Early Winter, Year 2Narc sighed with relief when Winterdirge walked up to her, a mug of Dwarven Ale in his hand. "Here, lass. Ye deserve some rest" he said as he took her pick and went to work.
Narc sat on a nearby rock, drinking her ale and watching Winterdirge work. After the Goblin Incident, the Count ordered that until the Magma Fortress could be completed a new entrance should be dug, one that could be more easily defended. Winterdirge made the plans himself, over the next week; he designed a three-part defense system to halt any invaders before they could cause any damage.
First, the potential invader would be forced to pass through a wide corridor filled with cage traps. This first stage wasn't meant to permanently stop the invaders; there weren't enough traps for that. That early trap was meant to cause chaos by breaking up the enemy ranks and, ideally, capture their leader. If the enemy survives this first trap, they will continue to what Winterdirge has dubbed The Bridge of Fate.
The Bridge of Fate is a narrow bridge, with a huge drop on either side. At the bottom of the chasm, Winterdirge has made plans for a pit to be constructed. The pit itself will be filled with spikes, and a lever pull will unleash a number of alligators into the pit to clean up the bodies.
The Bridge itself is heavily trapped, with dozens of swinging blades, stabbing spikes, and spinning discs. When the enemy attempts to cross the bridge, they are faced with two choices: Dodge the traps and plunge to their doom, or stand still and be hacked apart by the weapons.
If the enemy makes it past the first two traps, Winterdirge stated that he has plans for a third device, which he calls the Incinerator. What this Incinerator is and how it is designed, Winterdirge has refused to divulge; in fact, he did all the work on this device himself.
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Late Winter, Year 2Stoutpants swung his pick at the nearby wall. He sighed as rock and rubble tumbled down from the wall. He's mined nearly twenty feet with no sign of ore. The time has come to admit it: The veins were depleted. He would have to report to Winterdirge and ask for orders. Orders that would probably involve digging miles of exploratory tunnels looking for new veins. He sighed... His arms hurt just thinking about it. He put his pick on his shoulder, picked up the last bucket of ore that was left down here, and started the long climb to the magma chambers.
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Heavy reptilian eyelids snapped open, revealing a single blood-red eye.
it hungered and thirsted and wanted and ached, and murdered and pillaged and raped and destroyed and...****************************************************
Stoutpants finally climbed out of the mineshafts and into the third Cavern. These giant holes in the ground always gave him the creeps, and the third one especially so, with its musty smell and dripping water. Stoutpants heard a loud squeak behind him and swung around, pick ready, dropping his bucket; but it was only a large, ugly crundle, who was staring at him.
"Shoo! Get out of here!" called Stoutpants. The Crundle only tilted its ugly head and squeaked again. Stoundpants took a step closer and swung his pick at the Crundle, trying to scare it. The Crundle only squeaked once more.
Stoutpants bent down and picked up a rock. When he looked back up, the Crundle was gone. Shrugging, Stoutpants picked up his bucket again and started climbing the stairs. He was glad that Count UrVlad ordered the stairway sealed away from the Caverns; in the old days, he had two more Caverns to walk through. Now, there was only one opening, where the masons haven't had time to build a wall yet, on the deepest Cavern.
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The creature to whom the eye belonged stretched itself. For hundreds of years, it has slumbered deep bellow the ground, so long that all have forgotten the beast's name. But now, with dozens of warm bodies working and drinking and eating on the living rock above it, Utesh awoke.
The stone around the creature groaned under its tremendous weight as the towering creature uncoiled itself. It had the long, muscular body of a viper, a pair of long, twisted antennae, and beige-colored scales, many of which were missing: the scars of thousands of years' worth of battles against other beasts of similar magnitude.
The huge creature raised its long head and sniffed the air. Something was near; something
alive. Utesh crawled forwards, hissing.
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Stoutpants froze. He heard something. Something in the Caverns....
He whirled around, raising his pick. It was a Crundle; it started following him up the stairs. Stoutpants smiled. He knew just what to do...
Stoutpants continued up the steps, with the Crundle following him, coming closer and closer. Then, suddenly, a cage snapped shut around it. Stoutpants laughed.
Thank Armok for McDonald and her love of exotic McNuggets! he thought to himself. And that's when he heard it.
