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[Lovechild]

1: The Big Chance

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"There! There it is!" Smunstu Cradletorment pointed into the mist. She giggled with excitement. The other goblins looked. The outlines of a huge stone building were becoming visible, jutting from the mountainside. The dwarven fortress Colormirrored... They had made it.

Their small expedition consisted of seven goblins, seated on a wooden wagon pulled by four beak dogs. Two trolls, big shaggy creatures, lumbered after the wagon.

"Told you we'd find it!" Smunstu said. "Let's get inside!"

"But what about... the beast?" the miner Slithate said.



Smunstu Cradletorment had first heard of Colormirrored from a snatched dwarven child. An isolated fortress on the south tip of the Horn of Planets mountain range, founded by the dwarves of the Palisade of Sacrifice. It had prospered for a decade, before it... died. The tales spoke of Alu - an ancient beast from the depths of the world. It had destroyed the fortress, and slain nearly every dwarf in it. Since then, Colormirrored and its treasures had laid abandoned.

Smunstu had gotten a crew together, goblins she could trust - well, trust that they were greedy enough to not blab to anyone else about the plan. Colormirrored was Smunstu's big chance. Her chance to be something more than just another faceless goblin in the Hell of Creatures.

Now, Smunstu rolled her eyes at Slithate. "It's been more than fifty years! That beast has to have wandered off by now. Or it's dead."



The wagon neared the fortress entrance, and now the goblins could see it clearly. A mighty construction of gabbro and gneiss, weathered by age. It was impressive in its own right, but like any dwarven fortress, the vast majority of the settlement would be underground.



With some difficulty, the goblins got their wagon inside the fortress entrance. It was a large, mostly empty hall. A spiral staircase at its centre led underground.

Smunstu looked over her hand-picked goblins, as they grabbed their weapons and equipment from the wagon. The miners Slithate and Cruelcanker. Spiderinked and Seducebeached, woodworkers. Heatmenaces, a smith. Terrorprowler the swordsgoblin. Time to see if they could actually make themselves useful.



Aside from their tools and weapons, the goblins hadn't brought much on the wagon, just a few barrels of meat to feed the trolls.



The trade depot caught the attention of the woodworker Spiderinked.

"Look at that!" he said. "Dwarven treasures, just lying around!"

"He he!" Smunstu laughed. "Cowardly dwarves! Didn't dare to come back for their stuff in fifty years!"

But despite everything, cowardice seemed abundant among the goblins as well. No one was eager to be the first to head down into the fortress. Smunstu sighed.

"Terrorprowler!" she said. "You scout the place out, then report back!"

"...Alright", the swordsgoblin said, gripping her scimitar tightly.



She carefully began descending the spiral staircase. It was built around an open shaft, and winded its way deep underground.



Eventually, Terrorprowler reached a great cavern. She could make out a stone bridge in the distance, illuminated by a red glow from below.



She continued down, and reached the fortress proper. Neatly carved rooms and tunnels, the floor covered in a thick layer of dust.



On the next floor, Terrorprowler found the forges. Several great halls of them, with room for dozens of smiths.

Terrorprowler's footsteps echoed in the tunnels, but they were the only sound she could hear. She explored both floors fully. The fortress really did seem to be abandoned. ...But the spiral staircase continued further down. There were even deeper floors.

Terrorprowler decided that enough was enough. She hurried back up to the surface, and reported her findings to the other goblins.

"We'll seal off the lower floors for now", Smunstu decided. "Cruelcanker, carve some stone from the walls and block the stairs leading down from the forge floor."

The miner Cruelcanker went down into the fortress, and started digging. It did feel good to break the smooth stone wall with her pick... but she was nervous. The beast, Alu, could be lurking anywhere. It could be sneaking up on her, this very second...

That's when Cruelcanker heard something huge moving behind her back. She screamed, panicking.



Cruelcanker turned around - and was incredibly relieved to see it wasn't Alu the beast. It was just a giant cave toad. Then she was scared again. A giant cave toad!

