Not counting the brand new threads, Cog's shopping list was extensive.
- One steel helm (2230 coconuts)
- Two bismuth bronze helms (366 coconuts)
- One bronze breastplate (485 coconuts)
- One copper breastplate (115 coconuts)
- One bronze mail shirt (150 coconuts)
- One bismuth bronze mail shirt (270 coconuts)
- One steel mail shirt (300 coconuts)
- Three pairs of steel gauntlets (4000 coconuts)
- Two pairs of steel leggings (2525 coconuts)
- One set of bismuth bronze greaves (226 coconuts)
- One pair of steel high boots (1170 coconuts)
- Two pairs of bronze high boots (900 coconuts)
- Three steel shields (3675 coconuts)
- One steel short sword (630 coconuts)
- One bronze short sword (470 coconuts)
- One silver mace (205 coconuts)
Some initial cultural miscommunication required Cog to swap Ezum's armour with Yare's, after Yare refused to wear some bronze boots engraved with bands of crystal glass, but they were both bronze high boots of excellent quality so the transfer was easily made for the both of them. Ezum helped cut costs by providing their own bismuth bronze breastplate, while Cog decided to keep his original silver warhammer in the end, saving costs there. Cog would also end up finding a masterwork training sword (520 coconuts) for free, cutting more costs.
Thus not counting any other expenses, the totals came to a total bill of 17,717 coconuts worth of equipment, which rapidly exhausted all of Cog's gem reserves and 90% of his coconuts. The only real item he would miss was an exceptionally large emerald, but it would be appreciated alongside all the coconuts by Dwarves of a mountain home, so all was proper in the world. Each gem would go to the very noble cause of keeping the adventurers in the good fight.
Traveling to see the other Fortresses was a long and worrisome process, especially since Cog couldn't reach the deeper Fortresses without risking getting lost under the caverns for a long, long time. Nevertheless, the promise of finding treasure or more merchants selling the glory of Dwarven steel was worth pursuing! At the crossroads of four paths, leading all the way through the Mountain (by Avuz! The Dwarves of the Outrageous Hame
owned the whole Mountain), Cog made his way Westward.
After a day's travel he stopped to rest, waking up on the top of the mountain. It seems we're still being affected by the bug where sleeping underground transports us above ground - note to self, if we ever travel for long underground, we'll have to add [NO_SLEEP] in order to not suffer this bug.
All was not lost, as climbing down from the mountainside showed us we were still close enough to walk to a surface entrance to another Dwarven Fortress. The lands around this Fortress were full of savage beasts, the kinds of dingoes which once made Cog flee for his life. Yet bedecked in armour befitting the Lord of the Respectful Steel, with the good companions by his side, Cog was confident. Ezum was an effective fighter. Though he was no legendary macedwarf, he was a seasoned veteran, who would only get better with time. Yare on the other hand had spent every fight waving around a wooden sword, and he'd gotten exceptionally good at using it - if he could kill someone with a stick, swapping it with a bronze one promised to yield spectacular results.
Cog on the other hand desperately needed to sharpen his skills with the warhammer, as while he was talented with it... Talented was not good enough. The wolves had shown him
that. He had adopted the short sword too, yet knew very little about swordsdwarfship, so had to train all of that from scratch.
With a bayberry training sword he ventured out into the wilds, telling Ezum and Yare to wait for him to return.
While Yare and Ezum camped, Cog trained.
While the mountain Dwarves ate and drank merry, Cog trained.
While the moon and sun fell and arose, Cog trained.
When he was close to passing out from exertion and the dingoes were chewing on Cog's arms, COG TRAINED.
Caked in blood and sweat Cog exercised, fought, practiced and trained with the jaws of the savage beasts never far from his neck - whittling away at the predatory pack with only a stick and a shield for defence. Fighting blind, Cog had to anticipate where the enemy was in relation to himself in perfect awareness, responding to every attack through sound and intuition alone.
Cog trained. He still had room to improve but he had at last reached the point where he was worthy of his title, a legendary swordsdwarf, hammerdwarf and all the necessary auxiliary skills needed to stay alive whilst shortening the enemy's. Bathing first in the river to wash away all the blood and sweat, Cog returned to replace his broken clothes, setting off with Ezum and Yare for the humans in the far west.
It was a really inviting road, it was impossible not to follow it. If the charts were to be believed, what lay at the end of such a magnificently horizontal road was the urban center, the capital of the Ageless Nations. The charts even offered tantalising visions of a perfectly horizontal road even further on!
