(Double posting so you guys know the next season is out. All genders here are reference to our dwarf representation's genders.)-------------------------------------------------------------
She walked into my office, calm as any rational leader more fit to run this fortress than I. I didn't bother to meet his gaze, as I stood there contemplating my gaze on the circles I doodled on my table the first time I was appointed overseer of Carnagecrafts while poking the center of the circle with my finger.
"Magnus, Ma'am, It's making it's way to the foyer just like the last one. Only it's not... as bad yet."
I started to slide my finger along the horizontal diameter of the circle. I don't know if Psycho heard me muttering..
Just more time, Armok."Is the military ready to make another stand?" I still had yet to return my focus on the well-respected duchess.
She responded back with a solemn reply, "All of them except the four." In a chipper mood, she added, "Maybe you could try stationing him. That might work."
"I'll try, but I don't trust that he'll make it back in time."
I couldn't tell by the silence if she was either disappointed or worried for me. I didn't care at the moment, the autosave had taken effect, and there was no turning back now. I heard the faint crinkling of paper as I knew she was looking through my logbook.
"Psycho, bring me my logbook. I want to remind myself just how I got us into this mess."
Autumn 121:The season greeted us with the standard outpost liason visit from the mountainhome.
The consensus with our wealth and population was enough to appease the mountainhome into making us into a duchy. As expected, PsychoAngel happily took the role and an office upgrade.
Immediately afterwards, PsychoAngel decided to completely ruin our plans for trade by banning export on figurines, which mad our bins full of useless gold shit un-tradable.
http://i.imgur.com/SUzLCQw.png(At this point in the reading, I leered over to PsychoAngel. She barked back at me "As if those pig iron twigs were going to help us later. Did you forget that we have forges?")
As also per usual, we had the welcome addition of more immigrants. A master stonecrafter, or something, a few babies, a couple cash-grabbing get-rich-quick bums... you know, the usual.
("They were pretty balsy though to enter on the rim of the volcano.")
Also, an artifact in the making.
A short time after the merchants unpacked, I finished the power plant's perpetual motion generator. So long as the ocean has water, we have power. The flood chamber foyer was way ahead of schedule.
("Heh Psych, it almost seems like a movie."
"How so?"
"Once upon a time it was happy. Then it turned to shit."
"Look around you Magnus, it was always shit. You were just too drunk to notice."
"Thanks for the pep talk.")
("I don't see that many paragraphs, Magnus. How do you recall the battle?"
"I scribbled a few sketches. I thought it was obvious if you look at the paper. I'm no artist unless it's when I'm making statues."
"Heh, don't think the dwarves didn't see that. Wickys was a little pissed."
"Regardless of the joking, though,Wickys probably would have done well in this fight.")
("Anyway, it jumped off the Fortress overhang to attack a dog below. My guess is that it jumped on the poor thing and killed it on impact, but I'm not sure. It couldn't make a careful jump into the upper balcony over the fortress entrance, so it just jumped off the top of our gate.")
("This was after the beast had been spotted, and the military had been ordered to fight it. It was too fast for our troops, both mentally and physically. Three of the soldiers continued to run up the mountain to confront the beast that already jumped off of it.")
("Once inside, the not-archery squad that was protecting the merchants and fort from thieves engaged the beast, along with the troops smart enough to turn around. The beast had a field day, killing numerous dogs simply because it could.")
("When the merchants were about to leave, we shut the door in front of them hoping to force their guards to help us. I guess they didn't care about helping our dogs and innocent tanners...")
("...And?")
("I'm glad we didn't give those sniveling bastards a huge profit.")
("Anyway, the Axe Lord decided to try to divert the beast's attention and use his awesome dodging to stay alive. Our soldiers followed suit and baited the beast for a couple days until it reverted into a human.")
("Which was a better strategy than the one some of our other troops were using..")
("It gave our soldiers a wild goose chase and tried to ask for mercy.")
("Eventually it was cornered in the armory where it was shot, slowed down because he was shot, mauled by our dogs that it previously decided to have a fun time slaughtering, and beaten numerous times until it gave into the pain. Then it was beaten some more until it was no more.")
("Shortly afterwards our new artifact was made.")
("The survivors of the battle were taken to the hospital. Casualties were mostly animals with the exception of few haulers that decided to walk into the middle of the brawl. Shortly afterwards, our Axe Dwarf started to throw a tantrum.")
("These were the crimes he was convicted of.")
("Our Axe Lord decided in a fit to try to get into fist fights with innocent dwarves. Unfortunately their skulls did not last long before he bashed their heads in. About two or three additional casualties were a result because he didn't expect to see death in the militia.")
