(Sorry about the lack of pictures, there was a file corruption, and the only two I could save are on the small side.)
The Life of Gulf the Overseer II: Oversee Harder
Part 5: The Final Oversight
Gulf was screaming. He could have been screaming in anger, anger at the goblins for being such jerks for attacking, anger at fate for having the traders arrive at the same time as the invasion, but he wasn't. No, Gulf was screaming because, for the fourth time in his two terms as overseer, he had to make the choice: should he raise the drawbridge and let more of his people die, or try and save them, risking the life of every dwarf in the fort? Gulf never wanted to make this decision, but he had to, nevertheless. The goblins were descending upon the merchant caravan. Most held their course for the gates of Gateivory, but four traders broke off and ran in another direction altogether. Another direction, in this case, meaning “directly into the arms of another squad of goblins.” Still, this bought the rest of the caravan some time...perhaps there was a chance. If there was a chance, he had to try. This wouldn't turn out like those other times, with dwarves being locked outside to be slain under the sky. He was going to have that caravan rescued, no matter what! With that resolution, Gulf stopped screaming, and started shouting. “Tahu II!” The commander had emerged onto the hilltop to see where all the screaming was coming from, and looked up when his name was called. Gulf continued. “The front gate, can you hold it long enough for the traders to get through?” Tahu II looked out across the hill at the goblin army, eighty strong, perusing the ragged band of traders. He nodded once, before disappearing back underground into the fort.
Tahu II and Mcap stood at the front of Gateivory with the eight other dwarves in the milltia. Ten dwarves against a sea of green. Mcap grunted. “First time the Overseer has ever done anything other than raise the drawbridge, what makes these merchants so special?” Tahu II didn't answer, only shrugged, keeping his eyes forward. The clatter of hooves was loud, and suddenly the merchant caravan rounded the bend in the road, racing for the gate! The militia cheered, but those cheers quickly died away as sixteen trolls rushed up the hillside, intent on biting into the caravan's flank. “FORWARD!” bellowed Tahu II, and the militia rushed in to intercept the trolls, allowing the traders to make it to Gateivory unharmed. The trolls proved no match for the dwarven warriors, who dispatched them without losing a single dwarf. As the last troll fell Tahu II yelled “Back across the bridge! Into Gateivory!” But as Tahu II turned back to the fort, he saw that entire squad of goblin lashers, with scourges at the ready, had moved in to cut the militia off from Gateivory, and now stood directly between them and the wide open front bridge. Mcap the marksdwarf had stood at the back during the fight with the trolls, and was closest to the goblins when they charged. She was instantly torn apart by their scourges.
Gulf stood on the palisade overlooking the front bridge, surveying the battle, when Brodich came up next to him. The situation below was hopeless, the militia were being isolated and slaughtered, one by one. “Gulf, you need to raise the drawbridge.” Gulf didn't take his eyes from the scene. “What? No! They're winning!” Said Gulf, just as Erib Eribablel was shredded before the gates of Gateivory. “Gulf, the drawbridge needs to be raised. Now.” Another squad of goblins joined the fray, and Tekkud Momuzsholid was decapitated by a scimitar. Gulf started shouting. “No! No! This isn't how this was supposed to go! I have to make this decision again?” Gulf grew quiet and closed his eyes. “I have to make this decision again, for the fifth time.” Soon the militia would be annihilated, and the goblins would take the rest of the fortress. Gulf's decision had saved the merchants, but at the cost of every single dwarf in the militia. “...raise the drawbridge, Brodich” Said Gulf at length, opening his eyes just in time to see Kel Ralkesh skewered upon a pike.
