Journal of Udil Deleratöl, Expedition Leader of Mistymirrors, Year 315 Galena: The deer reached us while we were bringing the horses safely inside. I was a fool, and ordered that we should meet them in battle. Undead or no, all 14 of us were surely more than a match for them, I thought. This is the price of my folly.
We met them, and fought bravely, but the dust clung to the corpses, and those of us who touched them were turned almost immediately. Fath, Vabok, Dishmab, Dastot, Avuz, Zon, and Aban were turned before we realized what was happening and fled back into the fortress. I can hear the foul creatures out there now fighting with our own people, tearing into each other as madly as they had while they were still living, and the horses have bolted off into the taiga. The only solace is that the fight happened off of the glacier where even the severed limbs would rise again.
17 Galena: The sounds of fighting have died out. Cilob stuck his head out the door to find that only Aban, battered but whole and axe still in hand; and Dastot's reanimated body, missing her head and left foot, were left out there. Dastot was just outside the door, while Aban charged around after the still-living horse. We let Dastot in, and Obok put her to her final rest.
That just leaves Aban. She's run down the horse, and beheaded it in a single stroke with that axe of hers. I am terrified, but we're no match for her with only our iron clubs. I'm going to have to send out the macedwarves. She at least seems to have lost her covering of dust.
19 Galena: Litast and Kubuk have done all the preparing they can, and are prepared to meet
Aban the monster. Litast led the charge, while Obok held the door open.
Before Kubuk could even reach the monster, Litast was knocked on the ground by the thing's furious charge. She swung her mace in an attempt to disarm the creature, but caught it at the elbow instead and the blow hardly even connected. The axe came down, first on her chest knocking the wind out of her, then on her neck. Enraged, Kubuk smashed the creature's left leg with his mace, sending it straight to the ground. It retaliated, severing Kubuk's foot, and against all reason managed to stand up again. It parried Kubuk's next strike, and with a look in its eye as black as coal brought down its axe on Kubuk's other foot, then on his neck. Obok bolted, and I don't know what happened next, but I do know that the fool left the door open.
His foolishness lasted up until his death when in his panic he fled, dragging little Stukos behind him, into a side room rather than down the shaft to safety. Etur did his best to delay it, but the monster cut him down with hardly a second thought. In his last moments, Obok locked the door to the room behind it, dooming himself and Stukos, but saving the lives of those of us remaining. Only myself, Sarvesh, Cilob, and the fisherdwarf Degel are still alive. We will end this creature.
22 Galena: Our plan was set. We would excavate the edges of the room the monster was trapped in, and bring the ceiling down on its head. But that isn't what happened. Cilob, the fool, struck the earth directly next to my feet and brought the whole area around me down, into the room. I took to my feel quickly, just in time to meet the monster's charge.
It didn't stand a chance. In my rage, I tore the creature apart with my pick just as I would a stone before it could even react. I, or Sarvesh, or Cilob, any of us could have stopped this before it even began. A week ago I only thought I was a fool. Perhaps out of my depth. I know now that I am far worse than a fool. Eleven good dwarves lie dead because of my own cowardice and arrogance. Cilob and Degel mock me, calling me the "slayer of the feared Aban Abaneshon, the Harmonious Hatchets!" Sarvesh, my good friend, is only silent.
I've officially turned over the administration of the expedition, such as it is, to him. We still cannot leave this place, so I've asked that I remain a miner and nothing more. Zuden grant he do a better job than I did.
So it ends, resigning in disgrace. None of this was planned in advance, it really was just a combination of massive bad luck, not realizing the combat value of skilled miners, and my own underestimation of the danger the husks presented, and Udil getting undermined that brought Mistymirrors down. Zuden takes the form of a male dwarf and is associated with jewels and fortresses.
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