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[Lurker Z]

Mandela effect. But more seriously, you're probably conflating Raki's ignoble death (TV Tropes mentions it there) with it. He did make Monkeycurse and brought Ala's immortality slab there, as well as many other wonders, even if he was a villain who cursed people to be werebeasts. It was him that K & K were trying to top, I think, and they succeeded (to most of our horror). The interesting thing is that I didn't even read QD's post, I just wasn't that invested in the Blight storyline (even as it is now taking over the world), I just made my assumption from a simple line from Legends Viewer (plus I have no memories of anyone lamenting... uh, the dead K so I don't confuse them).

By the way, I'm not sure if I said in the thread, but Amala has an article on the wiki.


On the note of the All Races Playable mod, looks like my modification to allow elves to dig crashes the game. I am sad. I should probably mention it there (even if it is a modification of a mod that's trying to undo at least a part of what the original mod was trying to do).

[Unraveller]

Everything else aside, I highly recommend reading the Ketas and Kosoth storyline to everyone. Not just for the sake of historical context, but just because it's quite good. QD strikes a really excellent menacing tone with them, and at times there's a haunting feeling for me on re-reads knowing what comes from their actions. Not to mention setting up a potential big bad in the form of the Abyssal Cult and their dark diety.

Funny, how many of us use this Museum world to craft all of these storylines when the main point originally was to fill Boltspumpkin up with all manner of knick knacks. But for me, I came for the premise, and stayed for the writing.

[Lurker Z]

Ah, I most definitely came for the story (and firstly, to build fortresses; that's all I knew at the time and this is still the only place I play adventure mode; though it's taught me (theoretical) tricks like if you want to clean up your map and don't want to ruin the resources, just get rid of the excess with an adventurer moving it to another part of the map).

Re:K & K storyline, I started reading, but I lost my interest after seeing what kind of people they were. I'm not a goody-two-shoes, not at all, but a group doing horrors for the joy of doing them or for some twisted science just sat wrong with me, just as Malladang and goblins in general disgust me (and Malladang made me hate goblins even more; usually gob civs, even in this world, are a lot more restrained), but the death of chosen necromancers and some megabeasts actually saddens me, because so much is lost with them in a historical sense. So, I'm sorry, but I just can't stomach their kind of evil. I've said it before, it's not QD's fault and they made a good story out of it.

[Quantum Drop]

The statement is a fully accurate interpretation, pretty much a summation of my entire post.

As for Kosoth, maybe it was intentional, and I just didn't realize. Going by QD's list of adventurers, by the game's logic, they starved to death in 797, in Ghoulcreek. The flavour being that they succumbed to the concentrated effects of the blight. Might have happened during fortress construction afterwards.

EDIT: After re-reading QDs second post, it seems somewhat ambiguous as to whether it was a purposeful choice or not, having him written as losing most semblance of life by the end. For reasons I can't fathom, I seem to have a false memory of an OOC post mentioning Kosoth's strange death of starvation in the middle of another turn, and folks being sad about such an ignoble end to a figure that shaped much of year 800 onwards.

I suppose I should take this opportunity to shed some light on this.

I didn't intend for Kosoth to starve to death at the start. I was actually split between two endings for them when planning the turn - one in which Kosoth would regain enough self-awareness to realise Ketas had manipulated him into becoming a mindless tool dedicated to spreading the Blight, then flip out and fight to the death against him in an attempt at redeeming himself (most likely dying in the process), and one in which the two of them finished up by turning a human fort's population into Thralls then retiring there for use in a later story (Rekthor's turn, which I still need to write up and didn't really go to plan). I eventually decided on the latter (since I needed to get onto finishing up Ironwards and was kinda attached to the two evil little gits), only to find it didn't work and only gave starvation as an option; Ghoulcreek was an attempt at getting around this, but it didn't exactly work out.

The ultimate result of this was that Kosoth's gradual degeneration and eventual death from the Blight was written in (with some other bits influenced by this thread and others) as an ex post-facto explanation for why he bit the dirt.


Onto other matters: it's great to see another adventure post from you, tonnot! This one's definitely gotten me hooked; that chapter on Relicward had me on the edge of my seat for much of it! I hope your elf survives whatever they run into in the future...