Tahu II looked over at the drawbridge in front of Gateivory, it was going up, trapping him and the few military dwarves that were left outside. He couldn't take on so many goblins if they were all surrounding him, but perhaps he could take on one at a time. Tahu II glanced up. Over the main drawbridge were two permanent bridges spanning over the chasm, each only one space wide and seven spaces long. They were the only way over to that third of the hill too. If he could get the military across those bridges, then he could hold them for as long as possible, until a crack team of miners could carve out a new entrance for the squad to use, before sealing it up. Tahu II broke away from the combat, yelling “Follow me! Follow me!” He didn't turn around until he stood in the middle of one of the bridges, and then turned to help his fellow militia members across. Except there were none. None of the other militia members, none of his friends, were still alive to follow Tahu II. Only Aban Ninsolon Vesitdun was left besides Tahu II, and Aban was sprinting down the hill, away from the goblins and Tahu. While his fellow dwarves had not followed Tahu, the goblins certainly did. Tahu II grunted, he might stand slightly better odds on this bridge, as the goblins would only be able to come at him one or two at a time. Tahu II laughed, they would have to be bold to come out onto this thin bridge with a dangerous dwarf warrior. Bold, or stupid. Then a big, stupid goblin charged across the bridge and swung directly at Tahu II. That blow wasn't what killed Tahu II Copperwar the Luck of Busting, nor was it the 13 Z level fall that came immediately afterward. Nay, Tahu II Gusilalnis Merseth Stal died by drowning, drowning next to the dead merchants that had been killed in this very river a year before, and north of the waterfall where Tahu I had drowned two years previously.
Gulf stood still upon the wooden palisade, looking for a long time at the carnage below him. Dead dwarves and goblins littered the road leading out of Gateivory, the product of his own attempts at doing something heroic for once. Then, breaking him out of his reverie, Gulf heard a voice from below, a dwarven voice, a desperate voice. “Let me in! Hurry! Lower the bridge! Let me in!” It was Aban Ninsolon Vesitdun, still clutching his warhammer despite having both arms cut open. Gulf yelled back. “Aban! Are...you the only one left?” “I am, now hurry up and lower the bridge!” Sixth time. This made the sixth time that Gulf had to make the decision: lower the bridge and save a life, or keep it up and avoid risking the lives of the many dwarves who still survived within Gateivory? “I...I'm sorry.” Said Gulf, looking over at the squad of pikeman that was chasing Aban. The fortress had no military now, and if so much as a single squad of goblins got in, they all could conceivably die. The time for heroics was over, hell, perhaps it had never started. “I'm sorry.” Gulf repeated to Aban, before turning around and getting down from the palisade and into the courtyard. The hammerdwarf's screams did not last long. A child, Tosid Likotavuz, heard the screams and went berzerk, immediately attacking a nearby war dog. Gulf watched as Tosid was swiftly torn apart by the trained beast.
Gulf walked down into the depths of the fortress, into the mausoleum he had masterminded. Much of the wall space he had smoothed himself, and the whole structure was almost finished, only a few more statues had needed hauling. Was this his curse? Had building such a monument to death caused such travesty and despair to come to Gateivory and to Gulf? Gulf started laughing. The other dwarves thought he had gone mad, and perhaps he had, but Gulf knew, that no matter how many of his kin died, he now had a place to put all of them. So why should he bother to save any of them? Gulf laughed and laughed, caught up in the nihilism of it all, for he was Gulf, Lord of the Morgue.
Midwinter 44
“And so that's what we will be looking to buy next year.” Gulf nodded as the liaison finished his small speech on how the price of splints had doubled ever since that new dance craze hit the mountainhomes. Gulf really didn't care, it would be the job of the next overseer to start mass-producing splints for sale to places abroad. The liaison continued. “And we will be leaving soon”. Gulf laughed, something he hadn't done much of since that day in the mausoleum a month ago. “Liaison, even if I was to lower the drawbridge, how would you get through the siege? You only have a handfull of dwarves against an army. Face it, you won't be leaving here anytime soon.” With those words, Gulf witnessed the strangest thing he had ever seen in his fourty-four year lifespan. The trader Bim Shorastian, a horse, a donkey, a water buffalo, and a yak all simultaneously went berserk. Two more traders named Melbil Sakzulotung and Ral Datanazuz, plus a water buffalo became melancholy, and two more traders went stark raving mad! Fikod Kolikal, one of the few merchants not stricken by some form of madness, is driven back by the mad horse, and is forced to give ground until he topples over the empty space normally occupied by the main drawbridge. Fikod drowned next to Tahu II and the other merchants who make that particular spot of water their home. The traders Momuz and Zuntir are thrown off the secondary bridge to add to the watery deaths. Gulf looked around at the madness around him, too broken a dwarf to do anything, even to save himself from a rampaging water buffalo.
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Topic: gateivory, all is silence (CLOSED!) (Read 87502 times)