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[Splint]

40 separate suture requirements, all on his skull.

daaaamn.

My sentiments exactly. Like I said, they basically sewed his friggen skull back together.

well, this Mountainking bloke is clearly going to be a great influence on our glorious clanhold!

Frankly I have no idea what I'm doing at this point.

[Beirus]

Just wait, my squad will become the Orcish version of the Bad News Bears. Except with more blood and body parts. But seriously, I blame the Mountainking.

[Splint]

Just wait, my squad will become the Orcish version of the Bad News Bears. Except with more blood and body parts. But seriously, I blame the Mountainking.

Assuming your orcs don't habitually die on you.

At present, blame everything on The Mountainking.

[Monitor Lisard]

"THROM TEH DIAREE OF GRADBUL THE ZNEK ETER:

I cant just bilieve it but I hav been mauld by lil' gnomey-nome cretures... Ow it still hurts zo much to wush muh face. Jarl Morbai sed I wuz lucki to hav such a thik skull. Bad news, I can hardli remembr... wut its called now... Yuh, spellen. Alzo, Sensu and a rader guy droppd by yestudai, wishd me to git wel soon. Oh, and I'v zeen dat wird guy who claimz to be mi agin. He und Jarl argued on how to get muh head bone togeder... Ugh, he smerd me face wit some disgustin' oinkment. And yuh, now I hav to wear tis helm for a whiel to get gud.

Ther ar many new faces 'round, includin sum humies. I've ask one of dem if he had evr bin to de theatr. He zaid "Yup" and told mi sum storis of teir humie nights fitin wit dragonz over prinzesses. I do nut understand tho, why did the prinzess not figth de dragn by herself, but wutever. I really wunt to set up a lil' band of actors to show dem yung orks, turists and everione around how bravely we fout dwarvz and such back in our glorios daiz. Its much mor interestin then dat humie theatr. Too bad we don hav... how do yuh call it... amphi... ampihteatr... Circus. Yeah, zo anyone coul come around and wutch us act. I hav to diskus it wit someone."

[Senshuken]

A Matter of Grave Concern.

There are only two possible reasons that dwarven bodies rose from the dead in order to continue to fight here at Blackhold. Either a rogue Necromancer has been lured here by the amount of death that is generated at our gates and is trying to set themselves up, or the Dwarfs have suffered so many crippling losses in recent years that they have turned to Necromancy in order to try and bolster their numbers. While we should be proud of the fact that we have killed that many Dwarfs to warrant such a thing, the fact that this has come about is... concerning. Necromancers are bad news and I will recommend that we sweep the area to make sure that none of the insane little bastards are sneaking around.

On a more positive note, Gradbul's thick skull has saved his life... To the point where I'm not quite sure how he should still be alive. Still, I'll keep an eye on him while he recovers. He mentioned that he was having trouble spelling again. The fact he can still write at all after all he has been through is surprising. I'll see what I can do to help him through this time.

[Splint]

Hah haaaa, wonderful guys! Glad to see some journals! Since last update two more orcs died (the weaver's baby and a guy who fell down a flight of stairs,) and the community contributions are up to date!

[Splint]

Migrants come to the hold. One grievously injured, covered in bruises and missing a leg. She'd been mangled protecting her group from some monster or another. Two were quickly inducted into the warband, one an Uruk, the other a common with past experience.

A separate shaft was quickly ordered to be bored out, going so deep as to hit treasured marble; some of these newer residents would live well indeed. The same could not be said of the baby of the dead weaver who went mad several months ago.



They had kept the baby fed and watered for some time, but they'd lost track of the child nearly a week ago. The child was found curled up in a bush as a dried out husk. Not long before there was also the creation of a fine bone mask.



The reservation caravan arrived not long after, and for once didn't herald invasion, unless one were to count four giant louse and a pair of kobold thieves as such.

