The Goblin meekly let himself be led by the dwarf down the staircase. He had been captured in a failed attack, stripped of his weapons and armor, and kept in a cage for over a year. Nearly anything was better than sitting amongst the cages.
Over the last few months, a few of the other occupants of the cages had been taken out, and hadn't returned. Based on what he knew of Dwarven culture, he assumed that they were being thrown into magma. That was probably his fate too, but he would face his fate with honor.
From down below, the Goblin heard a noise that sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. It seemed to be coming from the room into which he was led.
As they pased through the wide doorway, the Goblin briefly admired the massive room that had been hollowed out. But his attention was quickly drawn to the far corner, where a scene from his nightmares was being played out.
Under the supervision of what looked to be a more veteran dwarf, one of his captors was mercilessly beating a body into the stony floor. The body was tied to the wall with some kind of rope, and was now nothing more than a pile of meat lying there in a pile of blood and vomit. The victim was clearly unconscious, but it was just as clear that his assailant wouldn't let up until he was dead.
Numbly, the Goblin felt himself tied to the wall nearby. He barely noticed as the dwarf that led him down to this hall of horrors left. Numbly, the Goblin reached for the rope--any distraction from the situation was welcome. Noting the strange texture, the Goblin looked at the rope. Only to discover that the rope was made from some kind of guts.
Hearing his gasp, the military dwarves nearby looked up and smiled. With a sinking sensation in his stomach, the Goblin suddenly knew his last nightmare.
He was next.
So I've taken a small area of my fortress for the purposes of building up my military. I decided I'd use all the Goblin, Drow, and Dwarf thieves and pirsoners as literal punching bags to raise military atributes. I used my only two ropes--which hapened to be Masterwork dried gut ropes, and started tying up my prisoners.
After an unfortunate Dorf death due to insufficient Helm wearing, I started going. Only to discover that I needed to not only be unarmed but not have a shield, because that killed them too quickly.
I didn't realize what a monster I was until midway through the first victim--a Dorf snatcher. He got knocked out by the end of the second page of combat. It's currently on page 57.
I realized just how monstrous this was, and felt that I should write the previous fluff piece.
That said--I'm going to continue doing it--even improving my formula.
The distaste at what my realization is for me trumped by the sriking, biting, wrestling, kicking, etc bonuses that can be gained.
And as for improving it--knocking out the prisoners with a more trained dorf, let a total rookie come in and train himself up.
It should be noted that I have a grizzled veteran standing by just in case anything goes wrong and they need to rescue my dorfs.
Later.....
Welp, Karmic justice has been served. the one dwarf who has been through my *punch your way to success* seminar was killed in an ambush. there were around 20 goblins and about ten giant war bats. I sent my 4 dwarves out to face them--my 2 grizzled veterans, my seminar veteran, and a relative newbie who was probably going to die.
My seminar veteran I was expecting to do some damage, and end up in the hospital for a while. But nope, he got one or two swings in and his head literally got shot off.
the newbie got a few good licks in but ran away, and eventually bled out. But he probably had a migraine first because a lasher kept trying to bash his brains in, but his helm protected him.
my secondary grizzled veteran did a good job, but eventually turned and ran away. He ended up getting hurt a LOT, but he's all fixed up now and healing.
My military commander, though--he was Dwarven Oprah with a rusty iron lash/flail/some kind of whip--"Your head pops off! Your head pops off! Your head pops off! Your head pops off! Your head can stay on, but look under your seat! You *only* get beaten to death! YOUR head pops off!........" And he ended up coming through without a scratch
I did lose quite a few civilians, mainly because I tend to be rather.....cavalier about them. I only give a crap about a handful of people--my master crafters, my chief medical dwarf, my super warriors, etc. The rest are there to support them.
Plus I hadn't really done anything with any of the last two immigration waves. So people were here, there, and everywhere. I did have a bit of a scare, though, when I realized my chief medical dwarf was outside. He managed to get back inside, but sustained injuries, and was, ironically, the second-to-last dwarf to be fully tended to.
I do admit I was pretty scared when I found out that he was hurt, and literally stopped all production except for one or two casted folks. ALL of them were given full medical roles. This helped get my dwarves taken care of--this is the first ambush where nobody bled out in the Hospital. Also the first one where I had soap from the beginning (bring me gypsum next season, Mountainhomes!).
I took a break after all this, and just got back into this. It's time to sort out roles, etc.
I now have a water mage, but no wand. Also, no source of iron as of yet, so I have to rely on goblinite. And, because I know nothing about handling magma, I'm experimenting with various ways of getting magma furnaces up and running. Thankfully, I have about 24 Heart of Armok (Masterwork, lets you spawn magma).
Once I get the magma flowing (I don't want to go down to magma sea for everything, and I don't know much about pumps, etc.) I'll cut down my wood usage so damn much.
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6094284 times)