The monstrous toad leapt at Cruelcanker, and bit her from the side across her chest. Cruelcanker screamed again, in pain this time, and beat at the toad's head with her fists. It let go of her, and Cruelcanker stumbled back, towards the staircase. The toad threw itself at her again, but she dove out of the way. The toad ended up tumbling down the staircase, went over the edge - and fell down the shaft.



A few moments later, a splat was heard from below.

For a few seconds, Cruelcanker laid on the floor, and got her wits together. Then she hurried to seal the staircase the toad had disappeared down.



Cruelcanker got Slithate to help her seal off the passages into the caverns, too. She didn't want any more toads - or worse - coming in that way.

The miners returned to the surface, and let the other goblins know that the fortress was secured.

"Excellent!" Smunstu said. "Told you this place was perfectly safe!"

Cruelcanker grimaced as she nursed her fresh bite marks.

"Now the real work begins", Smunstu continued. "Colormirrored is ours - let's loot it!"

* * *

This is a community fort playing as goblins, reclaiming a dwarven fortress!

Pick someone to be goblined as, and you can choose a first name for them, or just your username. I'd like to keep the names in a fantasy style, so I might change usernames a bit.

Here are the starting seven:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Smunstu Cradletorment, female expedition leader (not available for goblining)
Cruelcanker, female miner and mason
Slithate, female miner and mason
Spiderinked, male woodworker
Seducebeached, female woodworker
Heatmenaces, female weapon- and armorsmith
Terrorprowler, female swordsgoblin

And here's a look at their personalities, if you're interested:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[HakuryuVision]

I'd like to be dorf- ...err, goblin'd as Terrorprowler, the swordsgoblin.
Name her 'Toki' if it's alright with you. : )

Edit:Also, pretty interesting premise.
Haven't seen too many Goblin Fortresses so far.

[Lovechild]

2: Treasure Hunt

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

To start with, the goblins ransacked the old trade depot. There were gems, golden crafts, and some ancient dried troll rations. The meat was still good. Trolls weren't overly concerned by cannibalism, so that would be a nice boost to their food stores.



There was a treasure-filled room down in the fortress too, but something seemed to be rotting there.

"Let's just loot that room later", Smunstu decided.



There didn't seem to be anything like a meeting hall in Colormirrored. Perhaps it was on one of the deeper floors? Cruelcanker and Slithate took the opportunity to dig out a meeting hall on their own. Now they could have a proper convoluted goblin hall, not some boring dwarven square or circle.



They set up a mason's workshop to carve any stone furniture they might need.

The trolls made themselves useful, lugging around heavy boulders that the goblins would have struggled to lift. But their harsh grunts told the goblins that they were starting to get thirsty. Smunstu had hoped to find a dwarven wine cellar or something for them, but no such luck. The goblins would have to source water from the caverns for their trolls.



A doorway was opened up in the cavern barricade. Spiderinked and Seducebeached went out to cut down some giant fungi - wood was another thing that would be needed.



Soon a water room was set up. A tunnel drew water from a nearby cavern pond, leading to a well where the trolls could slake their thirst.

While the goblins worked in the cavern, a draltha - a large cavern herbivore with a lustrous mane - strayed through the doorway and into the fortress. The goblins tried to chase it back out, but it ended up running into the staircase, and went all the way up to the surface.



Finding itself in a strange new world, the creature brayed, and galloped away down the slopes.



The weeks went by, and spring turned to summer. Not that it made a huge difference up in the mountains.

Toki Terrorprowler was on guard duty, while the rest of the crew worked below. She passed the time doing scimitar drills. The fortress entrance, where she stood guard, had been rebuilt a bit by the goblins. They had closed off the old gate, and opened a new one in a more accessible spot. The central staircase had become a little more fortified.

Toki was swinging her scimitar in practiced arcs, when she heard the door to the staircase open. Heatmenaces, the smith, had come up from the fortress. She approached Toki, looking... unsure?

