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[Pisano]

Sorry but I'm out of town for two weeks.  I'll have to be skipped.

[melkorp]

Am I up?  I'm up, aren't I? 

[Glacial]

Go melkorp, go!

[melkorp]

Downloading. 

[melkorp]

Pfft, you call that a horrifying cataclysm?  Cavebrands managed to get all the way down to a single-digit population!

We now meet the criteria. 

~*~ ~&~ ~*~

MURDERCLOISTERS, 1st Moonstone, 872

What does this look like to you?



I see an idiot child, one tooth in it's slack mouth, both middle fingers extended.  It's actually the the gates of Murdercloisters.  Did you know we don't have an official motto?  I've jotted down some ideas:

I No Longer Fear Hell
The End Of History
National Wilddeath Preserve

The investigations are closed, "Justice" has finally been served: all murders atoned for in blood.  The plague carried the rest, and there are but seven of us left, as it was in the beginning.  I haven't seen the child Zefon in a while.  The other five are in the hospital, I alone am able to stand.   

The traders wait at the depot, they cheer me on as I pile bodies, clean stains, run for bandages, splints, plaster and thread.  Murdercloisters is sprawling but small.  I know nothing of medicine but I learn fast.  My shoes wear out completely: if the plague is bourne through contact it will be over quickly, blood gushing from the soles of my feet like the others.  Yet I'm spared.  What causes the plague?  Food?  Water? 

By the time the caravan is away, all but Pisanoa, the former mayor, are well enough to work: knocking out coffins, mopping up blood, carving memorials for the spirits of the dead which follow us everywhere.  One day, Sosmil willing, we'll put them all to rest.

The gates are shut, every object aboveground forbidden.  What causes the plague?

Have my predecessors written of the escape pod?  It's a fortress in miniature, with a collapsible entrance: brilliant.  All the necessities are cached within to survive indefinitely.  We sleep there now.  Outside the door is a small niche, formerly walled up, containing only loose stone blocks and this note:



Did a freed pig cause the plague?  Who freed it?

-- Sibrek Inkskinned, emergency manager, mayor, broker, bookkeeper, and chief medical dwarf
   Town of Usanoddom, Pop. 6     

[melkorp]

SPRING 873
Town of Usanoddom Pop 20

Cleaned up a foul smelling pool just inside the main gate, engraved a sort of doormat:



I'd hoped that would put an end to the plague, as I'd been walking around barefoot since Winter.  Then a stray kitten melted away into a blood stain as it crossed the dining hall.  I put on steel boots, and the rest followed.

A migrant wave saved us.  Cleaning, hauling, dumping around the clock.  The new citizens thanked me for the surplus of available beds, praised my foresight.  I smiled tightly and turned away, cleaned another bloodstain, carved another slab.  The howling storm of undead souls has dwindled to an eerie breeze, as more souls are sent to rest in the bosom of Sosmil each day.   

The beast Camaba was killed here: blood on the wall.  Is this the cause of the plague?  I order it walled over:



The new militia is only 3 bowmen, but they executed a kobold thief in the keep in a most spectacular fashion, the new militia captain delivering the coup de grace with the butt of his steel crossbow.  The goblins feebly attempted an ambush of the human merchants, it was quickly repelled.  Their power is broken, their dwarven queen rests in relative splendor in our deepest halls.  I've never understood how that happened...something about the liens on their obsidian tower and the tax code...

The civilian guard is all armored and well equipped, and our surface perimeter field of automated spear traps is a fearsome sight, I'm told.  Me, I haven't seen the sun in six months.  Since the perennially unconscious Pisanoa was once again elected Mayor, I've thrown myself into management of the fort.  One more good migrant wave and no more outbreaks of plague will ensure our survival for another year. 

Unless I've missed something?

-Sibrek Inkskinned, former mayor, manager, &ct &ct       

[DuckThatQuacks]

This is great!

Re: The Missing Pig
I accidentally sealed the hunting pig into that little niche, and as the note says, it was covered in extract so I didn't free it.

