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[Bralbaard]

I've got the save! I don't expect to have much time this week, so it will likely be a quick adventure with a new character. I'll keep you updated.

Edit: well that adventure was shorter than expected. Guess I'll be doing some fortress building.

[Bralbaard]

Turn 162:


Dwarves are known to love grey parrot men for their intelligence. For Aran, they made an exception to this rule. Aran was.. how to put it, not the brightest of his nest. Yet being a member of the walled dye, he did feel a need to prove himself. His friends tried to dissuade him from this foolishness, but in the end they could not stop him. Aran set out on a misadventure.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Aran had decided to visit the fortress of Balancehammer. He had only just arrived when suddenly a donkey fell out of the sky, crashing to the ground a few meters away from the startled parrot man. Others might come to the conclusion that this was a highly unnatural and terrifying way for a donkey’s life to end, and that it might be wise to run. Aran however was quick to come to another conclusion.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ah it is fine! This donkey must have died of old age. Nothing unnatural about this situation. Let’s continue! I like this Balancehammer place!

And continue Aran did, if only for a short while. Rather than flying over the wall like other parrot men would have done, he found a tunnel that he concluded must lead into the fortress. He looked at all the strange weapons hanging from the ceiling: "Wow those certainly look sharp!" and took a step forward.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[kesperan]

The traps in Balancehammer are brutal. I’ve nearly lost a few adventurers there myself over the decades.

[Maloy]

Entry # Final

The burgeoning city was named Ringboot. Lead by a group called the Roads of War it was perhaps some sort of reference to a chainmail boot? Hard to say, but it also did form a semi-ring around Makbor and could be considered it's boot perhaps? Regardless, it was here. A city in its own legal right, but belonging to the greater metropolitan area of Makbor due to the city's overwhelming and miserable amount of laws and traditions that essentially made it illegal to change the original city grounds. For centuries as many as 20 humans would cram into the same ruined shack, because building a new shack was illegal and living in the country meant getting eaten.

Maloy, wolf-king-in-exile that he was, was in the tavern of Ringboot drinking. Thankfully, long before he was born when the dwarves DID take over they were able to ban alcohol recovery groups so no one judged him drinking away his sorrows. There was also a nice restaurant across the street, but he didn't really need to eat as much as he just enjoyed the taste so he didn't go there THAT often. He sat by the window, one of the few windowed taverns in the world, and saw the ones he had been waiting for.
He stood up and shouted toward the bar "Bartender! Two more glasses and a bottle!"
The bartender glared at his extended stay guest and Maloy realized why he was looking angry "No! Not for me, you dolt! I have company about to walk in"

Lythienne and Onul walked in moments later and looked around until they spotted the wolf man at his window seat
"Uncle!" Lythienne called and embraced him
Onul scowled as he approached "Day drinking? You're a noble. Act like one"
Maloy was unperturbed "I am a dwarf noble! I'm also immortal and have no physical needs so get off my back"
"Ignore him, uncle. He's been in a crabby mood since you asked him to do anything more difficult than walk up and down that bridge" Lyth said icily
Maloy's eyes moved over both of them "Oh. So I see we are getting along then"
"Should you be here, stray dog? Isn't there an ancient demon somewhere in Makbor trying to take over your city?" Onul said

"Nah, It'll be fine. He'll find what I did: City is a mess to run. Nobody does anything and refuses to listen to you. I think he will be busy and he's got no reason to come to the boonies out here"
Onul took a seat with the wolf man and bored into him with his stare "More importantly: I want what you promised. Captainship"
The wolf man crossed his arms and looked entirely unphased by the young elf and then looked back to Lythienne instead "Niece, I asked you for help. Do you have any ideas as to why?"
"Not really, no, but I assume it has something to do with why we meeting here and not Razorbridge"
Maloy clapped in approval "Indeed! I need an elf that I can trust to do two things:

1. Build a proper shrine to Cacame in the main cathedral. I want Walled Dye elves to be able to settle here one day and feel at home

2. I need someone to help keep an eye on things for a bit here while things develop. We need to direct it.

In exchange we have many rare animals that have never walked this earth before, but due to the apocalyptic weather changes have now come into it. You can talk with and ride them to your hearts content, including the elephants"