"Hey, Heatmenaces", Toki said. "What's up?"

"I wanted to... talk to you", Heatmenaces said.

Toki stopped her drill. "Oh? About what?"

"About..." Heatmenaces scratched the back of her head. "Spiderinked."

"Yeah? What about him?"

"You know... he's the only... guy here."

"Well, yeah." Aside from Spiderinked, their crew was entirely female. Toki didn't know if it was a coincidence, or if Smunstu had preferred it that way.

"So I'm concerned... with all these girls around, is there any chance he would be interested in... me?"

"You're into him, is what you're saying?"

"And what if he does like me, but all the others like him too? Do you like him? I don't want everyone to hate me - "

Toki grabbed Heatmenaces' shoulder.

"Heatmenaces. Listen. I don't know why you come to me for love advice, out of all people, but... this is real life, not some stupid elf drama. Go talk to Spiderinked. Tell him you like him, see if he likes you."

Heatmenaces calmed down. "Yeah... yeah. I'll try that. Thanks." She smiled at Toki, and ran off.



Toki shook her head, and went back to her drills.



A couple weeks later, a caravan of wagons pulled by beak dogs approached Colormirrored.

Before Smunstu had set out with her crew, she had made a deal with Em Luckylies - the number one fence in the Hell of Creatures. Luckylies and her gang would come visit Colormirrored once a season, and buy a selection of choice goods. They couldn't ship out too much stuff at one time, that might draw attention to the venture.

"Smunstu!" Luckylies gave Smunstu one of her most dazzling smiles. "How's the treasure hunt going?"

Smunstu smiled back, and held up a golden figurine. "All good."

Luckylies examined the figurine. "Nice. Real dwarven handiwork. Payment in silver fine with you?"

"That'll be great."

"I have some things you might be interested in, too..."

Smunstu looked over the caravan's goods (no doubt stolen from somewhere else). She bought an iron mail shirt and a copper shield for Toki, and some meat for the trolls.

When the trading was done, the caravan set off again.

"See you in autumn!" Luckylies shouted.



In the smithing halls, Smunstu had noticed something interesting. Many of the forges had anvils made from steel. Steel - that mysterious dwarven metal, so much stronger and sharper than iron or copper.

Smunstu had Heatmenaces set up a smelter to melt down some of the steel anvils. That steel - and what they could make from it - would be more valuable than gold.

Time went by. One day, while Toki stood on guard as usual, she heard goblin voices. Someone was approaching the fortress. Multiple people.



It was about a dozen goblins, with several beak dogs in tow. And they weren't from Luckylies' crew.



"Stop right there!" Toki pointed her scimitar at the one leading the group, a lanky young goblin. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Easy, easy!" The goblin raised his hands in front of him, smiling. "We heard there was treasure here."

* * *

@HakuryuVision: Thanks! I haven't played much as goblins myself, will be interesting to see how it turns out.

[Superdorf]

This is delightful! I look forward to further goblinny antics.

Pick out the weakest, scrawniest goblin male for me, if you please. His name shall be "Scrappy", and he shall be thoroughly pathetic.

[Graysire]

I would like to be goblin'd as Slithate if you don't mind, as for name, if Gray is in it, I'm fine with it, I'm loving this so far and I'm highly interested in where it goes form here

[delphonso]

I'd like to be gob'd as Heatmenaces, if possible. "delph", if you don't mind.

Really looking forward to more of this.

[Lovechild]

3: Tough Times Ahead

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Smunstu was furious.

"Who the hell talked?!" she spat.

The five goblins before her avoided meeting her gaze.

This was supposed to be a discreet job. Secret. Now a bunch of outsiders were milling about in the fortress entrance. Toki was keeping an eye on them, while Smunstu confronted the rest of her crew in the meeting hall.

"Maybe Luckylies - " Graysi Slithate began.

