WHY DID A BUNCH OF HORSES AND ELEPHANTS AMBUSH ME?
WHY DID I TELL THEM HOW MUCH FUN I HAD PLAYING WITH MY REAL-IMAGINARY-POSSIBLY-HAUNTED-PET-TOY-SOLDIER?
FUCK!
Those horses and elephants are enforcing a dress code?
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Num had 1 book found at fortress Relicweavers, "A World of The Composition", but it isn't all that good. Still it's all he has to fill the need for self-examination, abstract thought, and admire art. He decides to fast-travel to fortress Pageblocked, hoping for a library. There isn't one. He contents himself with asking Pageblocked's broker about the surrounding area. There's apparently a roc somewhere long this mountain chain, but the information that gains the most interest is word that a book called "Of the Mountain Halls" was lost in mountain hall Trammelmines over 500 years ago. It's is 6 quest map tiles NW of fortress Pageblocked.
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So, he's off on a quest to find a lost book.
Num (first jogging, then running) slow travels cavern level one from fortress Pageblocked to mountain hall Trammelmines while in persistent ambusher. It's a viable activity because dwarves have a
low light vision value of 10K which grants them the full 25 tile vision field. If you're standing and not prone, while in sneak/ambusher mode,
NPCs notice you at 20 tiles. At below proficient weapon skill levels, use of ambusher is a given when traveling cavern level one, as you do need to be able to spot a giant cave spider via its red EXTRAVISION field, well before the 20 tile mark. With ambusher set to off, the white "S" of the GCS might not stand out on the white rock block floor. Outside of luck, a novice fighter skill, dabbling spear/knife dwarf wouldn't survive such an encounter. The GCS is really just a mini-titan/FB webber.
Along the rock block road, Num stops off at the various mountain halls looking for padded coats with dye. For the exterior most clothing layer, it's always great to get emerald or red root dye as both stand out on almost every background, save for the clutter of a fortress warehouse. He also chats with the dwarves he finds. They all seem to be from elsewhere as "ask about the surrounding area" results in "Ask me when I've returned to my home!" Mountain halls have that empty quality of solitude that makes their vigils all the more remote. At least the sheriff and militia commander at one hall are a traveling pair.
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By the time he's arrived in Trammelmines, he's killed 3 giant bats, the only overtly hostile and quick moving critters on this level, and he's hit GM ambusher.
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The trip is almost a wash though, as "Of the Mountain Halls" is nowhere to be found, in or around mountain hall Trammelmines. However Num finds an interesting image on an emerald thread «padded rope reed coat» while checking for dye.
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When it comes to decorations, the good ones are far and few between for any-range austere characters, as they won't receive a conflicting thought when wearing a no quality level «decorated item», even more so for decorations which are solely images (as the one Num found) without the excess garish flourish of the other types.
With the surprising gain of both an emerald thread «padded rope reed coat» and an padded rope reed coat in red root dye, Num slow travels the 6 quest map tiles eastward on the dwarven superhighway to fortress Whippedmachine, tangling up with a 4th giant bat on the way. Num returns to the surface here. He hoped to find a library, but instead finds a tavern brawl between a human and a goblin carpenter.
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