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[TokimiDwarfy]

:3 I would like your weirdest female dwarf name Tokami! mwhaha. Military or Bowdwarf please

[NRDL]

 

[HectorX]

:3 I would like your weirdest female dwarf name Tokami! mwhaha. Military or Bowdwarf please

Can do.

Yeah I agree, I was quite bummed. Do you want to be re-dorfed?

[NRDL]

Yes please.  I'd  like an axedorf viking berserker this time.  Named Nix. 

[HectorX]

Yes please.  I'd  like an axedorf viking berserker this time.  Named Nix.

Alright, will work you in next chance I get Maybe we'll have better luck this time.

[HectorX]

I finally wrapped my head around the concept of cropping (derp), so my screencaps going forward from here should be MUCH better There are one or two bleh ones here but those should be the last ones .

===

Explanations

Jester stormed down the corridors of Battletrials heading for the office of Fikod, expedition leader. He wasn't happy.



Behind him, the crowd of dwarves who had just witnessed the death of NRDL were carrying him out of the farming room, out past the main doors. As Fikod hadn't ordered any coffins made, he was placed to one side of the town's corpse stockpile until sufficient preparations had been made.

Jester reached Fikod's office, finding him sitting behind his desk reading reports. Jester grabbed him by his shirt and hauled him out of his chair, slamming him up against the wall.

"I just had to watch my friend die in my arms. Over a silk cloth. Explain to me why I shouldn't send you to join him in the afterlife," Jester growled.

Fikod reached up, prying Jester's fingers off his shirt until he came loose. "NRDL stole town supplies, including trading goods, to create some foolish trinket which would have only served his own purposes. Behaviour like that cannot be rewarded."

Jester stared daggers at Fikod. "He was a gladiator. He deserved better!"

Fikod rolled his eyes. "Oh please. You haven't even dug out the arena yet. I'm the one who is making this place profitable and you're up in your training room, day in and day out, playing soldier."

They both heard a shuffling from the doorway. They turned to see Hatchy leaning against the wall.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Fikod smiled and shuffled around Jester, moving towards the door. "Not at all. Just a difference of opinion on management styles."

Hatchy looked at Jester, seeing her friend filled with murderous rage. "Uh huh. I just thought I'd let you both know that the main tunnel to the arena has been dug out, and a trading caravan from The Massive Helms has arrived."





Fikod clapped excitedly. "Ah, excellent!" He started walking out the door but Jester grabbed him by the arm, holding him back.

"I think you've done enough for one day, Fikod," Jester said forcefully. "Why don't you sit this one out? Hatchy, please escort our friend here down to his room and make sure he gets some rest."

Fikod turned and stared at Jester, astounded. "Now wait just a minute! I'm in charge here! You can't make me do anything!"

Hatchy clasped the hilt of her sword, coming up behind Fikod and taking him by the arm. "Sure we can, we've got the pointy sticks. Come along now, I would hate to have to use mine."

Fikod paused for a moment. He sighed, then looked at Jester. "This isn't over," he said. He turned and walked out, accompanied by Hatchy.

They reached Fikod's room, Hatchy taking up a position by the door. Fikod lay on his bed... staring at the wall... mind racing... eventually drifting off.



Changes

Jester made his way to the main dining room, spotting one of their new arrivals Ilral sitting at a table.

"Ilral! You used to be a broker for The Massive Helms didn't you?"

Ilral looked up, saw who was addressing him and nodded. "Yes sir, for five years."

Jester smiled. "You've just been promoted. Come, a caravan awaits you."



Wise trades

Jester watched silently as their new broker talked quietly with the dwarven liaison and caravan leader. He watched as Ilral pointed to the metal bars the traders brought with them, then the mountain of rock crafts that Fikod had ordered created. The trader initially shook his head but after some gentle coaxing from Ilral, he nodded and the two shook hands.

Ilral spotted Jester at the door and made his way over. He showed Jester a list of what he'd acquired.

"Don't go using this all at once," Ilral said.



Jester grinned like a maniac then ran down the corridor to the metalsmithing workshop, fetching Logem the metalcrafter and some volunteers to bring the metal bars to the workshop stockpile.

The forges were lit with a cheer, and Jester ordered the production of the first metal weapon at Battletrials.



ShadowHammer appeared at Jester's shoulder, who was watching the creation of the sword. He said one word.

"Dibs."

Jester smiled. "I suppose I could let you have this one," he said.

