CHAPTER 38: Slaughterdome
Fall of 116
I awake to the smell of vomit. It fills my nose, and I feel like barfing some of my own, but only a strange dust comes out of my mouth. I try to move, but everything hurts. Slowly, the room around me start to appear. I can see.
I'm in the hospital. everything is covered in vomit. I can see doctor Melbil filling some vials with a blue/cyan substance.
-My eyes...
-Did not fall off, finishes the doctor.
-How?
-Some special treatment i designed. I studied rifi's blood, and found a cure of sort for eye-rot. You were lucky Lady Asmel was closeby ready to carry you up here, or you would have two empty sockets in your skull by now...
-Is Kel...
-Your sister is fine. her vision was saved, altho she is still healing. Basically every inch of her body has been scorched or suffers from frostburns. It will be a while until she can move again, but she will live.
-How long before I can get out of this bed, doctor?
-Well, being awake is a good enough step, I'd say a week or two. You've already been in a coma for about 2 month
-WHAT
The doctor starts to fill me up. While I was in a coma, some worker decided to withdraw from society, and created an awesome mug for me, hoping it would make my stay in this hospital more tolerable. He is right, it's an awesome mug, altho i can hardly move my arms right now...
i catch a glimpse of some hideous totem lying on a table, and ask what the hell that is.
''Dumat the broker traded a lot of stuff, but he kept this one. He likes it for some reason, maybe he just likes cat skulls? The bonecrafters are constantly adding more details to it too!''
Speaking of Dumat, he's busy trading with the ''mountainhome''. Altho they have nothing to offer aside from a few bars of gold and half a dozen pairs of steel greaves, the broker managed to get a few bins to the depot and got rid of a lot of random crafts and goblin leather armors that were cluttering our stores. They've been lying around for a lot of time, I believe. five years, if i'm correct... good riddance!
Totems are not the only thing the bonecrafters have been working on. Sme furnitures are starting to look very nice! Furniture such as this bed. If they keep at it, we'll be rid of all those bone piles, and the place will look kinda badass. nothing spells ''deadly fortress'' like covering everything with the bones of our fallen enemies
I'm told a human law-giver from the lavender empire arrived, named Ado sanaad. He's apparently the new guy in charge. He had a talk with the mayor, but didnt mention why he is now in power. what on earth happened to Quula? Why is she no longer running the empire? It seems the mayor is too busy working on something important, and can't finish the discussion and aquire more information...
It seems that during the last season, no real threats showed up, aside from a thief who tried to steal some blood vials. It was shot before it could cause any trouble.
The miners have been clearing parts of the cavern, digging upward with ramps to remove the stalagtites and stone pillars, so we can seal off the place or fight beasts in an open field. Of course, they decided to include babies in the workforce, and an accident almost killed one. some things never change...
* * *
A few weeks pass before I'm able to leave my bed. As soon as I'm out of the hospital, I'm told that Tun has an important announcment to make, and everyone should go to the coliseum. Everywhere around, vomit covers the halls and the walls.
Apparently, there is some justice to be dispensed. I don't see our hammerer around tho. A miner tells me that he is busy hunting down elk birds in the crypts. Why are the elk birds in the crypt? That's like, 9 levels above the caverns! nobody knows. I'll need a talk with the soldiers, some of them have been slacking off in my abscence, clearly.
Oh, speaking of soldiers slacking off. There's captain Catten, the self-proclaimed Lion Lord, heading toward the coliseum.
''Catten! Good to see you again. I'm glad you were there to support us against Galka.
-Thank you general, i did my best to...
-Your best is terrible. that was sarcasm. You are bad at your job, and i now strict you of your commanding duty. And of your cool room.
-
What?
I ignore Catten's complains. Quickly, I locate Immortal-D, and inform him of his promotion. With most of Catten's squad missing, Immortal-D is the second living member of the contest of fortifying. Or rather, was. As of today, he is now captain Immortal-D, leader of the squad. Catten shall now obey his commands, and serve as a regular soldier. I inform Immortal-D of his duties as a squad leader, and tell him to grab his new steel gear first chance he gets. He can also move into Catten's old room in the nobles quarters...
It seems that the coliseum was finally filled with chairs. Only a few dwarves are here at the moment, but the arena can sit up to 180 dwarves, with room for twice as many standing around.
