OOC: WARNING! This post is very long and has lots of images.
There are a lot of named military dwarves now:
Derm the Soulchopper
Catten the Boneminer
Adker the Marksdwarf
Lars the Sworddwarf
Rifotangrir the Hammerdwarf
Bennet the Hammerdwarf (formerly Shorast the Unlucky)
That's all for the setup, here we go . . .Events of the 20th of Galena, 314The first siege in 2 years had Derm the Soulchopper excited. The last one had occurred in 312, a seeming eternity ago. But now, thanks to him being out to watch over the arriving Human caravan standing among the remains of previous sieges, he had a chance to exercise his skills once again. He raised Akmeshitat and sounded the alarm. Then he turned to his squad: “You stay here and cover the last of this caravan. I need to go check what’s going on in the hills. There aren’t nearly enough goblins down here in the lowlands; I think they’re trying to flank us.”
Bennet and Rifotangrir were up on the hills watching over the excavation site. They were mostly bored since the miners had all gone back down to the fortress to help haul items to the depot. But then they saw the goblins coming over the hills. At first the thought was they could reposition to intercept the goblins as they came around the trench. Then suddenly they noticed a small problem.
There were still a couple ramps that hadn’t been removed during construction. Somehow they had been missed until now. The goblins would slip past them if they didn’t hurry. Rifotangrir called the charge. Bennet was quietly hopeful that he could get through this battle without injury. Then they saw Derm charging up the hill towards the first goblin squad. A squad of goblin archers was following close behind. Bennet went charging off into battle, somehow missing the comment from Rifotangrir swinging around the outside edge of the fortress to catch a different squad on the valley bottom . . .
Derm: Derm charged in to the squad up on the hillside. He had been correct when he overheard the miners saying a few ramps still needed to be removed. Ordinarily he would have left things to the hammerdwarves but they were stationed quite far out and with civilians at risk he didn't want to take any chances.
He tore the eye right out of a goblin with his first swing and then a goblin took a kick at Derm's mouth. Derm responded by biting the goblin on the foot, and then with a sharp jerk of his head he pulled the goblin over. The goblin screamed in pain as Derm nearly yanked the goblins leg right off with the force of the swing. The goblins leg went limp and it collapsed to the ground. Derm finished it off with a couple of swings of Akmeshitat and turned to the remaining goblins.
The next goblin chose to charge at Derm swinging it’s hammer madly. Derm simply stood his ground and watched in amusement as the goblin collided with him and fell to the ground. He taunted the goblin by simply poking it with the pommel of Akmeshitat an act which drove the goblin into a rage. Derm responded by knocking a few teeth out of his mouth with Akmeshitat before chopping the goblin to pieces. Several more goblins fell to the swing of his axe.
The next several minutes could be simply described as a spray of blood and body parts as Derm proceeded to dismantle the first squad. Several more goblins attempted charging Derm as he fought but Derm simply stood his ground and laughed as the goblins bounced off him. Derm had diversified his skills over the past two years. In addition to severing limbs with Akmeshitat, he bashed the goblins on the head with the pommel of Akmeshitat, he shattered arms with his feet and damaged eyes with his fists.
He even shattered the arm of one goblin with the flat side of Akmeshitat, just because he could.
Then he noticed Bennet in combat nearby and he started fighting his way over to them.
Bennet: Bennet charged into battle and quickly found himself surrounded by 4 goblins. He started to swing with his hammer, blocking shots with his shield. But for one horrible moment it appeared his luck was still betraying him. Bennet tripped and found himself on his back with goblins pummeling him from every side. He fought to his feet and swung out with his shield intending to block, but instead he struck the goblin solidly in the chest causing a rib to break. As he considered this, he was knocked down once again.
Then, it came to him. Bennet rose to his feet once more, ignoring the blows of his enemies. And he began swinging his shield as his primary weapon while blocking with his hammer. He fell into a martial trance and swung his shield as hard as he could; shattering the defenses of his opponent. Finally, the goblin fell unconscious as a blow from Bennet's his shield crushed its skull.
Now he felt truly like he could be called a Hammerlord even if he was fighting with his shield. He held his ground against one charging goblin and while it stunned him for a moment, he still managed to take down his enemy easily. Finally it seemed like he had found his style for combat.
He managed to take down two more opponents before Derm carved through the enemies to reach him. Derm then ordered Bennet down to the front gate saying, “These archers are MINE.” Bennet accepted those orders and made his way down to rejoin his squad, pleased that his curse seemed to be lifted.