Smunstu cut her off. "Luckylies wouldn't sell us out. This deal is too valuable for her. ...And if she did sell us out, we'd be dealing with far worse than these yokels."

Smunstu sighed. Well, this was the situation. Eleven goblins had shown up uninvited at Colormirrored. Now what was she going to do about them?

Murdering all of them was certainly an option. But it would be seven against eleven, not great odds. And some of the newcomers looked like they could hold their own in a fight. Besides, if this bunch of nobodies knew about Colormirrored, the knowledge had clearly spread by now. There would be more people coming, and the next group might not ask so nicely. Better then to get this lot on her side.

"Fine", Smunstu said. "We'll let them in, and try and put them to work. But keep an eye on them, all right?"

The newcomers were allowed to enter the fortress. They weren't exactly a threatening bunch. They all seemed to be each other's cousins, aunts, and uncles, and they were all pretty young. A few were in their twenties and thirties, the rest were teenagers. Quite a contrast to Smunstu's crew, who were all first generation goblins, "formed from shadows by Ras Copperillness the Amethyst of Ceilings..." as the story went. That was part of why she picked them; they had been smart enough to survive for over a hundred years.



Scrappy Grievehorror was filled with awe as he descended into Colormirrored. For the first time in his life, he was in a dwarven fortress! The stone walls were perfectly smooth, the angles were sharp... it was beautiful.

Scrappy's childhood had been a strange one. He was born among goblins living in an elven forest retreat. His parents, however, had a fascination with dwarven culture, which they had imprinted on their children. Scrappy had spent his time daydreaming about dwarves and fortresses, looking after docile animals, and never accomplishing anything of note. But in his seventeenth year, he heard a rumor of goblins taking up residence in an old, treasure-filled dwarven fortress. That got him excited, and he made the first big decision of his life: he would move to Colormirrored. On his way there, he joined up with other goblins who had heard the same rumors, and... here they were.



Colormirrored certainly didn't lack rooms to house its new occupants... but beds were in shorter supply. Most of the old dwarven beds were broken or rotted away. New beds required wood, and the giant fungi in the cavern didn't yield much. And then there was the melting and reforging of the steel... that would require a lot of fuel for the furnaces.

Smunstu had an office dug out, so she could get the numbers straight.



Delph Heatmenaces toiled away at her forge, smiling. Exciting things seemed to happen to her a lot these days. First, she and Spiderinked were officially an item! He had listened to her confession, and said he wanted to spend more time with her!

And now, Delph had gotten the opportunity to work with steel. Any kind of alloy was foreign to goblin smiths, but steel was in a league of its own. Only dwarves knew how to make it, and it was just so... superior to any other metal. Delph worked carefully. It was going to be a scimitar for Toki, and Delph wanted to do her very best now that she had been entrusted with such a valuable material.

Meanwhile, Graysi Slithate came to Smunstu with a proposal.

"We've been staying at this fortress for a while now, and things have been going well. But if word is out about us, there might be tough times ahead. I think it would be wise to build a temple, to honor Ágesh."

Ágesh the Sanctum of Fortifications was the dwarven god of chaos, war and fortresses. But worship of him was widespread among the goblins as well - who had no gods of their own.

"You're right", Smunstu said. "Get on it. I'll leave the design to you and Cruelcanker."



Graysi and Cruelcanker made the temple in the shape of an octogram - the sacred symbol of Ágesh.



They put some furniture in, and plenty of goblins took time to commune with the god.



Toki had taken on two of the newcomers, who claimed to be swordfighters: Lockmaligned and Stoodthieves. They too had been supplied with steel scimitars. Toki met them for their first drill as a squad.

"To start with", she said, "how old are you? And what's your combat experience?"

"I'm sixteen", Lockmaligned said. He was the lanky goblin Toki had confronted at the gate earlier. "I fought at Violetdye, twice."

His tone made it sound like he had taken part in a historical war, but Toki knew about the Violetdye "battles". Just mop-up operations against some already beaten mercenaries.

