CHAPTER 88: Pandora's HatchYear 149 Killcount: 88''Commander Bembul, why the hell have I not received my crystal glass item yet?
-My lord we... have we not been over this yet? We can't make crystal glass.
-Can't, or
won't?-...Both. Anyway, I gotta go, I think I hear another forgotten beast or whatever!!!
Truth be told, the commander did not care much about the new beast. It was unremarkable, and would be dispatched without issue. No, he was simply too focused on the new offensive project to care about insane noble demands.
''How's our latest mood creation?'' he asks the forge operators along the way.
''Meh, it's a mace. Not a good choice for combat, but adamantine mace could prove valuable for beatings.
-Is everything ready downstairs?
-Yes sir. we are sending in the nearest kid for deconstruction.
-The ki-- nevermind. You may proceed.''
The volunteer gets to work. Soon, the block wall is removed. A pile of war animals are standing nearby, ready to cover his escape.
The kid escapes without issue. Behind him, the bridge is raised, sealing the war animals with whatever lurks below. A giant Osprey spreading bleeding dust occupy the hatch area. Beyond that, the DOOMCAVE.
The Osprey seems not to care. The animal zone is removed, in hope that the animals will wonder mnearby and attack it.
To speed up the process, the animal trainers grab the pets and move the closer. According to the notes left by overseer Modesty at the time, the fiendish bird has no eyes, and thus can be approached safely, as long as dwarves don't go over the center wall. The beast wandered here while hunting down a dwarf years ago, and simply remained there after it lost its prey, unable to find a way back. Beyond the monster lies the legendary artefact hatch of the fortress. Many decades ago, it adorned the bedchamber of the Bronze General himself. now, it serves to restrict traffic from the hatch to DOOMCAVE itself.
Below, a normal world's worth of forgotten beast lurk, waiting for a chance to fight the dwarves. Or maybe they simply aim to see the surface. some may want to avenge their fallen brethren. It matters little at this point. the beasts and the dwarves are now mutual enemies, preying and hunting on each other. There will be no end to this conflict until either race dies out.
Some of the inhabitants can sense the pets on the l;evels above. They gather under the hatch, yet dare not go through it for some reason. Some are in perfect shape, others... less so.
Some reckless fisherdwarves have heard that the lower levels are reachable. Three of them rush downstairs, and get in range of the blind Osprey. They run away without disturbing the beast any further, but soon their blood start to cover most of the fortress.
One of the foes lurking below decides to pounce on the hapless dwarves trying to control the war animals.
Guki climbs up the hatch and charges at the dwarves...
* * * * * * *
''Well, fuck them, if I can't get a crystal glass window in my office, imma go hunt something. that'll change my mind.''
* * * * * * *
At this very instant, Duke Tun Circleoiled reaches the hatch area, and headshots Guki the forgotten beast, tearing the beast down instants before it can unleash a deadly attack. He points at a nearby, panicked worker.
''Hey, you, stop faffing about and roast me that thing''.The area is evacuated promptly. The animals are left there, while the injured, bleeding fisherdwarves are carried to the hospital.
This Osprey is as clueless as it is dangerous, reflects the general.
I guess my plans will work nicely.''Open the hatch once more, and close the drawbridge.'' he orders.
Many of their foes are trapped in distinct sections of the DOOMCAVE. The flyers, however, are free to roam the entire level as they please. It is they that the commander fears most.
We'll use their eagerness and mobility against them. If his plan works, the greatest clusterfuck known to this fortress will occur, and various beasts will be killed by collateral damage. Once the fliers are out of the way, they'll be able to methodically reclaim the DOOMCAVE, swat-team style.
Few can resist the call of flesh and battle. Half a dozen beasts gather under the hatch. three of them remain there, three climb up. They spot the animals. Chaos ensues.
The bleeding Osprey is a terrible foe, but its attacks work over time, not instantly. The pets are able to withstand some blows before falling. In fact, generations of natural selection has discarded the most disease-prone animals from the gene pool, leaving very tough and hardy felines and dogs. The Osprey doesn't care about friendly fire. How could it? He's blind. the three beasts who climb up end up in the middle of his deadly dust.
