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[Darkening Kaos]

     Skelebro's are best bro's.  It does concern me however, that they traded for our food... the mental image of a skelebro eating a meal makes my stomach turn.  Ugh.  And to obtain some useless animals in return.  At least I have my workshop and a bunch of work to do.

[ZM5]

Skelebros trying to eat food comes across as more comical to me, given that the chunks would just be falling through them.

[pikachu17]

Perhaps they want the food as a curiosity.
"Look dudes, those flashers put these things in their mouths, and Then THEY SWALLOW IT"
"Uncle Stirrup, what is swallowing?"

[SQman]

Skellies probably saw the rothe grazing outside and deduced that our prepared meals were rich in calcium.

Are we going to be conquering people?

I don't know if we can conquer in an updated game. TBH I can't even send raiding parties. It says "cannot order mission without leader". Maybe I need an actual matriarch before I can raid? Is there anything in the raws about that? I gave MILITARY_STRATEGY to the house priestess and nothing.




The drows are undoubtedly creatures of the deep, shunning the light of the sun and the denizens of the surface. Why is that? Nobody knows, but the ruling caste of the drow society insisted that there is no other way. An outsider could see the rulers of Dungeonevened as revolutionaries standing against all drow values, but in reality...



SQ was standing by the small pond near the entrance to the settlement, overwatching the construction of walls. A builder came up to her to consult the plans.
"There will be some flooring involved, but this pool won't be much of an obstacle." He said.

The worker was unlucky because SQ was in her 'Detective Justiceromanced' persona. "This pool was my favorite pond, but the builder couldn't know that. 'You have to build around the pond, whether you like it or not.' They didn't actually have to do anything, but I had to work on my assertiveness before meeting a second person involved in..." The rugged detective suddenly turned back into a scared, little girl.  "Oh no! I almost said that out loud! Forget you heard anything, please!"

"O-okay, overseer SQ, we'll build around the pond, and you haven't said anything beyond that."

---



"Umm... Mistress... Freshcannon... Ugh, how should I address you?" Lunardog asked the priestess, peeking through the door to the barracks. He remembered he'd never actually had a conversation with her.

At that moment Freshcannon was overseeing Biretha's and Melici's sparring. She did that a lot, because leaving those two without supervision could end in a disaster. The priestess glanced at the door quickly before turning her eyes back on her soldiers. "Oh, it's you, sissy boy." She said, not paying too much attention to the farmer. "It's Freshcannon to you, but... Biretha, if you cut Melici's ear off, I'll have both of yours! What was I saying? Oh right, that's not what you came here for, is it?"

"Right, here goes... Is growing crops aboveground immoral, illegal, sacrilegious or actively discouraged for any other reason? We've got some seeds from the skeletons, and we got some from wild plants." Lunardog explained his position. Then he remembered: "And it's Lunardog, not 'sissy boy'".

"Honestly? No clue. It's been almost a century since I last had a law book in my hand, especially of the religious kind... Melici, a dark elf won't hold back because you do puppy badgerdog eyes, only Biretha is that stupid! Oh right, Sissydog, you have my blessing or something to plant whatever the hell you want wherever the hell you want." The priestess was still not looking at Lunardog's direction, but she made a vague gesture that could mean either 'Do your thing' or 'Get out of here before I lose my patience', although it could have well meant 'I don't know, ask Asithi'.

---

Fred the Mitey's office, Fred was completely focused on his books and documents. On the other side of the table stood SQ, trying to have a meaningful conversation with the administrator.

"That man has guts not to offer me a seat.' I thought. 'Is he trying to make a statement? Not only am I a woman and his guest, but also his superior." SQ narrated. She was only a little bit upset, but her character demanded her to blow the issue out of proportion.

"I'll stop you here, SQ. I have just this one chair in the room, and my work is more important than your tomfoolery. You could bring a chair from the stockpile, or sit on the bed." Fred suggested, briefly raising his head from the pile of papers to see SQ's reaction. The overseer opened her mouth to begin another monologue, but Fred was faster. "I'd rather talk to SQ Hateromanced, not detective Hatejustice or whatever you call yourself these days."

"Awww, come on! I-I mean, if that's what it takes for you to answer my questions, why not?" SQ said in a disappointed tone, before sitting down on the bed cross-leged. "So... I heard you weren't exactly good at managing the royal treasury back in Murknightmare. Some money turned up in questionable places..."

"Lunardog warned me you would come to talk about this. I hope your visit will be more pleasant than ZM5's. We're up to a good start, since you haven't brought a knife... How do you spell onyx?"

"O-N-E-X, I think. So, you ARE going to answer my questions?" SQ was surprised by Fred's compliance. "You admit to everything you've been charged with, is that right?"

"Yeah, the money went to large noble houses that would then send it back to me after taking their cut. That way I avoided getting the scheme discovered." Fred confirmed while writing the word 'onex' in the books. "That was after my mother stopped acknowledging my existence. I couldn't live off my family's fortune, and the job in administration wasn't paying enough to let me live in the palace district for much longer. I was becoming a miserable middler with a job I hated and a meaningless noble title. Are you sure it's spelled 'onex'?"

"Yeah, pretty sure it is. You used your position in power to continue living as a nobleman. Okay, that much I understand. You made a deal with some large noble houses, including house Drilledterrors..."

"Drilledterrors, Boatnightmare, Doomfigures... They all promised to stand up for me if I ever get caught." The administrator looked up at SQ again. The woman was making notes in her little notebook. "They all abandoned me after your friend ZM5 revealed my wrongdoings to the general public. The only reason I still have my head on my shoulders is that my mother stepped in, probably just to see me become a dirty bum. I got kicked out from administration, stripped of nobility, and called a disgrace to the family. You know the rest."

"I get a feeling you're giving me the massively simplified version. More people knew about that before ZM5. Maybe not about your role, but about the embezzlement." SQ looked at Fred triumphantly. She finally got him, or so she thought.

"Evidence, dear SQ. You can throw baseless claims around, but they're not gonna be taken seriously without solid evidence. I said the same to ZM5 and de..." Fred bit his tongue before finishing the sentence. "I have to finish this monthly report, so could you leave my room?"

"You're getting awfully defensive, Vathi Scaldedwitches." SQ stood up, slammed her notebook shut dramatically, and looked at the administrator with contempt. A shiver went down Fred's spine. He fully expected the girl to just give up instantly, not become all menacing.

"How do you people do it? I want to be able to influence people by saying their names too! Are you two alchemancers by any chance? I'm still not going to change my mind. Show me evidence that someone was investigating my crime, and I'll tell you everything. For now, go away."

"I'll get to the bottom of this, with or without your cooperation, or my name isn't SQ Justiceromanced!"

"It isn't, though!"

---

SQ stormed out of Fred's room. There was someone else in Dungeonevened investigating this case, and what's more, Fred almost admitted there was someone else was tangled into this mess even before ZM5 got involved. The overseer knew she had to think about her next move carefuly. She needed a while to calm down, and what's the better way to catch a breath than taking care of rothe? She climbed up to the surface to get the animals ready for shearing, but she was stopped in the entrance corridor by an unknown man.




The man bowed down low, which might have been some kind of greeting or a sign of respect, and said: "Greetings, we've travelled a long way in search of a new home. I wish to meet SQ-Ithera, the overseer of this land, could you lead us to her?"

"I-it's me... I think. Umm... who are you, and where are your companions?" SQ asked anxiously.

The man kneeled, to SQ's surprise. "My mistress, I'm Asin Badwade, a dishonored warrior seeking redemption. My wife, Efaci-Larami, and our five travelling companions are waiting for me outside. I promised to lead them here safely, so if you intend to execute us all, start with me, so I don't stain my honor once again."

"Why... why would I do it?! What's your story?" SQ was getting more and more confused. Asin's answer only begged for more questions. "We have at least two known criminals residing in this town, three if Kaos really is a worshipper of Vhaeraun like I suspect, and I'm not sure if we need more, especially the dangerous kind.

"I have failed to protect my previous mistress, and I cannot bring myself to take my own life. I understand I do not deserve to live, but if you don't give me a chance to clean my name, at least spare my wife and other travellers, they are not sullied with dishonor."

SQ was speechless - the man must have been confused, personal guards would assassinate their mistresses more often than not, so failing to protect someone was not shameful at all. Not to mention the kneeling. "You can stand up now, I don't really do this social caste thing. I appreciate that you don't insist on maintaining eye contact... Can you introduce me to your friends?"

"Certainly, SQ-Ithera."

SQ and Asin proceeded to the surface. There were six women and a small gloomwing waiting for them.



"This is my wife, Efaci-Larami." Asin stopped by a visibly excited woman. "She is a wonderful person, her humor a balm on my soul."

"That means she doesn't have too many useful skills..." SQ muttered to herself.

"Asin, I told you, I can pick up a mace or a scourge of fangs, I don't want to be assigned to fish cleaning!" Efaci said to her husband. Apparently they must have had a talk about the woman's lack of usefulness not too long before.

"Efaci-Larami, I can not stop you now. Our fate is now in SQ-Ithera's hands..."

"Woah, I don't like the way you talk about me, Asin. I'm not your owner!" SQ protested. "You two can talk this over later, but I need to meet everyone first.