"Right", she said, turning to the other goblin. "What about you?"

"I'm thirteen", Stoodthieves said, his voice cracking a little. "I fought the elves last year, in the jungle!"

"Oh? How many elves did you kill?"

"Well..."

"Did you get to see any elves, at least?"

Stoodthieves was quiet.

"Looks we have some work to do", Toki said.

"What about you, then?" Lockmaligned blurted out. "Where did you fight?"

Toki looked at him. "I fought in Goldchanneled."

It took a second for the two young goblins to comprehend what Toki meant. Goldchanneled - the fortress where the dwarves of the Palisade of Sacrifice had unleashed hell. Where the eyeless devil Ras Copperillness had created the goblin race... had created Toki to fight for him. She couldn't remember much of those early years, actually. Just a blur of violence, darkness and fire.

"You... you were - " Stoodthieves stuttered.

"Let's get the drill started, all right?" Toki said.



In autumn, Luckylies and her caravan returned as promised.

"Am I going crazy", Luckylies said, "or has your crew gotten bigger, Smunstu?"

"There's been some... unexpected developments", Smunstu said. "I'd like to get the job done quicker. Ship out more of the treasure right now."

Luckylies' perpetual smile shrunk a little. "That wasn't the deal though, was it, Smunstu?"

"Look... word's gotten out about this place. We need to move fast, before there's trouble."

"And so you want to offload the merchandise on me? And make me take all the risks? That's not happening. We have a deal, and we're sticking with that."

Smunstu knew that arguing would be pointless. "Fine. Fine. We stick with the deal. Do me a favor, though. If you come across any wood or charcoal, bring it here."

"I'll see what I can do."

Smunstu marched off, frustrated. She went down to the meeting hall - the Strangled Hall, as it had been nicknamed. A bunch of the newcomers were hanging out there; Smunstu's crew hadn't really been able to come up with something meaningful for them to do.

Smunstu singled out one of them, who looked particularly relaxed, and let him be a target for her ire.

"You there!" she shouted. "What are you sitting around for?!"

Scrappy stumbled to his feet. "I, uh - "

"Go on, get to work!" Smunstu gave him a kick to the rear, and Scrappy ran out of the hall.

Once outside, Scrappy slowed down. Work? He didn't like the sound of that. But...



Scrappy's dream had always been to create a masterwork. Something truly perfect. Like a dwarf would. What better place to do it than here, in a dwarven fortress? He'd give it a shot. But what kind of masterpiece would he make? Hmm...



A few weeks later, another band of hopeful goblins arrived at Colormirrored.

"Let them in, let them in", Smunstu said, resigned.

She noticed a family among the new arrivals: husband, wife, and three small children.

"They're bringing their kids now? For hell's sake..."

Scrappy watched the new arrivals file in, and was surprised to see... his older sister, Markscourge!

"Sis!" he shouted, and ran up to her. "Hey, sis!" He tried to give her a hug, but she shook him by the shoulders.

"Scrappy! There you are! Do you have any idea how worried mother has been?"

"What are you doing here, sis?"

"Well, someone has to look after you."

"Look, sis, I'm going to make a new start in this dwarf fortress. I have it all planned out. I'm going to create a masterwork, and - "

"You? Make a masterwork? You know what that takes, don't you?"



"It'll be fine, sis. It can't be that hard."

Time went by. One day, down in the caverns, a feral troll found a funny door. The troll smashed it open, and went in. It went down a staircase, and heard noise from beyond another door. The troll decided to investigate.



The door to the Strangled Hall flew open. A wild troll ran inside! Panic erupted. Goblins fell over themselves to get away. The troll reached out with a long arm to grab one crawling along the floor.

Graysi saw what was going on. She ran at the troll and swung her miner's pick, catching the troll's hand between the sharp end of the pick and the floor! The hand was smashed to a pulp. The troll roared in pain and anger, rising to its full height over Graysi.

