Events of the 20th of Moonstone, 308 Derm breathed in the cold damp air of the caverns. At long last, an opportunity to explore the unknown. Then he cleared his throat. “All right, let’s go see how far this lake extends.” And he made his way off into the darkness, his squad of axedwarves following close behind . . .
Events of the 22nd of Moonstone, 308Derm abruptly stopped in his tracks. The dwarves behind him bumped into him. “There it is” he whispered. “Xest, the feathered spider.” Ahead in the darkness they heard an eerie cry and the scuttling of many legs.
The squirming creature was rapidly moving towards them. Beyond them was the fortress. “It’s time to destroy this beast” he said. “It will be unable to stand against our axes.” It appeared to be moving in the direction of the fortress entrance and it wasn’t aware of their presence yet.
Then suddenly it rounded the corner and with a screech it charged in at them. Derm quickly charged forward brandishing his axe. Before the beast could do anything, Derm took two solid swings at it’s fourth right leg, breaking the chitin and then tearing into ligaments and tendons. The beast turned and charged at Derm, missing him with its teeth and colliding with him as Derm knocking him over. It made several strikes at Derm but Derm blocked them with his steel Shield.
The beast charged blindly several times at Derm, even slaming solidly into one of the many surrounding stone walls. But it did manage to knock him over several times. But then the other dwarves began to attack. One dwarf sank the axe into the third leg and another buried his axe in the abdomen.
The beast was visibly slowed now. “Carefully!” Derm yelled, “Defend yourself if it charges, everyone else catch it with its back turned!” The strategy was working; the beast just wasn’t fast enough to catch the nimble dwarves. Suddenly it charged once again quicker than expected, knocking Erith over. Then the beast opened its mouth to attempt to bite Erith. Derm quickly slipped in and lopped one of the beasts mandibles clean off!
This really seemed to be the mark of the end of the beast. The sounds of chitin fracturing were regular and audible now. The beast seemed almost faint. Finally, Derm took a mighty swing with his axe, and shattered the beast’s thorax. With a groan, it crumpled to the ground, dead.
Derm leaned on his axe. He wasn’t even winded. “Great fight everyone. Back to the fortress to report the beast is dead. Then we can get a drink.”
(OOC): Derm does it again. Not a single dwarf injured by this beast. I’m pretty sure I got lucky though. This beast wasn’t too terribly dangerous compared with some I’ve seen in action. Derm will be on with solo cave exploration shortly after I give him some time off to keep him happy.
@tuxman: It was intended as one. I can take away her room easily enough. She’s not getting happy thoughts from it anyhow since she doesn’t sleep in it now anyhow due to the bugs in the current version. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a transmutation mod for the current version of the game. I’m exploring other possibilities to create a nugget of adamantium for her.