"This is Biretha-Diri, a novice gem cutter... I am truly sorry that me and my companions are not skilled workers."

"It's fine, Asin, you don't need to be so apologetic. Or maybe depressive is a better word...

"This is Melici-Diri..." Asin began before being cut off.

"Biretha and Melici, huh? Are they in a church-approved gang by any chance?"

"What? I... I do not understand. Do you want to punish me for bringing them here?"

SQ sighed loudly. "What does Melici-Di... Melici do?"

"She is a siege ope..."

"NEXT!"

"Nuwetha-Diri here is an accomplished cook, Tharumi-Diri is a miner, and Vathi-Diri is good at gemsetting and stonecrafting. Remember, SQ-Ithera, if the need arises, we will gladly take up swords to protect you."

"Thank you, Asin. From now on you're the first house captain of Dungeonevened. Nuwetha and Tharumi will join our house priestess's squad, while your wife, Biretha, Melici and Vathi will serve directly under you... If you're okay with this." SQ proclaimed. She didn't know what else to do with this bunch. They had no useful skills, and they didn't really look like seasoned warriors.



"My mistress, it's such an honor... I... I..." Asin struggled to find suitable words.

"Now, I've had a tough day, and I don't have energy to talk to strangers for longer than I have to. Could you find something to do that doesn't involve me?" SQ interrupted less than politely.

---



SQ led a young rothe bull to the farmer's workshop underground. When she reached to the working area, a horrible stench of rotting flesh hit her with full strength. The overseer was literally stunned by the putrid smell, but it was clear to her that it was coming from the butcher's workshop.

"Miss SQ, this is horrible!" A male voice cried from under the thick cloud of miasma. "Someone left a giant louse heart on the table, and it started rotting!"

"*Cough!* Imic? Why don't you dump it in the trash pile? Gods, this really is awful!" SQ's eyes started burning, but her smell receptors unfortunately did not. "What an idiot let this happen *Cough!* *Cough!*"

"I just got here myself. They have silkflowers laying in the fields too. I asked mister Lunardog about that, and apparently someone said that the stockpile should only take stuff from links, whatever that means." Imic explained, somehow not choking on miasma. "Who in Dungeonevened has this kind of power?"

"Heh heh... *Cough!* I... well, I might have something to do with this... But I bet it was Kaos."

(I keep accidentally pressing [a] on the food stockpile instead of the stills.)

---



Something even more foul than a giant vermin's rotting innards showed up on the surface. Uthimi Shockhell was already displeased with having to haul frog demon bones into the trash heap, but her work was made even more unpleasant by a disgustingly malformed beast reeking of rotting bile and vomit.





One of the new recruits, Tharumi, stepped in to save Uthimi. While the hauler managed to escape, Tharumi failed to become a hero that day.



Imic, on the other hand, had no trouble dispatching the eldritch thief. The swine's head split in two, which actually improved its appearance.



The aftermatch of the fight wasn't pretty either. Tharumi's face was covered in rotting boils, but she managed to get to the hospital before the problem got out of hand. Nunore quickly drained the diseased pus and sutured the wound on her neck.



Uthimi was completely covered in the cursed vomit of the swine wretch. She was carried to the hospital by Lunardog and Schmendrick, who both agreed that the woman was in advanced state of decay.

"Lunardog, this is horrifying! I tried to clean her, but the flesh keeps coming off!" Schmendrick muttered, trying not to vomit on the hospital floor. "I've seen some messed up corpses in my life, but I've never seen a living drow in this state!"

"Gods, where is Nunore? We need all the help we can get!" As much as Lunardog didn't want to admit it, Schmendrick and Nunore knew much more about medicine than he did. "I wish Asithi would come here, but I guess I can't expect a priestess to move a finger when her people need her."

"I'm here, Luney!" Nunore returned into the room with several large bales of cloth and a butcher's knife. "Step back, it's gonna get dirty!"



Nunore finished the operation surprisingly quickly. Buckets of liquified flesh and bloodied rags were laying around the bed. The patient herself looked nothing like she looked before, her skin was ragged, her eyes were no longer functional, and her breath was quick and shallow, but at least she was alive.

"All I ever wanted was a quiet life, a few men running around doing my bidding, not deeply-lodged psychological trauma. I'm going to get a drink, Luney... come... come join me if you need to... urk..." Nunore was hardly conscious herself, her voice getting weaker with every second.

"Schmendrick, help me get her to the tavern! She needs some rum right now!" Lunardog shouted.

---



A caravan from the capital appeared, and with it the icedweller outpost liaison. After meeting with the diplomat, SQ decided to help with hauling trade goods to the depot. Scourge was already waiting for her.

"SQ, let's go bring some shell amulets to the depot before Fred tells us to haul rocks or some other heavy stuff." Scourge hurried the overseer. It was obvious that she had some deeper motive than that, but SQ decided to take the bait.
The two women reached the stairs, but instead of going up, they went down to the slave bedroom level. After they both entered an unocuppied room, Scourge leaned against the door, blocking the only way out. "Remember when I told you you shouldn't be going around asking weird questions?" She asked. "Well, Fred and Lunardog told Five everything, and I'm getting better and better at eavesdropping. You haven't learned much, have you?"

"N-nothing at all! At least nothing that has any meaning. I just... I just kind of made a fool of myself, but it's okay." SQ was careful not to mention the two new clues from Fred. "I mean, now I know that Fred wasn't some kind of sinister mastermind, just a naive young man who thought he had friends in high places. The noble houses were using him the whole time."

"Hmm, that's new to me. I would say 'good job', but I'd rather you weren't snooping around like that." Suddenly Scourge's eyes lit up, and her mouth contortred into an unsettling grimace. "YES THIS VESSEL WILL DO. COME, DEEP ELF, BE A WITNESS OF MY MAGNIFICENCE." She stormed out of the room, not waiting for startled SQ to follow.




MottledPetrel was doing stretching excercises near the clothier's workshop, preparing himself to pick up a box of troll-sized silk garments. A back injury was the last thing the mussel collector needed. He was relieved when he noticed Scourge coming his way. "Oh, Scourge, I'm glad you came to help me carry this..." Before he finished talking, Scourge effortlessly picked up the box and tossed it across the room, clearing space in the workshop. "...or you could just do this, I don't mind. I'll just wait for Asithi..."



Scourge collected three bales of silk, two stack of abrian leather, and a chunk of dolomite. Everyone, except SQ, who came too close was met with an unnaturally cold stare, some could say it was literally freezing.




"NOW PRAISE ME, MORTAL... WAIT, THAT'S NOT RIGHT... PRAISE ME, ELF!" Whatever was in Scourge's body demanded.

"Uhh... It's a really fine glove, even if just one. It's fit for the great matriarch, and... I would never take it off if it was mine." SQ put on a fake smile not to offend the vain spirit.

"What are you... Oh, cool glove, have I made it?" Scourge said in her normal tone, apparently not remembering what has just hapened.

"You got all weird and loud, weirder and louder than usual, and yes, you made that. I know that's a lot to ask, but could you remember how you made it?" SQ inquired.

"No, I can't recall a single thing, but the others don't need to know that. If anyone asks, I'm now a legendary clothier. Tee-hee!" Scourge giggled, imagining how jealous other drows would be.

---

While Scourge was dealing with posession, Fred the Mitey was making completely different deals. He exchanged ludicrous amounts of shell amulets, spare clothes, quivers and crossbows for miscellaneous metals, coal, lye, and a beak dog. Over ten thousand urists of goods were also given to the traders as a gift.

---

SQ heard from a passing troll that some malcontent mussel gatherer was waiting for her in her office, so she begrudgingly left Scourge alone in the clothier's shop and headed down to the bedroom level.
Someone was standing by her statue in front of the office, and it was not the fisherman. The relaxed stance, the signature smirk, the two daggers hidden safely in sheathes. There was no doubt ZM5 would want to talk to SQ about her investigation, and this wouldn't be a pleasant conversation. The overseer turned on her heel, hoping that ZM5 hadn't noticed her. If there really was a fisherman waiting for her in the office, he could wait for a few more hours.

"SQ, you know your piwafwi doesn't make you invisible, right?" The man stopped SQ. His tone was cheerful and carefree, but he was always like that, no matter his actual mood. "You probably know what I wanted to ask you."

"Y-yes, Scourge is totally a legendary clothier now. I have a meeting to attend, so..."

"You're not getting away that easily, baby doll. You've been talking to Lunardog and Fred about MY finished case, and you got some new facts and some questions to answer. Is that right?" ZM5 asked, but he wasn't waiting for an answer. "You've done a fine job so far, but you'd need to do some serious work to find out more. Of course I advise you not to, and you better listen. Check."

"This case is NOT closed. Scourge told me you're still trying to investigate, and while she thinks this is all for nothing, I believe I can find out the truth, which you failed to do in over fifty years! You say I shouldn't get involved for my own safety, but what could happen to me here? Huh?" SQ was standing on tiptoes to give her speech straight to ZM5's face. In her own eyes she looked intimidating.

"Looks like I'll have to shut you up before you get yourself in deep trouble, you little moleweasel." ZM5 said, pushing the overseer back firmly yet gently, finally pinning her against the wall.

