For a day, the fortress shakes and echoes with the clash of battle below. Despite the flood of hell that pours into Weatherwires, the mighty warriors of the Diamond Cloisters hold strong, and the wave of demons eventually breaks and rolls back. The smoke and miasma fade after a few days, and the dwarves begin to go about the business of entombing the fallen, wading through the piles of ash, salt, and dismembered body parts which clog the narrow passage.
The skeletons of those who were caught behind the obsidian wall when hell was first breached are given a proper burial, and a handful of ghosts are laid to rest. Despite the hopes of any who went back into those passages to search for the dead, the body of the planter Ilral Boltedday is nowhere to be found.
Kib Waxpaddled, legendary hammerdwarf and matriarch of the now defunct Gloveowners clan (her only surviving child was slain in the battle) resumes her old position of mayor, which she held in the earliest years of the fortress. She meets with the surviving Quakedented children individually, and puts her high mastery in the skill of consolation to good use. A few months after the battle, morale springs back and there is no immediate threat of a tantrum spiral.
The Royal Fortresses and the Lone Lashes are disbanded for the time being, allowing the Quakedented and Lashhushed clan a chance to recuperate and contemplate their losses.
As her compatriots go about their duties, Melbil Cryptshaft returns to the caisson to mine out the last of the adamantine. The only other remaining legendary miners were slain in the battle, and Melbil is getting on in years - she could die of old age any season now. She migrated to the fort in 138 and was immediately put to work in the dome as a miner, quickly reaching legendary status. At some point during the years, she was bitten by a cave spider, and has suffered from dizzy spells since then. As well, she is the survivor of two separate cave-ins, and has lost use of her left leg - she has walked with a crutch for decades now. The wear of the years shows more on Melbil than other dwarves, but she is well-respected in the fortress as one of the miners who participated in the great excavation - and now, the last of all those heroes, she delves once more into the deeps to satisfy her race's unending, all-consuming greed.
DS. To make things funny, add [SPEED:1] to the dwarf raws.
Also, clowns will continue making visits because their car is still open.
At the moment, the ~30 FPS I'm enjoying is speed enough. Also, I've never experienced the multiple waves of demons that some people claim exist - though, hell does have 'wildlife,' after a manner, animalistic demons that roam in packs, which occasionally fly up through the tube.
So where does it go from here?
Queen Cog sits silently in her throne room, looking out over the tops of the guildhalls, thick with well-tended fungi and tastefully arranged statues, and contemplates the events of the centennial. Faced with a soul-crushingly slow and inevitable demise, she made the ultimate decision to cut the dwarves off from the land of the living, and thus end their collective agony. The overwhelming forces of hell, she had thought, would give them a glorious end. Indeed, many dwarves had finally found rest - but she had not, nor had her brother Asmel, although he had consistently been in the thick of the fight.
Deep in thought, her eyes involuntarily came to rest on a small, innocuous patch of bright green vegetation on the top of the nearest guildhall. Despair mixed with fury crept slowly across her face.
He would not let them die. The accursed god of daylight and death had smote them down countless times, and yet the fortress' continued existence was undoubtedly his will. He would try to draw out the fortress' ultimate destruction for as long as possible, she realized - but only if they let him.
He had sent a third of the fortress to hell. Cog resolved to spit in the face of the vengeful god and send the rest of the Merchant of Echoing there too, as far from the bright, hateful surface as they could go. The pantheon they would erect there would be a testament to the strength and will of the dwarves - that, even after a century of tragedy and misfortune, their dying race could defeat the armies of hell itself and leave their footprint in the abyss forever. The construction would be the final act of the Diamond Cloisters, and would undoubtedly be bathed in the blood of Cog's subjects. She nodded to herself - a fitting end for the children of the mountain, who had overcome all challenges and created the wondrous dome of Weatherwires.
Maybe it's a sign they should try and colonize hell and join their deceased beloved there.
When the tide of battle started to turn and it became clear that the dwarves were going to pull through, I realized that this was going to have to happen. I'll leave the colonization for another fort (especially since the hell in this world is relatively thin, and I'd want an expansive abyss for megaprojects if I were to do a fort down there). It's time for the saga to draw to a close, I think.
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Topic: The Saga of Weatherwires: Children of Dwarves (spoilers + image heavy) (Read 159389 times)