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[Lemnx]

It needs more facial hair

[Captain Mayday]

Captain Ironblood had been listening with interest to his brother's exploits.
He took the break in the story to interject. "Progeny? I know you wouldn't have mentioned that unless there was some reason behind it."

Kodor smiled. "I am coming to that, brother, be patient."


=============================
Ushmal Buriedivory, the Bane Dragon, was a particularly notable task for that area.
Dwelling in the cave known as Newtscars the Smeared Cusp, he terrorised the surrounding Swamp of Lashes, and had done since the dawn of time.

We crept, quietly, into its lair. We were, and I tell you this without reservation, completely terrified. Dragons, as you know, are monsterous creatures, and we couldn't help but wonder if we were up to the challenge.

Bane Dragons in particular possess an apparent immunity to pain and never seem to tire. A fact that certainly explained the vast hoard we walked through.

Suddenly a monsterous dragon approached us. "I am Ak Flickerghosts the Dead Blisters!" it roared.
This was not, it seemed, the dragon we had come to fight. We had not been told there might be more than a single dragon here.

She laughed hideously at us, and reeled off a number of heroes he had slain. Largely, from the sounds of it, kobold warriors. Not really boastworthy in my book, but there you have it.

The passageway was too tight for us to have any real chance at fighting the beast. It roared furious dragonfire at us. Both Mondark and I felt the heat of the flames, but Mondark found his hands aflame, and the dragon was fast upon him.

I ran at the monster, only to find that it knocked me down and proceeded to take an unpleasant interest in myself. The tower shield I recovered from the lizardman who slew The Pidge came in handy, as it's claws clattered uselessly against the heavenly metal and I even managed to turn aside its dragonfire.

Kel and Drakolus leapt over Mondark and myself to join the extremely cramped fray. I took the opportunity to regain my feet, and stabbed the monster with my best blade, cutting deep into its left foreleg.

The blade slashed a gaping wound, but unfortunately I found my blade to be stuck. I attempted to dislodge it but lost my grip.



I'm never without a backup, however, and I took my spare blade from its sheath, and slashed at it.



Wary now of my blades, the dragon recoiled, only to collapse upon its wounded leg. I used its confusion to leap atop it, stabbing again and again in the hope of finding a weak spot.
All my attacks glanced away, and it shook me off, sending me behind it whilst my companions were in front of it.



All our attacks came to nothing, I am sad to say. Only my best blade, the one now lodged in the dragon's leg, could have had any impact.

I remember, very distinctly, being killed. Burned by flame, and my body torn apart by the dragon before it turned on my fellows.



================================

"You remember being killed?" Captain Ironblood asked. "That's not the sort of thing most people remember."

"Yes, I know." agreed Kodor. "I don't know how it happened, but I woke up, the day before. We all did. And the others didn't remember."

"So it was a dream, then?"

Kodor shook his head emphatically. "Definitely not. No dream could be like that! Maybe a vision of things to come. Maybe it didn't happen. But when I woke up, and checked myself over, I found this!"

He pulled back a sleeve to show a vivid red circle on his left wrist, as clean as a fresh tattoo.

"I've never been tattooed in my life! Yet here we have this! I certainly wasn't going to chalk that up to coincidence!"

"So what are you saying here?" asked Captain Ironblood carefully.

"I'm still getting to that part." Kodor growled, and resumed his story.

==================================

My unexpected ressurection, and my confusion surrounding it, delayed us. In turn, quite luckily, we met with a brave soul known as Darksaiyan Romancemost. A hard woman, who despite being married with a son and a daughter, both nearing adulthood now, wished to join us to see the world.

She told us she was becoming wearied of the drudgeries of everyday life and wanted some adventure before the inevitable end.

Unfortunately, her inevitable end came all the faster for fighting with a dragon.
When we happened upon Ushmal BuriedIvory, the creature was very nearly dead. It took us only a few moments to finish the job that hundreds of warriors had started.

once again, we were met by his mate, Ak Flickerghosts.

Ak annihilated Darksaiyan in an instant, tearing her torso apart in her savage maw.
My old friend Kel was next to fall. His shield arm fell from him as the beast's razor sharp claws passed effortlessly through flesh and bone. The toxins secreted by the monster took immediate effect, and he fell to the ground in paralysis before being crushed.

In the very next moment, I struck a mortal wound on the creature, instantly sending it into unconsciousness.



But dragons take more killing than that. Using the opportunity presented to us, we struck at the unconscious beast again and again, wanting to finish it off before it could awaken and present a threat once more.