Fortunately, Toki was in the Strangled Hall on break. She drew her steel scimitar and charged, driving the weapon into the troll's stomach... then wrenched it free. Stinking guts burst from the wound. The troll paused, gurgling. Toki struck again, and with a single slash, she took the troll's leg off at the knee.



The troll fell to the floor. Bright blue blood sprayed everywhere. After a few seconds, it became still.

Graysi was the first to speak.

"...Think we need something stronger than a door for the caverns."

* * *

Glad you all like it!

Superdorf, any thoughts on what career Scrappy should pursue to fulfil his dream?

Here's a list of the migrants:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

First migrant wave

Family:
Lockmaligned, male woodcutter and swordsgoblin; husband
Turmoildevils, female butcher and hammergoblin; wife

Family:
Rainedmaligned, female cook, brewer, thresher, and herbalist; wife
Profaneround, male high master musician; husband
Profanefears, 11 year old son

Ghostdemons, female woodcutter and gelder
Stoodthieves, male woodcutter and swordsgoblin
Scrappy Grievehorror, male animal caretaker
Monstrousstabbed, female animal caretaker
Paintmaligned, male trapper and axegoblin
Monsterpains, female fish cleaner and hammergoblin

Second migrant wave

Family:
Evilmurders, female brewer, thresher, and herbalist; wife
Wickedthunder, male butcher; husband
Ratghoul, 9 year old daughter
Bowedflies, 5 year old son
Hexoranges, 1 year old daughter

Burntorments, male bowyer and shearer
Jackalstokes, male animal caretaker and macegoblin
Markscourge, female animal trainer, brewer, thresher, and herbalist; Scrappy's older sister
Deviltrotted, male metalcrafter and engraver
Dreadfulroars, male fish dissector and speargoblin
Pulledseduces, female herbalist

And here's a look at Scrappy's personality:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Superdorf]

Scrappy had a plan. Oh yes he did. He was gonna create something amazing. Something to admire.
...but that sounded like work.

Oh!
Scrappy knew!
Scrappy would make pictures!

Yes. Nice pictures on the walls, where everybody could see and say "Scrappy did that". Pictures were easy, weren't they? You didn't have to haul around nasty heavy rocks to make pictures-- and there were so many smooth walls in this dwarf hole for Scrappy to draw on!

Maybe Scrappy would make a picture of a beak dog! Scrappy liked beak dogs.

...

engraver please

[Graysire]

Graysi ran her hand along the walls of the temple, lost in thought. She remembered when she had first learned of Agesh. The memories came in a flash, her pick breaking into a massive room. Dwarves kneeling before the 8 points turning their heads in horror to the broken wall. The chaos of the battle. The calm of the temple. Blood filling the engravings on the ground. The priest leaping at her.

At that memory she idly rubbed her pick, the bloodstain had never quite faded from that day. That day the slaughter of those dwarves had seemed a sacrament, and the goblins learned of Agesh surrounded by the bodies of his followers. She couldn't think of a more fitting end to the dwarves and start of her worship than their sacrifice on the altar of their own war god. She smiled to herself as she started towards the Strangled Halls, if she was lucky maybe she'd get to spill some blood today in Agesh's name.

[HakuryuVision]

Is the relationship status 'kindred spirit' new?
I don't remember having seen that one before! :O

[Superdorf]

Part of the new Villains release, aye!

[HakuryuVision]

Nice! Almost tempted to play (and loose hundreds of hours to) Dwarf Fortress again.

B.t.w. that exchange between Scrappy and his older sister made me laugh. 

[Superdorf]

Scrappy is ambitious goblin. Scrappy is big dreamer goblin.

...

Scrappy is lazy goblin.

A goblin after my own heart!

[craftinater]

I would like to be a goblin. im not really partial to any particular one

[Lovechild]

4: A Real Fight

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Smunstu watched Graysi install a new door in the cavern barricade.

"That'll keep the dralthas out", Graysi said, "but it won't hold if another troll shows up. Maybe we could build some kind of trap..."

