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[Greymane]

"And as for you, mountain, there will be a day when your veins spill blood instead of stone.
And dead bodies will be stacked higher than the peaks.
And he who is dead will not be mourned as much as he who is alive…
... Atir, why are you weeping?" - Warosp Jubusedme, Creature of the Night and Bride of Atir Liruksazir, first King of Kubuk Ikud

"Walk until you see his sign. Though it take you a thousand years, here alone we will live our final days. In the lands he has chosen will the people of the mountain find their place in this world as was done in the first days of the world. In fire and in glory and far below the open sky." - The Prophesy of the Web, as told by Zefon Itongigin, Priestess of Shedim and 43rd Ruler of Kubuk Ikud.

"Will the last dwarf leaving Cattenkurik please lock the doors?" - Inscription on the walls of Cattenkurik, Last of the Mountainhomes

Somewhere on the slopes of the Beak of Daubbing, above the Permanent Glacier

The wagon wheel skidded across the icy sloped. On the cliffside above it, the tree it was roped to, ancient and frozen, was cut in half by the straining lengths of spider silk rope. There were shouts. Scrambling figures lunged for the loose ropes. Urist elbowed her way between a pair of emaciated bodies and wrapped her hands around the rope. As one, they threw themselves against it and for a moment, the wagon stopped. Half a dozen dwarven figures clamored and scrambled down the frozen slope with more ropes in hand, risking the steep slide to the glacial plains below as they struggled to tie off the wagon.

They would not make it. Urist felt the rope lurch in her hands and heard the crack as the ice sheath on the slope abruptly gave way. The rope strained, groans rising from the throats of those around Urist. The dwarves on the slope shouted for them to hold, just a little longer. The dwarf in front of her began to tremble, tears running down his craggy cheeks, freezing into his beard. Urist felt her muscles burn and her feet began to slide, but she was not the one who collapsed first. Somewhere, someone along the rope caved and all at once the others went with them. Urist was jostled from behind, the rope slipping through her hands. The silk turned hot all at once, then sharp. Speed gave it an edge that cut through her thick gloves and the skin below, first blisters then blood rising on her hands before she was able to pull away. She tumbled to the side, landing hard on the ice, as she watched the rope and at least a dozen screaming dwarves, tangled in the rope or too shocked to let go, vanish off the edge of the slope.

It felt like an eternity before Urist heard the crash below. A lifetime before her mind caught up enough with what was going on for her to do anything but breath. She looked about in a daze at the others who had fallen with her. Four dazed and panting dwarves returned her stare, their labored breaths forming a mist over the barren slope. Urist moved, crawling on hands and knees to the edge slope and peering off the side. Three of the six who'd gone down to try and secure the wagon still clung to the side of the ice, plastering themselves against the frozen earth, hands wedged into cracks on it's surface. There was a streak of blood running down the hillside, painting a line that lead her eye to the shattered wagon far below. It's cargo was spread across the ice field. Bodies lay mingled among broken barrels and cracked stones. Bright red blood stained the blue and purple ice, mingling with the assorted shades of alcohol as the last of their precious stores dribbled out of their ruined containers.

It was their last wagon and everything they had scavenged from haunted Melbilmamot. Hundreds of years of wandering the face of Nitharaathira had abruptly came to an end, because of a tree. Urist would have laughed, but she was just too damned tired. She started to slump to the ground, when her eyes caught something on the ice below. The dwarven matron squinted, rubbed at her eyes to clear them, and stared again.

The image was still there, clear and crisp. A cave spider was painted on the ground below. The wagon was it's body, misshapen but round, the trail of blood down the slope like a single strand of web extending from it's hind end. The pools of spilling alcohol formed half it's slender limbs as they spread across the ground. Bright white cracks in the surface of the ice formed the others and it's two most forward legs came together, pointing without fail to an outcrop of stone ahead.

Thank you, Shedim... it took you long enough.

"Well," Urist said as she rose, the other dwarves slowly coming up behind her. "Here we are."

----

The last dwarves of Kubuk Ikud, "The Lance of Reigning," have walked the earth for hundreds of years. Tired and desperate, their ever dwindling numbers have struggled to survive as they made their way across a hostile continent to the legendary Mountainhome of Melbilmamot. Expecting to find their cousins of Losiszas, "The Faint Crystal," to be there to welcome them with open arms and all the wealth of the world, all they found instead was a cold and empty hall, a tombstone to the dwarven race. Their final hope was a prophesy given by an ancient Queen, Zefon Itongigin, foretelling of the lands where dwarven kind would stand or fall.

Now they have arrived, the last seven dwarves of Kubuk Ikud. Perhaps the last seven in all the world. Stranded upon a blasted icy wasteland, their only refuge now is the mysterious cave of Zospu Smaxa, leading deep into the dark earth, where perhaps their fabled land awaits. Or perhaps just their deaths. Who among you will travel into it's perilous depths? Who among you will join the Clan of the Cave Spider?

