Ah Girl Genius and Goblins, once again I am astounded by the inter-connectedness of the interwebs, which is why they're called the INTERwebs i suppose. Awesome comics, both of them!
Stas - The 'thieves guild' is progressing slowly, since there's so much else happening which is taking up everyone's time, even Stas (who only has hauling as a labour).
TALLPANZER - Sure thing, but I'll have to make sure I remember you're Human, not Jager.
As usual, there could be a wait as we need enough migrants to survive, and you're 2nd in line.
7th Granite 675 - MorningIt had almost been three days now, but they had found the pig tail seeds. While Derm kept an eye out for any hostile beasts, Fori had put her Elfen skills to use and found not only pig tails, but also rock nuts, sweet pods, cave wheat and more, all of which could be processed for seeds.
"Right!" Derm exclaimed, throwing a hand in the air as he imagined great explorers might do, "This expedition has succeeded in its goal, let's go home for glory!" Fori nodded emphatically at this,
"Yes, we need to get the pig tails back for Rovod, and tell them of the mag-"
"Over there! More glowing, but we're not at the Magma Pit of Derfori yet!" Derm interrupted, leaping ahead while the Elf followed. It was another pool of liquid rock, glowing bright in the cavern darkness.
"Another pool of magma." Fori breathed. Derm cleared his throat, his voice serious,
"Fori, it becomes ever-more clear that we must return at once to tell the others of the bounty of th-" he began. This time Fori interrupted him,
"Derm? What's this?"
Derm came over and peered into the gloom, a smile growing on his face,
"It must lead to deeper levels of the cavern! There must be lower levels under the lower levels! More to explore!"
Fori nodded at this,
"But for now, we need to get back and get these pig tails to Reg."
- - - - - - - - - - -
AfternoonSibrek the farmer whistled to himself as he walked merrily from the new farms, plump helmets held in his arms. These were to be brought up to the stills for brewing. As he wandered past the new temple barracks he heard a noise, a heavy thud like a stone block falling over. He stopped, peering into the barracks, and was met by several red eyes staring back. He stumbled back, as a giant cave spider moved out of the gloom. Throwing the plump helmets down he fled, leaping up the temple ramps, but a blast of webbing shot straight into his back and he fell immobilized. Unable to move, he was forced to watch the giant cave spider, fangs dripping with venom and eyes glinting with hunger, as it came ever closer. Then it engulfed his head and he knew no more.
The alarm had been given by another farmer who had seen the entire incident. By the time the Noiseless Metals got there the giant cave spider - dubbed 'Mysterydrip' - was no where to be seen. Sibrek's body lay besides the temple, his head having been ripped off and left some distance from the corpse. Webbing hung from the stone pillars, some of it even splattered with Dwarven blood.
Rion sighed,
"We'll never survive." he muttered, "If it's not Nothing we're being attacked by, it's giant cave spiders." Johann winced, looking away from the mutilated cadaver,
"Perhaps it's gone?" he wondered. Melagius shook his head,
"No, once a giant cave spider has tasted Dwarven blood it will return again and again. But this time
I shall be here to kill it!" he exclaimed, drawing his sword. Tarran sighed,
"Let's just get this over with, I have forg- there!" he cried, pointing out to the south. True enough, Mysterydrip lay half in the shadows, red eyes glinting with bloodlust. Rion cracked his neck,
"Right, remember, don't give it a chance to bite you, and beware its webbing."
The Dwarves moved towards the spider, but it scuttled back, into the gloom.
"Don't let it escape!" Melagius cried. The Noiseless Metals leapt into a sprint, but Mysterydrip simply scurried further and further away, and then, climbing up a rock wall, vanished into the dark.
"Damn!" Tarran cursed,
"Perhaps it's better this way." Johan remarked, happy that he had not been forced to kill the creature.
"It'll come back." Rion said simply, moving back towards the fortress, "And when it does we'll be ready."
As they returned, two familiar faces suddenly popped up from the ramp to the lower levels. Derm gave the Noiseless Metals a huge smile,
"We're back!" he exclaimed, "And we have pig tails! And we found MAGMA!"
Tarran nodded, a smile flashing onto his face,
"Magma!? Wonderful! I can do all the forging we need with that - especially now that we're running out of bituminous coal to make coke from."
Johann moved forward, a sad look on his face,
"Get the pig tails to Reg, we need to get Sibrek's corpse." A concerned look shot onto Derm and Fori's faces,
"Sibrek?" Fori asked, knowing the Dwarf from her work on the farms, "What happened?"
8th Granite 675They held Sibrek's funeral the next day. The Dwarf was consigned to a stone sarcophagus, his head rejoined to his shoulders. The sarcophagus for now stood in the caverns, but would be moved to the cemetery under the temple once it had been dug out. The pig tails had been processed and made into thread, and with them Reg was able to suture Rovod's wounds and a area of farmland had been specially prepared for growing pig tails. Stas's self-proclaimed 'thieves guild' had begun taking shape, and he was keeping an eye out for anyone who could be described as 'suspicious'. Torvold had totally rewritten his defence plans after the announcement of magma, and they had been accepted following the tragedy of the giant cave spider. There was no sign of Mysterydrip, but it would return; everyone knew that once a giant cave spider had tasted Dwarven blood, it would always want more. Plans for magma forges were being drawn up by Shin. The statue in the temple barracks had been replaced. All had returned to normality, except for one missing Dwarf.
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Topic: [Community] Nomekast - At War with Nothing (Read 177120 times)