ForewordI'm officially addicted to Dwarf Fortress' Adventure mode, and I was inspired to write a tale about my character's exploits in the current gameworld i'm playing on.
This is my first attempt at writing a story like this, so constructive crits are welcome on how to improve it.
All of this is based off ingame info, my gamelog and the DFwiki, so blame it for any wierdness you may see in the story. 
I'm trying to play this char carefully so I don't die before I can get a full story out, but even so i've had to save-scumm twice. :\
Introduction
Introduction
Herein chronicles the adventures of Lynx Ilidmon Ostriung Golo ("Lynx Clearedholy the Wealthy-Voids of Wrath"), human Adventurer of Mirrortold.
Ilidmon grew up in the human town of Mirrortold, a small but busy place as it lay roughly in the middle of six other human towns, and naturally attracts many merchants and travellers.
Like many of the world of Nitom Kodor (or "The Planet of Dawns" according to the ancient legends), he chose to take up a life of adventuring at a young age after listening to the exploits of other adventurers who come and go from the local tavern in between their travels.
Even though adventuring was an extremely dangerous profession at best as the world of Nitom Kodor was home to all manner of wild beasts, terrifying monsters and ancient demonic horrors; the few who do manage to survive, retire with enough wealth to rival that of kings.
The only other viable path in his life was to remain a peasant as his parents did, tilling the fields all day or minding the farm animals. While relatively safe, it was a difficult, boring and tedious life.
Thieving was out of the question, as theft carries the death sentence. Even if it was a small, worthless bracelet, you can be sure that all the town guards will be after your blood. The Kings of the Kodorean realms maintain a full complement of well armed and trained guards at every town, who collect royal tithes and taxes as well as defending them from attacks and keeping order, which includes executing thieves.
Lacking enough money or goods to trade for weapons and armor, Ilidmon trained in unarmed combat, as well as the art of sneaking and ambushing unsuspecting enemies. By the age of 18, he was already an Accomplished wrestler, and had even single-handedly grappled and taken down a Lion before strangling it to death.
After the wilderness around his town gave little challenge to improve his skills, Ilidmon sought employment from Mirrortold's mayor, and thus truly began his adventuring career in earnest.
He was sent to dispatch various evil creatures that threatened the lives of travellers and townsfolk alike, often in caves and ancient, abandoned ruins. Many a zombie were struck down by his hand, and he narrowly escaped death several times after encounters with vicious Minotaurs and Cyclopes.
By the 24th of Granite, 1053, Ilidmon was already a veteran of countless adventuring sorties, and had travelled far from his home town to the distant capital of Sutadrin, to the Northeast, nestled among the hills of Gasisinen, "The Satiny Hills", to battle more terrifying creatures and make a name for himself.
And so our tale begins here.
Prologue
The waxing gibbous moon was visible in the eastern sky, surrounded by glittering stars as Ilidmon arrived at Gasisinen after a long, hard trek through the jungles of Gomathegath.
Many of the city's guards were asleep, with only a handful of them patrolling vigilantly. "Lazy fools,” he muttered under his breath, and threw them a disgusted look. He swiftly and silently made his way to the king's halls in the middle of the city.
The halls were impressive, with smooth, intricately detailed walls of gneiss and other types of stone. The floor shone brightly, reflecting the alabaster torches hanging on the wall braziers. He nodded at the king's elite guard, at least these two know their duties, he thought.
He had heard of Hode Memimammen, a warrior king as was the custom in the realms of Nitom Kodor. Hode had been part of and eventually led many campaigns against the enemies of man, and was an elite bowman in his own right. Tales of his skill with his simple copper bow were legendary. A man Ilidmon could and did respect.
Even at this ungodly hour, the king was awake, administering to the various concerns of state. He was poring over some maps as he noticed Ilidmon approaching and glanced up.
"Ah, so we meet at last, Ilidmon of Mirrortold. Your reputation precedes you," he said.
I heard you are seeking employment from me? Good, I have my hands full, and i'll take any help I can get. Our dwarven allies of the Idensavot mountain halls to the North have suffered numerous attacks from a bronze colossus recently, who calls itself, “Kast Besmardodok”.
“How did you know its name?” Ilidmon asked. “It carved that name on the flesh of every human and dwarf it killed,” Hode replied grimly.
"Wish I could return to adventuring and deal with this myself, but my responsibilities do not permit it," he sighs and an expression of nostalgia crosses his face for an instant, before the careworn lines of worry creases his face again.
"I would consider myself to be in your debt if you would rid our dwarven allies of this creature plaguing them. The speed of Armok be with you, Ilidmon," he said.
"And with you," Ilidmon replied, before departing.
Chapter One: Apashoneth
Ilidmon arrived at the cave after an uneventful four-day journey. The sky was clear and the sun low in the eastern sky.
