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[Kagus]

Chapter I:  Settling In

The weather was relatively warm, but the dwarves still felt chilled as they unloaded the wagon and started dismantling it.

The forest, if it could still be called that, was utterly devoid of life.  No birds sang, no wolves padded through in search of game, nothing.  The scraggly black limbs of the dead trees stood rigid in the calm breeze, as they had no leaves left to act as windcatchers.  The grass underneath crunched as the dry blades crumbled underneath so much as a cat's light step.

Thaunar watched the proceedings with little interest.  His watchful eyes were constantly scanning the nearby woods for potential attacks.  It was an old habit, and one he could not easily break.  He was thinking to himself about how the dead trees provided a good sightline when one of the dwarves came up to him.

"I don't like this place.  Things shouldn't jus' be dead like that."

Thaunar glanced at the dwarf before turning back to look at the surrounding area.

"Nobody likes this place.  It's a scab on the devil's backside.  That's why we're here in the first place, to put the local villages at ease.  They've got it into their heads that this place's haunted, and they're refusin' to get wood from it until they're 'protected'."

Thaunar scoffed, turned to the dwarf, and continued.

"Personally, I don't blame 'em.  There's something not right about this place, and I like it about as much as I like taxes.  Now, get back to the wagon."

The dwarf wandered back to help with the unloading, and Thaunar went back to watching the unchanging trees.  

"Actually, I take that back,"
He muttered to himself.
"I'd rather have taxes."

The wind picked up, and some of the trees quivered slightly.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Why do I do this to myself...  Anyways, it's storytime again.  We've got haunted woods, an aquifer, and hopefully just enough wood to make a palisade before the dead things start wandering in.

That is, if they do start wandering in.  There really is nothing here.  There are two foxes on the entire 4x4 map, and neither of them are in a state of postmortem activity.  It may turn out that the villagers were just being superstitious after all...

And, since I've never done one before, it's also a community fort.  Thaunar has been claimed by me, and he's our resident guardian.  I've already chosen skills and equipment, but you can request a future profession change and I'll see what I can do about it.  Migrant reinforcements can also be claimed.

Here's the roster:

Male.  Proficient miner, proficient wrestler.
Likes:  yellow sand, brass, milk opal, glumprong, horn, the color pumpkin, crescents and maces.  Halloween enthusiast?
Often sad and dejected, self-conscious, occasionally overindulges, can handle stress, fertile imagination, candid and sincere, immodest, has a sense of duty.

Female.  Proficient miner, proficient wrestler.
Likes: native copper, platinum, prase opal, willow, amber, the color chocolate, bucklers, and mules.  Hates purring maggots.  Expensive tastes...  And she's the formal expedition leader, which places her first in line for mayoral duties.  Eep.
Calm demeanor, self-conscious, doesn't experience strong cravings, can handle stress, isn't given to flights of fancy, appreciates natural art and beauty, completely disorganized.

Female.  Proficient woodcutter, proficient carpenter.
Likes: sandstone, gold, star sapphire, the color silver, bolts, weapon racks, rings, cows, cave lobsters.  Hates purring maggots. I guess the ladies are just squeamish.
Feels strong urges and seeks short-term rewards, grounded in reality, great awareness of her emotions, dislikes intellectual discussions, she is guarded in relationships with others.  Tough-girl, eh?

Female.  Proficient woodcutter, ()wrestler, competent axedwarf.
Likes: white sand, rose gold, prase opal, chimpanzee leather (ooh ah/ooh-ooh ah-ah), the color lavender, gauntlets, coats, amulets, cats.  Hates spiders.  
Quick to anger, can handle stress, prefers routine, trusting, immodest, not easily moved to pity, finds rules confining, doesn't go out of her way to do more work than necessary.  

Male.  Proficient cook, proficient brewer.
Likes: puddingstone, fine pewter, fire opal, cow bone, pig tail fabric, crosses, quivers and earrings.  Likes dwarven ale.  Hates spiders.
Quick to anger, occasionally overindulges, assertive, slow to trust, compassionate, lacks confidence, think's it's very important to strive for excellence, self-disciplined, does the first thing that comes to mind.

