I was still shocked by the events of the last day, the fact that there was a second dwarven civilisation that had survived the horrors of the past centuries would change everything. When talking to the dwarves, I found out that Healerlashes was not their only recent settlement. They told me another dwarven group had embarked further south in the Tundra of Heroes in a place named Stockadeoutrage.
In my head I was already plotting the route I should take to Stockadeoutrage, but first I decided to take some time to properly explore Healerlashes.
Honestly I was not expecting to run into more surprises, but when I came back to the surface, I saw a familiar face:
It was Mestthos Lovermachines! The horse I bought over a decade ago, when I was preparing for my first adventure! The damned beast had ran of before I could properly embark on my quest and I had never seen it again, and here it was, living with these strange dwarves. It had apparently already become friends with my travelling companion Tishak, who was petting it gently.
For the first time in my life I wished I was a pointy eared elf! For if I was I would be able to speak the language of animals. Oh I would have loved to hear Lovermachines tell about its exploits and adventures! We saddled the horse, and I figured that because these dwarves had apparently borrowed Lovermachines for possibly a decade or more, I could borrow some of their equipment for a limited time. I took the steel anvil the dwarves had brought. I want to know more about their metalcrafting skills and I will run some tests after I finish my current quests. I swear I will return it afterwards.
Tishak and me continued our journey and deposited the anvil at the museum, it will be the safest place to keep it.
The damned goblins did not allow us to sleep in the museum so we set up camp right in front of the doors to the castle instead, and of course we were attacked by dingoes. Lovermachines may be an old horse, but she definitely knew how to deal with dingo’s, trampling several of them. It was a rather gruesome massacre, and I had trouble sleeping after this.
The journey to Stockadeoutrage. It took us from the 28th of Timber to the 3th of Moonstone to reach Stockadeoutrage. We travelled to Inchedtwists, a village surrounded by goblin towers, but also through Growlsuppers where we spend the night in a ruined tavern. We learned that the goblin Lawgiver Kedir Judgebuckle the Whirling rules from this town, but we did not investigate this further.
The nights grew colder and finally we entered the Tundra of Heroes. The dwarves from Healerlashes had told us what to look for and on the sixth day we saw a collumn of yellow smoke rise from the Tundra, this was smoke from the volcano, we had made it to Stockadeoutrage!
3th of moonstone:
We ended up arriving from the wrong side of the fortress, and first ran into a number of other visitors and adventurers that told us they had also heard rumors about this place. While walking around the mountain we came across the remains of several undead.
The other adventurers here told us these were soldiers of Aba, scaly humanoids with black skin and thin wings of stretched skin. Not much later We ran into several dead dwarves. The Aba soldier corpses outnumber the dwarves but this did not ease my mind, and I exchanged a glance with Tishak: it was deeply concerning that nobody had come to give these dwarves a decent burial.
We finally had come to the other side of the mountain and there it was; the entrance to the fortress:
The mighty entrance road was covered in knee-deep snow, but it was still clearly marked by deep pits. The road ended at a large drawbridge over a deep magma moat, that must be fed by the volcano that towers over the site. Smoke and steam billowed from the pits and moat. The entrance hall was however unguarded and the door was open. I entered and wished I had not, it was a terrible scene.
The central hall was filled with the frozen corpses of dozens, maybe hundreds of dwarves. Their bodies had been preserved and frozen solid by the terrible cold that plagues these lands. There were no bitemarks, no wounds that pointed at the use of axes or swords. I could only conclude they were killed by blunt force, by some terrible unseen foe. That was when we saw the first living dwarves. Their looks betrayed that they indeed belonged to the same tribe as the dwarves from Healerlashes, but their eyes were full of fear and sorrow.
What.. What happened here? Was all I could say.
The survivors spoke, clearly still traumatized. They told us none of them knew how it started, or where it came from. There were so few survivors. But they knew what it was and had a name for it: Crazedburial the reclusive, a massive undead muskox. The beast had charged into the fortress and had trampled all those that had not fled. 73 dwarves were killed that day, and several pets. The fortress had been a disorganised mess ever since.