The last part is what hooked the elf in and her eyes began to glimmer with excitement
"That I can do! Just don't leave me here too long!"
The wolf man pointed a claw at Onul before the elf could pout at being ignored "And you! You're not done protecting her! This city doesn't have a military and with all its military leaders gone to war it is illegal to start one. So right now you're the only soldier in the entire city other than the few poorly armed patrols from the main city that wander in every now and again"

Onul stood up and shouted "This is outrageous! This mission could take years!"
Maloy rubbed his eyes "You're immortal, son. Act like it" He forgot the elf wasn't even a century old. Thinking like a human in all honesty.
Onul slammed a fist on the table and stormed out
"Looks like that didn't work, uncle"
"Nah, he'll be back. I'm really hoping your influence will mellow him out. I don't want elves to lose what makes them so distinct"
"That sounds more like a punishment for me than a job, uncle"
He pretended to look away "Well, you did leave for a century without nary a good bye! I'm kidding of course. I just trust you. You saw the same things in the wilds the ancient elves did. Yet, unlike them you didn't come to the conclusion that all of us need to die. You've got something special in you"

----------------------
As a loose overseer for Ringboot I would check in and leave often when rulership, experiments, or monstrous transformations required.

Still, in the time since Ringboot started some changes occurred. Most of the dwarves had migrated away, as they do, but now we have new visitors!

Rodent men, Reptile men and Warriors of Udir. Plus our two elven guests.




At some point Onget the necromancer, one of the ones resurrected by the anti-rapture no less, was gravely injured by rotting flesh. He used up every splint in the city just trying to hold his body together


We also had some ethical questions raised about what to do with reptile woman eggs

The women would leave their duties to go warm the eggs periodically even though we determined that they were infertile.

We were then joined by a traveling troupe of performing villains

Two elves and a goblin. Each from the very earliest ages of the world, now revived by the anti-rapture, and eager to perform. They also had some interesting goals. I am sure Lythienne and Onul will have riveting conversations with these three.



Rodent people are having children. Having giant rats in your city is an odd choice, but I'm a wolf and not a cat. Also they won't immigrate away constantly like dwarves do



The dwarves were ethically divided over the reptile woman eggs, but I wasn't! Still, if they wouldn't eat an omelet from one than I would just sell them to the traders



One nice thing dwarves do though is create masterpieces


I intend to use this and many other treasures to turn my growing city into a haven for adventurers and museum workers

Did I mention one of the oldest villains in the history of the world decided to live here? She did. We had many deep discussions and I tried to interview her for her perspective of history. I also encouraged her not to migrate in the future as other dwarf forts might want to exact justice on her a second time



You wanna know how I know when I am getting a refugee from Falsetower? They own a grave already. This one is a literal child that was brought back to life




Another migrant from Falsetower, but this one I expect to keel over any day now.
She shambled in


Interesting mechanic discovery: If you build OVER a tree and then cut the tree and remove the building then the tree pieces that were built over are still there despite the tree being cut


Yet more master works! Good!

I'm having some of the guilds meet in regular buildings for now. Residential areas take precedence for me.

Oh look another falsetower refugee




On one of my visits I found a reptile woman talking to a sheep. Worse than that she was talking about visiting Falsetower. How can I save these poor people?


We built a number of things
The poor residential district is mostly done. Ironically, standards of living in Orid Xem are so low that a 2x3 one room house is considered decent living.
I also had Onul oversee the minecart rail system, imported and upgraded from Razorbridge. I tested it myself



Some other experiences, but I will tie them into my next turn

[kesperan]

Goden Charmkey is back!? That is interesting. I thought they wouldn’t reappear if their bodies were destroyed. Didn’t Bralbaard kill her 460 years ago?

edit: checked Bralbaard’s notes from the first turn; she was killed by her own granddaughter during the mass brawl in Treatyseed. The anti-rapture continues to intrigue!

[Lurker Z]

My theory is that her body was in the pile I made when I reclaimed Treatyseed. The bodies don't seem to disappear unless destroyed.

I remember making an article for her way back when (looks like 2 years ago), she had an interesting life. If I remember right, she had children after becoming a necromancer during World Generation.

