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[Kipi]

Nearing starvation and siege weren't the only things Knifeled had to worry about. One day Domas Helmedshocked entered her office.

"Madam, I want show you something."

Raising her eyes from the papers she looked the dwarf with suspicion.

"Well, don't just stand there! State your business or leave!"
"Right away. I wanted to show you something I created yesterday, a small toy for our children to play with. Perhaps it will encourage some of them to train to become smith."

Helmedshocked dug something from her pocket, then gave it to Knifeled. The item in question was small forge. First in surprise, then in anger Knifeled studied the toy. After long silence she focused to Helmedshocked again.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"You made a toy? From adamantine?!"
"Yes, madam."
"You know how valuable adamantine is?" She was almost screaming by now.
"Uh, not exactly. But the bookkeeper estimated that the value of this toy is somewhere around seven seven and half hundred thousand bucks. And most of it is coming from adamantine so I think it's quite valuable material."
"And you dared to waste it in toy?! For children?!"
"Yes, uh, I think I did." Helmedshocked was clearly scared.

Knifeled went to door, opened it and shouted.
"Craftedecho! In my office, double time!"

It took only around one minute and Craftedecho was standing inside the office.

"Craftedecho, this lass here dared to waste adamantine to make a toy for our children. That piece of adamantine means one bar less for making equipment for our soldiers, and that means it takes longer before our squad is ready to break the siege. And that means no access to the elven caravan!"

Knifeled turned to regard Helmedshocked.

"You just committed a treason. And sentence from treason is death. And with our current problems with food supplies the only correct method of execution is death by starving. Craftedecho, lock this dwarf inside one of the cells! And nobody is permitted to open the door again before she is dead! No, dismissed!"

Craftedecho saluted, then begun to drag screaming Helmedshocked towards the jail complex. After on hour she was locked inside the cell, still screaming and begging for mercy. But Knifeled had made her decision, and there was nothing to change her mind.

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At the same time the order was given to miners to begin constructing small burial site for criminals. One wooden coffin was also requested, as no criminal deserved better than wood.

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[Kipi]

Suddenly the world went quiet. Too quiet for Knifeled's liking, so she went outside to investigate. What she saw, or rather didn't saw, surprised her in good way. The goblins had left and there was no trace from there anywhere! Quickly she ran downstairs, ordered the bridge to be lowered and all the food outside to be hauled inside. But only the food, she didn't want to leave the fortress open for too long.

Unfortunately all the food had already rotten away or been taken by the goblins, but there were still several barrels of alcohol left. But as the first dwarves reached the remains of the caravan they saw group of humans nearing the fortress. The human caravan had arrived! The fortress would be saved from starvation!

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The humans were staring around, seeing corpses of goblins, elves, ettin and several animals as well as any possession left outside lying everywhere, and it was clear that they were working hard to understand what had happened. After all, the fortress had been under peace when the caravan had visited the fortress previously. But now the land surrounding the walls had turned to field of slaughter. Corpses, blood, vomit and parts of bodies were visible everywhere.

[Kipi]

Human caravan was blessing to Craftwaters. With all the food and alcohol they brought with them the fortress was able to avoid the famine, though the situation was still far from resolved.

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At least the dwarves had more time now, and with second farm running the council considered the problem solved.



After nearly two months the smith Helmedshocked died for thirst. One of the guards found her body from the floor of cell during regular patrol. The body was moved to the graveyard without ceremonies, just like Knifeled had ordered. The friends of Helmedshocked didn't like this at all, but nobody dared to question the decision. It seemed that Knifeled was holding the fortress tightly in her hands.

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[Kipi]

As everything was peaceful it was time to think about upgrading defenses and military. One of the greatest disadvantages was the weakness of the military, and especially soldiers' lack of skills. One day Firecrafted requested the leave of carrying out some plans she had, which would eventually improve the training rate of the military. With suspicion Knifeled gave the permission, and so Firecrafted begun the work with the help of her fellow workers.

Several days later Firecrafted was ready to present the result of her plans. Turned out she had constructed small room right next to barracks, with floor filled with spear traps, each trap holding single wooden training spear. All traps were connected to lever and pulling it would either active the traps or reset them.

