I've got a nice little fort going, in a reanimating tundra.
There's no trees up on the surface, so I've been staging expeditions into the caverns for mushroom wood. Any beasts that wander in from the nameless depths, I have to put down somehow-- that means hammerdwarves, and lots of them.
This state of affairs was working out for me just fine, until Dastot the elephant spider lumbered into my purview! Knowing better than to throw melee dwarves at a web-slinger, I ordered the gates locked against Dastot's rampage; the fortress gate drew shut, and the blood of cavern fauna spattered the mossy passageways.
Months passed, as the corpses of cavern-critters littered the tunnels-- sometimes, getting up again for another go. Dastot's injuries accumulated, chitin fractures from the occasional giant cave spiders that emerged to meet web with web. So it went, and Dastot's presence faded to a dull worry at the back of my mind… until one day, a second beast emerged to challenge him! Ngogno Soilcaves, a gigantic newt with a throat full of fiery phlegm! The two dueled, and the spider-- weakened from its injuries, and unable to maintain its sticky onslaught in the blaze-- bled to death, and smoldered away.
This, then, is the stage of combat. No dwarf can best a spider in close combat on open ground… but
fire, fire can be deflected, outmaneuvered! I see my chance. I select two squads of three, legends in their craft, and send them down to reclaim the caverns.
The cavern erupts in flames. A hammerdwarf is caught in the ignescent undergrowth, and melts.
A second hammerdwarf is caught in the blaze after a couple futile strikes against Ngogno, and stands there, immobile in the flames as the beast swings at her-- again and again she dodges, effortless despite the fire--
The heat grows intolerable--
the ale boils from her waterskin----and the fire shifts, and
she starts swinging again.She's standing in a pool of her own blood
pummeling the beast to a standstill.
She just... holds it there. Prone in its own fire, bleeding with her.
It dies first.
She staggers back to the staircase, her body melting. Blood on the bridge.
Might as well be a death toll
but then
The wounds close
she carries on
and a name echoes triumphant up the gabbro stair.(It is a silly name.)
Having slain the beast, Asmel marches shakily off to go haul flux for the steelworkers... deeming this ill work for a returning champion, I disable the pertinent labors and cancel the job.
I figure she'll be alright.