Here goes!
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I don't know how long we have been running. Days? Months? Even years? I don't care about that anymore. All I care about is getting further south, along the mountains...
But how did we get to this? How can this be happening?
It all begun years ago, in the year 290. The goblins in the north were acting up again, as said by reports from outposts up there and the human caravans that visited. They seem to be preparing for a new bout of sieges on towns and outposts, the letters said.
They were right, and then some.
What we didn't know is that the goblins were infact massing their forces. Thousands of them, hundereds of thousands, MILLIONS even. They were equiping their soldiers in the quiet years, multiplying their numbers greatly, breeding like cats.
Then they began marching south.
First to feel the brunt were the Humans, I suspect. There was a large empire up in the north made from humans back then. At first, we got reports and letters asking for some assistance from this empire. We reasoned that they could handle some lowly goblins by themselves, how hard could it be to kill 20 or so?
Then the letters stopped coming.
The elves were next, pansies that they are, I'll give them that they are firce archers at times. They reassured us that their forests will survive the greenskined onslaught.
2 years later, the smoke from their burning forests reached us in the mountains. It was by this time that our northern outposts were coming under regular siege by the scum. Reacting quickly, the king and queen ordered an army to engage the goblin foe up north before they could reach us further south. Over 100 vetrans left the mountainhomes to fight this menace.
They never returned. Soon after, 3 of the outposts fell. Then the letters from our kin up north stopped coming.
Personally as I reflect on those times, I realise that I was one of the lucky ones. If you could call it that. I was currently living in the center of our empire, in our capital, as a normal peasent. What happened next, shocked the world to the core.
The goblins assaulted our capital in large numbers. Over a hundered died on our steps.
They had never had the guts to do this before! Where had they all come from? How come they had so much pressure on us to be able to do this?
We were lucky that this was actually a scouting force. The real army was not too far behind, numbering in the thousands at best, is what the scouts that came back alive told us.
I then realised that it was no longer safe to be in the capital, reguardless of guards, military, traps and architecture. I gathered 7 others who also thought this way and we grabbed a wagon, saying that we were going to set up a outpost south under orders of the king. The guards paid no heed to us, doutlessly having other thoughts on their minds...
The 8 of us left as quick as possible and one week later, the king ordered all roads and tunnels closed, and guards on daily patrols. 5 Years later, the eight of us who had stopped in one of the southern human empires for a rest and resupply heard that the capital had fallen under imeasureable forces that were in a siege.
We were the only surviviors from that city.
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Another 2 years later and the 8 of us had grown to 20 from meeting others who had the same thoughts as us. They also came with supplies and another 2 wagons. We marched onwards, to the frozen south.
Luck was with us in the summer of that year, it was heard that the goblins were also running south with purpose of looking for loot and glory. Some of these bands numbered in the hundreds. We even passed a town that was ransacked and burnt to the ground as proof of this. It was luck that we weren't discovered, and luck alone that we had stayed alive for this long.
We eventually went past the southern human empires and entered the wild lands of the frozen south. Here outposts were few and far between, with little amounts of protection. As proven when we stumbled upon a dwarven outpost that had almost fallen under an ambush from one of the roving goblin parties. Out of the 30 that were living in that outpost, only 4 were still alive, 2 locked inside their rooms.
This 4 joined us, seeing that they had a larger chance of living if the came with us. We resupplied ourselves with was there was in the outpost, including some dogs and tools, and left for the most southern of mountain ranges for safety.
When the year 300 was almost upon us, we were at the bottom of the mountain ranges. We had heard of small human empires to the east that were holding up fine, and acting like there was nothing wrong with the world! Nothing at all!
Whats more, when we were passing through some of these towns, we heard talk of an empire of elves to the north of the mountain range that we were settleing on! We paid this no heed and proceeded onwards.
Finally, in the winter of 299, we hit a dwarven outpost in the south. There were still reminants of our race and they had not heard the news of what had happened in the north because of the sheer isolation. We told them and they reacted a bit badly but still welcomed us and gave us supplies. They told us that they would contact the rest of the settlements down here and see what they could send in the way of immagrants and caravans.
I dout that they would keep their word when talking about immagrants. Not willingly.
We pressed onwards, to the west, putting an entire mountain range between us and the goblins.
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And here I stand at the site of our new home. We have all decided that until the goblin scourge has gone back north, we shall stay hidden as much as we can. We must isolate ourselves from the world in order to live in it.
And so we shall build a vault. A mighty vault so that we can live in peace and safety. We shall not emerge for years, but we will survive as long as nesscessary. I have made sure that the miners had found a place where there are natural features that we can take advantage of, and that there is plenty of space to dig out our mighty home.
Ekastgeshud - Safefortress!
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Topic: The Dwarven Vault - future sucession game (Read 8235 times)