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[Gnorm]

Asmoth jumped back, swearing. Corley brought the sword around in an overhead slash, then a strike at the knees, then reeled back as Kivish's hand caught him across the temple. He brought the sword up snarling, slicing the royal arm apart as the doctor tried to hit him with it again.

Where did Kivish come from?

Also, how much time does Corley have until the bomb detonates?
Corley relaxed as Asmoth retreated from the chambers. He knew that she would survive the injuries, being a vampire, but even she would be hard-pressed to escape in her condition. She would either die in combat or turn into a monster herself. Corley had won, and he was proud. He made his way to the vent once more, entered it, and sealed it again with the grate. He held out his palm and conjured a small flame in it to light his way; his abilities were little from lack of experience, and his demon spell was rapidly draining the magical energies from the fortress, but he could still maintain such a small charm.

After traveling for a while, Corley came to a turn. Right as he approached it, he felt an intense warmth, and instinctively jumped back as a jet of flame emerged from the corner. Corley carefully crept around, dagger at the ready, and beheld a horrifying sight. It was a dwarf, heavily affected by the spell. He had an iron hook for one hand and a metal crutch to support his one leg. He was on fire, perpetually burning and not dying to to the regeneration processes keeping his bodily functions, fat, and oils intact. His skin was burned in the third-degree, and his teeth were fully exposed due to a lack of lips. He left a trail of dripping blood wherever he went; he laughed and cried in joyous agony. As he saw his new prey, he tilted his head upwards and laughed madly, causing the fire to shoot up to the ceiling.

Corley could hardly recognize this creature, but he knew of only one that would turn to the fires if pushed beyond the brink of insanity. He was face-to-face with the last of the original prisoners of Steelhold: FireCrazy, the Mine Saboteur.

[4maskwolf]

Oku stalked through the fortress, searching for the mask.  "That must be what the gods sent me back for," she mused.

Rounding the corner, she came across the fortress in chaos.  Dwarves fought dwarves, madly scratching and biting one another.  She spat contemptuously, walking without fear through the middle of the melee.

"And just where do you think you are going?"

Oku whirled around, coming face to face with a dwarf she did not recognize.  The voice, though... that was the voice of Modi.

"Welcome to your own personal hell, traitor."

Around Oku, three other dwarves stopped fighting each other, turning towards Oku.  A glance into the spirit realm revealed them to be Jackal, Rhaken, and Lorius Zane.

"You shouldn't be here." Oku proclaimed, weaving magic into the words, "begone."

Lorius smiled, "you see, we have permission from Armok to be here, to wreak his vengeance.  You're the only one going anywhere."

With that, all four dwarves launched themselves forward, armor and weapons appearing around them.


Oku was tiring.  Individually, she could have beaten any of these dwarves, but something was draining the magic in the fortress, making it harder to keep channeling power into her attacks.  As fast as she was, her assailants were faster.  Were it not for her armor, she would have been struck down long ago, but nothing short of a magical attack could pierce infernal steel.  Her swords cut through their armor like butter, but every time she struck one down they simply possessed another body.


MDF, go ahead and describe finding me and hitting me with the arrow.  Can I describe my death, though?

[MDFification]

Go ahead. Your character, your ending. 


Oku stood panting on a mound of what once could have been recognized as dwarves. The phantoms had vanished as suddenly as they appeared. But why? There were still plenty of bodies. Why did they stop?
Muttering a quick praise to her gods, Oku strode off the mound and towards the shadows at the room's edge. She dove towards them... and stumbled when the shadows failed to open her a path.
Then she realized: there was no magic in this room. None at all. And that could only mean one thing.
Just in time she spun, parrying Emdief's blow with enough force to send him staggering back. That fool. He should have known to quit by now. Striking with both blades, Oku moved in for the kill. She would remove this annoyance once and for all.
Again and again she swung, forcing the dwarf back. The dwarf was better than he should have been, by rights, but nothing in comparison to her. She stabbed, bringing her other blade in an ark. He would be caught between the two and crushed like an insect.

Her eyes widened as he threw himself onto her first thrust. Emdief brought up his axe and in one fluid motion broke her other blade in half. Oku attempted to draw back her remaining blade, but that thing caught her by the wrist and pulled, further impaling himself. All the while, his expression didn't change.
She tried to maintain her facade of contempt. It was far from over yet. 'What is it that you want, puny dwarf?'
Oh, just for you to complete your task. Your gods wouldn't have told you why you were sent back, would they? Oh, but I know. You're their herald. Their messanger. So take a message. Tell them that no matter how long it takes, they'll be repaid. And what happened to their children... that will seem like mercy.He pucked an arrow from his side and thrust it into her chest.

