When the final brave fighter fell dead, the battle was essentially lost as the dwarves total number fell below that of the demons. Unfair fights with no weapons was a dice roll the remaining few were not willing to take. But truly horrifying was what followed - all day and all night, for three days straight, the invading Demons cavorted and cackled in jest upon the slain. This insane noise was all that the dwarves could think about, which explains why it took Mebzuth so long to notice a spare pick amongst the fallen chairs, piled up against the hallway doors.
But, fate had a different idea, for Mebzuth was suddenly so overtaken by stress he became entranced with the notion of poetry, and being that this room remained Scalemines tavern, he seized the opportunity to begin a recital of one of his favorites. No one knows, however, what poem he gave to the other two dwarves, for during the few moments he refrained from breaking open the walls and potential digging to safety, his loud recital caught the attention of those foul creatures lurking outside. Once this happened, it is not clear what caused the doorway to fail and the demons to burst within, but it was a truly regrettable thing to witness.
With that, there was little hope for the remaining few, trapped so in their bedrooms, waiting for the demons to come crawling, slithering, to eat them. . .
At the edge of the forest, unfamiliar faces looked upwards. The Elves, so timely their arrival, at the edge of the domain. They had learned from others of our location and were quick to spot potential partners in forest preservation. You know, you gotta preach what you believe, right?
So they trundled on up to the unremarkable granite trade depot, at the top of the cliffs, unaware of what was happening below.
===
Three dwarves remained, each in their own room, though Dastot and Stukos could talk to each other through the thin part of the stone between their rooms. Ast, the weaponsmith, remained alone and unaware of the truth of what was happening, though he knew it was horrible and had chosen to simply stay put.
Stukos was the only original seven remaining. He knew not of the irony of the number seven, with those seven demons arriving almost a year later, to the date (it was now early spring), like some kind of horrible, corrupted glitch in the matrix. and it was likely an irony reserved only for you and me, for Stukos was no longer of sound mind. He had always relied on the strength of his chosen god,
Ngotol, who took the form of a rotting male dwarf, and was associated with suicide and death. It was sort of a strange ironic kind of worship that only a dwarf might understand, and the awful religions that surrounded Ngotol were commonly practiced in this part of the kingdom.
However, Stukos had only recently reunited with his two son, Kol and Meng, who traveled all the way from home on their lonesone, just to be back with him.
Kol and Meng, his two sons, who now lay dead and cold, somewhere out there. It hadn't quite struck him yet, what had occurred, but in the back of his mind something painful was growing. He couldn't doubt himself. Not now, not with the fate of the fortress in his hands. He was dehydrated, starving, and he just kept looking at his bed, like someone avoiding reality because confronting the truth might be too much.
I lost the screenshot but he actually was just 'mirin his damn bed the whole time this was going on, and cared little for the deaths of his sons. Ah, DF. . .
===
Three of the four demons suddenly burst for the staircase. They had heard something above, the traders most likely, and went to investigate. Seeing as three of the demons actually died from their wounds after the fight with Mebzuth, that left a single demon guarding the dwarves below. An opportunity. However, this demon had killed many this past week, and taken a title, "Faintgulls."
So, the three demons ran upward and upward, lusting for violence, and burst through the front doors of the outpost above. Surely this would be an end to these hapless elves. . .
". . . Leonard? "
" Frank?! What are you doing here? No way!"
"Yeah what a fucken coincidence man!! Just my luck I'd run into this old bastard hahahaha."
And so, the elves were spineless bastards all along and apparently just totally chill with these demons or whatever. What the heck was going on here. . .
===
Below, the dwarves knew it was now or never. Thirsty to the point of death, they burst forth, hopeless yet full of fury... Faintgulls awaiting their charge at the chokepoint
like Darth Maul at the end of the Phantom Menace. I put on duel of the fates for this. . .
Dastot was the only dwarf to really attempt to fight. He died for it. In a rather self-serving way, Stukos ran straight for the food stores, while Ast lost all sense of direction when he heard the final fighting yelps of Dastot, and so ran deeper into the dorms. Here, Faintgulls stops, and appears to enter some kind of trance. Dwarves would later comment it was as if it was suddenly just some statue there, merely a well-crafted masterwork, and not the nightmare it had been moments previously. Strange indeed.