...

[/DRAMA!]

So, trying my hand at this again after many years. A Community Fortress, sort of taking up the delightful and deadly Cavern Challenge, albeit not sticking to all it's rules. We're not just going to live in these caves, we're going to tame them or have FUN trying. The world of Nitharaathira, "The Future Plane," is a delightful slice of hell with more semi-and-megabeasts than you can shake a stick at. The dwarven race officially died out before the year 100, but purely for story purposes they've been kicking around nomad style until the year 1050. Metal is so rare in this world that the entire metal industry is just plain gutted out of every civilization, leaving wars to be fought with stone and bone and wood. Dwarves in this world also don't use surface animals (though we might acquire some through trade), but have their own equivalent to cats and dogs in the form of jumping spiders and giant fancy rats respectively and raise crundles like chickens.

The population in the fortress is going to be limited, as without trade with the (dead) dwarven civilizations, the only immigrants who are going to arrive are the two hard-coded waves. Prior tests seem to suggest that there will be about 15-17 dwarves on the whole, so I'm taking up to 15 community members on as dwarves from the get-go, first come first dwarfed.

If anyone is interested, hit me up with all the usual. Name, job, and maybe some bits of personality to write in. Remember that there is NO[/i] metal industry here, so plan accordingly. I might see about reactivating it on the off chance we actually find metal ore, but it's very doubtful. Combat roles are going to be very important among the early dwarves, since our entrance into the upper caverns is a monster-infested cave that descends an obscene length into the earth.

Pantheon of Kubuk Ikud
Shedim - Cave Spider God of Jewels, Minerals, Metals, Mountains, and Caverns (Our savior(?))
Kol - Dwarven God of Wealth and Trade
Noglesh - Dwarven God of Fortresses and War
Ucat - Giant Cave Swallow God of the Wind and Festivals
Dasel - Dwarven God of the Sky
Os Lostowl - Dwarven Goddess of Theft
Gulnas - Dwarven Goddess of Plants
Gamil the Helpful Laws - Dwarven Goddess of Oaths and Loyalty
Lim Geniussung - Dwarven Goddess of Inspiration and Painting
Erar - Dwarven God of Discipline
Momuz - Dwarven God of Suicide (Perhaps not incidentally shares a name with the Creature of the Night daughter of Warosp Jubusedme and Atir Liruksazir)
Lek - Dwarven God of the Stars and the Sun

[Darkening Kaos]

Sounds like a challenge.....
Dorf me as a Mechanic/Carpenter.
Name: Kiratha.
Personality: Nervous whenever he's out of his element, ie, his workshop(s), has a deep understanding of copper and warhammerz.
He will be in heaven if he ever acquires a copper warhammer, not that he's much of a fighter.

Darkening Kaos.

[_DivideByZero_]

Can I have a male architect named Zero? Preferably the most psychotic guy you can find, but anyone works. It makes for a more interesting story that way.

[Eric Blank]

Dorf me as Eric, the Raving Mad Dwarf. Any available male.

Clearly, I was the one that decided it was a good idea to drag the wagon up the side of a glaciated mountain. You were just stupid enough to go along with it. For story purposes, it matters only that I came up with all the worst ideas in our history (since my birth) and am making a conscious effort to shut my mouth. Also, enable mining whenever possible because he MUST search for his favorite stone, and dig himself a cozy room to place furniture made from it in.

[Karakzon]

Name: Karakzon
Poffesion: Marksdorf who dual weilds crossbows -assign specific weapon twice-
Make me a miner/fighter if your realy struggling. since getting to legendary with those is easy.

Male preferable.

Personality: A hardened individual with a murderous glare at anything none dwarf or surface dwelling. Xenophobic slightly and muderous about it, but quiet on why. Prone to grumbling alot.

Other: When you wall off the caverns, if you make a gateway, put his groupes trainning room in the tower/rockspire nearest so he can stand guard.
Preferable if he has enought time off to have children.

considering the rarety of dwarfs, having couples and keeping them all alive with be paramount to making the fort grow.

[Mekboy]

Could I get a dwarf by the name of Mekboy please? I don't particularly mind about gender.

If possible, could they be an organiser/record keeper, with a few points in appraiser in order to act as broker.
Personality: Basically a manipulative meglomaniac.

[Cousen]

Dorf me as Bob, I supply Eric with whatever he is smoking.  Fisher/farmer. 

[Darkening Kaos]

Dorf me as Bob, I supply Eric with whatever he is smoking.  Fisher/farmer.

I'll also have some of them fish for smoking - settles my nerves.

