Quick note: DDFD seems to be going really slow. I'll keep trying to get the save posted. Turn details to follow.
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Save File
I awake.
My head begins to clear as the warm, forge-borne light permeates the cell I call home. Another day of hard labor ahead, I quickly rise for the morning whiskey that makes life bearable.
But wait. Something’s not right. Groggy, nearly sober, I stumble out my door into the hallway. The colors seem… different. Objects gleam with a newness at once familiar and somehow strange. I really need that whiskey.
Thirst quenched and sobriety safely deferred, I grab my pick and trudge down the stairs to work on the new mining shaft. I go down ten flights, then 15. Expecting to reach my destination any moment I continue going for another
145 levels. This can’t be. That’s
ten times as deep as we could go when I fell asleep last night. Now I know something’s wrong, and it’s not just lack of alcohol. Confused and starting to panic, I ascend this behemoth stairwell to find out just what’s going on here.
Hungry, thirsty, and tired, I finally make it back to the main level of the fortress. I grab a passing stonecrafter and ask him what happened to the stairway, how we managed to breach the formerly absolute barrier holding us back to 15 z’s. Asking me if I’ve had enough to drink, he pats me on the beard and continues on. I must get to the bottom of this. I need to find our leader.
Searching for someone in charge I continue to get odd glances from all my brothers and sisters. Finally, I corner a weaver and demand to know what’s going on. “Umm… Graebeard… you’re the boss. We all decided you were in charge once Samoorai realized how much work it is to pump magma up 160z’s and stepped down as lawgiver.”
This isn’t right. None of this makes any sense. And then it comes to me: I’m still asleep. I didn’t wake up this morning, I only dreamt I did. I must still be in my bed back home where everything is normal.
Seeing everyone look to me, I decide to play along. It’s my dream, so why not have some fun. I decide to tackle the magma issue while I wait to wake up, and see if I can’t fix this place up a bit.
I begin to shout orders, taking joy in the sight of minions scurrying off to do my bidding. As the day bears on I begin to weary. A meal and some booze later I feel better. Odd that I can order people around in my dream somehow still need to eat and drink. Oh well. Odder still is the food around here. Liver? Organ meat? Not that I’m complaining about the variety, but this all seems too strange to be springing from my unconsciousness. Pondering the strange phantasms of my idle brain, I wonder if I should seek help from the Therapist once I awake.
Come nighttime I retired to my grand quarters. Lying in bed while others slept did no good. It seems
I can’t sleep while in this dream. Surely I must wake up from all this soon.
The horrors of the last several days are nearly overwhelming. I still have not slept. I am beginning to lose hope that I will ever wake up, that I will ever return to the simple, safe world I know
must exist beneath this gruesome lie.
It all began with a siege. Simple, I thought. Then I saw the mount on which the twisted goblin leader strode. Never have I beheld such a horrifying sight. A "Rutherer" they call it. It's hideousness is matched only by the villainy of the goblin race. My confidence faltering, I decide to play it safe by letting those foul beasts rush straight into my cage traps. One of my soldiers refused such cowardice by immediately rushing out to engage the invaders. His death was swift.
Only two of the ignoble cretins made it through. Thinking my victory already earned, I order a squad of soldiers out to clear up the remaining garbage. Stronger than I ever feared, those two goblins hospitalized
four of my soldiers before they fell.
This encounter has made me realize that the former plan of fueling our beautiful forges with the wood of surface trees is untenable. There is no above ground wall to protect our woodcutters and gatherers from these monstrous sieges. We must look downward for our salvation.
My grassp on this world is fading. Still no sleep. Nor
couldcould I sleep if sleep might come. Not after the my atttempts to use the system of underground caverns human-cheesing through our maountain. They present a tempting target; flush as they are with grwoths suitable for our forges' unquenchable appetite. But no.
The things that meat us down there have names, but I cannot pronounce them. I know them only by the carnage they wreak. First we hear of a skinless aligator that has infiltrated our caverns, then we heer it's thunderous footsteps reverberating through the mountain. Heading directly towards an opening in the future magma pump system, it tears through the fortess bleeding foulness throughout our home before it is finally brought down.
This attack was soon followed by the appearance of Sedme: a flying
thing that also
breathes fire. I have managed to avoid this monstrosity tthus far, but see it inching towards my building and know it will soon rain fire upon us.
Stil no rest. This cannnnnnnot fo on much olnger. More seigeres. Hav'ent seen the sun since I can't remember when. Mae never again. Cant get topside long enough to make draownin chamber. Only hope lies in Magma. Magma
dissolves all. heh. I am placing our galss, melters, and forges directly on the omlten core of this world. Glass corckscrews. One hundred moar will do it. no charkoal needed, heh. Then I will wake up. Then I will leeve this place.
It is working. I no that ill wake up once magma reacheees the surface.
I can now see everything with perfect clarity. I have broken through. I can see the truth. What I once thought was a dream is not a dream at all. This world is
more true than the one I used to dream. I am not sleeping... I have finally woken up.
I also see that this world, while truer than the last, is still a shadow of the truth cast by the flame of Armok's consuming fire. I will not return whence I came. I will step forward rather than backwards. I have diverted the labor of the fortress to a new project: to a machine that will aid in my transcendence.
It is simple, really. This body will join Armok's blood, freeing my mind to step forward into the light. I am designing a place to wait in water, while Armok's cleansing fire descends upon me. What was once flesh will become stone. I will become pure. I will become like unto a god.
(No further entries)