The liaison was visiting Quakemortal as he normally would this time of year, sitting in Duke Thundercave's office which grew more expensive-looking every time he went there. "I do like the new engravings," he said. "What's it supposed to be?"
"A blob of some kind, I think. Or a bear."
The liaison nodded. "I think I can see the bear."
"My personal favorite is 'The Luxurious Torture' over here. It truly captures the plight of the nobility."
They talked at length about fortress matters, which grew of interest to the Mountainhomes as Quakemortal grew in stature. "This is an accurate tally of your wealth?"
"That's right," Kulet said with a smile. "There's almost as much adamantine here as there is iron."
"So I've heard," said the liaison, eyeballing Kulet's adamant pick. He estimated its worth alone could buy an entire village, people included. "You certainly have had a busy few years." He turned to the tablet of records Kulet had provided him. "Though I am dismayed by this long list of deaths."
"Aye, we all are," said Kulet.
"You know the procedure," said the Liaison.
"Whenever you're ready," Kulet frowned, drawing up in his chair.
"Monom Daggerwhipped?"
"Slain by Bustusm."
The Liaison looked up at the Duke. "What is Bustusm?"
"Just some beast," Kulet shrugged. "Great hairy one-eyed horned worm with ferocious teeth. Rather resembled like a caterpillar, in its way, at least until we killed it."
"Uh huh," the liaison said, scribbling something down. "Thob Leddasnast?"
"Eaten by giant swamp rats."
"My word. Swamp rats?"
"I forget what Rimtar calls them," said Kulet, looking at the ceiling. "Giant Carpabardos? Anyway, the wisdom of collecting a giant caged rodent that could easily shred you to bits by yourself, when said caged rodent is surrounded by half a dozen pissed off members of its pack, is a tad questionable, especially when one of them already mangled the Commander's leg."
"I see."
"You wouldn't know it though, by the way he trains himself. I never saw any dwarf so determined as Derm. Spends day and night in that Danger Room, saying he's gotta be better than the best, leg or no. Still doesn't like crutches, though."
"Okay then." The Liaison scribbled some more. "This one? Mafol Ódatír?"
"Found dead in the Carpenter's Guildhall. Apparently walled herself off and died before anyone noticed."
"Walled herself off?" The liaison raised an eyebrow.
"Aye, it does sound fishy," Kulet said. "More wine?" He lifted the jug.
"Gods yes," the liaison replied, extending his goblet. "And a mug of that ale while you're at it." He accepted and drank both at once.
"Feeling better?" said Kulet.
"No." The liaison lifted the tablet. "What about this person, Domas Råshobok?"
"Eaten by a Cave Crawler," said Kulet. "A voracious gigantic pillbug sort of thing. But we captured it, and a soldier who welded a face to his mask says he can tame it, so it's not a whole loss."
There was a long pause. Kulet cleared his throat. "A mask to his face," he said. "It's been a long day."
"And what foul creature, pray thee, was Urist Utolïteb eaten by?"
"Actually, Urist was killed by a training spear. Freak accident, I'm told. An actual one, though, not like the murder."
"Olon Cilobmemad?" said the liaison in a raised voice.
Kulet shivered. "Eaten by a... a Giant cave Spider. We had to kill that one."
The liaison extended his glass. "Actually, I'll just take a jug, if it's all the same," he said hastily.
Kulet returned with the wine, and a second tablet of names. "These are the dwarves killed in the goblin siege two months ago," he said, sounding tired.
"I saw the remains of that walking in." The liaison made a grisly face. "Nasty looking affair."
"More of a raid than a siege, really. We've had bigger ambushes. Well, aside from the Ogres."
"Ogres!" the liaison choked on his wine. "Disgusting brutes."
"Yeah, a young farmer was collecting a beehive at the time, got eaten by a whole pack of them."
Kulet shook his head as he remembered the sights and sounds of that gruesome day. "A sorry dusk, but we have many prisoners. The rest were slain at our gates. Not one of their party escaped, and the goblins will think twice ere besieging again."
The liaison folded his hands. "Thank the Gods there's only one more name here. Sammy Scaledpick?"
"Bled from a gaping stomach wound for seven months until he died from infection."
Rest in Peace, Sammy Scaledpick
"Good grief."
"Yeah. Amazing he held out that long. We built his memorial near the pond where he was shot. Poor fellow hung on 'til the bitter end. Said he was fine, even though he'd leak blood all over the place."
Remembering the trail of corpses he passed on his way inside Quakemortal, the liaison was briefly torn by a sudden desire to flee for his life. Against his greater judgment, he remembered he had a job to do, and drowned the urgency in a deep swig of wine.
"What was that?" the liaison said, setting down the jug.
"What was what?"
"There it is again!" the liaison looked around. "Those screams!"
"Oh, the screaming." Kulet shrugged. "You get used to it."
* * *
No one can argue now. Never has lived a finer dwarven whipmaker. Hail Kzel, Legendary Weaponsmith!
(Research Progress: 10/10)* * *
Even in places such as Quakemortal, life finds a way to thrive.
Chief Broccoli is a new parent once again.
Chief Dariush and Mayor Olin are on their fifth.
New life finds a way, even in the deepest and dankest of depths.
*snip*
Children will laugh and play on smooth slade...
*snip*
This seems like a bad idea.
Well, if it's not smoothed, they might really hurt themselves if they trip and fall.
Aaall right, elf miscellanous friendly creatures captor v2.0!
Z0:
Wall above support below.
Z1:
11x11 flooring with a support in the middle.
Z2,4,6...:
Red=down staircase, blue=up, green=fortification, yellow=open space, black=wall, white=cage traps..
On bottom and top levels the staircase at the end of the spiral and the wall beyond it aren't built. The trap must span an even number of z-levels.
Z3,5,7...:
Same as above, but with up staircase in place of down one and vice versa.
The support is linked to a lever. When it is pulled, the wall plunges down, generating dust on every level that goes through fortifications and knocks out anyone unlucky enough to be standing there. For reload, only the wall, support and floor beneath it need rebuilding and the support needs relinking, as opposed to several dozens of tiles needing to be rebuilt in version 1.0.
Nice design! I'm going to build a tower outdoors for it to keep ordinary civilians out of the way. Dariush and Duck may want to discuss ways of luring elves inside, Duck will almost certainly need an elf to question about the production wooden weapons armor.
I'd be greatly appriciated if Guild Hall had some gem clusters in walls, or mineral vein passing across the ceiling...
There's a vein of pink tourmaline running through the area. If it's alright, I'd like to extend the walls a bit for statues and a micromanaged garbage dump for encrusting specific stuff.
Question: A dwarf can get attached to several different weapons, but once they name one, can they ever name another one? Or are they limited to one? I was hoping the steel spear would get named...
Author
Topic: Quakemortal: Perdition's Gate (Community Fort, Spoilers) (Read 53834 times)