Jarl Morbai offered an immense show of wealth to the caravan. Amid piles of  battlefield salvage, was an immense offering, worth nearly 20,000 gold merchant dollars: Goblets of gold, platinum, and black bronze, masterworks of bone carving from the hands of the many skilled carvers Blackhold possessed, numerous bone items made from the unmistakable remains of elves, and several large gems studded with crystal glass.

“That sort of wealth would probably be able to buy a small city!” the liaison said, astonished by it all.

She lamented that she couldn't simply gift them the crateloads of offerings, but many contained things that shouldn't have been there and thus couldn't be sold. However it also explained why mead wasn't being produced: Nobody knew where the honey'd been stored until now! Mead was soon marked for mass production, with a celebration had for the task!

And, after this vast display, Morbai decided that they'd gladly pay a premium for raw glass, barbed wire, and drink. She even gave them 4500 gold dollars worth of dire wolves as incentive, and bought some extra spikes for some of the younger mumaks (to thin the heard without hurting the mumak population.)

As the caravan departed, Gorlshk was given a surprise with refitted plate armor,  boots, body armor, a helmet... And he was quite happy with it. However, while Gorlshk gained protection, another orc was seen wanting for it, when a construction accident sent him plummeting down the hovel shaft. He was dead in short order, several broken ribs having torn his heart. He'd plummeted the whole length, bouncing off the spiral stairs and ending up a hideous mass of broken bones and a massive pool of blood.



Work pressed on on housing, but there were strange goings on. A building that had been left abandoned had what appeared to be a strange alter within it. To who or what, nobody had any idea. Within were dusty bone statues of orcs, lit by ruby braziers.



The message was ominous indeed. And soon, they heard the roars.



A ramp was quickly built, and Senshuken volunteered to face the beast.

+++

Senshuken made no effort to hide himself. He walked through the forest, two lit toches in one of his large hands. He could see the beast circling the area overhead. It was cautious, smart even. A simpler monster would have simply dove into the heart of the hold.

He took one torch in his left hand, and hurled it up above the treeline with a mighty heave, and the beast seemed to spot it, and came lower. Shenshuken's muddied and already brown lamellar armor helped him blend into the surroundings, he realized. So he hurled up the second as it passed over. This got it's attention, and it let out a deafening roar that could be heard back in the hold.

It came down, splintering trees limbs and scattering pine and cedar leaves, and landed with a  great thud, the force of it's landing staggering the old warrior. But it did nothing to intimidate him. Senshuken merely drew his daikatana.

“So,” He said, straitening himself. “A real challenger comes! Are you here to grant an old orc a good death wyrm, or simply gawk and make noise?”

“A good death orc. And after you, a good death to your hold, which will become my hoard!” The mighty frost wyrm announced, and then he struck out with his claws. One of which flew away in a bloody arc! The wyrm bellowed angrily and he blasted the orc with a hasty burst of frost. It stung the orc's eyes and bit at his ears, nose, and lips through his helm and mask. When he wasn't being blown backwards, he made a hasty dive and threw up his blade, cutting the beast's belly as he rolled under it and up the other side.

Back on his feet, the dragon wheeled around and lunged forward, knocking Senshuken on his back, but his training and experience served him well and he rolled with the hit, neatly coming back onto his feet, with his off-hand blade drawn now as well.

“My turn!” He shouted and lunged forward, blades crossing as the beast tried to back away to prepare another burst of frost, and the beast went face first into the dirt for an instance, it's front right leg having deep gashes in it's front and bent at an odd angle to boot.

The dragon managed to rear up, backhanding the orc away and nearly into the pond nearby, and it attacked again, the very tip of it's claw catching his left thigh, pulling off a leg-guard and leaving him with a shallow cut. The back of his brain registered he was lucky, but he charged forward, Furnace biting into the beast's gut as it reared again and he slashed it's back left leg with Volcano's larger blade, sending the mighty dragon sideways, smashing saplings into the mud and churning up dirt. He scrambled onto the wyrm and wrenched furnace free amid its thrashing, and drove it in again, probably biting into something vital. He managed to stab it twice more, and leapt down before a wing could clip him.