An expanse of dried, yellowing grassland terminated at the sheer cliff face ahead, with the odd Acacia tree dotting the plains. The black, sinister fissure of the cave mouth loomed ahead.
Tightening the boiled-leather straps on his armor and pulling his lion leather cloak's hood over his head, Ilidmon soundlessly sneaked into the cave.
The cave was riddled with small and narrow passageways leading off to larger areas, which seemed to be artificial, and upon closer inspection it was evident that mining tools were used here as the walls were roughly-hewn.
Here and there, exposed clusters of various precious stones peeked out from the walls, Rose quartz, rock crystals and even adventurine glittered, reflecting the light streaming in from the cave mouth.
As Ilidmon approached a corner, the acrid stench of sulfur assaulted his nostrils and nearly choked, but he managed to cover his mouth with his cloak and readied his finely-crafted iron maul.
A malevolent, reddish glow appeared ahead, and a figure wreathed in fire stepped around the corner. A fire man! Ilidmon rushed at the monster and let fly with the maul. It smashed into the monster's right leg, causing it to stagger, but with surprising agility it recovered and spat flames from its mouth, which caught Ilidmon in a cloud of flames.
The flames hit his exceptional-quality iron plate mail full on the chest, but dissipated before catching anything else on fire, and Ilidmon gave a silent prayer of thanks to Armok.
Throwing off his cloak, he charged at the fire man, but it threw a punch that connected with his head, singing his iron helmet. The fire man tackled him to the ground, and clouds of flame washed over Ilidmon as he tangled with the fire man.
Ilidmon had prepared for dragons, however, so the flames only scorched his armor. Ears ringing, he quickly jumped up and bashed the creature's head with his maul once more with such force that its head flew off in an arc, and in one more blow he struck down its still-standing corpse.
He spat into the rapidly-cooling corpse, which made a sizzling sound. Dusting himself off, Ilidmon recovered his cloak and continued his search.
After scouting the rest of the cave without encountering any other foe, he found a stairway going deeper down at the southeast-most corner of the cave, and proceeded to descend.
The temperature rose sharply as he descended, and a muted bubbling sound filled the lower cave. As he ventured further into the cave, he saw the source of the heat. A river of magma cut across the whole width of the cave, bubbling and hissing. Further scouting showed that this level was empty, and there was yet another level down, so he made his way deeper underground.
The heat here was more intense, and Ilidmon began sweating profusely. He stowed his cloak into his rope reed backpack, sneaking in these conditions would only distract his concentration. Suddenly, he heard a hollow, metallic thumping nearby, growing louder by the second.
As Ilidmon turned around, he saw the bronze colossus silently and inexorably bearing down on him, its eyes faintly glowing amber. A stab of fear gripped his heart, but then his instincts born from years of facing monsters kicked in, and he lifted his maul and charged towards the colossus.
Despite its face being an impassive, solid piece of bronze, the colossus seemed surprised at Ilidmon’s charge, and hesitated for a moment, which was all Ilidmon needed. He struck at the enchanted metal creature and hit its upper left leg, leaving a long crack along its hip. Propelled by the momentum of his charge, his body slammed into the colossus and they fell to the ground.
Ilidmon quickly recovered, sprang up, and swung the maul in one smooth motion. It hit the colossus’s upper left leg again, with such force that the damaged leg flew off in a shriek of metal.
He swung the maul at the prone colossus again, smashing the colossus’s right wrist into a twisted ruin. This did not faze it in the least, however, and it swung the damaged fist at him.
He dodged the blow and followed up with an attack on its lower right arm, but the angle was bad, and it glanced away. However, this unbalanced the colossus so it couldn’t make another attack.
With a battle cry, Ilidmon swung the maul with all his might at the colossus. The rent in its hip cracked open, and the colossus’s lower body flew off in an impressive arc. The glow in its eyes faded, and it ceased its belabored movements. Kast Besmardodok, the bronze colossus was dead at last.
As Ilidmon sat on the rocky cave floor to catch his breath, he noticed an object had fallen out of the jagged hole in its upper torso.
He reached over and picked it up. It was a bronze statue dedicated to Armok, so intricately detailed that it could only be the work of a master artisan. After admiring it for awhile, he placed the prize in his backpack and stood up to make the journey back to report his success.
A bright burst of flame suddenly flared in front of him at a crossroads in the cave corridors as he was walking to the stairway up. Another fire man! Ilidmon dived and rolled to the passageway to his right and pulled out his maul, cursing his lapse of attention. A cloud of acrid smoke followed the fire, but quickly dissipated.
He jumped out into the corridor again, and now the fire man was within reach of his weapon. Without hesitation, he bashed the creature’s skull, which detached and flew back, leaving a trail of glowing ash in its wake before dropping to the ground near the river of magma. Ilidmon walked over and kicked the smouldering head into the magma.
[ October 01, 2007: Message edited by: Lynx ]
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Topic: The Chronicles of Ilidmon (Read 982 times)