The animals can't bring Xun down, but they are inflicting heavy injuries on the Osprey. in turn, xun's duist is causing other beasts to bleed.
Downstairs, another creature with deadly dust is going apeshit, hoping that its attack will go through the hatch and hit something. This foes uses a more... concussive form of dust, which sends creatures flying against obstacles. A dog ends up downstairs, as well as some lions. Various beasts try to get at them, but are suddenly affected by friendly fire.
A few slopes down, a dog is holding off against two different beasts.
Pictured: overreaction.
Obtaining details about this fight is very difficult. I mean,
beside the fact that nobody is physically down there to observe it. Dust, miasma, webs and blood cover the entire battleground, so nothing can be observed directly.
The combat log screen reveal that 6 forgotten beasts are locked in combat against the various animals right now, including Xun the Osprey.
Another mini-fight is taking place lower in the caverns, where a war animal and a FB have been dispatched by the concussive dust. Both combatants are starting to bleed out and rot.
The dust downstairs clears for a moment, revealing one of the combatant. A war leopard. he doesn't have any serious injuries, but he's been both paralysed, exhausted and emptied of its blood by the surrounding aoe. The good news is, any organic forgotten beast in the fight has a chance to suffer from these symptoms as well. Oh, and there's webs absolutely everywhere.
A forgotten beast falls! Injuries, symptoms and a ferocious lion managed to bring it down. The lion also died horribly from various diseases and health issues. still, good job team war pets!
As the silverfish is alive, but he's now been converted into a pufferfish.
Lerine the flying spider monster is carving a path through various pets, fighting in a corridor filled with vomit, blood, extracts, webs, miasma and corpses. Its entire body is now red, with some blue eyes and something ressembling a rotting brain.
Xun the Osprey finally calms down, after an enraged battle taking place all over the hatch room.
It is covered in dents, bruises, and leaking blood from all over his body.
Faint, Xun's blood loss may very well be his downfall, since no single injury seems potent enough to land a killing blow. Its healing properties are not to be taken lightly, however.
The last alliance of lion and cheetahs gather to the north, ready for another round. they know (possibly) that they must go all out against Xun to keep the blood flying, lest the beast eventually heals its injuries.
Here's Tolto. It's essentially a chunk of amber with wings. he has absolutely no way of injuring anything, but he somehow can withstand the syndromes around him. He also likes to basically put webs everywhere. He has a very decent weaponizing potential. Orders are to lock him up and use him if possible. assuming he survives the frey.
A quick look downstairs reveal that... stuff... is still... happening.
Xun the Osprey is still struggling to finish his opponents. They are immobilised by Tolto, and thus cannot swarm their enemies. But Xun is unable to finish them off thanks to his cycling bunch of injuries. his profile description reveals that he now looks like the most terrifying bird in all creation. Lerine the spider sits on the hatch, but a rotting everything prevents much actions from taking place.
In this gigantic mess of an offensive, a novice armorsmith got inspired and created a new adamantine breastplate. The commander ponders... could a squad equiped with ranged weapons and adamantine gear outrun and kite deadly dust creatures, given the right battleground?
Outside, a goblin thief is spotted... atop the wall? there is little chance that he makes it down alive. The commander dispatches some miners to the spire.
''The time has come to use some of our candy. we'll outfit one marksdwarf squad with adamantine gear. One-arm, get as much as you can!''The situation downstairs is growing stale. xun is slowly healing, the lions are slowly bleeding out. Some creatures return to... whatever it is they like doing, altho they bear the scars of the clusterfuck. The hatch is closed. only three beasts remain trapped above the hatch: Lerine the spider, Tolto the amber chunk, and Xun, the blind off-putting osprey. It is a shame that the monster has no sight, for it could have been killed with a mirror at this point.
''Expand the vault! Add a fourth layer, people!'' explains the overseer. One-Arm's team are bringing in some decent amounts of raw adamantine ores.