Regardless, Stukos had no clue of this and proceeded to retrieve the pick and wall himself into the food chamber. In what seems like some extremely generous luck after such a terribly timed invasion, migrants arrived moments before he laid the final stone, and in some ridiculously blind luck slipped right by the three monsters above. Only to arrive in what might be described as, um, a hallway reminiscent of that one scene from Elfen Lied. From a small crevice at the far side of the staircase came a beckoning shout, and soon the migrants filed one-by-one into the makeshift saferoom. This time with food included.
However, the thirst was simply too much for poor Stukos. For days now, he had fantasized about the drink he was about to take, and it was to be from the fresh flowing mountain stream of the high plateau. He NEEDED that drink, from THAT steam, and he NEEDED it NOW!
So he took to the stairs, the stairs with demons lurking at the top, and was not nearly as lucky as the migrants. In a strange sense he traded places with them, sacrificing himself for the betterment of the fortress. And run his little legs he did, to the stream above, with the two evil ones hot on his heels. Kneeling down, his beard and face plunged into the flow, and experience the most refreshing drink of springwater he had ever experienced, before the final blows came and Stukos the broker, the final of the original seven, was killed.
His body fell with a magnanimous plop into the water, and sank into the mud below. Stukos was gone, but a sure hero he was!
===
Also strange was the sole visitor to our tavern, a monster slayer by the name of Stropsi, who had arrived last winter and failed to do anything interesting other than exist. She did look pretty weird, and the dwarves kind of avoided her conversation at all costs. Always murmuring to herself about "the master says this, the master says that. . . " Really unnerving stuff.
Anyways, Stropsi should be considered by readers to be a mere side character. Just someone here for the show. Stopsi, like the elves, apparently gives not one shit about demons, considering them to not actually technically be monsters. *sniffs, glasses push further and further up the nose, and in her nerdiest nerd voice* uhmmm, technicallly, demons are not monsters because uhm you know its not like uhm they can talk you know ok? And watched Mebzuth die at her feet. Great person, Stropsi.
So the word got out that Scalemines had a tavern, and the next two guests represented a %200 increase in patronage to our little joint. Which is great example of why you need many data points to prove correlation, since anyone looking at the number here would probably think a splash of blood, a meditating cyclopsdemon and a bunch of dead dwarves is the key to a hopping airbnb. or whatever.
The guests were as follows:
The suspicious character known as Spishab Beesnuggle. Don't be fooled, the cute name is one thing, but this Spishab knows how to raise the dead. Spishab is apparently old friends with Stropsi, and the two just sort of take their leisure in our abandoned, corpse-strewn dining hall like it's just another tuesday at the golf club.
The third guest is more interesting:
A snake creature, but not quite a normal one - only the arms and torso are human. This creature called itself Lefu, the Commander. But commander of what . . ? However, the entrance of this character was quite dramatic, with their proficient use of a crossbow to decimate one of the demons:
Lefu might be the first truly sympathetic creature to arrive here, beyond the many migrants now begging for food and drink. As they roamed the lower halls, they encountered Faintgulls the meditating demon. Faintgulls took a number of bolts, before Lefu ran out of ammunition.
And decided enough was enough, I'm going to go tell a story. And so all three guests have proven themselves to be extremely varied in character, in the sense that each is a different kind of
useless. What a bunch of fiends.
Meanwhile, Ast, the final dwarf holdover from before the demon attack, remained too weak and afraid to run past Faintgulls, who simplay lay unmoving in the hall. And so Ast died, from dehydration, a coward confused and afraid.
===
Now, the fortress as a whole is in complete chaos. Blood and corpses everywhere, wounded demons that might still prove a fight are seen crawling through the dorms. There are no seeds planted, and the stocks will only last so long with the recent wave of 17 (count em! 17 fools arrived!) migrants. Weapons are scarce, with but a single pick to use, the other one lost in battle somewhere. Strange creatures laugh and joke in the tavern: a snake man, a foul necromancer, and one of his strange creations. They claim to be merely guests, but it was all too convenient that the demons arrived when they did. Something is wrong here, but the dwarves are too weak to repulse the threat. Back to basics: planting, brewing, drinking, surviving. ===
OOC: this is why I refuse to give up on this place (actual spoilers):
Stukos had the damn pick when he sprinted for the river drink lol. it's now at the bottom of the jungle stream under three feet of hippo excrement.
thanks for reading. I just realized I forgot to ask for dwarfings, so if you want one of the new migrants lmk. two are of note:
The rest are as follows:
Author
Topic: Scalemines and the failure of the Eastern Moat (Read 3302 times)