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The idea behind the room, basing on Firecrafted's explanations, was that few soldiers would be stationed inside the room at time, and the traps were activated and reset repeatedly by pulling the lever. Each time the traps were sprung the soldiers were forced to avoid or deflect the spears, teaching them to react quickly against any strikes coming at their direction. If the soldiers were also trying to hit the spears with their weapons before the traps were reset they would also learn other fighting skills, like swinging the axe.

To Knifeled the idea behind the room was extraordinary. But there was also slight reason to worry; what would happen if the soldier didn't manage to deflect or avoid the spear? Could the soldier in question get injured? According to Firecrafted the possibility existed, but the wounds should be minor, requiring hardly any medical attention. So, assured by the explanation, Knifeled gave the order to test out the room. When four soldiers had entered the room the pulling of lever begun.

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The room was success, the skills of soldiers were getting better and better the more time they spent inside the room. And the spears were not able to penetrate the steel armor they were wearing.

Unfortunately, even though the test was success, not everything went as planned. Only after two hours of use the spears had already claimed two lives; cat and baby. Apparently one of the cats had sneaked through the door and was killed by spear.

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But the death of cat was nothing compared to other tragedy the room caused; the death of dwarven baby! Apparently one of the soldiers, Icesilvers specifically, had brought child with her inside the room. Even though the mother was not harmed by the spears, the baby was not as lucky without any piece of armor. After several hits from the spears the baby was dead. The mother didn't even realized what had happened before she left the room, by when she noticed that the baby was not breathing anymore and was covered in blood.

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The funeral of the baby was sad event, with whole fortress gathered outside of the public graveyard while the council and the baby's family gathered inside to bury her.

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[Kipi]

Only two days had passed since the death of child Clasphailed new accident happened inside the danger room; young dwarven boy was hurt when he explored the small room out of curiosity.

The boy was carried to hospital in haste, where the doctors diagnosed him. The injury was severe, as his left hand had been smashed to pieces. The estimates were that, even though there was something which could be done, the boy could never use the hand again.

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Even though the accident itself was serious, the fact that the boy had been brother of the dead baby, as had same parents. This fact brought up the question whether it was good idea at all to let females be soldiers. After long debate the council made a decision that from now on only male dwarves could be drafted to military. Those female ones who already were soldiers could keep their position, but new recruit could only be male. This decision was made to shield any child from sharing either fate the two kids wounded inside the room.

With the change of drafting system also came changes in squads. The old military squad was disbanded, and two new squad were formed. First new squad was made from all the soldiers of the original squad, excluding the militia commander. They were assigned to use the same steel equipment as they had used before, so the only change was that the squad size was now only nine soldiers and the leader was different.

Militia commander Goldrouted was assigned to lead new squad, consisting him and five male soldiers, and adamantine equipment was given to them. This new squad was meant to be the strike team, which would engage the enemy first, while the other squad would serve as backup and deal any escaping enemy.

Last change was the forbidding of the danger room from any other squad than strike squad.

[Kipi]

The danger room had truly proven that the name was more than fitting to it; another baby died due being impaled by the spears.


So, in less than two months already two children had died and one seriously injured inside that room. Knifeled summoned the council to decide what should be done. After long debate, and the decision was made by tight majority in voting, it was decided that the room should be used only under supervision and while the lever is pulled the door should be kept locked. The locking decision was made to prevent any dwarf who did not belong the squad assigned to train inside the room wandering inside, and thus getting injured.

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While the council was considering the usage of danger room the Strike Team, as the new squad led by commander was called, had drawn first blood; two naked mole dogs had wandered inside the fortress from small gap inside the farm construction site. Luckily the council had taken precautions and ordered the Strike Team near the gap to prevent anything coming inside.

The battle was quick, with adamantine axes cutting through the flesh and bone of both mole dogs like hot knife through butter, and the beasts had no changes of penetrating the armor made from the same material with only claws and fangs. So, the squad emerged from the fight victorious and without a scratch.