"What are you gonna do? I know as a fact that you'd never hurt me, so stop bluff..." SQ started, but before she could finish, ZM5 leaned over so that their faces were as close as possible. He then placed a kiss on her lips, silencing her just as he promised. Even though it was just a brief moment, the whole palette of emotions went through the woman's head, including feelings she never felt in her century-long life. All she could do was whisper: "F-Five... I... I don't... w-what..."



"Now you'll have something to think about." ZM5 said, walking away, leaving confused SQ alone with her thoughts.


Another plot-heavy one, but we've got some stuff done too.

-The wall has been built, meaning that we can control sieges' movement better.
-A small migrant wave - Asin and his harem came to fight for us. Our nimblewright armorer will have a lot of work to do. Kaos can take a break from churning out copper bolts too.
-Established contact with the swinefolk from the warrens. Swine wretches are worse in DF than in Darkest Dungeon, at least in DD they don't make your adventurers' bones rot.
-Scourge made a single silk glove with dolomite sequins. Hee-hee!
-Traded with drows. Too many useless metals. Should have ordered things like steel, refined diamondium or spartan metal, but it's too late for that. We got a beak dog, though. Broke a rule and ordered cave roaches, but vermins don't count so it's okay.
-Tested the friendship room trick, because I heard some people saying it doesn't work. It does.

[scourge728]

Looks like even my drow has the same curse my fortress has of getting nothing (well nearly nothing, I believe out of the many moods it has about 3 have been not) but possessions ever. Also I ship it

[ZM5]

Bone rot? I knew I'll definitely have to rebalance the vomit attack, but that's kind of surprising - didn't think it'd affect bones. Then again I'm fairly sure I saw rainwater cover the liver and other internal organs of some creatures in adventure mode so something may be off with that.
Still, what happened to Uthimi is horrifying - kind of wondering how she'll function from now on. Hopefully we can get an artistic representation of the surgery.
I don't know what to think about the ship, but the mental image of Drow-Pennywise and Drow-Luigi (female) doing a Chinese cowboy impression is like something you'd see in a tome of forbidden knowledge.

[SQman]

Bone rot? I knew I'll definitely have to rebalance the vomit attack, but that's kind of surprising - didn't think it'd affect bones. Then again I'm fairly sure I saw rainwater cover the liver and other internal organs of some creatures in adventure mode so something may be off with that.
Still, what happened to Uthimi is horrifying - kind of wondering how she'll function from now on. Hopefully we can get an artistic representation of the surgery.
I don't know what to think about the ship, but the mental image of Drow-Pennywise and Drow-Luigi (female) doing a Chinese cowboy impression is like something you'd see in a tome of forbidden knowledge.

It didn't actually affect bones, but skin, fat and muscles onevery body part had was rotting. Curiously it only said that Nunore extracted rotten tissue only from upper lip.

Uthimi is now blind, but that's the only serious problem she seems to have.
The soldier who got repeatedly hit on the head with a bag at least had to get three sutures on her neck.

[Fleeting Frames]

Well, that was mildly entertaining.

While slightly formulaic, what's neat about this story is that the overseer suppsedly can't throw baseless claims aroun...but can throw baseless construction orders and job assignments around.

While that mirrors justice system in-game to a large extent, it's still quite amusing, and we all know where such powers lead.

[SQman]

Imic woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of his stomach rumbling. Any other drow would have ignored it and gone back to sleep, but a champion of justice had to be ready to fight wrongdoers at any time. What's a better way to prepare for slaying villains than eating fisher berry pastries at two in the morning?
The soldier headed straight to the food stockpile without lighting his faerie fire, which as it turend out was a good decision. When he was walking past the sawmill, he overheard two people talking. He knew it wasn't a just thing to do, but he hid behind a purple sand wall and listened.

"You did WHAT?" A female voice whispered. "You were supposed to silence her! Couldn't you just shank her and get her out of the picture?"

"What if I shanked YOU and abandoned this case?" A male voice that Imic recognized as ZM5 said. "At this point I'd be willing to ditch you, Zecalo, and make her my investigation partner. After all, she was personally affected by the murder, and you're doing this why exactly? Because I paid you a few decades ago? Or maybe because you feel like you have power over me?"

"You'd choose that demented shadow gnome over a seasoned investigator?" Zecalo, whoever she was, asked. Imic could feel a great deal of enmity in her voice.

"This whole case is as much about her as it is about me if not even more so, so you better fix that attitude of yours. Check." ZM5 growled.

"You've really fallen for her, haven't you? Kinda pathetic if you ask me. Out of all women... Wait a minute, I think I heard something..."
Imic realized his stomach started rumbling again, this time even louder. He ran down the stairs to the bedroom level, but instead of going to his bedroom, he knocked at Scourge's door.

"Oh for Lolth's sake, SQ, did you have a bad dream again? Go away!" Scourge groaned from her room. Imic continued knocking until Scourge opened the door, at which point the man slipped inside. "I-Imic? It's the middle of the night, but sure, I'm up for it." The woman said, shedding her night robe.

"That's not it, Scourge! They're coming after me! They might have heard me knocking on your door!" Imic explained by frantically waving his arms, which Scourge managed to interpret as drow sign language.

"Oh, I'll be putting that back on then... Wait, who are 'they', why are they chasing you, and why come to me? Man, I think this is what they call déją vu." As soon as Scourge finished talking, someone started wailing on the door.

"Scourge, baby, have you been out just a minute ago?" ZM5 asked through the locked door. "I hope it was you, not another pig monster."

"I was just checking on the ironheads. One of them didn't want to eat yesterday, so I got worried." Scourge bluffed. She wanted to mention hidden traps in her room for the old times' sake, but helping Imic out was more important than nostalgia.

"So you haven't been on any of the upper levels?"

"Huh? No, probably goblizards made a nest in the wood stockpile. I'll get some spiders in there in the morning, can I go back to sleep now?" Scourge asked. She put her pointy ear against the door just in time to hear the sound of two people walking away. Then she signed: "Imic, what have you gotten into? What did you do to piss off Five?"

Imic told Scourge everything he said with the smallest details. The woman wouldn't believe a word if she didn't know about ZM5's investigation. She still had trouble processing everything she heard. "I... I don't know where to start with all of this. SQ or Fred could have some documentation on people, so I could figure out who this Zecalo is. I think I know what murder they were talking about, and I have a good idea about who the 'demented shadow gnome' could be. Thanks for bringing this up to me."

"B-but Scourge, there's so much I don't understand!"

"The last thing I want is to get you into this mess."

---

SQ didn't sleep well that night, in fact she wasn't sure if she slept at all. Unfortunately there was work to be done, and sleeping till the noon only results in fisherman's guilds appearing out of thin air. The moment she opened the door, a blueprint flew straight into her face.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that... detective." Fred's voice said from behind the sheet of paper. "Uhh... are you gonna just stand here? I'd like to have this approved, because your signature is really annoying to forge, which is perplexing, since your name only consists of two letters."



"Mmmm? Oh, you want me to sign something?" SQ asked, trying to focus on the project. "That's a rectangle. Not your best work, if I gotta be honest."

"Have you been to the refuse stockpile lately? Let's focus on aesthetics after we deal with the immediate problem." The administrator pulled out another sheet of paper, this time with a well-made drawing of the refuse stockpile as it was at that moment.



"The fishery workers, excuse me, the fisherman's guild members have been throwing all the shells from cleaning mussels into the stockpile and... well, I can't say how accurate this picture is, because I couldn't even open the main entrance doors, but Vemini, that silver-haired bone carver, assured me he drew exactly what he saw." Fred explained.

"That's not a good thing, is it? Oh, the trash heap!" SQ exclaimed as if she was fast asleep up to that very moment. "Sure, we could use more workshops, and I have another great idea, just you wait!" SQ disappeared into her office for a few seconds, then reappeared with a piece of paper in her hand. "I'll have someone nail this to their notice board, that should solve the problem.



"Let me see... 'The trash pile is a home to the sacred trash spider that happens to be scared of mussel shells of all things. If I see any of you, chuckleheads, put shells in there, I'll make sure you'll end up in the river with those mussels you love so much. I remain, Freshcannon Siegedmenaced.'" Fred read the notice several times, considering all possible outcomes of this solution." You know, you're the least qualified person to manage a settlement, you're friends with looneys and psychopaths, you can somehow fit five loops in a single 'S' in your signature, but I like the way you avoid responsibility wherever you can. Reminds me of me when I was younger."

---



SQ, somewhat relieved that Fred wasn't harboring a grudge, decided she would go straight to work. She missed taking care of barely tamed animals, and just so happened that there were three abrians waiting for her in the cage stockpile. The birds weren't the only ones waiting.



Scourge and an unfamiliar young man were standing near the abrian cages, holding bags of mushrooms. They weren't sure how to approach the abyssal birds, and neither of them wanted to lose their fingers. Do abrians even eat mushrooms? Finally Scourge broke the awkward silence by acknowledging SQ's arrival: "Hey, SQ! Not looking too hot, want a little challenge to pick you up? Thateme and I were trying to figure out how to handle those buggers. Maybe you'll come up with something?"

