CrazyCow has now reached the half-way point in the vellum book. He notices that the handwriting is becoming increasingly frenetic and hard to read.22 LimestoneIt has been quiet this month, praise be to Rilem Buddedfuture. The building of the temple must have pleased her and !goth, the Trickster, who have kept at bay the goblins and kobolds. I have redoubled my efforts to build the temple. I have committed many more dwarves to masonry and metalcrafting (that gold doesn't smelt itself!), and I hope to finish by the end of the year now. Already, the central column is nearly finished!
24 LimestoneOur idiot mayor, who is also the yokel broker, dhokarena56, has decreed that the fortress must produce two "hungry head" leather items. Whatever a hungry head is, I doubt that we will ever see one, as nobody in the fortress has heard of them, and the idiot mayor refuses to even tell us what the thing is. Well, the idiot mayor IS an idiot. There's no harm in ignoring him, I'm sure. Though he HAS complained about poor living conditions lately... I'll order a few gold statues in each of his rooms.
27 LimestoneExcellent! More migrants are arriving! More labourers and servants for Rilem Buddedfutures. I will enlist in the military those that show aptitude, and the rest will be committed to masonry and metalcrafting for the temple's construction!
28 LimestoneHere, near the apogee of the fortress, I will make a record of our great military might.
The first squad, the Liberties of Theater, has two dwarves, and is headed by Elderont, Swordsdwarf.
The second squad, the Helmed Banners, has seven dwarves, and is headed by Asmel Rakustsazir, Axedwarf.
The third squad, the Chances of Theater, has nine dwarves, and is headed by Cog Akrulgusgash Al Niles, Hammerdwarf.
The fourth squad, the Gilded Tips, has five dwarves, and is headed by Dishmab Udkol, Axedwarf.
Our military thus stands at 23 dwarves strong, who train year-round to be better defenders of the fortress and of Rilem Buddedfuture.
15 SandstoneRilem Buddedfuture blessed us today with a baby boy, born to woodworker Zas Akumcatten. This baby boy, Logem Alathniral, is a Blessing. Soon after, Rilem Buddedfuture spoke to me. "My Esteemed Faithplanter," she said to me, "This baby, the Blessing, he will be the gauge of this fortress' goodness. For so long as he lives, alive and well, I will allow no harm to come upon the dwarves of Breakfastcudgels. But beware, Faithplanter, for if he should be wounded or even killed, my wrath will be great, and your downfall will come swiftly and mercilessly." I prostrated myself even lower and vowed to protect that baby with my life. I will train some war dogs and assign them both to the mother and to the child.
15 TimberThe caravan from the Mountainhomes has arrived! I will personally oversee the trading this time, to ensure that our yokel broker makes no silly acquisitions.
18 TimberAt last! Rilem Buddedfuture has sent for me a test. It took the caravan guard three days, but they finally managed to inform me that a large force of goblins trailed them to the fortress. I will muster the troops!
But first, the trading. At my command, the fortress traded two bins of metal crafts for the following: all the metal bars, all the flux stone (some dozen pieces), all the wood (about three dozen logs), all the empty barrels, all the alcohol, some milk, all the weapons and armour, and all of the meat, fish, and cheese that was brought.
Now then, let the defenders of Rilem Buddedfuture go forth to battle!
The InvasionThe first squad of swordsgoblins approached with a master speargoblin at its head. Two of the caravan guards and Elderont rushed out to meet them. The first guard fell with the opening swings, and the many traps at the entrance disabled a number of the invaders.
Elderont cried for the rest of the military, who came streaming out of the fort to fight. A squad of a half-dozen trolls joined the fray, but were quickly scattered before Elderont's ferocity, along with the swordsgoblin squad.
The renowned hammerdwarf, Cog Tinstokers the Pinnacle of Snapping let loose a warning call as she saw two squads of crossbowgoblins approaching from the northwest.