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[Kipi]

The winter was nearing when goblins decided to lay another siege against Craftwaters.

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But what is this? The goblins are fighting against each other! Apparently one goblin was able to annoy everybody else in his squad, and thus they turned their weapons against this lonely goblin, slaughtering him where he stood.

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The entrance was locked and the preparations for upcoming battle begun. The Strike Team was ordered to train inside the danger room to boost their skills to help in survival. New tunnel was made near the entrance, rerouting everything which wanted to enter the fortress and the old passage was blocked. The tunnel was also trapped, though time permitted only three weapon traps constructed.

After the preparations were done it was time to crush the siege. The Strike Team was ordered to station inside the old barracks, where the new tunnel was leading, and all the doors were locked to prevent any civilian or dwarf trader to wander there before the battle was over.

First came the main forces of the goblins, led by Master Slasher.

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The traps near the bridge were too much for the squad, and after several deaths the goblins decided to flee. Unfortunately the Master Lasher survived without a scratch.

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Next came the trolls.

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Half of the trolls were slaughtered by the traps near the entrance. From the six trolls which had survived two were trapped inside the cages, leaving only four trolls left. Sadly the three trolls went to berserk due the slaughter and trapping of their kind, and they butchered the two war dogs chained near the cage traps.

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After the dogs were dead three trolls were rushing forward, two of them were injured again by the traps inside the tunnel. The Strike Team took care of the rest, and eventually all three trolls were dead, killed by the dwarves.

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While the last living troll was fleeing the third wave reached the bridge.

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The goblins didn't even get past the traps before they decided to flee in terror, leaving several dead or dying goblins behind. Only one group was left from goblins' siege force, the mounted warriors.

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Again the traps near the bridge proved to be too much for goblins and their mounts, and so they were forced to retreat, leaving trail of corpses and blood behind. The dwarves were victorious, and nobody had taken any wounds or injuries during the battle! True, the traps had done most of the damage to goblins, but still the Strike Team had seen the battle as well, and it was good.

After the battle had ceased and the goblins ran away it was time to scavenge the battlefield. The civilians rushing outside weren't prepared to what they saw; blood, corpses, limbs and entrails were everywhere. The air was filled with the stench of urine, rotting meat and fear... It smelled to victory!

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[Kipi]

After several months of working it was time to flood the new farming area. The lever, which controlled the water flow from river, was pulled and so the room begun filling with water slowly.

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After the water was high enough the connection to river was closed and the draining of room begun.

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While the draining was going on new thing was threatening the safety of Craftwaters; titan had taken notice of the fortress and heading straight towards the entrance.

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The Strike Team was ordered to deal with the problem, and the clash took place near the bridge. Only two soldiers had reached the titan by then, Goldrouted and Squashedmetals.

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The battle was short, as the titan, giant eyeless mouse, had no way to penetrate the armor of the two dwarves. While Goldrouted was distracting the titan with his striked Squashedmetals was able to decapitate it, leaving the creature motionless on the ground.

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The two dwarves looked each other, shrugged and begun to laugh. After few minutes of laughing the headed back to inside, sining victory songs. On their way they met the rest of the squad, all fours soldiers still on their way to follow the order. They were surprised to see the two veterans returning inside, and after short moment of confusion they begun following the duo, joining i the victory song.

To improve the safety of the fortress Knifeled ordered the forming of another squad, archers. In the case of archers female dwarves were also recruited, and eventually the squad was formed by four ladies, each equipped with steel equipment and crossbow and iron bolts. They were also given area to train the shooting.

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Besides the slaughter of the titan and forming of new squad there was another reason to celebrate in Craftwaters; two soldiers from militia had been married, and the formal celebration was held.

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[Kipi]

The ending of spring also meant the coming of elven caravan. Why didn't they realise that there was only death for elves in Craftwaters?

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Strike Team was sent to deal with the traitors, and happily they obeyed.

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Without mercy the dwarves attacked, taking the elves by surprise. The caravan scattered, elves trying to fleed different directions to distract the charging dwarves. In some extent the plan worked, as from five merchants only two was killed that day. On the other hand the traders had lost most of their goods, as the animals were killed first.

