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Yes! Let the death pinchings commence!

6 (75%)

Eh, I could go with ants or crabs.

2 (25%)

No! I want my promised giant ant death pit!

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 8

[Reudh]

Don't kill kakapo, they're a critically endangered parrot that's bright green and looks like a victorian gentleman and enjoys mating with Mark Carwadine while Stephen Fry watches!

[Splint]

Too late, Skull used it's shin bones to make a shield.

[Splint]

The squad split up, Mantis and Usi heading up the hill, while Osprey, Wax, and Mona went to the base of it, intending to try to encircle the the target. Mantis made first contact, slamming her shield into it before ducking a peck and burying her blade into it, a disturbing crunch accompanying the sick sound of flesh being torn along with the pained screeching of the bird. She sliced away a leg and shoved it over as she did so in time for Usi to arrive. He pinned it to the ground through one wing with his pick as it's other leg was sent off in a blood spouting arc over Mona, Wax, and Osprey as they got to the battle site. However, it seemed they were unneeded as Mantis dug her falchion into the kakapo's head and silenced the squawking monster.
-
The war party came back at sundown, Usi and Mantis coated in blood asking for a bar of soap while Osprey Wax and Mona dragged a bloody, badly lacerated mess with a pair of severed limbs stuffed in its mouth. Mattock took the two sliced off limbs, saying he'd help since Skull was indisposed while Mantis, after washing the veneer of blood of her, took the felled bird by its beat and dragged it down into the prepstation. “I told you he'd have his bones.”  After an hour or so, Skull perked up and rushed in, elbowing Mattock who'd just finished peeling the meat and hide from the whole of the kakapo's left leg and making off with it's femur and tibia before Mattock realized what had even happened. He then tackled Feral who was stacking wood and stole a piece of split pine. And strangely, among the piles of giant beetle chitin afterward, there were small bundles of silvery chitin. When it was brought up at dinner, Mantis said that one way or another, they'd be made useful.

After days of quiet since the felling of the kakapo, Skull walked into the dormitory and set what at first glace apaeared to be a white marble slab with handles on it against the wall, saying only “Done.” Before falling face first on the floor.

A day long nap, one guzzled barrel of booze and two rvenously consumed bushels of raspberries later, Skull met his daughter, Frost, and explained hi shield's name as Delightanguish. Not that he was sure why, and he was more confused why he'd been shouting in broken Vamari.
-

“Looks like we got more visitors, Foxfolk this time.” Lev said one morning after a successful gathering of several berries and other plants. “The fellows from home shouldn't bee too much further out.” As he finished speaking, there was a loud trumpeting, harsher and more alarmed sounding than usual,  indicating something had tried to slip in. When Corai and Lev went to investigate, they found a zephyr stuck on the tusk of the elephant matriarch, who'd pursued the thief across the river. They spotted dwarves on the horizon of the hill as well, heralding a safe winter for the little clan of dwarves. Unfortunately, a goblin was also spotted. More fortunately, a macedwarf and a wagon beetle struck at it, the beetle delivering a firm blow to its chest, causing it to tumble into the macedwarf who threw it into the path of a crossbow bolt before splitting it's skull. Lev decided to go up and grab the body and the the dagger the goblin was sure to have to sell. A second was also spotted and barely escaped two angry caravan guards.

“Glad to see you folks are still breathing! My contacts get to you alright?” The Caravan master said, approaching Feral while he was downing trees to make tables and chairs. “Yeah, they did. Did you send the nature lovers?” Feral asked, wiping off some sweat from his brow. “Nope. Either the high elves told them or they blundered into you- That elephant's tusk is all red.” The caravaneer said abruptly. “Oh that? Rat-man decided to try and steal from us. Ragushat there would have none of that and gored the little bastard. Plus I think becoming blooded probably helped solidify her as the herd's matriarch. Come on, let's go into the dorm and we'll discuss what we'd like there.”


[Yup, now we have snatchers to worry about and by extention ambushers. Ain't life a bitch?]

[Mephansteras]

Sounds like it's time to start worrying about your defenses.

[Splint]

Yeah, time to expand the stockade and throw up a dreamsmasher, though I won't hesitate to cheat like a bastard to stop snatchers.

[Splint]

Lev and Corai continued to wait at the depot in shifts for the wagons to arrive, but the thick woods were making things difficult. Feral felt that something was off and decided that the log that bridged the river needed to be done away with as a precaution until the winter freeze. Suddenly there was a call from the foxfolk:

“Bugbears in the hills! Dwarves to arms! We'll hold them off!” Called a merchant guard. However, one dwarf who was simply doing his job had already struck: Osprey, who was making additional slabs spotted the bugbear and drew his war trophies for battle.The Bugbear who was closest and the leader brandished an axe menacingly and roared at Osprey as a pair of Vamari warriors closed to assist. The beast charged and swung, only for Osprey to  silde below the swing and ram one dagger home into one of the raider's paws, sending it sideways with a yowl of pain. He parried to haphazard swings from the axebear, and in a counterstrike managed to cut into the back of the monster's neck and leg. The bugbear kicked Osprey away and managed to plant it's axe in the earth to try and drag itself away tot he safety of its kin, and when Osprey got to his feet and fell upon him again, lashed out trying to grab the dwarven mason by the leg, only to be stabbed in the offending appendage. Then Osprey got a lucky hit in, jamming  his dagger into into the monster's ankle and pulling away not just blood and dagger, but its right paw as well. The beast kicked spastically with its good leg, and opened its guard long enough for the Vamari guards to strike as they arrived, one bashing its knee to ruin while the other held the shield open as Osprey sliced away its hand. This last injury was the last that it could manage to stay awake through as it dropped limply with labored breathing. The Spearfox ripped away the bugbear's helmet and Osprey finished it with a forceful thrust from his dagger into its forehead. “You'd best run dwarf. You look tired.” The spearfox said, looking with uncertainty at the spearbears above on the hill. Osprey nodded, pulling his dagger out fo the axebear before turning tail and fleeing, leaving the two Vamari warriors to their fates alone.

