Yar!
Construction on the walls has hit a snag. The strange, monstrous skeleton that swims the lake has lain dormant for as long as I've been overseer, but now that we be working on it's side of the dike it be taking notice of us. More than a few workers be beating a hasty retreat after noticing it's skull watching them, or the movement of an bony hand or foot.
There be but one thing for it. We need to see what effect crossbow bolts be having on the skellybeastie. Marksdwarves! To arms!
"Dammit, can't hit it. It's moved in too close to the walls."
"What? Can't ye be leanin' over ta' shoot it?"
"Are you kidding me? No way."
"Aw, c'mon. Ye can do it! Aye believe in ye!"
"Look, if
you want to stick your head out and be pulled over the wall and devoured, I'll give you my crossbow. But
we are falling back."
"Argh! Cowards! The lot of ye!"
"Hey, commander. It's vanished."
"What?"
"Aw shit, it's in the pipes! Game over, man! GAME OVER!"
"Oh relax ye sod-sucker. The pipes be sealed. It can't get out."
"What about the wells? Have you
checked."
"... it
probably can't get out."
Eh, I'm sure it'll be fine. From experience, the undead don't move around much. We'll leave the beastie in the pipes fer now: at least 'e won't startle any workers down there.
In the meantime, I be taking me responsibilities as Chief Medical Dwarf seriously, unlike our previous chief. I did a full examination of the fortress' health. The results be... less than pretty.
Triaxx II, Blitz Gamer, Ablel, Pyrotechno, Imic, Rith and Sarvesh... it seems every dwarf who was injured and cleaned with water from the lake has contracted a nasty infection.
At first I feared a curse, that whatever foul magic causes the vile mist to rise from those waters also taints it and renders it unsafe. That would be a major problem, since we be
drinking that stuff. Well, the others be.
I be drinking from Gwolfsky's personal wells these days.
Regardless, I was relieved to find a more mundane explanation.
Muddy water. We've been drinking and cleaning with muddy water fer years. Seriously.
Hygeine. Do any of ye fools know what that means?
I take some comfort in knowing that my great dome will one day wash Murderflood clean of the tiny, disgusting, illness-spreading creatures that live in the pools of filth spread across this fortress. And also the germs.
I be having an idea to clean the wells without risk of drowning or flooding the fort, so I'll be getting somebody on that straight a-
... what on earth be all that shouting?
Well... that was weird. By the time I arrived it all be over. I pieced matters together after the fact.
I be told the skeleton ambushed two passing workers, swimming out of the pipe and climbing the bank and wall in quick succession. Cresting the edge of the dike, it leapt at the nearest dwarf with an unholy howl, punching and biting. But when Sarvesh fought back, it tried to dodge away from his strike and...
OOC: The combat report says it bit and punched, but watching it happen made it look more like it just jumped straight over the wall into the dike. One second it was climbing the wall, next it was over the top and in the magma.
Being a skeleton it didn't catch alight, but being immersed in lava prevented it from moving. The three nearest dwarves exchanged glances and, perhaps remembering a certain troll, knelt down and started pummelling the creature's exposed bone to keep it from getting out.
Before long it's skull sank from view beneath the magma, where it no doubt melted.
Okay, back to me wells.
The plan be to carve out a section of roof and drop it through the well. It will crash into the level beneath the water, where we've dug out small holes for the water to flow into.
The mud will all sink to the lower level, allowing the well to skim clean water from the top. With luck, that will be all
that's- why be that toddler running towards me?
"Usurper! Usurper!"
"Ye mean "Overseer", little one. Here, aren't ye Zulban? Shipcats brother what took strange a few weeks ago? How old are ye?"
"I'm three and a half, Mr Overseer! Look what I made!
"Yar, it be a mighty fine ring ye've got there. Do ye know what we be calling artifact rings back in the mountainhome?"
"No, Mr Overseer."
"We call them
useless! They don't do anything and ye can't even sell the damn things. And now ye've made an artifact, that be it fer ye! Ye'll never make anything better in yer short, miserable life than this useless trash, and when ye die horribly, probably soon, ye're last thoughts will be
"By Armok, if only I'd made something better than a god! damn! ring!"
"Waaaah!" [runs away]
"Yar, I don't know, kids these days. Can't even take a little constructive criticism. What be the world comin' to?"
[KRAKK-BOOM]
Damn it, ye idiots were supposed to drop the roof
through the well, not
on it. Oh well, as least everything's still there. We can rebuild it, we have the technology.
Wait, Ablel's injured? That's weird, he didn't hit anything when... oh, that's right, Ablel was already injured previously. Nevermind then.
