Chapter 81: TearchanceYears 140 to 142Killcount: 64Warning: This is a seriously fat update. like, larger than what's standart for this inflated story. Like, over 100 screenshots big. I've tried to regroup screenshots in a semi-coherent way, juggling clumsily between the grouped ideas like arena sessions and construction updates togeter, while still retaining the chronological order in which things hit the various fans of the fortress. BTW, the thread has now reached 10 000 views, which is frankly a lot I think, so thanks to everyone following this story! I hope you have as much fun as I do!
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The bronze collossus was, admitedly, a mistake. Now he's dead, but there are still a few ''issues'' lurking under the fortress. It will be a long time before I tackle the fifteen forgotten beasts hidding in the middle caverns, but there is one creature we can get rid of. A flame monster, seemingly stuck and unreachable. I theorize that whatever prevents our soldiers from moving nearby could be behaving the same way fortifications do, giving cover to the forgotten beast. As such, I dispatch a few woodcutters to support milicia commander Ustuth, who is now a master marksdwarf.
Within a a few seconds, Ustuth is able to move close enough to score a few hits, shattering the life essence of the creature, and scoring the 65th forgotten kill of the fortress. Speaking of marksdwarves, I,ve assigned Prince Mistem to be part of the Gracious Flights, and as such he has begun training with Kogsak, aka Lady Grace.
As for our other noteworthy guest, Edzul remains... puzzling. He has been living in HAVEN ever since he arrived, and hasn't mentionned anything about our food or drinks. Thankfully, no dwarf has vanished in mysterious circunstances...
Later on, i notice that Edzul has been given water, AND food. Are the dwarves pitying him? do they see him musing alone in the graveyard and bring him food to ease his mood? We may never know his secret...
...That is, until one morning the dwarves report that Cilob is missing since last week. Nobody can locate him, and I don't see it anywhere. I consult the stock screen, and browse corpses, but zooming on his ''corpse'' reveals nothing. I spend more time following Edzul, until the haulers reveal what they know: Cilob the soldier was apparently stuck in a cage trap and was placed in the storage room, where he slowly died of thirst. I'm sorry what? How is this a thing that happens? And I'm not talking about how a dwarf gets cage-trapped, because I've recently learned that webbing monsters turn cages into super-cages. What I want to know, is how does a dwarf find his friend stuck in a trap, say nothing, carries him upstairs, and let him die there.
This hauler is not the only stupid dwarf around. Kol, farmer, recently moved to the fortress with his four pet bats. The pets don't appear in the unit screen, but they register in the animal list, somehow. Nobody knows where the bats went. Every day since the last three years, Kol has been wandering outside in the middle of the prairie, looked around, then came back complaining he can't reach his bats. This is all he will do.
As I muse over cage traps and lost animals, I decide it is more than time I put the arena to proper use. The soldiers are stationed inside, and we murder a batch of animals, trolls, goblins, and ogres. Immortal-D is turning into a terrifying warrior, his artefact candy axe slicing through foes like butter. As soon as the blood stop flowing in the arena, the gates are opened, the corpses are designated for dumping, and a new set of victims is carried inside. The traps I installed to get the cave dragon are still there, and they attract about ten thousand crundles and bugbats per year. I've decided that all training for the True Handles would be live training. These dwarves will either use their strength to haul things fucking fast, or murder things twice a year to remain sharp. No stupid ''watching bite demonstrations'' anymore.
As the mighty dwarves prepare and train, so too do the armies of the underground. More forgotten beasts enter the middle caverns every year, bringing their numbers to 16 untouched foes. In this area alone, 6 monsters dwell in wait, their special abilities creating a deadly and unpredictable force begging to be unleashed. I have some plans to deal with them in time, awesome anf !!FUN!! plans that don't cheaply revolve around mass cave-ins, but we'll need a strong, vast army, and also we'll need to cleanse the animal population of all those pesky ''devastating plagues''. Outside, the masons and miners have been working day and night for years, preparing the grounds for the later.
My plan is to breed enough war animals to support the army and create a buffer when we take on the forgotten armies. While the workers are building new buildings where the beasts will be isolated away from contaminants, I have the iddlers turn to butchery, and every non-war animal will finally be killed. Some pigs, llamas and dingos keep breeding, but that's enough. They all die today. Only lions, cheetahs, leopards and dogs remain. Still, 300 animals. There are also 5 rutherers, but somehow I can't get them to receive proper training that stick long enough, as such they are still confined to their cages.