Male.  ()Butcher, novice tanner, proficient grower, ()leatherworker.
Likes: pelagic clay, electrum, black pyrope, ivory, bolts, coins and cats.  Likes dwarven ale and dwarven milk.  Hates spiders.
Calm demeanor, feels strong urges and seeks short-term rewards, loves a good thrill, fertile imagination, strives for excellence.  

I'll post the relationships if you want.  No grudges or lovey-dovey stuff that I've seen.

[Silu]

I'll take the male Miner/Wrestler. Name him Silu.

[ May 06, 2008: Message edited by: Silu ]

[Daniel Charms]

I'll take the Butcher (although I find his love of cats somewhat disturbing). Name him Sam.

[dojango]

i'll take the brewer/cook; name him dojango.   This going to be an underground fortress or an aboveground one, out of curiosity?

[Kagus]

Little of each.  Most of the civilian stuff will be underground, but I'm planning on a significant palisade-fort for defense up topside.

EDIT:  This'll sit until I've got everyone named.  I don't want to change some dwarf's name halfway through.  The first party gets names, and then people can make requests on the migrations.  Dwarves that pass through a migration without getting claimed will stay that way.

Note that I'm not making a silly fort here.  I'll be getting all the silly writing I need from Death and Glory!, this'll be of a more serious bent.  I ask that you respect this choice, since I've needed to write something of a darker nature than DnG! since the Woodsman met an untimely end.

[ May 06, 2008: Message edited by: Kagus ]

[ricemastah]

Edit: I'll take the female miner... name her something. Like Togal
[ May 06, 2008: Message edited by: ricemastah ]

[ May 06, 2008: Message edited by: ricemastah ]

[Kate Wissen]

I'll take the female carpenter with the name of Kate. =)

[Kagus]

Whoops, I goofed on the carpenter's profile.  She's a wood crafter, not a woodcutter.  Just means that she won't be chopping down trees.

Okay, that leaves the lumberjill.

[Mephansteras]

I'll take her. Name her Evergreen. And have her absolutely HATE this place.  

[Metalax]

Looks like You have Your first six. I'll take an immigrant metalsmith(if specialized a weaponsmith). Name of Kab. Preferably a worshipper of the more sinister deity available.

[Dwarfaholic]

Immigrant mechanic, Bob.
Male.

[Kagus]

Log entry, 2nd Granite 1051.

Silu and Togal have drawn up the plans for our primary facilities undergound.  I have talked over the layout of a defensive palisade with Catharine, and she has started its construction.  First signs of life spotted today.  I observed a fox moving in the area near our campsite while I was on morning patrols.  It appeared rather thin, but they usually do.  There has been no sign of it since then.

--End entry

__________ δ __________

The sky had become overcast since the dwarven party reached their destination.  The clouds were not dark enough to suggest rain, but the lack of sunlight made the dead woods seem even more ominous than before.  

The wind still made its way through the leafless branches, occasionally snapping off a dry twig during a gust.

Silu and Togal were digging a sloping tunnel into the ground, Evergreen was clearing the campsite of trees and Kate was setting them up in a makeshift palisade.  Sam and Dojango sat by the wagon and waited for the appropriate space could be made for them so that they could add their own aid to the proceedings.  They chatted in an attempt to lighten the foreboding that every dwarf in the camp felt, but their conversation was a series of sudden starts and just as sudden stops, as neither could take their minds far enough outside the surrounding woodland as to find a topic.  Sam joked that not even conversation could stay alive in the forest, but after that had been said both fell quiet and looked back towards the miners.

__________ Φ __________

The tunnel entrance had been dug out, as well as space for setting up basic necessities such as a kitchen for Dojango and a carpentry bench for Kate.  Kate, Thaunar and Evergreen remained outside to finish the palisade, while Sam and Dojango went about moving supplies inside.  The miners started discussing what design would best suit the local ground features while they set about helping to carry the supplies.

Thaunar was overseeing the palisade construction when the wind turned.  It took him some time to notice it, but the smell of the air had changed.  Thaunar sniffed experimentally, and then spat onto the ground in disgust.

"Seems that not everything out here has been dead so long.  Do ye smell that?"