As a final blow, he wheeled around, with both hands on his daikatana, and slammed it down on the wyrm's neck. It kept thrashing, blew off two gouts of cold when eh tried to retrieve his katana, but soon it sat silent.

+++

Senshuken was hailed a mighty hero for besting the frost belching monster! And he found himself quickly joining his fellows in battle, driving back two packs of beakwolves. Amid the battle, a dire wolf even tore out the neck of a  beak wolf, and earned for its efforts the title of Flyskirts.

Evidently the warriors did indeed possess a sense of humor.

It was around this time a cave was made. It would hold the Icecrystal sanctum, once they had the shimmering mithril and silver to plate the chamber of course. And following this, the recent uruk inductee began speaking oddly, and seized both bone and copper to make something in Palu's old store.



A fine gauntlet of bone was made, and quickly put up in the shop as a fine display of craftsorcship. Winter moved along without much from there. The sanctum floor was plated over in mithril and cobalt with some silver for good measure. 

Sometime into mid-winter, someone had the idea to create a stickbomb satchel, and tasked a snaga reservist to carry it into battle with a looted morningstar.

+++

It had to be done. It would be done. She had the simpleminded Nidor do the digging. She paid him with some uncut lapis lazuli and he followed her to her shrine to her new god. It took two days for the strong young olog, when he reported hitting “green stuff,” “glass stuff” (which she took to mean the components to make some kind of stained glass,) and “Dirterite,” (which was presumably diorite.) He also found “orange stuff” and finally, at sundown the second day, “A big cave! Jus' like ye said!”



She smiled, and gave him two emeralds to keep quiet, and went to the Jarl's house, nailing a note on the door for the warchief that someone was seen lugging a shoddy steel hatch to the creepy shrine.

+++

How this had happened was anyone's guess. A tunnel was found below the shrine, that lead straight down to the underdark, or the upper parts anyway... The note was a mystery, but the Jarl didn't care to investigate it. She wanted the caves explored for minerals and threats, saying they might as well make the most of it.

Bolugd ordered the stickbomber to investigate the place, to give his new bombs a test run while the rest of the warband dealt with the five beak wolf packs that had arrived. The reservist, Droog, obliged and went in. He found mostly gold ore and low value gems, both in abundance, with chrome and wolfram ore sprinkled about, amid piles of accumulated webs.

Back on the surface however, the situation escalated. Again gnomish treachery was evident as the beak wolves fled and the gnomes advanced, averitable horde of axegnomes and a squad of marksgnomes and  a pack of raptors, cougars, and bobcats to support them. Bolugd ordered the gate sealed; they'd underestimated the gnomes before, they would not do so again. The elites waited for the enemy to come to them. This would not be a hunt. This would be a battle fought by holding ground: The patch of it in front of the gate.

After fighting off two squads of gnomes and their war animals, the warriors began marching north, and found some gnomes had bodkin arrows stuck in them. When they forced their way onto the hill, they found the remains of a snaga archer, chopped up, shot, and gnawed on by the mounts.



The remaining gnomes did not survive. And as the warriors returned, the jarl mandated an exploratory shaft be dug, and sure enough in time, amid reports of gold and zinc, they hit a cave full of wondrous crystalline growths! And, a downward passage. Droog of course was sent to investigate the way down; a squad could be tasked with slaying anything that tried to crawl up nearer the temple.

+++

Droog kept walking ever downward. It was cold and damp, which he hadn't expected. His oil lantern burned bright and guided him along though, but before long, he was in an odd room on the path. It seemed like the stone pulsated, as if it had a heartbeat...



He pressed on undeterred. He may have been a snaga, but he wasn't going to wimp out and flee back to the safety of the hold like a goblin. After a time, he found the ground sounding strangely like stone flooring beneath his fur boots. He turned the knob on his lantern to let in more oil, letting the fire burn brighter for a few scant minutes, and he realized where he was: The true Underdark.