Osprey fully expected to hear pained cries of the foxfolk, but upon looking back, he saw three bugbears in flight, with two Vamari warriors standing proud over the slain bodies of two more. The miserable wretches broke ranks and fled with thier warmaster fallen.


[So we got an ambush and Osprey performed admirably, suffering only moderate bruising to his upper body and lower left leg. As of my writing this, the two vamari have already killed two spearbrears and routed the rest of the ambush; those little guys are quick and deadly when they need to be. I was hoping the ambushes would be from less imposing enemies, but what ya gonna do right?]

[Aseaheru]

Bugbears in the hills? dont think itll catch on. not like crundles in the caverns.

[Splint]

They were literally on the hill above us, hence the wording.

[Mephansteras]

Eh, size aside Bugbears are about the least imposing ambush you could get from a hostile race. I'd say you got pretty lucky.

Hopefully they'll continue to be the only race to harass us significantly until we have more dwarves and better defenses.

[Aseaheru]

They were literally on the hill above us, hence the wording.

i know. i was attempting to be witty.

[Splint]

Eh, size aside Bugbears are about the least imposing ambush you could get from a hostile race. I'd say you got pretty lucky.

Hopefully they'll continue to be the only race to harass us significantly until we have more dwarves and better defenses.

Thier size is what worries me. They can take a hell of alot more punishment than a dwarf can and if they still have tow legs and the dwarf isn't able to dodge they can bowl them over with impunity and cut them to bits. Osprey got lucky. Very Lucky.

[Splint]

Osprey reported on the mess that had happened and Feral made an order to bring in the bodies and the gear for sale. He also decided to have the silver xelics' headstones erected as a show of respect. It was another three days before anyone realized that the dwarven caravan hadn't come in. “Hey, fox, have you seen my caravan?” The caravan master questioned worriedly. “A wagon wrecked after it ran a goblin over. Plus the bugbears may have spooked them.” The caravan master facepalmed in frustration. “Just fucking great, so I lost a wagonload of goods up there!?” “It appears so, yes.” The Vamari said almost flatly. The caravan master let out a string of obscenities at this. A mountain of profits had likely been lost thanks to those stupid bearmen. Lev reported where he found the wreck and Feral sent the community's spare hands to fetch the items; any food and other goods would go a long way to improving their survival for the winter. As they began bringing in supplies, the Matriarch, whom, the settlement began to call Ragushat was seen running off another thief. And not just running it off, but utterly stomping it into bloody paste under its feet. “Oh come on Ragushat... Couldn't you have just gored him like the other one?” Squid said disapprovingly as the elephant seemed to make some noise denoting feeling all high and mighty. “Not it on cleaning the dead rat off her feet.” Targe said with a bundle of small clothes and a dagger in his arms. Overall work was moving well, even if the wagons had trouble with the boulder ridden and hilly ground. Anvil decided to use the platinum  she scavanged from the wreck for some trade goods, while Splint used a bar of incindium pulled from some naked mole dog steaks to make a short sword at Mantis' request.

Not that it mattered. The merchants there said they wagondrivers had wasted too much time spending days to navigate a comparatively simple path, and they'd return next year; they apologized profusely, but said at least we had the contents of a wagon from home as consolation. Suddenly Corai jumped, screaming an obscenity in elvish as a kobold ran away from him. “Come'ere you sneaky little git! I'm gonna toss you in a cage with one of the crabs!” The trader shouted, giving chase with the Elephant matriarch close behind. They pursued the poor little 'bold a shot distance before Corai tripped over a goblin snatcher, who quickly found herself on the receiving end of of an elephant's bulk. It kicked her along the floor several times before slamming a tusk down on her neck and grabbing her with her trunk, threw her into a sapling. The last thing she remembered was being slammed into a highwood sapling twice more before a dwarf came barreling in and smashed her skull open.

Journal of Slade Meregems, Winter of Year Six.

So much good has happened, thougha little bad as well. But such is frontier life! Osprey fought amazingly well for a humble mason who'd only fought with rats and a couple kobolds, against a bugbaear chieftan no less! He's inspired several of us to join the milities under Mantis, myself included, as it only seems right that we miners do our part digging the life from our enemies' bodies when there's no digging of stone to be done. She says soon she'll be instating a seperate "Battleminer" squad and taking two recruits on as swordsdwarves if we ever get migrants. We have a bunch of sowrds and now extra armor from that wrecked wagon (Thank the gods no dwarves were harmed though!) and no dwarves to carry them into battle!

We've also come to respect our oldest elephant, who we now call by the rank of Matriarch rather than it merely being some silly trainer term. She's earned her title in killing several besotted little wretches who sought to steal our livelihoods and Cobalt's little girl. Well journal, I'm going to go grab a bite; That wrecked wagon had some naked mole dog in it and I've always wondered what they tasted like!


[So no trading was done, prompting me to prepare for road construction consisting of a sandy clay foundation and then an earthenware brick road. We fought off an anbush, some snatchers and thives died grisly deaths and soon The Matriarch will earn her self a full name! Oh and Wax has a title now from all the snatchers and such he's killed but because of the name condesncing I can't translate it for the dwarf list. Limulid prospers with it's small population though, so I'm not too worried.]

[Mephansteras]

Sounds like things are going quite well!

[Splint]

Better than expected really. I lost out on alot of much needed supplies though, and I won't be able to irrigate the intended cropsite until the spring thaw now.

[Aseaheru]

underground crops?