I tire of waiting. Thankfully, Tun enters the coliseum, followed by basically every civilians. the place fills up pretty quickly. I wonder what Tun has to say. Is he announcing my recovery? I bet that's what it is. The Duke clears his throat, and start adressing the fort with an autoritative voice.
''Citizens of Whisperwhip! I'm so glad to have you all here today! As many of you know, our good queen is still missing. With her rightful heir absent, it falls upon me to act as the highest noble our civilisation has. Yes, I know, I was only a hunter a few years ago, until I quickly rose through the ranks to become a duke. Ah, most of you probably still see me as a random dwarf simply ordering querns around...''
Tun waves his hand around, and an engraver is dragged foward in plain view by two guards.
''For example, I recently mandated three querns. Sadly, only one of them was crafted withing the following months. I'm told by our good crafters that the order got lost in the backlog of jobs''
At Tun's signal, a speardwarf from the Magical Glove slaps the engraver, before litterally caving in her head with a kick. The whole fort watches in horror as the engraver's numb body rolls to the floor, before it's kicked down the arena. This is
shocking. I'm
shocked.
Everyone is shocked.
''Now, as you can see, while I'm ok with people making fun of me for loving querns so much, I will not tolerate that my demands be ignored. I am now requesting three more querns. My good citizens, I trust that you will all get to the task at your earliest convenience.''
The crowd is horrified, yet silent for a moment. Then someone starts to sob. a baby begins to cry. A few dwarves are screaming. Kol comes to me, the dwarf who strangled our beastslayer:
''Now you see, general, Tun has grown mad with power. That's why I had to kill a dying soldier. Otherwise, he would have done... that... to a random crafter.''
I want to respond, but tun is not done yet. He orders the levers pulled, and down in the arena, I see Lady Asmel, waiting alone amidst the cages. Someone pulls the lever, and with each rotating gear, six or seven goblins are released below.
''Now'' announces the Duke, ''I know this little lesson may have been tough for some of you. So here's a long-promised show to change your mind.''
Asmel starts her greatest demonstration yet, hacking and slashing goblins left and right. The goblins have nowhere to escape... or do they?
''Tun, you moron!'' I mutter to myself, ''You forgot to lock the
FUCKING DOORS''
The goblins start to escape. The right door is blocked by Asmel's murderspree, but the top and left doors are fair game.
For once, civilians have a great reason to ignore burrow restrictions. A dozen goblins start to pour into the spectating area. I order the soldiers to form a defensive perimeter, before it's too late. A few pets sacrifice themselves to save their masters. People are now fleeing the coliseum without looking back.
I can hear goblins dying left and right down in the arena. Asmel doesn't even care, she's just slaughtering everything she can get her hands, or axe, on. That's two pages of combat logs, there's like 9. She's killed at least a dozen, from what i can see.
I never see Asmel drink, or eat, or admire things. all she takes joy in is slaughter. she cleaves her last opponent, and look around. The arena is covered in vomit, blood, trashed cages and dismembered bodies.
It seems the civilians did not enjoy the show as much as expected. The stands are covered in vomit, and there's corpses and blood at the entrance. There's gonna be a lot of cleaning up to do.
I order our less shaken workers to begin mopping the place up, and assessing the damage. They inform me that one civilian is missing. He probably was attacked when the goblins breached the doors. No corpse was found, it seems he was litterally obliterated. nobody knows how that happened. How is that even possible?
The mayor orders the mecanisms to be stored in the side rooms of the arena, as it will save time for the haulers now. It'll also make the mecanists' job simpler if we need to reuse the arena...
I spend a few moments trying to locate the missing dwarf, in vain. I do, however, come across something surprising. Among the corpses and the cages, it seems that one traumatised goblin remains. His cage wasn't wired properly, so it didn't opened. He has seen how crazy we are when dealing with our own kind. Even more, he has withnessed the death of forty of his kin, for our amusement. I almost pity the creature, as it now exist in a permanent state of PTSD. I order the cage transported outside the fort, near our frontier.
I have the cage opened. the goblin is free, altho he doesn't move initially. I look at him, and explain his new purpose.
''You will go back to your own now. If you aren't too afraid to walk, that is. If you do, you will tell them what you saw today. You will tell the passionate sins what awaits them if they return. Tell them the dwarves of Whisperwhip send their regards...''
Yes, I switched up terror and vengeance in the last screenshot. Pretty appropriate that way tho.
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