Alright boys and girls, I'm gonna be making this part of the update entirely OOC! While I am an adept battle narrator, I have a lot of fun doing snappy announcer commentary type stuff, and it's faster. So, on one side we have the horse riding and troll/crab backed Hardy Castle chaos dorfs!
On the other, the Carryscar Militia!
The Wolverine get their first taste of open combat, topside on the barracks!
Meanwhile, the rest of the troops take up position in the courtyard and meat processor, ready to face the enemy! To draw the enemy to the Goannas, two doors are open and while the chaos dorfs are trap immune, their mounts aren't. The Wolverines are in the middle of getting their combat ammo, hence only half the squad being there.
Opening phase of the battle sees two trolls killed on the perimeter defense, and one of our three Sharpshooters, Melbil Blazelancer, pegging a third with two bolts to the body and a lethal headshot! Clearly several didn't learn their lesson from seeing the one in front of them get gunned down. While one slips by, three other trolls get caught in a hail of flying metal. By this point, I decided to deploy the melee dorfs in a pitched battle, the Cazadors and Hammerheads going after the hammer squad to the west, while the Wolf Spiders and Ripperjacks go east to face off against another group of chaos hammerdorfs.
The Goannas came rushing out as the troll started to batter the door, and so they've committed to the fight! And started with Lizard and one of her soldiers both stabbing the troll at the same time! As they swarm the first troll, one tries to attack Lizard from behind and gets her bright red spear through its skull as a reward.
Doren leads the charge on the east hammerheretics, and has gone into a trance! Doesn't do him much good though because of the damned horses running away. Dragonfly scores the first chaos dwarf kill of the battle though with a single lethal chop of his falcion!
And to the west, Mad Bomber and Pyrope lead the charge! Again, due to the horses however, it turns into a benny hill bit of the troops being forced to chase the bastards around not because the heretics are scared, but the horses are. And understandably so, since we have guys strong enough to remove their hooves with blunt trauma. Unfortunately, due to the horses not being properly trained war horses that can deal with the stresses of battle and running all over damnation, I lost track of the battle, though Glasseye was the first hoplite to bloody his spear on a chaos dwarf.
The battle lasted a good 5 minutes realtime, and I have found the Wolverines may need to be deployed against mounted enemies with a melee escort from now on, to disable the mounts. And it also appears my instinct was right, as Lizard and one of the hoplites (Glasseye) managed to flank a chaos dwarf swordmaster and cut off his escape.
However she wound up with a gimped hand (though mercifully it wasn't permanent damage,) and she proceeded to beat the ever loving crap out of the the swordmaster with her shield and bit the fucker's weapon hand while he was distracted fighting the hoplite that was with her. However, her shield strikes did little more than bruise due to his heavy armor, but thankfully the idiot was using a mithril shield so his attacks couldn't do any better than hers. Honestly Lizard is one mean bitch, because even with the injured hand after Goden came barreling in and broke the swordmaster's legs (leading to his death,) she kept pursuing enemy troops and even attacked two different chaos macedwarves, breaking their legs with her shield. So far getting shot and stabbed has had little effect aside from making her angry.
Honestly by the time Lizard got hurt, the enemy's spirit was either broken or just about there because they were dying like their mounts and many decided to give up the ghost and get the hell out while they could.
-After sifting through the remains of the Colonel's bedroom, you find the chest on its side in the coner under an aged and very large cat basket, nearly big enough for a human to comfortably sleep in, broken but still containing several books, medals, coins, and other small things. It appears to be a xelic chitin bound journal of standard quality, though which race is indeterminable due to age. Rather than paper or papyrus, it clearly uses vellum for its pages, possibly out of spite. Unlike the previous journal belonging to him, this one has very little to make it seem distinguishing other than his name on the inside cover, a copper carry chain, and the oval gabbro cabochons on the spine.-15th ObsidianFinally got a new journal; had the leatherworkers make every bit of it but I had to use violet xelic chitin. Still, if this place gets overrun either side of the cockroach divide will be horrified by it. Or I think they will anyway, since I'm sure most xelics would object to their cousin being written on in such a manner. Added some gabbro myself, just because I like the color.21st Obsidian, 231The chaos dwarves came in force, as expected. Overall, the fight was a much bloodier and chaotic affair than usual, if only because of our liberal application of bladed instruments and their steeds clearly not being trained for the rigors of war. Turned more into games of cat and mouse than anything.
