And one more since my first 4-name dwarf makes an appearance.
This chapter starts right after a goblin ambush team is sighted...
CHAPTER 15 – A Winter’s Day (in a deep and dark Opal)
The few workers in the Outer Bailey are called in. The ready melee squad of hammer dwarves is mobilized and sent to deal with the incursion. A crossbow squad is sent to the northwest bastion overlooking the western side of the Outer Bailey, but it is expected that they probably will not arrive there in time. The attacking goblins look to be a sword goblin leading four pike goblins. And then the Outer Bailey gate goes up before any goblins get inside…
Since this stops the combat and leaves goblins lurking about the gate is ordered lowered again. This operation obliterates two pike goblins that were standing in the right place at the wrong time.
An order snafu causes the crossbow squad to go back to barracks and a training squad to assemble by the Main Gate. As the three remaining goblin cautiously enter the Outer Bailey the correct melee squad forms up at the eastern end of the Outer Bailey. Shortly afterwards, battle is joined.
(PICTURE OF GOBLINS AND DWARVES STARTING FIGHT ON OPEN GROUND CROSSED BY A ROAD)
The skirmish begins. The rabbit in the lower right is not from Caerbannog – it’s retreating. The dwarves are not holding good formation, but have numbers and better armor.
(PICTURE OF GOBLIN NUMBERS SUDDENLY DOUBLING)
And right at contact the goblins spring a surprise! Another ambush team!
A mace goblin armed with a morningstar and four lashers suddenly appear.
A back-up melee squad of spear dwarves is immediately sent for, but will not arrive for a while. The initial round of strikes incapacitates a pike goblin while a dwarf receives a minor leg wound . A single lasher avoids the melee and heads towards the gate. Soon afterwards a second lasher breaks off and heads that way as well. The militia captain takes a hit from a morningstar in the leg and goes down. A lasher piles on and inflicts additional injuries.
(PICTURE OF GOBLINS AND DWARVES IN COMBAT)
The swirl of combat (roughly the end of Round 2). Note lasher headed east, probably chasing livestock.
A second dwarf gets knocked unconscious by the morningstar wielding goblin. Not seriously injured – yet. The lasher headed east finds a weapon trap and gets mangled, but continues towards the gate. And then gets caught by a cage trap.
The two wounded dwarves are finished off by the goblins. The mace goblin is wounded and disarmed in the exchange however. And a lone crossbow dwarf to the south starts taking potshots.
At this point the melee breaks up. Three goblins are chasing a hammer dwarf to the north. The lashers are scattered about, and two dwarves are chasing individual goblins. The hammer dwarf dodges off the Outer Bailey hill and lies stunned next to the creek. The wounded mace goblin is then chased eastward, right into the arriving spear squad.
The goblins rally at the west side of the Outer Bailey and the dwarves at the eastern side. The goblins have the sword goblin leader, a pike goblin, and three lashers. None are seriously wounded, but they have lost a leader and two other goblins (plus the two the gate smashed). The dwarves have lost a hammer squad captain and another hammer dwarf, plus a dwarf out of the combat area (who will possibly be up on cowardice charges.) One of the remaining hammer dwarves is in a martial trance as well.
The second combat exchange ends much quicker. The sword and pike goblins are bashed down and then the fight degenerates into a chase of the three remaining lashers. This ends when two are chased into the main gate area traps and cornered. Another dwarf is killed in the exchange from whip damage to the throat . Upon investigation it turns out this fatality was a trainee spear dwarf who was under-armored and not assigned to be there at all. This appears to be the requisite idiot death that seems to occur with every goblin encounter.
The gate is opened for the trade caravan to depart while the Outer Bailey is cleaned up and the bodies brought in for burial. Overall, not a satisfactory encounter and the militia are obviously in need of more work. Even when the fight turned into five on eight the superior equipment and presumably training should have performed better. The squad in question was disbanded; there were sufficient squads available and it was quietly decided to split the remaining members up by assigning them elsewhere.
Interlude – The end of a quiet year
The rest of the winter passes without further military unrest.
Militia upgrades drag due to a desire to wait for better armor smith skills to develop. And the desire to use the dwarves to carry out construction or support work as five projects are carried out simultaneously:
1. Exploration tunnels in two places attempting to map the magma sea and also hopefully locate more adamantine veins.
2. Completion of a cistern and tunnel to run water to the current adamantine works. The easily accessible ore has been mined out – now water is needed to create obsidian barriers to allow access to the rest. This project is long-term and is still in the primary tunneling phase. The follow-up work is primarily for the engineers installing floodgates and the appropriate control levers.
