If anyone's wondering, Rick RFB is up to 88 notable and 191 other kills... suffice to say he's been busy.
Shoruke's Log. 9th of Limestone. (early autumn, year 23)
I have decided that Rick being a hunter is actually a bad idea, on account of my inability to reassign dwarves who reach a certain level of weapon skill.
Monk is better! His head is completely healed, and he has no injuries (nervous or otherwise) to speak of.
So today, some skamels were harassing the mechanics and engravers working on the outside of The Tower. Rick wasn't hunting them (apparently you can't 'hunt' the undead... another reason to have Rick in the military, not a hunter). Two were caught in a cage trap, but one was tracking an armorer on a hauling mission who got scared and ran... in the opposite of the direction of the gate. Monk to the rescue! He pulled off something I honestly didn't believe possible: he one-shotted a skamel. Then he rained slow destruction onto another, giving it several grievous injuries... and ran out of ammo. He found himself with no adequate choice but to book it back into the fortress.
Then Rick comes hurtling out of the fortress and of course, finishes the job... which at this point is two camels, one of which is grievously injured.
Shoruke's Log. 10th of Limestone. (early autumn)
Dammit. The goblins are here again. And Rick isn't done rescuing that one last metalcrafter! Thankfully, none of the goblin squads are near Rick or the metalcrafter.
I suppose I'm going to have to station the military inside The Gate and watch the goblin forces crumble against our cage traps and uber-mightiness again. It never, ever gets old.
The goblins are divided into three squads... one is half-composed of ranged combatants, which becomes less and less surprising with every siege... but what IS impressive is that one of the goblin civilization's rulers is here, too.
Actually, I have an intelligence file on him that I brought with me from the mountainhomes. I update the files when I talk to the liaison, and I also use whatever legends, rumors, and stories I hear from the humans. Anyway...
Name: Ngokang Malluurar
Profession: Goblin Recruit, local goblin leader
Bio: Has no physical combat expertise, but he has a relatively high IQ of 80. This makes him a demi-prodigy compared to other goblins, and has earned him the rank of Commander in the goblin forces despite his total lack of charisma, physical prowess, and political clout. Commands a small goblin squad of swordsmen and wrestlers.
I'm worried about Rick though. He might be forced to engage the entire goblin assault team on his own. He could probably manage it, but it will be harder than the arena match since they have armor and weapons.
Shoruke's Log. 13th of Limestone. (early autumn)
The siege is broken, and they never even got close to The Gate. Rick killed the skamel, while the armorer ran north around the volcano to escape the goblin assault team. Rick then started making his way back west (he was slightly north and to the east of The Tower), but found that the northernmost of the goblin squads was too close; he had no choice but to engage them, brutally outnumbered. However, shortly after combat started, Monk and some of the other marksdwarves appeared on top of The Tower's wall and began supplying Rick with covering fire; between Rick (who is equivalent to a squad of his own) and the marksdwarves (whose covering fire is EXCELLENT), the goblin squad was annihilated quickly. Only after the fighting had temporarily stopped did Rick realize that one of the slain goblins was supposed to be a leader, an important figure. His armor bore no extreme decoration, and he wore no jewelery in the fashion of a goblin war hero. But a strip of cloth was showing beneath the goblin's armor, and from this Rick instantly knew what rank the goblin held. Rick is very familiar with goblin military culture; "know thine enemy" he sometimes says.
Meanwhile, the other two squads (one of which, you must remember, is half composed of marksgoblins) were watching from across a barren desert as a lone macedwarf supported by two marksdwarves blew their leader and his squad away (literally). The stopped in their tracks. Then they looked at each other, and then they broke ranks and ran.
Rick, not even breathing hard, shrugged at the slain goblin leader and looked at the other retreating goblins. Then his gaze shifted down a few degrees; the marksdwarves had run out of ammunition, and there were several injured goblins from the northernmost squad trying to escape. He ran over and, one by one, put them out of their misery. Then he walked calmly back to The Gate, musing to himself that The Relieved Evils (the goblin civilization) was down to two leaders.
Now we have a bunch of metal to melt and clothes to dump again. The siege only lasted three days, but it's still possible that the dwarves from the mountainhomes will have been scared off again. I sometimes wonder if the retreating goblins from the annual fall siege run into the dwarven caravan, judge it to be an easier target, kill the guards and make off with the loot. I figure that the marksmen squad of goblins could easily have laid waste to half or more of the dwarven caravan.
Shoruke's Log. Supplementary.
I feel it is important at this point to assemble my collection of military intelligence (it's actually not an oxymoron in this case) on the goblin civilization. Historians in a thousand years can look at my journal and, with this information, plot out how events of this current day transpired.
The goblin civilization had four rulers when The Red Sands of Doom was established. Their leaders were, in descending order of importance, Bosa the Ruler, Ngokang Malluurar the recruit, Atu Ozudab the Goblin (I presume he works producing things... or maybe he's what we dwarves would refer to as a peasant?), and Strodno Ngonslaxu the Elite Bowman.
Strodno Ngonslaxu was defeated by Rick RFB earlier this year, during an arena match. Ngokang was killed by Rick during our most recent siege. I find it odd that the goblins have sent half of their leaders to our gate only to die. Perhaps even the goblins have heard of Rick... he is, after all, an enemy of their civilization.
Perhaps the other two of the goblin leaders will eventually come to our fortress. A lazy ruler and a layabout goblin should be easy enough to kill... it's the various squads they bring with them that I worry about.
Rick, for his part, is an enemy of as many civilizations as he is a citizen. He is an enemy of The Relieved Evils (the goblin civilization from which our goblin problem stems) and The Vice of Axes, which I presume is another goblin civilization. The kobolds don't exactly like him either, but they have no speech and their civilization has no real name.
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Topic: Angcuggan Okbod: The Red Sands of Doom (Read 27651 times)