Had noticed giant cave spider silk off to one side of the 1st caverns, so I deliberately kept my people on the *other* side of the caverns. Well, the GCS decided to pay a visit. Tore up a thresher who was wandering around down there for Armok knows why, but didn't kill him quick. Instead it seemed to be playing with him before dinner, grappling and damaging tiny parts like fingers and toes.
Which gave time for my militia commander, Urvad Raltad, to get down there -- minus his bronze sword, which is the only real weapon in the fort. So what does Urvad do? He takes advantage of the spider's focusing on the thresherdwarf to start wailing on it with his exceptional
yak leather shield. This actually begins to do some damage after a little while, so the spider webs him and goes back to finishing up the thresher, finally injecting venom. After a short while, Urvad breaks free and continues to hammer away with a leather shield. Shortly thereafter, the poor thresherdwarf expires, and I'm thinking, "Oh well, it was a valiant effort..." when all of a sudden the combat stops and Urvad's just standing there.
Wait, where's the spider? Did it flee? I check the unit list:
Mondulmat, Giant Cave Spider
Deceased So I check the last thing in the combat log:
The militia commander strikes The Giant Cave Spider in the cephalothorax with his =yak leather shield=, tearing the fat and bruising the muscle and bruising the brain!Kubuk Daturmelbil, Thresher has bled to death.So...the last sight my poor thresher saw, as the paralysis took hold and he slipped away, was that of Urvad jamming a chunk of hardened yak skin
through the spider's brain. At least he died knowing he had been avenged.
Needless to say, Commander Urvad's quarters are set to receive a substantial upgrade.