[TheFlame52]

The return of the necromancer who nearly ended the world is small potatoes at this point.

[Maloy]

The return of the necromancer who nearly ended the world is small potatoes at this point.

Yeah she is pretty chill now. True death seems to have mellowed her out maybe she just needs a good retirement home


Maybe someone should build a nice place for immortal revived super villains who aren't trying to conquer/destroy the planet anymore


Also the website is crashing so much now

[dikbutdagrate]

Turn 162:


Dwarves are known to love grey parrot men for their intelligence. For Aran, they made an exception to this rule. Aran was.. how to put it, not the brightest of his nest. Yet being a member of the walled dye, he did feel a need to prove himself. His friends tried to dissuade him from this foolishness, but in the end they could not stop him. Aran set out on a misadventure.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Aran had decided to visit the fortress of Balancehammer. He had only just arrived when suddenly a donkey fell out of the sky, crashing to the ground a few meters away from the startled parrot man. Others might come to the conclusion that this was a highly unnatural and terrifying way for a donkey’s life to end, and that it might be wise to run. Aran however was quick to come to another conclusion.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ah it is fine! This donkey must have died of old age. Nothing unnatural about this situation. Let’s continue! I like this Balancehammer place!

And continue Aran did, if only for a short while. Rather than flying over the wall like other parrot men would have done, he found a tunnel that he concluded must lead into the fortress. He looked at all the strange weapons hanging from the ceiling: "Wow those certainly look sharp!" and took a step forward.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I really enjoyed everything about this turn.
And the artwork for your character was great!

Highly entertaining turn: 10/10.

Entry # Final
Did I mention one of the oldest villains in the history of the world decided to live here? She did. We had many deep discussions and I tried to interview her for her perspective of history. I also encouraged her not to migrate in the future as other dwarf forts might want to exact justice on her a second time

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Wow! You look good for uh lets see here... 39 years old? I'm sorry, what year is it currently?

Goden Charmkey is back!? That is interesting. I thought they wouldn’t reappear if their bodies were destroyed. Didn’t Bralbaard kill her 460 years ago?

edit: checked Bralbaard’s notes from the first turn; she was killed by her own granddaughter during the mass brawl in Treatyseed. The anti-rapture continues to intrigue!

I told you things were going to keep getting weird.
And I don't even have to touch the save anymore, hehe.

I'm glad that people seem to be enjoying the Marring of Orid Xem.

The weirdness will eventually plateau out, however, before the world sort of gradually reverts back to normal, well, for the most part.

I regret pushing the envelope so hard with that raccoon madness. I think it was mostly the Benadryl steering the ship on that one.

In hindsight, perhaps I could have gotten away with it had I been a bit more sneaky about it?
Maybe only replace a single civ with a raccoon civ, and then just stay away from messing around with the hist_figs.

Also the website is crashing so much now

Tell me about it.  Lost a couple posts I was trying to make over the last day and a half because of it.

[TheFlame52]

Copy your posts to a text file before posting. I usually compose my updates in a text file anyway.

[Otto_K]

Reading report, part 2
Still reading...


I expected it might happen and it did: The more I read of this thread, the more i like it, and more amazement there's to find. There's deep characters, action, even science. Okay, starting with characters


I continue to enjoy the Galka / Jas stories. Galka is very good at fulfilling the role of the old wizard kingmaker type character, whether it's Merlin or Gandalf or something else.

And with their visit (falling down) to the underworld to fight with demons, and subsequent return to the surface, the parallels to Gandalf intensify even more.

In the ambient dark, lit in scarlet by the ominous glow of inscrutable chasms even further yet below, I push myself to a lean, gripping tight the cyan pick-axe that held me upright, there I take in the view for true. Beneath me an endless expanse of stone marked by the blackest of black precariously perched midst fields of canyons without end, spires of ravening rock sharply jut from every angle of this dark maw, threatening to tear the unsuspecting apart. . . The air here is sulfurous and stings at my throat as I breath -- still an unconscious effort despite my cursed state, I give in to my blood and hold my mouth firmly shut. A mortal could nary survive in this place. . .