The Goannas did well, using small group tactics to overwhelm individual chaos dwarves to make up for their comparative lack of training. Lizard got injured, but Parson says she got lucky again and it wasn't permanent since she can still feel her fingers. We were all worried she'd gotten an injured lung because of the blood around her mouth but Glasseye told us that it came from the chaos dwarf who injured her. Evidently she didn't take to well to getting stabbed so she bit the son of a bitch. Our people are heading out to gather the dead horses for processing now. Honestly though I'm pretty sure everyone's just going to toss them in the ditch.11th Granite, 232
Apparently a wood elf diplomat slipped in without us noticing him and started in on Zacen about “disrespecting the trees.” Evidently he didn't notice the vast majority are still standing and coated with blood and ichor. I suppose we can let it slide but the minute they start demanding tree cutting quotas none of them will walk out of here alive.26th Granite, 232
The Peacekeepers have reported their first death today, not from unrest or other violence, but from the one foe few can ever truly escape: Old age. The captain was heading in to do some personal practice and found her dead with a smile on her face. She was sitting on one of the spare barracks cots, back to the wall and looked to have just finished polishing her equipment. Upon inspection of the body she had a note on the inside of her mail shirt that only says “I've kept it all well, you do the same.” Evidently she sensed her time was coming and she wanted to make sure all her equipment was ready for the next Peacekeeper.
I checked around and evidently she only ever had one friend and her only family in the fortress is her cousin, a weaver named Melbil. Sherry was her lone friend and is pretty torn up over it, but mercifully not enough to go punching people in the face and knock over a still. I've arranged for an iron sarcophagus to be forged for her. Peaceful and happy... We should all aspire to die like that, but I know my end will be a violent one. All of us in the militia have accepted that.5th Slate, 232Migrants have come, among them an odd, dour fellow named Dredd. I'd been asking about any of the new folk being willing to replace Iteb, and he volunteered readily. To welcome the new arrivals someone named Sigun threw a big party in the statue garden.
8th Slate, 232
Darko named his sword today, but aside from that nothing really crazy happened for once!25th Slate, 232In preparation of the king's coming next year, we've already started on the plans. Or I have anyway. Once the council meeting hall is furnished I'll pass it around for input.
Bottom Floor: Two armories, general meeting area, and the king's tomb. A courtyard shall be carved from above.
Second Floor: Office and Royal Guard Barracks, spare accommodation, for foreign dignitaries.
Top Floor: The King's Chamber, dining area, and a small kitchen to tend to his needs, which may include a well if we can figure out a place for the tank. 3rd Felsite, 232
One of the new arrivals was acting strangely, shouting about only Amas knows what. But we have an artifact vault built now (kinda,) so it doesn't matter what it is.10th Felsite, 232
A cap. Damned nice one too. It's simple, with a brim of leather spikes. Maybe we'll be able to give it to King Willcloister when he arrives...15th Felsite, 232The Goannas sent me a report detailing a high elf diplomat who had a brush with death and a small chaos dwarf attack. He opened the door and shouted to make ready and continued to the east gate. The enemy predictably made for what they saw as an unlocked door, the ambushers setting themselves up to be the ambushed, as on the other side were the waiting hoplites, most of them now seen as masters-at-arms now.
According to the written report, the enemy sergeant was first in, and first out, minus a hand and leaving his soldiers behind to be massacred by the Goannas. Around half escaped, but that was more the fault of their armor than anything, and half of the enemy were dead anyway.
This means we'll need to watch the workers while they pull salvage out to trade from the ditch, so I've assigned the Hammerheads to security detail.
