Jasro heard the shouts as she went down the staircase to the caverns.
Ugh, another forumite too dumb to run from a crundle, she thought to herself, not changing her pace.
But then... smoke? Tendrils of it wafted up from below, grabbing at her mail, weighing the air down. She paused, then quickened her pace. When she reached the bottom, an inferno lay before her. The shouts suddenly turned to screams, and then went silent. She aimed her barrels into the smothering darkness.
A moment later, a voice wheezed, hatred in its voice.
You cannot stay the hand of fate!Jasro responded, anger in her voice. "What the hell do you want? Who are you? Why would you just kill somebody like that?"
None of that matters. Tell your leaders—tell the inspired—tell them that their efforts are futile. They will not succeed."I'll let your corpse do the talking! Show yourself!"
Very well. I will deliver the message myself, girl. Perish.The smoke cleared, revealing... the corpse of the dwarf who was killed and... a lazorshark? Jasro hesitated in surprise: these were no malicious sentient creatures, just simple automatons!
She fired twice in quick succession. Whatever
thing was possessing the lazorshark had superhuman speed, and it dodged out of the way.
Before Jasro could reload or advance, the lazorshark returned fire, shooting a green blast of energy from its eyes. The attack hit Jasro's cape, lighting it and the surrounding landscape ablaze. Jasro ignored the flame.
One of the many advantages of being a gunfolk is the immunity to fire, she noted.
She advanced through the smoke, her own barrels adding to the choking environment. She came out of the cloud right in front of the
Even with their superhuman reactions, whoever was possessing the lazorshark had no time to dodge Jasro's silver spear. The clang of metal on metal resounded through the cavern, leaving a dent on the shark's fin.
The lazorshark fired at the ground, spawning more flames and more smoke to cover its retreat. The voice spoke again, almost hissing its words.
I see. This weak host will not be able to defeat you. No matter. You are irrelevant.Jasro blindly fired another pair of slugs into the cloud, but it was no use. The lazorshark—and whoever was in control of it—were gone.
"Damn it!" Jasro shouted, angry with herself for letting the creature escape. She waited, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever had attacked her. She waited for a long while. When the haulers came to grab the poor forumite's corpse, she opted not to tell them about the voice.
The fortress hummed with activity. Nord walked around with a bit more authority now, giving orders for various pieces of furniture and machinery, giving migrant forumites new trades to work, and carrying out other administrative tasks that he would've preferred to avoid.
On top of all his previous plans, his craftsmite guild had petitioned to have a guildhall constructed, and, as a member of said guild and as current overseer, he was obliged to agree.
Then Glass won the server election, necessitating Nord to be stately and congratulate him, which led to Glass's first demands: rooms befitting an admin.
In suit, some random migrant from the most recent wave decided that they were the rightful heir of some far off barony, and claimed the title. Nord sighed with disdain. There was just too much to do!
Nord paced, giving instructions to forumites seemingly at random. He told Glass and Dwarfy, who had just finished mining rooms for guildhalls, to go back to hewing earth to accommodate the new nobles. He told Ubbul, the fortress carpenter, to make more beds for the new bedrooms. He told Dakost and Metthos, the new mechanics, to relink the front gate.
Up above, the air shifted. Something was... off.
A few dwarves outside the temple to Vesh spotted an odd looking figure walking into the fort. They hardly gave it any notice: strange figures showed up in and around the fort all the time. The stray trabant wheeling around in the courtyard reinforced such.
The figure walked through the main gate, strolled past the fort's front doors, and began walking down the stairway. Then it stopped. Nord was nearby, nagging Lord Lemonpie to go down to the magma sea and install the necessary bridge rather than continuing his mindless chiseling of doors.
The stranger was on him in an instant. Nord reflexively dodged out of the way of the visitor's fist.
Surrender! End this madness! it hissed in a voice foreign to its body. The sudden lunge forward had dropped the stranger's hood away, revealing its true nature: a fell slayer, of the same type that had attacked the fortress during Lemonpie's reign.
"Shit!" Nord cursed, scrambling away from the second blow as well.
He shouted an order at Lord Lemonpie. "Lemonpie! Go get Glass and Dwarfy, we need their help if we want to stop this thing!"
Lemonpie nodded, the gesture mostly lost in his subsequent rise to action. Two other entities rose to action, in unison. Tholtig and Avuz, the fortress's two siegebreakers. They charged as one.
Simple automatons will not stop me.The visitor grabbed Avuz's arm and twisted, crushing gears and rendering it a useless mess.
Then, grunting when Tholtig's chainsaw ripped into its flesh, tore at Tholtig's knee joint, ruining it as well.
Avuz's mechanical eyes began to shudder, and then sputtered out suddenly, the destruction of its arm being too much. Tholtig fled in terror as Avuz died. The siegebreakers were broken.
That took a lot longer than expected, heh. I'm getting close to finishing up my turn, but am still pretty behind on the write-ups.
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Topic: Necrothreat V: The Dead Halls (Read 25785 times)