Into Summerwe have run out of charcoal to start the forges neccesary to continue production of said charcoal (via ancient dwarven processes that take the rich anthracite and bituminuous coal and turn it into easily consumed forgefuel). All we need is a SINGLE piece of wood. Damn.
Wait. . . did our carpenter just find some? But she's taking it to the workshops. No! NO! We NEED that!!
Oh, she's got that look. ah. If we interrupt her now, she will go insane.
later on
It will serve as the perfect symbol of our worship of Vesh Ghostphantom, god of Death, and so it was placed in the newly-designated crypt temple known as
Secretchamber the Ageless Death-Phantom. It should be noted our fortress contains not one, but TWO death-cults, who share mythology and secrets and an undying love for Vesh. There is no word of tension between the two factions, but the situation is worth monitoring.
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word is out, new attachments are forming:
I fear for their emotional health, should any of the other starting seven die, seeing as the death of Bombyx almost sent me spiraling.
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The rudimentary trap corridor is complete. Without wood for cages, or coal for smelting weapons, we were stuck with laborious stonefall traps. Yup, I personally hauled a number of those fat boulders to the spring-chambers in the ceiling, lodging them against the trapdoor and engaging the gear-switch lever, finally closing the access plate and dusting the seals. Impossible to spot, unless you're a dwarf or a kobold. And kobolds are just a myth.
Beyond the traps, we have two squads training full time, but their weapons are crude and random, and we lack armor and shields. I do not feel confident in a straight battle, but something must be done. .
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We filled the resevoir, and its frankly enchanting:
On the left wing I have dug ramps to the caverns below. With proper security this place can be a travel hub, of sorts.
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Kib Twistearth was the unlucky dwarf who drew the short stalk, and was tasked with breaching the surface. So Kob took a pick and trundled past the hundreds of feet of trap-lined corridor and up the wide ramps to the tree roots where a slight breeze could be felt, through the interwoven layers of growth... Kib struck at the clump of organic matter and it dissolved before him. Revealing horror and devestation. In the distance, large piles of corpses lined the riverbanks. It was tough to see this scene and picture life before the siege. Closer, in fact right infront of Kib, lay the skeletonized corpse of another dwarf. Some unlucky fool, no doubt tasked with a similar mission to Kib's, and now dead because of it.
"Well, job's done." Thought Kib, and turned back, picking up his pace ever so slightly.
He heard a eerie, piercing, clacking noise from behind. Horrible, like if an insect was trying to scream. stumbling over boulders left after excavation, Kib knew he was chased. He passed through the large chamber and into the switchback corridor, but turned to watch in horror as one of the feathered humanoids completely avoided every single trap. Simply hopping over every single floorswitch as if it knew exactly where they were.
mfw they are trapavoid and I spent all summer hauling boulders for those traps
Kib made it to the third bauxite bridge that marked safety. He was done, and had earned respect from his fellows for taking on a task this dangerous.
Then, brushing past him were some of the visitors, foreigners who had been trapped for months while the undead raged above. They were impatient, and despite our suggestions, they were keen to immediately leave this fortress. And so they willingly walked into bloody death as the Hands of Imush descended into the trapped corridor.
The bauxite bridge snapped shut behind them. Muffled screaming was heard, but then . . . silence.
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We considered our options. We could continue our cavern explorations, hoping to find a good source of wood to then re-start our forges and make weapons and make traps for those weapons then install the weapons in the traps and then. Well. That's quite a bit of work.
We could use water. But after considering the routing options, too much time would be spent bringing the water through specialized channels, and then there is notion of wasting raw earth for something we can fix via some third option.
This third option was picked after our fighters volunteered a plan: trap the invaders one by one, fighting with uneven odds, until they retreat or we take injury.
This was put into motion, with Kib estimating the run speed of the creatures, we baited them back into the tunnel after opening the bauxite bridges.... and then disaster. Instead of the Hands of Imush, which were fairly slow and ponderous in their chase after Kib, we found multiples of the strange spiders and gorilla beasts. Inside our fucking barracks. Like RIGHT NOW.
The fight was short, brutal, but we won. Except Ulfarr, he took a silver spear to the heart in the first few seconds of the clash, but valiantly pushed on despite this, and only succumbed to the wound after another two pages of fighting.
And also a character that was going to have a whole sidestory, Ushat "Swordmother", wielder of the artifact bone sword known as
Babinaknun, the same sword that Ushat
crafted by herself DURING CHILDBIRTH, well Ushat was brutally kicked into a pulp by one of the Wolf of Alnos trunk-spider things, before getting picked up and torn in half... dear lord.
Why, Ushat? I wasn't done with your chapter and now I will never write it. And Ulfarr? Why only 'U'
Bralbaard has a severed motor nerve in the upper right arm. We need a hospital..
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Meanwhile, from the back of the workshops, a small child screams "SILK CLOTH! BRING ME SILKEN CLOTH!"
kid nobodys got any time for that shit rn please
OOC:
wow this fort is really quite fun. I think the simplicity of the setup, and the grand designs make for some pleasant overseering. The river water pipe and levers are well designed, though filling the reservoir is slow, taking two months if starting completely dry. however, the siege sucks, it still isn't broken despite killing 20% of their forces.
I am sorry Ulfarr. We should monitor Avolition's dwarf for depression... lmk if anyone wants to be dwarfed or re-dwarfed. We have plenty of recruit-types still. Though many are wounded.
Author
Topic: Smithbridges riverside succession fortress - Overseers needed! (Read 15063 times)