WARNING: THIS UPDATE COMES IN THE FORM OF LARGER PARAGRAPHS.Okay, so, first off like I said I would, this is gonna be done
OOC and fairly short, but covers roughly a year's time give or take a month.
It's mainly for convenience because I'm focusing on prettying up the mage guild. Summer just kinda drags on uneventfully, though there are two highlights. First, in malachite, Nidor saves yet another moody dwarf who wanted wool. The end result was a legendary mechanic and an artifact mechanism, “The Equality of Chance,” pictured below. Second was yet another wyvern, which was made extra dead and resurrected as the dragon Tyrus. In an unusual turn of events, Splint was unavailable to kill it so I sent Fergus out to deal with it, because both Splint and Dailm were below deck getting supplies (food and refilling his flask respectively,) and that thing was making a beeline for the fort. A little after that Deadeye craps out the rune weaponry blueprints.
While construction is still going on, badgermen attack. Mix of bladebiters (swordsmen,) berserkers (axeman,) macebadgers, and weapon masters of the same, two swordmasters, an axe lord, and a mace lord. Most of them attacked from the south, and got a face full of ancient mithril plated hate bristling with sharp things. The human diplomat arrived a little after, and Bim finished his level 2 air training. About... Fuck, I dunno, like a month before.
Around this time I also tore down the air altar, and modded the research reaction because there was something silk probably in the caverns cut off by a tree or something they wanted for the reaction. Being sick of shelling out constant streams of gold coins on failed research also had me modify both the white and black mage altars as well for a sure fire outcome. Yeah it's a little wrong cheating like that, but hey. Only time I've done that in a long while. Humans arrived along the way at some point, which can be attributed to our soldiers being highly efficient killers.
Anyway, the haul's pretty good, plenty of scale and shellplate to sell at Bomrek's bargains, a couple crates of gold, musket and hand cannon ammo (since the archeologist has been finding tons of old rusted firearms,) and plenty of cotton cloth to make new clothes out of. There was also an “ambush that consisted of an asshole who startled Pyro, who proceeded to destroy our main gate, a glass cutting station, and three hunks of road along with killing our named Black Caiman, named giant leucro, and several black bears with an overkill four blasts of fire just because the guy was slightly “up” from her. Poor bastard was the only survivor of his ambush party too; the perimeter traps have been doing their job for the most part.
The a kobold got spotted, and proceed to have
two dragons worth of fiery death blasted at it, frying the southwest side of the north bank. And by some twisted miracle, in spite of a half dozen animals and a caravan guard being incinerated, the merchants were unhurt, just covered in soot from the smoke.
Sometime into Limestone, a miner gets a secretive mood. By this point the floor's been finished in the Fire Altar, creating a sort of fireball surrounded by smoke look. Isn't exact, but it was the best I could do (as the giant flame I wanted require more space than what I had available.) I also devise a pattern for the new Air Altar space, with a pattern using greens and yellows in mind to pattern the floor of the earth altar space as well (since it's already centered and largely has what it needs for adornment already, being surrounded by brown stone.) Why green? Well, because we have a shitload of green paint.
Around the end of limestone, a small group of cave fish tribals make the mistake of trying to gain entry to the fort. Three get captured, and three end up chopped to pieces. Of course they'll end up chopped to bits soon enough anyway, but still. And on the subject of caverns, I issue Tirion a new bloodsteel bladeshield taken off the drow caravan that got trashed last year as a badge of office.
About mid autumn, Unib's mage training finishes, making her a full blown icemage. The miner also finishes a swanky sandstone throne.