"You're not in the best shape either." SQ noticed, taking the bag of mushrooms from Scourge. "Have you tried throwing those mushrooms into the cages? Maybe we should get Five in here... No, on the second thought, let's not."

"Five, hmm? Yeah, I'll need to have a word with you, but it's too much of a crowd in here."

"Well excuuUUUUuuuse me!" Thateme lashed out. "First you make me drag a sack of morels here, then you suggest I should feed demon birds out of my only two hands, now you don't want me here anymore! What am I supposed to do? Go back to the tavern and listen to another of Liceyi's poems?"

"Ah yes, I forgot you're one of Nunore's whiny blueblood boytoys. Just toss the bag into the cage and you're done here anyway, sheesh!" Scourge scoffed. Building a competent team of caretakers wouldn't be as simple as she thought. "Hey, it's working, they're calming down! We should get an enclosure built for them as soon as possible."



---



Fred the Mitey noticed that the supply of diamondium wasn't as great as the counts suggested. Could it be that the smiths weren't actually keeping track of used bars? Fred realized that was very likely, considering that one of the armorers was a golem whose only function was smithing armor. Digging deeper was necessary.

It didn't take long until the miners carving out a new staircase dug into what they believed was an empty chamber, hopefully not filled with deadly gas. After a few more pickaxe swings, they realized they've reached the caverns. One of them squeezed his head through the hole to examine the newly discovered section of the underworld.





Ores of diamondium, silver and titanium, precious gems, tangled mycelium of beardwood trees, majestic tower caps, cave spider webs covered in small creatures. Just like the wild caverns in the capital.



Microscopic spores of umbra reed, jelly cups and copper grass immediately spread across the upper levels of Dungeonevened. It was just a matter of time before the rothe herd could be moved underground where they belonged.

---

"So, an above average sized bird told me that Five did... something to you last evening. Don't spare spicy details, please." Scourge demanded answers, now that Thateme stormed out of the room. "You called him 'Five', which you never do thse days, so don't pretend nothing happened."

"I... it was... we... h-hey, a beak dog, s-since when do we have a beak dog?" SQ tried to change the topic, but she was clearly distressed.

"That's not gonna work on me, or anyone else for that matter. I'm just worried for your safety, now that you're sticking your nose everywhere you're not supposed to."

"Okay, but promise you won't freak out." SQ sighed. Scourge reluctantly nodded, afraid of what she may hear but overwhelmed by curiosity. "There goes: Five and I... we kissed, that's all."

"You WHAT?! Do you even understand how weird that is? Are you even sure he isn't your real brother?" Scourge panicked. She was convinced nothing good could come out of that. "I'd give you some stern talking to, but I don't even know where to begin."

"The worst part is that I don't understand what's going on inside me. It's like something broke, or maybe just the opposite? Ugh, feeling is hard!" SQ grunted in frustration.

"Here we go, exactly what I expected. I can assure you Five is feeling the same way, even if he'd never admit it. If you expect me to help you, I'll disappoint you, cause you two hardly think like normal people. Asithi deals with pathological cases, so go ask her for advice."

"Oh, so now it's a pathological case? You think I'm some kind of an emotionless golem that's just malfunctioning? Because..." SQ's voice cracked, she understood even less than before. "...because I feel that too at the moment. M-maybe people like me shouldn't feel love?"

Scourge felt guilty for not watching her words, but on the other hand she was deeply conflicted about this whole affair. "That's not what I meant... I... Oh, to hell with it, let's go to the tavern and get drunk off our asses! Worked for auntie, works for Nunore, so why wouldn't it work for us."

---




Iquila was mining diamondite in the caverns just by the staircase. It was pleasant enough, compared to digging in narrow drow-made corridors, and there was always someone passing by willing to stop for a chat.

"Hello, Emura, you've been awfully quiet lately, any particular reason?" The miner asked a passing man who was carrying an ex-cave parrot.



"You know, we have shrines to The Ignited Steams and Nelare Maroonoils, but I wish there was one for Ayiti too."

"Oh, I understand, my patron gods have no shrines either... Hey, Melici, how's the training?" Iquila switched conversation partners, this time addressing a young woman in full armor.



"I'm wondering if it's all worth it, risking life for others... I respect Asin's decision, but I don't really feel like I owe all those people anything, you know what I mean?"

"I think so. Hey you, big hairy guy, I don't think I've ever seen you around. Are you new here?" Iquila asked a huge horned figure standing just a few urists away.



"URGH? GHAR GRUG!" The wild troll answered, slightly confused by the small black creature squeaking at it in a friendly tone.

"Everybody watch out! A troll!" Someone shouted from upstairs. A woman armed with a scourge of fangs ran down to the caverns to face the monster.



Vathi immediately swung her weapon at the troll leg. One of the animated diamondium snake heads latched on firmly, falling the troll to the ground. The lasher stood over the monster triumphantly, thinking it would be the end of the fight. Unfortunately the troll managed to launch itself towards Vathi with its one functional leg, and grabbed her hand. Vathi kicked her enemy in the face, hoping it would let her go, but the furious troll squeezed the woman's hand instead, crushing it completely, then threw her away like a rag doll.

Suddenly the monster felt horrible pain in its injured leg. ZM5, who should be in the barracks training, happened to wander into the caverns and decided to come his fellow soldier to the rescue.



He was fighting in his usual way, jumping around the enemy, slashing and stabbing at random. The monster roared in pain and anger, but it wasn't ready to give up, even with its reeking guts spilled. Finally Vathi regained consciousness, stood up, came up to the flailing troll, and decked it on the temple with her fist knocking it out. ZM5 began his gruesome display of decapitating the huge monster with his tiny blade. He wasn't satisfied with how long it took him, even though it was his best time yet.

"Glad you decided to show up, ZM5." Vathi said, trying to hide the immense pain she was in. "You should be training with the priestess, yet you're here... Do you have a special sense for detecting damsels in distress?"

"Just wanted to take a walk, my little chantarelle. Alone, I should add." ZM5 replied in an unusually grim voice. "I may be your knight in shining armor, but I feel more like a village idiot... Why am I telling you this? Whatever, it's getting too crowded in these caverns. I'll be in the tavern rethinking my life choices, if any lady needs me.

---



Pelagics came back to trade again, with them their wagon and pack crabs. They brought metal, drinks, fruit, and of course animals. In return they received tattered clothes, leftover gems, shell trinkets and bolts decorated with tiny images made of carved shell.
(I wish there was a way to forbid decorating ammo. Imic is having a coronary each time the hunter breaks his masterfully decorated bolts.)

"So... what can you tell me about these animals?" Fred asked the pelagic oracle.

"Shuugh! Nuk-nuk *croak* khak'nsakh! C'nhu't okht-shul! Pah kol'nutu!" The fishman responded, pointing at one cage after another with his staff. He might have been saying something very important, or he might have not understood Fred's question at all, but the administrator had no way of telling.

"Hey, you! Have you seen SQ or Scourge? I need them to check this stuff out." Fred called to a drow passing by.

"They asked Nunore to keep bringing them booze until they both black out, so I doubt they'll be up for the task any time soon."

"What's your name, son? And do you know anything about animals?" Fred inquired. Maybe the combined knowledge of the administrator and that random young man will be enough to identify the weird creatures.

"Emura, I'm a brewer, sir. You can make mead out of bee and dewbeetle secretions. That's all I know."

---



"Oh, speaking of dewbeetles..." Emura pointed at a copper-red giant insect. "I have no idea how you milk them, but that's a thing people do."

"I wonder what the first person who ever milked a beetle was thinking?" Fred wondered. "It's not like they could have seen a baby beetle suckling on mama beetle's udder."



"I've seen some of these. They fly over around here from time to time and don't bother anyone. Scourge refuses to go outside when those guys are out there, no idea why, I think they're neat." Fred mused about urhags, looking the creature straight in the eye.

"Maybe you can make beer out of their tears? I'll suggest that to Lunardog so if anything bad happens it's not on me."



"We have a cavy running around outside, but it's tiny compared to this one." Fred was in awe at the size of the rodent. "On the other hand it's a big grazing animal, so we'll have to wait before putting it in SQ's zoo."

"Why do we even collect those animals?" Emura asked. "The overseer sure seems to think it's really important."

"It's her personal vendetta, if I understood it right. She couldn't afford an assassin, so she came up with this bizarre plan to accomplish... I don't know what. She's a little out there, you see."



"This one would go nicely with marrow wine!" Emura blurted out without thinking. "I... I mean..."

"It's okay, everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it's a stupid opinion, like yours. Seafood should be enjoyed with river spirits or gutter cruor if you feel brave."



"Now that must be an outsider form some horrible plane. I place my bet on Gehenna." Fred said, looking at the pterosaur with confusion.

"Far Realm is a low hanging fruit, so I'm not gonna say that... Limbo, maybe? I could imagine a flock of these guys shitting on slaadi from above."



"As far as snakes go, this one is pretty solid." Emura commented. "I mean, it's bigger and meatier than helmet snakes from down there. It's got a temper too, look how it's eyeing us."

"I've got a feeling it don't want none."

"What?"

"What?"