It didn't take his exploring long for him to realize he wasn't alone down in the dank dungeon of the world. Something was down there with him. Something that wasn't friendly. Something that wanted him dead.



And they'd kill him, he was sure. But he also saw them as a chance for glory. These were frightful monsters, so he returned to the surface, saying he found some “wildlife,” and wished to have his squad accompany him on an “animal hunting mission” that was beneath the skills of the hold's mighty uruks.

Bolugd agreed, and had Burrz gather his reservists, and down they went.

To their own astonishment, they managed to beat the three monsters without any of them dying, though Droog and Lorkan were injured, aswas sergeant Burrz himself when a bunch of rutherers showed up, one of which kicked him in the leg hard enough to break his thigh. The decided to press on, ignoring their injured comrades who were unconscious, and went exploring.

And they found something astonishing. Or more, Monny Zat blundered into it.



Raw Adamantine! Praise the... Snaga?

One of the group was quick to run up, grabbing the first miner she saw, and had him come along to “Pull up sumthin' big! We needs it to show the Jarl we iddnt lyin'!” They also lead down a rescue party for their battered brothers.

The “miner” complied, and would let the king show her the path to the harvesters...



Yes!



The harvesters! The deep ones who would devour or be devoured! The Mountainking's work would be done!!!

The reservists were perplexed seeing someone rush by as they guarded what would surely become a terrific boon to their weapons and armor. Then they saw the demons. Kolest was killed without much difficulty, stomped to death while on fire by a great burning horse. But Monny, Langus, and Thrask would be damned if they were going to die without a fight!



And with a single spearthrust, Monny, a simple snaga, had killed the first demon to fall to Blackhold's warriors. But it was of course for naught. Langus died second, and Monny third. Thrask and her baby of course died next. The spirit that slew Monny would be known as Borebolt from then on, when the one-armed demon was encountered later on. Or would have, had Thrask not taken the demon with her.



Steamking and Takershock would live on however, one killing her baby, the other killing her.

At the surface however, the deranged prophet latched the hatch, laughing madly.

+++

Lorkan had screwed up. He'd gone back down to get his shield, and now he was hiding, fearing for his life. He was chased back down when he tried to flee, and resigned himself to death when he saw the orichalcum pick just laying on the floor next to a pillar of marble.



He dug a culvert and sealed himself in when he heard that damned horse coming for him. He'd  gotten lucky, but he knew his luck wouldn't hold for long. He only had a flask of mead and a saber, plus the mystery pick. But he was smart even for an orc, and he thought he could figure something out.



But as he hollowed out some of the pillar, he discovered piles of bones mysteriously in his new home. Perhaps whatever was looking after him had given him enough to survive ?


Alright everyone, Uncle Chumpkins here with a little baby update!

We breached hell.And I had to actually work to accomplish this, as the spie was solid fucking adamantine until only a dozen or so levels up from hell itself. The place is littered with “harvester” webs.

Several orcs have died, among them most of the snaga, but amazingly enough said snaga also managed to kill two demons! Despite virtually no training! Lorkan and some mumaks got trapped below though, cause he was looking for his shield. Now he's stick down there with nothing but a saber and a flask of mead, plus a pile of bones and a masterwork pick from a mysterious benefactor.

At first I was just gonna  let Lorkan get kicked to death by demon horses but I decided it'd be more interesting for the next update tp try and focus on him trying to not die horribly and leave the day to day topside on its own and off-screen. He has marble to build shit and a small heap of bones to make  some odds and ends. We'll see if he can survive down there. Other than that, we got a gnome and two beakwolf sieges, I dumped only the Mountainking knows how much garbage on the summer caravan, Senshuken killed a werescorpion (forgot to mention that,) and a frost wyrm, and I got everyone housed.

[Senshuken]

How did I fail to see this before?

I am afraid.