The general Stukos Flaxentorches was still among the survivors, but after his utter failure to defend the fortress (or die a glorious death) the man can now only be described as a wreck. There are several others, but most are heavily traumatized. One dwarf, Beri Alron Moss Pickvessels, is a bit more talkative and tells me that their monarch, señam diamondtangles had moved in just before the disaster, and had gone missing. She was sure the monarch was not among the dead.
The journey north. We decide to leave this fallen fortress as soon as possible. The fact that these dwarves can live here without even properly burying all these dead sends shivers down my spine. I decide that we should travel to the ancient capital of the Staff of kissing, hoping that we can at least find their runaway monarch.
The journey was long and dangerous and I’ve only kept short notes as the events were numerous but of little historical relevance. Our travels took us through lands held by priests of the God of Blight, Ura, and we were even attacked by a crazy lone goblin. There were several attacks by wolves on other occasions. We all came out unharmed.
At some point we spend the night in the tower of Farmpuzzling, an ancient necromancer site that was described in some of the journals that can be found in the museum. When we wake up in the morning my horse Lovermachines, was gone again, it must have run of towards another adventure.
We spend about ten days travelling like this, with our goal drawing closer and closer.
11th of moonstone.
Today we had another remarkable encounter. In a fortress that was held by the local warlord Ecen Cherishcradles we ran into a legendary swordsman known as Kem Skinnydeaths. When he hears we come from the museum he tells us to our great surprise that he used to be a travelling companion of Bill Hammertome the Fierce Spots of Crystal (Emilovich).
The Bill Hammertome, who killed Oddom Girdergrove! Girdergrove was the necromancer that plunged the world into darkness, and with her gone the world can start rebuilding. I’ve met Hammertome a couple of times in treatyseed, and I tell Kem that his former companion is still alive and that he is now a Baron of the Walled Dye. Kem Skinnydeaths tells us many great tales about his former master, and tells us he would be happy to join us on a new adventure, as he longs for those old days. We happily agree, we can certainly use a legendary swordmaster in our party.
12th of moonstone.
We have arrived to the town of Icenseorder, and are in good spirits even though the city, which is surrounded by goblin towers is somewhat sinister looking. Kem knows many interesting facts about Oddom Girdergrove and the other necromancers that Bill has defeated, which is of great interest for my historical studies, and Kem seems genuinely interested in our stories about the museum, and its more recent additions. I want to visit the keep of this city to see if we can get some further information on the surroundings before we continue, and will make sure to write down any interesting notes.
------------
Here the handwriting in the journal suddenly changes:
I am sorry to have to tell you that Bralbaard did not make it. He wanted to go chat with the nobles, which has never been my strong point, so Tishak and I were going to wait outside the keep. He also left his bagage with us, which is why I am able to write this.
Just moments after Bralbaard entered the keep it happened. A truly massive demon broke out of the castle, shattering the doors and walls. It must have been hiding in the keep by some dark magic. The thing was enormous, with a neck and tail both the length of a guard tower, and legs the size of highwood trunks. It opened its mouth and liquid fire poored out, engulfing the entire entrance in a deadly blaze.
Bralbaard was still inside, and the monster charged back in through the destroyed entrance. I swear I tried to go after him, but the fire at the entrance was too intense, there was just no way to enter. Inside the battle raged for minutes, but Bralbaard never made it out.
I am deeply sorry we could not prevent this, all I could do was to bring his journal here, to the museum, so that others can read his stories.
Kem Skinnydeaths
Bralbaard trying to flee from the monster through the central staircase:
So I did not make it, but at least I dropped that anvil in the museum somewhere half way my adventure, so there is a submission.
Here is the save game for the end of my turn:
https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15131The map has been updated with a new fortress, Razorbridge.
Author
Topic: Museum III, adventure succession game (DF 0.47.05) (Read 473596 times)