Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

boo

0 (0%)

hiss

0 (0%)

boo

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: March 16, 2011, 02:14:21 pm

[plisskin]

The following is a transcription of an interview held during an official inquest by the justice department of Areliton Ador into the matter of the deaths of several dwarves, including nurse Mestthos Akgosmeng, in 1009U. The interviewed is one Cog Lilarerith, farmer. The interviewer's name given as "XX" in place of their name.


Cog: Bloody hellfire, you dragged me away from a perfectly pristine dinner and shoved me into an empty office, you could just as well tell me what it's all about!

XX: My apologies. Now, lets see . . . Cog Lilarerith. You work in the farming zone . . . excellent planter, good with animals, very well. You mostly stay underground, as per orders, occasionally help out with . . . construction work.



Cog: Aye, my life story. Right there. Now let me go back to my dinner.

XX: I understand your displeasure, but discretion has been an important factor lately in keeping the fort organized and under control.

Cog: Ye bloody idiots can't even keep 60 dwarves under ye control?

XX: We're doing the best we can with what we have. Interest in fort matters from outside has dried up and good dwarves have died.

Cog: Well y'bloody well don't need to tell me. I'm well aware of the fact. Indeed, y'might say I'm intimate with the fact that my closest friend was killed by-

XX: By something we're skeptical even exists.

Cog: Aye, because you spend all day in offices like this one. What's the weather like today, soldier? Got an answer? No, I didn't think y'did.

XX: You're also responsible for the construction of . . . Cog Lilarerith.



Cog: . . . aye, my trumpet. What'n the abyss does this have to do with-

XX: Why did you name your trumpet after yourself?

Cog: Blast it all! Am I being graded? Is this some kind of test of my ability to endure the smell of the donkey scat of the administration here?

XX: I'm just trying to judge your mental conditions. I need to know your testimonial is one of sound mind.

Cog: More sound than my trumpet. Git' on with it, if y'must. Roast's gettin' cold. Aye, by now it might as well be a bordello for bloodflies. If'n I miss dinner on account of this and I've got to head back up to crank out fifty more swaths of cloth for a hospital that don't even operate anymore I'll be breakin' down doors.

XX: Very well . . . you were working on the construction of the obsidian plug at the time that two masons were struck down under, shall we say, unusual circumstances.

Cog: Unusual, aye, as unusual as a fish walkin' up out of the bloody water and smackin' them to death with its tail.

XX: So, you persist that this was the cause of death.

Cog: Aye.

XX: As . . . improbable as it sounds.

Cog: Aye, they're bloody well dead aren't they? What, did they trip, fall and break all their ribs?

XX: We're trying to rule out the possibility of, er, deadly fish.

Cog: Rule away. I saw it all myself. You can rule the story left right and center, still happened plain as caverns. I was luggin' stones from the coal shafts up to the deathtrap . . . aye, the bloody deathtrap they're havin' us build out there. Gettin' the stairs all set up. For a day 'r so we heard goblins chasin' some wayward elves around the jungle. Dunno why they keep comin' back here given that none ever return.

 

Cog: Well, like I said . . . luggin' stones, gettin' stairs ready. All of a sudden some of the workers on the shore start screaming. I drop my stone, run to the edge of the stone cap, and I see it. It's there, makin' its way up the bridge to the shoreline as fast as any dwarf could run.

XX: And, again, how would you describe the creature that you claim you saw?

Cog: "Creature that you claim you saw" [It is noted that the interviewee scoffed loudly after repeating the words of XX] Quit patronizin' me, fer Armok's sake it was a marlin. A giant bloody marlin. 'Cept it had no skin, nothin', just . . . bones. And it was movin' quick as all the abyss.

 

XX: A marlin. As in, a fish.

Cog: No, I'm talkin' about "Marlin" the elfy god of daisy-chains and maypole dancin'. Yes, "a marlin as in a fish."

XX: A fish, as in, an ocean-dwelling creature.

Cog: Lemmie just summarize it for you here, for a third time, since you seem to be havin' a little trouble catching it all. A fish: fins, flippers, scales, tastes great with diced plump helmet if it's ALIVE, big stupid eyes . . . again, if it's ALIVE. A fish. You catch it with a string on a stick. Doesn't take a genius to know what I mean when I say "a fish."

XX: It's just difficult to, well, confirm such a claim.

Cog: Aye, especially when you've got, what, ten eyewitnesses tellin' you it happened and two of y'own soldiers came back with bruises to show for a fight with the bloody thing. Hard to believe. Yup yup.

XX: How was a fish moving about on land, if you're indeed talking about the creatures you'd find swimming in the sea?

Cog: I don't . . . exactly know. I can't quite describe it. It weren't floating, but t'wern't walking either. Weren't rolling nor flapping. It just moved up there, can't quite explain it. Doesn't even make a lick of sense. I was blinking like a mule in an ocean of flies a'fore Kubuk started scufflin' with it.

 

XX: So you saw a fish move from the sea to the shore, but you don't know how it got there.

Cog: Well it MOVED there, I just don't know HOW it moved there. I saw it move but I don't . . . know what I saw. It just got up there.