[Eric Blank]

I enjoyed reading your visitation of Relicwards, Tonnot! I enjoyed making that temple to the death deity, but no, I never sacrificed anything in the pits (didn't have anything to sacrifice). Didn't intend to breach the circus either... there were no survivors.

[Unraveller]

Some minor findings for those interested --

Spoiler: Regarding Streammartyred (click to show/hide)

Two towns in Omon Obin have been plagued with huge amounts of refugees set up for the last century or more on their outskirts, namely Scarletbronze and Streammartyred, and further of course, merely entering these places can instantly crash the game. I haven't delved into the former as of yet, but some weekend messing around has led me to question just who these people are stationed outside the latter. As it turns out. . .






So, it's the leadership, and likely many citizens of the town itself. Why would the Coalition of Recreation be camped outside of their own seat of power? And just how long has it been this way? Of that I am uncertain, but what can be said is that the Coalition of Recreation was formed when the Realm of Silver at large put an end to a civil war amidst the town after the 146th Conquest of Streammartyred. This was known as 'The Fierce War'. Later, the remnants of the insurrection, 'The Puce Canyons' were absorbed into another rogue element amongst the Realm of Silver -- 'The Imperial Tummies', a criminal organization who have been embroiled in a civil war vying for where? You guessed it, Scarletbronze. That one, know as 'The Incinerated Conflict' has been ongoing since the year 500 to now. And contained a total of 191 Conquests of Scarletbronze!

So where exactly does that tangent bring us? No where really, but perhaps the sheer amount of battles in these territories, each with a new government group being created at the end and then being supplanted by the next might explain the weirdness of these locations, and crashes upon entering. But. . . I want to dig deeper, so I decided to ATTEMPT reaching the keep of Streammartyred and see who currently called it home.



Unsuccessful in my attempts to walk into Streammartyred, I chose to create a new adventurer, one whose occupation was to begin as a hearthperson of the town. And here we immediately get a potential taste of what's going on. Egu Craftlenses the Key of Trading was the Black Demon who formed the dominant goblin civ we know as the Most Sin, yet. . . Egu is no longer of the living. In 769, Athama Stalkhandled alongside Irthu Bladebroken and Ragnar Ironjaw slew the demon. But what of this goblin, Arstruk Cruelgriffon who supposedly leads the army on the march? It seems they yet live. . . But where?



Imprisoned in none other than Streammartyred, for more than a century and a half. So is it that the army that is on the march already came to the town and suffered defeat during the battle of The Incinerated Assualts? Perhaps. . . Let us look through the eyes of our newly minted hearthsman!




A mountain of humans, goblins, and blighted thralls mixed therein. The overwhelming majority of the humans here are various religious leaders from a massive assortment of different sects of Omon Obin. And the exact same can be said of the goblins. There are a few nobles of the Coalition of Recreation mixed in. Some goblins, some blighted thralls, some human. So. . . Then I exterminated them all as any good scientist in a throwaway timeline would.



From the looks of things, the entire town is utterly abandoned. An incredible dense array of houses line the streets, each filled to the brim with clothing and other goods, yet not a soul in sight. Legends Viewer tells us that 80 Humans and 56 Goblins live within the town, those were the ones holed up inside the keep. Surely the ~thousand or so Humans that once lived here must all be concentrated alongside the 859 cats of Streammartyred in those teeny-tiny little tents, thus causing a crash as soon as they are loaded. One way I imagine this can be solved is if the War of Crucifixion ends completely, making the town realize no one is actually marching on them. But aside from that, I suppose I haven't uncovered much. Ah well.

Before giving up, I decided to unretire old Arstruk Cruelgriffon. I don't imagine it'll glean anything, surely he's just locked up in the Streammartyred dungeon right?




Curious. But does it mean anything? Probably not.

EDIT: The actual crash is a spam of 'succession traveler placed out of bounds' messages. I know we suffered this earlier in this game's life-cycle, though I'm unsure if it was ever resolved.

[Lurker Z]

That's about as roundabout as I went with that adventurer of mine in search for Amala.

The easier way to see all this is to make a fort in a throwaway timeline over the town itself that you want to investigate. You can easily do this with the embark anywhere DFhack command. Optional to use the reveal command, it might show you underground structures or creatures, and also what kind of animal people might spawn in the caves.