Probably worth mentioning that one of the sydnromes circulating in the fortress attacks specifically pigs, and causes them to suffocate and die painfully. I don't know what caused it. I'm past caring about specific answers.
My money is on our nutrition. So much forgotten beast cuisine cannot be healthy...
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During the recent years, many useless artefacts were created. Mostly large jewels, but also amulets and wooden crap. When a dwarf emerges from the carpenter shop with a wooden casket, I am most satisfied. Should he ever die, Rovod the champion will join his forebearers and lay to rest in an artefact coffin. Lady Asmel and Momuz both have their own artefact receptacles.
It's easy to prepare for the death of the next champion, as they occur fairly rarely. The common dwarves however die on a daily basis, and the graveyard is at full capacity. I've designated a new large wing to expand the catacombs. While the miners prepare new tunnels, I have the engravers and crafters churn out regular batches of memorial slabs. Matching the names to the graves (or lack of) is a pain in the ass, but slowly the dead are getting the respect they deserve. About 30 dwarves have been memorialised. I also have fancy silver sarcophagi added to the crypts and military resting grounds once they have been glued with sufficient gems and bones.
While setting up decoration chains, I notice one of the dwarves that, so far, has stayed under my radar. Sakzul has, without telling anyone, mastered 4 crafting skills to the point of being called legendary, as well as getting the hang out of strand extraction. Sakzul is the Da Vinci of the dwarven world. When he dies, I doubt we will ever know such an artist again.
During one of the mandatory slaughter activities, I notice that our soldiers have truly become masters of war, because fighting those monsters bore them. Captain Ustuth apparently decided to fall asleep in the middle of the arena, while fending off two cave ogres. Ok.
At least the arena is living up to its name, and the ground is now covered in a thick layer of dried blood, witness of various massacres. The dwarven way, truly.
Meanwhile, the traders allow me to let more animals out of their cages, giving some impromptu training to Bembul's squad. Obviously they al suck, so many bats and plump helmet men escape. To solve this issue, I dispatch the Gracious Flights, who eagerly disprove their squad name by bumbling their way across the fortress. Prince mistem spends 2 weeks chasing a single plump helmet man, while Lady Grace seems to not understand how bows work, and attempts to bash her victim with it. My heroes. They are kind of the joke squad I keep around just for comic relief at this point.
During this absolutely dumb chase, I follow Prince Mistem across the fortress. What a great way to inaugurate our new kitchen area! We have a vast area made entirely of rock we created from magma, filled with spacious workshops made of friggin adamantium. and in the middle of it, a plump helmet man is jumping around, dodging every shot from a misguided member of the royalty. They end the chase in a storage area, which I notice is just one giant floor made of querns. I decide to drop like, every single quern that isnt lava-safe into the magma. there goes 2 months of productivity.
Looks like the haulers won't be the only ones working hard this season. The masons will have some job as well. A new forgotten beast appears down below, an eyeless pelican that breathes fire. As much as I want to let I-D the second loose upon the beast, it is probably best that we deal with it safely. Cheetah number 45 takes one for the team, and distract the monster while we drop ten thousand tons of stone on its head. The bottom trap is functional! Now let's reset it, people. Get those blocks rolling downstairs!
It's worth mentioning that the pool used to clean soldiers has been smashed. It is now filled with boulders, and the ramps are destroyed. Unless I tweak the thing around, we can't use it. Repairing it would be useless anyway, as it would be ruined with every activation of the trap.
While I have ways to deal with forgotten beasts, their syndromes remain insidious. Some civilians are suffering from various diseases, ranging from mild fevers, to repeated losses of consciousness. The doctors are getting good at diagnosing beast sickness, but there is no cure for it. the best they can do is feed the patients and pray they'll get better. Some do, some don't. Such is life, in Whisperwhip.
While on the subject of mysterious bloody things, it seems that new monsters are roaming Whisperwhip. Bloodman are the first example, and they turn out to be just another foe.
Same goes for Iron Men, despite what their names would suggest.
As they are easily dispatched by the warriors of the fort, a cook becomes inspired by the whole thing, and begins work on a mysterious weapon. He claims adamantine wafers. Looks like my forced crash-course in blacksmithing is finally paying off!!
