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[GreatWyrmGold]

I'm using my own Savages' Stronghold mod. Check it out!

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Abimu Ocimaasada, minotaur lasher, went out on a quest that had tempted many of his kind recently: To kill the necromancers in a nearby tower and steal their secrets. He trained in the arts of stealth and use of the horned chain, before recieving one as a gift, along with a dagger and an iron shield. Taking some cave fish and filling his turkey leather waterskin, Abimu set out on his journey.

While going to the tower, little of note happened. A group of foul ogres known as the Lesser Salutes sent a single axeogre to accost him, but after lashing at his heart and goring out his brain with his horned chain, Abimu claimed the ogre's axe and cap as his own. Also, he slew a honey badger who accosted him at a river crossing, and took the beast's skin and bones for later reanimation, its meat for sustenance, and its skull as a trophy.

Upon reaching the tower, Abimu noticed a pile of bodies and such, clearly the result of a previous battle for the secrets within. Curiously, the necromancers had left the bodies and parts thereof--arms, heads, turkey skin, etc--completely untouched. Sneaking towards the entrance, Abimu saw an ogre--the latest victim of the necromancer--standing guard at the door of the tower. He anointed himself with rare herbs that would disguise himself as an enemy of all life.
[Read: I added [OPPOSED_TO_LIFE] to minotaurs in the region's raws]
He snuck past the dead guard and others ike him, until he found a necromancer. He revealed himself and tried to greet the dark master, but was rebuffed. Undeterred, Abimu squeezed past the dead and found what he was looking for: Ushmalloslal, "Pulpystarve," an ilmenite slab with the secrets of life and death engraved upon it.

With his prise in his skunk leather backpack, Abimu snuck out of the tower, pausing to peruse some books. As he left the tower, he paused to read his trophy. He pondered why he did not feel more powerful as the ogre guard slowly recognised the scent...of life.

More tomorrow, I'm tired right now.

[GreatWyrmGold]

The ogre and several other corpses shuffled forwards. Abimu had a feeling that something was wrong, confirmed by glancing over his shoulder. He ran as fast as he could, striking the zombies at first but stopping once he realised that the necromancers, who had emerged from their abode, could raise the zombies as fast as he could kill them. So he just ran. Several corpses semed on the verge of catching up--including the badger bone and skin he had left outside the tower--so he started dropping stuff. First his provisons, then the axe and the cap that he had purloined from the dead ogre...he left a trail of treasures, leaving himself with only his weapons, his clothes, his waterskin, his shield, a honey badger skull, an iron carving knife, and the valuable Ushmalloslal.

Soon only a fast goblin corpse which he had already dispatched four times remained in sight. Abimu threw a pebble at it, causing the dark energies that animated it, enfeebled from so many zombies being raised, to exit. Abimu ran through a herd of wild boars and started traveling in more secret manners.

Abimu traveled. He had not learned the Secrets of Life and Death. As he travelled, he was accosted by two ogres, one with a silver mal and one with a bronze ogre-sword. They told Abimu to halt and introduced themselves as members of the same Lesser Salutes as before. Three lashes dispatched the mal-wielding monster, with only a clumsy counterstrike from him. After trying to dispatch the swordogre in an impressive manner by throwing her comrade's gear at her, he gave up and simply gored the ogress in the head with the horns of the chain, killing her instantly.

Night fell. Abimu was surrounded by cackling.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Abimu saw them--small, feathered and winged humanoids, with gray feathers, spouting insults like fountains spew water. They glid towards Abimu, cackling as they came. The first to arrive dodged, and responded with a kick to the hand. This made Abimu angry. After several attacks, Abimu had knocked the bogeyman down, but had not injured it. Then, he got an easy strike at its right arm, and the next lash fractured the bone!

Others approached Abimu. One gored him, then dodged the next attack. A melee ensued, with Abimu scoring perhaps one hit for each ten the bogeymen gave. He shattered a couple more bones with good blows. Then, a bogeyman's bite from behind bruised fat in his upper body, somehow giving Abimu trouble breathing. Then, a bogeyman kicked him in he head, knocking him unconscious. Within 30 seconds, Abimu Ocimaasada, the failed thief of The Secret, was dead.

I hate bogeymen. Now, to reclaim the slab...

[GreatWyrmGold]

Melbil Earthenanvil, a hammerdwarf, had heard of a strange occurance. Supposedly, a minotaur had managed to sneak into a necromancers' tower and steal the legendary slab Ushmalloslal, before terrors of the night had struck him down. Taking his steel warhammer, bronze shield, and a dagger, Melbil fled from the Mountainhomes. He paused in a minotaur town to restock on supplies (spending his last coins), and to ask for information on where this Abimu had fallen. With this, he set out, hoping to find the slab.

