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Author Topic: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)  (Read 182894 times)

varnish

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #915 on: September 21, 2012, 08:30:57 pm »

((Sorry for yet another delay. Had a funeral to go to, 700 miles from where I live. Busy times. But I've got this and the next several updates mostly written.))

Back in the Old Fort, Part Two:

From the Journals of Aban Brothertreaties:

The remarkable thing is that we're all still alive.

Well, no, I tell a lie. The really remarkable thing is who we found when we got back to the fortress. Though it's not as remarkable as the state that the fortress itself is in...
The trouble with seeing so many remarkable things in the course of one day is that it's easy to lose perspective.

It was basically only seconds after we all realized where we were that the goblins found us. And well, being completely exhausted, demoralized, and so on, we all got ready to die. And the goblins disappointed everyone by not killing us. Instead, the little group (there were three of them, by the way) looked us over, gave what must be the goblin equivalent of a shrug, and carried on back to the ruins of the fortress. We followed them, for lack of any other ideas.

There's no way to easily describe what we found. Remember, there had been around five armies attacking us in the end. The "elves", those giant men, the bird-men, and so on. They were all still there, lazing around on our wrecked pumps, rooting through our discarded clothing, and generally making things a mess. And I mean a real mess. I'm not sure how they managed to scatter all of the discarded armor at the very end of the bridge. That had to take real effort.

Not one of them bothered us, either. The whole impression seemed to be we weren't important any more. A few looked up as we passed, but that was about the extent of things

The fort is a flooded, muck and blood filled mess. (In short, not to different from what it looked like the last time I saw it). There are whole trees growing up through old workrooms and dining halls. And it was in one of those dining that we met Gar.



Gar, if you remember, (I sure didn't) was one of the original founders of this place. He helped build the magma pumps, the traps that almost protected us, and a whole hell of a lot else. I also think he was my husband at some point or other.



He didn't really seem all that surprised to see us either, which I have to say I found irritating. He went missing after we fled the... first? Yes, the first attempt at building the bridge, and I'd long assumed that he was dead. He's not, of course, but he didn't have much to say on the matter. The conversation was interesting though, and, you know, worth recording. Gar was sitting on one of the few marble chairs that still had all four legs, poking at some sort of stone tool. He looked up, nodded, and said:

"Oh, it's you people."

That's not the kind of thing that's easy to respond to, aside from saying something like: "Well, yes."

He then said something about it being damn time, and wasn't someone going to help him get these mechanisms working again. He also complained about the state of the pumps, calling them "nonsensical", and "the work of a madman".

I'm pretty sure he designed most of them.

Well, we're still alive, like I said. I've called for a meeting of us seven to discuss, well, what the hell we're going to do now. Whatever it is, I'm sure this fort still has plenty of horrors left to throw at us.

....................

Next: A Lot of Problems


((Dang it, i pressed enter before I finished writing. Bah.))


« Last Edit: September 21, 2012, 08:39:48 pm by varnish »
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peregarrett

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #916 on: September 22, 2012, 12:22:50 am »

Oh, that's my usual reaction of reviewing my own work after time.
"Who was that idiot who made that? Me!"
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varnish

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #917 on: September 22, 2012, 10:28:25 pm »

((working on making things make sense, or something))

Solving Problems

Gar and Di-III stood knee deep in pool of filthy water that had once been the main workshops.

"So what's next on the list?"

"Says here you people built a waterfall. The damn thing is still running; that's why the lower levels are all flooded. But I've got no idea what lever turns the fucking thing off."
"So? We just pull levers until we find the right one! That's the methodical way."

"Sure. From what I can tell, there's also a several floodgates that connect directly to the ocean, or to random drawbridges, or to spike traps. So let's pull all the levers. What could go wrong?"

"Right!"



Several near drownings later, Di-III found the lever. It was several floors below the waterfall, and each floor was flooded by water from the falls.

"It's brilliantly stupid."

....................

The next task fell to Remalle, in spite of his protests. A quick "survey" conducted by Ishar (who had decided to check some of the more out of the way corners of the fortress) revealed one disturbing fact. There were more ghosts in Oceanbridge than there were living dwarfs.

"I think I even saw the ghost of Ishar", Ishar told Aban.



"Ok, well, That means coffins and slabs, and a lot of them." Aban sighed. "We're all experts at dealing with death here, but you're the best at engraving, Remalle, right?"

"I'm an engraver, yes, but..."

"I don't want to be woken up by screaming every night, unless it's just my own- I mean... just help deal with them, all right?"

..................

Next: Also Problems
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Remalle

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #918 on: September 23, 2012, 01:01:26 am »

I just realized, since we're back in the past you have to keep my dwarf alive at all costs, lest my death cause a temporal paradox and destroy the universe.
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varnish

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #919 on: September 23, 2012, 01:51:16 pm »

That would make things less confusing, at least.

Just putting up something I noticed. It turns out there was at least one Di-3 in this fort already:



I don't remember him/her at all.