---

ZM5 entered the Mahogany Hall hoping to see Nunore or Liceyi who would fill him up with rum until he's dead. Disappointingly, there was no trace of the tavern staff anywhere. He did remember passing by a crowd of drows carrying trinkets to the trade depot, so he wasn't too surprised that everyone was busy at the moment.
There were only two people in the tavern, and those were exactly the people he didn't want to see. Scourge was sitting with her face buried in her garish magenta scarf, muttering something, while SQ was sipping a drink from a goblet, looking around awkwardly. ZM5 decided to be a mature adult for once and not chicken out. "SQ... Scourge..." He began.

"Oh, F-Five! Do you re-remember Tabami? What a baz-bastard he wash!" Scourge mumbled into her scarf. "He left me w-when he learned I din' have no... din' have no money! An' dat b-bitch Acere... I'm no harem kina g-girl! Not w-when ther'z quaggothz involved! Ugh!"

"Is she... Is she rambling about her exes again? What's going on here, and how much did she have?" ZM5 asked SQ, taking a half-empty goblet standing nearest to Scourge.

"Oh, umm... That's just half a goblet, and it's not even that strong. I... I wanted to think about what happened last evening, but you see what happened." SQ explained, then she grabbed a flagon and shook it only to realized she emptied it completely. "It's the fourth one already, and I haven't blacked out, or started thinking more clearly, I still have no idea what I'm feeling."

"It did h-help! You jus' admit'd you have a p-problem! I wish Liyetha had tol' me he was goin' bald at th' age o' fiddy instead of hidin' it from me un'er his shtu-shtupid wig! You're a'rredy better than him!" Scourge said, again without raising her head, instead she gave a thumbs-up as a sign of approval.

"You probably think it was nothing to me, right? After all I've been a real heart-breaker, if you don't mind me bragging." ZM5 tried to force a smile, but SQ's sad, dazed expression was bringing him down. "Listen baby d... Listen SQ, I thought it would be nothing, but... Gods, I wish I could just describe my feelings! I don't think it was an okay thing to do! I could have been put to death for that back in the capital!"

"Calm d-down, Five, you dun goofed, an' dat'z okay. I've violi... viole... I've broken a restrinin' order a coupla times, an' Midebi called th' guardsh only once. Dat'z cuz I'm good at shneakin'... Wher wuz I goin' with dat again?" Scourge scratched her head in hopeless drunk confusion.

"I'm with Scourge on this one, you should calm down before I start freaking out." SQ warned, smiling very slightly. Seeing always calm and collected ZM5 holding his head in panic was strangely reassuring to her. "It's embarrassing to say, but... I... I liked it, so I'm not telling Freshcannon to chop you up."

"Heh heh... I knew you would never..."

"That honor belongs to Asin, he won't question my orders."

"Oh, n-now you're crackin' jokes, eh? M-my first girlfrien' was like dat, but there wuz n-nothin' else to her, an' I got bored of 'er in a week. It'z a sher-sherioush matter, SQ! I left 'er for Rame, an' dat wuz a disasht'r!" Scourge slammed her fist on the table in anger, still with her face buried in the scarf.

"Fine, I'll be serious if that's what you want." SQ remembered Rame, and those were not fond memories. "Five, I'm not mad at you or anything, I just don't know what's going on with me. My heart is racing every time I think about that moment, and... I've never felt that good being so close to another person. You know how it usually is with me..."

"I... I'd feel better about this whole thing if I didn't know you that well. Maybe we felt what we did because it was just wrong, I mean..." ZM5 answered nervously.

"You two dun know shit about f-feelings!" Scourge finally raised her head. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, but her expression was that of anger and impatience rather than sadness. "I dun like it my-myshelf, but you've fallen for each other! Godsh, how could I have ha-hanged out with dense kidsh like you?" SQ and ZM5 both looked at Scourge in surprise. They expected she would decide not to intervene, but apparently what little alcohol she had in her overpowered her no handholding policy. "Thassa worst first date I've ever seen! An' I've been on a date with Ecefe... He wash sho full of himshelf, he dinn' realize when I left..."

"This was never meant to be a date! I came here to die of alcohol poisoning, I didn't expect to see you two in here!" ZM5 protested.

"You're a couple now, deal wiff it!" Scourge shouted before burying her face in her scarf once again. "Oh, I think I've... I've ruined my scarf..."


The caverns have been opened. So far I've seen a troll, a shark troll, spellgaunts

Spoiler: Spellgaunt (click to show/hide)

A darkmantle corpse

Spoiler: darkmantle (click to show/hide)

And a severed head of something called 'jahi', which apparently is a D&D monster that is essentially a three headed ghost snake that mind controls people while feeding on their charisma.

[ZM5]

Those spellgaunts look cool, wonder if we could capture one and train it.

[scourge728]

Every update, I find my drow more and more amusing

[pikachu17]

Don't you have to specify to decorate ammo? Or is this not jewelry?

[SQman]

At some point I thought Murknightmare was the only drow site because they have had their asses handed to them by a huge dwarven empire to the south, but apparently the dwarves just kept sending spies for the past 127 years and nothing more. The truth is, the drows never founded any settlements besides Dungeonevened.

The only outright attack on Murknightmare was in 126 when dwarves from a pirate civilization The Slick Ivy sieged the fortress, obviously without the desired effect. After that...



The drows went berserk and started harassing pirate havens and elder crawler towns (crawlers are renamed skathari from The World of Flesh). The drows are obviously not winning those wars:



That's right, Dungeonevened might be larger than Murknightmare right now. Place your bets now, who becomes a grand matriarch after Murknightmare inevitably falls?



And here is my crappy doodle of named drows.
From the left: SQ, Scourge, Darkening Kaos, ZM5, Fred the Mitey, MottledPetrel, Lunardog, Imic, Freshcannon, Asin, Schmendrick.
Making this took longer than I'm willing to admit

[ZM5]

That's kind of sad - hopefully we'll become the capital eventually and be able to rebuild drow civilization, or atleast gloriously die trying.

[SQman]

Freshcannon considered herself a brave person, a 'badass' as she would call herself. Back in the day she caused the high priestess a lot of grief with her defiant nature, yet this very nature of hers combined with a stern glare, spared her many lashes. This time, while sitting in the overseer's office she was nervous. With the high priestess it was a matter of twenty lashes or fasting for two weeks, overseer SQ would instead make Freshcannon uncomfortable with her crying or childish tantrums.

"Do you have to report to me right now? Like, in this very moment?  My head is killing me." SQ complained. The four flagons of wine were finally having their revenge.

"Yeah, that's kinda important... You know there were fifty drows living in Dungeonevened?" Freshcannon decided not to tackle the matter head on. "My Snakes were chasing away rexagons, you know, those venom-spitting bastard snakes with legs, and... No one was bitten on puked on, but..."



"...there are now fourty-nine drows living in Dungeonevened."

"H-huh? Someone... died?" SQ looked at the priestess with disbelief. Dying while fighting monsters or enemies of the drowkind would be understandable, but chasing vermin?

"It was Ayanu, a good man, maybe even a Helmet Snake material. He kinda just slipped and fell into the river. Out of all ways to go... Damn, I'm getting myself down, I can't imagine what a puss... a sensitive person like you must be feeling. I'll understand if you start blaming yourself and thinking you're not a good overseer, but if you're gonna start some drama, could you keep it small for the sake of the rest of us?" Freshcannon was satisfied with her diplomatic skill. She usually prefered putting a bolt to someone's neck instead of talking, but she was proud her tongue was still sharp.

"I'll get someone to make poor Ayanu a memorial slab. He drowned in full armor, right? That will have to be taken care of too." The overseer jotted down production orders in her notebook, then she looked at Freshcannon pleadingly and asked: "Now, can I go back to bed?"

"You're not gonna get all pissy after all? Good, now go drink some water and get some fresh air, lying in bed all day haven't helped anybody yet." Freshcannon commanded, surprised but relieved that SQ took the bad news well.

SQ groaned like a child woken up in the morning for school, but she complied and followed the priestess outside.

---



Uthimi, the best armorsmith in Dungeonevened was taking it easy that day. It was a while since the last big order, so she was spending a lot of time in the fisherman's guildhall cleaning mussels lately. She enjoyed doing that, because nobody cared how good of a job she was doing.

Suddenly Imic burst into the room, bearing news: "Miss Uthimi, we're one set of armor down! Are you very busy right now?"

"Would I be sitting here with my hands covered in mussel guts and slime if I was very busy?" Uthimi answered calmly. Suddenly something in her changed, her smile turned into a furious scowl. The armorsmith flipped the table she was working at, and shouted: "No! NO! Those mussels aren't what I need!"

"P-please try to calm down, miss Uthimi." Startled Imic muttered. "There are three small lakes in the caverns, I'm sure if I asked miss SQ nicely, she could have a safe road to them made so you could gut some cave fish instead."

"Oh, you don't understand, do you? Come, big guy, I'll show you what I'm talking about!"

Uthimi and Imic ran down to the forge level, then straight to the nearest forge. Uthimi pushed over the inactive nimblewright armorer, found all the tools she needed, and said: "Now, Imic, the first step is to get only the best materials! Wait a minute... HEY SOMEBODY BETTER GIVE ME ROCK BLOCKS!"



