Hello dwarves, dwarfettes and curious visitors! I'm Mr. Eturor, cavern hunter, and today we'll be learning how to defend ourselves from a giant olm attack.
The giant olm is a large amphibian that lurks in the upper caverns. It's sometimes called the humanfish due to its pink skin and great ambition. This ambition drives it to catch and devour dwarves if it can, even armed and armored ones. Like humans it also has destructive urges, which it exercises by toppling statues and breaking wooden doors and hatches. As always, you should gate your entrances with quality material like stone or metal to prevent simple pests like these from making their way in.
The giant olm freely moves to and from water, so be wary when fishing in caves! If given the chance it will leap out and drag the unwitting dwarf into the depths! Take care when dodging or you may find yourself helpless in the deepstream current!
There's our target now! Ain't he a beaut. Don't be fooled by those youthful features; you can tell by those scars he's seen some experience. With those regressed eyes and stubby limbs giant olms may look like they aren't fully developed, but in fact they're born fully grown and stay the same way for their whole eighty-year lives.
Since the giant olm readily stalks dwarves like me, there's no need to provoke him. He will readily approach with intent to devour, while trying to stay undetected. Note how he masks his scent by approaching from the deeps. A giant olm's eyes aren't very good, so he looks for sudden movements to tell if he's been spotted. Right now he thinks I'm oblivious despite the fact I'm lookin' him right down his nose.
Once he comes within striking distance he will spring forward and attempt to seize the prey in his jaws. The best way to counter this is to step under him as he lunges and strike the neck, like so. Then, while he's trying to recover, you prevent him from catching his breath with a good strike or two to the chest. This will give you time to attack the legs and tail. Your goal here is - oh, fiesty one, aren't you? - to disable his ability to act swiftly so you can more easily dodge his attacks.
The giant olm is very reliant on his jaws in a fight and will bite whenever possible. We avoided that once by getting under him, but giant olms are very flexible and will twist their lithe bodies as needed to get to you. That's why our strikes are focused on hindering his movement. If he does manage to catch his prey, he will clamp down and pull them into what's known as a death spiral, whipping his snakelike body into a circle while shaking the prey to inflict more damage. We want to avoid that!
You may wonder why I don't use my crossbow. Why, because if I were a simple fisherman I wouldn't have one! While it's good to use the tools at hand, it's best to learn how to fight without them, 'cause there are times you won't have a choice. Even a four season soldier needs to know how to fight bare-handed for times he is disarmed.
Anyways, it looks like our olm friend is starting to recover, so let's use an old kisat dur trick and strike him here, in the lower body. This should bruise the guts, slowing his reactions long enough for us to strike him in the neck and lungs again. Took yer breath away, didn't I, old fellah?
Ooh, it looks like we've gotten him angry! That means he's right where we want him to be. In this state he'll rush forward with most of his weight on his upper body, and if we strike the supporting limb - like so - we can send him careening head over heels. After that, a good strike to the noggin should set him right! But be mindful! Giant olms recover quickly, so be ready to give him another round if he gets up again.
Oi, looks like he's already ready for more! Let's give him what for!
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Topic: Extreme hunting (Read 2483 times)