TEKKUDASMEL
SUMMER, 9
Summer finds Pickmerchant fairly peaceful. The beast on the surface holds its ground still, but harms nobody, content to lord over its previous kills. At the end of Hematite, a pair of migrants arrive, taking care to avoid Rubal's perch; the population of Pickmerchant has swelled to a grand seven.
Suddenly, one of the newcomers, who had been out wandering for some reason, came running back to the fortress shouting about an ambush! Fearing the worst, Maximum directed his gaze according as the dwarf was pointing... and saw another one of those horses loitering about. Sighing, Maximum informed the newcomer that he was now a member of Pickmerchant's militia, the Mountainous Creatures, and was ordered to dispatch the terrifying horse invader. Soon, a second horse appeared! After a tense battle... one of the horses kicked the peasant's head in. Apparently they were pretty terrifying after all. Maximum sighed again, harder, and rescinded the kill order before the other two militia members ran out and got themselves killed as well. The population of Pickmerchant was now six. They were now calling the killer horse Spearcobalt, for some reason.
Within a few days, the other horse (not Spearcobalt) had wandered too close to Rubal and was dismembered. Maximum decreed that the dead recruit would be posthumously renamed "Uncle Bearskie Jr." to keep the theme going.
Massive birds began to nest in the treetops to the south, filling the air with their screeching. Accompaniment was provided by the sound of Rubal dismembering more wildlife. Maximum relaxed to these chill melodies while he contemplated manufacturing and exporting some kind of word-of-the-day calendar where every day's word is "dismember". Yet in the depths, all was not so calm, as dwarves bustled among the caverns along plans set into motion months before — but no sooner had those plans begun to come to a seeming fruition than the workers were assaulted by a forgotten beast, Omethu the sepia-feathered skink, forcing them to flee and seal the hatchway behind them. Pickmerchant was under siege above and below.
Continuing the fine tradition among beasts, Omethu proceeded to tear through a wide array of cave wildlife, managing to improve its nickname quality all the way up to Omethu Plaguefiends the Little Sap of Moles, mainly by shredding a family of batpeople. In this way it even exceeded Rubal, whose exploits had only brought it to Rubal Whirledechoed the Ugly Mange — a mere three words in Dwarven against Omethu's four — despite being the only one with dwarf kills. Meanwhile, the shrieks of the giant peach-faced lovebirds had begun interrupting work at the surface, confusing dwarves into dropping the miscellaneous goods they continued to raid from the piles left behind by Pickmerchant's feral merchant population (now in various states of, ah, yes, dismemberment).
AUTUMN, 9
Autumn followed summer in much the same way, with one critical exception: the fortress' only miner, Inod the Pick Merchant, had been dispatched on a secret mission to complete the works in the caverns while Omethu was distracted. Although incredibly dangerous at first, if the mission went according to plan, it would soon become relatively safe as Inod was to isolate herself in an inaccessible tunnel – Omethu lacking the power of flight, unlike its ally topside. The termination of the project would, too, come with the magma furnaces in the uttermost depths sealed off securely, which was direly needed, given that the doors that had been protecting them theretofore had become quite battered.
Eventually, the dwarven merchants arrived, and with them the outpost liaison. Maximum concluded various negotiations, resulting in a trade agreement by which increased prices were secured for certain potential exports next year.
Far to the north, a herd of migrating rat women were suddenly ambushed by a rampaging assault horse. No, not that one, a different one. This assault horse was still invisible; the dwarves only knew of it by hearing the ratty screams echoing across the valley. A little later, a vast monster in the shape of a scaly winged earthworm, which the dwarves named Ngogngo, was discovered flying around in the upper caverns. This was not particularly concerning as long as it didn't fly through the pit into the lower caverns, from which Pickmerchant was slightly more exposed; even then, it was no trouble to stop work and hide away if necessary, as had been done with Omethu.
Or rather, that's what Maximum thought, until he heard word from the survivor of the year's migrant pair that Iton the farmdwarf had been found lying dead in the lower cavern, both his legs having been chewed off by Omethu. After several minutes of dire reflection, Maximum decided that drastic measures would have to be taken: Iton would have to be renamed "Honorary Bearskie". Oh, and, also, the hatchway to the lower caverns would be sealed until further notice, once all the wayward dwarves who were still alive were safely through it.
On the sixth of Timber, the dwarves of Pickmerchant heard a cacophony from somewhere behind the clay walls sealing their tunnel through the upper cavern levels. They finally discerned that Ases, the beast who had occupied that level previously, had returned to its home and was now immured in combat with the intruding Ngogngo. Though neither was a particularly concerning threat compared to Rubal or Omethu, any reduction in the number of beasts besetting Pickmerchant was a gift the dwarves did not care to look skeptically upon.
It goes on like this for some time:
Finally, when it was all over, Ngogngo was dead and Ases Sabreclashed the Wanderer of Storms was still supreme forgotten beast of the upper caverns. At around the same time, Rubal busied himself brutally mauling a passing raven, then caught and dismembered the invisible horse, before finally settling dangerously close to the walls of Pickmerchant.
Winter arrived without much fuss.
WINTER, 9
The main industry in Pickmerchant that winter was the tireless production of dolomite coffins by Inod the miner mentioned earlier, who was also the mason. One by one, the corpses still littering the fortress would be interred – and not a moment too soon, Maximum reflected, while being tortured with a bizarre spiritual pain by the ghost of a departed planter. That particular ghost's body was lying right in the main hallway, one of many that the dwarves simply hadn't had time to deal with in between being steadily picked off by monsters.
Although the rivers froze again, Maximum decided, while still slipping in and out of consciousness from the ghost attack, that it would be too dangerous getting so close to Rubal to harvest any ice. He hoped that any future overseers would continue building the magnificent ice road he had started. This train of thought was interrupted as a dwarf ran up to him, shook him gently by the shoulder, and informed him that another forgotten beast had been discovered, a humanoid made of silver to complement Ases, one of green glass. At this point Maximum passed out again.
Zanor the silver giant proceeded with the traditional wildlife dismemberment decathlon. Shortly thereafter, Iden the psychotic murder ghost was laid to rest. These two events were in no way connected.
Hoping, as Obsidian dawned, to finish the half-built infrastructure for his "forge-chute" project while the beasts of the caverns were distracted, Maximum ordered the main hatchway opened one final time. Within a day, Kel the farmdwarf, one-time survivor of a crundle attack, had been found dead in the rampway. Though she was unmarked, it was clear that she had used her mace against the silver golem, to little avail; Maximum, also the fort's diagnoser, declared his suspicion that she had been exposed to some kind of poison gas presumably emanated from the beast. The hatch was closed, perhaps never to be opened again. Kel was also posthumously renamed "Ms. Bearskie". The survivors returned to their grisly neverending work of entombing the myriad dead, while Zanor continued carving his mindless path of carnage through the cavern wildlife population.
With the year nearly at a close, Rubal migrated to the far west, forcing Maximum to rearrange once again the rules on which surface items were (relatively) safe to salvage. Inside, the passages were becoming choked with a thick press of miscellaneous animals, perhaps soon to become fodder against the beasts. It was impossible to say what the next year would bring, if the dwarves even survived the next year at all... In any case, the die was soon cast as winter passed once again into
SPRING, 10
TEKKUDASMEL STATISTICS:
Full years passed: 1
Visible hellbeasts: 2
Rampant murderhorses: ? ? ?
Confirmed murderhorses: 1
Surviving dwarves: 4
Bearskies killed in the line of duty: 5
SAVE
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Topic: [0.43.05]Tekkudasmel, Reclaim the Fort! (Read 2758 times)