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[Kipi]

Chapter 8 - The Preparations

20th of Malachite, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

The preparations are proceeding more or less as planned. The miners have completed mining more iron ore and coal, so we should begin the process of making steel soon enough.

I have also chosen the place for the panic room; it's the huge iron vein upstairs, the same cleared area where all the iron ores and coal has come from. It should be large enough to house all the children, council and guards. I have also been thinking of muddying part of it, so that in case that everything goes wrong we can at least make more food.

23rd of Galena, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

There has been so much to do that I have had no time to write this diary lately.

First of all, the project of making steel equipment proceeds as planned, we have no begun making steel. When that's done we move to equipment. I calculated that we need fifty full sets of equipment, which means about three hundred and fifty bars of steel.

Secondly, we have abandoned the old ore mine as our safe heaven, and instead the preparations of turning the farming room to that has begun. The room has already made bigger, next we begin setting the storages there. Then we need to build one still there to ensure the supply of alcohol, farms will provide all the food we need.

Next thing, I have ordered the plans of setting some artillery aiming towards the adamantine vein. Yes, Soapalope thinks I'm exaggerating here, but I just can't forget all the tales I have heard about situations when the miners have been too greed with adamantine. Those tales were the original reason why the veins in mountainhome has not been mined further in a long time, our queen also knows the risks in that. So, we better be ready than not.

I also met the human traders today. They had not much to offer us, so I bought all the alcohol and food they could sell. Surprisingly, just few trinkets were enough to pay all the stuff, though those trinkets were encrusted with gems.

I also heard that there is human diplomat somewhere here, haven't met her yet though. Not sure why she is here, never heard humans sending diplomats anywhere if there was no peace to be negotiated, and those were done only after war. We are not in war with humans, so I don't honestly know what she is doing here.


5th of Limestone, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

I finally met the human diplomat today. Damn she was hard to track down!

She was not in official mission here, she was just paying us a visit. Well, that explains a lot, like why she didn't meet Soapalope at all. Speaking of which, Soapalope was quite angry when she found out that there had been human diplomat paying us a visit and that she was not informed about it. Well, I don't care what she thinks, as there was no official meeting done she was not required. Nevertheless, the diplomat has already left the fortress, so it's too late now.

Not much mentionable progress has happened, still working on all the projects.


15th of Limestone, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

While the preparations are been done downstairs, our entrance has been suffering from the assault of buzzards lately. Dozen or so buzzards are trying to enter our fortress, flying over the walls. Luckily our archers, and one archer especially called Gateappear, has been doing fine job to scare the buzzards away.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Urist is dead tome]

I got a bad feeling about what's next.

[Kipi]

Well, you should! 

Sorry for not much updating this story lately, have been quite busy and suffering from hangover (second day in a row...  ). Going to try to get some progress today, but with FPS of 30 it's will take some time.

So, stay tuned! I have some epic things planned.

[Kipi]

22nd of Sandstone, year 162
Personal log of Soapalope, the baroness

I know we are preparing ourselves for the mining of adamantine. I gave Knifeled the leave of decide what's necessary, even though I don't see any point in all this fuss. But still I have NOT given any permissions to disregard my orders of production!

The lazy smiths decided to not fulfill my order of two aluminum items! Well, according the laws of Craftwaters, if my production order is not completed, then I have the permission of decide the sanction.

Now, what could be good sanction? Well, I know that Taricus, Knifeled and few other council members have been teaming up against me, though not officially. But I know about their alliance. So, since were the smiths who disregarded my order, I think it's sufficient to punish their leader for not passing my orders to them. So, Taricus is sentenced to serve one hundred and one days in prison. Serves the alliance right!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

22nd of Sandstone, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

This is an outrage! Soapalope cam to my office today and announced that she has ordered Taricus to be arrested! And for what? Not completing two aluminum items!

Sadly there is nothing I can do about this, as I have no intention to act in public. But this definitely sets back our preparations, with one able smith less to work. Also, it's interesting to see how this affect on the rest of council. Have to go and see how Taricus is doing.


25th of Sandstone, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

Soapalope has ordered new production order. She wants again items made from aluminum, this time one item is sufficient though. Well, she hasn't realized that we don't have any aluminum in our fortress! It's hard to make something when you don't have the material for it!

I tried to convince Soapalope today that there is no chance to produce what she wants, but she doesn't listen. I tried to tell her that it's no good to lock every smith of ours just because of that, but she keeps on demanding those items. And she will keep doing so to the point we actually comply her, before that she will sentence more and more smiths to jail.

