A clear sky presided over the dwarven capital, its black expanse broken only by a crescent moon and its entourage of winking stars. Below, all of the mountainhome's inhabitants slept a sound sleep. All, that is, except a certain couple within the queen's keep...
"You know what this means, general," began Queen Brasswords. The young queen, though only recently having inherited her mother's throne, was already famed for living up to her name by being very vocal about whatever happened to displease her. Her servants unanimously agreed that her bark was worse than her bite - though her bite wasn't anything to take lightly either. With a pointed glance at another individual sat at the table - presumably the general she was referring to - she continued. "This is the third security failure under your command in as many years. Your constant failings are becoming a difficult stone to swallow." The queen brought the stone tablet in her hands down onto the table heavily and the resultant clatter reverberated around the room. General Earthgrowl, the object of his liege's ire, cleared his throat and began making excuses.
"Your Majesty, this isn't my fault alone, I assure you--"
"Silence, elf-wit! Do you know how many of our society's lowest scum escaped into the tunnels yesterday?"
The general adjusted his collar before opening his mouth, clearly anxious despite his professional exterior. "Fifty-seven, your Majesty. Ten have already been re-apprehended and we're on the trail of four others already." The queen continued to glare icily at the general as he attempted to excuse himself and for a while after he finished speaking. Realising that she was expecting him to say more, Earthgrowl cleared his throat again and carried on. "Your Majesty, you must understand the state of our penal system. Today's jail break was the result of overcrowding, through and through. Our society's... failures, if you will, are becoming too numerous for our single prison complex." Queen Brasswords seemed to relax slightly in her chair, her thoughts now less directed on punishing the general's error and more on fixing the cause. Warily, Earthgrowl also allowed himself to lean into his seat. "We can't construct another complex here. Our labour is tied up elsewhere and we can hardly afford to lose progress on other projects," the queen muttered, not facing her subordinate as she spoke. Her fingers formed a pyramid upon the table and flexed as she racked her brain for solutions. "Hmm... perhaps... ah!" Her head shot up from its slouched position as an idea struck her. General Earthgrowl glanced up too, hoping that the queen's flash of inspiration hadn't been some kind of cruel and unusual punishment. "I know exactly how we can get rid of these miscreants overcrowding the cells and add to the national coffers while we're at it. Listen, general, for this will involve you quite intimately..."
"Stand up! Back in line, rat-brain! No slouching!" The macedwarf guard's barked orders carried loud and clear across the assembled group of inmates. In response, each of the imprisoned dwarves reluctantly straightened up and stood to attention. Each had been hand-selected by General Earthgrowl himself for their brute strength, special skills and willingness to obey orders. Their number totalled six - six of the meanest, toughest and most intelligent criminals the mountainhome had to offer. "You'll be pleased to hear that you're about to be set free from the city jail! This does not mean, however, that you will be free outright, so don't start running yet, you filthy miscreants!" Each prisoner listened silently to the shouting guard, well-used by now to taking the abuse on the chin. "You lucky six have been chosen by the queen's general himself to strike the earth at Steelhold - our first and soon-to-be-finest penal colony!" Surprised and curious murmurs immediately cropped up around the group, but were silenced by a single stamp from the macedwarf's iron boot. "Rest assured that you won't be running free - I, your new overseer, will be making sure of that! The work will be tough! There will be few breaks and fewer luxuries! Before long, you'll wish you could come crawling back to your comfy little cell... but you can't! This is a one-way trip, ingrates! Pack your damn bags and report here at noon or I'll personally bring you out and drag you behind the wagon the whole damn way! Dismissed!"
Almost immediately, the criminal dwarves shuffled back to the main cell area, chatting amongst themselves along the way. Most of them agreed that their new overseer wouldn't go easily on them. Known by the name of Thronesteel to his fellow guards, 'Jackal' to his friends and just 'Sir' to the prisoners in his charge, the experienced macedwarf was a former militia captain and knew his way around a good few weapons besides his trusty mace - some of which he was glad to use on misbehaving inmates. His military background showed clearly in his harsh dealings with the inmates and he certainly wished to be feared, not loved. Even he, however, had his fears about the motley crew he would take charge over. The warden had warned him of this group of 'pioneers' - each had been chosen by the general himself for either their brute strength, sharp cunning or simple dog-like obedience. He wasn't worried about the strong ones - a skilled man-at-arms, Jackal could easily handle an unarmed brute. It was the smart ones he wanted to keep a beady dwarven eye on. However, he'd have time to press these pioneering inmates into following his will while on the journey to the site. For now, he busied himself prepping the wagon train and loading supplies. Things would be much, much harder on the inmates than on him - he was sure of that...