Kate and Evergreen looked up from their work and also began sniffing the air.  They both recoiled slightly, as though trying to back out of the smell.  The unmistakable scent of rotting flesh, although faint, permeated the campsite.
"Well, at least now I won't have to worry about you girls wanderin' off of your duties and stopping to smell the flowers.  I'm going off on patrol."

Evergreen muttered something indistinct and then buried her axe with renewed vigor into the blackened bark of the tree she'd been cutting.

Thaunar put the head of his hammer on his shoulder and started tracing the planned wall of the palisade.  As tense as he was about the surroundings -and that smell-, solitary patrols always had a way of calming his nerves.   He liked having peace and quiet for his own thoughts.

"Except," he said to himself. "this is too much quiet and not enough peace."

┤/╟/└/╪/╥

[Kagus]

Log entry, 27th Slate 1051.

Primary palisade wall is almost complete, and basic facilities have been constructed.  Rotting smell encountered on Granite 2nd has grown stronger.  MUCH stronger.  At least we spend most of our time downstairs and out of the wind.  First crop has been planted, and current provisions are still in good stock.  Position has been established, we're just getting comfortable.

--End entry

__________ µ __________

The simple wooden wall blocked off most access to the entryway to the farms and work areas created in the soft loam, but rats have never before been impeded by such barriers, and such was the case now.  Whether they were going after the food or just a warm place to hide, the campsite was full of the rodents, along with small lizards and not-so-small cockroaches.  Sam's kitten was the only member of the party to have been overjoyed by this development, and has since devoted himself to attacking every small and fast-moving creature in the camp.  If it's a lizard, rat, beetle, or the unwary foot of a passing dwarf, he is there.

Thaunar had set off on afternoon patrols around the encampment again as part of his routine, and as a method of escape from the rather overzealous furball that was terrorizing the local vermin population.  Most of the dwarves spent their time underground nowadays, since the rotting stench smell had been getting dreadfully strong as of late.  Thaunar, however, prided himself on not breaking his routine of patrols for something as trivial as a bad smell.  Besides, when you were alone, no one could hear you complain.

The aroma had been particularly strong today, and the unpleasantness it added to the general atmosphere pushed Thaunar deeper into his thoughts than normal, which was why it took him so long to notice the deer.

He was walking along the outside of the Southern wall, or rather the empty space which would later become the Southern wall.  His feet heavy, his hammer resting on his shoulder, his shield dangling by his side, he was utterly absorbed in his own mind.  The cracking of dry branches did not rouse him until he was only thirty feet away from the creature.  It was the piercing quality that the smell had taken on that woke him, a stench so overpowering as to prevent entirely coherent thought.  He had intended to excersize his woefully underused sense of humor by composing and reciting a wisecrack to himself about the smell, and that brief switchover brought him back to reality for a moment.

He froze in mid-step, his weight centered between his extended front leg and his back leg.  The deer stood motionless in front of him.

"Oh great father of silence..."
Thaunar whispered.

The doe was a horrid mockery of what it once had been.  Its hair had grown matted with grime and had fallen out in numerous places across its flanks.  Its face was a glaring skull with the skin hanging only in loose ribbons about the lower jaw, and the vacant eyesockets provided windows into a maggot-infested cranium that showed only trace signs of once having hosted a brain.  One of its legs was a twisted mass of putrefying muscle and yellowed bone that dangled limply from its chest.  

The jaw opened slightly and from within it came the buzzing of a horde of flies, the only sound the creature's throat could make.

Raindrops started to fall from the darkening clouds, pattering off the beast's dirty hair and exposed skull.  Thaunar gathered his senses about him and hefted his hammer.

"You're one fairy tale I didn't want to find out was true, monster.  Come and let me give you a second chance at death!"
With that, Thaunar charged the beast, slamming the head of his hammer home into the creature's chest.  There was a splintering sound as the brittle ribs disintegrated, and the deer jerked slightly in response to the blow.  It wasn't so much the force of the blow that caused it, it was as if there remained some scrap of instinct within that gooey paste that lined the inside of its skull, enough instinct to recoil from what would have been a painful blow to any still-living creature.

Thaumar circled around and brought down his hammer on the creature's lower body in an attempt to sever the spine.  Instead, the creature's abdomen, bloated with decomposition gases, exploded in a shower of maggots, scraps of intestine, and sludgy half-rotten muscle.

