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[TheFlame52]

I enjoy how Doomhollow looks a lot like how Doomforests did because of a lot of the same players being overseers.

[TheImmortalRyukan]

Bravo, we actually have updates! And yeah, looks just like home doesn't it

[Travis Bickle]

From the Private Papers of Doc
Dated: Spring 503
The search for my successor proved to be much easier and quicker than I had anticipated it would be. The morning following the last day of my term as overseer, a dwarf calling himself Drazoth declared himself the new overseer. I don't recall ever meeting any dwarf before that day calling himself by that name, but I was happy to let him take the job. He quit about a month into the job though, and now some kid named Staalo is in charge. He's pretty new to the fortress, and I can tell just by the way he looks at the hallways that he's not impressed by my design choices. I won't hold this against him; he's such a newcomer to the fortress that he doesn't have any firsthand knowledge of what I had to work with in such little time. I think a short conversation on architectural design with Ryuken would give him a newfound appreciation for my design.

The vampire is still not found. I'm still sleeping with a knife.

[Staalo]

Time to start working.

On the whole, Doomhollow functioned just fine. No one was starving, going insane or stuck behind a wall or a removed staircase. There were many small things though, things that would make the life of all citizens just a little bit better. Easy things that were perfect to start with. Harder, more ominous problems like the lurking vampire somewhere in the fortress would just have to wait.

The first thing was the obvious shortage of wood. No wood meant no beds, no charcoal for steel and no lye for soap, all of which were essential for a safe and working fortress.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The lack of wood was so acute that some earlier overseer had resorted to building bins out of silver, bins which were currently being very slowly hauled up from forges hundred floors below the main fortress.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Area south of the guard tower was a prime source of lumber, so the whole forest was designated for clearcutting. This brought up surprising problems: there were no woodcutters in the whole fortress. None at all, which was very puzzling. There were also very few spare axes, but this was a lesser problem. Few quick job assignments and iron battle axe orders later, it was time to move on to the next pressing problem.

Water. Dwarves grumble about drinking water, but it was still essential. Without it dwarves would die of thirst or infection when they were injured. Being able to wash oneself every once in a while would also be one more thing to keep dwarves happier and to stave off the inevitable stress and madness. Currently the only source of water was a stagnant pool outside which very likely would freeze solid during winter.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Luckily the upper cavern layer was mostly flooded and would offer an unlimited source of clear water. A room for a well was dug out next to the main staircase, with a small reservoir isolated from the underground horrors with a sturdy drawbridge. It was some way down from the main fortress, but it would have to do. It would save lives.

Happy about the productive start as an overseer, Staalo relaxed and watched the dwarves go to work. This wasn't so bad, after all!

Until...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Just five days later, Zon Bodyroad's desiccated husk was found from his room. He had been only eight years old when he became the latest victim for the faceless Doomhollow vampire.

It seemed some problems just wouldn't wait.

[Staalo]

There was a vampire loose in the fortress. An unholy abomination, preying on dwarves when they were most vulnerable. The monster had to be found, somehow, and made harmless. Somehow. Think, think!

Staalo knew a little bit about vampires, the same as every dwarf would. In life they had been blasphemers and iconoclasts, until some vengeful god  cursed them with undead half-life of endless bloodlust for violating a temple. Vampires used false names and identities and would move often from settlement to settlement to avoid suspicion. They never ate, drank or slept.

Maybe that would help reducing the amount of suspects somewhat? He fetched fort residents' dossiers from the archives and started perusing them. One hundred and twenty-three dwarves; this would be a long night.

The vampire didn't sleep, so it probably didn't have a bedroom of its own. Of course there were nobles and officials who would have rooms whether they used them or not, but it would be a start. Out of 123 dwarves, 64 hadn't claimed a bedroom yet.  Out of those sixty-four, 11 were children. They could probably be ruled out. Out of the remaining suspects, 13 were actually eating, drinking or sleeping at that very moment, so they also were out. That left 40 possible vampires. Still far too many.

Vampires were immortal, so their relatives were probably long dead or at least wouldn't have come with them to Doomhollow. That would help narrowing it further down. He cross-checked immigrant files one by one, crossing out names, making notes, finally starting to nod...