Update soon!
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varnish

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #920 on: September 24, 2012, 08:52:43 pm »

((I don't know about the quality of these updates. Got to get into writing regularly again, which means just going for it, regardless. Like so))

A Conversation


Something must have opened up in the lower caverns, Aban thought. The old dining room had emptied of water overnight, somehow, which meant that Gar had been able to reach the waterfall lever.



So long as the thing that drained the water hadn't been some monstrous forgotten beast, like a flying acid spitting earthworm, she thought they would be safe. Leaving out the several hundred or so monsters that were wandering around the surface, of course...

She was sitting at one of the mud coated tables down there, going over a list, when Gar came down the nearby stairs.  "Hey, Aban. Got something to say to you."

"Oh, yes?"

"The whole waterfall system is shot. I got it turned off, but there's no way to turn it on again without a hell of a lot of work. It's a piece of shit anyway. Anything else you want to know about?"

"Where do I even start!" She pointed at the piece of paper in front of her. "It's just that.... look, there are at least 30 goblins here right now alone. I haven't even counted the ape-men, the giants, or the elves, but there's probably well over one hundred of them, at least. They outnumber us! They were perfectly fine with killing us before, why aren't they trying to do it now?"

Gar snorted. "I don't know. Don't care either. I like not being killed. Also, I was asking about jobs that needed doing. I really don't care about that."

Aban ignored him. "I just wish I knew someone who could speak goblin. Or whatever language those ape-men speak. Then we might find out what they want from us. I wish that Croaker, or whatever his name was, was still around. He seemed like the sort to know languages."

"Yeah, whatever." Gar drummed his fingers on the table, before saying "Hey, weren't we were married? You remember that?"

"Vaguely, yes."

"Want to get that going again?"

Aban looked up from her list in surprise. "What? Why?"

"Just for the hell of it. Plus, we're the only two founders of this place left, I think. Why not?"

She thought it over for a minute, then shrugged. "Well, ok. Sure."



...........................

Next: Other Problems


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peregarrett

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #921 on: September 24, 2012, 11:10:39 pm »

Aaaawwwwwwwwwwwww..... Such a romantic moment!

EDIT: For the marriage gift Gar would present a sweet family shelter somewhere deep next to caverns, so their children grow up in a safety.
Shelter should have all precautions, for sure - airlock filled with spikes, water tank with safe way to refill, palisade with farms... oh, I'll do some sketches.
If there are no spare miners, Gar would do it himself.
Spoiler: The Airlock (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Water tank (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: September 25, 2012, 05:21:18 am by peregarrett »
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Ishar

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #922 on: September 25, 2012, 06:45:46 am »

Is it still the case that the friendly goblins (caused by reclaim) become instantly hostile again when their civ comes back for a siege? If so, be careful about that.
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Di

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #923 on: September 25, 2012, 12:00:06 pm »


Aww... So he DID die.
But how do they even read the names of skeletons anyway? It's not like they're scribbled on their skulls.
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http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=103080.0 Fix sober vampires!
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peregarrett

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #924 on: September 25, 2012, 01:12:28 pm »


Aww... So he DID die.
But how do they even read the names of skeletons anyway? It's not like they're scribbled on their skulls.
- Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio....
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varnish

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #925 on: September 25, 2012, 07:50:59 pm »

Is it still the case that the friendly goblins (caused by reclaim) become instantly hostile again when their civ comes back for a siege? If so, be careful about that.

I don't know!

If they do... well, here's a list of the "friendly" army. Not as many as I first thought, but a lot more goblins. It would be "fun".

goblins - 85
giants-27
beak wolf- 14
ferric elf-2
dark strangler - 1
ogres - 14

Update, working, soon, etc.
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Ishar

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #926 on: September 26, 2012, 02:11:42 am »

27 suddenly hostile giants would be extremely FUN.
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peregarrett

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #927 on: September 26, 2012, 02:15:40 am »

27 suddenly hostile giants would be extremely FUN.
That's why I'm so much for shelter idea, for the most important persons, i.e Gar and Aban.  8)
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varnish

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #928 on: September 26, 2012, 08:31:13 pm »


Putting Ghosts to Rest

The warthogs were the last straw.

Gar had been hauling a carved slab to the new funeral hall (actually one of the regular halls. Most of Oceanbridge was a funeral hall by now.) when a whole herd of the animals came charging at him.



After the aggressively grazing animals had passed, Gar got up, dusted himself off, and calmly walked back to the dining hall, where he announced, "That's it. I am done with this."

Only Ishar was there at the moment. She looked up and asked "Done with what?

He didn't answer directly. "Ishar, you got a pick. Come with me. We're doing what we should have done years ago."

"What's that?"

"We're going to make this place safe. I got plans."

.................

Remalle went back later and pushed the slab upright, setting it in place in the damp white sand. The last part was necessary. He still didn't know why. But the funerary slabs needed to be in the right place to work.



Things were changing in Oceanbridge. Maybe for the better.

...................

Next: New Arrivals
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peregarrett

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Re: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again)
« Reply #929 on: September 27, 2012, 03:36:06 am »

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, we got some work to do... *whistling*
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Did you know that the Russian word for "sock" is "no sock"?
I just saw a guy with two broken legs push a minecart with a corpse in it. Yeah.
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