Heavy breathing echoed in the enclosed staircase chamber. And with it was the sound of something heavy dragging itself along the stairs. Stoutpants, frozen with fear, tried to penetrate the darkness of the stairway bellow him. Shivering, he threw his torch down the stairs. For a moment, he saw something huge, something scaly, slithering up the stairs towards him; and then the torch went out. Stoutpants started running up the stairs, taking them three at a time. He made two steps before a pair of huge fangs, each as long as his arm, stabbed through his head. Stoutpants hung there, two huge fangs sticking through his head. He was already dead, but his body knew what to do even without his brain.
Stoutpant's body screamed.
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Eral was a Marksdwarf. At least, that's what his title was. What that meant is, he did whatever Urist McDonald told him to do. Usually, that involved shooting animals, or dragging caged animals back from the jungle while shooting at other animals. Once in a while, he got too shoot a Goblin. That was always fun.
He just got back from shooting a Giant Capybara when he heard the scream. It came from bellow, from the stairs that led down to the Caverns. Various pests had already come up the stairs; Crundles, Dralthas, Elk Birds... That was why Urist had Gar build numerous cage traps in the hallway. Elk Bird McNuggets were particularly delicious. But so far, nothing truly dangerous had come up from the Caverns. Nothing as bad as the Giant Capybaras from the jungle above. But that scream... That was the scream of a dying Dwarf.
Eral thought quickly, which is probably what saved the fort from certain destruction. He ran to the Alligator cages, and kicked them all open; he continued past, to the Ape Pit, and whistled to the gorillas to follow him. About half of them were trained for combat back when the fort was short on Dwarves, and those apes followed him; the rest followed their pack members. Then he whistled to the hunting dogs, and loaded his crossbow. He heard something big moving down in the tunnels, and realized that he made the right decision; whatever was about to come out of the stairs, he'd need all the help he could get if he was going to kill it.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Dwarves in Urist's farms panicked and fled, running up to the first floor or towards the stockpiles, far from the stairs. Soon, Eral found himself alone, except for the dogs, apes, alligators, and the two giant tigers the fort has tamed over the years. He'd hoped that the rest of his squad would make it, but that didn't seem likely. Two of them were out hunting, and one was still recovering from his injuries in the Great Goblin Siege, as the Count had dubbed it; like it or not, it seemed that he was alone.
Suddenly, a huge one-eyed viper burst forth from the stairway. Its fangs ran with blood and gore; clearly, someone lay dead on the stairs. Anger poured through Eral. "NOBODY ATTACKS MY FORT!" he screamed as he loosed a bolt from his crossbow. The bolt struck the monster on the forehead with a loud crack; bone fragments and gore showered off the wound. The monster's head wavered for a moment, then started to drop. "YEAH! That's right, VIPER! I beat you!" cried Eral as the monster...
Suddenly attacked, barely hampered by its gruesome wound. With lightning speed seeming impossible for something so large, the viper stroke with its huge fangs. Eral dodged, desperately; his right hand flew too close, however, and the viper's razor-sharp fang left a long, straight line of blood. Enraged, Eral raised his crossbow and fired another bolt. "CHARGE!" he screamed, following the bolt by swinging his crossbow at the viper. All around him, alligators, apes, and tigers charged the monster, striking with arms, teeth, and claws.
Bit by bit, the monster fell back. First it would appear wounded, as an alligator bit off a chunk of its flesh, or a tiger swiped at its head; and then, with lightning speed, it would bite a dog through the neck and kill it. Bolt after bolt found its mark in the monster's flesh, and the various animals slowly beat it back through sheer numbers. Finally, the viper bit a dog and shook it by the spine. As it raised its head, the monster revealed its throat. Eral fired one final bolt, which found its mark. Slowly, the monster stopped struggling. Dozens of animals bit and slashed it as it nodded its head back and forth, dazed. And then the beast was slain; Utesh the Forgotten Beast was no more.
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Urist McDonald returned to her kitchen from a quick errand to find dozens of animals milling about, a giant snake dead on the floor, and a crossbow-wielding Dwarf panting from exhaustion besides it. "Ah, excellent! Dinner!" she cried with a smile as she began issuing orders to the few Dwarves brave enough to follow her down so soon after the noises have ceased. Utesh would feed the fortress for a month.
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Topic: Anvilclasp: Fortress of the Count (Read 2864 times)