For me, when I make a fort over such a site, it usually gives me thousands of creatures. Another feather on the theory of Dwarf Fortress and Adventure Mode being two different games that can be ran in the same world through the same executable. This might also explain why Avolition (I think it was Avolition, right?) killing a few hundred goblins or maybe less was able to wipe out Ribiromimi's 5000 "abstract" goblin population. I'm 90% certain if you use the fort method on the site Avolition killed those goblins before Avolition got there, you'll find 5000 goblins with names and everything.

[kesperan]

Loving the detective work. It wouldn’t be a Museum game without stress testing the very limits of what is possible in Dwarf Fortress…

[AvolitionBrit]

So in regards to Ribiromimi's population, when i took an hour to get to the door on sight. There were units everywhere so those 5000 goblins/elves did exist. As soon  as i unloaded the site as it was taking minutes between actions. When i went to return it would crash me.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[tonnot98]

Short one for today. Laggy sites, crashes, and other real life duties got in the way of doing more.

Spoiler: Yawo's journey continues! (click to show/hide)

20th of Sandstone

I'm travelling south once again. This time I was passing through the hamlet of Homagemoons, near Incenseorder where I butchered the remains of that demon ten days ago. As I approached the keep, clearing my throat and readying my nemethe to play a tune to the local lords, two humans tumbled out of the front door brandishing knives against one-another. The ghoulish-looking human covered in blisters was clearly winning until one of the soldiers I hired stepped in and cut him to ribbons. Cusith said that he was infected with something called the "Obin Blight" and had likely lost his mind. The woman she was attacking, Uquur Twinkledthrew, had been badly injured in the fight but miraculously escaped infection thanks to Cusith's intervention. Uquur told us that she was leading the local priests in an insurrection against their insane leader and Cusith had struck the final blow. As thanks, they invited us to stay the night. The Band of Hail is no more, long live The North Coven! I guess...

After taking a closer look at the body, her condition looks much like that crazy dwarf that attacked me in the fortress. I asked Cusith to tell me more about the blight and he told me that it has overtaken whole villages in the last few decades, and it's spread by the sick going insane and biting others. Uquur must've been desperately trying to keep away from the teeth of the women attacking her. Her nose and ear has been mangled beyond recognition, and the rest of the wounds on her body will heal into unseemly scars.

24th of Sandstone

I finally made it to Herograves. As much as it pains me to see yet another wooden fortress, I felt chills as I stepped inside. It certainly wasn't the cold, either. On a bridge crossing the river that runs through the fort, two humans clad in blue metal were sparring with weapons of a similar make. They moved faster than even my elven eyes could process, every move a blur and it felt that I was hearing the clashing of their weapons three strikes too late. I approached them and made my presence known, and they both stopped mid-stroke, frozen in place and slowly turned to face me. They hadn't said a word, so I tried asking them about their strange weapons and armor. No response. Sweating, hoping not to make a fool of myself, or worse, I pointed out that one of the humans had two such swords and offered to buy it off of him with the collection of gemstones and jewlery I picked from the ruins of Relicward. At the mention of that fortress, an elf dressed in similar armament stomped up to me as the other two broke their pose. The trio stared at me with a cold, unfeeling glare. As detached as they seemed, they must've thought my naiveté was amusing. "Who is this bumbling fool? Doesn't he know who we are? What we've done? The amount of blood we've spilled with the very weapon he offers to buy?" Something like that, I'm sure. Not a word was spoken between these three blue knights, but I had enough wit to tell that they'd prefer I left.

I hadn't stopped to chat with the rest of the locals. I dropped off the bejewled coffin and went on my merry way to enjoy the company of more agreeable folk. Are other adventurers like this? The only other ones I've found were corpses, so I certainly hope not.

Dark ones, hollow hunters, fell ones, etc. being completely silent during conversations is both fittingly ominous (in some cases) or just frustrating (in most cases). This was the former, at least.

[Unraveller]

I'm certain Irthu, Athama, and Ragnar are friendly sorts! Maybe Yawo just came at a bad time? :p

Guess I'm more surprised they didn't immediately slaughter you. I suppose intelligent undead aren't OPPOSED TO LIFE.