I hacked into its neck. I slashed out its eyes. I cut into its spine with all my might.
Yet still it reawakened.
Blind and confused, it could do little to defend itself. Thankfully, I managed to strike it once again in the head, knocking it unconscious for a few more precious moments.

I struck my blade deep into the monster's head, and began the sickening task of twisting it deeper into the wound. Drakolus stabbed the monster in the gut, and I received a surge of vomit for his efforts.



Yet, even with all of this, the monster still reawakened. It glared at me and tore out my blade from its skull. With a tremendous roar, it gave one last shot at destroying us, before suddenly dying after a sluggish attack against Mondark. It hissed in futile anger as it collapsed for the final time.



My remaining comrades rested themselves against the nearby walls, hands on weapons, just in case the monster managed to come back from the dead.

Drakolus stood up and looked around at all the carnage. "Lets get out of here." he growled. "We killed two of them, and we lost two. That makes us even. I hope they enjoyed the draw."

[Captain Mayday]

The next of our companions we discovered in the backwater town of Calmedpassionate.
We always found the backwaters were rife with trouble, and had great need of a stout blade. Here we found a brave soul in the form of Anticheese Stokesparkle, a seasoned Crossbowman who frequently scouted the surrounding region.

He saw us to the nearby town of Keyclimax without incident. Times had been getting tense in the party, and we were happy to receive the quest to kill a cyclops, before we spent our anger on each other.

It was just the ticket to get us back to harmony of some description.


The next notable incident occurred as we travelled northwest. Our resident ranger, Anticheese, led us astray many times, and my blade felled a great many gargoyles. We stopped in the burnt out ruin of a town named Futurewood. It rots in the shadow of the Dark Fortress of Incestnotches, the goblin-held site that had led the campaign to destroy Futurewood over a thousand years prior.

We met a man there named Nagashiro Rulejuggler. He sat quietly at first. So quietly we did not immediately see him. It soon became obvious he was no threat, despite his mask of iron and accouterments.
He told us he had never held a home, and that he wandered from place to place, telling of his visions.

Then he told us why he was here. He wanted to talked to me. Me specifically!
=========================

Captain Ironblood interrupted his brother at this point. "You specifically? How could he know you would be there?"

"He was a prophet. How do you think?" snapped Kodor, irritated that his story had been interrupted.

"Very well. What did he want to tell you?"

"He wanted to tell me I was one of the Progeny. And he wanted to tell me who could give me the answers I needed."

"That doesn't explain what the Progeny is. Or who they are."

"Let me continue my story then. We near the end of this particular mystery."

[Lemnx]

  Red Circle. Pretty lame tattoo!

[Qmarx]

Red Circle. Pretty lame tattoo!

It's actually a rendition of a masterful engraving of a circle carved by Urist McBromrek.

[Lemnx]

Red Circle. Pretty lame tattoo!

It's actually a rendition of a masterful rendition of a legendary engraving of a square carved by Urist McBromrek.

^^^ Guess which dwarf botched THAT job.

[Jamini]

Mayday, common storytelling practices aside: How on earth are you slaying gargoyles and vampires with near impunity>

I've tried your mod, and even with properly installing it and using the worldgen-gameplay swap nearly every group I take against any of your custom megabeats is utterly dominated. Gargoyles and vampires in particular are exceptionally difficult to take down (Gargoyles can take absurd damage with their high damblock, and I've seen a vampire one-shot both a Swordmaster Avatar and a near-champion wrestler/hammerman in full steel. Plus companions.)

What is your secret to avoiding death and actually *getting* to the dragons et al?

[Captain Mayday]

Gargoyles are definitely easier to handle in groups. When confronting them by yourself, run like hell.
If they're still faster than you, strip off armour to gain speed.

I gain adventuring companions by actually making them as heroes, then collecting them as I roam around. This makes them entirely equipped, skilled in the manner I want, and they will always come with me when I offer the chance.

The Vampires are very tough. I've slowed them down a bit since the last release. However, I think the only reason I won is due to our high quality weapons.
Mobbing them is also a good way to take them down.

I should also note that since the addition of Vampires as semimegabeasts (not a civ), they aren't generally as skilled. As for Avatars, they should only really be using their weapons against mobs. In other cases they're probably better off using their range of unarmed attacks.

[Flintus10]

Now that I have signed up i feel obligated to say very well done on writing the greatest community story in history keep it up 

[Jamini]

Semimegabeasts gain skill in worldgen since .39a, I clearly remember toady adding a [Slow_learner] tag.

Either way, I suppose I'll need to try making some more adventurer groups.

