The expedition seemed to take a bad start, but one day, everything seemed to turn around. A group of dwarves appeared in the distance, marching towards the construction site.
- " Greetings, I am cool Tod. I lead these brave dwarves through the glacier to reach you. When I heard that the architect of the wall himself is here, nothing could stop me."
- "You are a welcome sight indeed. Tell me, who are your companions ?"
- "We are five. I am a fighter, good with the mace. Stronghammer there is our brewer, we also have a cook with us, a mechanic, a miner called Mitch and the shy guy over there claims to be a psychatrist. Still no idea what that should be. Oh... and just ignore the preaching idiot, he just followed us."
Meph stared at the arriving group. A new miner ? A mechanic ? Someone who can actually cook and brew drinks ? This is a gift send by armok himself.
-"Praise armok, now we can do our duty and start building the wall."
A dwarf that so far had stood outside the group spoke to him:
-" Yes, brother, praise armok. For he alone can save you. All that happens is his will, and we do his work."
-"Ah, you are a preacher, I say ?"
-"Yes, I spread armoks words"
-"And what else do you do?"
-"There is nothing more."
-"So you wont help in the construction, but eat our food and drinks, little that it is?"
The preacher looked at Meph, then strode away without a word. Even while the rest of the group was gathering their thoughts, and Meph and Tod where discussing who is to work where... A magma elemental crawled out of the volcano. One of the masons saw it first. A bubbling mass of rock, slowly taking on form and coming towards him... he dropped his boulder, screamed, and ran. Immediatly Tod ran towards the elemental, whose heat had begun to melt the snow around it.
Elemental:
Without fear or a thought for his own safety, even without weapons, he attacked it. And killed it. He literally ripped it apart with his bare hands, several limbs flying around. Tod stood there, breathing hard, but unharmed.
"Wow." said a small, high voice.
"Who said that?" bellowed Tod.
"Crap, I should go... ahhhh" said the same voice, belonging to a goblin thief that had watched the fight. He even bumped into Tod in his fear, but was too fast for him.
"So we are not alone in this part of the world, hey?"
"We never are..." agreed Meph.
Tod, thief and molten snow:
Afterwards the group was set to work, and something like routine came back into the site. Stronghammer was making delicious drinks, the preacher was getting everyone on edge with talk about a cursed place... he started this after he heard about our three deaths... Mitch met with the remaining miner and they talked about the next shafts. And new security protocolls. A long time of peace and good work past...
Then, three ice wolfs appear. Our militia commander, still unarmed and alone in his squad, is far away. The only one near are the miners, Mitch and Avuz. Both charged the wolfs to save the civilians in the area...
First fight
Second fight
Third fight
Mitch attacks and kills the first wolf after a short wrestle. He himself got bitten and is bleeding, but regardless of the injury he manages to kill the beast. Still next to the carcass, a second wolf jumps at him.... but Mitch turns around and slams his pick into it's skull, killing it instandly. "Not today" he said and took a beath. His comrad, Avuz, made brave by the example, hunts down the last wolf, but his skills are not as great. He gets injured and tries to flee, but the wolf is too fast. In the very last moment, again, Mitch manages to kill the wolf, saving his fellow miner, himself, and the honour of our miners.
Unfortunately wild beasts are not our only problem. We have no water to treat the injured, and our food resources are low. Our butcher has to lead our only horse to death, sustaining us all for weeks...
In the meantime a kobold thief tried to sneak in, but seeing our butcher at work he decided to flee.
All the time the senseless preacher whipped the workers up to a frenzy, and convinced them to build a temple over the volcano, to please Armok. True enough, within just one day, a miracle, they managed to complete it. But then, the preacher did something no one expected: He offered his life to Armok. He stood on the altar and yelled: Armok, strike me down, take my life and blood to aid these people. I am your true servant, help me help my flok...
Some wild eyed workers reported this to Meph, and he run outside, into snow and wind, towards the steaming crater, to stop this madness. But when he arrived, all he found was the dead preacher. No one knows how he had died, but there was barely any blood left in him
Dead preacher and temple:
When Tod searched the temple afterwards, he found relicts on the altar. A steel sword and armor. Blessed by armok himself. Seems that the preacher had not been completely mad. Quickly he equipped himself, ready to protect the colony proper now.
In the meantime a novice doctor created tools in the apothecarius, and splinted, patched and sewed the injured miner together, even before he could die of thirst. Thankful, his first action was to run to the booze and empty an entire barrel all by himself. Stronghammer was standing nearby, watching, and laughing quietly into his beard.
Author
Topic: The Wall. (☼MASTERWORK☼ DF V.09 Testfort) (Read 2931 times)