[Taricus]

Log of Councilman Political prisoner Taricus

This may be the tipping point, that *illegible* has gone too far, I'm going to see if one of the guards can take this note to Knifeled.

To Knifeled

The time comes near, she will destroy us with her demands, we must act now before she dooms the mountainhome

Gather the milita and strike down this demon.

If I'm dead by the time this reaches you, please tell Skinnywalled I love her

From Taricus

[Kipi]

14th of  Timber, year 162
Personal log of Soapalope, the baroness

I got a message from Taricus today. Even though there is nothing I can do to reduce his sentence, I called the council to meeting, though Soapalope was not invited.

The result of the meeting was unanimous; the baroness Soapalope must be removed from her position. As we have no legal way of doing that, we arrested her due the suspicion of trading with elves.

Now, in reality she has never done such thing, but officially we are suspecting her. Now, she has been locked inside her bedroom for the duration of investigation, which may take quite long. Sadly, I and all the rest of members of council have forgotten where the keys are, so until we find those we can not give any food nor water to her. What a shame...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

17th of  Timber, year 162
Personal log of Soapalope, the baroness

I met the caravan today. We bought some food, alcohol, metal and steel equipment for soldiers. To them we gave some crafts and stuff cluttering our storages.


22nd of  Timber, year 162
Personal log of Soapalope, the baroness

One of children died today. Apparently she was attacked by goblin near the bridge outside, and was knocked down to one of the traps. Unfortunately the trap was too effective, and there was not much left from the child when the first dwarf reached the scene.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The child has been buried in the graveyard.


6th of Moonstone, year 162
Personal log of Soapalope, the baroness

The ballista battery has been completed! Six ballistas, facing the small hallway, ready to shoot anything than tries to infiltrate the fortress from the vein. I'm pleased.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

To make all the steel equipment for our civilians we need around one hundred bars of steel. That's a lot, and as we are already running out of iron I ordered some magnetite to be mined from upper section of the fortress.

[Kipi]

9th of Moonstone
Personal log of Knifeled

The liaison came and left. She was quite surprised about what we were doing, but as it was not really her problem and this could provide some adamantine to mountainhome, she left it be.

Checking us was not the only task the liaison had; she came to here to promote this fortress to county! And who shall be our count/countess? Well, who else than our oh-so-liked Soapalope! The liaison wanted to see her and congratulate her in person, but I said that she was so busy elsewhere that she has no time to meet anybody right now. I didn't want to mention about the official investigation of her relations with elves, as our actions would then become under the observation of the queen, and that's not what we want right now. We can worry such things later, but now we have to concentrate on the defenses of our fortress.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

6th of Opal
Personal log of Knifeled

Everybody, rejoice!

The short but even worse reign of first baroness then countess Soapalope ended today when she died to thirst in her bedroom. She was locked in there due our suspicions of her dealings with elves. That's the official story, in reality we just locked her in there to keep her away from doing crazy mandates, bossing us around and being pain in ass with every possible way.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In every other situation I would say "Rest In Peace", but for some reason this time I just don't feel to do that. May she rot in hell instead!

Taricus is still in prison, as there is nothing we can do to get him out before he has suffered his sentence. But I visited him few hours ago to inform about the death of Soapalope. He was relieved, as we all are.


13th of Opal
Personal log of Knifeled

Today tragedy hit our fortress; Taricus died to thirst in the cell, with only ten days left of his sentence.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I passed his message to Skinnywalled, who was broken.

I can't believe this happened. I curse you, Soapalope, to eternal life of being a toy to the demons of the hell! Without you this would have not happened! But we have to move on, we have still lots of things to do. We shall remember him when we strip out the adamantine vein.


15th of Opal
Personal log of Knifeled

Some of the dwarves have taken the death of Taricus very seriously. For example one soldier, called Flickermetals, totally flipped today, and threw a tantrum. In his rage he attacked Icesilvers and her baby, wounding the baby badly.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now, I ordered the rest of the squad to keep their eyes on him. We can't afford losing any of our seasoned veterans. Not now anyway.


16th of Opal
Personal log of Knifeled

I don't know what's going to happen next. It seems that half of our military is near to flipping out, with Flickermetals only being the first to really show the symptoms. Nobody else has gone to mad or thrown a tantrum yet, but I fear it's only matter of time before that happens. And then, well, we may have uncontrollable spiral in our hands.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Kipi]

17th of Opal, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

The husband of Icesilvers heard about the incident that happened yesterday. Gods, I have never seen him so angry. He rushed to the station point where Flickermetals still was, and begun mauling him with his axe.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In his fury Releasedmansions beaten the shit out from the poor dwarf, wounding him very badly. Others weren't interested in stopping him as they all saw this to be justice. Flickermetals had, after all, no reasons to hit neither Icesilvers nor the baby.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Apparently the wounds, even though those looked bad at the first glance, weren't too serious. Broken nose should be the worse thing left from the beating Flickermetals got, so no harm done there. Personally I too believe the beating was justified.