Uristador's lifeless body slid off Oku's blade and fell to the ground.

[Gnorm]

EDIT: Wiki's coming along nicely. We should probably consider how we're tying together the various death throes of the fort into a single climax and ending.

Here's what's happening as I understand it:
-Okul's doing some mysterious task for her gods.
-Emdief is hunting her throughout the fort. (Note: Actually, having him fail horribly will be OK with me so long as he gets to utter something badass along the lines of "I'll be back and will h(a)unt you forever")
-Corley and Asmoth are fighting.
-Thikut is supposed to be fleeing the fort. Idk is this is actually going on or not, because I don't even know if Thikut is real or a figment of Asmoth's imagination.
-Shank and the Queen have sealed themselves off somewhere with living cattle. Note: They can probably be left to their own devices and left with that as their ending.

Soooo... merging these various occurrences? Any ideas? Any way to merge the current 'evil vampire horde' (Asmoth, Shank/Brasswords, Corley) into a single cohesive unit? I'd kind of prefer Asmoth survives because the Bloodkin have a LOT of mutating to do.

I have already begun to merge the parts together to form a cohesive narrative, just as I did for the "Day of Reckoning," complete with my (in)famous MSpaint drawings. As for the "evil vampire horde," I intended that the spell is turning everyone into the bloodkin, albeit without that name mentioned, for I assume it would be coined later. Rhaken and the queen are transforming and have gone insane with a supply of non-turned dwarves on which they'll feed. The rest of the dwarves in the fortress are fighting amongst themselves, attaining injuries and deforming scars as they do. Also, Corley is fighting FireCrazy because I feel that the last of the founders should have a fittingly-awesome conclusion, and to keep him busy so he'll have less time before Asmoth's bomb detonates.

[Deus Asmoth]

Gnorm: Asmoth cut off Kivish's right arm when she visited her. There'd probably be about twenty minutes left before the booze blows, but it's only positioned to cave in the entrance unless someone moves it, so it probably wouldn't affect Corley.

Asmoth sighed in relief as she finally spotted daylight, but it was outweighed by the problems she was counting. She'd cut some samples off any dwarves she could, reasoning that they wouldn't make great travelling companions at the moment, but now her pockets were uncomfortably damp. There was a sword lodged in her chest, and she was pretty certain that she couldn't take it out yet without dying of blood loss. The wound was going to get infected in the desert heat since she couldn't treat it with only one working arm and she couldn't ask any trade caravans for help, since they'd ask stupid questions like how she was still alive. And to top it all off, she had a splitting headache, which probably meant Corley's magic was going to drive her insane if she stopped fighting it, but at least she didn't need sleep, so it couldn't get in that way.

She paused for a moment to check her flasks, which had started steaming and then ran into the light. Outside the fortress, the doctor leaned against a wall, holding her head in her left hand. She was just going to have to find Thikut. Tomorrow, she'd start a fire, pull out the sword and treat her wounds as best she could. Until then, Asmoth would walk north. There wasn't really anywhere else to go.

The doctor idly searched the pockets she had that weren't damp with miscellaneous liquids as she walked, laughing quietly as she pulled out that damned medallion. She'd been a prisoner nearly as long as she could remember over that piece of metal, but it seemed wrong to just throw it away after having it so long. Asmoth smiled as she held the gold up in the sunlight, admiring it in the same way she had all those years ago. Then she travelled north, to freedom.

[Rhaken]

...So uh, folks. I've been poking around in the save.

Rhaken's oldest surviving son is in Steelhold. He's having his strange mood. Also, Rhaken and Onul had a daughter in 258, who died in 259 - to a goblin called Dang Crueldungeon.

Dang Crueldungeon.

I did NOT see that coming.

His daughters came with him, and died in quite the interesting ways. Which I won't be revealing yet.

Fortunately, this aligns more or less perfectly with a wee story I've been writing.

[MDFification]

DANG CRUELDUNGEON


Alright, I got planning for Hellhole going on. I'm not going to post the thread until 4Maskwolf's done or this thread's story is wrapped up. I'm feeling a more classical, military focused fort next time around - although don't worry, there'll still be plenty of room for sociopathy and scheming if you still want to. Although I'd aim for less of a Steelhold clone (note: attempting to run a fort like Steelhold results in horrible abominations) and more of a spiritual successor. Well, a successor with as many of you beautiful bastards as possible and the same plot-emphasis.

