So, the following story is a dramatized version of the events that lead to my abandonment of the fortress, including a brief attempt to reclaim it. That attempted reclaiming also failed spectacularly, though mostly due to the insane amount of clutter that prevented any kind of functional fortress from being re-established.
Some time ago in a fortress, the name of which has been lost to the ages, things were going quite well for the dwarves who had settled there. For several years, the fortress was prosperous, attracting many other dwarves looking for a new life... Unfortunately, this was also the beginning of their downfall...
The following is extrapolation based upon what few documents or other forms of records that have been found:
About 2 years after the fortress was founded, one of the world's first vampires decided it would be an excellent new home. The vampire was soon discovered though, and entombed for all time, deep within the fortress. Unfortunately, the dwarves were ill-equipped to completely seal the vampire away...
Within a year of imprisoning the elder vampire, things started to go wrong. Seemingly small and insignificant things began to happen, each building upon the other. A few harvests rotted in the fields, even as they were being tended. Sometimes freshly slaughtered livestock rotted within hours. And then... Dwarves began starving. Not from lack of food, however... Details at this point begin to break down even further, but it would seem that in the 4th year food riots began to break out among the population. According to one dated ledger, there was more than enough unspoiled and edible food and drink for the dwarves. Yet still they rioted. A few would manage to find some scrap to eat, while others (even those who had just had a meal) were dying of starvation. Total anarchy soon set in among the 200 or so dwarves living there.
What happened after, has been pieced together from rumors, and may not be entirely accurate. A caravan from the mountainhome had come to trade, just like over the previous years. What they found on their last trip though, was a fortress in rapid decline. Dwarves, delirious from insatiable hunger, wandered around outside. Many were so far-gone that they could not even find the strength to eat food that was right in front of them. And all the adults seemed oblivious to the trader's arrival. The children however... They were another matter. When the children took notice, a feral gleam could be seen in their eyes. Some 30 to 40 of them, rushed the wagons, ganging up on the guards. Like a huge pack of wild dogs, they swarmed, dragging trained warriors down, beating them to death with whatever they could find as weapons. And then, they turned to the traders. Only one managed to escape, as the children then began tearing the wagons apart in search of food...
Rumor or not, after that season, no traders returned, striking the fortress from their planned routes. One adventurer ventured there a few years later, and miraculously returned alive. He reported that what appeared to be a specially sealed chamber, had been breached from within, the large steel doors blown outwards and off the hinges as if they were made of parchment. The heavy stone walls that had been built in front of the doors, shattered, seemingly before the doors had been breached, also being blown out and away from the chamber. Inside, the walls, floors, and even the ceiling, were covered with strange sigils and glyphs that did not match the surrounding area's designs. They were however, still clearly the work of a dwarf. There was one freshly-carved phrase that he could read however, "At last, they have paid in full for their arrogance." There was no sign of who carved it, nor were there any signs of the rest of those that had lived there, not even the bones of the dead...
Author
Topic: Share Your Funny Stories With Me! (Help DF Talk) (Read 87824 times)