About this time some asshole started a party, which ground work on the air temple to a halt, and I sent the Paints after yet another group of frog tribals. They would have tried to gain entry to the fort forcibly anyway, so best to nip that in the bud right there. Also captured a giant drowspider, and a trio of cave crocs. A month later in Timber, another group of tribals shows up and again it falls to the Paints kill them dead before they start clogging the damned cages. On the way back, they also wipe out a group of
Oh, and right around caravan season someone attacks the fort, this bunch being a squad of swordorcs lead by a maceorc that can count a Corsair, Druid, and regular old dreamwalker among their ranks. I don't send a squad after them immediately just because I'm not really in dire need of anything in particular and they're just setting up camp. And speaking of camp, apparently there's something frogmen in the caverns find really fuckin' interesting near Riverrun, because they keep showing up and I keep having the Paints kill them. At one point they even swarmed out of the cavern lake to try and kill Vexxy, who along with Vukrig, in response proceeded to jump
into said lake, and kill them all after knocking them back in, and then swim out no worse for wear. Then a group of those silverfish showed up, to which I of course sent the Paints after.
Vexxy, being the leader, lead the charge and proceeded to plow through four other silverfish to attack the one at the far end of the group for some reason, where she swiftly decapitated it and her squad attacked the predators from behind, and tear them a new one. They then proceed to wipe out a group of giant beetles as well, apparently because the things looked at them funny on the walk back to the outpost. They proved hardier than the frogmen or roaches, taking two on one fights to bring down; the risk of death was non-existent, but the fuckers kept knocking them all over making it very hard for them to fight without a partner.
It's around this time that the work on the Fire Altar is just about finished, and stoneware braziers are moved in to complete the look. I will also add I wish we had a fire deity, but even without any statuary it came out decently. On the note of Altars, I've also decided to brick over access to what was going to be the black altar's place, and build it in a more out of the way area under the cavern outpost, accessible by a door hidden in the now-unused scriptorium storage. In its place, now branched off the mage guild, is a monastery! An altar to the gods is also due to be installed next to it in a separate chamber.
The Paints continue their murder spree unabated, and when there's a sudden lack of giant bugs or tribals to kill, I find the opportunity to get rid of the backlog of captured bugs, olms, tribals, and whatever else that needed killing. Added a couple butcher shops as a result, since there's plenty of fresh meat to be had from the nontribals they massacred. Remaining on the military front, the stream of shit in need of a sword to the face in the caverns bottoms out, and nothing else shows up besides fire maidens playing in the magma pipe in the crystal caverns, and the orcs remain content to sit around their campfire to the north.
It is now winter.
So construction on everything below ground keeps going. I've resolved to use a combination of black and purple for the black altar spaces in keeping with the general feel warlocks tend to give as well, and the light gray I used for the air altar for the religious structures. Work starts on both the monastery itself, and an altar to the gods, complete with pews where Nidor can give sermons.
I also realize I missed a reaction for the white school of magic when I notice no option to upgrade the relevant altar. I proceed to curse my stupidity, send someone to buy both more featherwood and some glumprong, and make sure to have everything ready because god damn it I want these altars!
On the 20th of Moonstone, the orcs finally make their move and charge the front gate. This of course, proved to be a highly ill-advised decision on their commander's part. Fighting spilled into the tavern, though the intruders are quickly chased out and killed outside. Splint proves to have an apparent irrational hatred of orcs, even for a dwarf, and actively chases the fleeing orcs north, killing two of the four survivors while everyone else follows the station order I gave them by the tavern. These were squad level mind you, so clearly Splint has some issue with orcs to run off after them like that.
Anyway, siege lifted and life in Riverrun goes on.
At the start of Opal, the altar for the temple is finished as is the monastery, and Nidor is switched from shrine duty to manning the altar, offering the skulls of our many slain foes and animals in exchange for whatever small reward the gods may see fit to offer. At the same time, a relic is found to be a rusted steel suit of armor discovered during stone excavating by an archeologist and along with the gauntlet-less suit is a rusted steel plate helm of the ancient dwarf holds! Perhaps there is more to this location than the Joyous Steel Company thought?
Nidor's first offering results in a handful of rough topaz and a silver ingot, second some silk and an iron ingot, third a gold ingot and some plump helmets. A few days or so after that we get a mood out of a furnace operator. Took over a craftdwarf shop, and has no excuse not to get some shit done since Nidor got a got storage of wool cloth in the shrine for these situations and we have plenty of silk and cotton.