OOC: Great, just great! Look what you did Taricus!  Why you had to die just about ten days before release? 
But seriously, looks like I don't have to mine adamantine at all, I think I'm dealing with full tantrum spiral sooner or later.

[Taricus]

Log of Councilman Political prisoner The Ghost of Taricus

Welp, The bitch is dead the bitch is dead and I'm descecrating the tomb.

Oh and everyone is going to kill one another, proof the people should never suffer the unelected noble to live.

Whheeeeeee.

[Kipi]

15th of Obsidian, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

I have never seen the people living here so unhappy. Where ever I go I see unhappy, miserable faces. And the lines behind my office door, gods it seems that everybody suddenly wants to meet me, to discuss the problems they have.

We have begun the next phase of the preparations. Even though we still don't have quite enough steel we have already begun making the equipment. Last time I checked the forges all the shields were made, and the smiths were moving to next piece of equipment.


22nd of Obsidian, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

I was woken up by loud crash coming from somewhere around the sealed drainage of the farms. When I went down to investigate I saw the military charging towards strange creature, something I have never seen before.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The creature resembled huge snail, though it was scaly and violet. God, where such thing came from?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

When the soldiers reached the creature it revealed that it was able to breathe some kind of dust, surrounding the soldiers with it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

When the dust settled down I saw something I never shall forget; Any skin the dust touched was melting away. If there was no skin left then the muscles and bones were melting, resulting limbs dropping down. When the creature was preparing for another release of dust I decided to escape, and alerted the archers down there to deal the creature from far away.

[Kipi]

23rd of Obsidian, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

The forgotten beast is dead!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Unfortunately the military took some serious casualties, though only one baby has died so far.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Besides the dead baby four soldiers received some heavy wounds. It appears that the dust the creature was breathing was very corrosive, melting anything it touched.

Worst damage was caused to Icesilvers. Since she lost the baby during the battle, and since she has lost few other children during her time in Craftwaters, according to doctors the chance that she survives this is very, very slim. The poor lass was in so bad shape that the only thing we were able to recognize her was the fact that she was carrying her dead baby. We were even surprised to find out that she is still alive, though the breathing was very difficult.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Second wounded soldier was Bombur. Even though there were some serious wounds in his skull and chest, and even when the doctors suspected that his heart has taken damage, I still believe he will survive this. But time will tell.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Third wounded soldier was Granitewhiskered, the captain of the squad. She took some damage to his head and chests, but the worst thing was that she lost her left arm completely. I saw a pool of melted skin and bone on the ground, and basing on what Bombur was able to tell me indicated that her left arm just melted away. I can't imagine how much that had to hurt.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The last wounded dwarf was Flickermetals, though as he was trapped inside the cage due passing out while standing over trap, we have not been able to determine his wounds yet. But I fear those are grave too, at least how he looked inside the cage.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

24th of Obsidian, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

Granitewhiskered and Icesilvers are already under the diagnosis. It may take a while, as the doctors noticed that the dust is still corroding their body. Both dwarves have already lost parts of their bodies, like lips, eyelids and so on. We fear that none of the dwarves will surive this.

[Kipi]

OOC: Okay, I ran this fortress a bit forward, and noticed that it will fall eventually. So, since there is not much to do, I decided that at least we must go in style. Also, as I have made some preparations (two videos) for the ending, I decided revert to old save, just after the beginning of year 163. So, anything posted here before has happened. I also don't know anything in advance after this post, so it could be we survive, though I doubt it.

Now, for the videos, the visual part I made myself, with Paint.Net, but the audio tracks in both videos are not mine. Instead I used short part of two tracks from band called "Cradle of Filth". The more details of this are inside the spoiler just bellow. If you don't want to get spoiled the contents of the video, don't read the spoiler section!

Spoiler: The video information (click to show/hide)

So, the two videos are actually just two short sections of tracks "The Cult of Veus Aversa" and "Beyond Eleventh Hour", made by band Cradle of Filth. The visual sections are just lyrics done with Paint.Net, and then the pictures combined to the audio by Windows Movie Maker. Also, if you really hate music similar to theirs (black/doom metal) then I suggest you don't watch those two videos, but instead find the lyrics by googling. The sections are from the beginning of the tracks, the speaked sections with female voice.