''And it seems that we have a new friend. A flyer, for what I can guess.
-I'm on it, sir'' replies Wingless nish.
Wingless Nish is true to his name. The beast hurls a ball of fire. Then it goes down, plummeting into the trap.
...And then the ball of fire hits the militia commander right in the face.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Bembul wakes up in the hospital. The fortress is eerily quiet. He gets out, ignoring the few infections still affecting him. his upper body fat is gone, but he can still walk, and he bets, hold his weapon.
Kogsak. Kogsak would have taken over after I fell. Bembul goes to his daughter's room.
There he finds a lion.
''What the fuck.''
The Duke's voice comes from a corner of the room:
''Don't you ever knock? this is Lord Syrupcaught's room.
-It belongs to my daughter.
-Hum, no. i had to clear it up to to please our newest noble, the Chancellion.
-What.
-You see commander, a chancellion is very much like a chancellor, except for--
-I meant
WHERE THE FUCK IS EVERYONE AND WHY IS THERE A LION IN THE NOBILITY!''
* * * * * * * * * *
Ok, so after you got a serious case of being on fire, Ber the Wolfcleaver and your daughter charged into the pen, and dealt with the forgotten beast.Some of them wanted to get some training done...But Prince Mistem said it would make more sense to strike at our foes while they were weak.The mayor suggested we use your designs, to build traps and lure Tolto into webbing them, so the next wave of forgotten beast would get trapped. that way we could use them as sentry guns.What.
The law giver of the Crimson Empire was very impressed by her projects when he visited the hatch hall where three live forgotten beasts still lurked, like five meters away with nothing to stop them.Again, what.
So then we figured, why not build a hole around the whole thing and dig a little slit to fire a ballista at those guys? Yakknow, to attract their attention....
Prince Mistem liked the idea so he built the bridge himself.The bridge.
Yeah, to... protect the ballista against dust clouds once it fired. Mayor said a pressure plate in the corridor would activate it as soon as the operator left to recharge.So the plan was... We'd lure Tolto into webbing a bunch of cages by putting animals in fron of them. Then kill Tolto or enclose him with bridges or whatever. then build a new corridor to DOOMCAVE. We'd trap Xun the Osprey, or anything else with deadly dust, and use bridges and a dog to gas invaders and other organic beasts with the pull of a lever. Then, we started building a sort of kiting range, where adamantine-clad warriors with crossbows could be station-moved out of range of dust-spewers, without engaging directly. That was my idea, if I recall.
Yeah, well, it was a good one, so we followed along.How did it go?
Oh we never got to that part, a one-eyed squirrel arrived and killed like all your dudes.WHA---
...Except the Battleborn, he got kicked into a cage. The squirrel just webbed everyone and then dropkicked them in the head across the entire cavern. BUT--
So obviously we tried to raise the bridge.But it failed and the squirrel killed like 25 people on the spot. I called the recruits, those ''Golden Labors'' led by captain Kubuk. But I realised they wouldn't fare any better than the more experienced soldiers, so I just went down and hunted the beast myselfwhat wait how--
Oh because I'm the greatest assassin and hunter in the entire world. I just, like, don't have much time for that anymore, because I have to make sure we never run out of querns.* * * * * * * * * *
''And that's the story of how everyone died and I gave your daughter's room to our new Chancellion.
-That's... terrible!''''Well, it's not all that bad. nobody important amidst the civilian died. We've sealed the kiting area, along with the three monsters left inside...''''We are getting the Battleborn out of his cage as I speak...
-Good. He's one of our best. Who else survived?
-Wolfcleaver Ber is still around, as well as two others in your squad. Captain Kubuk's squad never made it to the fight so they are still alive. In fact, it happened so fast they are still on their way there as I speak''''Oh, and I began adamantine gear production. Our greatest armorers are to start with ten adamantine breastplates, hopefully of masterwork quality. Needless to say, i told the miners to get as much adamantine as they could.
-Good. At least there's th--- Wait what was that noise?
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