[melkor]

dorf me as manger/bookeeper

sex: female

the youngest of them all.

i don't like talking to any othere creatures beacause they arn't interesting and usealy to stupid to understand what i am trying to say.
i like working with numbers because there arn't any hiddind meaning's behind them.

[nonobots]

Good setup Greymane! Are you using your own mods or some existing ones?

Dwarf me as Nonobots, a Bower/Bonecarver/Leatherworker. Turn on butchery and tanning once embarked.

We'll need to catch some beasts for me to practice my trade!

Edit: male if possible

[Cheveux]

This looks promising!

Dorf me as a weaponsmith!

[Elfeater]

Dorf me a military dorf

[Firelordsky]

Dorf me as a Marksdorf.

[Greymane]

Dwarven Expedition Base Camp, on the slopes of the Beak of Daubbing
1st of Granite
"Here we are," Urist Edemnokzam declared.

I know, Shedim answered her back in the only language the Cave Spider god knew.

The ground around the ruined wagon quivered violently. One of the trio clinging to the side of the cliff, Eric Nomalnicat, let out a startled cry as his tenuous grip broke and he went sliding down the side of the hill. The other two held on, while Urist and those above them threw themselves to the ground and waited the tremor to pass. The near by rats squealed in confusion and fear and the jumping spiders both skittered awkwardly across the pitching ice. Only the crundles actually fled though, the big-mouthed lizards letting out throaty hisses of terror and taking off in all directions.

There was a distant rumble from somewhere far below as the quaking came to a halt. Urist gave it a moment, then risked peering over the side again. Karakzon Oltarzeg and the "Bob" Azinoddom still. Far below them, much to his clear surprise as her own, was Eric. He had landed rather safely onto the ancient bundles of rat leather they'd gathered from Melbilmamot. The flaxen-haired miner stared up at Urist, the whites of his eyes visible even from that distance.

"I didn't do it," Erik said, his voice carrying in the stillness

"Shut up," a second voice answered with a grunt. Karakzon spoke softly by nature, but he barely whispered at that moment. "You'll call down the mountain."

The old soldier had not yet even broken a sweat as he clung to the slope. Near him, the dwarfess who called herself Bob was not fairing nearly as well, her teeth gritted and face red with strain.

"If the wagon didn't do it, nothing will," a third voice chimed in. Kiratha Okolducim was the first to his feet and offered a hand to Urist, helping her to rise. Before she could even thank him, he was off and looking over the broken stump that remained from the ancient tree they'd tied the wagon off to. He gave it a kick, frowning over it, then waved a hand. "Someone get some silk from the jumping spiders. I'll tie it to whats left of the tree and can lower them off the side to Erik. He can tie some rope to them and we'll rope it to the tree to get everyone down."

"Yes because the tree worked so well with the bloody wagon," Zero Meboddom, the fat-bodied wagon master, said with a stomp of her booted foot. "No. No more damn trees. Should have figured it wouldn't work when Crundlebrain-Eric suggested it in the first place. Trees are a dwarfs natural enemy. This proved it if nothing else did."

"Not the tree diatribe again," mekboy Kolmeng muttered under her breath as Urist helped her to her feet. Urist agreed, though kept her mouth shut. Zero was only more likely to go into it if someone seemed like they might be debating her.

Kiratha had the right idea though, cutting in quickly while he leaned down to softly coax one of the still-nervous insects into spitting a spool of damp silk thread into his palm. "Fine, then we'll just tie the rope to ourselves to get Karakzon and Bob down, then fine another way down the slope."

"Like we should have done in the first place instead of trusting a tree! Do you know who likes seeing dwarves hanging from trees? Momuz, that's who!"

... or at least it had seemed like Kiratha had the right idea. mekboy shook her head and tapped Urist on the arm and the two of them abandoned the mechanic to Zero while they moved back to the edge of the slope. mekboy cupped a hand to her mouth to shout. Karakzon glared death at her for it, but she pretended not to notice. "Eric! Is anyone else alive down there?"

The blond dwarf was still laying on the pile of leathers, but scrambled up quickly and made a round to the bodies scattered about the wagon. She watched as he moved from figure to figure, then hurried back to the bottom of the slope. "... melkor, Nonobots, Cheveux, Elfeater, and Firelordsky! They're hurt, but they're breathing. The rest..."

A faint wave of relief washed over Urist. Shedim had caught them in her web, it seemed. Not it was just a case of finding out if she'd let them go again. "How bad are they?"

Erik only shook his head. Couldn't say. They'd lost their only healer to a roc attack seven winters back. Bob had taken over tending to the basic cuts and bruises they had gotten since then, but none of them knew much about healing arts.

mekboy pulled one tall ear thoughtfully. "Well however bad they are, they're not going to get any better laying on the ground. Eric! Spread out some of that leather for them, then pile up the rest under Bob and Karakzon in case they fall!"