To start off obsidian is this little “discovery,” which from a story standpoint I'm going to pretend doesn't exist so you guys can run rampant with how it got there. Arcvasti did do many questionable things in the wake of his wife Ducim dying in battle in the pursuit of knowledge... And immediately after (literally not a day after in-game,) is a second “journal.”
I will also take the time to let you know both the emberblaze and stormtempest altars are now complete!
The archeologist also discovered amongst the stones, a massive treasure chest which when cracked open revealed an obsidian sword, silver jug, cage, and statue of giant swans, an Earth Blood gem (AKA a blood of armok,) a Stonebone Gem that sent his ass zippin' all over the place (Breath of Armok) and massive iron man: The Destroyer, an Avatar of War.
Obviously due to my misgivings of such a meta concept as Armok being mentioned in-game, I have censored the guardian's description and badly replaced it with my own. About two weeks after we get attacked by the Pandashi, who arrive from the west road. The poor axepandas walked right into the Grasses, who I'd parked there in anticipation of a caravan.
Thinking them gone or at one of the other roads, I pull the squad back. Then this happened.
That's three squads of pandashi, archers, macemen, and lashers. As you can imagine, the drow caravan didn't get far. Deciding I don't wanna drag the fight out, I called in The Darkness and Caverns too, and they made pretty short work of them. Another squad opened up from across the river, and a drow merchant went nutters, requiring a mercy-killing. Anyway, the south raiders buggered off after a shadowsniper got a lucky shot and put an arrow through the squad leader's head. And a squad of swordsmen lead by a lasher showed up, whom Fergus proceeded to disembowel, sending that squad running.
Crisis averted! Kinda. If you don't count two dead drop and a wrecked wagon as a bad thing.
So, moving on, I continue to focus on two things: Mage guild/church, and excavating stones. The former is coming along stunningly well, with the mosaic for the Mountainheart alter completed! However, I realize almost too late the altar chamber for the monastery is off center, so I quickly have that shit fixed.
Spring comes without me even actually noticing, as things continue apace. Highlights though include a minor forest imp incursion fended off by Tekkud, a giant olm deciding it was stronger than the Paints (and ending up as a side dish as a result,) and yet another visit from the wyvern horde.
Seriously, these things are as bad as frog men with how many we've had to deal with.
I sent Splint out, only for him to simply be a witness to our hellfire turret incinerate the poor thing (at a cost of a tread and a cracked casing.) Talk about a buzzkill since that means no body to recover. A little before this, we once again have a white altar!
Shouldn't have needed to research it again, but power outages just happen.
Slate just kinda trundles along without anything really noteworthy aside from a giant roach attack the Paints deal with. On the 1st of Slate though, Khaziraad goes fey, and runs off wanting to be a legendary bone carver based on the fact he grabbed some bones first. I also spot a group of silverfish so you know who got to deal with those monsters. This time around it's out of necessity, since there's not enough traps to catch so many of them.
I continue with stone excavating as well, resulting in a pair of ruby pots, a ruby coffin, and an obsidian spear. It's also around this time I make use of autodump the clear up the remains of the last siege and the pandashi ambush, mainly because I hadn't cleared up the siege in as prompt a manner as I should've, but also to get bits of dead guys and animals out of the river and the trees. Plus we now have a small backlog of oversized armor to melt down, and weapons to jam into anti-ambush/vandal traps, since it feels wasteful melting down perfectly useable weaponry.
Especially since frost giants for whatever reason, are very fond of petty vandalism. Evil is petty indeed.
While paused I also check our stocks and while we have nearly 7000 units of delicious alcoholic goodness ranging from dwarven rum and beer to beetlemead and sunshine, that's not nearly enough! The farms reenter production, finally giving our many farmhands something to do! Production of muck roots for needed the needed white paint for the white altar walls, cave wheat and sweet pod for the obvious needs of beer and rum, and pig tails for fabric. And ale. Lots of ale.
I also decide to use ironbark and steeloak to make the pews and furnishings for the monastery and embassy, which as an embassy, I've resolved to build in the admin wing of the fortress on the far side of the prison (which in theory is the safest part of the fortress, since above is the main military, and past that is the best animal hunting swordsdwarves in the fortress.)