Rolling into town ransacking some abandoned buildings along the way for all the valuable (or even just semi-valuable) trinkets that time had forgotten amidst a sea of banditry and beastliness, Cog was weighed down heavily by the quantity of newfound gems and cabochons. Cog needed to lighten the load lest he be crushed by the weight of his compulsive salvaging. It was honestly crazy just how much salvage was lying around; the gems were just the lightest amongst a cityscape of discarded wealth. It seems that besides a few stubborn shop keepers, the only thing the people under the Old Society cared about was power.
Cog learned this quickly when he turned in the gems by the bucket-load in exchange for a handful of bone carvings. In particular, the hook-nosed priest whom Cog sold the gems to was in the middle of a fist fight with another human whilst they conducted business... And there was an attack by a criminal organisation of reptile men which resulted in the human mobs uniting to rout the reptile men & ritually delimb the crime boss. In what would have been a stunning event in any other city, was just business as usual in the Old Society. The market would be attacked by criminals, the criminals attacked by bandits, the bandits attacked by the guard, the guard attacked by vampires, the vampires attacked by my companions, and all of this would be entirely ordinary in the day of life in the Old Society. The true name of this city was Pokedated, but their government was called the Old Society, which I felt far more aptly described the state of perpetual accommodated anarchy which blanketed its streets.
With a new fight every hour between every group of the hour, Cog thought it was worthwhile to see the Old Society in their Fortress, and try and determine what brilliant administrators or fearsome warlords were capable of staying in power amidst such total chaos. It was one thing for the regional Lords to disobey the central government, but for the central government to have no control over its own streets? Cog had to see for this land of miracles with his own eyes to believe it.
So yeah the central government were ocean cultists. Pump operators who became so enamoured with the idea of the ocean that they turned to utter devotion, setting up the Old Society to govern the Ageless Nations in accordance with liquid principles. They all adopted titles relating to waves or the sea, and they were without a doubt the worst government Cog had ever witnessed. Within their castle keep, they maintained very little contact with the outside world willingly, convinced everything was fine. This exceeded even the most ludicrous of expectations, as the Priests calmly explained there was an active civil war going on, with at least twenty different groups fighting to take control of their city. Amidst the pandemonium of civil war, sprawling criminal organizations keeping the people living in fear, bandits causing the town hardship, and Avuz knows what else lived in the sewers with the Vampire infestation... The Old Society felt that their rule was unchallenged. Either they were incredibly deluded, or the sheer level of revenue gained from their vast trade with other human cities / the Dwarven mountain halls allowed them to continue hiring replacement guards.
The trio left the Castle Keep and wandered around the town for the day, witnessing the battles in the streets from safe distances, staying out of the way of the various street wars. As night fell, Cog noticed something peculiar - a group of people were sneaking into the Castle Keep. Returning to investigate, Cog barely made it past the outer wall's gate before bumping into a fleeing vampire. Cog didn't like getting involved with local politics, but killing vampires was something he could always condone.
The reptilian vampire spearwoman was surprised, and worse still surrounded, trapped within the wall's gatehouse with the three adventurers. Cog used his hammer, striking for the easy opportunities, still testing out his newly practiced capabilities. Ezum wielded his new mace well, but the greatest improvement was from Yare. Where the previous vampire had made a mockery of his wooden sword, his new bronze sword proved entirely adequate to the task at hand.
A second vampire was found attacking a hammerdwarf defending the various ocean priests hiding behind his back. For this one, Cog used his steel short sword, finding that this vampire was far keener to put up a fight than its slain kin. It struck at Cog, Cog brought his shield to match and parried, striking into the air. Cog missed again, the Vampire struck, once more finding Cog's guard was strong. With growing confidence Cog rendered the vampire's every strike harmless, whilst for every few hits Cog missed, a wound to its foot would bring the vampire low, a wound to its arm would lower its spear - it was getting weaker from blood loss by the moment. In desperation it tried to drain Cog of his blood, but Cog was too well-armoured & too skilled at breaking grips for the vampire to find the necessary purchase on his skin. With the vampire trying to sink its teeth into Cog's neck, Cog drove the short sword through its left lung, desperately trying to keep the vampire at bay until it finally bled to death. When Ezum and Yare arrived the fight was done, and they had already set off to chase a third vampire, followed closely by Cog.