Logem dipped the sword for one last time into the cooling water beside the forge. He held it out to ShadowHammer, who took it, smiled and walked off with it, swinging it through figure-of-eight's as he made his way to the barracks.



Progress at last

The next few weeks passed at Battletrials relatively quietly as Jester and Hatchy started to take more control of day-to-day town affairs. Fikod was eventually let out of his room to resume his manager duties, however he was told in no uncertain terms that the position of broker was no longer his.

The town celebrated several births:







Rock coffins had been ordered by Jester so they could bury NRDL, and the miners had been instructed to carve out a burial ground. The memorial would be completed as soon as possible.

Catten the mechanic/architect, who had been subtly stealing supplies from the main stockpile had cloistered herself inside her mechanic workshop.



Despite attempts by Hatchy and Jester to pry information out of her she worked in complete silence until one day... she emerged and declared that she had finished her masterpiece.



The mechanism proudly hangs above the workshop.

Then, finally, the big day arrived. Jester and Hatchy were touring the efforts to dig out the arena, presiding over the celebrating miners as the last stone wall was completed.



Hatchy then spoke to the miners and presented them with a document titled "The Next Phase", which detailed a waiting room for prisoners and other "volunteers" as well as ceiling hatches and tunnels.





The masons group offered to smooth the stone of both viewing gallery and arena floor, an offer which Jester accepted, proclaiming that "Nobody need die on a rough floor!"

False dawn

It was the dead of night. Jester and Hatchy were celebrating as only dwarves can: beer, horse tripe and raucous laughter.

Hatchy was drunk - no mean feat for a dwarf - and swaying in her chair. She reached up with her barrel of ale, shouting, "To the arena!"

Jester met her barrel with his. "To the NRDL Arena," he said, drinking from the deeply as the two drank to new beginnings.

Then they both heard a scream, coming from the food stockpile. Drawing weapons they both ran to the stockpile situated next door.

They found Sloth the miner standing in the corner, a look of sheer terror plastered over his face, staring into the opposite corner. The military dwarves followed his gaze.

What they saw sent shivers down their spine. Jester turned to Hatchy, "Seal the main doors. Now."

Hatchy said nothing, running up the main passageway and slamming a barricade over the main doors. She returned to see Jester standing over the source of their horror... Obok, their newest hunter, was slumped over the barrels in the stockpile, pale white, with two oozing puncture marks on his neck.

Hatchy moved in behind Jester... "What happened to him?" she breathed.

Jester shook his head, turning Obok's lifeless head to examine the marks in detail. "Only one creature could do this..." he said, trailing off.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Slothman400]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnmp_oAHRC0

The plot thickens.

[HectorX]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnmp_oAHRC0

The plot thickens.

My day has been made. Also yeah, that was a huge shock. Just when I thought I had everything back on track BANG, VAMPIRE IS AMONG US.

[TokimiDwarfy]

When I am dwarfed. Can you show me her page? :3

[HectorX]

When I am dwarfed. Can you show me her page? :3

I've played ahead a bit so I have some updates to plow through, the content of which makes it a bit difficult to throw new names into (as you'll see), but when I'm caught up I will definitely do this.

===

Tough times

The mood in Battletrials was tense. The death of two dwarves, one at the merciless fangs of a vampire had everyone on edge. The gladiators took turns patrolling the corridors in pairs, hunting for any suspicious behavior that would out one of their own as a vampire.

Fikod in the meantime ordered all dwarves to clear away the loose stone in the freshly dug-out arena as it looked unsightly. Still disgruntled from his run-in with Jester he was almost slave-driving the town's residents, forbidding the production of any materials until the stone had been cleared away.

The stones were heavy, and with the miners still clearing an internal path between the town and the arena, all stone had to be carted all the way up to the town (Fikod didn't want any stone to be wasted in case extra crafts could be made). It was slow going, and the dwarves were on a knife-edge.



ShadowHammer, ever the creative type, decided that the best way to blow off steam was to shun all dwarven contact and hijack the Craftsdwarf shop.





As he was neither homicidal or suicidal, the other dwarves decided that he was safe enough to leave alone, although Hatchy checked in on him from time to time. Eventually he finished his masterpiece.





Hatchy was present for the completion, and raised an eyebrow when ShadowHammer hung the heavy rock amulet around his neck. "So let me get this straight," she said quizzically, "You carved a depiction of the amulet you just made onto the amulet itself, and instead of making cabochons out of actual morion you used dingo leather instead."