It looks like it worked. The water still be evil, but at least now it be
clean.
OOC: I do not recommend this method, it was just something I wanted to try to see if it worked. The only reason it did is because I got lucky and none of the well's components were knocked into the well itself.
[KKKKRRR-BOOOOM]
Again with dropping the roof on the well? Ye lot be doing this on purpose, aren't ye?
The walls be progressing nicely. We've built a bridge in the back to speed their construction.
I be a little nervous about compromising our defenses like that, but with so many of our number working beyond the dike our defenses already be compromised. In the event of an attack, we must hope there be enough militiamen working on the walls at the time to hold it off until help arrives. Haste and dwarven mettle be a better defense right now than the dike.
I asked Imic if the war training he had famously applied to Kea's would also be applicable to falcons. He said he couldn't promise anything, but would give it a shot.
Yar, what be that thumping noise? It be driving me crazy.
Oh, ye want to come in, do ye beastie? Look, I be grateful to ye for cleaning out the upper caverns, but if'n ye keep making that noise I'm gonna- ah screw it.
Alright ye lot. Remember what this big guy did to those cave crocodiles. Be fast and kill it before it can flame, ye hear?
Ready? Unlock the door!
[POP] "YAAAARRR!"
The slug breathed fire once, but Triaxx II dove to the side, his infection not slowing him down one bit. The beastie didn't get a chance to breathe again: admist the melee of stabbing, screaming dwarves, a flying kick from Solon damaged something internal, and it shuddered and collapsed.
Goodbye Baru, we hardly knew ye.
Hmm... idea. If we know where the beastie stands to knock on the door, why not be installing some extendy spike traps? Yar, I be brilliant! We should probably do the same thing on the lower level, too.
Hey, Flame III! Go and make us some menacing steel spikes. How many? I don't care. Just keep making them until I tell ye to stop, got it?
One of the new migrants brought me breakfast.
Not that I'm complaining or anything, but it not be necessary. Ye don't have to appease
me just because I be a power-mad usurper with a death wish for the entire fort. I be a dwarf, just like ye. The only difference between us is that I be having ultimate authority and am wielding it like a tyrannical dictator to get what I want.
OOC: This is so weird. My dwarf is not injured and he's not caged, so why are people bringing him food? I've never seen this before.
Smomper (Pffff-hahaha! What idiot named this Beastie "smomper"?) be hunting crundles in the third caverns. The crundles, for their part, have all climbed a tree.
All except for one, who got trapped in a crevice. This be an excellent chance to gauge the creature's combat prowess. To be honest, I'm not too worried about it: it be made of salt, afterall. The
crundles could probably beat it if they actually fought back. I mean jeez, what's the worst a blob of salt could do? Heh, I suppose it might sting if ye had any open wou-
... oh. Rapid shutdown of all organs in the body, huh? Welp, I guess we're not going into the 3rd caverns fer a while.
The walls be nearing completion.
Only a few more blocks to place, and I can consider the world safe from Murderflood's End.
They not be the only construction coming to a long awaited conclusion.
Most of the portholes are active: only a few still await linkage. In theory, the portholes should provide an outflow roughly equivilent to that of the Moonscythe.
There be another construction that also be coming to a conclusion: the Magma Spigot Pressure Nozzle.
Vuohiparta noted somewhat nervously that it outputs directly over his tower. I encouraged him to relax, and assured him the outflow is perfectly safe until the Murderflood lever is pulled, at which point it will spray his tower with pressurised magma.
I felt sure he would be relieved to learn he will burn with honour alongside the rest of us, but for some reason, this didn't seem to relax him. In fact oddly enough he seemed even
less relaxed when we replaced the obsidian hatch cover on the top of his tower with floor bars to allow better access for the magma flood.
Could Vuohiparta be one of the traitors? It be getting harder and harder to pick them. Can any dwarf in Murderflood be trusted to ensure my grand tale goes according to plan?
I can't afford to make a mistake. I can't afford to be giving the power of overseership to a
coward. Any one of they could be undoing all me great work, in the name of spineless self-preservation! My great tale would never come to be!
But...
dammit... I can't hold onto power forever! The dwarves will revolt eventually, it only be a matter of time! That be how the story goes. Already it be happening, already I hear whispers of discontent when I pass them in the halls. They call me usurper. They call me mad! Me! Mad! I be the only sane one here!
Nay. There... there be only one thing for it, be there not?
Only one solution. I will step down at the end of the year. I will let them name whatever cowardly fool they think should be their next overseer. And then...
Yar.