[kesperan]

It seems to be a bit unpredictable. I have met plenty intelligent undead who just stand there and ignore you, and some (even dwarves from the Walled Dye who have been raised) attack on sight.

[AvolitionBrit]

Yeah its wierd, had undead adventurers attack me and other undead adventurers just be peaceful.

[Eric Blank]

Maybe they've made an enemy of a group or civ you're a member of, or vice versa

[tonnot98]

Maybe they've made an enemy of a group or civ you're a member of, or vice versa

I'd be surprised of Kesat isn't an enemy of every civ at this point.

Spoiler: Yawo's journey ends! (click to show/hide)

24th of Sandstone (cont.)

Just north of Herograves is the town of Diptrampled. Within the keep, I found a strange-shaped fellow. He looked like a big mouth with arms and legs and introduced himself as Nom, whilst simultaneously handing me a delicious biscuit. We chatted over the meals he cooked, and he told me of the local "rulers." Apparently they're a band of outlaws calling themselves "The Black Nightmares." He wasn't too concerned, he was happy to cook and they were happy to eat. I guess it's the simple things for some people. There seemed to be a mini museum of weapons with historical owners in the keep there. A halberd owned at one time by a dark one named Pictham, or a short sword owned by someone calling themselves Lurker. I decided to drop off the wooden spear that I had used briefly. Now it has a shared history between myself and someone named Raki, whoever that was. Nom seemed a bit worried after hearing that name, so it was probably someone influential.

Deeper in the keep, Nom showed me something strange. It was a small pouch that seemed to flicker in the light. Apparently it was made of boogeyman leather! I had heard stories about such creatures and how they would fade into mist after the sun rose, but somehow a particularly plucky craftsman had not only managed to procure a corpse of one, he had skinned and tanned their hide to make a truly unique fashion statement. I think this would make quite a good entry into the bigger Museum nearby, I must only deliver it (in my own name of course) and soon, hopefully the name of The Squeezing Fords will be on the lips of locals here. If not that, then hopefully my own clothiering business will be revitalized. I wonder if I could make a jacket out of boogeymen?

While exploring the town, a strange looking dwarf pulled me aside to tell me about some outlaws that had apparently occupied the great tomb of Bornoats. I'm pretty sure I saw a large pile of gems behind him but he moved to block my view and assured me that I was capable of handling a few brigands, and that there would be plenty of plunder to be had. I'm not so sure that it'd be very profitable compared to just going back to Relicward, but it'd give me something to do.

25th of Sandstone

I've finally made it to The Museum of Boltspumpkin, and what wonders I have seen! And what horrors! Priceless artifacts of untouchable beauty stand side-by-side with great piles of skulls that reach nearly to the ceiling. Works of great knowledge share a shelf with a blood-stained and dented book about goblin history. Even the patrons of this museum are quite interesting. I found one of those mutant experiments that plague my forest retreat. But I couldn't help but find myself enamored with the weapons that he carried. Their colors shifted and seemed to blister, pop, and reform into square patterns, but somehow held its form and retained a deadly edge. He carried many shields made from the stuff with him and I offered to buy one. I had some regrets, as I had to sit through a feverish sermon about his dedication to the god of blood, and how the spoils of slain divinity were his, and some other things that I stopped listening to. Eventually he parted with his lowest quality shield for quite an obscene price.

I passed the day chatting and sharing drinks (though they steered me away from the wine) with the locals, learning about great adventures and conquests as well as the horrid villains that have come and gone. Apparently I've met quite a few of them already, and they're surprised that one such as me has gotten away in one piece. I've started realizing real quick that this world is much bigger than I could've ever thought, and filled with things that are far beyond my capacity to deal with. While I may never be able to match the feats of violence of these other heroes, I might still be able to make history by restoring the health and power of my homelands. If another power-mad necromancer should come to our forests with an army of the dead, we need to be ready.

I set the boogeyman leather pouch down on a pedestal, making my official entry. My dreams of restoration will take quite a few decades to realize.

28th of Sandstone

I found the tomb, but there were no criminals here, just a bunch of loaded traps. I've got nothing to show for this trip besides Bilalo's broken leg.