ShadowHammer looked at Hatchy and said, completely straight-faced, "When you look this good, it doesn't matter if it makes sense."

Hatchy opened her mouth to launch an attack on ShadowHammer's logic when cries started erupting from the main doors. The two dwarves grabbed their weapons and rushed to the entrance. One of the Hunters was running towards the door, gesturing frantically towards the west.

"What do you see!?" Hatchy shouted at the Hunter.

"Snatchers, ma'am," the Hunter shouting as he reached the two dwarves, panting heavily. "Goblins by the looks of them. I scared one of them off but there was another harassing one of the new animal trainers."





Hatchy and ShadowHammer exchanged glances. Snatchers were fast, so it was probably too late to catch them, but their tracks may leave clues as to where they came from so traps could be set. "We better check it out," Hatchy said, turning to the Hunter. "Get inside and let Jester know."

The Hunter nodded and rushed inside, while the two military dwarves headed west over the sand dunes.

What they didn't realise was that they were being played for fools. While the snatchers were beating a hasty retreat to the west, a goblin thief had circled around the mountain and had approached the town from the east. Skulking between the piles of rotting animal carcasses, the diminutive thief waited for a break in traffic, bolted towards the front door and made his way inside.

Its eyes adjusted to the gloom of the dwarven town. It immediately wished they hadn't.



As the war dogs at the entrance charged forward amongst the clatter of falling cage-traps, the thief performed an acrobatic back-flip, avoided the cages and bolted north out of the gates, sliding down the mountain as the dogs gave chase.

Hatchy and ShadowHammer, making their way back from the ultimately futile hunt for the snatchers, watched in amazement as the thief tore out of the town, with dogs in hot pursuit. They then noticed further movement by the refuse stockpile...

"Another Snatcher!" Hatchy hissed as she started sprinting towards the doors. She knew she wouldn't make it in time to stop the snatcher entering the town, and as she watched the goblin bolted towards the doors, pushing its way insi-

CAGE TRAP ENGAGED! With a great explosion of sand, the cage trap shot up from its subterranean hiding place and snapped shut around the hapless goblin. While the thief's light footprints were insufficient to trigger it, the heavier snatcher stood no chance.



Hatchy skidded to a stop just short of the door, watching as the trapped goblin violently shook at the bars of its cage, teeth gnashing as it struggled to free itself. Amused, Hatchy slapped the flat of her blade against the bars.

"Quit sulking in there!"

ShadowHammer appeared at her side, took one look at the goblin and started cackling. Hatchy joined in. Once they composed themselves, Hatchy turned to Shadowhammer. "Drag this sorry bastard to the animal stockpile. It can keep the Hamster Man company until we decide what to do with it."

Fresh blood

The capture of a goblin triggered mute celebrations amongst the townsfolk. Truth be told, they had had enough. Fikod was driving them into the ground with his stone hauling orders that bordered on madness. They were over-worked, under-fed and to make matters worse, this season saw the arrival of even more mouths.

What used to be a small, close-knit community had become a burgeoning town with a draconian work system. The dwarves were not happy.





To make matters worse, Jester had just been informed that one of their Engravers had gone missing from the arena site.



Jester discussed this matter heatedly with Fikod.

"We need to halt all construction work on the arena," Jester said. "Everyone looks half-dead and we need to find Vucar-"

"No, we won't be stopping any work until the arena is clear," Fikod replied. "Caravans go past it every time they visit us and it's a mess! If the people have a problem with the way I am running this town they can take it up with your pet goblin, I'm sure it'll care just about as much as I do."

They both turned as they heard rapidly approaching footsteps. One of Jester's Jokers, Meng the Maceman, came sprinting towards him down the corridor.

"Jester, we... we..."

"Calm down Meng," Jester said, "Catch your breath. What is it?"

Meng stood there, sucking in a few deep breaths. He gave Jester a despairing look.

"We... we found Vucar, in the dunes near the arena. He's dead."

The dwarves who had stopped to listen gasped. Fikod was unmoved. Jester himself was beside himself.

"WHAT!? HOW!?"

Meng started sobbing... "The vampire."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Jester closed his eyes and breathed deeply... That's three deaths now... two from this accursed vampire. He opened his eyes and directed Meng to go and store his equipment in preparation to close off the town. As Meng started to walk off, Fikod snapped.

"Get over it! It's just one dwarf!" he bellowed at the distraught Meng. He turned to the gathered crowd and screamed, "Everyone get back to work! Now!"