XX: I see.

Cog: Then a'fore anyone knew what to do it was jammin' its bones into his arms, his belly, everywhere it could. Felt like we were all going mad just watchin' it from a distance, and Kubuk was goin' out of his damn mind.

 

Cog: Besmar tried to help, but it whapped him clear off the beach into the ocean.



XX: It "whapped" him?

Cog: With its tail.

XX: I . . . see.

Cog: For all the seein' you do, you don't seem to be payin' any attention. Anyway, none of us knew what to do. Thankfully someone in the barracks had heard the ruckus and came to help. Ahra, wasn't it? Yeah, it was him. He came ill prepared, though. Had his spear with him, and there wasn't anything on a fish made of nothin' but bones to stab.



Cog: Tough fight for Ahra, thought he was goin' down like Besmar.





XX: Enolic reported minimal bruising after the conflict.

Cog: That's because Ahra is hard as stone. He shrugged it all off by the time he'd made it to the hospital.

XX: Commander Sigun reported also witnessing something to this effect. The fish, I mean.

Cog: Well he started hackin' it up, so I suppose you could say he bloody well saw it.

XX: And yet there remains no evidence of a corpse.

Cog: Well that I can't quite figure, since Sigun . . . well, in the middle of fighting the damn thing it vanished.

XX: Vanished? Is this another characteristic of these skeletal fish?

Cog: Is this an interview, or didja just want to grind my face in the gravel?

XX: Without any evidence of a corpse, we can't assume anything being said here is factual. We're still trying to determine if there's some manner of deception involved.

Cog: Y've got all you need. A fish killed Kubuk and drowned Besmar. You don't need anything else, but y'won't listen to us anyway.

XX: I suppose I've asked everything I need to of you. You may leave.

Cog: Oh, I "may" leave now? Good riddance, I'm starving and y've made a damn fool of me.

XX: Apologies for the inconvenience.

[It is noted here "Cog departs the room"]

XX: Now, onto the matter of the . . . er, hospital quarantine. Send in the nurse.

[Page end]

[Ahra]

journal of ahra:
goddammit beaten by a fish....... the lads are gonna laugh at me forever i know it.
but i only need to punch them in the face if they do.

[plisskin]

This fort is pretty tough to keep interesting when my only focus is tower building. So, basically, updates are going to slow down to specific incidents that need to be mentioned while I focus 100% on construction.

If a dorf dies, there'll be an update. If something weird happens, there'll be an update. Otherwise, I'm only interested in getting to the heart of the fort's lifespan. If a catastrophe ends everything, everyone'll hear all about it.

EDIT: Somehow some of the cockroaches deadly ichor has escaped into the fort and I have absolutely no idea how it is spreading around except that both of our hospitals have needed to be quarantined due to it. Anyone . . . ANYONE could die at any moment and at least two dorfed members have already. I'll do my best to stop the spread of the vile plague but having sealed off the caverns and purged the halls between them and the fort with holy blazing magma I do not know where it is coming from. Excitement abounds!

[elizar]

You say this and don't say who?! Now I can't wait for an update.

[Valrandir]

This fort is pretty tough to keep interesting when my only focus is tower building. So, basically, updates are going to slow down to specific incidents that need to be mentioned while I focus 100% on construction.

If a dorf dies, there'll be an update. If something weird happens, there'll be an update. Otherwise, I'm only interested in getting to the heart of the fort's lifespan. If a catastrophe ends everything, everyone'll hear all about it.

EDIT: Somehow some of the cockroaches deadly ichor has escaped into the fort and I have absolutely no idea how it is spreading around except that both of our hospitals have needed to be quarantined due to it. Anyone . . . ANYONE could die at any moment and at least two dorfed members have already. I'll do my best to stop the spread of the vile plague but having sealed off the caverns and purged the halls between them and the fort with holy blazing magma I do not know where it is coming from. Excitement abounds!

Awesome !
- Keep building
- Keep updating on interesting events
- Keep playing until everyone is dead, or until the tower is done.

[plisskin]

Where does it keep coming from?! Suddenly two more dead, two more patches have appeared out of nowhere completely across the map! Nobody has any on them . . . then they suddenly are paralyzed! Apocalypse! Mayhem! Skeletal tuna!

I'll do my best.

[plisskin]

Deadly blood means deadly blood.



Her pancreas is blistered. Her pancreas.

[elizar]

I'm more worried about her skull and spine being blistered.

[plisskin]

 Zefon Ashamot, Chief Medical Dwarf of Areliton Ador
 Personal Journal Entry - 18th Felsite

 We called a meeting of the nurses to discuss what could be done about Sealdeath, a terminally destructive blister plague. Reviewing the facts, we determined that even a mote of infected blood could spread to a dwarf and infect them, causing irreparable damage. The symptoms: at first a loss of breath combined with headache, dizziness, and a loss of fluid muscle movement and general co-ordination. Dwarves became disoriented, usually attempting to complete whatever task they last had in mind. Then came skin spots, followed by an itching and burning sensation and a general malaise. This rapidly developed into blistering which would spread to literally every corner of the body. Examination of corpse remains showed that even the marrow of the bones had suffered from ruptured tissues. The infected always attempt to clean themselves of the pus and rot from the blisters but quickly succumb to the suffocation suffered as the muscles of their body contract and prevent their lungs from taking in air. The white and slightly foamy ichor of Sealdrank, from which was born our current plague Sealdeath, wasn't difficult to spot on its own but easily mixed with other bodily fluids such as the copious amounts of goblin blood plastered to the walls and spread around by a lack of proper hygiene in the fortress.