Derm: Derm charged the archers with great ferocity. His first target was the Axelord. He dodged through a wall of arrows and quickly tore into the goblin. The air was filling with arrows, but Derm managed to dodge or block every single one. In the process he had to slam into the nearby stone wall. As he recovered, through the air thick with arrows came a charging axelord. The impact knocked Derm right off his feet. As Derm stood up, the axelord tried to take a chunk out of Derm, but Derm Deftly dodged backwards and took of the Axelord’s hand. As the axelord looked at his hand in surpise, Derm charged and returned the favor, knocking the axelord down before taking his head.
The rest of the archers increased their rate of fire, but none of them came even close to hurting him. He continued the fight and managed to behead one more archer. But then he sensed a presence at his back. He turned just in time to see several trolls emerging from the moat to charge him. The arrows continued to fly around him as he braced himself for the impact.
The troll colloided solidly sending Derm flying. He tumbled backwards with a shout of defiance at the troll . . .
Catten, Adker and Lars: The sworddwarf and marksdwarf squads had been off duty in the dining hall when the shouts about a siege were heard. They quickly gathered their gear and ran for the surface. When they got there, there were just a few goblins left at the front gate. They got a few swings in but they were too late for the main battle.
Then they saw Bennet coming towards them from the hills, completely unhurt. 'Derm's taking care of a few up in the mountains, he told me to come down and check on things here.” he said. They listened and hear the sounds of pitched battle up in the hills and screams of terror and fury.
“Maybe we had better go check up on him . . .”
Derm: Derm was enjoying himself:
OOC: This is just too much to write up so I’ll let it speak for itself. Highlights include Derm shaking a goblin to death with his teeth, ignoring Trolls to dismantle goblins, blocking arrows while stunned, and generally demonstrating the meaning of his title Soulchopper. 
OOC: Derm shakes a goblin apart with his teeth.
OOC: Derm breaks an arm with a punch.
Derm was just wiping off his brow when the military got to the top of the hill. He looked over at them. “Any injuries?” he asked with a satisfied smile.
Cog's Journal, 21st of Galena, 314Well here is the aftermath of our latest siege:
Derm the Soulchopper: 21 goblins, 4 Trolls
Catten the Boneminer: No new kills
Adker the Marksdwarf: No new kills
Lars the Sworddwarf: 1 Goblin
Rifotangrir the Hammerdwarf: 3 Goblins
Bennet the Hammerdwarf: 3Goblins
And no injuries!
As for the human merchants, they brought lots of materials but not a lot that we could actually use. We bought food and metal from them and then gave them several crates of fine stone crafts as a thank you for the reliable trading they've given us all this time. Even if they still haven't sent a trading representative.
On another note, I've ordered the construction of a rock crusher at the bottom of the grand spiral stairway. We need to get rid of some of these rocks and that's a fairly central location to dump them.
Cog's Journal, 22nd of Galena, 314Apparently two more dwarves have been inspired to adopt new names as a result of Bennet's success in the latest battle. Considering his unprecedented lack of injuries, I can't say I blame them.
First one of our Sworddwarves decided to try and stand out better. There are only three sword dwarves in Catten's squad who haven't adopted new names (included Catten herself, although she does go by Boneminer now). I suppose they're trying to find themselves among Derms unbelievable fighting prowess. I have altered his file to his new name, Rashem the Sworddwarf.
Rashem has managed a few kills, including one in the most recent siege (314)
Thent we have one of our miners. I suspect this dwarf was also moved by the death of Kib. Adopting a human style name will certainly make him stand out a bit more in the history books. I have altered his file to read Flint the Miner.
It's always nice to see dwarves trying to stand out a bit more. We seem to get that a lot around here.
OOC: Whew, that was a long one to write up. I really wanted to get more of the military dwarves involved in this but by the time I realized how many of the goblins were up on the hill, Derm had it all sewn up solo. He went in a completely different direction than I ordered him, probably due to the trench digging. Did the combat system get tweaked recently? This is much more creative and diverse combat than I remember from the past.
On a separate note, I'm planning on going through the list of named dwarves soon to give you all a feel for how things are going. That will include a post showing your bio and skills if necessary. I'll post a few each update starting soon.
@dermonster: No such luck with finding any goblin spirits. I hope tearing off a couple of limbs with your teeth will make up for it. 
I suppose you'll have a bit leftover for with your ale as a result.
@Urist Imiknorris: Heh, murDermed. I approve!
@Crifmer: Ahah! Now I’ve tracked down your original post as well and it was you indeed. Thanks for posting again, glad to hear you’re still interested. I need another migration soon so you'll be dorfed pretty quick now.
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Topic: Towersoared - Chronicles of Construction (Community) - 0.31.25 (Read 295953 times)