Olin, the wood burner and one of Fikod's closest friends, started ushering people back to work. Meng heard Olin's shouted instructions to the others. His crying stopped. For Meng, everything stopped. He couldn't take it anymore. His world was nothing but Vucar's drained body. No. NO.

"NO!" he screamed, charging at Olin, brandishing his mace.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Jester, unable to move out of sheer shock, watched his team-mate swing his mace at Olin, who raised his arms to protect himself. Screaming with indescribable anguish Meng started pummelling Olin, his mace making heavy thud sounds as it struck Olin's body. In his rage, he was barely aiming, but he didn't care. He just wanted to cause pain.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Meng, no!" Jester said, brandishing his war hammer. He ran up to Meng, stopping just short of where he was attacking Olin. "You don't need to do this! Don't sink to their level!"

Meng heard. He didn't care. He just kept swinging.

Jester pleased, "Please... don't make me do this..."

Meng stopped for a second... he looked at Jester... he then turned back to Olin and tackled him to the ground.

Jester stepped forward, grabbing Meng by the leg and tried to drag him back, tearing into his trousers.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Meng kicked free, desperately clawing at Odin. Jester raised his war hammer and brought it down hard on Odin's left leg, feeling the bone crunch beneath the weapon.

Meng cried out as Jester struck again, right leg this time, feeling the bone give way underneath the hammer.

Meng, roaring in pain, tried in vain to strike out at Olin but the wood burner desperately scrambled free. Jester closed his eyes and lunged towards Meng's left leg, biting down hard and shaking Meng violently, trying to force Meng to attack him instead of Olin.

Jester's teeth tore through Meng's already-damaged leg, blood spraying over his face and tendons tearing off between his teeth.

Meng's body twisted around beneath him as he kicked out with his right leg, making Jester let go and jump back several steps.

Meng struggled to his feet, leaning heavily against the wall, glaring at Jester. He tried to lunge forward, towards Jester, who swung his hammer sideways into Meng's right leg, further chipping the bone. Meng reached out to punch Jester, who spun around, hammer extended and smashed Meng's hand against the wall, pinning it against the stone wall and fracturing the delicate bones.

Jester then took a step back, wound up and swung his hammer directly into Meng's chest, feeling the soft flesh smack hard against the hammer. Just die... please... let this end.... Meng kept lunging forward, even more enraged, forcing Jester kept striking, over and over and over.

It was when Jester again struck Meng's hand that he finally collapsed onto the ground... blood gushing from his ruined leg... Jester stood over Meng, covered in blood, panting heavily. Maybe he's gone... maybe we can still save him.

Meng looked up at Jester, eyes filled with pure rage. He roared and tried lunging forward towards Jester's leg.

Jester closed his eyes... raised his hammer... and ended it by bringing it down hard against Meng's head, which exploded outwards. Meng collapsed to the ground, all movement ceasing.

Jester pulled his hammer out of the remnants of Meng's head, blood and brain matter dripping off the tip. He heard sobbing from behind him. He turned... there was a crowd. Some were sobbing, some were in shock, and most were filled with blind rage as they took in the sight of a shattered Meng, and a blood-covered Jester.

They couldn't handle it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

===

Not exactly going to plan... excellent!

[ShadowHammer]

What you need to do here is keep everyone sad, so your next strange mood is fell, and then put everyone in the fortress into squads, order them to run away from the butchers shop, an make fikod the only one left for the moody dwarf to kill. Once the artifact is finished, decorate the dining room with it to make everyone happy!

Also, here's my interpretation of the artifact amulet:
It has a picture of itself on it because shadowhammer is so awesome that he decided that if it wasn't fractal, it wasn't good enough.
The menacing spikes are there to make sure that anyone who tries to wear it who doesn't know the secret way of putting it on gets stabbed in the throat.
The pictures of cabochons in leather are a statement about simplicity and not being greedy... And stuff like that.
And the hour of wailing makes sense because a long time ago, people wailed at other people's graves, and dwarves were dying when he made it, so yeah.

[HectorX]

What you need to do here is keep everyone sad, so your next strange mood is fell, and then put everyone in the fortress into squads, order them to run away from the butchers shop, an make fikod the only one left for the moody dwarf to kill. Once the artifact is finished, decorate the dining room with it to make everyone happy!

I wish I had thought of that prior to playing out the story a bit more. I'll give you a spoiler

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

a fell mood does indeed occur!

but so far I'm enjoying seeing everything fall apart a bit.