Surprisingly the fate of elves was not taken happily inside Craftwaters; most of the dwarves who had not been around when the the elves were exposed did not believe the fate was justified, and there was already discussions going whether there should be peace between elves and dwarves. Knifeled did not like the way the public opinion was changing, and so she summoned Craftedecho to her office.

"I have heard that not everybody like they way we deal with elves. What do you know about it?"

Craftedecho scratched his head.
"I've heard the same. Apparently some of the newer migrants doesn't see our point of view in the matter?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, they weren't here when the dwarven objects were discovered from the caravan. Some of them claim that such thing never happened and thus our war against elves in unjustified, even criminal."
"Criminal? The actually dare to accuse us?"
"Yes, there have been some gatherings lately, where few of the selected had tried to convince everybody else that we should form a peace with elves."

Knifeled studied the dwarf standing in front of her for a moment.
"Do you know what is the best way of dealing with poisonous snake?"

Craftedecho stared her confused.
"Snake? What does it have to do with our situation?"
"Everything. Now, answer my question."
"Well, you cut the head off, and then the whole body dies."
"And the same thing applies to all living things with head, right?"
"Yeah, pretty much so."
"So, if we imagine the problem we are having as living creature, how would we kill it?"
"Cutting the head off..."
Craftedecho flashed big smile to Knifeled.
"Are you suggesting we remove the root of our problem, which would be those few preachers?"
"Exactly!"

Craftedecho begun scratching his head again.
"So, how are we going to do it?"
"Lock them up somewhere away from others. You have the names?"
"Yes, I have. Apparently there are three dwarves who must be dealt with; Sarvesh Cleanknives, Rimtar Chamberechoed and Catten Matchedpost."
"Good. Do you have any plans where to lock them?"
"Well, I think the old dormitory should be sufficient."
"Very well. You are dismissed!"

Craftedecho saluted and left.

After two days the three dwarves had been taken away by guards and locked inside the old dormitory. Their disappear was easy to arrange as everybody were more concerned by looting the elven caravan.

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[Kipi]

Just out of curiosity...
How many is actually reading this story?

The number under the views is a bit screwed and I don't trust it as at times I can easily add over ten views in few hours myself.

Also, if anybody has any suggestions on how to make the story/thread more attractive so that more members begin reading this and even participate, please tell. I'm open for ideas and constructive criticism.

[Kipi]

After long waiting the new farming area was finally drained from water. Two huge farms were planted.

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But as the flowing of water had ceased, and nobody remembered to close the floodgates, a pack of creatures living inside the cavern decided to take a look of the fortress, from inside. The creatures were known as crundles, tiny monster with claws and horns. Alone harmless, but if they moved in pack they could be dangerous to any living creature near them. So, Strike Team was sent to deal with these little buggers.

Half of the Strike Team answered to the call without hesitation and rushed down to kill the monsters. The first clash between the crundles and took place in the draining tunnel. Three crundles were slain, loose limbs and blood covering the floor. The dwarves move onward, as there were still several of those creatures waiting inside the cavern.

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Fourth crundle tried to escape the dwarves to upper section of the cavern, but Goldrouted was faster, catching it just above the natural ramps. The crundle was down after just one hit, the adamantine proving its worth again.

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There was still three crundles left, just north from the mouth of drainage, and soldiers begun charging towards the creatures.

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One of the three crundles managed to slip past the charging soldiers, heading towards the tunnel. Fortunately it was met by one of the soldiers who was just arriving to the scene of battle, and it was slain immediately.

The remaining two crundles were able to escape, knowing the twisted tunnels of cavern better than dwarves. But the squad had already achieved what they were trying; they had driven the monsters away, almost annihilated the pack, and so the creatures were no threat anymore.

[Kipi]

As the things were calming down in Craftwaters several dwarves noticed that something was not right. Not everyone realized what it was, but few noticed that three dwarves were missing, not seen since the elven caravan. This, of course, caused much speculation among the population, everybody trying to figure out what had happened, more and more strange theories being invented.

