271
It was spring of 271 one now, and the Empress continued her drunken binge with every single bachelor in the fortress. Some of the dwarves admired the Empress for her 'never say die' attitude, her unwillingness to give up, and her obsession with her own fertility. Others did not admire so much....namely Khamero and his sons. They had hoped their fool of a brother/uncle would get his act together and take advantage of his special relationship with Urist. He had been given many chances to release his spores in the Empress over many decades, and still he had not done so. Now, there was a chance Urist would marry someone outside the Grand-Ducal family. On the other hand, Airag, Imhotep, Xanthius 2.0, and Calibur were all taken part in the massive orgy...as well as a few of the younger sons. So Khamero took comfort in the knowledge that there was still a good chance one of his brood could seduce the vile Urist and take her Empire from within.
On Urist's part, she was getting quite worried. She was nearing the end of a natural dwarven life, she would turn 117 this year, and still she had no heir. The stress was growing day by day, and she hoped this great orgy could solve all of her problems. That was why she ignored all of her duties. She had to have a son....a beautiful, blood god worshiping son!
The orgy reached a climax this year (one of several) when the son of Petbeard and Kurk Quorcane created an artifact to honor Urist. He displayed it to her during the party, hoping he could win her favor and release his spores in her.
Dehfawck wanted to be Emperor!!!
"Here you are my Empress, a dolomite earring I have made just for you!" said Dehfawck solemnly as he bowed and presented the gift in its velvet case. Urist picked it up and eyed it critically.
"A dolomite earring?" she asked, obviously not impressed. "Come on kid....look Im several decades older than you so let me give you some advice. When you try to woo a woman...make sure its gold or diamonds....something shiny. Women like shiny things....not plain milky white flux stone."
"Oh."
"Now get lost, Im gonna go bang the High Priest."
Dehfawck walked away sulking. He was devestated.
It was then that the doors to the great hall burst open, and there stood a guard, looking very skinny with his armor hanging loosely upon his body. He looked emaciated and his cheeks were sunken in. "My Empress!!! Empress!" he shouted in his exasperated voice. "Tosid has starved to death!"
A gasp went through the room.
"WHAT?!" shouted Urist as she made her way to the front of the room. Everyone expected her to immediately take charge of the situation, and solve the problem. But she had other ideas. "How dare you interrupt my party with your trifling matters!!! Tosid isnt even an ancient dwarvish name. Who cares about a guy with no name? Now get lost, Im trying to get laid!"
With that, the Empress kicked the guard out of the room, slammed the door, and bolted it shut.
"Now lets party!"
Meanwhile, while the Empress continued to party, more and more dwarves began to go hungry...
The population had grown to over 80 dwarves by now. And there hadnt been a full time farming force in decades. The dwarves of Blockedlance had been living off of the bounty wrought from the ground by a group of long dead farmers. There was nothing left...and with a fortress full of dandy nobles, who was going to do the dirty work and put some food on the table?