[Darkwind]

I lurk mostly, but I couldn't resist asking this.

Could I have a "companion" named Meatshield? Preferably a melee companion with some sort of weapon, I don't care about the race or specific type. I would love it if said companion could be one of the few who survive more than one battle, though I understand that's hard to guarantee short of making him/her an Avatar or Chaos Lord.

[Slade]

Oh my. It seems someone discovered the secret of "Endtask Dwarfort.exe" for Kodor!

Capital work as usual, Cap'n! I'm enjoying every bit of Kodor's story.

[Zako]

Bump

And I hope Captain posts soon!

[darksaiyan]

Great job Captain! Keep it up! Too bad my chick died mega fast

[Captain Mayday]

The prophet pointed us in the direction of Thintunneled, a largish town nestled in the False Hills to the north.
By the time we arrived there, our group now consisted of Nevskiah Sheenmanor, a lady carouser who helped us as our sherper; Drakolus the Tigerman swordsman; Anticheese Stokesparkle, the lady crossbowman with just a single eye; Mondark Kingtorches our stalwart hammerdwarf, and of course myself.

We arrived in the town's inn to find the subject of our investigations serving drinks.
Her name was Melica Blackpool, and yes, it is her that would later stand next to me as my wife.

At this time, however, she merely dropped a glass as she recognised me, though we of course had never met before.
=======================================

"You knew him at sight?" Captain Ironblood asked, turning the question to Melica, who had sat in silence thus far.

She smiled softly. "Yes, it is perhaps my turn to explain."

Captain Ironblood nodded. "Please do."

=======================================

Melica's Story
Although I went by the name of Blackpool, I was born an orphan without a surname. Blackpool is the city I come from, far to the north in the frozen wastes.

I was one of my tribe's warrior priestesses. Unlike the others of the tribe, we do not adorn ourselves with tattoos, other other physically disfiguring marks.
We instead draw our strengths from our God, Armok.
=======================================

"You're a priestess of Armok?!" Captain Ironblood asked sharply.

"It is part of who I am. We are of one of the less barbaric groups, however, so you need not fear me."

"We already had a priestess here. She didn't last very long. Went crazy." noted Captain Ironblood.

Kodor started in surprise. "You've had a priestess here already?"

"Yes. She said she was looking for the Cult. But she never turned up much. She probably spent too much time gazing unnervingly at me! Very unnerving indeed!"

"In any case," continued Melica, "I was there awaiting Kodor to pass through the area. I never dreamed he would come looking for me."

============================

Kodor realised who I was as soon as I dropped the glass from shock.
Then he began with all kinds of question about his heritage. Burning in his mind were all these mentions of the Progeny. Who they were and what he had to do with them.

I gave him all the answers I could.
=============================

Kodor's tale resumes...
She told me that in ancient times, Armok did furious battle with the forces of the Soulsmith. Both Armok and the Soulsmith are Greater Gods, and the heavens raged in the conflict, casting many worlds into the void.
Our world was one of the lucky ones, but the battle did not go unwaged here.

The Avatars who reside in their dark citadel, and those who reign over the Avari are the remnants of Armok's forces, still hunting the twisted warriors of the Soulsmith, the Chaos Lords.
The Chaos Lords are the dark spawn of the Soulsmith, created as his answer to the Avatars in his most dire hour.

The Soulsmith and Armok fought for the Mantle of Life, which is the Godly domain which holds sway over everything living. Both laid claim to it, though Armok eventually bested the Soulsmith, casting him into the Chaotic void as mere husk of his former power. Even for Armok, it is not an easy thing to kill a God, and killing a Greater God completely requires everything relating to them be destroyed.

=====================================

"The Avatars war with the Chaos Lords on many worlds." interjects Melica at this point. "The Avatars seek to cleanse all trace of the Soulsmith's works from creation, no matter the cost. The Chaos Lords merely need to survive, and create their cults to subvert the Avatars."

Kodor nodded. "Each group is, unfortunately, very persistent about it. Hence the next tragedy."

=====================================

Melica wished to join us, and as she was a capable warrior I allowed it.
We heard tell of the town of Soundedpaints being reduced to ruin by a marauding Chaos Lord. Melica told us that that nearly never happened, and that we should go investigate and do what we can to fix things.
That obviously involved killing the beast.

As we searched for it, we also took on a mission to slay a behemoth. A monster that, quite unexpectedly slew both Mondark and Nevskiah before I could slash open its throat.

Eventually, we tracked the Chaos Lord to its lair in Voicedempires, a largely abandoned Lizardman outpost in the Murk of Cages.