„What is luck?“ This question was what the dwarf was thinking about for hours. For the last days while he was travelling. Well, actually he had by now realized that it was the question of his life.
He wasn't even 3 years old, when the town he was born in, Hexxedgarish, was at it's peak. Everything was going so well, that the dwarves got greedy and breached hell. But the demons were too much for them... Everyone in the town got killed... Everyone except the dwarf, who, in all the chaos got grabbed by a kidnapping Kobold and was taken away. No one would call being kidnapped luck. But maybe it was his luck here?
As the Kobolds had no name for the child, they named him Mahrgell, after the legendary smith and one of the Founders of Hexxedgarish. Many Kobolds had fallen to the weapons she had crafted. And the young child was probably all they ever got from their raids to Hexxedgarish. But with the demon plaguing the world, there was no rest. They were running from the demons. All the surface races were running from the demons, as there was no stopping them. And if no mortal could stop them, it required the gods to do so.
And so, even though the chroniclers of the various races do not agree who exactly it was, it were the gods, who stopped the demons. Who stopped everything. They didn't make much difference who they hit with their wrath, and maybe they wanted to punish the mortals for their foolishness as well.
The demons were beaten, but there was not much left of the older races as well. Was it luck being destroyed by the gods, if your archenemy got hit even worse? Or not? The question troubled the dwarf.
And as even the gods had required troops to serve their purposes, new creatures had infiltrated these worlds. They were called 'fortress defense races'. And they were hostile to everyone.
The young Mahrgell had escaped the Kobolds and together with some other scattered dwarven survivors had found a new civilization. Remembering what had caused this chaos, they called themselves Egulvukrig, the controlling rift.
But even though he was finally between dwarves again, the situation was bad. They were lacking everything, being under attack by their old foes as well as their new ones. Mahrgell was asking himself, if he was lucky to be still alive. All this luck he had to survive... just to endure more suffering?
After 30 years, a decision was made. A new fortress had to be found. A better one. A safer one. A fortress where dwarves could finally live in peace and safety. 7 dwarves should go ahead, and more would follow. And Mahrgell would be the one to lead them. He didn't know exactly why they had chosen him. He didn't feel like he was best choice for that job. Actually, even though he had some basic diplomatic and social skills, he didn't think he was up to the task. But it was decided that way. Maybe it would just be, because everyone knew his story. Everyone knew he was the survivor. Many even just called him like that. ' The Survivor' And surviving... that was everything this new fortress was about. Yeah... It was probably all about the symbolic power. And while others would have felt they were lucky, getting so much trust, he was only feeling the pressure.
What they probably didn't know, when they tasked him, were his nightmares. The images of Hexxedgarish were still in his head. They were haunting him. And since he knew of his new position, the images were becoming clearer again. Not only during the night, but even during daylight he was seeing people, he had met back then as a child. People were looking odd at him, when he called them by names, that weren't theirs. But they knew he was the survivor. And no one would speak against the survivor. And so they played the game. And Mahrgell got stuck more and more in his visions, as there was no one waking him up.
But even with all that, he had to prepare. 6 more dwarves he had to select for the upcoming travel. First one he chose was Tenderroast. Tenderroast originally had a different name, but Mahrgell was calling him like that now all the time. And now everyone did. Even Mahrgell didn't know, how the smith reminded him of the earth mage from back then. Yes, men and women looked quite alike among dwarves but still. But whatever, things were as they were. Tenderroast was reasonably well skilled in armor- and weapon smithing, so bringing him would surely be no mistake.
The second dwarf joining them was Pascale. He was a proficient mason and would become the chief architect of the new fortress. Even though staying above ground was not necessary this time, there would be enough construction to do for him.
The next two dwarves were Cpt Crunchy and dawnofdarkness. The 2 young women would be responsible for the security of the settlement. Both had some prior experience in combat. While Cpt Crunchy was skilled in the usage of hammers and the art of dodging, her friend preferred to use swords and heavy armors. Hopefully they would keep everyone secure. Their responsibility was big, even though long term Mahrgell had different plans. He had studied the chronicles about Hexxedgarish. The militia was legendary. There was no challenge to them above ground. And still, when the demons came, they all failed. Now the demons were gone, but who knows for how long? And the new races? They had beaten the demons in battle and were attacking the dwarves again and again. Surely it would be foolish to repeat history. And he had met a girl, that strengthened that opinion in him even further.
Meph, a young member of the engineers guild and with a lot of work experience as engineer and mechanic, had told him about some more creative means of defense. Some sort of defense that would not risk dwarven lives. Mahrgell could barely understand all her talking about constructions, traps, magma, minecarts and things he had never heard about. But it still made him believe, that this would be the only, the proper way to defend the new fortress. A fortress that would outshine Hexxedgarish, that would give the dwarven civilization new hope and would finally clear his horrible memories. His fortress.
The last dwarf joining them was Luror, a girl that had dedicated all her life to mining. And that would be her future task as well. Dwarves simply couldn't live without mining and so it was good to have her on board.
The skills of the expedition party gave Mahrgell some hope, but soon his expectations had to be lowered again. The mountain homes could provide them barely any valuable goods. All the had were 2 picks, some food, drinks, plants and seeds, a dozen moleweasel and a bunch of raw materials. The mountain homes couldn't even afford to give them already crafted armor and weapons, and thus they had to make them themselves as soon as they would arrive. Tenderroast had promised to give the 2 militiadwarves some proper weapons once he would get his provisonal forge up, and someone would have to make two armor sets out of that rigid scaleplate.
But all this preparations were now parts of the past. Now they were here. And it reminded him all of Hexxedgarish. The warm climate, the flat land...
But they wouldn't do the same mistakes. They wouldn't wait on the surface for the hordes to rush at them, but they would dig down, maybe built up... And there was another difference. When Hexxedgarish was founded it was a settlement of those not wanted by dwarven society. Of all those, that had lost their right to live along in the mountain homes. Maybe those lines were blurred later on s Hexxedgarish flourished, but still, the town never got completely rid of its mark. But now the situation was different. When back then every dwarf at the mountain homes tried to ignore the fact that Hexxedgarish even existed, now everyone was looking at the new fortress. It was their hope. Their only hope to survive. And it all weighted on Mahrgells shoulders. Was it luck to have to future of dwarvenkind in your hands? It was the question that he asked himself every night.
But now wasn't the time to struggle with such problems and so the 7 chosen one stopped their wagon, and the command was given.
Strike the earth! Let this place be known as... Becordobar!
And the goals were clear.
Get some stuff under the earth, prepare the militia so they could start training and build some sort of fortification, to reduce the number of possible directions for attacks.
OOC: Still haven't unpaused ^^
Back to learning -.- Thursday should be the latest for some action here.
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Topic: V.4h Becordobar - Mastermind Dwarf Challenge (Read 26274 times)