After travelling some, Melbil began to hunger. He munched on a prickle berry he had picked up in town, drank some water, and hunted a horse (surprisingly coming out uninjured). Melbil took the of the horse meat, considering also taking the bones to use as fuel for his necromancy. No, that would be unnecessary; it would slow him down, and death is easy to manufacture.

Night fell, and Melbil traveled on. He paused for sustenance, and again to cross a river. Nothing happened, although at some point he realised that he had overshot the area where Abimu had died. Cursing, he turned and continued the search.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Melbil succumbed to sleep after reaching roughly the correct area.Within an hour or so, his slumber was interrupted by a honey badger, which seemed to be running at him. Melbil swiftly barraged the beast with his hammer, soon striking its head, slaying it. Then, Melbil saw something. The badger was not running to Melbil--it was running from bogeymen.

These were not the beasts that slew Abimu, although they were no better than those. They were small and warty, with slate gray eyeless faces and stubby horns. They knew exactly where their prey was, aiming vicious insults. They told Melbil that he was a fool. He slew the one companion who might have helped him against his new assailants. He went into the wilderness, hoping to find the one place where he could make his name, without knowing quite where it was, or what. And, worst of all, he intended to try and steal the treasures from those killed by the Beasts of the Night.

Melbil had never heard of these beasts, and decided that the best way to continue this first contact would be to crush them. The first was swiftly knocked down and a strike aimed at its skull, but the attack "merely" fractured the skull. After a couple minutes, one of the beasts gored his hammer-arm, causing the hand to drop open, lifeless.

As he fell unconscious from pain, the last thing to go through his mind was that he MUST get revenge on these beasts. That, and a bogeyman foot.

I REALLY hate bogeymen. And not feeling appreciated; os anyone even READING this?

[Vanaheimer]

I am indeed reading this, and wondering just how many adventurers will get their asses soundly kicked by the boogeymen before you get the slab.

My advice is make an axedwarf, and run until you only have one or two to deal with. Then it's fairly easy to lop off a leg here and a head there and eliminate the boogeymen.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Thanks for the support and advice! I was on the verge of abandoning the world and the thread, but you've given me motivation!

I wonder how many kinds of bogeymen I'll run into. Maybe I'll start naming them. Until them, I'll call 'em Type A and Type B.

[Vanaheimer]

Thanks for the support and advice! I was on the verge of abandoning the world and the thread, but you've given me motivation!

I wonder how many kinds of bogeymen I'll run into. Maybe I'll start naming them. Until them, I'll call 'em Type A and Type B.

It's set in world gen I believe, if you use advanced parameters. Not the slightest clue what the standard is though.

But yeah, stick with with bladed weapons. The goal isn't to kill the boogeymen, but to injure them enough that they are no longer a threat. Then, it's easy to go back and finish them off later on.

Or if you want to be cruel just leave them there, broken and bleeding.

[Corai]

Bring a companion next time.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Corai: But what's the Fun in that?
Oh, and BTW, one bogey bled to death before my adventurer died.

-----

Ingish Lightningfigures, an axedwarf ridiculed for developing his evasive abilities rather than his offensive ones, was looking for his friend, Melbil Earthenanvil. He found himself in a minotaur hamlet in the middle of the continent, discovering the location and quest where Melbil was last seen. Using his intuition, and the tales of a small area where the dead were beginning to rise and mythic bogeymen were seen walking in daylight, where travelers were found dead, with black little dents in their skulls from the bogeys' kicks and the eyes and toes eaten off.

Ingish traveled. As he passed a herd of elephants, he wished that he had a few spare plump helmets and an animal trainer to aid him in training them; as it was, he'd likely get trampled. Of course, he'd likely fare no better versus the bogeymen...if all he'd heads of them was true. According to legend, they could cave in stone walls with their fists and snatch enchanted elven arrows out of the air.

As he neared the general region where the corpses of Abil the Tower-Thief and Melbil lay, he heard a deep ogre voice announce the presence of some group called the Lesser Salutes. An ogress with a copper mal stood atop a small hill, looking down at Ingish. As he approached her, he noted an ogress bogre and changed paths. A silver arro struck a tree as Ingish darted past. Reaching the beast's head was impossible, but a foot-strike should be easier...Nope, the ogress proved nimble as an elf despite her slow speed. Any attacks attempted were either dodged or deflected by the ogress's silk robe or armor. The only bright side is that she was too busy dodging Ingish's attacks to provide any of her own. An intrest in experimentation lead to the discovery that blunt blows were not so easily deflected, leading to first blood, as it were.