My gaze drifted upward thence, ceiling bound, motes of that blue twinkle hued in the crimson of this place return my stare. A tube, a portal, a threshold through the seas of magma, the tome I'd read spoke nothing of such a thing. I am no stranger to the deep, I was borne of it, raised in the gloam with naught but the sound of metal against stone for company. Yet this? This is deeper still, deeper than the deepest caverns I'd plummed. Deeper than the murky parasitic waters and mud that I'd dragged my feeble body up through to the Realm of Silver. For a moment I'd considered,

'Have I naught suffering enough?'

But such thoughts are anathema, they do no good. Mentally, I marked this place, where my body smote across the dark soil, and set off to sate my curiosity. My body began to feel heavy as I moved, slowly, hopping carefully along the thickest parts of the land lest I descend even further yet still. There, alone in such vast distances, yes, I felt truly alone. Neither a insect, nor a beast, nor a man, none it seemed dwelt there. The earth itself was dead, what dust I could muster in the palm of my hand practically rejected my touch, rejected any semblance of life. The stagnancy felt as if though it affected me deeply, what in all of Orid Xem, was this place?

At the same time, something about Galka reminds me of Sparrowhawk, in Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books. Especially this passage is something that Master Galka could be found saying about Lord Anthad:

“I have found none to follow in my way,” Ged the Archmage said aloud to the sleeping boy or to the empty wind. “None but thee. And thou must go thy way, not mine. Yet will thy kingship be, in part, my own. For I knew thee first. I knew thee first! They will praise me more for that in after-days than for anything I did of magery. . . . If there will be after-days. For first we two must stand upon the balance point, the very fulcrum of the world. And if I fall, you fall, and all the rest. . . . For a while, for a while. No darkness lasts forever. And even there, there are stars. . . . Oh, but I should like to see thee crowned in Havnor, and the sunlight shining on the Tower of the Sword and on the Ring we brought for thee from Atuan, from the dark tombs, Tenar and I, before ever thou wast born!”

He laughed then, and turning to face the north, he said to himself in the common tongue, “A goatherd to set the heir of Morred on his throne! Will I never learn?”

- The Farthest Shore, Chapter 10: The Dragons' Run

A simple miner to set the Lord of Silver on his throne! Will he not learn, indeed?

Then the moment broke, and the battle began. The horde of corpses surged forward to wear down their masters’ prey, war-cries filling the air as the living surged to meet them in reply. Aril and his thralls were more discriminate, holding back to let the tide of dead flesh and bone tie up the chaff. Only when the Law-Giver and two of his personal guard stood alone did they break ranks and charge toward their targets: Citoj swinging a stone-hard fist toward the crippled dwarf, Ulash hammering the head of his axe toward the sword-wielding guard, and Ehhu barrelling toward the Law-Giver himself with a rabid howl of bloodlust.

Jas Gloryage met the thrall’s charge and swinging blade with one of his own. The shriek of metal on metal joined the cacophony of battle as his shield rang from the side of the thrall’s helmet, staggering but not stopping it. Beneath a mask of burned flesh and broken, weeping blisters, the ghoul’s bloodshot eyes burned with hatred as it forced its jaw to work. It reared back, baying like a wild animal as it slammed its iron-clad head into Jas’ nose, sending the Law-Giver staggering backward with a grunt of pain, stars bursting behind his eyes. Teeth flashed forward and crunched against his pauldron, failing to gain purchase on the smooth, hard metal; a few broke off entirely from the force of the bite, falling to the dirt with a spray of diseased blood, but the thrall barely seemed to register the injury it had done itself. It brought its free hand up and swung with a stone-hard fist in wide, sweeping strikes, trying to knock the Law-Giver off balance.

Jas drove it back with a mighty, double-handed swing of his axe, forcing the thrall to retreat or risk evisceration by the razor-sharp edge of its head. A second and third blow sent it scrambling backward with a hiss of constrained aggression, trailing a thin line of blood from a shallow wound in its elbow. With the creature temporarily driven back, Jas dared steal a glance toward his comrades.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Eman had scored a few shallow cuts across the necromancer’s exposed limbs, but his shield was badly dented and the sorcerer was pressing his attack, directing the swarming horde of living dead to intercept Eman’s blows and wear him down; anyone who might come to his aid was bogged down by the lumbering corpses. The beak-masked brute of leather and metal was locked in a deadly struggle with Master Galka amidst a ring of broken undead bodies; whenever one of the corpses drew too close, Galka’s heavy metal cane or steel pick would flash out and send a body falling with a skull shattered to splinters, or a chest caved in and rent open from the force of impact, leaving the thrall to pace back and forth like a trapped animal as it waited for an opening.