29th of Sandstone

I've travelled to the fortress of Agefall, at the suggestion of Kadol Princesspage. He was a dwarf I met at Boltspumpkin, and told me the rumors of a newly made fortress and gave me its approximate location. Well, I've found it and I'm finding rotten dwarf corpses on the outside. I've heard that the dwarves were almost wiped out during The War of Fists, but this fortress was built sometime after that war had ended! My companions nervously drew their weapons, expecting a fight and got one soon after. A dwarf showing signs of what I now know as the Obin Blight charged us. I'm not sure if the dwarf was skilled before, or if his disease brought him to new heights of strength, but he would not fall! He broke Bilalo's spine, cracked one of Beakie's wings, and even had my spear stuck clean through his head without showing signs of stopping! It was only after I got hold of him and tore his throat apart with my bare hands did he finally die.

After exploring, I can tell that the dwarves here had barely managed to build their shelter before finding their doom. The farms are plowed, but barren. Fresh ores lie on the floor, extracted from the cave walls while the anvil still sits in their wagon. All the other corpses have broken bones and shattered skulls, could the dwarf that I killed have done this to all of them? When nature takes its course and claims the corpses for the soil, the only evidence that they were ever here will have been the small wooden hut they constructed.

I wonder, if this shield was taken "from the divines" as Lonelythrall said, then could this blistering metal have something to do with the blistering Obin Blight that has plagued this land? I don't trust the current druid of our realms, but I will consult him nonetheless. I doubt he wants to deal with the risk of the blight spreading to our mutant population. It's gonna be a long trek north...

3rd of Timber

I had heard rumors of bandits occupying the hamlet of Mossmatched far to the east, but when I went to investigate I found an occupying force of goblins instead. I didn't stick around to let them see me.



4th of Timber

I've found the fortress of Waterdeep, again with the directions given to me by Princesspage. This place is still bustling with life, unlike many of the fortresses I've visited before. The dwarves tell me that they built this fortress as a monument to their gods, and in doing so they've made an impressive shrine at the top of a waterfall which is the main source of water for a massive river that gives life to many other nations.

(We're 12 levels off the ground!)

Strangely enough, I could not find a path to the underground, nor did I find evidence of metalworking amongst these dwarves. The entire, fortified structure was built from the same stone quarried to make a massive moat around the fortress.

5th of Timber

On our way west, we ran into a goblin patrol. One of them cut off Beakie's right wing with an axe, and she bled to death not long afterwards. The patrol was small, so the rest of us avenged her. Even when I leave the forest behind, my friends are still murdered by these fiends!

(Blood flows and mixes into the stream.)

We ran into another patrol. Bilalo is dead now. The goblins are crawling everywhere around here. In the evening, my other two companions and I ambushed two other patrols, wiping them out.

6th of Timber

Ambushed another three patrols. I had planned on letting one goblin live after giving them my name, but then they attacked after surrendering so I had decided to put them all down.

7th of Timber

Ambushed a group of goblins that included their general, Utes Hellmute. I ran down her bodyguard and cornered her. She refused to tell me her plans so I gouged her eyes out and left her alone in the forest.



As I reflect on this and my recent encounter with the blight, I realize that sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.

11th of Timber

Spent a few days trekking through the mountains, only to run into (and through) more goblin filth. It's almost like they're being bred for the express purpose of dying in battle, because I found a group of unarmed and unarmored recruits attempting to fight alongside actual soldiers. They also had some sort of priest following the group. I've noticed someone in similar dress when I saw the army a week ago. My companion Betra fled like a coward rather than face the encamped enemy with me, only to return after I've already won the battle. I let him know that he need not follow me any longer.

14th of Timber

I am nearly home. But then I heard a howling on the wind. Just as my journey began, so does it end. My final companion, Cusith, was strangled to death by a howling freak. It never released its grip on his neck even as I stabbed it again and again, until his life left his eyes. Then it broke my fucking ankle before bleeding to death.

16th of Timber

I have made it to the eastern forests of my homeland, all alone. I've made my case to the druid and he seems willing to see if Cacame could help with this worldly blight. Winter is upon us soon, and there will be much work that needs to be done. Besides that, I must rest my ankle. It may be a long time before I can go out in the world again, because I'll need time to garner support for my cause. Despite all the evils of the world, I'm sure that the turn of the millenium will be a shining age of peace and prosperity.

Now... Where do I begin?

RIP to my homies. I'll have the save uploaded tomorrow morning.