From the population only two dwarves knew how the things really were; the three dwarves missing were still locked inside the old dormitory, sentenced to die in starvation or dehydration due disagreeing about the treatment of elves. The two dwarves who knew were Knifeled and Craftedecho. Nobody else had even slightest clue what had happened, not even the members of High Council. Of course few of them, especially Firecrafted and Taricus, were suspecting that Knifeled and Craftedecho had something to do about it, but without proof they stayed silent.

While the speculation went on in the fortress the three prisoned dwarves were still sitting in the dormitory, still alive though the hunger and thirst were terrible. But they were still alive, and while there was life there was still hope. But that hope was already fading.

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One evening Knifeled came to check the status of the prisoners. She opened small hatch and looked inside. When she saw that the three dwarves were still alive she begun talking.

"Why aren't you dead already? Is someone bringing you food? Water?"

The one known as Matchedpost tottered to the door.
"No, nobody has come here in a long time. What did we do? Why are you treating us like this?"
"You don't know? You should, there has been enough time for you to consider your actions." There was small hint of irritation in her voice.
"But we haven't figured out any reason! Please, tell us, what did we do to deserve this?"
"Oh well, I don't think it matters if I do. You were thrown here because you committed treason."

All three dwarves replied in single voice.
"Treason?!"
"Ah, don't be surprised. Surely you knew there would be consequences when you tried to reliability."
"What?"
"You questioned our decisions of how to treat elves."
"So what?"
"And you tried to convince everybody else that what we did was wrong, criminal even."
"But we didn't want any harm! Our fortress would only benefit from the alliance!"
"No, we wouldn't. And dealing with traitors is considered as treason even back in mountainhome, and you know that well enough!"

There was desperation in the voice of Matchedpost.
"But we can not be sure if elves betrayed us!"
"They had some items I know they could not get legally."
"But they could have bought those toys from dwarven caravan!"
"No, some of those toys were lost in goblin assault. Those were lost then and never seen again before showing up in the inventory of the elves."
"But... the elves could have looted those from goblins!"
"Not possible, elves don't care about dwarven toys. To them those are worthless junk, not even worth of picking up. Besides, we have queen's blessing."
"You have spoken with the queen then?"
"No, only with liaison. But the message was sent to the queen, and she had approved our actions."
"But what if the queen doesn't even know what's happening here?! The liaison could be lying! There is..."
"SILENCE! I have grown tired of this! You shall stay here. There is nothing that can save you from your fate! The jury has spoken!"

Knifeled closed the hatch. The dwarves inside were still pleading her to set them free, but she had made her decision already. Nothing, absolutely nothing, shall undermine her position as the mayor of Craftwaters.

[Kipi]

It was only matter of time when the three prisoners were going to die. And the time had came, for there was no escape from starvation and dehydration. Knifeled was observing the final hours of theirs, to make sure that nobody would escape.

First of the three who died was Sarvesh Cleanknives.


Next it was Rimtar Chamberechoed's turn. His death was peaceful as he had been unconscious last days.


The last prisoner alive was Catten Matchedpost. Before dying she looked Knifeled one last time and hissed.
"You are not going to get away from this! Somebody will find out what happened her and you will be punished!"
After finishing the second sentence she died.

"I don't think so." Knifeled muttered and left the room. Craftedecho begun moving the corpses towards the graveyard, trying not get spotted by others.

Eventually all three corpses were placed inside wooden coffins. Knifeled made a public announcement that those three dwarves were found outside the fortress, discussing with elven scout. They had resisted arresting and thus Craftedecho had no other option than killing them. After all, dealing with elves or goblins was still considered as treason. There was some suspicious murmur coming from the audience, but nobody voiced any objections in public. Doing so would only risk the life of speaker. And so the official explanation of what had happened was given and recorded to the logs.


OOC: Pictures coming tomorrow, photobucket has some problems right now...

[Urist is dead tome]

I feel that a diary perspective might make things more interesting. I think that's the most common also.

[Kipi]

Yeah, diary is the most common method around here. Perhaps I give it a go then, let's see if it works here.

The transition between the styles should be quite easy to make.