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[Shurikane]

ITT, using the screenshot below as your one and only guide, figure out what the dwarves were trying to do and what the hell just happened for things to turn out this way.

Bonus points for stories that are especially engaging and/or dwarfy!  No need to stick to the game mechanics either.

[Scarpa]

I'm not exactly sure why but the movie Alien sprang to mind.

[Wild Goose]

...is that someone's head in the upper right?

See, this is what happens when you don't follow OSHA standards.

I'm guessing it's a test run of their prototype water-mill gone horribly, horribly, wrong Dwarven.  They didn't get all the workers out of the shafts, plus there were some animals and vermin in their as well.
On the plus side, this year's wheat crop has been especially nutrious, for some reason.

[mythmonster2]

Urist laughed. Soon, his monument to Agast Tinkerflood, god of water and mechanics would be finished. It was an enormous watermill, capable of powering 15,000 screw pumps! As he stood, he noticed a messenger running towards him as fast as his short, stumpy legs could take him.
"By Agast, man! What makes you travel this fast?"
"Goblins... They'll destroy us... all." was all the dwarf was able to say before crumpling to the ground, with the reason for his breathing heavily- an axe stuck in his back- becoming apparent.
Urist took little heed of this and was reluctant to go and rally the dwarves for the assault. Curious, though, he walked upstairs into the giant room which housed the watermill and looked out through the window. Silly him! The window was useless, as all he could see was green glass, with some moving black smudges. He peered outside the door, just slightly, as the deadliness of crossbows was renowned world wide.
"Oh, gods."
It was perhaps the largest assault ever. At least 5000 goblins, with over 3000 mounted and 500 trolls! Urist ran towards the captain of the guard, in the fortress, to alert him. The troops lined up behind the drawbridges, and archers gathered on top of the walls. But... the goblins were gone. What? Nothing in all directions. A trick? They weren't attacking? For 30 minutes the military stood fast, waiting any second for some hideous monstrosity to come from the sky with goblins in the millions on top. But no. Nothing.
A shriek. From the... watermill!?
A soldier was sent to investigate. As soon as he turned the corner to go inside, he was poked full of bolts and fell. The dwarves instantly turned towards the watermill, where the goblins had snuck into the fortress. The military stood there, not knowing what was happening, until they were surrounded on all sides. The dwarves yelled a mighty yell, and charged. Too bad for them, goblins had a new ally- dragons. All 301 of the military was incinerated from behind, and so ended Waterdoom. All because Urist forgot to lock the damn door.

[Hyndis]

Pulled the lever before all of the engineers go out of the gearshafts? 

[Marko]

I don't see any magma.... YOU DID IT WRONG!

[Heron TSG]

Easy. A hundred thousand persian goblin soldiers invaded your tunnels, attempting to shut down the power station keeping the floodwaters from ravaging the entire planet.

Zasit Rimtarshin and Kogan Dedukdak were in the access halls at the time, tightening the waterwheels on either end. Bessie the cow followed them, wandering down the south tunnel to see if Zasit had any food.

Suddenly, there was smoke and dust everywhere, and the goblins were trapped! They butchered Bessie with their broken bolts and ate her.

The goblin hordes managed to dig new tunnels through the rubble, using their own bodies as picks. Many goblins lost their lives in the process of being used as hammers.
Zasit heard the goblins coming ever closer... he had been stuck next to the waterwheels for three days now, eating fish and drinking the putrid water.

Suddenly, a screaming and broken goblin was rammed through a new gap in the rubble. Zasit grabbed hold of his backpack which was stuffed with a hundred thousand small chert pebbles.

Amid the stony hail, no goblin would stand. Thousands were trampled in the retreat, but two figures remained, including Zasit. The other was Og the Minotaur, who drank, ate, and breathed blood in each of the states of matter. Og pulped Zasit against the wall with the force of a thousand men, squeezing every last gory chunk out of Zasit's freshly opened torso. The appalled dwarf looked down, only to see his intestines hanging out like so many slimy jumpropes. Og pushed harder.  Hearing the crunch of his own ribs as they were torn asunder, Zasit felt Og's hooves reach inside him and pull out his still beating heart.

Og fed well that day.


Kogan fared slightly better. He was stuck in a tunnel with nothing to do, just like Zasit, only he was situated next to some pitchblende. He survived for many weeks (Some say he lives even today) on his two cats, the river, and off of his own mutant arms.

[TheToeBighter98]

You sabotaged your own dwarfs just to get a picture out of the mess left when the madness was over.

[Raging Mouse]

You were damming up the river while at the same time drawing power from it. Unfortunately, a dwarf was fetching something through an unlocked door with water behind, letting the carp invade the gearworks.

[Jim Groovester]

Fikod Datancog pulled the cigarette out of his mouth. He breathed deep, and the smell of death wafted through his nostrils, and he tasted it in the back of his mouth. Death, he thought. It's the only way he knew he was really alive.

As the fortress's only gumshoe, private eye, dick, sleuth, private investigator, every death fell to him to investigate. It was a dubious privilege. Dealing with death every day, it was the only thing that let him know he was alive.

"Look over here, Fikod," said Erith, his assistant. "Another body, pierced by bolts."

Datancog knelt down next to the body. The corpse laid face down, bolts sticking out of his back. Fikod touched the wounds with his fingers, then tasted the blood. "Poisoned," Fikod concluded, standing up. "This man was killed by the poison on the bolts."

