I felt that its long past time to upload my last adventurers' journal.
Journal of Zokun Snarlcalls
I am Zokun, a dwarf of the Pages of Tiredness and denizen of Livingdead the Depths of Despair, my home. My priestess has given me the highest honor; to leave this place not in exile, but in search of greater purpose. I was raised a warrior by my father, and I take with me his armor and weapon; an axe of adamantine. It never saw any use for him as no enemy ever breached our walls, but for me it will spill the blood of many. My first objective is to become strong enough to complete my greater mission. To that end, there is a goblin citadel a short walk to the north. They are already weak, and its time to make them weaker still.
I arrived at the dark fortress at midday, and slaughtered goblin workers with impunity. It was when I ventured below and encountered their beasts that I was forced to turn back. I slew many of them, again one-by-one as with the workers as none here make any move to defend any other from attack, but one beak dog managed to clamp down on my foot, and though my boot protected me, it twisted and broke my ankle and knee. I can no longer walk, so I must seek healing before I can continue.
I made a simple crutch out of oak branches, and have left for the north. I crossed the Razorbridge. Their guards are well prepared, though their walls seemingly could be climbed over by goblins, and many live outside them. Some undead live there, but far fewer than at home, where they are explicitly welcomed and invited. The other side of the bridge was a long narrow isthmus of swampy land and it took me the rest of the day to cross it, but I eventually came upon the shrines of the goddess there who offers healing. Now I must pray for her blessing.
Instead of being granted healing, I was cursed! I spent a week living as an animal around the shrine, unable to accomplish anything. When the curse wore off, though, I was thankfully able to walk again, and now I continue my mission.
It has been several days, and I have cleared the dark fortress of at least seven hundred of its denizens. I have also reached the peak my of personal fitness and great skill. Now is the time to return home and complete the ritual to achieve still-greater strength.
The Priestess gave me simple intructions. I must roll the dice borrowed from some of those who arrived previously. Three times. Regardless of what curse or blessing I recieve from doing so the first time, I must do so twice again. First. I am blessed with a week's good fortune. Then I was warned of the wrath of the deity. Finally I rolled the dice the final time and was cursed. I have become a vampire. Lucky, as the other option would not suit my purposes so well.
The next stage of the mission is to really prove my worth; I must slay the great demons of the underworld. I already explored the depths of the goblin citadel nearby, and it has no access. The most likely location is the origin of the goblins, at Poisonuttered or Stealmountain. Stealmountain is quite far away, but I know Poisonuttered is only two days travel from here. So that's the logical choice.
The trek here was uneventful other than running into a single patrol that consisted of only one troll and several beak dogs, which was easily dispatched. There were a formidable network of trenches and towers on the way to the central citadel. There was even a temple, and a tower converted into what resembled an inn. Very few goblins though. Mostly trolls and beak dogs in the pits below. By the thousands. I didn't bother with them. The citadel here is made of a stone I've never seen before. Incredibly tough. Even tiny specks of it are quite heavy.
The route down to the bottom of the citadel was convoluted enough. I found a strange purple gateway, and after passing that it descended even further for what seemed like an eternity until I landed here, at the final doorway into the abyss. Vast glowing pits divide up the empty plains. In the ceiling I can vaguely see pits with shining blue adamantine capping them off. Strewn across the ground both inside and outside are the remains of massive creatures. Demons, presumably. Other than that, there's no evidence of anyone else having been here.
After wandering this place for at least a few hours, I've encountered several kinds of demons. The first was a skinless humanoid bull. It spews webs. I would not be able to kill one of these in a fair fight. But luckily it is possible to sneak up on them. The next are... flying blobs of ash with wings. They can speak, actually. Easy to dispatch. Then there are the gray fiends. Huge humanoid bison, covered in scales. Its toxic secretions boil off its . As far as I've seen, theyre all female. They, too, can speak. There are also light blue flying lizards. Not particularly dangerous. Ive also encountered fiends of steam, which like the ash blobs are not particularly threatening and easily dispatched. Blind monsters' gas might be deadly if inhaled. Thankfully, I no longer need to breathe. By far the worst I encountered were the sleet fiends. Flying serpents composed of snow and ice. They spew a deadly dust with incredible force, making them extremely dangerous to fight anywhere, but especially near the glowing pits.
I admit, I became lost after some time and could not find the spire again. Eventually, I got my bearings, and found the tower. However I discovered to my horror that the door had disappeared. Rapping on the stone revealed that it was just as solid as the ground. I assumed attempting to leave and come back might trigger it to reappear, however this proved wrong. I am now trapped here, as far as I can tell.
Ive been wandering for a while, and I had an idea. The adamantine spires in the ceiling. I found one which was leaking lava. Presumably, if one can lead to the magma sea, one might avoid it entirely. I have no other choices to go on.
I appear to have found a candidate. Another one which leaks lava, but there's room for me to fit as well. I just need to make a ladder to get up to it. From demon bones, that should work.
My plan worked! I was able to climb up the shaft and further up into the cavern above the magma sea. From there I found another shaft leading the rest of the way up into the pits where the beak dogs are kept. They ignored me as I made my escape.
(I had to cheat with dfhack's liquids command to make my escape. Its impossible to make a route upwards, so I had to find a lava leak that was on level with a goblin pit from the caverns above and delete the falling lava every step. Quite the pain in the ass. Doing this from a fort that breached hell would have been more reliable.)
It has been two weeks journey, I have arrived at the "museum" and delivered the offering; the tooth of the grey fiend, as proof of my escapades into the underworld. From here I set out on one last errand before I return home.
I encountered nothing of note in the last two weeks of travel, but I have established contact with our cousins to the south. The beast escapes me for the time being. I will have to return empty handed.
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Topic: Museum III, adventure succession game (DF 0.47.05) (Read 458110 times)