I'm willing to admit, I'm rather new when it comes to Dwarf Fortress. In fact, Throattomes is my first fort....ever. So naturally, I got freaked out when I spotted my first forgotten beast. Asno, a bloated sauropod (one of those long-necked dinosaurs) with feathers, wings, and deadly blood. Just my luck, my first forgotten beast had to be a forgotten beast with damn wings. I feared that it would swim through to the cistern connected to the underground lake, then fly up the hole my well was built over, only to remember that I built a fortification in the water pipe, so, for however shortly, I was relieved. Reacting quickly, I raised the drawbridge between my staircase and the caverns, and sealed the Asno out of my fortress forever.....until one fateful day, the following week.
I was busy, assigning my, very much needed, migrants (I hadn't received migrants for the past two years, or so), waiting for my dwarves to finish the long...long...looooooong job of irrigating my new, underground space for farm plots I had mined out (seriously, hurry up!) which led me to go check how much water I had left in the cistern. Perhaps the floodgate needed to be opened to let more in. Guess who I see down there, just paddling around, right smack in the middle of the water pipe? Asno the Forgotten Beast. The bastard! He was obviously trying to into my fortress through the well. Luckily, the fortification kept him at bay. However...this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. He was right there. Motionless. Under three floors of solid stone. A cave-in would finally kill this wretched creature. I thought about caving in the floor directly above him, but decided against it, remember he could fly. As soon as I channeled out the floors, he would just fly through the holes and kill everyone. I settled upon caving in the floor two z-levels above him, and hoping that it would crash through the floor below and land on Asno.
I got to work. I dug out all the stone below the cave-in zone, placing a support, linked to a lever, directly below it. After that, I got to work on channeling out the floors surrounding the cave-in zone. Three sides of four were channeled out, when I went below to check on the support, you know, see if it was all set up properly, when....oh...CRAP!!! To my horror, there it was. A hole, some Urist McDigHappy had channeled out, two squares to the left of Asno. I paused for a minute to gather my bearings (and perhaps find the dwarf who did this, so I could later give him a trip to the spike pit) and then put on the civilian alert. I ordered all my dwarves inside, when I realized Asno was beginning to swim towards the open hole.
Running, as fast as their legs could carry them, they ran up the staircase, just as Asno had climbed out of the hole and began to run after them. There was no way they could reach the drawbridge in time, so, I did the next best thing. I waited for my last dwarf to ascend through the hatches I had placed on the staircase (I remembered reading on the Wiki that building destroyers can't destroy things above them) and, at the last second, I locked them. Asno, just a floor below, was sealed within the caverns once more. HA! Take THAT you fat, feathered lizard! However, I started to feel sick when I realized where he was heading next. Remember when I said I had a well above that underground cistern? I basically dug a really, really long shaft from the well to the cistern. Each hole that was a part of the vertical shaft was connected to the staircase....the same staircase Asno was using. I built walls to block off the holes from the staircase, I blocked off all of them.....except for one. I tore down the wall because I was planning to build a grate over the hole, and attach it to a lever, so if a beast ever DID fly up the well, I could just close the grate and seal it off. I guess I just.....forgot about it, and left it like that. Now, ironically, my desire for extensive safety pro-cautions for my dwarves would now be the death of them.
Every cloud has a silver lining, even this, as now, I could try out my "Beast From Below" civilian alert level. It ordered all civilians outside, into the main courtyard (the outside, walled off portion of my fortress, that houses my wall of fortifications, and my first of two entrance drawbridges). Unbelievably enough, the safest place they could be at this point, is outside the fortress....well, unless a goblin siege arrive, then we were all screwed. Asno was ascending the well with great speed. I ordered my full military down to living quarters, over to where the well was. Two squads of ten, armed with steel weapons, breastplates, and some of them, greaves (I was a little short on worker dwarves, what with the "No migrants for two years" thing). One squad of seven, armed with the same. Two squads of six, armed with leather and crossbows. And the fortress guard, two marksdwarves, staying topside with the civilians. I was prepared for a fight to the last man. "You will never take Throattomes!!!" I shouted, most likely upsetting the neighbors.
To my anger, most of the military dwarves did not even reach the floor the living quarters was one before Asno was three floors below. When he finally burst out of the well, the majority of the military was just reaching the floor, and heading down the hall leading to the well. The only ones at the well? A hammerdwarf, and three marksdwarves. "We're screwed." Asno immediately charged at the hammerdwarf, while the marksdwarves fired bolts. "Come on you idiots! HURRY UP!" The hammerdwarf didn't even land a hit before it was kicked in the head by the hind leg of the great beast. "For Armok's sake! I know steel is heavy, but come on!!!" Now on the ground, the poor hammerdwarf was then picked up by Asno's wing, and shaken about. "Rounding the corner! ALMOST THERE!" The hammerdwarf had his right hand bit off by Asno. "For the love of all that's good, just kill the poor guy already!" Finally, a lone speardwarf had arrived, with five of his armored squadmates not far behind. "Finally! Prepare for a fight now you-wait....what are you doing?! ATTACK THE THING!!!" They ran right past the beast and to the station point I had previously set, which was a few squares behind it. Frustrated beyond belief, I set the station points so that they were right next to Asno. They walked right up to him....and did nothing. "Come on, you IDIOTS! He's RIGHT THERE!!! He'll kill EVERYONE!!! HE'LL......wait....why isn't he moving anymore?"
Bewildered by this point, I pressed 'k' to confirm my suspicion. Now it made sense why the soldiers ran right past the beast. Asno...was dead. But how?! The hammerdwarf didn't even get a chance to hit it!.....the marksdwarves? No, that's....that's impossible. They only fired, like, six or seven shots. Sure enough, however unlikely it seemed, it was the marksdwarves. Well....'a' marksdwarf. Mebzuth Zustashamost, a marksdwarf of "Adequate" skill level shot a bismuth bolt into Asno's chest, piercing through the flesh and tearing the fell beast's heart. Even Alath Dedukumstiz, Throattome's greatest warrior, had to use many strikes of her hammer to kill the mighty dragon. Mebzuth did it in three shots. With Alath as the dead hero of Throattomes, remembered only in engravings and by her memorial, Mebzuth was the living hero. He shall have a hero's tomb dug out, in its rightful place next to Alath's, engraved by the finest masons Throattombs can offer. He shall be remembered for many a year. Dwarves shall hear his name in reverend tones. Goblins shall hear his name in terrified whispers.
Mebzuth Zustashamost
Slayer of Asno The Forgotten One
Savior of Throattombs
Hero of The Dwarves
Author
Topic: Mebzuth Zustashamost-Hero Of Throattomes (Read 1542 times)