Minister Eslo scratched her chin with a single sharpened claw.
'There was more brass than gold, but the wealth of silver, copper, steel and bronze - it was everywhere. I had never had such a profitable venture as when I visited the metropolis of Silentthunders!' The merchant babbled, holding up a fine gold ring.
'This ring, the Dwarves sold it to you?' Eslo said, inspecting it with her massive eyes. She towered over the merchant and the merchant bowed, offering the ring in his outstretched palm.
'No, the Dwarves sold me tapestries, clothes and ornaments out of rope reeds - the finest spun and dyed I had ever seen in my life. I bought four gold rings, studded with fine amethyst just with one rope reed amulet of their make.' He fiddled with a silver necklace around his hand, its small make a poor fit for human necks. 'This was made by them. These Dwarves are foreign, even by Dwarven standards. Their eyes are emerald, the Dwarves of these lands have umber eyes.'
Eslo inspected the necklace, finely wrought into the necklace was a masterwork image of Dwarves laughing at umber fiends.
'It is a curious place which should give Dwarves cause to build a city so far from home. I am keeping these.' Eslo said.
'I beg that I be allowed to keep,' the merchant said, sweat trickling along the side of his wrinkled brow. 'I am an old, poor merchant, these are the last of my possessions, I beg that I be allowed to keep the necklace.'
'How can you be so poor?'
'My profitable venture to Silentthunders was my last. My companions refused to go back with me. I was forced to retire, and no longer had business, and then my brother stole most of my caravan and ran off with my wife-'
'Why did they refuse to trade in this city of wealth?' Eslo asked. The merchant looked up at the towering goddess, emaciated flesh curious to behold.
'I do not presume to tell you what your omniscience must know, but I must remind you of human weakness. The last time I saw the great metal and limestone monuments of Silentthunders was three decades ago. Since then the Metropolis has been under siege, and even before the Savage War began it was dangerous - the Spidery Forest was simply no place for merchants to be. After the Savage War began it simply became impossible to trade, even with caravan guards.'
'Who attacks this city? Are they Goblins of the Ignited Deceiver?'
'No, your excellence.'
'Round Fang Elves?' The merchant nodded no.
'Tosnak Goblins?' The merchant nodded no again.
'Kobolds?' The merchant smirked, and quickly redressed his composure with a fit of coughing.
'Did we attack this city?'
'Certainly not. The armies of hell attack the Fortress.' Eslo snorted, perhaps laughing. 'They call themselves the Bells of Amusement. Necromancers, leading a fiendish army of dead elves - an army without number. They are led by Sazir Razorbelts, the first King of the Esteemed Mechanisms, the Commander of the Bells of Amusement - no one knows how old he is, he has existed since time immemorial through some treacherous sorcery.'
'These are no soldiers of hell. They are not immortal like me, they are just Dwarves who forgot how to die.' Eslo inspected the necklace one last time, noting the moon snails, shadow monsters and baying fiends. 'Take them.' The merchant thanked her, hobbling backwards out of the room.
Eslo called for Lord Anlar to summon three squads of capable men to run off on a possible suicide mission. Anlar silently obeyed, mustering war animals, weapons and men to march into the Spidery Forest.
'Tell them to bring back any riches they can. Whether the Fortress city is overrun or not, treat whatever lives within as enemy.'
Eslo slithered underground into her dungeon, leaving guards outside with the simple command - do not disturb. Deep within was quite the prize, a captured human who fought for the Ignited Deceiver.
'Why do you fight for the goblins, human?' Eslo asked, wrapping a curved talon around its neck.
'We are brothers.'
Eslo began a shrill cackling.
'The Ignited Deceiver was founded by a friend of mine, Bulifo the badger demon. The fool was supposed to bring the goblins under his heel, but he just ended up getting murdered by them after a mere 50 years of rule. These same goblins then conquered your ancestors.'
'You are a demon!' The human shouted. Outside the door, nothing could be heard. Eslo gestured at her skinless lizardine vastness.
'Strangely, you are one of the few who noticed. Humans are so easily pliable, these ones believe I am their precious Goddess. And your kind believe in your conquerors. Same thing, only goblins are vastly inferior masters to devote yourself to.' Eslo gave a hideous smile, row upon row of teeth embedded in gums just as fleshy as her skinless visage.
'I will sooner die than betray my kin.'
'The brainwashed are no fun. You can die now.'
Eslo then opened the grizzly bear pens, and left. Later that day, having grown bored of watching the Grizzly Bears, she approached her Lord Utast. Lord Utast was a mere sheep shearer who she had elevated to Lordship and fortune.