Erith raised his eyebrow, pencil lifting off the notepad. "Really? What about the giant pool of blood around him? Didn't he bleed to death from the blood loss because his internal organs were pierced by bolts?"

"Er, yeah." Fikod agreed. "But the bolts were poisoned, too. Poison," Fikod wandered, "What a traitorous way to kill someone. Shoot me in the chest, or split my head open. Let me die in dignity, instead of dying slowly from such a malicious wound."

"That's great," Erith said, growing impatient with Fikod's nonsense. "Can we hurry up and call these deaths as the result of a group of goblin marksmen? There were witnesses, after all, who saw them get shot."

"Er, yeah." Fikod said. "Ambushes. Announce yourselves--"

"Oh, great."

[ThtblovesDF]

A single dwarf was running away from a gigantic rat that constantly bit off dwarf chunks, filling the whole tunnel with it?

[AncientEnemy]

"I tol' Urist we coudnae make gears outta cats but he didnae listen!"

[Captain Xenon]

the machinery would soon be ready, and the miners were making exploratory shafts to find the bottomless pit they knew must be near, moledog bones haunting their dreams. the fortress was secure, nothing would get in from outside.

Urist found the pit first. he lasted perhaps 10 seconds, as the troglodytes swarmed him. soon they were past the miners, and into the stockpiles, giant cave swallows and batmen close behind them. the military quickly rallied... around the squad leader who was sound asleep.

the battle lasted days, and the guard killed and were killed by the denizens of the chasm. many a peasant walked to his doom trying to collect webs for the loom. in the end, there were but two dwarves left alive, the hammerer and a great wrestler, neither able to do work. soon the supplies would run out... if the migrants didnt come soon, then death by starvation was certain... SOBER death at that. the miasima of unburied corpses fill the tunnels. a hammerer has gone stark raving insane!

[ThtblovesDF]

The aqueduct was working fine.

Arzek looked up from the waterwheel he just finished and gave Utrist a welcoming Nod.

"Thats the last one, it should work now"
"Aye lad, lets check though it again"
"Fine, so we will pump water out of the river and into the fort to supply evryone with water."

"And we got rid of that damm carp just fine."
"Yeah the major had a strike of genius. Just airdrown them all"
"Oh man yeah, that pit is still stinking, no one has gone near it for weeks"
"We lost way to many of our man to that anyway."
"Well there is no way any of them could have surived that, that would be impossible."

----- A few days later -----
In the Mayors office.

"Utrist come here!"
"Yes mayor?"

"You know the water stoped coming, something is wrong I already send down arzek, but 
 he didnt come back, go check what he´s doing."

"Aye"
_________________________________________________________________________

His pick in hand Utrist entered the aqueduct tunnel, moving towards the entrance pump.

It was dark, but the water reflected some light from the outside and the light played on the walls. Utrist navigated the maze without proplemes and moved towards the connection to the river.

"No sight of  arzek yet, but he should be there anyway. Propatly working on the propleme."
Still his fist graped the pick harder. It was awfully silent without the sound of water flowing and the gears being completely silent.

He reached the intake pump, it was ... broken. It looked like something thread right though it and ripped it apart. Clearly something was gone wrong...
And where the hell is arzek?

Best to get out of here, whatever ripped appart the pump can rip appart a dwarf, too.

Utrist turned around and noticed a faint red in the water where he came from. As he approached it became clear it was a stream of blood coming from a water storage area.

What should he do? The blood could be Arzeks and the temptation to just run was big... But what if Arzek who was indeed a strong dwarf killed the thing that came in and is now wounded? He had to save his friend. Its the dwarfen thing to do.

Utrist followed the blood and moved deeper into the tunnels, the light became fainter, playing with the shadows behind him, making it seem like something was moving evrywhere.

Utrist found the source of the blood. At the end of the tunnel there was a intersection. A small dwarfen hand was hanging around the corner, seemingly gasping for Utrists help.

Utrist sprinted to the hand and looked around the corner.

The hand had no body attached.

The body was swimming face down a few feet away from him, badly damaged and bleeding. Utrists eyes where still width with shock when something sucked the body underwater. It did not come back up and Utrists did not wait for it to do so. He started running. As fast as he could. He tryed to keep away from the water, but the walkway was not very width. Faster faster, he had to get out.

Behind him he could here the sound of gishing water as something raced towards him. Utrists droped the pick and ran as fast as he could and sliped.

He hit his head pretty hard and his eyes became black as he hit the moist ground. His right leg was feeling wet, suddenly  his whole body was wet and then he was underwater.

He opend his eyes and saw the water closing over him, still playing gently with the light. Something was pulling him underwater on his leg! He looked down, but did not see his leg, just a gigantic Mouth and he wondered why he didnt feel any pay, but then it came, hard.

He tryed to strike at the head, tryed to hit the eyes wherever they may be on that thing, but his punches where slowed but the water, he could not free himself and soon the burning in his lungs overshadowed the pain in his leg.

Then he took a deep breath, he felt the water fill his lungs and he took one last glimpse of the shadow playing on the walls above him, strangly changed though the surface of the water....
______________________________________________________________________

*First time I wrote a story here, let me know what you think, if enough like it I continue it.

[zchris13]

It's a goonch!  Technically a catfish, but whatever.

Spoiler: image (click to show/hide)

I got it from here:  http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/weird/article1784470.ece#OTC-RSS&ATTR=Weird

Hope they don't get too pissed I ripped their picture.