Img 1: 'Maise_now II' vs fire imp Udeshthan PART OF A TIMELINE THAT NEVER HAPPENED:Fire and ShadowEarthenjungles, the
!!Forests of Burning!! Fall and winter of 171
How many must die? That’s the question. Well, turns out, everybody’s dead. EVERYBODY. IS. DEAD.
Alright, not everybody. But so many dwarves lost, and the details are pretty upsetting.
In 22 Malachite, the midsummer heat was mixed with smoke from below. As the wary dwarves delved down to investigate,
‘Odo’ Roomlove was fighting for his life with Udeshthan, the fire imp. He seeks to withdraw, declaring he’s not annoyed by the smoke. Then he’s caught in a cloud of flames. Not soon after, he’s a smoldering corpse.
Udeshthan climbs the staircase, spider monkey children fleeing before it. It amuses itself by killing some of them. Meanwhile, deep below it, ‘Maise_Now II’ is socializing alone (?) in the metalsmith guild. “I’m doing alright”, he says.
Finally the fire imp finds him. He blocks the fireballs effortlessly, and the two dance up and down the stairwell, dodging blows. Eventually ‘MaiseNow II’ outpaces the creature and lands several hammer hits, until Udeshthan is no more.
Img 2: Chaos at the forges The peace at the forges proved very short lived. The second fire imp, Kebuloten – Sparklerusset, climbs up from the smelter pipes. Several forge workers make a run for it, but they get barbequed, including
Athel Rubalnish, dwarven child, son of 'Pawn' and Reg 'Xxeldestxx'. The two main squads are ordered in, but as they take their positions, the imp hurls great blasts of fire at them.
‘Maloy II’ charges in, already seeing a comrade’s body combusting into ash in a burst of light in front of him. He curses and charges forward, but before he can make it, he’s caught in a burst of flame. The air around him is in flames, and he goes down, everything going black.
‘Brows’ and
‘New Vegas’ get hit by firebolts from below before even laying eyes on their target.
‘DoctorDreaded’ and
‘FunnyPan’ get caught in the crossfire and succumb to the flames. The room is in chaos, flame and burning flesh everywhere.
‘Bruenor II’ and ‘Tonnot98’ stand back to back, surveying the smoky room. The devil could come up from any of the shafts. “There it is!”
‘Bruenor II’ charges the imp, but before she closes the distance, she sees
‘Tonnot98’ exploding into ash and smoke. Then the flame consumes her, as well.
Then, there’s silence, and the imp withdraws into the depths, having decimated the fort’s military.
But it's not over, yet.
Img 3: The death toll
Even as the fires are fizzling out, the elven ambush lying in cover reveals itself and charges at the merchant gate. I station every squad at the weapons stockpile.
Do they go to the weapons stockpile?
No. They vault over the second floor battlements, leaping unarmed at the enemy from above. Of all the foolish, moronic… Okay, let’s focus, and fight. Everybody, go! Kill the elves! For the glory of Earthenjungles… or what’s left of it!
Img 4: Dwarven kamikaze jumpers ‘Samurai Jack’ the elf immediately takes a spear in his head, and he’s dead in seconds.
Rith Godenthedak the axe lord is lost. Olon the militia captain takes a serious beating and is almost unrecognizable.
The dwarves descend on the elves like angry, short gods. ‘Otto_K II’ joins the fray, having ignored most of his armor, but slashing around with his trusted steel short sword. Militia captain Tirist ‘Kesperan’ Steelcrown is beating down elves in a frenzy, having merely wrapped his fist in a pair of cotton pants. Even as he recovers from his martial trance, he punches a war jaguar’s face in.
But then his chest is pierced by an arrow, and he stumbles and comes crashing down. On his way, he hits ‘Otto_K II’ who also falls down, losing his bearings. ‘Otto_K II’ crawls helplessly, hoping an arrow doesn’t hit him while he’s down. As he stumbles back up, the battle is over. He looks around, seeing 'Kesperan' still alive.
Tun ‘Russiaaa’ is swiping blood from her masterwork steel sword. She had also been attacking with her crutch. “Good hunting, eh?” she grins. “I improved my shield, that was satisfying!” At that, ‘Otto_K II’ can only shake his head and walks off. He sees ‘JimbusKhan’ arriving, helplessly late to the party.
Img 5: New corpse dump As the fires still burned, a thief scurried upstairs, having grabbed 'Nourishguises the Shameful Reticence'. The perfect smoky quartz. Truly a worthless artefact. You know what, my guy. You can have it, for free. It’s on the house.
I had built some new walls on the second floor and put a new trash compactor there (I had removed my old trash chute design). It was put to good use to get rid of the elves’ remains. I blocked some unnecessarily confusing stairwells, trying to shore up a less hellish design for our wooden main keep.
I sold our junk clothes to the Standard of Control, they came with outpost liaison Tira Ecafeecefe, an elf who was accepted into Gateheaven. They had little to offer and I bought out the caravan with junk alone.
The old magma smelting area is walled off, even as ‘FunnyPan’s and Vabok Bomreksolon’s bodies rot where they fell, and lots of steel bars still sitting in the smelters. New magma forges were made right next door, with magma intakes protected by vertical steel bars. Inauguration involved breaching the magma sea’s wall, and
‘Mouseshy’ Brasswhispers was sadly outpaced by the flowing magma.
'Socrates' had an artefact mood during the chaos. Something must have interrupted his quest, as he went mad, wasting away.
Img 6: 'Kesp the Hammer's ACCIDENT There seems to have been an accident involving ‘Kesp the Hammer Ran’, a cheesemaker and ‘thegraywolf’. If I understand the logs, ‘thegraywolf’ stumbled down the same stupid ramp in the main keep. His belongings, including a backpack, its food contents, and his steel sword, all flew in the air, hitting dwarves. ‘Kesp’ is badly wounded, as the sword slammed into his head.
He’s dead.
‘Kesp the Hammer Ran’ passed away in the hospital.
The ramp was taken out of use and replaced with a more spacious 4-ramp allowing more comfortable movement in all directions.
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Topic: Longnight the Umbral Souls: Building the largest world conquest fort series (Read 27980 times)