Anyway, I'll be carrying over the turn order. So if you're on the list now, you'll be getting a turn. If you don't want a turn, tell me!

... and don't talk to me about the PDF. Life is busy. Make your own PDF.

[Deus Asmoth]

Would the dwarfs in the next fort have any proper knowledge about Steelhold, or will it be more of a holy crap, there's vampire demons attacking us vibe?

[Deus Asmoth]

[double post]

[MDFification]

I'd think they'd know of it... in sort of a 'that's where Satan and Hitler moved after their marriage' kind of way. Not a ton of specifics - more of a highly distorted legend that is used to women, children, men and pets wet themselves/an object of extreme hatred.
So, I'd say go ahead and make references if you must, but distort it. And remember that very few people saw Steelhold and lived to tell the tale without ending up horrible vampire mutant demons.

[Gnorm]

I'd think they'd know of it... in sort of a 'that's where Satan and Hitler moved after their marriage' kind of way. Not a ton of specifics - more of a highly distorted legend that is used to women, children, men and pets wet themselves/an object of extreme hatred.
So, I'd say go ahead and make references if you must, but distort it. And remember that very few people saw Steelhold and lived to tell the tale without ending up horrible vampire mutant demons.

Have you modded the shapes-files to make our heroic characters (i.e. Jackal, Modi, and Rhaken) hero-gods of Dwarfkind?

EDIT: As for turns, I'd prefer to let the fort pick up a little steam before I hop in. Put me on the third turn, would you kindly?
Corley ran fast through the vents to escape the flaming monster. He knew that he could not possibly get in close enough to fight FireCrazy, for his dagger — unlike his steel sword – was made of iron, and would melt. In pursuit, the fiery-dwarf ran after him, laughing playfully and breathing clouds of fire and his target. Corley paid no attention to where he was running, and he soon found himself lost in the tunnels.

Corley eventually came to a dead end. Directly above him was a wooden grate, leading into the dining room, where the exhausted vampires, all covered in their terrible scars, lay resting and moaning. As far as he could reach, Corley could not manage to reach the grate to remove it and pull himself up. As FireCrazy’s footsteps began to grow louder, Corley felt a sudden realization that he was doomed to die. Was it that he had defied the will of the gods, and that he would the terrible retribution of such a crime? Corley began to fear that this was the truth.

But once FireCrazy’s form became visible to him, something completely unexpected occurred. A great explosion was heard, causing the entire fortress to shake and knocking both the dwarves off of their feet. More cracks began to form in the tunnels, and a section of the wall gave in, allowing the seawater to drench the burning dwarf completely. FireCrazy’s flames disappeared, and his body was soon wracked with the even greater pain of the salt on his wounds. Corley’s opinion on the gods’ will changed, and he felt that he had been given the chance he needed. Trudging through the water as quickly as he could, he went up to FireCrazy and sliced into his chest, severing a major coronary-artery. He then threw down his dagger and ran deeper into the tunnels.

Corley was drenched, tired, and scared, but he was alive. Finally, he came up to the wall-grate leading to the caverns. With a great push, the grate came loose and fell into the water far below. It was a great drop, but Corley was a vampire; he knew that he would survive. He leapt out of the tunnels and plunged into the waters below. The young vampire then swam far away from cursed fortress known as “Steelhold.”

[4maskwolf]

Oku fell to her knees, clutching the arrow in her side.  She screamed a silent scream, and the fortress shook beneath her.  Beneath the forges, magma began bubbling upwards, higher and higher, engulfing the lower levels of the fortress.  She slumped to the ground as the entire fortress began to shake, a low rumbling coming from the ground as the earth itself was torn asunder.  The magma burst upwards with a spire of rock, bursting straight through the center of Steelhold.  Finally, a scream escaped her mouth, and the magma surged upwards to engulf her.  As the magma touched her, the fortress itself crumbled, falling down into the magma sea.  Lava burst forth onto the surface, shooting hundreds of feet into the air.  Clouds of ash covered the landscape, the ocean around the fortress crystalizing into obsidian.  The magma was relentless, consuming everything it touched.

Then, finally, it was over.  With a last eruption, the remains of Steelhold collapsed under the pressure, leaving behind an immense crater of obsidian.  Where once the mountainhome had stood, there remained nothing.

