Diary of Salmeuk, Year 169, Autumn and WinterDue to a clerical mistake, I have invited far too many dwarves to live here at Smallhands. Our population rests at a solid 70, far above the agreed upon 50. The citizens are restless, so something will have to be done about these
extras. For the time being, they are being ordered to clean and organize the hellhole that is the labyrinth stocks.
=====The massive power generator at work:
=====Around mid-autumn, Smallhands was besieged by a flying Pterodactyl who spewed disgusting webs.
You can see it there, menacingly glowering at the base of Spriggans prison fortress tower thing. With the guy locked in the bathroom upstairs? Look, I don't understand it either. Some kind of kink or something.
Anyways, we're looking at the pterodactyl murder some humans and thinking, "Dang, I really hope that thing doesn't fly over and kill us." As a precaution against that wish remaining unfullfilled, we dove underground and locked the gates.
Still, I remained worried as so much unknown construction had occurred over the last ten years that, well, I don't think anyone could guarantee our walls were free of cracks.
However, after murdering the humans and eating their innards, Fath the Ptero just stood around, contemplating something or other, and failed to attack or move towards the now open-for-business labyrinth entrance. Hmpf. I'm patient, we'll see what this beast is thinking in a week.
=====about a week laterI was feeling bored and claustrophobic, so I gave the miners new orders to clear the stalagtites from the 3rd cavern. With the chamber turned into a proper void, a tree farm could be created.
Not that we really need one, but again, I was pretty bored. The Ptero-beast cared not for dwarven innards, apparently, and continued to sit underneath the southeastern tower (this Ptero can definitely fly but didn't see to want to . . ) .
=====Last night I came up with one solution for two problems. First, take the new migrants off hauling duty and assign each a shield and a weapon of their choice. Second, order them aboveground, for uh
miscellaneous security purposes. Most hadn't heard actually seen the pterodactyl and didn't really believe it was a threat. Third, wait for the ensuing chaos and bloody fighting to wind down, before cleaning up whatever bits and pieces were left of both sides. If the Ptero wins, great, no more migrants, and we can just keep the gates closed for the time being, or maybe even trap the thing! If the haulers win, great, no more Ptero, no more awful webshooter threatening a fortress wipe.
Well, this plan was successfully enacted, though of course, not all went according to plan. The haulers were assigned a super squad
and sent out the labyrinth to the edge of the swamp. It was here that I noted how the gate to the swamp only opens from the inside.. blas tthis confounded design! I order the miner to dig into the earth itself and release the Ptero.
And well, this was when the Ptero decided to literally disappear from view and I was so fucking confused. . where did it go? So I check the unit list and 'z'oomed to it and ...
This scene was a few moment later after the main squad, the Siege Breakers, were called in to defend. Somehow, that Pterodactyl shot itself straight into the heart of the fortress, in the blink of an eye. Some flaw or hole must exist to have let this happen!
In any case, our Siege Breakers shot inside the stockpile room and were immediately beset by thick webs, and soon could make no progress. Fath, however, did no attacking and simply continued to shoot webs. And our soliders continued to fight as best they could, in a sort of slow motion dodge-fest that went no where for literally two in-game weeks.
I was in the middle of walling off the room and entombing all the participants forever, when something miraculous happened. The webs slowly began to fall from Vabok and Rakust, our ghoul warriors, and they managed to push towards the beast and slice into it's thick scales. This took many hours of hacking and slicing, but eventually one of them cut into the Ptero's head and kill it. Oddly enough, the killing blow was never listed in combat reports, and I could never find the kill credit in the dwarfs I searched, so to this day I'm unsure who actually killed Fath the webshooting Pterodactyl.
Malfoy, a named dwarf, took some heavy wounds during the fight, after apparently diving headfirst into the web filled room in a fit of vengeful rage.
In any case, it was a miracle for sure. The room was unwalled and the bodies were picked up. No one significant died, and to my sadistic pleasure, our population had dropped to 61 dwarves.
=====Dodok was hunted down a killed by a grimeling.
Yeah, I had never heard of the thing either. But it was a ruthless killer and tore at Dodok's ankles as he tried to run. Vabok ran after hearing the screams, and managed to slice the murderfoilage in two. In a heartbreaking turn of events, it was only then that Dodok bled out from his wounds.
The final moments of Dodok, the MasonThis event forced me to re-wall the swamp. No one likes that place, and only bad things will come if we leave that gate open.
=====An artifact golden earring was created during all this chaos, and apparently, or so I heard down at the tavern, I appear in the thing's decorations in a sort of cameo. Featuring cows. I'm still not sure I believe the whole thing, I'll have to track this artifact down and take a look myself.
=====The year has come to a close. I submit as a gesture of recognition towards the 20 previous years of ridiculous and entertaining carnage that has been Smallhands, a sort of memorial shrine, constructed throughout the year. It's %99 complete, and I suppose as complete as it will ever be.
Multiple white columns extend from the earth surrounding our surface entrace. At the top of the columns, a circular platform was constructed, and here were placed 20 statues, one for each year of overseer-ship, and each statue representing that overseer. For those overseers who chose no mortal avatar, MKO was honored with a statue of an echidna as a nod to their part in the Great Echidna Battles, and Applet the Overpaca was honored by statues of, you guessed it, alpacas. Proud alpacas.
They are not placed in any particular order, and they are (mostly) made of steel, as a nod to the gods of warfare and metallurgy, who had most certainly profited from Smallhands existence. There is room for another 7 years of overseer statues so the monument can continue to grow.
Also, I created a strange sort of woodworking room with an abstract sunset piece, for no particular reason other than I enjoyed the thought of it.
And with that, year 170 has arrived.
Save is linked here. Not much to report OOC, I believe the fortress to have a majority of the hauling backlog taken care of, so the next overseer can dedicate the majority of the workforce to whatever strange projects they feel are necessary.
Thanks for reading!
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Topic: Smallhands - nearly 40 years and still tiny! (Read 441790 times)