He woke up with a start. Had he been sleeping? What irony it would have been if the vampire would have chosen that moment to come in with some further snacking in its mind... he shuddered. He peeled a piece of sweat-glued parchment from his forehead and stared at the last night's notes.

There was a long, messy list of names and professions, accompanied with scribbled remarks like "UNLIKELY - TOO YOUNG" and "SAW HER DRUNK FEW WEEKS AGO." Most names were crossed over, with only few names remaining:

VAMPIRE SUSPECTS:

’Imic II’ Quakeoiled, Miner - ACTS SUSPICIOUSLY - GOES TO LOOK AT IMIC'S BLOOD
Etur Ceilingmastered, Stonecrafter - LOOKS OLDER THAN SHE IS
Minkot Paddlestabbed, Mayor - JUST HOW DID SHE END UP AS MAYOR? - VAMPIRES ARE SOCIALLY SKILLED
Bembul Strappedringed, Hammerdwarf - NEVER SEEN HIM DRINK OR EAT - DOES HE SLEEP?
Zefon Atticpoint, Pikedwarf - JUST WHAT IS A PIKE ANYWAY? - SEEMS FOREIGN


Five dwarves, including the mayor and two militiadwarves. Worrisome. But they were the most likely suspects, and somehow he had to find out which one of them was the murderous bloodsucker tormenting Doomhollow. Somehow.

Staalo's thoughts were broken by a sudden commotion of excited voices from the corridor.

"Migrants! Migrants are coming!"

Oh no.

[TheFlame52]

Perhaps a lack of doors is for the best. If rooms are open to the rest of the fort, there's a chance the vampire might get caught in the act. Also, perhaps one of our visitors is the suspect?

[Staalo]

There were twenty-six of them. Farmers, rangers, doctors, fishery workers, with an odd craftsdwarf or two thrown in. There were also three children, from two different families. Staalo scanned anxiously through their immigration papers, looking for any telltales of additional vampires. All newcomers seemed just ordinary eager migrant dwarves, except one.

"Um, it says here 'baroness consort Onget Umbrallashes', Mrs Umbrallashes? Is that correct? I can't see the baron himself among your group."

"Oh, deary me, that must be those Mountainhome people being out of order again, young man. My dear Tekkud died last year. Or was it the year before? My memory isn't what it used to be... I'm one hundred and sixty years old, young man, and in my age years seem to just go by without noticing."

"I'm sure you've led an eventful life, Mrs Umbrallashes? You must have some good memories to share."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Oh, nothing much... I've been a bard since 489 and visited many places and met many, many interesting people. I took part in a foot race once, in Perfectboots in 494... Thikut Whipwatch won that one, but she died in 499 so I guess I got the last laugh!" Onget chuckled softly. "Oh, and there was that time in 456 when I had my mood and made a floodgate out of Bim Flagworker."

"Wh-what?" A quill dropped from Staalo's fingers without him noticing.

"She was four years old and had such tiny bones. But I did very good work and that gate is still hanging on sheriff office wall in Granitelife. The Sable Poisons, I called it. Those were the times..." Onget sighed and was left staring absently at nothing. Staalo used the moment to tiptoe away from the insane crone.

Spoiler: OOC (click to show/hide)

Sorry, but Onget seemed such an interesting character that I just had to dig her up from the Legends. Sometimes the game just brings up these gems randomly.

[Staalo]

Demented child-mutilating hags coming in as migrants didn't make the fort any safer in Staalo's mind. At all. Although, maybe the vampire would choose Onget as its next victim and end up as, let's say a vampire skin doily on former baroness consort's bedside table? It always pays to keep a positive attitude. Meanwhile, there was a fortress to run.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After initial hiccups with equipment and job assignments, the southern logging operation was running smoothly. Now they could make beds and charcoal. And soap.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Soap was needed at newly opened communal well in the upper cavern layer. There was already a stockpile for it, now all that were needed were those complex orders of ash, lye and soap to get it filled up.

A new drawbridge was also built to patch up a recently noticed security problem around the cavern entrance. Accompanied by a row of cage traps, it should be enough to keep the entrance secure.

