to leave his fort until his death, because it was his duty, and scared mechanic, who gladly joined Ushat. On the bottom of that pit were loads of corpses, although they were placed there in organized fashion, so, probably there were no coffins to bury them all.
A curious staircase led the group deeper and deeper, into the bowels of earth. Soon they had reached the caverns, and companions started to look really scared. While traversing the dark natural halls, they found an insane and miserable beekeper that kept muttering 'I'm dedicated! Dedicated, I say!'
'What could possibly force them to seek refuge there?' - Ushat thought, well, something in this style.
Soon he found the answer to his question. A huge bettle, all inducing rhytmically, fell down from the ceiling and spewed webs on his surprised victims. Then, the foul beast started to mangle the potter in many horrifying ways. Unfortunately, both Ushat and beekeper were webbed as well, and they couldn't move at all thanks to never-ending streams of webs.
It seemed that all hope is lost.
But alas! The scared mechanic was moving in the rear of group, just in case, so now, seeing how his new friends are going to get eaten, he gained enough bravery to punch the shit out of that beetle, killing it by ripping it apart in process.
'Whew, that was close' - Ushat thought and began to butcher the corpse, to mark the dwarven victory against forces of vile nature. The three eyes of beast were ripped out and taken as tribute.
The group decided not to venture further into caverns, afraid of aggravating yet another monster. If that beetle was the only reason why this enclave succumbed, that means that dwarves didn't resist at all, otherwise, it would be killed off by any proper sniper and everyone would move on. They did resist, so there were bigger threats hidden somewhere. And everyone agreed that it's better to just move away.
'Hey, boss' - beekeeper called. He became more sane when they got out of caverns.
'What?'
'Can we see the famous museum of Dinnerwandered? I heard it's full of wondrous things, like, dragon eggs!'
'"Wondrous things"! The place is cursed, I say, cursed! It's the hold of necromancers, and the damned fish-tyrant ruled from there, it killed thousands of humans, thousands in it's lust for blood!' - mechanic joined the conversation
'So what? The vampire lord was killed long time ago!'
'Yes. Wise man sit in museum. We can find the way there.'
Thankfully for Ushat, his weak vocabulary was mistook as a sign of wisdom by his companions.
Author
Topic: The Museum: Adventure mode succession world (DF 34.11) (Read 820176 times)