Eventually a lucky cut was scored on the ogress's left hand--not the one the bow was held in, but the reloading hand. The ogress retreated as blood gushed out of her open wound, releasing drops of blood the size of Ingish's head. However, victory seemed impossible; the ogress's clothes were too thick for Ingish's bismuth bronze axe to pierce. then he remembered his hunter's training. He never enjoyed marksdwarfship, but he knew enough about sneaking to get by. Sadly, a herd of hippos in the river gave away his position. The bogress shot an arrow, piercng the lower body and sticking right in the wound, as well as inspiring Ingish. He swam to the northern bank and ran. He then followed a hippo, eventually giving it enough gashes to knock it out from pain, then stabbing its brain with a dagger. He took some meat and the skull, then left the scene, hoping the remainer of the carcass would be sufficient pennance to the savage ogres. After cutting a wild boar in half for more meat, and maybe a future minion, Ingish continued onwards.

As Ingish reached the area where Abimu and Meblil lay, he noted that it was getting to the point where he could scarcely see his hand in front of his face, and chose to sleep.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Nothing happened. Ingish, surprised, awoke with birds singing lovely notes and not little beasts insulting his mother's actually-goblin-free heritage.

He scouted the area. A lion attacked, but throwing the half-boar-corpse at it knocked it out, and a quick hack to the head ended the great cat's life. Ingish took the cat's skull and tail as trophies.

Ingish searched, but despaired. How could he hope to find one lousy little corpse in miles of steppe? He couldn't. He did, however, find something more useful.

"Iiiingiiiish! IiiingiiIIIiishhh!"
"Melbil, knock it-Melbil? What the carp?"
"Iiingiiish! I have a meeEeessage for yoOoou!"
"Do you have to talk like that?'
"No, probably not, but it seems to fit now that I'm a ghost."
"You are? What happened?"
"Bogeymen, old friend."
"Why were you even out here?"
"I was seeking the Slab Ushmalloslal, and learn the Secrets of Life and Death!"
"You know there's another tower, just to the west of Panoti, right? Monomusen."
"...Oh, right. Well, let's go there!"
"Are you NUTS?!?! The zombies--they'd KILL us! Well, me."
"Not to fear, buddy-o. I found a pal who's willing to share a little secret about this herb..."

[GreatWyrmGold]

<Why are you killing cavies?>

It was later in the day, early afternoon, Obsidian 22nd. Ingish was nearing the tower and hunting cavies.

"Simple. I'm going to be a necromancer, right? So I should have a good start on my undead army."
<Why are you wasting your time on CAVIES?>, demanded the spirit of Abimu. Like Melbil, Abimu was now manifesting entirely within Ingish's mind, so as not to disturb those around them.

"I've gotta start somewhere, no?" he pointed out as he slew another cavy.
<Yes, two or three cavy corpses, lion skin, and half a boar. Truly an army of the ages>
<Hey, back off, having a few minions is better than having none. Maybe we can make them into a neat unliving throne or something.>
"Hey, look, a honey badger." Ingish strode forward, slew the angry beast, and harvested the results.

The axedwarf and his two ghostly companions continued. <Now, remember,> Abimu warned, <while the herb's scent is on your brow, all living things will despise you.>

"I know, horney-boy. You only told me a couple of times. Per hour. Since I ran into you."

They approached the tower, their first sure sighn being when they saw a minotaur hand, rotted to the bone, followed by two minotaur skeletons. One was recognised by Abimu as a hero from the northern minotaurs, a race reduced to a sicngle town, who had come here on a quest much like theirs'. <The Norhern Minotaurs know nothing of the herb,> assured Abimu.

None of the zombies standing guard within the tower cared about Ingish, so that was good. He walked into the tower, strode into a small closet with a staircase in it, and started searching for the slab.

A dwarven necromancer named Morul Syrupmolten, who had a massive scar across his chest and left arm, threatened death, but did nothing worse than cause many of Ingish's future soldiers to reanimate and drop out of his pack. Finally, at the top of the tower, they found Rashmomuz, "Diedcrypt," a rhyolite slab engraved with the secrets they seeked.

As Ingish descended the steps, Morul stated, "When I tell you to prepare to die, prepare to die."

[GreatWyrmGold]

After several exchanged blows, Ingish missing and Morul's fists, propelled by arms flabby from a century of living by the servitude of the undead, did litle. Then, Ingish landed a blow deep in Morul's left arm. Folowing this, many blows were exchanged, during which Morul used his weight to good advantage. This ended with two punches to the head, one of which caused bleeding, the other of which knocked Ingish's skull through his brain. Morul stared a the souls of the three fleeing warriors and said, "Not so fast..." He utered an incantation and bound them to the very slab they all wanted so much.

[Vanaheimer]

You have the shittiest luck with the undead. xD

[ImBocaire]

Try a misc. object user next, and use the slab to bash brains in.