I also change the style back from diary to something like combination, as there will be lots of things I must describe but there is no logical way that Knifeled would know everything. So, I will use general storytelling mostly, combined with excerpts from diaries of different dwarves.[/color]

Chapter 9 - The Beginning of The End

The year 163 began in sadness. Several deaths had occurred in Craftwaters during last months, and several of the soldiers were injured, possibly lethally, during the assault of forgotten beast. The beast was already dead, but none of the soldiers were expected to survive from the wounds.

One serious blow to the morale of the population was the death of counselor Taricus, who died in jail due the lack of drink. He had served ninety days from his sentence, and there was only ten days left of it. As Taricus was well known and generally very liked dwarf, the death of his meant several unhappy dwarves, few of them even throwing tantrums.

Skinnywalled, the wife of now dead Taricus, was left extremely miserable. She didn't talk to anybody after the funeral, spending most of her time near the adamantine vein. So far she had not done anything, but her co-workers were worried about her and what she might do. And one day, 8th of Granite, she finally acted. At first nobody noticed that she had went missing, but the trembling of the ground woke them to realize that something had happened. At the same moment one of the miners saw strange purple light and dark clouds coming from the direction of the adamantine vein.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Almost immediately there was loud shriek echoing everywhere, the voice demonic.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Suddenly, everything went quiet. Everybody had halted to where they were standing, confused and terrified of what had happened. After few seconds they heard laughter of female voice, with strange sound echoing in the background. Then their minds were filled by voice speaking, and the voice was the same female one that had laughed just moments ago.

The voice, part 1

After the screaming had ended there was laughter again, after which the voice spoke again.

The Voice, part 2


After that, everything went quiet. Nobody moved, nearly scared to death. What was that? Who was behind the voice? And what had it meant by all that? Nobody had the answers yet, though they soon would realize what had befallen to them...

[Kipi]

The following hours revealed to the dwarves of Craftwaters what Skinnywalled had released; the demons of hell and, with them, Lilith herself.

In dwarven mythology there was no mention of such character, but in human mythology there was. It was said that Lilith was some kind of mistress of the demons, perhaps even one of the first created. By who and when there was no knowledge nor theories, but it was believed that she led the huge army of demons in hell.

During the centuries dwarves had encountered demons, mostly when they had dug too deep, there were stories of even armies of demons spotted in the ruins of old fortresses. But nowhere were mentioned that the forces were led by somebody or something.


So, the demons were set free, and those had clear path to the fortress. The first dwarf who fell under the monsters of depths of hell was who else than Skinnywalled. The cook Astesh Idolirons saw the whole thing, and she was even able to flee before the demons noticed her to share her tale.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"From personal diary of Idolirons

What I saw today I can not describe. But I have to try, as the image of what happened to Skinnywalled is burned in my head.

I saw her emerge from the adamantine mine, and right after her was dozens of strange things. This was right after the strange voice spoke in my head, mind you. So, later I learned that Skinnywalled was able to breach the hell itself, and released group of demons, led by demon called Lilith.

Now, right after Skinnywalled emerged from the stairs leading down I saw her face, filled with terror. She tried to run to me, but one of the demons grabbed her with winged arm, preventing her to flee. At that point Skinnywalled tried to swing her pick towards the demons holding her. She succeed hitting the thing, but there was no harm caused by the pick. By then another creatures had come, and begun kicking her down. Arms, legs, everything was broken by those savage kicks, and after there was no working part of body left in Skinnywalled one demon kicked her in head. I saw the paw going through the skull, blood, pieces of shattered skull and pieces of brain flying to the wall.

It was too much to me, so I begun to ran, and never looked back again. I'm surprised I'm still alive."


The news Idolirons brought startled the whole fortress. Every soldiers was ordered to group in the hallway leading to the adamantine vein, though the hope was already lost. Few dwarves heard Knifeled muttering something about "I told her, but she didn't want to believe. Who is the fool now?" It was unclear who Knifelede meant by "she", but popular believe was that it was Soapalope who she meant, as Soapalope was always against the preparations, saying that the tales were just that, tales.

[Kipi]

9th of Granite, year 163
Personal log of Knifeled

I have begun the emergency plan; the food stockpiles are constructed to our safe room, in addition of wood stockpile. When we have some food and wood stored there I will lock myself inside there along with rest of the living council, children and anybody who happens to be inside at that time. We are going to seal ourselves in, hopefully in time to avoid the slaughter of demons.

Speaking of demons, they are slowly approaching our fortress. I'm a bit surprised how long those take to get here, but to buy more time I sent all our soldiers in fit for fight guard the only passage, hopefully we get enough time to safe at least small partition of our population.