"It's dolomite baby! You shouldn't overdo it with decorations, sticking a heap of shell shavings on a single crossbow bolt have never done anyone anything good, that's the second step."

"I take offense to that, miss Uthimi." Imic objected.

"Good for you. The third step is working like there's no tomorrow!"

"So... You're not going to make that set of armor for the new Helmet Snake?"

"NO!"

---

SQ took Freshcannon's advice and went outside, hoping that the splitting headache would eventually stop. In hindsight it might have not been a good idea, because the sun was scorching the land furiously, and the hot dry wind was kicking up clouds of dust. What's even worse, there was urgent overseeing to be done:



Twenty-three souls entered through the western gate. This migration wave was the biggest yet, and SQ was in no shape to deal with it alone, but it was too late to assemble a new commitee.

While the overseer was considering her options, someone came up to her and asked: "Excuse me, child, do you know when we could find this town's overseer?"

"Huh? Oh, OH!" SQ shouted in surprise. The person speaking to her was a woman in her second forties, with her face completely covered by her cloth scarf, and the rest of her body hidden under a leather piwafwi. Despite of how well covered she was, SQ noticed a pair of red eyes looking at her. "You're an albino! Brings back memories of better days... days without this damn headache..."

"Umm... So could you get an adult to show us to the overseer's office?"

"It would be me, SQ Hateromanced. I'm one hundred twenty-nine, by the way." SQ informed the woman. "I'll gladly let you stay in Dungeonevened!"

"You certainly seem... excited. I haven't even introduced myself yet. I'm Melici Witchrouted, you could say I'm a warrior of some renown." Melici introduced herself. She bowed down to show respect, but she still wasn't entirely convinced that SQ wasn't just a random teenager goofing around. "You've noticed I'm an albino, but I hope that won't bother anybody too much."

"No, they would have to go through me if they were to have any problem with you!" The overseer exclaimed boisterously. Melici somehow doubted that it would be hard for anyone to go through SQ, but she didn't say anything. "Anyway, does any of your... friends do anything useful?"

"Well, Ayanu here is an accomplished furnace operator, Litheme is somewhat of a legend among hunters, Emura isn't bad either, Lerine is a good tailor, Nunore can dig and gather plants, Oquari is a great mason, Uthimi is a master trapper. The rest is... well, you can imagine... We have a young ethereal slayer too, if you're interested in things like that."

"Ey, Melici, who are ya talkin' to?" A small silver haired woman ran up to SQ and Melici shouting loudly. "Who's this gremlin? She kinda looks like me, but with worse hair! Ho ho!"

"G-gremlin? Melici, explain." SQ demanded. The tiny woman's audacity was shocking, but somewhat endearing at the same time.

"Overseer, this is Yetine Wickedtan, she's..."

"I'm a certified torturer! Well, not really certified, it's more like a hobby." Yetine admitted. "Either way, I whip people. Say, oh-verseer, don't ya need a dungeon mistress 'round in this pit of yers?"

"Yetine, you can't just come here and demand a..." Melici tried to scold Yetine.

"Okay, you're officially a dungeon mistress. Just don't ever call me a gremlin, please." SQ agreed.

"Sure thing, gnome lady! I promise I'll whip 'em good for ya!"

---



Suddenly a thought appeared in SQ's head: "I should get another cabinet...". Then another thought followed: "People will think I'm selfish and greedy, I should get Fred and Asithi some new stuff too...".

---



"Wake up, Imic! You missed most of my presentation!" Uthimi the armorer shouted angrily. "Look at this beauty! Wait, what is this armor? I've never seen anything like that before, can't believe I made it... I remember making it, but it's so hazy..."

"Ugh, miss Uthimi, are you okay now? How long has it been?" Imic said rubbing his eyes. "Let me see that."



"I like the squid image. Maybe you were right, less really is more."

---

A few days after the migrants arrived, SQ and Scourge were slowly making their way down the main staircase.

"I can't believe you've made that little imp a dungeon mistress!" Scourge chastised SQ. "Is this some kind of conspiracy between you gremlins? Unbelievable you chose someone like her over your best friend!"

"Come on, you can't seriously be upset about that! And don't call me a gremlin! She was so enthusiastic I just couldn't say no to her." SQ made an excuse. "Besides, I don't want people whipped too hard, and have you seen Yetine? She's even smaller than me."

"We'll have to work on your assertiveness some more. And to think I believed you were actually making progress, silly me."

The women arrived at the bottom of the staircase. This time it wasn't open to the beast of the caverns, there was a small area with kennels, and a tiny animal cage in the corner.

"So... What was that you wanted to show me so desperately?" Scourge asked.

"First thing: we had rattusites break into the menagerie apparently. Abrians aren't a grateful bunch, so that problem solved itself, and I've ordered to build walls to make sure it doesn't happen again." SQ stepped over a troll corpse to show her friend her other project. "This is the backbone of our new critter industry."



"Critter industry?" Scourge asked in a deadpan tone, raising her eyebrow. "I haven't seen a single fire snake or a moghopper in this area. Are you sure you're not doing this for yourself? I mean, how much do cockroaches go for these days? A copper a bag?"

"Okay, I just want a cool pet, it's not an actual industry." SQ admitted. "Unless... unless you want to be a guildmistress of the bug catcher's guild."

"Speaking of bugs, I need to go ask Fred about... something. I'll leave the cockroaches to you, cause I know how much you like them."

---

"So, what brings you to my office, Scourge?" Fred the Mitey asked. He knew Scourge too well not to be prepared for the worst.

"Do you keep record of all people in Dungeonevened? I need to check some names. And before you ask - you know SQ would write me up a permit, so you have no choice." The wide, friendly grin on the woman's face would seem creepy for someone who didn't know what to expect.

"Umm... Yeah... I've kept a record, but..." Fred mumbled, searching for the record book. Finally he found it, the heap of paper sheets loosely packed in a folded piece of scrap leather that served as a makeshift binding. "It's rude to ask about people's birth names, you know, so it might be... lacking..."

"Wait, it's all blank." Scourge noticed, shifting through the pages. "No, wait, this one... It's all the founders, ZM5 and Schmendrick, and only the founders' birth names are written here. ZM5's birth name is Lerine, how about I correct your record?"

"Don't, only the house administrator, that means me, should touch those papers!"

"You're the house administrator, and you don't touch them anyway. There's just something delightfully ironic about that, hee-hee." Scourge chuckled. "I haven't learned what I wanted to learn, but thanks for compliance anyway. What now, do I tell Imic about that or...?"

"Could you plot somewhere other than in my office?" Fred said, putting the papers out of sight again.

"One day I'll have a bigger fancier office than yours and I'll kick you out too." Scourge whispered under her breath right before scurrying out.

---



SQ stood in her room excited, watching a troll bring a large wooden cage in. It's been almost a week since she first ordered catching vermin, and the wait was unbearable for the young hot-blooded drow.

"Ey, bwoss, mind if I ask youse somethin'?" The troll asked.

"Not at all, go ahead." SQ answered somewhat impatiently. She did actually mind, but she wasn't the type to argue with trolls.

"Why do ya need such a huge cage for this tiny cwockroach? Y'knowhamsayin'? I could fit in there and there'd still be a plenny a space left."

"This is not just a cwock... cockroach! It's SQ2, my pride and joy. Besides, how would the furniture I ordered from Kaos fit into a smaller cage?" SQ askedthe troll as if she expected him to understand. The troll obviously didn't understand.

"Whatever you say, bwoss..." The troll put the cage down by a shiny chitin statue, then headed straight to the door, passing by Scourge. "'Scuse me, I'm walkin' 'ere!"

"You're due for your shaving, big boy, I wanna see you in the farmer's workshop in about an hour." Scourge remarked before entering SQ's room. "Hey, SQ, Kaos complained you gave her some damn stupid orders, like making dollhouse furniture. What's the deal with that?"

"It's for SQ2, my cave roach, and that's not stupid."

"Yeah, right." Scourge scoffed, ignoring SQ's hints about looking at her new pet. "I've got something very important to tell you, so hold on to your panties. Imic and I are getting hitched tomorrow and you'll be officiating the wedding. Excited?"

"W-WHAT? I told you I'd rather not do that! There will be seventy drows watching, and I have just one evening to prepare!" SQ snapped. The suddenness of the news was overwhelming, not to mention the fact that SQ had no idea what a wedding officiant actually does. "At least tell me you have a good reason to not have Asithi do that instead?"

"Ugh, I wanted to ask her, but as soon as I opened the door to her office, she asked me If I came for a therapy session. Can you imagine what the wedding would be like? 'I pronounce you wife and husband, anyway, you have the plague'." Scourge was getting herself riled up. "I'm so desperate I even asked Yetine if she's a priestess, but she said she just likes violence without commitment. Oh please, I would totally do it for you and Five!

"W-what are you talking about! Could you not bring my love life up while it's still in the awkward phase?" SQ blushed like a ripe plump helmet. "Okay, could you at least tell me what my role will be?"

