"Ma'am, the tripwire alarms went off, there appears to be another forgotten beast in the caverns. I have sent a fast scout and they reported back a confirmation. They say it is some kind of enormous quadruped composed of grime. What are your orders ma'am?"
The captain of the guard stood up from her table pushing the paperwork that had already been ignored for longer than it should have been back to the "to be done" side of the table. Her polished black scales reflecting the light of the small candle on the crudely made table in the otherwise dark underground room.
"Gather the guard and lower the cavern gate, we'll engage it in the cavern yard. Inform the regular military too, but take your time of it, I would rather the guard take this one down instead of 'The Named Odors'. She has enough kills to her name, and maybe us getting the kill will prompt the administration to improve our quarters." she responded, tail twitching in anticipation at the opportunity that fell into her lap.
The guard captain collected her shield and mace from the nearby weapon rack. Shields were seen as a dishonorable choice in gear among her people, but it was part of the guard uniform. The guards were not intended to participate in direct combat with an enemy, and only served as a police force, not being assigned any of the real weapons. The position had been boring, not a single criminal in her entire seven year station as the guard captain. The baroness who doubled as the mayor had a love affair with cabinets and limestone making her mandates incredibly easy to satisfy, and with 5 meeting and party halls, there were no unhappy dracon in the entire fortress causing trouble.
When she had finally gotten an office, all she got was a dark, damp rectangular room deep underground near the jail. She was not a dwarf, who could live years in happiness without seeing the sun. All the regular military had windowed rooms dug into the cliffface, with a great view of the lake and the open sky. There was plenty of room to dig out more. Maybe downing a forgotten beast would get the squad the recognition they deserved and their own sunlit barracks.
The glowing cave moss in the cavern was serving as excellent illumination. There was never any need to install torches down there. The guard was gathered with the captain near the front. There was a guard out ahead of her, a green scaled dracon, hiding in a patch of green moss growing along a wall prepared to signal when the beast was about to come around the corner into the yard.
The captain took a final appraisal of her troop. A full squad of 10, but lacking in actual combat experience, but the beast was made of grime, surely it's loose materiel would fall apart easily when struck by the squad's silver maces. She got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach for a moment, but she ignored it. Probably just some of that steak from the last forgotten beast that the fortress dispatched easily.
Suddenly a strange howl was heard and the green scout got a surprised expression on his face. He jumped from his hiding place, spreading his wings to slow his fall and made to run towards the rest of the squad, but a great white cloud of dust and smoke struck him before he could turn. There was a tense moment as the dust cleared, the captain expected nothing but a pile of bones to remain, but after a moment the scout reappeared, he was knocked down, and the dust had pushed him back closer to the wall but he appeared unharmed. He seemed just as surprised, but after a quick look over his shoulder he climbed back to his feet and ran toward the squad.
But hope for him was misplaced, after a few steps he stumbled and tripped, falling back to the ground surprised, and waved his hand in front of his face. "Gods, I can't see!" And then let out a scream of agony that made the squad step back, "It burns! My whole body burns!" a silvery substance could be seen covering his body, and after a short time of panicked clawing and scraping the guard fell limp, just as the beast rounded the corner.
The Captain's bad feeling returned in the pit of her stomach. It was larger than thought, and the grime did not appear to be loose, but compacted solid. Their maces would dent it at best, even the weapons of the regular military would do little to such a creature. She hoped that the messenger had ignored her order to delay the message to the soldiers. They would need all the help they could get.
The beast stepped on the unlucky scout's body, ending what life may have remained, and moved into the yard, unintimidated by the small force arrayed against it, the guards charged, ignoring their fear. The beast was past the drawbridge, closing it would do no good even if someone could close it immediately, guards or soldiers, it was their duty to protect their friends and families up in the fortress, they were the only defense aware of the danger.
The beast roared an unearthly roar before they even reached it however, dust and gas emerged from numerous pores all over it's body, enveloping it and the guards. The captain felt her wing shatter as she was blown into the wall from the force of the dust, and saw her squad scattered about of the ground in her fading vision, with the beast towering over them. She felt an itch under her scales where her leather armor did not protect her, and it quickly evolved into a horrible burning pain, and then evolved again into a terrible numb paralysis. Breathing was impossible, they failed, and they didn't even land a single strike against their enemy. The fortress was doomed, just because she wanted a better office...
V OOC version. V
Lost my fortress to a forgotten beast made of grime with deadly dust. I expected grime to be a loose materiel and sent my guard squad down to deal with it by themselves. I also expected the dust to be only a little one or two tile range thing like all the other FBs I encountered. When a weaver(it wasn't actually a guard scouting) ran out the gate in front of the guard squad to go collect some webs I saw that it actually created a massive cloud. I ordered the squad to retreat back inside and the gate closed, but it was too late, the guards saw the beast and charged it, and it was standing on the drawbridge gate by the time the lever was pulled. I called the rest of the military down there too in desperation.
The guards never even touched it. It immediately breathed another blast of dust, sending the squad flying in all directions, blinding them and knocking them out from the pain syndrome. After a look at the FB's raws I saw it also included blisters, paralysis and fever.
The regular military showed up while the beast was stepping on the remaining guard's unconscious heads, and they didn't fare any better. Another breath attack the moment it saw them disabling every single one of them. Even my 60 kills champion (The Named Odors).
Who didn't get finished off directly suffocated from the paralyzation. The civilians all started showing up to the party too, to collect the wounded and dead, because the cavern yard was part or the safety burrow, and they all caught a wiff of the forgotten beast extract en masse.
And then, even if I somehow managed to survive THAT a SECOND FB showed up, a giant turtle with deadly blood. Who walzed into the destroyed gate and joined in the Fun. I was hoping they would hit eachother with their poisons inadvertently, but unfortunately the origonal FB started beating up folks in a side room, while the turtle wandered on by into the fortress proper, they never so much as saw eachother. So much for the chance of them killing eachother by accident.
At the time of this post the fortress population is down to 40 Dracon from a population of 205. I'm sure more than half of that 40 are scattered around near the caverns still suffocating to death.
I used DFlair and I'm going to send an adventurer down to clean up the mess as soon as my last few residents succumb.
EDIT: The quadruped of grime managed to fall down the central stairs, blowing apart. The turtle is still alive, but it's somehow getting owned by a dog. What remains of the fortress is in the grips of a tantrum spiral though.
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6227256 times)