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[4maskwolf]

You have been dwarfed.  Any particular title you desire?

[MDFification]

Fun fact: out of a fortress of 182 dwarves, 81 are children and 69 are in the military.  This leaves 32 work-capable dwarves who aren't in military service.  Of course, much of the military isn't actually on duty at any given time, but it's still an interesting statistic.

So long as they're not all always idling and can actually be mobilized to work when required...

[TheFlame52]

Fun fact: out of a fortress of 182 dwarves, 81 are children and 69 are in the military.  This leaves 32 work-capable dwarves who aren't in military service.  Of course, much of the military isn't actually on duty at any given time, but it's still an interesting statistic.

Are you counting Not A Squad? They are civilians all the time, and don't really count as military at all.

[Deus Asmoth]

I got them to train for a while during my turn. Also, that post is fine by me. I thought I'd replied to it already. My bad.

[4maskwolf]

Sir Brenzen sighed.  This whole situation was getting out of hand, and Thane was right: one way or another, this harassment had to stop.  It was obviously getting to her, and he was not unaware of some of FallenAngel's... experiments.

"Very well, Thane," he said tiredly, "out of respect for our friendship and to ensure the safety of all involved, I will accompany you."

Thane nodded tersely and turned: Sir Brenzen could tell she was too angry for words.  They walked in silence: Thane fuming, Brenzen contemplating.  There was something more to this whole situation.  Even for someone as crazy as Fallen, this was absurd: why would he risk his life bothering Thane to try to get his hands on Ob Kat.  And why specifically now?


FallenAngel heard footsteps approaching and closed the book.  Excellent, she had arrived.  Now all he had to do was convince her to let him borrow the hammer for a few days, and things would be perfect again.  He would have his brother, Thane would have her hammer, and everyone will be happy.

The door flew open and an enraged Thane entered the room, followed closely by Brenzen.  Fallen frowned: that wasn't part of the script.  The knight wasn't supposed to be here.

"What do you want?" Thane growled, staring at him.  There was a lot of hositility there, but no matter: that would change soon.

"I'd like to borrow your hammer, as I've said in the past."

"No.  I've told you over and over again, and shooting a crossbow at me won't make me say yes.  You have a minute to clear out of my line of sight."

Brenzen put his hand on Thane's shoulder, but Thane shrugged it off, glaring angrily across the room.

"This is not going to plan at all," Fallen mused silently, then said, "please Thane.  I want to see him again."

Thane growled, "And I've told you fifteen times your brother isn't in the hammer."

Fallen felt tears welling up in his eyes, "His imprint is there, Thane.  I can bring him back.  I can make it right.  Just please let me use the hammer."

"No."  Thane said.

Fallen felt rage well up inside of him.  Who was she to deny him this.  If he had to kill her to get the hammer, so be it: he would have his brother back.  But first, to deal with the knight.  He turned towards Brenzen, who was watching the scene with concern, and said, "LEAVE!"

The magic in his words compelled the knight, forcing him out of the room.  He knew that the spell of confusion would only last for a few hours, but that was plenty of time to kill this wretch.  He would have preferred it not to come to this, but her immunity to magic left no other option.

Thane clutched her hammer tighter, "What did you do?" she yelled at him.

Fallen stood up, holding out his hand.  He felt the familiar tugging sensation as the blade appeared.  He liked to say it was made of coalesced sunlight, though it was really just solidified magic.  "I'll give you one more chance, Thane.  Hand over the hammer."

Thane growled and ran at him, and Fallen ran to meet her.


Tarmid sat at his desk, pondering how he should write what he had learned down.  It was heresy, he knew, to think the way he did, but there was no other conclusion now.

A sudden spike on the thaumateurgical array startled him, and he stood up.  The array was registering a large upswing in magic use, located somewhere above him.  He grabbed his crossbow and quiver and exited his room, locking the door behind him.  He ran up the stairs, almost running straight into Brenzen.

Who proceeded to walk on like nothing had happened.  Tarmid frowned: this was unusual behavior for the knight.  He walked quickly back and stood in front of the knight, who stopped in his tracks and stared blankly down at Tarmid.

"Sir Brenzen?  Are you okay?"

Brenzen stared blankly at him, then, after a long moment's hesitation, said, "Yes."

Tarmid looked at the knight's eyes.  Staring into the distance, blank facial expression, slow response time: Tamid knew these symptoms.  Brenzen had been mentally confused by a magic-user.  Tarmid did the only thing he could think of: he brought his hand back and slapped the knight hard across the face.


Brenzen's mind cleared suddenly, and he remembered what had happened.  He had gone with Thane to confront FallenAngel, Fallen had gotten upset, and then...

"That son of a bitch." he growled, and sprinted back up the stairs, Tarmid following close behind.


Thane growled, blocking another strike from Fallen's sword.  She lashed out with Ob Kat to strike at him, but once again the bastard danced out of range.  The fucker was too fast, she couldn't get a shot in.

She heard footsteps coming from behind her, and wondered if there were some people coming to deal with Fallen.  She was sure someone had to have heard their battle, and anyone who did should have fetched the military to deal with the situation.

Taking advantage of her momentary distraction, Fallen lunged forward, plunging the sword through her armor into her right arm.  Thane yelled at the unexpected pain and felt something snap inside of her.  She felt a burning sensation in her stomach, and suddenly Fallen slumped to the ground and fell still, gashes appearing across his whole form as his soul was sundered from his body.  But still she gathered power, even as the door opened behind her: more power than she had ever felt in her life.  It was unbearable, she had to get rid of it.  She whirled around and blindly tried to push the power away, make it go someplace else.