3. The masons have been busy extending walls in the Outer Bailey, completing walk-able parapets on the east and west walls for patrolling, converting a northwest pasture room into a full-fledged multi-story bastion, and completing the hillside tower.
4. The west end of the Depot Tunnel has been heavily modified. It now has north and south branches that will end in additional exits to the surface. This also includes more drawbridges that can be used to control which exits are available to be used. And a separate tunnel from the Core area is under construction to allow marksdwarves to reach firing galleries that cover the new exits.
5. The engineers and miners have nearly completed a modernization to the upper end of the Switchback Tunnel. This incorporates a newly designed “Goblin Grinder Mark II” system. (See Appendix C)
Interlude Part 2 – Just a jump to the left (and then a step to the right…)
A hushed conversation takes place in the Duke’s private quarters. Around a table lit by a few candles sit the Duke, the Mayor, and the fortress Militia Commander.
“Explain to me again what makes you so insistent upon a private meeting and what your log book has to do with it.”
“I initially noticed that the log book had mysteriously moved to a different spot in my desk. When I went to fill out the day’s entry I found it already filled in. And the entries for the rest of the year had been made as well. All in my handwriting, and the older entries had aged ink. According to it we will have a fight in the North Forty six weeks from now with a goblin raiding force. We will win, but it will be somewhat costly. Three killed and some other repercussions I choose to keep quiet about at this time.”
“Well, that would be better than seeing the handwriting change with a date a few weeks with the note ‘Logem was killed by a crundle .’”
“Ha ha. It is to laugh. Seriously, what we need to decide is how to act on this. Assuming it’s accurate we get a chance to adjust our actions. Change construction orders, have a different gate open, or simply make sure that we react to the raid with greater force.”
“Do you assume that the goblins will attack in the same pattern with the same troops?”
“I will not assume that. In fact my preference is to avoid that fight altogether. Open the Pond or Brookside Tunnel now and see if the raiders go in there. Don’t open the Outer Bailey gate until mid-winter when the trade caravan is actually ready to leave.”
“How about using some of the new tunnel exits? They are about ready.”
“I think we should hold off on that until all the construction there is complete. Use one of the existing tunnels to attempt to draw the raiders off, or at least distract them. If we do not see them by the time the caravan leaves we will try to route them out the far side of the fortress. Or consider making a large-scale patrol sweep. In any case we need to get this caravan out intact simply to prove that we are a viable Mountainhome.”
“I concur. The Brookside is probably the better option for drawing them off. And if the Switchback gets higher priority we can open it earlier than scheduled as well.”
“Agreed.”
AND WE HAD A GAME CRASH (FOR NO APPARENT REASON.) SO WE LOSE THREE MONTHS OF TIME AND IT IS NOW IN THE AUTUMN RIGHT AFTER THE DWARVEN CARAVAN ARRIVES. AND CHAPTER 15 DID NOT OCCUR…
AND TIME UNWINDS IN A NEW COURSE.
Chapter 15A – Danger in the Depths
Mining work continues and things appear to be normal. There is a minor breach in the second cavern system while getting ore, but only a naked mole dog gets in before the hole is sealed. The creature does some minor damage before it is hunted down and killed.
In the middle of this disruption a floor hatch in the mining galleries is ruptured. Through it flies the forgotten beast Spos Esnuststospdab – a gigantic nightjar with three-eyes and an enormous shell . This constitutes a somewhat more serious emergency than the incursion of a naked mole dog.
An immediate alert is sounded and the mining galleries ordered to be cleared while militia squads are summoned to guard the entrance, and then proceed downward once the creature is located. On Level Z+97 the monster finds dwarves who have not cleared the area. A miner is attacked, but drives the creature off while inflicting some injury to it. Another miner is not so lucky. He gets bowled over, driven into a dead-end gallery and killed.
The melee squad rushes to the area, but the creature has gone deeper. On Level Z+91 the beast and hammer dwarf Stakud Dorenamem Rir Ron confront each other. The fight moves down and back in a wide gallery. Stakud dodges the beast’s charge, but his strikes only bruise the animal. Shortly afterwards two more hammer dwarves from the squad arrive. Once the fight becomes three on one the fell beast is rapidly incapacitated and then pounded into oblivion. Stakud is not credited with the kill, but his contribution is recognized in helping to corner the beast .
The fractured hatch is replaced with a solid floor and the galleries are re-opened. In the dining hall it is declared that cooked Forgotten Beast “tastes like chicken”.