Re: The Escape Pod
As I recall, I forgot to equip the escape pod with an anvil, so you might want to look into that if you think you might have to use it.

[melkorp]

Ah, the hunting pig, he's alive and well.  I'll name him something.

Hey, who built the showers?  How do I use them?  Do they work? 

[TurkeyXIII]

I built them.  They should work, unless they've been damaged.  You just need to profile a dwarf to a lever and order it pulled.  The lever doesn't do anything, just gets the smelly dwarf to run over the pressure plate that starts the shower.

They will, however, splash contaminant all over everything.

[Megaman3321]

Why is it designed like that?

[melkorp]

Autumn, 873

The caravan from the Mountainhome approached from the North, our liason from the west.  The goblins ambushed in four squads of six goblins, each led by a human or dwarf.  As if by an agreed signal, each squad attacked and slew their leader, leaving two dead humans and two dead dwarves.  The death of their Queen has left a power vacuum, it would seem. 

The caravan fought off a couple of speargoblins, but an axegoblin and macegoblin chased our liason right into an advancing squad of bowgoblins.  Oh well.  We don't need a barony this year, I guess; I sleep in a Royal Bedchamber as it is.   

I now believe the fortress to be contaminant free: there are various forbidden articles of clothing and armor strewn about, these must be left alone.  In the hospital, there's a room so contaminated I've simply walled it shut.



There was a pool of bloody, gooey water I had floored over, but since I did this everyone's been trying to fill the well in the main hall as if it were a pond.  Strange.

It's the 9th of Moonstone, the traders loiter at the Depot, telling and retelling each other stories about the ambush.  The gates are closed.  The caverns are sealed.  The fortress is safe.  I'm done. 

This is a portrait of a stray hunting boar.  We call him Bloodpig, he's Usanoddom's living memorial to the victims of the plague and the spiral of murders.  Bloodpig is stained with the blood of over 50 individual dwarves, all dead.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Never pet Bloodpig.  Never, never pet Bloodpig.

Here's the numbers. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh, I found a bloody old tablet while cleaning up, something about a Ministry of Tourism.  Turns out we have an official motto after all:

Murdercloisters: Where a Year May Well Be a Lifetime

-Sibrek Inskinned, current manager, bookkeeper, broker, et al
Town of Usanoddom, pop 27

*~* *&* *~*

SAVE
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=3803

Some neat stuff: whoever built the automated, wind-powered spike field owes this thread a detailed tutorial, in my opinion.  The showers and escape pod are also favorites.  I built nothing, but we survived; it looked doubtful for a while ... I used to think beast sickness was a game ender, but this and the reclaim of Battlefailed proves that there's nothing that obsessive micromanagement cannot overcome. 

Who's next?

[Glacial]

Awesome update, melkorp! I'm glad to see that Murdercloisters, even if not exactly thriving, lives on.

I suspect Bloodpig is the mastermind behind the forgotten beast poisoning spree. Send it to the rack until it squeals!

[SethCreiyd]

That doormat cracked me up   Thanks for playing an awesome turn, melkorp.

I suspect Bloodpig is the mastermind behind the forgotten beast poisoning spree. Send it to the rack until it squeals!

No!  Bloodpig must not be harmed!  He should be the new fortress mascot.

Saetar33, you're up!

[Saetar33]

Shewt, 2 successions todo today, and a spanish project to finish over the weekend....
Sounds like "fun".

[Graebeard]

That doormat cracked me up   Thanks for playing an awesome turn, melkorp.

I suspect Bloodpig is the mastermind behind the forgotten beast poisoning spree. Send it to the rack until it squeals!

No!  Bloodpig must not be harmed!  He should be the new fortress mascot.

Saetar33, you're up!

Anyone read Alistair Reynolds?  In his Revelation Space universe we created "hyperpigs" that are a hybrid of pig and human DNA.  One of the pig characters is named Blood.  He is a badass.

Blood for the bloodpig!