 At first, we thought we'd contained Sealdeath by forbidding the bodies of Atil and the dog. Unfortunately, it somehow has managed to spread unchecked throughout the fort. We came to the consensus that dwarves washing themselves at the hospital well was responsible for the first outbreak. Our former nurse Mestthos, may she rest in peace now that she has had a proper memorial, became infected in the hospital. A patient was to blame: on their bedding was found traces of Sealdeath. The hospital was immediately sealed with Mestthos still inside. Her body to date hasn't been recovered for fear of further spread of the infection.

 

 

 
 
 Our first effort to purge any trace of Sealdeath from the fort involved rerouteing magma from the stack pump to the lower caverns, where Atir and the dog still lingered as skeletal corpses. If the entire length of the hallway were purged, we figured this would prevent any further traces of Sealdeath from making their way up from the mines. We assumed that contact with the corpses had been the source. Shortsighted, in hindsight.

 

 We've concluded that there must be a carrier of the Sealdeath somewhere in the fortress, or at least some undiscovered pool or mixture of various bodily fluids that the workers are marching through. However, the fortress is too large to inspect every square foot when there are matters of construction and defence to consider. Since Mestthos, at least three dwarves have fallen to Sealdeath and we assume more to come unless we can determine its vector. We constructed a second hospital with an non-saline water source, which worked for a time. As the scaffolding of the oceanic tower was being constructed we suffered no casualties. However, the first casualty to the fort was the very worst we could have imagined.

 

 The patient hadn't shown any signs of the malady. However, in the middle of treatment Doctor Enolic had fallen unconscious due to a lack of air. All within the hospital at the time, including the patient and Enolic's nursing hand, were sealed inside.

 

 

 

 At present the fortress has no working hospital for fear of the infection being spread by contact with bedding. Without the head doctor we have no clear directions. I have taken his position as a place-holder. Our current plans involve the construction of some sort of pump-based decontamination bath, although we're uncertain if this will only assist in the spread of Sealdeath or avert future crisis. We're nearing the point where we have more living children than capable adults. How is the fort to survive if we all die, and only the children are left?

 The most disturbing fact as of yet is that Sealdeath has been seen puddling around the construction site, scores of dwarf-tosses from the caverns. It seems to appear from nowhere, as all dwarves have undergone personal inspection by the nursing staff and none show traces of Sealdeath. At present the only solutions seem to be bricking over any spots where Sealdeath has been sighted and coming up with some sort of system of fortress cleaning. Some have suggested magma and others seawater but the general consensus seems to be that our halls need to be purged by flood.

 Our engineers are currently held up by current construction as there are few labourers left. We will hold a meeting and vote on what plan of action to carry out next.

[elizar]

Nooo Doctor Enolic! I wonder how many babies he and Eliza made. I wonder if Eliza's still alive, I thought you said that two named dwarves had succumbed to the Sealdeath.

[plisskin]

Nooo Doctor Enolic! I wonder how many babies he and Eliza made. I wonder if Eliza's still alive, I thought you said that two named dwarves had succumbed to the Sealdeath.

Eliza is still alive making her the sole survivor. They had nine children while together. I have made SO many mistakes this fort that I'm shocked it's still running. For example, I just burnt down pretty much the entire power station. I think maybe . . . 15 windmills or more just went up due to me forgetting to seal all the magma off from flammable whatnot. It'll take a long time to rebuild and we're still dying of random Sealdeath.

Ahra also died due to it but I haven't quite gotten to that yet.

I'm starting to get more annoyed with the fort than interested in it, so I may have to pull a dreaded *HIATUS* and do another one while I get the courage to fix the disastrous mess I've made here. I don't know if that's a cop-out or not, but I really do think that the fort can still finish its goals. I just need some time to actually play DF how I enjoy playing it instead of labouring over something with a million setbacks.

So, keep a watch out. If I start a new fort, I won't forget about this one completely.

[Scaraban]

SHIT FUCK DAMN BITCH

[plisskin]

SHIT FUCK DAMN BITCH

I'm not starting a new fort until the new release of DF with the old bugfixes, so chances are tomorrow I'll feel like cleaning up the mess I made.

I know what to do! I'll do an update in summary of the fort's current status showing all the levels and what it looks like at present.

[Tcei]

If there's one available I'd like a dwarf.
A Female
Named Graymist.

As far as skills...surprise meh!

Wish I'd found this thread sooner, been a good read so far

[CrimsonEon]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-

My only regret is that I wasn't able to write more journal entries. Curse you college, curse yooouuuu.