It's hard to contain my excitement as the cook gathers fancy component one after the other... Whatever he creates is certain to be unique, wonderful, and...
...And it's a warhammer. A plain one at that, as far as artefacts go. Despite being made of precious metal, adamantine hammers are essentially useless, since it accounts to hitting a target with a giant foam LARP mace. As an overpriced, disapointing and useless item, I obviously give the thing to Prince Mistem.
While stalking the forges waiting for the warhammer, I've noticed that the smelters are overflowing with unhauled bars. We'll need more storing room, so I order a few new areas dug out.
Until the rooms are prepared, I put the haulers on another task. They bring every finished goods bins to the depot, where we simply offer old rags, totems, mugs and copper amulets to the humans. Spending every season carrying crap back and forth feels like a waste of time, but once every decade or so I elect to get rid of all the tattered cloths in bulk, as it is more efficient than dumping every item in lava individually. Once the job is done, it's time to haul metal bars. It's obvious we'll need more space.
Better. The excavated tunnel to the caverns is blocked, and the whole place is converted into a storehouse. Some rooms are added upstairs as well. The place quickly turn into a beehive of activity.
While on the business of clearing things up, I tell the masons to build the new trap out of every single-unit kind of blocks we have, just so my list of materials isn't needlessly clunky. The resulting structure is a multi-colored pattern of death and pain.
I notice that a mason is dismantling the bridge to the trap device while 5 of his pets are standing on it. The grief would surely shatter his mind, should the action go thourgh. I order it canceled at the last second, hoping someone else will take over, someone less dumb.
Better.
Work on the exterior buildings progresses slowly, thanks to incompetence, accidents, and the sheer size of the thing. Having to build every block out of magma doesn't help either. Still, things would move faster if people didnt injure themselves. Here we can see that the new walls will extend to the very edge of what once was Dogshatter Hill, later converted into a second, smaller dumpatorium.
Here's an overview of the new building site. The whole thing has been walled off. While bridges were being installed, I've moved the lucky half of our war animals near the chokepoints, to get rid of ambushes.
Finally, the steel gates are installed, creating a new courtyard, which is actually bigger than the whole previous castle. This area will host trading goods, breeding and training grounds, as well as the trade depot.
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A new challenger appears, eager to disrupt the work of the mechanics. It goes as well as you'd imagine. No casualty is inflicted by the beast's poisonous sting...
Which is why I'm worried when I read about a guy suffocating. Investigations reveal that the forgotten beast was not to blame, as we merely locked a dwarf under the bridge room. Why? because we wanted to recover the corpse of the previous guy we locked under the bridge. Efficiency!
Wait, Erith and Erib aren't the same person! Turns out, the pig-suffocating disease has mutated and now affects dwarves as well. A few of them turn out dead during the season, just like that. With the increased number of idlers, relationships are blooming, and tantrums are more frequent.
Despite the sickness, some afflicted dwarves are able to raise a family. I'm not sure how long that child will survive, given the disease carried by his father. Meanwhile in the background, some migrant brought a cat! The first cat in Whisperwhip for a few years now, actually. The local population accidentally died of exploding over the years.
After 3 days, the new cat explodes.
The arena trainings are always a refreshing experience. just when you think you've seen everything, something goes weird. This time, a rooster snuck into the cages, and is released during the training. I decide, saving the rooster will be a good exercise for the soldiers!
The rooster dies instantly.
Interesting fact, the arena is locked down by doors. doors are buildings. Trolls and ogres are building destroyer. Sometimes, you end up unleashing a wave of thirty hostile monsters into the fort, while an ongoing flow of iddlers try to swarm into the arena to gather mechanisms and cages. !!FUN!! ensues.
To avoid further incidents, the following sessions in the arena are modified slightly. The True Handles are going in to fight monsters, whilethe two other squads are stationned upstairs, blocking the only escape. Any troll breaking a door will be stopped at this roackblock, hopefully (hint they weren't), and any bugbat that flies out of the arena will be shot by the marksdwarves (they weren't). Because this whole plan is terrible, the army spends about 2 weeks hunting escaped bugbats thorough the fortress.
The monsters are defeated, the mess is cleaned, but before the soldiers can call it a night, they must defend the fortress against another forgotten beast. Inspired by all the bloodshed, an armorer claims a magma forge. YES.
