It had been another bad year for RoughnessWhiskered. Goblins besieged Shadeshoots right before the merchants were due to arrive and thus they decided to go elsewhere.
Hillocks were places full of poverty, and even though it could grow its own food and drink the town relied on Shadeshoots for providing them work and waylaying merchants looking for deals.
So two years without merchants had left people feeling desolate indeed. More successful hillocks could actually serve as the go between for a fort and its products that go out to the rest of the world adding on their own modest fee. This would lead to many dwarves being elevated to merchants who would trade in great wealth and comfort.
RoughnessWhiskered though was not that lucky yet. For now a dumping ground for unwanted dwarves to serve as laborers, and many of them losing hope every year they didn't see trade.
It didn't help that a mad prophet of Lorsoth dwelt in the town crying out day and night about the coming of Lorsoth's great war where all would find testing and judgement. For now the dwarves had to wait and hope that the new artifacts would be too great a temptation for merchants who would brave the danger to see Shadeshoots.
---
Outside of Shadeshoots sat a river that was frozen for months. During the whole year cats spent their days here napping in the sun or under a bush. During normal seasons they'd catch vermin and beg for fish from fisherdwarves, but during winter it was just a hang out formed by habit, but today was special. They could
hear it! The ice was breaking! Melting! And as it did it flowed a different direction. Down a large artificial underground riverway that lead to a steel wall and then down down downward all the way past traps, and troops, and crafts to a large room where it would flow across and then go down further between fort walls ultimately leading to the caverns where it would flow out into who knows where!
The room it met halfway through was for Zalstom the god of fortresses, oceans, fish and rivers. The statue is of Reg, the hero who slew the traitor captain Tirist, weeping over his inability to lead his people due to his death. Zalstom wash his tears down His River!
Yet down a floor further from Zalstom's rest was a large room of steel tables and statue and in it the Mayor Catten sat with four other dwarves:
Vabok the bookkeeper and warrior, Reg "Whiskers" the siege engineer, Ral the Mechanic, and Avvud the Animal Trainer.
Today was special not only because they had hit the next cavern and were laying traps, but because the queen Xuspgas had messaged the fort. She would soon visit and in her honor she wanted an arena built and games hosted. For the Dwarves this was an honor and they wanted to do so well as to encourage the queen to make this the Mountainhome.
"The arena needs to have a magma lake!" Ral shouted!
"So that any good dwarf who decides to fight can melt te' death?" Vabok shouted back "No! Leave the arena bare so that only the best can win! No tricks!"
"I think it would be very impressive to our queen if we constructed a fungus cavern complete with trees and all! Beasts could hide in the trees or fly around!" Avvud said very excited. He very likely simply wanted to release his Giant macaques into the arena
"Not fair!" Vabok interjected wagging his finger.
Cat rubbed her forehead on impulse which looked strange with her artifact helmet on.
"What if we invented an arena that could be switched when needed? Sometimes a magma lake, sometimes a great forest, and sometimes a plain dirt pin for a scrap?" Whiskers said. So named Whiskers because he had odd beard hairs that were longer than the rest and refused to do anything but stick out from the rest and give him a cat like appearance.
At that idea everyone audibly sighed. Ral slammed his head on a steel table, and Vabok shouted to the ceiling "Leave it to an engineer to come up with the most complicated plan of all!"
"Whiskers" Cat said "We had already discussed that several times before you began joining us for these meetings. There's a number of problems with that the first being that it takes years for fungus spores to grow into trees and having an arena that takes years to change is not worth the effort."
"sorry for helping!" The obviously wounded whiskers replied
Ral was rest his elbow on the table with his head on his hand "What if we just built a regular arena and had special ones ready for special events"
Vabok looked at him with pure rage in his eyes. His mouth open but no words would come out and then he finally managed "Out. Now!"and Ral quickly scurried out of the meeting to go build stone mechanisms or something like that.