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Apparently there were more in the brush waiting for a moment of laxity. Zon killed a swordsdwarf leading the heretics and they broke as soon as he went down. A snatcher also tried to slip in and didn't get very far. I'm willing to risk an injured citizen so its won't stink up the place for the rest of us.19th Felsite, 232
Never fails. Honestly I'm starting to think the bugs and the chaos dwarves are working together. However the attack ended badly for the attackers., several dying on the traps. However, one of the spring migrants, a huntsdwarf named Ushat, took one of the surviving xelics out with a single heavy bolt!
And it also seems that even though the chaos dwarves interrupted the winter trade season, it didn't stop diplomats from up north from coming to visit this season.
21st Felsite, 232Started raining again, and while everyone's grumbling, they also welcome it. It's a brief respite from the heat and brings the grass back to life, along with washing away the years of accumulated dried blood and viscera. But with the rains came a third raid band (a group of hammerbugs lead by another elf attacked yesterday, but I'd been in bed at the time.) 
Two snatchers were also spotted, one being chased down by Goden and another, this one a chaos dwarf, got a cedar tower shield smashed through her head courtesy of Lizard.
A Fish cleaner named Deler and Forgemaster Morgan were also injured during clean up. The very last things marked to be taken to the depot were collected, but not fast enough and both wound up hospitalized; Deler has a broken left lower leg from an old weather beaten skullcracker getting tossed in on top of him, and one of the many stray arrows laying around was tossed in and damaged Morgan's hammer arm. A Hive Warden named Degel followed Morgan down apologizing up and down for the accident, but nobody knows who threw the skullcracker in.
6th Hematite, 232Put an order to the masons to refrain from using any stone but schist to make the tables and chairs for the council's chamber. Being on the council will likely be a shitty job so we'll do our council work on shitty materials.12th Hematite, 232
Zacen met with the hobgoblin diplomat and his guards today. He commended our people on such a fine fortress and was greatly impressed by the militia's skill. He evidently arrive for two reasons. The first was an apology for the lack of trade last year, and the second to inform us of why our Dyansauri neighbors haven't shown up to trade.
Evidently all of the northern dwarven kingdoms in the region have fallen to whatever claimed The Hardy Castle, and The Immortality of Panthers, our hobgoblin friends, are currently engaged in a very bitter war with one of them that neither side seems to be winning. What was made worse is this deadlock is in spite of The Panthers petitioning for and gaining the support of the southern Dyansarui clans, who've been heading across the great lake in droves to join the fight. It explains a great deal honestly.
Afterward the Frost Giant squeezed himself in with his guards and said much the same, though instead of grueling war with our former kin they heard from the vamarii that we may be planning to wage a war on the Silver Xelics, who've been giving the giants an unending amount of crap for living primarily like the foxfolk, that is to say by hunting, ice fishing, and such, and would like to extend an offer to ally with us should we initiate hostilities. Large numbers of Highborn xelics seem to make a point of going to their ice holds and both belittling the inhabitants and marveling at the iceworking.17th Hematite, 232
Yet more named shields. You know journal, I did a count and we have14 artifacts in the roster and now 24 named weapons and shields. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing.24th Hematite, 232A cook named Atir Ragsplattered came to me today and asked if there were any available coffins in the graveyard. When I asked why, he said he was 170! I've never met a dwarf that old before! Apparently he'd like to be interred as soon as possible when the reaper comes for him, to spare his small collection of friends and relatives here the pain of him rotting. Evidently one of the citizens who died in the great dumping accident some time ago was his wife, and his only daughter is one of Lizard's Hoplites. On top of that, his other child, a miller named Alath, is of fairly advanced age himself (151!) and would like a coffin readied for him as well. He mentioned nothing of Zon until I asked; he didn't bring her burial arrangements up because he knows she's already entitled to a resting place of iron beside her brothers and sisters in arms.
Screenshot heavy update ho! So we had combat, trade, diplomats, a death by old age (a first for me!) and the king's accommodations are well underway! I had forgotten about the general so he may be getting get diplomatic suite instead. By next year we may even be the capital! Though this will severely hamper gold imports for the bank and guildhall. You guys get to come along for a whole mess of firsts for me it seems!
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Topic: Ozkakurrith "Carryscar," A Civ Forge Community/Story Fortress: FINISHED (Read 98072 times)