"Save it all for Bob," Karakzon grunted up at them. "I'm not going to fall."

"You'd know best," mekboy shrugged and waved to get Eric's attention. "Eric, forget Karakzon! He's a soldier! He wants to die! Put it all under Bob!"

Eric responded with a wave, then got back to piling up the old rat leathers into a misshapen lump. Urist looked over at the fisherdwarf hanging near Karakzon, whose body trembled with desperate tension.

"How are you holding up there, Bob?"

There was a long pause, before a tiny voice gasped. "I've... been... better."

Zero and the mechanic were approaching the edge of the slope, Zero still loudly cursing anything that grew above the earth instead of below it. They each carried one of the blue-bodied jumping spiders in their arms. The jittery little things were letting out a long spool of silk thread behind them. "Kiratha's going to get you down. Just hang on a little longer."

Bob didn't answer out loud this time, only nodded. The spiders were released and went scampering agilely down the slope between the stranded dwarves. Urist couldn't figure out why Bob had tried to go over the edge in the first place. Often as her skill with a rope and rod had kept them fed on fish, a wagon wasn't the sort of thing she could have reeled in. Bob had always been the most fragile of their group, even since she was young.

Though none of them were young anymore.

The spiders reached Eric and Kiratha managed to shout the plan down to him, over Zero's raving. Eric seemed to get what the idea was, at least enough to tie the ropes around the spiders, so Urist and mekboy left them to it. The two dwarven women set off to find a safer way down the mountain side, walking along the narrow ridge in silence until they neared the rock outcropping the Cave Spider God had pointed them towards. mekboy stopped and frowned, peering at the dark mouth of a tunnel in the side of the rock.

"That's where Shedim wants us to go?"

Urist nodded, her skin crawling as she beheld the stand of stone. There was nothing special about it to speak of. They'd passed hundreds of caves just like it on their trip, though they hadn't dared go in to any. Too many chances one of the Great Beasts might be dwelling within. Yet, Urist knew that this

mekboy sniffed the air, then wrinkled her nose. "I smell crundle droppings."

"Probably wild crundles," Urist said. "They shouldn't be too dangerous unless there are alot of them."

mekboy gave her a dubious look and Urist knew why. Crundles were caverns what ants were to the surface. If there was one, there would be a hundred. "Wish Zero and Eric had taken a fall, instead of Firelordsky and Elfeater. We'll only have Karakzon if there is trouble."

"And Eric. He can handle a pick."

That earned Urist a dubious glance "Maybe all of us should go in armed. Kiratha can put together some spears and shields from the wood we took from Melbilmamot, you can make us some armor from the rat leather."

"That might take awhile," Urist said, finding herself looking towards the pale sky. She could almost feel time racing by even while they stood there. "We need to get out of the open as quickly as we can. The engravings at Melbilmamot were full of pictures of the Great Beasts, so there must be plenty around here too."

mekboy pulled her ear once more, a thoughtful gesture as she furrowed her brow. mekboy did her best work in her head, calculating times and work schedules and planning details. Zero was wagon master by sheer force of personality, but it was mekboy who really dealt with running their fragile caravan. "Then we'll just make enough for Karakzon and Eric. If there isn't anything more dangerous than crundles, they should be enough to get us in."

Urist took another look at the cave and felt a shiver pass through her that wasn't from the cold.

If.
-----

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, I have just no luck when it comes to doing community games it seems. This is the second time I've tried one that I crashed into disaster. In this case, dwarf fortress crashed after an in-game month in and then continually crashed whenever I tried to load my back-up. Turned out from the error log that it was futzing up on a critter I'd edited in (giant ant) and I couldn't get it fixed enough to satisfy DW. So, I just ripped it out of the raws and tried to regen, only apparently the lack of that one creature was enough to distort time and space itself, as the world that generated from the exact same seeds was almost completely different.

This isn't as bad as the last time though (when dwarf fortress crashing turned out to be a prelude to my whole computer exploding), so I'm persevering even though I'm somewhat sad that the rather awesome details of the last world are lost. Don't think I've ever seen as amazing a pantheon of dwarven gods as that one. I mean, it's not that many worlds where the first king of dwarven kind ends up as the bridegroom of a Nightcreature and gives birth to the dwarven goddess of suicide. Still, I'm just going to play make-believe and claim that this new world and the old one are the same place.

[Greymane]

Good setup Greymane! Are you using your own mods or some existing ones?

Dwarf me as Nonobots, a Bower/Bonecarver/Leatherworker. Turn on butchery and tanning once embarked.

We'll need to catch some beasts for me to practice my trade!

Edit: male if possible

My own mods. They're not super-extensive, since I'm not that great at modding yet, but they usually do what I want them to.

Usually.