Something has been making things happen in the shadows and I do not trust its motives. An altar has been made to something known as the Mountainking and its message concerns me greatly. Now that I think about it, didn't an invasion of dwarfs bring some sort of idol with them of the so called Mountainking some time ag... DAMN IT!

How could I have been so blind? It appeared back when that bloody necromancer bullshit was happening. Motherfucking thing must have been tainted!!! I found it strange that the dwarfs haven't attacked since then and that must be why! After all why waste lives when your enemy will betray and murder themselves SHIT!

I will NOT let this hold end because of the long term plotting of the dwarves! I am going to get the warmaster and a couple of squads together and we are going to find that cursed idol and destroy it and that cursed alter! If this is truly what I believe it to be then whatever pawn has been enslaved by this foul power will be called on to try and defend them and they can thus by put down before they can do any serious harm. There is no time to lose!   

[smakemupagus]

Only in a Splint fort does a "little tiny update" include mining out a full pillar adamantine, breaching the underworld while our fortress hero kills both a frost worm and a particularly dangerous brand of werecreature; on top of the story setup for an epic tale of our new protagonists' survival dying of thirst alone in a bone-strewn wasteland.

[Monitor Lisard]

From the diary of Gradbul the Dreamwalker, a faithful thane of the great Jarl of Thashumghoshakh:

"This night I was woken up by an Olog, particularily the one that had his head used as an anvil. He stormed right into my hovel, shouting something illegibly... Wouldn't say that I was too irritated - happened to have a really weird nightmare that night. Anyway, he came in, and I asked if he required any help with his bandages or something. He started mumbling something about fell creatures that were coming after his "Lil' Snakey" and "Mr. Mumak". I'd never seen that guy terrified this much, even after he had received his wounds, not to mention that he was a tough, rugged ork that was capable of taking on an entire company all by himself. I was notquite sure, but then I felt something. Something that resembled a slight earthquake... But it was not. And the forces of nature. They were also disturbed.

I tried to calm down Gradbul (Yeah, that's his name, what a funny coincidence) and walked outside to check if everyone was ok. The streets were almost empty (as expected). Only a couple of commoners were hauling wood to the depot, with Lugbok the snaga behind them, pushing a cart full of of instruments. Also, there was light coming from the alcove near the warrior's houses. I came closer and found Senshuken and Khaziraad playing backgammon. A bottle and three metal goblets on the table were full of good stuff, and Gorshlk was also there, sleeping right next to the wall.

"Come here, Gradbul, we've got much to talk about." my fellow dreamwalker yawned and glanced at the bottle. "Make yourself comfortable".

"What's the deal?"

Senshu, who had been trying to light his pipe, finally managed to do it and replied:

"There's been something going on here, young man. Something that the ancestors wouldn't have liked" He said, looking straight at me. "I need some reasonable and trustworthy orks to deal with that matter. Will you help us?"

"Yes, sure" I replied, although all of this was making me nervous.

"Alright, then listen closely..."

[Quartz_Mace]

Hey, I was wondering if I could get Orc'd. I know I asked months ago when the game went on hiatus, so I understand if you forgot or didn't notice. Is the citizen page updated right now?

[Splint]

Ehh, more or less. There's been four moderate-sized waves or more not added, mostly because I was busy with other stuff and dunno who is from which anymore. Just tell me the general sort of orc you'd like if I didn't get it already.

[Quartz_Mace]

Male warrior Uruk renamed to Uglûk, please. He can use any sort of melee weapon. He can be an experienced soldier or rookie in a small squad, doesn't matter too much. Thanks in advance.

[Beirus]

Male warrior Uruk renamed to Uglûk, please. He can use any sort of melee weapon. He can be an experienced soldier or rookie in a small squad, doesn't matter too much. Thanks in advance.

OH OH, put him in my squad.   

[Splint]

There... might actually already be an uruk in your squad. Busy trying to coax elves into attack a vanilla fort, but I'll look into it. I'll have to deactivate a squad with a sword master to make an extra samurai arms kit though.