I know I said I wouldn't write any more, but this is failing pretty spectacularly . Besides, I wouldn't want to deny VerdantSF.
I seem to have underestimated the zombie seals; the rotten corpse of one bit my militia commander's foot off, then bit my other hammerdwarf's hand off. While crawling away to the shelter that was dug into the coast, the militia commander was attacked by yet another zombie seal and had her spine and several other things broken. Her comrade came to her rescue, but then left her lying there, helpless beside the seal corpse just waiting for it to reanimate and bite off the rest of her limbs. Sure enough, it did. She died screaming.
Meanwhile the other dwarves are carrying one plump helmet seed at a time into the burrow, all the while trudging through huge piles of elf blood snow and being accosted by zombie seals. I forbade all of the items besides the three logs from the wagon and sent the new militia commander, "Handy" Anvilpraise, to defend the haulers. Unfortunately, Handy lost his hammer when he lost his hand, so he had to resort to punching the zombie seals to death like the fucking bad ass that he is. He made it back to the wagon and was about to grab his dead ex-commander's hammer off of the ground, when her corpse interrupted him, knocking all of his back teeth out. Knowing no fear, Handy punched the ex-commander back, not stopping until her corpse was sufficiently inanimate. He then claimed her copper warhammer as his own and proceeded to take a nap right there in the snow beside her corpse, content in the knowledge that he is a bestial killing machine.
What Handy's course of action had in awesomeness, it perhaps lacked in wisdom. The dead commander did not remain dead for long, and pounced on Handy as he slept. While he did put up an impressive fight, Handy eventually succumbed to having his brain torn apart. The one-handed soldier was then recruited once again into his commander's service, this time fighting on the side of the undead. The two of them proceeded to chase the three surviving dwarves across the blood-stained frozen wasteland.
Prioritizing the survival of the surviving miner-mason (the other having been encased in the frozen aquifer and earning himself a Darwin Award), I recruited the armorer and furnace operator and ordered them to defend the miner at all costs. This had surprisingly positive consequences, with the armorer throwing Handy's animated corpse a good ten tiles and allowing the miner to retreat safely to the burrow.
The cat, now a grown adult, survived this entire misadventure without a scratch, as did the two pack animals. It is not entirely surprising that they have better survival instincts than all of the dwarves, and she is enjoying a relatively comfortable life, lapping up pools of elf blood and keeping busy hunting the myriad blood gnats.
The three dwarves safely entombed themselves, along with the cat, the camel, and the water buffalo (this is an excellent idea for a sit-com), behind a locked stone door, but, while physically safe, their mental health is understandably poor. The furnace operator soon went berserk and was killed in a fight with the armorer. The armorer repeatedly threw tantrums, alternately tormenting the camel and the water buffalo. Taking stock of the items that were successfully hauled to the bunker before it was sealed, the dwarves have some seeds, a small and rapidly dwindling supply of rum, Handy's copper warhammer, and some bituminous coal. The seeds are planted in a small garden off to the side of the bunker, while the designation is made for a corpse-dumping pit.
Somewhat disturbingly, the armorer has gone from being hopelessly miserable to completely ecstatic after having beaten the furnace operator to death and thrown his clothes around the bunker. The miner on the other hand has returned to a state of perfectly healthy mere unhappiness.
The miner, very understandably prioritizing the need to be inebriated over the need to secure the bunker from the imminent reanimation of the dead furnace operator, sits in the corner with a barrel of rum right up until the pointer where the zombie gets up and charges him. The miner is killed and almost immediately reanimated, whist the three animals and the armorer are chased around the room in a circle. The water buffalo manages to down one of the wights with a defensive kick, but it doesn't stay down for long. The cat, the only thing worth protecting in the whole fortress, is slain in the melee. Giving up any hope of surviving this battle, the armorer unlocks the door and runs, allowing the water buffalo to escape as well before slamming the door behind him and locking it. Horrible noises emanate from the room as the camel kicks at the door and is ripped apart by the zombie dwarves.
Panting and quaking with fear, the sole dwarf sat in the corridor leading from the bunker to the outside with his only companion, a terrified water buffalo. Trying desperately to formulate a strategy that would allow him to escape this hell alive, the Besmar the armorer was set upon by a zombie harp seal. Hoping that the strong but docile water buffalo would kick it to death in fear, the dwarf cowered behind the animal, but to no avail. The buffalo shrieked and ran from the corridor out into the snow, leaving the dwarf trapped with the undead seal. Besmar survived, killing the horrible monster temporarily, but his lower body was torn apart in the fight and he passed out from the extreme pain as he tried to escape the dead seal, who could reanimate and kill him at any moment.
Running out into the tundra, which by this point was absolutely covered with frozen elf blood, Besmar was chased by even more undead abominations, including Handy's disembodied, rotten right hand.
Amazingly, the camel was actually able to kill both of the wights it was imprisoned with, but to get back into the bunker Besmar would have to somehow lose his pursuers and defeat the undead harp seal that had returned to its vigil outside the bunker door after reanimating yet again. Besmar decided it was now or never, and ran to the door, giving Handy's namesake a farewell kick. Right as he reached the door, however, it opened and out walked an animated dwarven corpse. Just beyond the door, the camel had just died, and Besmar was trapped between a dwarf and a seal. The two ripped him to shreds effortlessly and mercilessly. My meager settlement crumbled to its end just as Besmar was indoctrinated into the ranks of his murderers.
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6188342 times)