On the other hand, this battle scene is beyond epic. Two players' avatars clashing, one trying to spread the plight, other trying to cure it. I'm really hoping that there's more player character clashes to come

And knowing that this whole battle is a carefully constructed pantomime, as I assume killing other adventurers was against the rules? Must have taken a lot of skill to pull it off without risk of killing somebody.


In other stories there's so much, especially the many fields of dwarven science that have been taken to use for learning more about Orid Xem. There's history, of course. From sweeping analysis of entire dynasties over centuries by Lurker Z, or the small-scale case studies of individual adventurers by the many members of the Historians Guild such as Nogoodnames.

Then there's theological debates from many different angles, such as monotheistic speculation that Ala, Gopet the Putrid Cyst and Sut the Tomb of Quests are in fact one true god of death, or other characters holding all kinds of different belief systems.

And even analysis of psychology, such as this excellent study of Moldath Mournsaint:

(Assuming that one can conduct a psychological study on an immortal being that claims to be a sentient amulet)

I said if you read his writings. He's perfectly cognizant, the perfect gentleman, everything he does makes sense (to him), he seems perfectly sane and correct in his actions. But then, he meets Queen Vafice and attacks her out of nothing (at least that's how I interpreted it). He does the things he does while outside kesperan's control. He kills most of the rocs, but leaves one alive... which was in the same lair as the others he killed... then comes back decades later to finish the job. All this give the sense of him being erratic.

Well, if I were to have a view out-world of Moldath, since we the players (and probably mostly us) "know" Moldath is a sapient amulet which somehow can bodyjump... I'd say all his time in Mudungudon and Orid Xem are his attempts at learning and emulating life. And in that being that alien creature which somehow gained sapience, he'll interpret some things vastly different than humanoid would. Yes, he's trying to do good most of the time, but other times he shows his alien nature and just does random things either because he feels like it or that he thinks humanoid think that's either what good people should do or what people in his position should do (i.e. necromancers raising random undead). I think that could also neatly explain why Moldath loves to drink every fluid he comes across, he saw humanoids doing it and doesn't understand that the body only needs water to sustain itself, that he shouldn't gorge himself on blood or other things. That's my take on things. Quite frankly, it's pretty refreshing, this alien view of Moldath. I think only Raki was really that alien. Maybe some of the necromancer experiments, but those not as much, (as far as roleplay in this game goes) they're still beings of flesh and blood that were taught humanoid values for the most part, or are mentally just "wild" humanoids with different bodyparts than humanid.

And on top of all that, the metagame science of using DFHack and other tools to keep the world from totally falling apart

Oh well, enough book review, time to get back to reading

Maybe only replace a single civ with a raccoon civ, and then just stay away from messing around with the hist_figs.

What--

[kesperan]

I’m just impressed that you’re reading 280+ pages and 450+ years of this world.

Ala only knows how many real world hours have been spent in Orid Xem but it’s been played nearly constantly for four years.

I think we deserve our place in the Hall of Legends!

[Lurker Z]

Maybe someone should build a nice place for immortal revived super villains who aren't trying to conquer/destroy the planet anymore

The problem is that if the place they go to is part of a civilization, or if they're previously part of a civilization, they'll be slowly promoted and moved by the game/in-game authorities from settlement to settlement until they inevitably arrive in some capital. And that's not even counting their hard-coded wants and needs which might affect them moving. It's little known, but there were at least two World Generation coups – what we would identify as coups, not just some bugs that removed rulers. There's nothing saying these villains wouldn't return to plotting, thieving artifacts (which has a much higher chance of happening the longer they live) or other such.

It's a great concept, but it will be really hard to implement.

[Bralbaard]

Here is the save game.
That makes it Lurker's turn.

[Lurker Z]

Thanks, Bralbaard. Let's see how it goes.