Whilst 140 was a dramatic year in the rocky life of City-fort Koshid, 'Slaughterrocks', with goblin attacks and forgotten beasts a common occurrence, and 141 was fairly uneventful as the fort continued to prosper and grow, 142 was a black year, full of disaster, pain and woe, with damage done that could take decades to repair.
Some said it all began when a few miners were tasked with widening a passage through the first cavern... As they hacked away at the stone, they found a hitherto-undiscovered cavern, which had somehow been missed by the exploratory shafts. They dug their way down into it, eager to survey it further.
Then disaster struck.The first forgotten beast was not so fearsome on its own, rather, the only danger was the foul, poisonous blood that sprayed out of its brains as 'Adod', the captain of the guard and a legendary macedwarf, caved in it's skull.
But then, another beast came screaming out of the depths, fire spewing from its shadowy form just as the warrior dwarves were collapsing from the first beast's paralysing blood...
The administrative dwarves were later too stricken to provide an accurate tally of the deaths, but it's estimated somewhere between twenty to thirty dwarves never left that cavern alive, either torn apart by the monster's claws or charred beyond recognition by its fiery breath, before the one remaining skilled warrior in the fort, 'Tudro' Paddletorches, arrived and put a blade through its head.
That was bad enough. The few old dwarves remaining in the fort could not remember a worse time in its history, it was even worse than the bad old days when the fort was founded, when dwarves killed each other in the halls and corpses lay rotting across the dining tables. They shook their beards sadly and went back to work, cleaning away the crispy-fried remnants of their friends, family and countrymen.
But the year 142 was not yet over. Weapons were being forged in the wake of the catastrophe, to ensure such a thing could not happen again. The halls of Slaughterrocks rang with the sweet music of hammers on anvil, and the dwarves began to recover from their loss.
Until the forge caught fire.Later on, none of the dwarves could rightly think quite how it happened, although they said if they did they'd tear the miscreant apart, but regardless of how it started, the fierce blaze spread outwards in a ring from the basement beneath the original wooden building of the fort, consuming countless treasures, several dwarves, and leaving the ground around the fortress a charred and barren wasteland. ( Even worse than when my last fort was destroyed! D: )
The flames took with them the last of the fortresses able defenders, leaving the military in tatters, and several dwarves are releasing their wretched emotions by throwing things, punching their neighbours, and generally throwing a massive tantrum.
Yes. 142 has been a black year for City-fort Koshid.
But the year is -still- not over! It's only mid-summer!!!