The beast is slain after some water adventures. Usually monsters spawn to the north, but this one came from a very unused opening to the south-west. This area is hard to reach, but thankfully the monster swam across the lake, and was killed by the waiting soldiers. The hero who swung the final blow is the son of Zasit the mighty, and younger brother of the deceased Aristotle.
After his victory, he simply... stays there. A long time. A long long time. Hey dude, what's the special ability of the monster you murdered again?
Deadly. Fucking. Blood.
Immediately after that, another forgotten beast arrives, from the same place. It goes around the army, spends some time stalling, then get shot multiple time before it can close in. RIP. The dwarves return to the surface, except Oddom, who is still contemplating a cursed, bloody corpse, while standing over said corpse.
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Before we observe exactly why one should not bathe in the blood of cursed creatures, let's take a look at this new artefact. Adamantine armor is truly awesome, and this one is seriously beautiful. Too bad it is a buckler, and I'm not exactly sure how inferior bucklers are to shields. They are lighter, too, and as such they seem more fitted to archers than melee dwarves. As with the warhammer, I give this new artefact to Prince Mistem.
Are we done? Are we done observing beautiful artefacts? Good.
So people are dying. It starts with this dude, who passes out over the corpse of Rovod as he's trying to give him water. Sibrek was a friend of Oddom the newest beastslayer, and apparently the high-five he shared with his friend proved to be his undoing.
Everywhere around the hospital, animals and dwarves just begin to... pop. One second they are trying to do something simple, like going to the hospital or taking a break. the next one they just die horribly to a magical wound that opens up, infects itself and murders the victim. People try to check on what's going on, and that ends up as badly as you'd expect. Others simply suffocate. Thanks, mutated pig virus! What a great way to kick in.
All in all, two dozen dwarves die, and about 150 pets. Those who survived were either hidding in the catacombs with Edzul, or stashed outside near the gates. Everything else is now a pile of gore and bones.
The bridge room is covered in blood and corpses.
Frankly, I'm not even sure what happened here. Blood, corpses, vomit, it's like a suck party and everyone is invited. Tantrums are frequent, and I put a bunch fo dwarves on rotation in HAVEN. But hey, at least we have this new graveyard waiting! Normally, this would be the time to mourn the dead, patch the holes and recover. But not this time. This time it's time to send people on suicide missions. I don't care how many more die. because it is back.
The dragon is back.
And i will have it.
No.
Matter.
What.Actually I'm not sure it is the same dragon. It appeared totally to the west, while the previous appearance was from the east. That means none of the traps we built are useful. instead, they simply fill our stockpiles with bugbats. Yay. Using the vegetation, I design a line of defense that is sure to catch the dragon should he try to escape north-ward.
He doesn't care. the dragon is bored, and aims for the exit. DONT GO DRAGON I CAN CHANGE!!!
...I can change...
We need those traps and we need them now. By traps i mean, bait. Are you a peasant? Want to live an exciting life? Well, good job, you are now a mechanic. now, take those mechanisms and go place them at the bottom of the earth, near a dragon. Very, very close to a dragon. Actually, if you could sort of provoke him before he left, that's be great.
It works! One of the mecanics has attracted the dragon's attention. The beast give chase. I was sort of hoping he'd lure the dragon into the cage traps, but instead he gets lost and runs into a dead end, with a ferocious creature blocking his only escape.
He gets murdered in violent, violent, violent ways. nasty ways. Awesome ways. Man, dragons are so cool, I
so must have it! Oh yeah the mecanic is dead. If you couldn't tell.
Did I mention that, while he was being dismantled into bits in a gruesome fashion, his son was on the other side of the spore tree, horrified, hearing every traumatising part of it? I'm sure he'll grow up to be a well-adjusted citizen of our fortress! (or die to the plague).
''Hey dad what's going on...?''. So turns out, the dragon is a babe, and also there is no upper limit to the number of ways you can shatter a skull before the victim dies horribly if done correctly.
The mecanics' death provides us with a quite bloody kind of tracking device. The dragon is now named Tearchance, which is both an awesome title
and a safe way of identifying it, should new dragons return to Whisperwhip. Once the deed is done, the monster depart, leaving behind a mangled corpse, a scared-for-life orphan, and a crew of peasants uneager to become engineers.
Will Tearchance return to our caverns,? Are there... more dragons? Time will tell...
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