Some Month, 1074, Ardentdikes
My fatigue is so great that I can hardly write. All that running, the screams…while still the engravers carved on. But I feel that it is almost over, now. The trolls have departed. Terrible wretches! In the depths the horrors play still, after circling up and up, then down and down again. If only we could have directed them to the surface and the siege! Some good might have come of these wretched weeks.
All that blood, and it is all I can do to refrain from uttering the words “All for nothing”.
I do not say it, of course. Not during the funerals – the few that we can have. The trolls are still within site of the gates, and the terrible frog splashes happily on the corpses of those who sacrificed themselves to force it away from the living quarters. And not during the recovery planning, when I must look at the architects and wonder who designed our north entrance, where a score of us died like rats in a trap. Not to the mechanics guilds, whose poor records and lever-maps gave the goblins time to mass for a charge. Not to the masons, who were lost in the maze of lower Ardentdikes until it was almost too late for us all, and certainly too late for some.
I do not say it.
I will compile official records later. After I rest. I feel like I have not slept in so long…
But now I may rest. The siege is lifted, the horrors are contained. Above all...
Dodok Rithtunom sighed. She’d finally given in to that nagging night-hag and her weepy husband, but she still wasn’t sure about these historical engravings. Dodok didn’t like to read – why bother, when there were so many things to engrave? Fortunately Urist Bomrek had thought of that. Dodok had ordered that her side of the slab be engraved with just pictures. Urist had insisted that the pictures have descriptions with them – otherwise Dodok wouldn’t know what the picture was about, he’d said – but that wasn’t a whole lot of wasted space, all in all, Dodok thought. Just a sentence or two. And the pictures were certainly exciting. Dodok’s family was going to sleep soon, all but the littlest who wasn’t sleeping through the night yet. It would be wonderful to show the child these engravings, when everyone else was sleeping like a rock in their beds. And the first one to be looked at, Dodok thought, was that one, with the migrants…
Official records of Ardentdikes, 1074, by the hand of NightmareBros Okangnomal, Engraver
A depiction of trade items, including cages with ferocious beasts. This engraving relates to the successful garbage disposal session with the elves in the year 1074, when clothing items were exchanged for food, drink, crutches, splints, and ferocious beasts.
A description of the wounds received by the dread frog Teling, from the brave squad the Joy of Seals. This relates to the heroic sacrifice of the Joy of Seals in the spring of year 1074, who diverted ancient horrors Teling and Dethe from the main staircase.
A depiction of the north entrance of Ardentdikes, covered with trolls, troll blood and bodyparts, also dwarf blood and bodyparts. The trolls are making an angry gesture. The dwarves are cringing. This engraving relates to the siege of Ardentdikes in 1074, and the nearly victorious charge of Zom and his 18-strong troll band.
A depiction of every-day life in Ardentdikes during the siege in the spring of 1074, symbolizing the Manager’s dedication to a beloved pet, the on-going work of the Engraver’s Guild History Initiative, and the stresses of attempting to balance the needs of productive work with the defensive measures against ancient horrors.
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=4755A series of engravings depicting the irritating behavior of ancient horrors and dead dwarves. The dwarves are dead. The ancient horrors are playing merrily.
Well, that siege was kind of hilarious, mostly because I was busy corralling FBs and didn't realize that the trolls were starting to get through the north entrance.
The FBs started a charge for the living space in the fort. I managed to divert them by drafting random nearby civilians and installing walls, but basically the only reason Teling and Dethe (I love those names. There are so many potential puns! But I'm too braindead to try) didn't waltz into the barracks is because they just gave up about 3 z-levels down.
By the time the FBs were on a straight charge, I had realized that the traps weren't holding the trolls back like I had thought. The dorfs kept rushing out to grab socks, which significantly increased casualties. Also, goblin archers poured arrows right through the trap-line. There was some fairly acrobatic announcements ("The bowyer swats the flying *copper bolt* out of the air!"), but that didn't save everyone. Elves showed up right before the goblins did, but I think we'll be able to let them go before they get too stir-crazy.
uggi, your dwarf's nickname is fixed.
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Topic: Ardentdikes - Absolute disaster - (31.25) (Succession)(Need Players!) (Read 222191 times)