Tamid followed the knight up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time.  It was almost certain that Brenzen was returning to where he had been bewitched, and he was headed in the direction the magic had come from.  They approached a little-used door and Brenzen barged into it.  The door swung open, revealing Thane standing stock still as FallenAngel's body crumpled to the ground.  Brenzen began to move towards her and she whirled around, a pulse of energy flying from her hands and striking the knight.  Brenzen flew backwards and collided with the wall, slumping down.  Tarmid hoped that he was only momentarily stunned rather than killed, but didn't spare the time to check.  He ducked behind the door to get himself out of the line of fire, but Thane simply stood, breathing heavily, until suddenly she seemed to realize what she had done.  Tarmid noticed that she was bleeding from her right arm and that Ob Kat was laying on the ground next to her.  He walked out from behind the door, regretting what had to happen next, if only for the safety of everybody else.


Brenzen stood slowly to his feet, grunting from the pain that spiked through his legs.  He saw Tarmid walking in the door, crossbow held at his side, and knew what was going to happen next.  He picked up his pickaxe from the ground where it had fallen and moved over next to Tarmid.

"Thane," Tarmid said, voice heavy with regret, "I am afraid that under the circumstances, you are under arrest for murder of a member of the fortress, use of magic, and assault.  Please leave your hammer where it is and come with us."

Thane glared back at the two of them, and Tarmid continued, "I will try to get this cleared up as soon as possible and release you to return to your duties as commander of the first hammer.  As it stands, however, you are guilty of the murder of FallenAngel with magic."

Thane sighed, "What are you going to do to me?"

Tarmid gazed back solemnly, "I am going to discover the truth."


FallenAngel opened his eyes, the scene still firmly stuck in his mind.  He could feel his brother's soul within his body, trying to escape.  He felt weak, but the weakness would fade.  The gashes from his dismissal from his body had already faded.  He picked himself up off the floor: Thane was gone.  He strode quickly towards the wall and disappeared with a flash.

The next instant he found himself in his chambers, the machines set up and ready to go.  He picked up the soul-magnet and gently pushed his brother's soul into the coils.  The next part had to be done quickly, or the soul would wither and return to the afterlife.  He plugged the coil into the machine and aimed it down at the placid dwarven body laying below.  It had taken him a long time to gather the components for this body and a good deal of magic to keep it preserved, but it was finally done.  He began flicking the switches, and felt the power hum within the machine.  A brilliant light appeared around the body, so bright that he had to look away, and a roaring noise began that got louder by the second.  Then, suddenly, it stopped.

Fallen looked at the body hopefully, watching for the slightest sign of movement, but nothing stirred.  He felt a crushing despair: he had failed.  He could never set things right, never correct the mistake he had made.

The body's eyes flew open, and it sat up quickly, falling off of the table in the process.  It tried to stand, but failed, then finally hauled itself to its feet.  It looked around in shock at the laboratory around it.

"Where am I?"  Fallen heard his brother ask.  He walked around the table and embraced his brother, who enthusiastically embraced him back.

"You are home."


Copy-paste is your friend.  As is the wiki.

Fun fact: out of a fortress of 182 dwarves, 81 are children and 69 are in the military.  This leaves 32 work-capable dwarves who aren't in military service.  Of course, much of the military isn't actually on duty at any given time, but it's still an interesting statistic.

Are you counting Not A Squad? They are civilians all the time, and don't really count as military at all.

Erm...
They seem to keep switching between being active duty and not active duty, so...
idk what's up with that.  But I counted them.

[Doctor_Whiteface]

You have been dwarfed.  Any particular title you desire?

"Urist McWhiteface," if it's not too long.

[4maskwolf]

You have been dwarfed.  Any particular title you desire?

"Urist McWhiteface," if it's not too long.

I actually meant profession title, but thanks for letting me know.  No, it isn't too long.

[Doctor_Whiteface]

You have been dwarfed.  Any particular title you desire?

"Urist McWhiteface," if it's not too long.

I actually meant profession title, but thanks for letting me know.  No, it isn't too long.

Profession title... "Sawbones," perhaps.

[Deus Asmoth]

Just to clarify, you also are desirous of a turn as overseer?

[Doctor_Whiteface]

Just to clarify, you also are desirous of a turn as overseer?

Yas. I like to think that I run a sane and efficient fortress.

[Deus Asmoth]

... hmm. I guess we can let that slide for now and give you a turn regardless.

[Doctor_Whiteface]

x3

Is there presently a way to seal the fortress against outside threats?

[4maskwolf]

x3

Is there presently a way to seal the fortress against outside threats?

Yep.

But I'm trying to set up our defenses so that we never have to.  Pull a couple levers, activate the ballista, get the archers into place, and laugh.

[Doctor_Whiteface]

x3

Is there presently a way to seal the fortress against outside threats?

Yep.

But I'm trying to set up our defenses so that we never have to.  Pull a couple levers, activate the ballista, get the archers into place, and laugh.

That's a stupid plan. Where's the magma?

[MDFification]

Just to clarify, you also are desirous of a turn as overseer?

Yas. I like to think that I run a sane and efficient fortress.

So why on earth are you signing up to play a Steelholdian fort then?
Our first fort had 4 hospitals, mysterious 'ventillation' shafts that wound up being used as highly inefficient corridors since they were apparently breached by accident, a megaproject that produced 3000+ power that was subsequently channeled into a trade depot (note; no projects were ever attempted that would require use of power in Steelhold) and the reason our fort died was because someone decided to herd the entire fort's population into a room (for some reason) and then accidentally mined into the magma sea, flooding it and burning everyone to death because he wouldn't disable the burrow.
Just so you know what you're getting into.