As these projects were nearing completion, it was time to look into the traffic problem in the upper levels. Expansions and changes to fortress layout had left the fort's main staircase in a difficult location and as a result most dwarves used the tiny temporary staircase in the main corridor. Main corridors were impossibly long and dwarves had to walk a long way to get to their workshops.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

To ease movement at least a bit, a new central rampway was built. An old disused dining room was dismantled to make space for the new spiraling access ramp. Placed at near the exact center of the fortress layout, the rampway would take some of the load off from the staircases.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spring also saw some renovation in public spaces. A new hospital was built using some old abandoned bedrooms, and the fortress tavern, The Fragrance of Purging, which had so far existed only in name, found new spaces in a hall which looked like it had housed workshops at some point.

The hospital now had separate rooms for each patient, and in extreme cases each room could be walled up, if needed. It was still missing traction benches, though.

While these projects were waiting for their completion, air outside gradually warmed and one day human caravan wagons were seen in the distance.

Summer had arrived.

Spoiler: Bonus image: figurine of Dark One (click to show/hide)

[TheFlame52]

Quality posts, Staalo

[Staalo]

Thanks! Somehow I find this fort and world very inspiring. I'd better pick up the pace a bit, though; I'm already 3100 words in and barely past the first season.


A tall, burly dwarf in his working clothes walked with a confident gait along the corridor, unaware of the other, younger dwarf skulking silently behind him. He had a green glass goblet in his hand and licked his lips in anticipation as he entered the stockpile room. The shadowing dwarf followed and hid behind a bin.

The dwarf in work attire walked towards a radish wine barrel. The other dwarf peeked behind the bin, visibly excited.

The dwarf dipped his goblet into the barrel. The young dwarf's face was frozen in giddy anticipation: eyes wide, mouth open.

The dwarf drank deep from the goblet, belched and wiped his moustache with the back of his hand. The other dwarf mouthed a silent "YES!" and pumped his fist in the air. Then he crossed something over in a piece of parchment he was carrying.

The process of elimination worked: now there were only two suspected vampires. Staalo checked his list.

’Imic II’ Quakeoiled, Miner
Zefon Atticpoint, Pikedwarf

One of them had to be the murderous bloodsucker. Had to be. Somehow, he would expose the real vampire.

And then... justice.

[Imic]

Oh shit

[Staalo]

Goblets. So many green glass goblets. Bins and bins just filled to brim with the damned things. While tallying goods to trade with the human caravan it was estimated that the goblets outnumbered their users more than ten to one. Why were there so many of them? What was their purpose? Was there some deeper meaning in them? What were they for?

It turned out there was a standing order at the glassworks just to produce new goblets infinitely. No one seemed to know why the order was originally given, or why was it left in force. "Dunno, 's orders. We just makes 'em", replied the workers when asked about the issue.

Staalo decided to suspend the order and see if anything bad would happen. Probably nothing would happen, but this being Doomhollow he couldn't be quite sure. Goblets could have been there as an offering, for instance... to placate some angry god who would now visit the fortress with fire and violence... No, that was just his nerves. He drummed his fingers in the silence created by the absence of constant hiss of glass forges. It would be fine. Just fine.

To do something, he reviewed the receipts from the day's trading. Few hundred goblets had been unloaded to humans in exchange for cloth, leather, booze and other necessities. Among bought items were also some dyes, since apparently dyed cloth was something unknown in Doomhollow. He made a mental note to bring the fort's textile industry up to standard.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Meanwhile, there were more pressing improvements in line. Food production was currently situated in a hard to reach place in otherwise abandoned old fortress near the surface. A completely new food production area nearer to the main fort would allow for more efficient food production and hauling. There was even a convenient soil layer just upstairs for new farms and underground pastures.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The old surface fortress was then unnecessary and could be completely walled up; only an access stairway leading to the watchtower had to be left open.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Doomhollow also had a bit of a squatter problem: entertainers and other residents that apparently were once approved, but then left otherwise uncatered for, now loitered in the fortress corridors. For some reason they preferred to sleep on the hospital floor, which simply would not do in a modern and hygienic fortress. Some rental rooms were badly needed, and these were quickly carved out as a part of the new tavern complex.

While watching all this being built, Staalo noticed a familiar figure walking nonchalantly along a corridor...