Facing four warriors the olm man vampire spearman wisely tried to flee, but was incapable of escaping all three of the adventurers. Its limbs disabled by sword and mace, it could neither run nor fight, and Cog ended its accursed life with his steel short sword.
The Old Society were grateful for the assistance, and Cog wished the hammerdwarf the best of luck in defending those special humans from the innumerable threats lurking the wartorn streets of Pokedated.
They set off north to another city, one which was entirely unremarkable in its peacefulness and proper administration, with especial note of its city walls being fashioned from native gold. It was evidently the place where the nobility and well-to-do lived, and while Cog was sure there must be something terrifying hiding behind this civilised and opulent visage, it didn't compare to the anarchy of the Old Society, so Cog set off to explore more of the world.
One such sight was a large rock block structure of some sort. Searching for a door into the first chamber, Cog felt rather silly realising that the only way to progress deeper into the building was through a staircase in the centre of the room. Navigating by touch has its downsides - but really, who puts a staircase in the middle of a room? It's just non-sensical building planning, this structure was clearly made by humans.
Navigating by touch however did have its advantages! Cog found an area of the wall in the corridor above the stairs which was unmistakably occupied by nothing. Creeping through led to yet another corridor.
This corridor was occupied by two elf skeletons and a staircase. Cog wasn't too concerned by the skeletons, they were ancient and showed no sign of battle damage or butchery. They had died a long time ago, and whatever had put them here was long gone. The staircase at the end of the corridor led up to yet another room.
This room appeared to be some former dining hall, as there were tables stacked up on the wall leading to another staircase. Some treasures lay on the floor, but there was nothing worth picking up - it was all either human-sized armours, or treasures too low in value and high in weight to bother encumbering himself with.
Climbing up the stairs, Cog was close to giving up on finding anything interesting in this labyrinthine structure. Walking onwards, Cog's foot kicked something heavy and metallic. It clinked sonorously in the dead silence of the building, ringing a call to be found. Picking up the object, Cog found it was immensely heavy, heavier even than his bronze breastplate. It was not a weapon, but a pure gold sceptre, a symbol of sovereign rule. Cog heard the sound of movement as Ezum and Yare joined him, but he was sure there was something else... Banishing the thought, they left the way they came. Yet still Cog was sure there was something awry.
'What's wrong?' Yare asked.
'Listen,' Cog whispered.
'It's in the dining hall.'
Yare and Ezum strained their ears to listen.
'It's walking down the stairs. These are heavy steps, like the last steps a dying man takes. Listen, can you hear it?'
'It is following us.'
The three left at a sprint going northwest, far away from the source of noise.
'What is following us Cog?' Yare asked.
'I don't know for sure.'
'We've been traveling now into an uninhabited icy wasteland, and it's still following us. If they were bandits they would've given up by now, and we're too far away from any towns for it to be vampires.'
'It doesn't tire, it hasn't stopped to eat or drink, it doesn't sleep and it follows us wherever we go. It is best if we never discover what it is.'
'We have another problem,' Ezum said. 'The sun is going down, there's no way we'll be able to tell where we're going.'
'Do not worry, I am experienced in night-navigation. We keep a steady course westwards, and we keep going until we find a settlement.'
They lost track of it. Cog did not worry, they were well-supplied and ready for a long journey, even one made through the ice. With hoods and cloaks wrapped close against the biting wind and snow, the three continued marching through the night, weariness taking its toll. After they couldn't run any more, they walked, and when they couldn't walk any further they set their packs down by a fire to camp.
Cog slept for an hour by the fire, waking up in a panic. He listened to the wailing of the wind on the flat icy plains, listening intently. Ezum and Yare clutched their weapons in anticipation.
The wailing subsided. The world was silent except for the sound of their breathing, and the crackling of the dying campfire. Cog added more fuel to the flames, then went back to sleep.
He slept for four hours. Cog wasn't sure if he overslept. In that time it had reached them, it was out there in the dark. Cog grabbed his packs and his companions and resumed the long march in the dark, fighting to gain some much needed distance. No natural creature could have tracked them in the snow, the snowstorm covered their tracks as soon as they made them. Salvation lay in the settlement ahead, but as Cog sprinted towards it he was held back by the stench.
The settlement was a dark fortress.
Seeing no other choice, Cog crept into the city of goblins.
Poll
10 (15.4%)
Author
Topic: Cog the Blind Drunk (Read 49395 times)