'Lord Utast, you have seen my power? Seen how I brought law to this land, and venomous fire to the goblin lands? Now imagine this. Deep within the Mountain valley, on the cusp of the Spidery Forest - is a clearing, and sitting right in the middle is the Metropolis of Silentthunders. Its builders are Dwarves from far away, who traveled to exactly that spot for a reason.'
'What is this reason?' Utast asked.
'These Dwarves traveled there for one reason. There is a very special metal there, it is the stuff bridges are made of. Bridges between the heavens below and the world above. I do not want the metal. It is possible that while the Dwarves searched for this metal, the Dwarves opened one such bridge. If we take control of it, we usher in a new age - an age where gods walk this world above in limitless number; the age of gods.'
I fired up DFhack to force a siege. I lacked goblins and elves so it had to be a human siege, it just so happened to be that the humans were led by the "goddess" Eslo, who in truth was the Rose-Taupe demon Slevina. The Dwarves planned to one day wage war on the humans just to kill Slevina, and in the year of 444 that war began.
Two human sieges were forced, one in the East consisting of Pikemen, one in the West consisting of Hammermen and Lashers mounted on various giant beasts ranging from a Giant Snail (a symbol of Eslo), Grizzly Bears, War Lions, Giant Mosquitoes, Giant Ticks, Giant Thrips and other such savage creatures. There was also a hunting pack of War Lions in the south that the humans just unleashed to cause wild havoc.
A living enemy had at last reached Silentthunders in force.
Slevina's administrators were skilled and her army even moreso, they had spent hundreds of years locked in deadly conflict with the goblin Empire of the Ignited Deceiver, a realm so brutal, a realm where generals are decided by how long they remain alive before they are murdered by their kin - a realm where their demon overlord was murdered by its citizens. And so often it was that at the head of each battle with these goblins, there would be the curious sight of these humans fighting with their skinless humanoid lizard demon general against an army of goblins and humans with goblin names. At several points in the Ignited Deceiver's history humans managed to stab their way to the top and become generals, often they were killed by Slevina in battle. These human soldiers on both sides of Walls could see that Silentthunders was in good repair. They were not too keen on rushing into the Fortifications when it could mean their deaths.
Their lieutenants set up camp outside the walls whilst their flying soldiers scouted overhead, trying to spot the defenders or an entry point.
The Dwarven defenders waited within the walls. The flying soldiers were an issue in that they halted the above ground construction efforts. Realizing that the humans were in this for the long haul, the Dwarves attacked.
The elite soldiers of the Fortress ran havoc through the encamped siege party amidst the smoke of the campfire and the red of the Dwarf blood rain. One of the poor Lieutenants of the humans riding atop an Emu charged into the Dwarven battle lines. The crossbowdwarves took aim and fired, with this Lieutenant batting bolts out of the air with supreme skill. His Emu was not so lucky and shot out from under him, and the dwarves rushed forwards. The spearmaster tried raising one arm but found it was firmly stuck between two rows of Dwarven teeth. He tried raising his shield arm but it had been removed with an adamantine axe. I can't remember who dealt the finishing blow, but that applies to all of them - body parts strewn about everywhere in a flurry of body bits. Living enemies are considerably messier than elf corpses when they die.
The humans on flying mounts were relatively safe and the last to go, but when they did - they fell far and fast, and hit the ground hard. One unfortunate human was shot dead in his mount and his flying mount kept buzzing around with a dead man on its back until it too fell and hit the ground.
Credit goes to B.M. Mosus Titans; one of the Dwarves of the Fortress who dealt a killing blow to a Titan, Mosus went into battle entirely naked except for the blood rain covering her skin.
And she utterly demolished a giant rattlesnake whilst unarmed and unarmoured. Unable to punch through its skull with just her firsts, Mosus decided to improvise.
By strangling it to death. Another Dwarf stole her kill, but I know who did the most work.
What was left behind were piles of dead bodies and limbs.
Some stuck in trees.
The humans stood a chance, but the Dwarves had simply fought worse than them a thousand times more.
Clean up was slow, and required the constant vigil of marksdwarves on patrol to put down the corpses of the siegers.
The battle turned out to be a strategical tragedy, as no live humans had been captured. 160 more cage traps have been placed out for future encounters. We require human resources for the were-blender in the fight against demonkind. The Fort may have to resurrect the human corpses captured the old fashioned way, as Monal still refuses to get back in her box.
Author
Topic: Ravens are murder. [SPOILERS] (Read 169587 times)