Just recently discovered this game. Having a blast playing both Fortress and Adventure modes. Something amazing (for me) happened in Adventure mode with my Hammerman and his small party.
My game is modified with [DEFAULT_SITE_TYPE:CITY] and [liKES_SITE:CITY] for the elves and dwarves after being disappointed with the empty mazes of their default site type. With this change, the elves/dwarves will build human style towns with shops that sell their race specific equipment/wares, a bar where the mayor and drunks go, a temple with priests, and a castle along with the houses/apartment complexes for them to live in. Found it pretty cool that the dwarves would dig into the mountains/ground if there was no space. No other modifications were made to the game.
After recruiting 2 retired adventurers and 2 dwarf drunks, I headed off to do some beast hunting.
My party: (All use random names)
Quice - Hammerman(My current character)
Sinur - Spearman (Retired at start to try a another character. Has no training)
Kogan - Axedwarf (Same as Sinur)
Kosoth - dwarf Drunk
dwarf drunk (forgot his name)
After a few minotaur/giant/ettin/cyclops kills I was given a quest to kill the master thief at a goblin fortress. immediately after arriving at the quest site my small party proceeds to slaughter the goblins running around in the open. There were 2 forts and a temple in the goblin town. One of the drunks runs off and gets killed by a whip wielding guard before I enter the first fort. On the second floor of the first fort while sneaking, I am suddenly hit by a ball of flames when turning the corner. My leg and left hand is badly burned, causing me to fall the the ground and drop my shield. This is my first time encountering demon and I think I'm pretty much done for when out of nowhere Sinur, the spearman, walks over me to block a second fireball that surely would of been the end of my current game. As the demon charges at us, I throw a spare Iron War hammer and manage to break his lower body, bruising his stomach, pancreas, and spleen. Sinur gets one tile in front of me before the demon is on top of him. I'm still on the ground clutching a steel war hammer and suffering from a badly burned leg and left hand.
demon charges; Sinur blocks and gets knocked down
demon breaths fire; Sinur shields himself from the flames while on the ground
Sinur continues to block strike after strike by demon
demon bites Sinur in the right hand, latching on and burning it
I get up and charge the demon; he is surprised
I bash the demon in the right hand, bruising it
we collide and the demon is knocked over
I continue to bash the demon with my steel warhammer, breaking and mangeling both legs
demon gives into pain and falls unconscious
Sinur gets up and we proceed to smash and stab the demon, causing great injury
Finally I land a blow that caves in the Demon's chest and send him flying down the corridor and into the wall. He blows into pieces from the impact and I have a grin on my face. Sinure just saved my ass...it was awesome. After I loot the demon of his silk clothing my axedwarf finally shows up, no idea where Kosoth the drunk is.
My party slaughters the rest of the goblins including the target master thief and I loot all the silk clothing from their bodies. After going back to town I trade in the silk clothing for equipment and continue to take on more quests.
After a while of doing quests my party is:
Quice - Hammerman(Decent at this point, extremely strong and agile)
Sinur - Spearman (Pretty attached to him after the fight with the demon, very good in combat)
Kogan - Axedwarf (Chopped MANY limbs off, a killing machine)
Kosoth - dwarf Thug(Can't call him dwarf drunk anymore after surviving this long and getting some kills under his belt)
After the human mayors had run dry of quests I decided to go to the dwarven villages in the mountains. After getting a quest from the first dwarven village we visited I decided to search for the shops so I could trade my loot. While searching I noticed a small group of 4-6 antmen incoming from south of town. I thought to myself - cool, some easy killings for my party. After we get close enough to engage them I saw about ten more antmen coming from the south. I thought to myself - thats a lot of antmen. A few rounds after and the entire first group of antmen were dead or dieing. I scroll the screen south and SEE A HORDE OF ANTMEN/RATS/MOLES/CAVE SWALLOWS, now I'm thinking - WHAT THE HELL???. The entire village is surrounded by swarms of cave monsters, its an invasion.
My screen gets spammed with combat messages as the entire village erupts into a battlefield. My Axedwarf and Thug both go into a martial trance and my party begins to slaughter monsters left and right. After a while the floor is covered in limbs, blood, and bodies. My character becomes tired and the party gets separated. The combat messages alert me to the danger of, Kosoth, my dwarf thug getting mobbed by antmen. So I leave my axedwarf who was beside me the entire time, knowing that he can take care of himself, on his own and search for Kosoth so I can rescue him before he gets mobbed and killed. I move a little to the west and find the Thug...surrounded by 5 antmen.
Before they could break all his bones I charge in and knock them off of him. At this point both my dwarves had left martial trance and I was very tired...thats when I saw a big "S" coming towards us. First time encountering a Giant Cave Spider and from reading the forums I knew that they were bad news.
As I try to flee, my axedwarf that had finished up with his monsters runs past me to attack the Giant Cave Spider.
giant cave spider shoots out web; ALL 3 of us including the antmen that were mobbing the thug get webbed!
giant cave spider bites me in the upper arm, latching on firmly; its torn and I feel numb
giant cave spider shakes me by the left arm; a chunk is torn away and I drop my steel shield
giant cave spider bites me in the right foot then the right arm; they glance away
Kogan the Axedwarf breaks free of the web
At this point its attention turns to the Thug.
giant cave spider charges the thug, biting him in the upper body, tearing many internal organs and making him numb
Kogan the Axedwarf stands up and I break free of the web
giant cave spider bites thug in left leg; breaking it and latching on firmly
giant cave spider shakes thug by left leg; a chunk is torn away
Then back to me...
giant cave spider spits out dwarf chunk and bites me in the right arm; tearing it and latching on firmly
giant cave spider shakes me by the right arm; a chunk is torn away
I drop my Steel War Hammer. both arms are torn apart and now I am defenseless
giant cave spider shoots out webbing; me and Kogan the Axedwarf are webbed again! ARGH!
The spider spits out the human chunk and turns his attention back to the thug
giant cave spider bites thug in the right leg; tearing it badly and latching on
giant cave spider shakes thug by right leg; breaking it then completely ripping it off! NOO!
giant cave spider spits out thug's leg and continues to tear his paralyzed body apart
At this point I was pretty sure that I was finished and a new character was in order but...
From out of nowhere AGAIN Sinur the spearman comes to the rescue.
Sinur the spearman charges at giant cave spider; giant cave spider looks surprised by the ferocity of his onslaught
Sinur the spearman stabs the giant cave spider in the right fourth leg with his iron spear and badly pierces it!
They collide and tangle together, falling to the floor
Sinur the spearman stands up
giant cave spider strikes at Sinur the spearman but the shot is blocked!
Sinur the spearman counterattacks, stabbing the giant cave spider in the cephalothorax with his Iron spear and piercing it through entirely!
"The giant cave spider has been struck down"
I couldn't believe what had just happened. Apparently Sinur had finished killing a group of giant rats and decided to come help us out, saving me and my axedwarf. Unfortunately, Kosoth the dwarf Thug died shortly after. After my axedwarf and Sinur had killed a few more monsters I was able to T out of town even though the entire village was still in combat.
I didn't think to take screenshots while it was happening but here is a screenshot I took after heading back into the village.
My screen was STILL getting spammed by combat messages. The entire village was flooded with cave monsters and the floor was littered with bodies and body parts.
The use of ASCII graphics really enhanced the experience, as I was imagining how it all played out in my head. Kudos to the creator.
I love this game!