Am a bit flat out today so I may be a bit delayed with my next update. I'll try to put one up in the next 6-8 hours.

How is everyone liking the story?

[00112]

The suspense is overwhelming, but it'll be worth the wait. Loving it.

[HectorX]

OK, cleared a bunch of work out of the way so I could write this.

Apologies for some of the vagueness, all of this happened so damn fast that I couldn't get all the names. Am happy to go back when things cool down and put together a list of combatants if people want to know names.

===

Descent

Jester dropped his hammer on the ground, more out of shock than actual exertion. He leaned against the nearby blood-stained wall as the dwarves of Battletrials tried to absorb the events they just witnessed.



Fikod stepped out from the crowd into the open space between Jester and the shell-shocked dwarves.

"I think it's plain to see that the so-called gladiators are a threat to everyone here," he exclaimed, his back turned to Jester. "We are on the edge! Without clear leadership we are doomed to certain destruction. Therefore I am installing myself as town sheriff, effective immediately, and removing Jester and Hatchy from their positions of power. Battletrials is now under martial law, with all punishments to be handed out by Cog.

The cocky miner stepped forward, standing next to Fikod, glaring malevolently at the dwarves.



The crowd started muttering immediately, talking amongst themselves as Hatchy figuratively flew down the stairs from the barracks, almost slipping on the pool of blood that was rapidly forming courtesy of Meng's shattered head. It only took her moments to see just what had happened, and what was about to happen. She put her arm around Jester, turning him away from the crowd.

"Do you know what he's just done?" she hissed into his ear. "He's screwed up. Big time. He thinks we're the reason this happened. But it's not. He is. You have to snap out of it. We need you!"

Jester blinked a few times, took a few deep breaths, then nodded. He shook Hatchy's arm off him and turned, walking towards the muttering dwarves.

He started to address them. "Fellow dwarves! Do not listen to this man's greed and lust for power! Don't forget, it has been Fikod working you all to death. When's the last time you had something to eat? Or drink?"



"If you follow this man, he will only lead you towards a path of destruction. He will turn you into his personal slaves, and your final miserable days will be spent serving the whims of an egomaniac!"

Some in the crowd cheered in approval, while those who didn't started grumbling and moving to the other side of the corridor.

One dwarf, Tun, stood perfectly still inbetween two groups. His eyes were transfixed upon the now-twitching corpse of Meng.

He started sobbing, and slowly shuffled up the main corridor, saying softly "I can't do this... I can't do this... I'm going to die..."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The group of dwarves, now separated, started arguing vehemently amongst themselves. Jester turned to Fikod and grabbed him by the shirt. Cog got his pick-axe and brought it up to Jester's temple, only for him to feel the cold copper blade of Hatchy pressing into the side of his throat.

All three of them stood there in a stand-off. Jester grinned and let go of Fikod, slowly stepping back as the other dwarves also lowered their weapons.

Jester shook his head ruefully. "Fikod, why did it have to come to this?"

Fikod himself smiled, albiet a faint one. "There can only be one leader here who they respect."

Jester nodded. "You're right." With that, he turned his back on Fikod and addressed the crowd. "I declare Fikod a criminal of Battletrials and place him under arrest."

This statement caused a stir.

Show time

The two groups of dwarves, some supporting Fikod and others the two gladiators, turned on each other. Even the animals were at war with one another. Fikod and Cog, quickly realising they were no match for the masses of dwarves brawling in the corridor, fled towards the mines.



Jester and Hatchy readied their weapons, with the former turning to his partner. "Get the two squads and do your best to keep everyone alive. Kill any troublemakers. I'll track down Fikod."

Jester ran off in the direction of the mine shaft as Hatchy ran up the stairs to the training rooms, mustering the available dwarves. Grabbing what equipment they could they hurtled down the stairs into a warzone.

Kosoth, a staunch supporter of Fikod, had bailed up one of the metalcrafters against the wall, delivering punch after punch to his upper body while the metalcrafter tried in vain to protect himself.

One of the gladiator supporters, Ushrir, rushed up and attempted to grab Kosoth's arm. Kosoth shook Ushrir off then swung around and delivered a savage right hook, hitting Ushrir in the temple. The potash maker felt a brief pain, then nothing ever again.



Hatchy turned to the gladiator dwarves behind her, who looked scared yet determined.

"Get in there. Try to keep them from killing each other. Don't use weapons unless you absolutely have to."