"Kind of a shame to kill the trolls", Smunstu said. "I'd rather train them, and get them to help our own trolls."

"We could set cage traps, then. Going to need a mechanic."

"I'll have that one guy do it - what's his name, Wickedthunder? He brought three kids here, he can put some damn work in."

Smunstu gave the order to Wickedthunder, who got to work. His lack of experience meant the project would take some time. Toki and her trainees stood guard by the caverns in the meantime.

Winter came, and Luckylies' crew arrived. But their leader wasn't with them this time.

"She's busy", was the only answer Smunstu got when she asked.



And there wasn't any coal or wood for Smunstu to buy. But the caravan did carry a number of cages, which she was happy to take off their hands. Now the goblins in Colormirrored wouldn't have to expend their precious wood making their own cages.



Smunstu really was raking in cash with these trades. She had a vault dug out behind her office, where she stored her earnings.



Toki, Lockmaligned and Stoodthieves sat by the door to the caverns. Wickedthunder had been working on trap mechanisms for weeks, and still wasn't finished.

"This is boring", Lockmaligned said, tapping the point of his scimitar on the ground.

"Don't dull your weapon", Toki said. "And don't make noise."

"What? Who's going to hear us?"

"We need to hear what's going on out there. Listen."

Lockmaligned stopped his tapping. He heard a thud, somewhere on the other side of the door. Then another. Footsteps. Getting closer.

"Wh... what's that?" he whispered.

Toki stood up. The other goblins also scrambled to their feet.

"That is a feral troll", Toki said. "We're going to kill it."

"Huh?!"

"On my mark. One - Two - Three!"

Toki kicked the door open and rushed out into the cavern. Without really thinking, Lockmaligned followed her, and so did Stoodthieves.

The troll towered over the goblins. Seeing them, it licked its lips, saliva dripping. Lockmaligned was used to tame trolls, like any goblin. But before this wild monster, he was frozen in fear.

Toki ran at the troll, which took a wild swing at her. Toki dropped under the blow, but kept her scimitar up to meet it. The sharp steel cleaved right through the troll's arm. In a gush of blue blood, its fist was severed, shooting off into the distance. The impact made Toki lose her balance, and she fell to the floor. The troll roared and tried to stomp her into the ground. Toki rolled away at the last moment, the crash of the troll's foot driving cracks into the stone. Toki slashed at the troll's legs, cutting great bleeding gashes. The troll stumbled.

"Lockmaligned! Now!" Toki shouted.

Lockmaligned realized what to do. His paralysis broke. He charged the troll, scimitar raised, and leapt into the air, flying at the troll's face. The creature just had time to look at him before he struck, cleaving the troll's skull in two.



The troll collapsed, dead. Slumped beside it, Lockmaligned stared, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Toki patted him on the shoulder.

"Well done. Now you've been in a real fight." She laughed. "Damn, this steel really packs a punch..." She headed back inside.

Stoodthieves came up to Lockmaligned. "I'm sorry. I - I didn't - "

"It's fine", Lockmaligned said. "It's fine..."



After a few weeks of deliberation, Scrappy had decided what type of masterwork he was going to create: an engraving! Scrappy loved pretty pictures, everyone loved pretty pictures. And you didn't need to lug around a bunch of heavy materials to make them. Scrappy had found a chisel and a small hammer in a pile of old dwarven tools, and now he was chipping away at the wall in his room.

He was going to create an engraving of a beak dog. First off, he'd make the hunched back, his favorite part. But the chisel made such a straight mark with every chip. He would have to bend the line of chips very slowly, or it would look weird.

Scrappy chipped away, and after a short while he realized... he had made a straight line. He sighed. A beak dog didn't look like that. ...No, this engraving wasn't of a beak dog after all.



Anyway, this image was just practice. His next engraving would be the real masterwork.

Scrappy went off to find Smunstu.

"I am ready to work", he said.