I have also found that it has been an unbelievable 12 years since foundation!
And what better way to celebrate than The Caverns of Torturing wiping out two squads of more fucking Pandashi archers? I sent the Grasses up to back them up and as the bowman massacre is going on, the Grasses run smack into a trio of even more freakin' pandashi fighters: A team of swordsmen and two of pikemen.
Enemy officers: Two Pikemasters, an Axe Lord, a Mace Lord, and a Master Archer. That last one ended up dead fairly quickly. I will say I'm glad for this, because this time they had the decency to all attack from one direction, saving us the trouble of chasing these fucksticks down. Once the axe and mace lords go down though, the whole Pandashi attack seems to just kinda collapse, the guys in the back quietly spinning right around and fleeing the area while the ones furthest up end up with just a few limbs and a couple liters of blood missing each.
Anyway, business goes as usual, but goblins decide to send ambushes as well, all lead by regular (goblin-raised,) dwarves.
The first one is lead by a dwarf named Olngo Silverincest. Splint slices the girl in half, and her remains seem to imply she is descended from Shovelhope dwarves. This suspicion is confirmed when the dwarves afford her a coffin in the warrior wing of the tombs (as is fitting for a normal lasherdwarf, invader or not.) It happens again with Snodub Cruelsprinkle, who gets slain by the big mama of red dragon kind, Pyro herself! She now has the goblin “surname” of Ustogamxo, or “Obeyedblotch.” The south road was almost totally destroyed, but still. Pyro proceeded to claw a macegoblin's limbs off and cook another. A third dwarf, this one Uko Unuuksos the pikedwarf, is decapitated by Dailm.
I think I'll call Pyro “Pyro, The Obeyed.” Sounds better than “Obeyedblotch.”
Elves show up to trade, and I mark all our raptors and bears to be trained for battle. I can assign them to dwarves on request. The elves actually contributed to Pyro's mini murder spree, distracting Snodub while she clamped down on her from the side (after frying two slashers and trashing the damned road.) While trash is being brought to the depot to trade though, Khaziraad finishes his bitchin' animal trap, Blockhunger!
The trading haul is decent for what the elves bring, including replacements for the grizzly and black leucro we lost to the little mess Alacore made last year with the human caravan's visit, a small sum of booze, plants, singing arrows, seeds, and plants. I also have some extra shit brought up for the summer caravan, to save us some hassle of bringing them out then.
I also decide we can start armoring animals, so I have the stuff needed to research the war kennels made or salvaged, and I also decide since we have the materials now, we can research the volcanic foundry and warpstone pool for the hell of it, since thanks to the crucible we can produce obsidian at will and there's warpstone in the crystal caverns we can dig through for needed materials. I'd like to have the golem forge made so we can field the golems we get from up north, but we need orichalcum for that and I need to spy out the crystal caves for ores.
Fun fact, warpstone glows with rendermax enabled, as do fungiwoods.
I've also resolved, in light of our copious amount of firearms from the dwarf I will now simply call “the archeologist,” to assign the fortressborns of military aptitude (a wrestler and two guards born on site,) as the start of the Thunderguard Company, units of dorfs obviously packing rifle-sized heat. Once we get a chemistry station researched of course, since we need to be able to mass produce munitions.
With the arrival of summer, I conclude this update.
In summery, we had artifacts, dragon gained a full name, we buried goblin-raised dwarves, blew up a road with said dragon, did some trade finished all the elemental altars' rooms, finally finished with the black and white altars (now I just need a ridiculous amount of white paint for the altar room's walls,) killed several metric fucktons of predominantly large insect and frogman things in the caverns, restarted farm production, researched the rune armory, killed a pair of wyverns, and partially finished our new monastery. I also fessed up ahead of time to my limited cheating via autodump and the research crap for the white/black altars.
Might not be as interesting due to the OOC nature, but worry not! We will resume your regularly scheduled IC update next time, as our Fortress Guard Captain!
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Topic: ☼Riverrun, a Masterwork Community Dwarf Fortress RISE AGAIN!!!☼ (Read 158091 times)