"I asked Liceyi and Nunore to collaborate on writing you a script you'll have to read, then after I wrap Imic in spider web, you'll pass me a white-hot branding iron. After I brand him, you'll shave his head and weave a rope from his hair and tie it around his neck so I can drag him into my chamber and... You know the rest." Scourge was enthusiastic to explain the wedding rite, but SQ went from purple to grey in a matter of seconds. "Is... Is something wrong, SQ? Maybe I'll fetch you some water before we continue planning?"

"No way I'm doing that to Imic! You're taking a husband, not a slave!" SQ protested. She disagreed with many drow customs, especially those involving hurting other people. Being a foster daughter of a worshipper of Eilistraee might have had something to do with that.

"Yetine told me that the branding is a proof of undying love, her husband apparently has ten of those on his back! Isn't it just so romantic?"

"No! Either we do it some other way, or I'm taking no part in this!" SQ finally put her foot down, figuratively and literally. "I don't care what priestesses or other people say, to hell with those traditions! I don't think I'm any better than Imic, Five, Lunardog, even than Fred!"

"Ooh, you're sounding revolutionary right now. Keep it down, cause you never know who's listening." Scourge warned. "If the valsharess knew what you were saying, she would have Dungeonevened razed to the ground..."

"Ngh! Okay, fine, I got carried away for a while there, but still, no branding or shaving, I like Imic's hair where they are and his skin unburned." SQ smiled nervously hoping that would lighten up the mood. That maneuver turned out to be successful.

"Oh, now you're complementing my soon-to-be husband's skin and hair. How about I snitch on you for that." Scourge laughed sincerely, happy to drop the grim topic. "I'll have to tell Liceyi and Nunore the plans have changed. They probably made the branding a central point in your speech. That poet boy is a real piece of work, I tell you. Hmm... Maybe I could get him together with Kaos? No, on the second though, it's a terrible idea. Hey, your cockroach is getting away!"

---

Mevena, a skilled craftsman was working on a chitin road by the western entrance to Dungeonevened. Earlier that day he was observing the Helmet Snakes train in the barracks, and he still couldn't stop thinking about what he saw.



Unfortunately being deep in thought isn't a good state to be in the dry undergrowth of the Rhythmic Jungle. Mevena was brought back to reality by a gruff voice shouting:

"Boys, it's a long-ear! Easy pickings!"



There were five brigands currently visible:
Their leader was Gerhald Nationwraith, a skinny, very hairy man weilding a shoddy rune-metal axe. While he didn't look too dangerous and his equipment was sub-par, the fact that he was leading this group meant that he must have been a man of great cunning.

Right behind him was Frijann Stealseared, a young long-haired man with a goatee. If he wasn't with the rest of the ruffians, someone might have took him for a young nobleman, a travelling bard, or a wizard's apprentice. Even his iron sword, while not exactly new, was well taken care of, shining in the evening sun.

Next was the lasher, Dobluns Glimmeramber, a horrifyingly thin man with deathly pale complexion, and a storm of filthy unkept hair. One could wonder how such sickly individual could pick up a weapon and march all the way from the brigands' territory without dying somewhere on the way.

Behind Dobluns was his polar opposite, Strett Chokescribed, an obese, dark skinned woman with clean-shaved head. She was also carrying a cat o' nine tails like Dobluns, but her arm, unlike Dobluns's, could swing it with considerable power.

The last brigand, hiding far behind her companions was Hein Fieryscalds, a markswoman carrying a large chitin arbalest. Thin and tall, with a long hooked nose, she looked like a hag from children's stories, and probably wasn't a much more pleasant person.

"Snakes out!" A piercing voice from the barracks echoed through the woods as soon as the news of invaders reached Freshcannon's ears.



Slevina, the drow who took the late Ayanu's place, ran outside first. It might have been reckless, but Slevina wanted to prove he was worthy of his position. Fortunately for him, Biretha's war mottleworm slithered behind him, sensing the conflict in the air.



The swordsdrow saw Gerhald chasing after Obi the bowyer who was trying to run away, but was slowed down by a pile of chitin bars in his arms. Slevina couldn't let the human hurt an innocent drow. He couldn't but he did. Instead of rushing to help Obi, he went back to the barracks and hurried other Snakes, hoping this would count as effort.



Rune-metal was never meant to be made into weapons on its own. Gerhald couldn't even pierce Obi's silk boots, so the bowyer managed to run away almost with only a few bruises.
The brigand axeman didn't continue pursuit, because a flash of faerie fire surprised him greatly.



Immediately after that, Gerhald felt a sharp pain in his back. Obi the fencer stabbed him right in the spine, bringing him to his knees. The bandit leader desperately swung his arm with the rest of his strength, but Obi managed to catch it with his teeth, biting through the brigand's dolphin-leather armor.
Macedrow Tharumi finally put Gerhald out of his misery with a solid blow to the head.



The rest of the bandits heard their boss's dying screams, but they had no way of knowing what happend behind the walls. Frijann, being the youngest, was sent to check what was going on. The drows were already waiting for him.



Melici jumped at the swordsman,hoping to hear the sound of breaking bones, but the human was a capable warrior. Melici proved she wasn't an amateur either, jumping away from a wide swing, then parrying with her mace. The parried attack made her lose her balance, knocking her down on her knees.
Melici looked up at the human bandit with great sorrow in her eyes. Frijann slowly came closer, hoping to grant the drow woman quick death. Suddenly melici punched Frijann's ankle with her fist, causing him to fall over.

"Hey, boss, you saw that? Told ya it would work!" The macewoman shouted to Freshcannon. The priestess shook her head, but didn't bother to come up with a snappy remark. "Now to finish the job! Say good..."



"...Good blocking, hmph!"
Melici tried to cave in the swordsman's skull, but her blows were blocked and deflected. Oquari noticed that Melici and Frijann were on simillar skill levels and the duel could have gone either way, so instead of standing back with other snakes, he jumped in and stabbed the man with his rapier causing him to drop his shield. Then Oquari stabbed at the human's head, knowing his strike will be blocked.
Melici understood Oquari's plan without words. While the brigand was busy deflecting the drow swordsman's stabs, the macesnake slammed her silver mace into Frijann's back, paralyzing him for good.

This was officially the end of the 'duel', so other Helmet Snakes came to assist with finishing off the young bandit. The one who actually killed the invader was no other than Slevina who cut Frijann's head off with a clean cut.



When the Snakes were regrouping, an unexpected visitor appeared before them. A swinetaur, half pig half another pig, ran straight into the freshly prepared squad of soldiers. While its tough hide endured many slashes, hacks and bashes, Slevina finally severed its hideous head.



The drows moved to engage the two lashers waiting outside.



Dobluns was first to engage the Snakes. The sickly man was surprisingly fast on his feet, able to parry swings from Imic himself, but being stabbed in the foot and then pushed over made him significantly slower. Slevina was bloodthirsty. He dropped down on all four and bit off the human's round ear. The other drows were taken aback by the swordsman's feral behavior, but that didn't stop them from stomping Dobluns into the ground. Biretha, who was apparently slacking off up to this moment, split Dobluns's head in two with a quick swipe of his scimitar.



The gigantic woman Strett knew she couldn't save her brother-in-arms, and she probably knew that she wouldn't be geting out of there alive, so she decided to cause as much grief and pain as she could. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't much. Imic struck her liver twice in quick succession, turning it into mincemeat.
Freshcannon lacked Imic's finesse, so instead she targetted the lasher's lower body, the biggest target. The mighty hit spilled the human's guts, but the pain overwhelmed her only after Imic cut her hand off. Tharumi wasted no time, crushing Strett's skull.



Hein the arbalist saw everything. A regular bandit would have ran away, but she didn't consider herself a regular bandit. A bolt to the heart could kill anything, and her bolts always struck true...



...But up to that moment she never had the pleasure to be distracted by Melici's faerie fire. The bolt flew past Melici and Imic and finally got stuck in a mahogany tree's trunk. The macesnake's mighty blow shattered Hein's ankle, making the bandit an easy target for Imic's sword.



Five more brigands sprung from an ambush after Hein's death.
Anir Lurebelches was the leader of this group. She was a surprisingly well groomed woman wielding a hardened bone cat o' nine tails. Her gauntlets were made of high quality steel, while her boots glistened green like orichalcum. She was either very important, or had been very important before joining the brigands.

Thari Bunionclenched was a proud owner of a diamondium battle axe. He also looked out of place on this battlefield - tall but slim, clean shaved, with his long hair in a braid. He looked like he chould have been someone's butler, or maybe he was Anir's butler?

Just next to Thari stood Waldrid Searchswallows, a petite young woman armed with a cat o' nine tails. Her eyes peeking from under her face veil had an exceptionally hateful glint to them, which was made even more unsettling by the fact that her eyes were light grey instead of other brigands' dark brown.

Manni Floodedpit was an axeman, and a good example of the brigand-kind. He could be called skinny if not for the bulging gut sticking out from the front, his eyes were way too close-set for a typical human being, and his hair was patchy and cut rather haphazardly. His family tree's few branches must have been badly tangled.

Some distance away stood Syrjana Streamcity, a swordswoman. She obviously didn't want to be there. Her hands were shaking, and the grip of her hands on the sword wasn't very sure. It was clear she was against attacking an unknown fort, and it was clear to her that she wouldn't have an opportunity to be smug about being right.