"Oh? Good", Smunstu replied.

"You see, I am an engraver." Scrappy was going to propose a grand engraving in the temple of Ágesh. A battle scene, two great armies clashing, with lots of beak dogs. In the temple, goblins would see it for generations to come, and say "Scrappy did that" -

"Is that so?" Smunstu said. "Go smooth out the floor in the Strangled Hall then."

"What? No, I - "

"And when you're done with that, you can do the same in my office." Smunstu walked off.



Markscourge walked into the Strangled Hall, and saw... her brother Scrappy, on his knees, chipping away at the floor with hammer and chisel.

"Scrappy?" she said. "Are you... working?"

Scrappy looked up at his sister with an expression of absolute despair.

"This is a sight I never thought I'd see", she said.

"Sis!" Scrappy cried. "There's been a huge misunderstanding! Please, please go talk to Smunstu and explain that I'm supposed to make art! Not this kind of exhausting... work!"

"Sure, bro. I'll talk to her."

"Thank you!"

Markscourge found Smunstu in her office.

"I see my brother's smoothing the floor in the Strangled Hall", she said.

"That's your brother, huh?" Smunstu said. "How's he doing?"

"Great. In fact, he wanted to ask if he could smooth the floor in the temple too, when he's done with his other chores."

"Fine by me."

"Thanks. He'll be glad to hear that."

Markscourge felt a little bad about tricking her brother like that. But the hard work would be good for him. In the end, he'd thank her.



Spring came, and with it, Luckylies' caravan. The fence herself was with it this time. Smunstu came out to meet her.

"Finally got me that wood, Luckylies?" Smunstu asked.

"No. And I don't see it coming any time soon." Luckylies' smile was real weak. "There's war across the jungle."

"What?!"



Luckylies explained the situation. The elves of the Sea of Exalting had declared war on their cousins to the north, the Tulip of Calm. Now the jungle along the western coast was filled with elven soldiers and their beasts, killing each other.

"What are they fighting over?" Smunstu asked.

"No idea", Luckylies said. "Probably something only an elf would understand. But what's more, the Sea of Exalting are attacking goblins too."

"That figures", Smunstu said. The dark pits of the Hell of Creatures were located right between the two elven nations. They were obvious strategic locations.

"But it's not just a matter of them getting caught in the crossfire. The Sea of Exalting sent an army against Goldchanneled."



Goldchanneled, the former dwarven fortress and goblin capital, was located up in the mountains. Hardly in the way of any army fighting through the jungle.

"What happened?" Smunstu asked.

"Well, the elves were driven away. But it's clear that old Eslome Twighearts isn't just trying to get at her fellow elves, she's out for goblins too. Looking for revenge, I'm guessing."

After Ras Copperillness had routed the dwarves of Goldchanneled, he sent his army into the jungles controlled by the Sea of Exalting and its newly crowned queen, Eslome Twighearts. The goblins attacked time and time again for forty years, killing and burning. The war only ended when their eyeless devil master was finally struck down by an elven warrior. Eslome Twighearts remained the queen to this day.

"So if the elves find out about you holding a fortress in the south", Luckylies continued, "which they probably will, they'll attack you, no doubt about it."

Smunstu was silent.

"Hey", Luckylies said. "You've been here for a year now. You've made a decent profit. If I was you, I'd cut and run. Grab the loot you can carry, get back to Goldchanneled."

This was so... stupid, Smunstu thought. She had planned this venture for a long time. Scouted and recruited a crew. Worked out a deal with Luckylies. Tried to keep the whole thing secret. And now, when she'd just gotten started, the elves decided to mess it all up?!

"No." Smunstu said.

"Huh?"

"I'm not going to be scared away by a bunch of elves with a grudge. Colormirrored is mine. And I'm staying until I've extracted every last bit of treasure from it."

* * *

Great stuff Superdorf and Graysire 

craftinater, I had already written this chapter when I saw your post, but I'll get you in next time!