STEELHOLD
A PENAL COLONY SUCCESSION FORTRESS
If you're reading this, you hopefully read the wall of fluff that I put up above the flashy bold title - if you haven't, please do! Otherwise, welcome to Steelhold - a place where even the filthiest of dwarven filth can be made useful in the name of the mountainhomes. Functionally, this will work like an ordinary succession game, with the only oddity being the fact that the dwarves (especially dwarfed players) are to be considered filthy criminals fit only for breaking their backs whilst breaking rocks.
THE RULES- Turns will last from spring to spring. Once the date hits 1st Granite, save the game, upload the save file to your repository of choice and inform the thread.
- Once your turn has begun, you have five days in which to complete it. This can be extended to seven (a week) if something unexpected comes up and you inform me ASAP.
- Once your turn comes up, you have two days to respond to the thread indicating that you are beginning your turn.
- Anyone failing to respond after their turn time has ended/when they are due to start their turn will be
shackled removed from the player queue and re-added to the bottom upon request. - Put as much detail into your posts describing your turn as possible. I'm not asking for quasi-novels like the one I threw up at the top, but just something to get the readers more involved in the experience. Diary entry, narrative and storytelling formats are all acceptable as long as they describe the turn adequately.
- Screenshots are nice. Not absolutely required, but they help readers a bunch.
- Players must be dwarfed. Readers may be dwarfed upon request.
- Should your player-dwarf die, you must immediately end your turn and hand the save file to the next player.
- Please don't intentionally sabotage the fort! If a fort becomes untenable for the next player due to the previous player's actions, I may choose to revert it to an earlier turn.
- Players (and readers wishing to claim a dwarf) must write at least some backstory for their dwarf. They have to be in jail for a reason, after all (or perhaps not, if your dwarf was framed? The possibilities are endless!).
- CubeJackal
Brewster- Sarrak
Jovus- highmax28
- Gnorm
- Shininglight
- Icefire2314
- BlackMuffin
- 4maskwolf
- Deus Asmoth
- Rhaken
INMATE ROSTER'Modi' - Cutter (highmax28)'Shadow' - Bandit Assassin (Brewster)'Sarrak' - Psychopathic Brawler (Sarrak)'Rock-Eyes' - Solitary Enigma
(GatorFace)'FireCrazy' - Mine Saboteur
(FireCrazy)'Jovus' - Socialist Agitator
(Jovus)'Somneth' - Escape Artist (Shininglight)'Lenehan' - Elf Party Baron (Gnorm)'Bomber' - Drafted Crossbowdwarf (Madbomber6)'Ensomden' - Amoral Soldier (Icefire2314)'Gob' - Dim-Witted Brute (Adventurer)'Urist McDead' - Deserter
(Urist Mc Dwarf)'Moisturizer' - Hell's Herald
(BlackMuffin)'Aureliano' - Capo (Nail)'Maskdwarf' - Ominous Prophet
(4maskwolf)'Hairyjack' - Unscrupulous Brawler (hairypotatoes)'Asmoth' - Silent Physician
(Deus Asmoth)'Shining' - Novelist
(Shininglight)'Rhaken' - Urban Commando
(Rhaken)SCHEDULED ARRIVALS'Bees' - Dwarven Bee
(Kazimuth)'Magni' - Guardsdwarf
(highmax28'Derroth' - Royal Pervert
(Gamerlord)TO JOIN AS A PLAYERSimply state that you'd like to join in the thread. Ensure that you attach a backstory for your prospective penal colonist - turns will not be given on a first-come, first-served basis, but instead based on how good I judge your criminal's life story to be.
TO BE DWARFED AS A READERSame process as above, except you will be given a dwarf on a first-come, first-served basis. Please try and participate in the thread, too! Diary entries and backstories to go along with updates are not strictly necessary, but heavily encouraged. They add to the story massively and help current and future players write better updates themselves.
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Topic: Steelhold - A Penal Colony Succession Game (Read 57744 times)