Elderont, fearing the worst, ordered the troops back inside. "Leave the fleeing goblins! Our lives are at stake!" However, not even he was unable to resist the temptation of the witless, fleeing goblins. Cog, seeing this, ordered the squads to her. As I watched from the temple above, I feared that the defenders of Rilem Buddedfuture would suffer heavy losses.
As the rest of the militia filtered out of the fortress, the first bolts were loosed at one of the new recruits, Medtob Ablelkab, a dwarf who I was later told had only picked up his iron battle axe earlier that day.
Medtob dodged dozens of bolts, taking only a few glancing blows, as he charged to meet his first opponent. Behind him came charging Cog, Elderont, and the rest of the militia, heedless of the wall of metal death they faced. Soon, another new recruit, Zas Zuntirkekim, fell to the ground with a head wound that even from my high perch I could see. I prayed to Rilem Buddedfuture to preserve his life.
Meanwhile, Medtob was still locked in mortal combat with a foe much superior to him. Yet neither was able to land a blow on the other for several, long seconds. Suddenly, he broke away from his opponent and charged the crossbowgoblins, who turned their attention to him. This bought the rest of the militia precious time to cover the remaining ground between them and their victims.
I saw Medtob dodge a hail of bolts and slice off with his new iron battle axe an entire arm of a goblin. In the next few moments, however, his opponent, a master lasher, tripped him, ending his wondrous dodging, hacking spree. He became a pincushion and took no fewer than 6 bolts to his body before one punctured his head through his helmet. So passed Medtob the Great, new recruit and Hero of Breakfastcudgels. I have accorded him a special place in the catacombs, which I have since ordered expanded.
And I ordered them expanded for a reason. The defenders of Rilem Buddedfuture did not fare well in the battle. As the first squad of crossbowgoblins began to flee, the second charged at the much-weakened militia. They however, did not put up a strong fight as the rest of the militia finished them off.
The aftermath was a gruesome mess of blood, goblin limbs, and gored dwarves.
Final count:
4 Dwarves dead, including the other Guard commanded by Elderont.
Almost two dozen goblins killed, and six trolls.
Cog and her Protected One child, Rilgoth, survived unharmed, a testament to the protection of Rilem Buddedfuture and !goth. Now let the cleanup and burial begin.
25 TimberIn the midst of the cleanup, another godly possession occurred. This one to a weaponsmith. He claimed a forge and now sits there, muttering about wanting bars of metal. This can only be a possession by !goth, the Trickster, for there are no fewer than 500 bars of assorted metals sitting just a few floors above in the stockpile.
26 TimberThe hospital is quite full. I had better order the soapmakers to get to work, as there are many wounds to clean. The defenders of Rilem Buddedfuture did well.
27 TimberWith winter along the corner, progress on the temple has been slowed due to the invasion clean-up. I hope to have that finished in the next week, such that my glorious temple to Rilem Buddedfuture will be finished in time for her favorite season of Spring. When it is finished, the celebrations will be... raucous.
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//Well then, that got very interesting very quickly. I'm amazed that no dwarves died of directly being made into a pincushion! That first herodwarf made it easy for the rest, even though half the military's in the hospital now.
//Also, sorry for being so flaky and saying I'll post and then I don't for another three days! I've been surprisingly busy for having nothing to do... Still, I'll try to get winter done ASAP! This will be the season of random death, trust me on that. I REALLY wanted to make a Caruso (or however you spell his name) pun from CSI: Miami and then talk about my character putting on obsidian shades and some random dwarf yelling "YEAAAAAAAAAH" outside the office. That'd'a been priceless. But I couldn't think of any good, relevant puns.
//Finally, I'm a little worried about the latest possession. Is this one of those weird glitchy ones? I mean, seriously, there're some bars just two or three steps from where they guy is, yet he won't take 'em. What's going on?!?
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Topic: Breakfastcudgels (a game of random death) (Read 24292 times)