(PsychoAngel started to stare down at my hand, which was tapping furiously at the edge of the circle. She interrupted the pause that followed the accusation, "I completely understand. Understand though that you can't convict him of numerous counts of murder without any witnesses.")
The finger tapping turned into a fist slam on the table. "That... two faced elf-lover. What immediately ended his rampage was the fact that somebody
saw him wailing on some bystander. The
only reason he bothered to take the bystander to the hospital was because he was seen, otherwise he'd just be another cracked skull. I don't care whether or not he killed the minotaur, he's not a hero to the fortress.")
(PsychoAngel kept her composure, not responding to my increasingly intense tone. "He's also one of the best fighters we have, and you know it.")
(My blood needed to cool down a bit. I could feel the heat off of my forehead as I rubbed the sweat off of my brow. "I was hoping that he's be obsolete when project Eon was completed. Until then.. Oh duchess, with brave dwarves like this one, how could we ever let ourselves be caught off guard?")
("I've been in charge of this fortress longer than you have. You know what I'd do?")
("What?")
("Exactly. You don't.")
(I didn't have an answer to that. PychoAngel maybe would have done something similar, or maybe she knows that I don't know if she would do the same. Eh.. too much thinking, and that's what's been getting me in trouble lately.)
(PsychoAngel skimmed the rest of the logbook. "Besides, you don't have any mention of just what in Armok's name 'Project Eon' is.")
(I didn't have an honest answer to this that would make me look at all sane. Maybe this mercy was what was endangering our fortress. I inhaled slowly, preparing to explain my ambition to the grand leader of the fortress.
"A werebeast dwarf does not die of old age, nor does it need to eat or sleep. a tower outside of our main fortress with its own farms for stills would be enough then, in theory, to keep a squadron of werebeasts happy until they master every weapon art known to dwarfkind. They would later go into the core for an elite armor-less military of super-soldiers and help along and citizen labor decisions, all of that whatnot. If our fortress withers down due to a tantrum spiral, this garrison of dwarves would lead the way as a second chance, mastering every possible skill they have access to. All of the benefits of large werebeast squadrons while being able to manage the drawbacks...")
("A wrestler during the battle had a head artery torn from a bite. He was contained within our hospital until he transformed. His transformation healed the otherwise major wound, and proper precautions were taken to lock him within his hospital room in time for his transformation to wear off.")
("We nicknamed him 'LizardSoldier' for obvious reasons, but let's just call him 'Sold' for short. Sold is what he is, he's the accepted price the fortress is paying for my hesitation to lay down the hammer.")
("I personally went to see how far the one-floor containment room was doing for his squadron.")
("Armor stand ready, stairs ready to be knocked out, bridge linked and lever ready to pull, all of the preparations. Until he had to said that one line...")
("'I'll be right back guys, I just need to get some provisions. I shouldn't take that long.")
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PsychoAngel closed the notebook, setting it back daintily in the exact position that I set it before, mimicking my panic with her grace exactly.
We stared at each other for a moment, just thinking over what
wasn't going on in Sold's mind, unaware that he was about to turn into a one-man slaughterhouse surrounded by fleshy targets.
"If stationing doesn't work, Magnus, you
know that somebody is going to die from this."
My fist unclenched, back to the usual circular outline tracing along my desk.
"It's a lot of pressure, but you're the overseer. What do you plan to do, now we have less than 5000 ticks until a berserk lizard demon starts attacking civilians in the heart of our fortress, and our absolute best dwarf, mind you one capable of killing almost our entire military with his bare hands if he wanted to, locked up in a hole?"
The tracing stopped.
PsychoAngel and I stared down at each other, before I mustered up the last bit of courage from my proven cowardly lips to tell her,
"I'm going all in. This is my legacy, and it's either going to be a horrible civil battle or the start of something that's going to give me more time to party."
PsychoAngel's smile has a certain charm to it. She let one loose, pleased with my attitude change. Either I make a convincing liar or I
really don't know what I'm doing. I call as many shots as I want, but the duchess knew that she was likely the one with a final say in the matter.
I told her coldly, "Duchess, please leave my office. I need to make a few last minute preparations."
PsychoAngel walked out, with a strange aura of confidence. Whether she was teasing me or optimistic I don't care to dwell on. I have other things to worry about...
The extent of this inevitable battle, I don't know. Burrows will just round the civilians up into convenient targets, and cause traffic problems if a battle occurs within the fortress walls. This could be close to nothing, but the beginning of the season sure as hell isn't going to be as comfortable as my summer here, and I don't intend to let go of my command until year is over, not even for death.
Is Carnagecrafts ready?
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Topic: Carnagecrafts: Story of the Nameless Nomads (Read 16804 times)