Other than all of this things went well, Cat could not help but think. Tribute had been demanded of AceCrystals, a dwarven town of the Dreamy Abbey only two hours from here, it was an incredibly wealthy town that served as Knightkey's gobetween and the tribute was more of a formality. It told the dwarves that they were all still friends and that the Dreamy Abbey should send merchants here to try and trade wealth to recoup their losses! The bandit Elves of the Luxuries of Mortifying would be next. in time.
The berserk dwarf in the prisons has screamed at the goblins so much that they've become incredibly depressed and given up hope for life. We still don't know what to do with this dwarf!
--- over at Knightkeys
Kumil had been staying at the tavern for days. It should not have taken that long but two separate raids by elves and goblins had taxed the dwarves. Military dwarves ran the highway to the surface and came back many hours later hauling wounded. Civilians were all stocked to task dragging bodies and gear to the trash compactor nearby. The constant
thump of the compactor slamming had become rhythmic and even calming on a level.
The tavern was a great thing. Legendary artwork lined its walls and many instruments its ground, but the real beauty was the centerpiece. A golden artifact table where poets and musicians could set up to perform.
It was almost noon and Kumil was on his 7th mead. A modest start for an adult dwarf.
The odd thing about this place though was that it was so empty. Their was no way that 500 dwarves lived here unless their was another fort somewhere else down here! The roadways and palace weren't so busy other than the animal traffic. Even the tavern only had several patrons at a time! As Kumil wondered these things a human sat down next to him. Clad in Bronze armor with a gleaming silver whip on his belt this giant gray haired creature smiled wide at him ""Ey there dwarf mah names Quethp! Lath and greateth monther thlayer in the world!"
Human accents were a pain to translate Kumil thought "You said you're the last monster slayer?" he slowly repeated back
"That I am thir! Quethp thlayer of the great Gorlak and lath of my work!"
Monster slayers had gone the way of the Gremlin. All the world's forgotten beasts had been trapped, killed in war or hunts and thus Monster Slayers weren't really needed ever "I'm altho the lord of Bonegilt!" he continued taking and drinking a strawberry wine the tavern keeper brought by
"A lord too? Well nice to meet you! Name's Kumil here on a mission to save my people! Do you find much work around here, sire?"
"Not unlethp you conthider drinking all the wine and thinging all the thongs!"
thongs? Kumil was very confused.
SONGS "Surely there's some cave crocodile that you could save a cat from or something?"
"No thir" he continued "long ago many beatht fought in the cavern and killed all the animal. Nothing down there except thkeleton and mushroom now! tho I drink!" he clanked his mug against Kumil's and laughed, and as he did the tavern's platinum doors opened and the widest dwarf Kumil had every seen walked in. "That's thweetheart. The's the mayor and thweetetht thing you've ever met" Quesh whispered
Sweetheart identified the newcomer to the fort and sat down across from him. Her very energy just seemed to evoke how deeply she cared about every single person she met "Welcome to Knightkeys sweetie I'm so sorry about your wait" She said as she smiled with her whole face.
"Oh um. Well it's quite alright you guys had a lot on your hands!"
"Thank you sweetie! Now we've got our scribes looking up and down our library for stories about your 'fourth cavern layer' and we'll bring anything down to you! We have a guest library right down the street with a table and chair where they'll bring anything to you" She said
Kumil interjected "But I've been told you dwarves
found it that you found the secret caverns filled with treasure and beasts!"
Sweetheart grew serious and quiet. She didn't have a face that could lie "We haven't found anything like that dear. I'll have the scribes bring you materials. Thank you for visiting us, cousin" she said and immediately got up and left before the tavern keep could take her order
that's not good Kumil thought
as much as I want to know what's going on I also don't want to cost our kingdom it's only real friend in these times. I'll be keeping an ear out though. and as he spoke that the ground shook again loudly. Another siege had begun. Quesh focused on his drink clearly trying to ignore the call to join the defenders.
Lazy human
Author
Topic: Adilbomrek - Shadeshoots The Bunker of Steel (Read 1777 times)