The smell was unbearable.  Thaunar retched on top of the mass of goo that had come out of the beast's internal system, unable to control his convulsions.

After some time and at least one more meal, Thaunar steadied himself against a nearby tree.  The doe had stopped moving entirely after its back end was blown apart, but Thaunar didn't entirely trust it to stay that way.  Still, with only one leg left, it wouldn't be able to go very far even if it did try and wake up again.

Thaunar now fully understood the importance of the next few months that they would be spending out in the woods.  The area was indeed haunted, as the villagers had claimed.  He would need to inform the others of the encounter, as well as set up defenses against more creatures like it.

But first, he would have to catch his breath.  He leaned back against the tree and tried not to jump at every snap the dead bark made against his weight.

This was going to be one of his less enjoyable jobs, of that much he was sure.

┤/╟/└/╪/╥

[Kagus]

Thaunar stood while the other dwarves sat on the ground or leaned against the tunnel walls.  Silu and Togal sat next to each other, taking warmth both from the fire and each other.  Thaunar let out a breath and continued his talk.

"...so now you know what we're up against.  The undead fester in this damned wood, and I doubt that those "deerly departed" are the worst of it."
Those assembled found that they could raise their spirits out of the gloom long enough to voice groans of dismay at the pun.  Thaunar continued unabated.

"We'll need to close up the gaps in the palisade and reinforce it with a lookout tower to spot the damn things.  Evergreen, I know how much you love this place,"
Evergreen sighed unhappily, knowing full well what was coming next.
"so I'm going to send you out to cut down the surrounding vegetation.  We'll need wood for the palisade, and you'll also be clearing the view for our lookout tower.  If you see anything undead, kill it."
"Thanks for the advice, oh mighty leader.  I'll be sure to remember that when this hellhole tries to add injury to insult."

Thaunar concealed a slight grin under his beard and continued.

"Kate, we'll be needing proper accommodations.  The dirt's soft, but I'd rather wake up without pebbles in my beard.  We'll also need a dining table and some chairs, since you didn't have anything else planned.

"Silu, Togal, I need you to expand the space allocated for the wood stockpile.  I'd rather not have the stuff just sitting outside.

"Dojango, I'm waiting for more of your ale, I can't think straight without the stuff.  Sam, get to planting."

Thaunar gave a quick nod, approving of his own orders, and looked around expectantly.  

"Come on now, get to work.  We haven't got all season."

The assembled group got up and dispersed, going off to their various assignments.  Thaunar remained behind for a short time, staring into the small fire as it devoured the log hungrily.  The wood was so dead, so dry, that the fire did not crackle with moisture.  

After looking into the flames for a time, Thaunar put the fire out and went out to accompany Evergreen into the woods.  

┤/╟/└/╪/╥

[Kagus]

Log entry, 20th Limestone 1051.

Merchant's guild representative arrived today.  Said he was to supply us with any goods we might require, as per orders from the mountainhomes.  Came with two wagons loaded with goods.  Naturally, none of it was free.  We've purchased a few items and given requests for other essentials.  My coinpurse was not expecting to have so great a burden removed from it...  We will require some other means of payment if current trends are to continue.  

We have extended hospitalities to the merchants for a few days to rest from the trip out here.  Judging from the responses, this offer was most welcome

--End entry

__________ ☼ __________

Log entry, 23rd Limestone 1051.

I've spoken with the wagon guards about the surrounding wild'un'life.  They say they did not encounter any such creatures on their journey through the woods.  What this means, I am unsure.  Perhaps they simply outpaced the beasts.

The merchants are packing up their remaining goods and preparing to set off.  We have wished them safe travels, and they extended similar niceties to our encampment.  

Work has progressed on the lookout tower, although it is admittedly slow going.  The perimeter palisade wall is free of gaps, and only one entrance remains.  Minor excavations have taken place underground, but this is mostly to keep the hands and mind busy.  Work will be focused towards bolstering our defenses and furnishing the rooms provided as safe haven for those traveling through the woods.

If work loads permit and they do not object, I may start training Silu and Togal in the art of war.  We'll need as many able-bodied dwarves as we can get our hands on.

--End entry

┤/╟/└/╪/╥