As the years went by, twisted trees grew up around the site of the fortress, as if nature itself wanted to cover the catastrophe that had happened here.  Steelhold fell into dwarven legend as a word synonymous with death and destruction.  The figures of Steelhold became legends, its greatest heroes were revered as being almost divine.  Generals prayed to Rhaken for the cleverness they would need to win, soldiers to Modi for strength in battle.  Jackal was revered as a demigod, a symbol of all that a dwarf should strive for.  And Emdief... Emdief was believed to be a god, who bravely fought the demon lord Oku in battle, with the assistance of the other god-champions.  The exact identity of the god was uncertain: some thought said this god, others said that, some said he was a god in his own right, a member of the divine pantheon that had been unknown until that point.  A few said he was nothing less than Armok incarnate, the butcher himself gracing the fortress with his presence.

And the villains of Steelhold?  They became reviled as demons, creatures of pure darkness.  Asmoth, Corley, Lenehan, Shank: all of them consigned, in the minds of dwarvenkind, to the deepest pits of hell for all eternity.

As time went on, and the truth became blurred into fiction, some parts of the fortress's history fell out of the history books entirely.  The FractalEntity was only remembered by a few, and those who knew of him believed him to be a foreign god, one of dwarven nor demonic nature.  The Day of Reckoning became lost to time, and Lenehan was accused of far worse crimes.  The last days of Steelhold were a titanic clash of gods and demons, leveling the ground around the fortress and melting it into magma.

Thus ended the history of Steelhold.  Or at least so it was thought...

[4maskwolf]

Oku fell to her knees, clutching the arrow in her side.  She screamed a silent scream, and the fortress shook beneath her.  Beneath the forges, magma began bubbling upwards, higher and higher, engulfing the lower levels of the fortress.  She slumped to the ground as the entire fortress began to shake, a low rumbling coming from the ground as the earth itself was torn asunder.  The magma burst upwards with a spire of rock, bursting straight through the center of Steelhold.  Finally, a scream escaped her mouth, and the magma surged upwards to engulf her.  As the magma touched her, the fortress itself crumbled, falling down into the magma sea.  Lava burst forth onto the surface, shooting hundreds of feet into the air.  Clouds of ash covered the landscape, the ocean around the fortress crystalizing into obsidian.  The magma was relentless, consuming everything it touched.

Then, finally, it was over.  With a last eruption, the remains of Steelhold collapsed under the pressure, leaving behind an immense crater of obsidian.  Where once the mountainhome had stood, there remained nothing.

As the years went by, twisted trees grew up around the site of the fortress, as if nature itself wanted to cover the catastrophe that had happened here.  Steelhold fell into dwarven legend as a word synonymous with death and destruction.  The figures of Steelhold became legends, its greatest heroes were revered as being almost divine.  Generals prayed to Rhaken for the cleverness they would need to win, soldiers to Modi for strength in battle.  Jackal was revered as a demigod, a symbol of all that a dwarf should strive for.  And Emdief... Emdief was believed to be a god, who bravely fought the demon lord Oku in battle, with the assistance of the other god-champions.  The exact identity of the god was uncertain: some thought said this god, others said that, some said he was a god in his own right, a member of the divine pantheon that had been unknown until that point.  A few said he was nothing less than Armok incarnate, the butcher himself gracing the fortress with his presence.

And the villains of Steelhold?  They became reviled as demons, creatures of pure darkness.  Asmoth, Corley, Lenehan, Shank: all of them consigned, in the minds of dwarvenkind, to the deepest pits of hell for all eternity.

As time went on, and the truth became blurred into fiction, some parts of the fortress's history fell out of the history books entirely.  The FractalEntity was only remembered by a few, and those who knew of him believed him to be a foreign god, one of dwarven nor demonic nature.  The Day of Reckoning became lost to time, and Lenehan was accused of far worse crimes.  The last days of Steelhold were a titanic clash of gods and demons, leveling the ground around the fortress and melting it into magma.

Thus ended the history of Steelhold.  Or at least so it was thought...

[Rhaken]

I am writing an epilogue of sorts as we speak. Watch for Part 1, Wherein The End of the Valiant Is Told.

Part 2 should be about the aftermath, years after the end of Steelhold. Though I am not at ease to write that until we reach a consensus on what the aftermath is. My money's still on sailing to the New World(gen).

[MDFification]

I'd say the sailing to the New World happens. Because the Old World spontaneously becomes a twilight convention at some point in the future.