Events of the 3rd of Granite, 315Catten was heading out to the front of the fortress to make sure things were clear in preparation for this year’s outdoor mining projects. She was just heading out the front door when she almost stumbled over a Kobold who was lurking at the entrance. She charged in ferociously and knocked it to the ground. Her sword was a blur as she rapidly dismantled the creature.
Maybe this year would be even more interesting than the last. She sheathed her sword and continued her way out front to meet her squad members. Then she heard the sound of the gate traps going off. It was an ambush and she was out here alone. Perfect, at last she had a chance to compare her strength to Derm's!
She charged into battle, sword swinging with careful precision. She immediately found herself in combat with the squad leader. Before the macegoblin could even react, she dodged right past him and stabbed her sword straight through the goblins back. A quick punch fractured the goblins upper leg before she took another stab straight into the goblins lung. From there she very carefully and efficiently took the goblin apart, carefully stabbing it repeatedly in every part of the body. It was almost too easy.
Before she knew it, the goblin was dead. At the death of their leader, the other goblins started to run. But one stayed to fight and she took great pains to ensure his passing was a painful one. She managed to remove an arm before stabbing her sword into its head for a killing blow.
Then she turned her attention to those that were fleeing. She gave chase and managed to catch one more while the other escaped. She truly unleashed hell on this third goblin, removing its arm with the first swing and its foot with the second. Before she knew it, the goblin was on the ground dead and in pieces around her.
She brushed her sword off and returned it to its sheath. It had been a good day. She idly wondered what was going on with the forgotten beast in the depths as she walked back to the front gate . . .
In the Depths: Adker had the perfect place to watch today. They'd been on station down here for many days waiting for the inevitable arrival of the best. As such, when the beast finally emerged from the lake and made a beeline for the entrance, he got the first shot off. First one and then a quick second shot embedded themselves into the leg of the beast.
He dimly heard shouting up the shaft. The plan was to close the drawbridge before the beast could reach them. The frightening thing was that none of them really knew how fast Moslo was. As it turned out, it was extremely fast. Before they knew it, Moslo was halfway across the first bridge. As Adker loaded his third bolt onto his bow, he thought about the damage this beast could do if it got upstairs. He took careful aim at the beast and let the third bolt fly.
With a terribly roar of agony, the beast collapsed to the ground. The end of the bolt was sticking out of the creatures head. He stared and notched a fourth, ready to shoot the beast. But the beast wasn’t moving.
Another threat to Towersoared had been abated.
OOC: Wow, this one prompted a lot of discussion. I did some testing in an alternate universe after these events. It wasn’t pretty for the dwarves who fought the beast; looks like this one rolled a powerful necrotic dust. I tried the animal test before the fight; animals were just torn to shreds so they didn’t survive long enough to display any symptoms. I wish there was a way to identify the syndrome without dwarves acting as guinea pigs.
@Urist Imiknorris: Consider it done! As for the traitors and criminals, we’ve never really satisfactorily determined who was responsible for the sabotage. But the jail seems to have everyone fairly nervous what with the risk of being locked outside during a forgotten beast attack.
@Comp112: I’ve been shooting for daily updates; once per week is just the minimal guarantee if my life gets crazy busy! Always Comp is working as an engraver in his own little home now. Most of the other engravers are in a separate burrow, so they won’t interfere and Comp’s burrow mostly doesn’t overlap with other active engraving work. Did you want it smoothed and detailed with your own brand of pictures?
@dermonster: I cloned the save and sent Derm in for the test. He died rapidly of rotten limbs right after he finished killing the beast. I was reading up on the syndromes and you are right that the effects are random. You willing to risk Derm being coated in blisters by one in the future?
@Syntic: I’d agree with you, except for the shortage of useless dwarves. There are still far more jobs than we have hands for. None of our dwarves are bored, that’s for sure. I do need to build a proper graveyard though; the temporary one in Old Towersoared just isn’t sufficent.
@dragonshardz: I believe you’re still plugging away at smoothing and engraving the place. There’s going to be a lot of stone detailing work in your near future. I’ll look in on your dwarf in the next update or two. By the way, I’ve almost got everything in place for that skylight project over the double helix stairway.
@Abyss, Holder of Light: The beast page has exactly what shows up on the initial announcement. I really wish there was more info.
@Indricotherium: Nice, I’ll have you web gathering before you know it! There are some webs in the first cave but the biggest supply is in the second level.