10th of Granite, year 163
Personal log of Knifeled

I heard that the first clash between the demons and our military has occurred, and that the battle is still going on strong. For now our casualties are just one dwarf, soldier called Armorpaint, but the quick description of the situation indicates that our military is already doomed, as there is just no way to wound the demons with our weapons in reliable way.

I tried to get the preparations of safe haven to speed up, but without much success. Everybody is working as fast as they can, and I have to soon announce the sealing to be done. We just need a bit wood, drinks and barrels to support ourselves.


I just got information that first demon has been killed! One of our archers was able to shoot the thing down, using bolts made from bishmut bronze! Hurrah!
If I had knew the effectiveness of archers against the demons, I would have prepared more squads for ranged combat. But alas it's already too late for that.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And another demon is down! We are leading this battle 2-1! The Strike Team has proving their worthy, at least basing on the reports I'm getting. Apparently demons are having hard time to get through adamantine armor, which gives the soldiers enough time to hack the foul things down!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The situation in the battlefield is chaotic. Latest report indicate that we are leading this one 3-2, though the reports are getting more and more confusing. I better go and check it myself, though I must try to stay far enough from the actual fight.


This is my last report of today. One archer died just moments ago, unfortunately it was the same dwarf who killed one of the demons. Otherwise, the Strike Team is doing good job, six demons are down already. But I fear that's not enough, as it appears that we are dealing nothing else but the first assault, the main army of demons are still coming in the tunnels. I pray for Armok that we survive this!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Kipi]

11th of Granite, year 163
Personal log of Knifeled

This is the last note I write in this diary. I hope it survives so that people in future will learn from our mistakes.

Our defense has been broken, and the demons are rushing towards us.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I gave the order to seal the safe chamber by closing the floodgates, perhaps giving enough time to our masons to build the last piece of wall dedicated to the sealing. Everybody who happened to be inside the chamber when the floodgates were closed will hopefully survive, as they shall not come out before the situation has calmed and the demons have left this fortress. I don't belong among those lucky ones, as I saw that my place is among the soldiers, to give orders and help the wounded ones. All our military leaders are dead, and I'm the highest ranking officer still alive and able to give orders.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I have accepted my fate, and I wish that some day the survivors can emerge from the chamber and rebuild this grand fortress. For it would be a shame if everything is destroyed just because of our greed. And I wish somebody will some day find this diary and learn from our actions. For we have learned that adamantine is dangerous, and should only be mined if the immediate sealing of the vein is possible. We did not have that possibility, and now we are going to die in hands of Lilith and her army of demons.

I'm coming, Armok!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Even though the few though the safe chamber was sealed by floodgates, the chaos had spread inside it as well. Because of loosing so many friends all of the dwarves were spiritually in bad shape, and it was only a question of time before somebody snapped. The first dwarf to do so was the former clothier Peakedlance. Due the all chaos and misery she had seen she went crazy and begun punching and kicking one of her fellow dwarf, Tradedwinters.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As there was no soldiers nor guards sealed inside there was nobody to stop her, and so she was able to keep mauling the poor dwarf.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the meanwhile one of the masons was able to finish the wall to seal the chamber from outside world. If the dwarves locked inside were able to calm down and reestablish the food industry, perhaps there was a chance that they would survive. At least the demons had no way to enter the chamber.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

'

Outside the chamber the demons kept killing everything living in their vicinity; dwarves, animals, anything was free meat to the demons. The carnage had already extended to the second floor, where all the stockpiles were.

-----------------------------------------------

13th of Granite, year 163
Official log of survivors, written by Kogsak Bootcloisters

I have been elected to be the leader of this sad group of survivors. That means I'm also the new mayor of this fortress, though I do not like to hold that title. But, since somebody must be in charge, I accepted the position.

First day inside the chamber has passed, and the situation is not good here. Twenty-four dwarves are living here with me, rest of the population was left outside to the hands of demons.

Our morale is getting low. Nobody likes the situation, and the voice belonging to the entity calling herself Lilith is speaking in our minds. She keeps recalling the names of the fallen dwarves, at times mocking us of how poor fight we were able to provide. She also tries to convince us to let them inside, as our death will be swift if we do. I know she is just trying to get us to fall from sanity, but we must hold on tight, we can not let our spirit to slip beyond hope.

Unfortunately few dwarves have already beyond our hope; Tradedwinters, Actedropes and Fealtylabor have gone mad, and they are attacking anybody coming near them. Nobody wants to stop them, as getting close would only mean beating to death. I blame nobody, as I'm myself a coward in my hearth, and I'm just hoping that the three dwarves' sanity return so that we can work together.