[Staalo]

The person Staalo saw was clearly trying too hard to act natural. A terrible apprehension suddenly consumed him, and he started to shadow the sauntering figure. Darting from doorway to doorway, keeping hidden he followed along the corridor, past the hospital, past the workshops... he already had a hunch on where they were heading.

He was right. The person, a dwarf, sidled towards the dormitory entrance and stepped in. He followed, crept quietly to the door and cracked it open, just a bit...

Then he saw it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

DUN DUN DUUUUNNNN!!!

[Travis Bickle]

From the Private Papers of Doc
Dated: Early Summer 503
I had some initial doubts about having such a young dwarf as overseer but Staalo seems to have his priorities in the right place. He seems to understand the necessity of securing water and providing soap and an adequate hospital for the fortress—tasks I was unfortunately unable to accomplish during my year of leadership. As of yet my job as a doctor has seen little use in this fortress, and I know that won't last much longer. At least now I have the facilities I need.

The vampire struck again, this time killing a young child. Why such a young child? Did it need only a small morsel to sate its appetite? Are children to vampires what veal is to us? Did the monster just feel like being especially cruel? I can only speculate.

[Staalo]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Zefon Atticpoint was the Doomhollow vampire! Staalo watched in horror as Zefon's now very un-dwarflike form was bent over her sleeping militia comrade Bembül Strappedringed and noisily sucking warm blood from his neck.

"Thukkan..." Staalo whispered, mortified.

Despite all the noise the vampire seemed to hear him: her glowing, bloodshot eyes swiveled towards him and narrowed maliciously. She gave Bembül's body one more long, deliberate sllluuurrrpp while maintaining eye contact, and then suddenly launched herself towards Staalo with unnatural speed.

She crashed into him with tremendous force, bowling him over and spraying droplets of blood on him; then she scrambled over him and fled towards the rampway. She ran with an odd lumbering gait, holding her bloated stomach, cheeks bulging with stolen blood. Staalo picked himself up, checked for broken bones, and ran after the monster.

"Stop her! She killed Bembül! She's the vampire!"

Bystanders stopped to stare in confusion after the running pair, then some of them raised their axes, hammers or pickaxes and joined hot pursuit.

"She's running towards the dining room! After her!"

Did she hope to escape among the dwarves in the crowded common hall? That would be impossible, looking like she currently did. No, that wasn't what she was after. What else was in the dining room? Levers! She must be planning to open an escape route!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"We're too late! She's opened the cavern drawbridge! Downstairs! Downstairs!"

The growing mob of dwarves ran into the grand staircase descending to the depths of the earth. By now the vampire had such a headstart that they couldn't even see her anymore, but Staalo knew where she was heading.

Towards the nearly infinite, and infinitely dangerous, lower caverns.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They ran, stumbled and nearly fell along the endless-seeming stairs, until finally, over hundred floors down, they reached the lower cavern entrance. Angry dwarves crashed into the heavy granite door blocking the way.

"She's jammed the door! Stand back, I have a pickaxe!" one burly miner shouted.

"N-no! We're too late! She has already reached the caverns." Staalo tried to calm the  seething mob of dwarves. Where had they gotten torches and pitchforks with such short notice? They looked like they already had their blood up and wouldn't settle for less than a good lynching. So did he, but unfortunately it was hopeless.

"Can't you see? In those caverns she can ambush us at will and pick us off one by one if we try to pursue! She has the upper hand there!"

Reasoning didn't work on angry mobs; the low grumbling of the crowd heightened to an angry growl as dwarves raised their digging implements.

"Let's just close the bridge and leave her to cavern monsters! Why don't - why don't we all just go upstairs and have a drink instead? On me!"

That did seem to do the trick. Slowly the mob thinned as dwarves shouldered their weapons and started walking towards the tavern with expectant smiles on their faces.

The lower cavern drawbridge was closed, possibly permanently, and in the tavern many dwarves did their very best at trying to erase the Doomhollow vampire permanently from their memories.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And in the eternal darkness of the caverns, the monster hid in a maze of tunnels...

...and waited.

Spoiler: OOC (click to show/hide)

Yes, I could have arranged an unfortunate accident, but I recognize a great plot device when I see it. I'm sparing Zefon for future overseers to use as the see fit. Have !!FUN!! with her!