The brigands decided to attack as a group, hoping it would be a better strategy than sneaking around. Thari lead the charge, which costed him a foot in the first second of the battle. Obi made sure that the bandit wouldn't be using his other leg any time soon.
Thari hadn't given up just yet. He hacked at ZM5's foot with his diamondium axe, but it turned out diamondium doesn't cut diamondium.



ZM5 and Obi started stabbing Thari mercilessly, but the human still fought with ferocity. This ferocity didn't mean much, since his blows couldn't break through armor.
ZM5's hand easily broke through Thari's armor, effortlessly ripping what was left of it into shreds. The bandit became enraged, but before making use of his fury, he had his weapon hand slashed by ZM5's dagger, rendering it useless. Finally Oquari joined and immediately found an opening. He pushed the tip of his rapier straight through the brigand's forehead.

When the drows were finishing off Thari, Manni was being held back by Slevina.



The swordsdrow was struggling against the grotesque brigand. The fight was painfully even, until the other drows joined in, of course. Oquari intervened by stabbing the bandit in the leg, forcing him into prone position.



Slevina took advantage of the opportunity and knocked the silver axe out of Manni's hand. Oquari and Obi both stabbed the human in the back, tearing the spine, after which Slevina performed a coup de grāce.

Anirr was obviously hesitant to enter the fight herself. Instead she pointed at the drows and barked an order to Waldrid.



Oquari parried the first strike and retaliated with a swift stab to the spine. The fight against Waldrid was over at that very moment.



Obi soon found out why Anirr relied on her underlings so much. The woman wasn't an experienced fighter after all. She passed out after ZM5 broke her ribs, then Oquari finished the work.



Syrjana had a good reason to be afraid too. A single stab killed her instantly, at least sparing her the suffering

Helmet Snakes saved Dungeonevened once again without any losses. Slevina ended up badly shaken after he realized what he's done, but no doubt he will get used to it. Finally the drows can come out to the surface world they should hate so much.


Some things happened:

-First death, a drow dodged out of the bridge.

-Diamondium spacesuit. Drow colonies on Gamma Draconis IV soon.

-Big migrant wave: first albino, and a dungeon mistress.

-Tamed our first cave roach. It escaped and got eaten by a spider. Clear glass terrarium soon.

-Trying to force Scourge and Imic to marry. Brigands interrupted a friendship room session. Checked in DFhack, Imic will marry women, Scourge will marry men, and also likes women. SQ isn't interested in marriage, if anyone was curious.

-Brigands. Not much of a challenge, really.

Some things I noticed:

-Rapiers aren't nearly as bad as I thought, but I bet spears are better. Natural sword skills though...

-The female ethereal slayer baby is actually male, which means that we have a breeding pair of those things.



-Sandstorms make you a better person (SQ)



-Sandstorms also make you more whiny (MottledPetrel)

Edit:
some more info from Legends Viewer:



Civilized populations of Murknightmare (Thrones are Fantastic Races' Zion, Fleshmongers are Fantastic Races' Manats, elder brutes are Tavros from The World of Flesh). Four of the drows are the grand matriarch, the hight matriarch, the outpost matriarch, and the high priestess. But wait, our diplomat is an icedweller, why isn't she shown here?

Speaking of the diplomat, she's quite a character. First thing: icedwellers have standard human lifespan, and Weri is a whopping 107 years old.
Her maternal grandmother, Theiralirom, was a mother to two high jarls of the Confederation of Authoring, the icedweller civilization, and many more. She was killed by a badgerdog during an assault on an arctic kobold settlement at the age of 55.
Theiralirom's husband, Bjangak ran away to become a commander of icedweller nomads at some point. He died peacefully at the age of 80.

Weri's mother, Engor, was born in 2, shortly before Bjangak ran away. When she was 6, a drow from the Labyrinthine Nightmare abducted her to Murknightmare where she became a bard and married Olorl Violetdents, another abductee. She was 13 at that point. Two years later she met a legendary elder crawler musician, Zrivthi Raspjested:



Engor was persistent, an the elder crawler agreed to take her with him to Harshnessscraps, a crawler fortress inhabited mainly by dwarves. This is where things get weird: she moved without her husband in 17, Weri was born in 20. Really makes you think, hmm.... In 23 Engor moved with her master to Fallbuckles, another dwarf infested crawler fort. Poor Engor couldn't know that two years later Fallbuckles would be attacked by the star wyrm Burg Faithfulfeed the Gears of Strangulation. She was 23 when she was killed by the monster. She had four children:

Weri Menacedwatchful, but we'll talk about her later,

Mevena, Engor's first daughter was born in Murknightmare in the year 16. Not long after she was devoured by Slingtorments the Maw of Mirroring, an eyeless winged serpent from the deep that attacked Murknightmare.

Efaci was born in 17, before her mother moved out with her master. She was a feytouched icedweller, and died at the ripe age of 56, when she was struck down by the titan Cow Shellnut the Moth of Ravens, a towering eyeless theropod with feathered wings. She spent all her life in Murknightmare, having a husband and a daughter. The husband was sacrificed by a drow cultist of Tsathoggua, while the daughter was killed by the high priestess's son.

Melici was the only son of Engor's. Born in Fallbuckles in the year 24, he was struck down with his mother in 25 by Burg Faithfulfeed.

Weri's fraternal grandmother, Biejrl Yarnquests, was a common criminal from the Confederations of Authoring. In year 1, at the age of 26 she married the head housecarl, Ignak Bronzetusks. In 18 Biejrl and Ignak lead a raid against arctic kobolds, but neither of them came back alive. Only one kobold and two icedwellers survived the battle, but the general consensus is that the kobolds were victorious, after all they have slain the head housecarl.

Biejrl and Ignak had four children, one of them was Weri's father, Olorl Violetdents. Olorl was abducted by a drow in 3, when he was 1 year old. When he grew up he became a farmer, then in 15 he married Engor, Weri's mother, at the age of 13. They had Meneva, Efaci, Weri and Melici together (did they really though?). Olorl was murdered by another abductee, a pandashi farmer Pacila Roastedstill, he was 26 when that happened.

What about Weri? She was born in Harshnessscraps in 20. At the age of 3 she was abandoned by her mother who moved to Fallbuckles. She had a peaceful childhood, all things considered. When she turned 13, she became a tavern keeper in The Supper of Syrups. Six years later she married Mevena Bandscourges, a mercenary who recently moved to Harshnessscraps from Murknightmare.
In 72, a pandashi-turned-strigoi, Neba Stokeglide the Legendary Riddle rampaged through Harshnessscraps, and attacked Weri, fortunately not doing her any harm. Almost exactly a year later K`Rotah Stancecastle the Rapid Fogs the thunderwyvern attacked the fortress, but Weri was lucky enough to escape unscathed. In 125 she moved to Murknightmare, the drow fortress where her mother used to live, and where her husband came from. Surprisingly, the drows accepted her and made her an outpost liaison for a newly established outpost - Dungeonevened.

Mevena, Weri's husband was a rather boring person, really. He became a soap maker in Murknightmare at the age of 13, but a year later he gave up and became a mercenary instead. He moved to Harshnessscraps, married Weri and had three children with her:

Athara Swelteredwitches was born in 39 in Harshnessscraps. She became a ranger in 51.



Athara was a very trusting person, apparently. She thought she befriended three dwarves, but the squat folks were just gathering information for the Calm Shield, a vast dwarven empire to the south.
in 127, the drows of Murknightmare attacked Harshnessscraps, and while the defenders were victorious, Athara was killed by a nondescript drow. She was 88.

Obi Hellscorching was born in 40 in Harshnessscraps. At the age of 11 he was attacked by the strigoi Rud Unitedpearl the Morose Friend, but managed to survive. A year later he became a miner. In 72 he was killed by Neba Stokeglide the Legendary Riddle, the strigoi who also attacked his mother in the same year. Obi was 32.

Weri's youngest child, Thateme Assaulthexes was the most notable of the siblings. He was born in 42 in Harshnessscraps. In 49 he was attacked by Rud Unitedpearl the Morose Friend, the strigoi who came back two years later to kill his older sister. In 54 Thateme decided he would lead a peaceful life as a craftsman. In 72 he tried to protect his sister from Neba Stokeglide the Legendary Riddle, but he wasn't a warrior, and he was lucky he wasn't killed. In 85 he 'befriended' a dwarven spy of the Calm Shield.
In 117 something must have changed inside Thateme. The 75 year-old craftsman decided to take up a sword and become a mercenary. A year later he met another dwarven spy. What's the deal with those dwarves, seriously. Anyway, Thateme's fighting spirit has been noticed by the elder crawler rulers, who made him a conscript commander. Apparently they expected what would soon happen.
In 127 drows from Murknightmare led by the angler pirate Sontop Trumpetsinges attacked Harshnessscraps. Thateme was leading the defenders, and he was a far better tactician than Sontop, but he had to make the highest sacrifice to save whomever he could. They managed to kill the enemy leader, but Thateme and his sister Athara were slaughtered by drows. Thateme was 85.



I wish the drows could have grand stories like our diplomat's family, but most of them are older than the world, with the few that are younger being created out of thin air. Next time I'm doing a proper dwarven fort with at least 250 years of history.