The dwarves waded into the maelstrom of fists, feet and teeth, trying to pry the two groups apart.


Morul the Lye Maker was in a blind rage, striking out at one of the miners.



The miner did their best to parry their blows before getting stuck in with their teeth, tearing chunks out of left hand and causing a fountain of blood to gush all over his arm.

The miner, suitably annoyed by what was happening, removed his copper pick axe from its sheath on his back. He swung it hard, sideways, at the Lye Maker, watching as it lodged deeply into the manic dwarf's chest. Blood sprayed from the wound as it lodged deeply inside the dwarf's chest. The miner roared and twisted the pick axe inside the wound. Morul screamed in pain, trying in vain to strike the miner as the axe twisted back and forth in his chest.



One of Hatchy's marksdwarf gladiators rushed over to where the miner and Morul were brawling. Seeing that Morul was the obvious aggressor as he tried to strike out at everyone and everything, the gladiator brought up his battle-axe.

It didn't last much longer after that. After swinging hard at Morul's leg, the axe embedding deeply inside the soft flesh, the gladiator pulled the weapon out, wound up and swung viciously at Morul's neck.

The results were predictable.



The head rolled along the ground, between the groups of brawling dwarves. Noticing the approaching gladiators some of Fikod's supporters turned and fled, pursued by the gladiator's supporters. Hatchy's troops did their best to catch everyone but there were only 8 of them versus dozens of citizens, with skirmishes in every corridor.

This was going to get messy.



Focused on the job at hand

Throughout all the mayhem and severed limbs, Ilral the broker had taken refuge inside the main stockpile. Seeing the dwarves go running past his hiding place, he decided it'd be safest to hide outside until the gladiators had re-taken the town. He quickly ran for the door, past some very confused war dogs and burst through the front doors-

"Oh. Hey there."



The elven trade leader looked over Ilral's shoulder, witnessing the dwarves brawling in the corridors. He looked at Ilral.

"Is this a bad time?"

Ilral laughed despite the carnage behind him. "Not at all. Just a minor disagreement." Ilral's eyes then lit up as an idea came to him.

Time to be a hero...

He gestured to the somewhat-apprehensive elves. "Come inside, get set up. I'll be right with you."

The elves looked amongst themselves, eventually nodding. "So be it. We're a little rattled, we ran into one of your dwarves who was yelling something about a goblin thief on the way here. We found the thief and... well... let's just say...





... you are short one cat."

Surreal experience

The elves thought it was a bit odd; trading during wartime is difficult at best, yet here was this beaming broker, happily trading with them.

Ilral managed find some dwarves hiding in the workshop wing. He persuaded them to help bring the most valuable goods from the main stockpile - between gaps in the fighting - to the trading depot. The elves had deployed their guards to the trade room doors and were somewhat bemused by the genocidal dwarves.

Ilral smiled as the trade goods were laid on the floor, turning to the elven liaison. "I trust you're happy to take these? We may not need them much longer at this rate."



The elven liaison's eyes lit up at the sight of so many rock crafts and gems. "Yes, of course! What do you want for it?"

Ilral beamed. "Well... we're a bit low on food and drink... what can you give me?"

The two negotiated briefly, before shaking hands. Ilral was very pleased with himself, as the value of his goods allowed him to take every scrap and barrel of food and drink.



Ilral thanked the elves and ran off to find Jester, with some good news to deliver.

Calm before the storm

Jester returned from the mines, unable to find the elusive Fikod and Cog. He ran right into Ilral as he turned into the main corridor.

"Jester, good, you're not dead yet," Ilral said excitedly. "I just persuaded some passing elves to give us a bunch of food and booze. Quick, use the food as leverage to get Fikod's supporters on-side."

Jester blinked, trying to process this unexpected turn of events. He cracked a smile and cupped his hands to his mouth.

"DOES ANYONE WANT SOME FOOD!?" Jester bellowed this over and over, his voice echoing down the corridors.

A thundering was heard. A bunch of dwarves were came tearing up the corridor, heading towards the sound of Jester's voice. They ran right past him, into the trade depot as they saw the piles of booze and food. They hungrily tore through the stockpile of food, devouring berries, fruits and guzzling down the elven booze.

Ilral turned to Jester who was watching with a furrowed brow. "That's some of them.. but not everyone," Jester said.

Indeed, there were still brawls taking place all through Battletrials.

This was going to be worse before it got better.

[NRDL]

Very nice.