Part 156: Daeren: Update 19

4th Timber:



Found a dead mole. Eiba's locked himself in his room, sobbing, and is listening to really shitty music.


17th Timber:



Freaking FINALLY.

Eiba's still all over the mole. Dude needs to get more hobbies.


18th Timber:



Accursed wants zinc stuff. What a shocker.

You know, I'd say I was bored, but the last two times I got bored there was mass slaughter.



Uh oh.

Well, in unrelated news, all the new squaddies each have a war mole. Space Jung already has brain damage, though, so he's stuck as a shitty wrestler. I've given him a crossbow.

24th Timber:

Accursed has already popped out a replacement for Aerobic Robot. Say hello to baby Kithrixx!


28th Timber:

There's something wrong with this fortress.

I have prayed to Litast for guidance but have received no reply. This is incredibly unusual.

I feel as though the very land itself is trying to kill this fortress, to remove it from the face of the world. There's too many 'accidents' to be accidents anymore. Something is making all this happen.



I will find out by the end of the year if it kills me.

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Kgummy wrote :-

Wellp, I was scared that my dwarf had died while I wasn't watching the thread for a few days. Homework and such.

Anyways, I had even more ideas for narrative.
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Bobbin was dead. This was... unfortunate. It seemed to Kgummy that Silento was setting up these deaths. Somehow. He didn't have a choice. He had to finish that retched device.

He had figured out what it was. It was a device to capture souls. Any souls that were forever trapped in this damned fortress. More specifically, this particular one gathered those both of spawn and dwarf. And.... mixtures of such.

He wondered how he knew, at first. But he realized. The idol. It was a training device, putting in information about Parasol. How to use the devices, what they were for, etc.. He had considered throwing it into the magma. But, he realized that would be a very bad idea. Something about that idol permeated pure evil. If it were destroyed, the evil would seep out. Dooming the fortress. Knowledge that was not meant for mere dwarfs to understand. At least, not without either training or modification.

In any case, Kgummy placed the final piece into the device. He had no choice. Silento was becoming... Violent. Of course, Kgummy was sure he was the only one that noticed.

Suddenly, a noise came from the device. Almost like a sucking sound. Or perhaps inhaling. Each of the emblems changed color from the glowing green that indicated that they were ready to be used. They only shone such a color near a device such as the one Kgummy just 'finished' per say. It was more of loading the device, or preparation for its true function. Storing stray souls into the emblems. It was quite confusing. Some emblems would only store specific types and amounts of souls. The device also mattered greatly. It determined what kind of creatures could be stored into the devices. In this case, again, it was creatures that were dwarves. Or at least partly dwarven.

The glowing colors were simple, in this case:
No glow: Either not near a device, or not ready.
Green: Empty, but ready. Only shown when near a device.
Blue: Pure dwarf soul(s).
Red: Spawn or greater spawn, stuff like that. In other words 'pure' spawn, if spawn could even be called that.
Yellow: Modified dwarves. Such as the new guard. Not including Kgummy, as the procedures were not performed on him.
Orange: This color... Kgummy still didn't know what it meant in particular, but Globofglob's soul resided in the lone orange colored emblem. Kgummy set this one aside.
Shifting: This one was most intriguing, partially because no emblem was of this glow color. This was reserved for very... specific beings. The only two that Kgummy knew about were Silento...and himself. This did not comfort him.

Kgummy found the emblem which contained Bobbin's soul. He placed it in a necklace he had found, and put it around his neck. He needed Bobbin's strength to make it through this... mess. May Bobbin guide this poor dwarf; if Kgummy was indeed a dwarf. In any case, the remaining emblems still remained on the device. He fiddled with the device. Eventually all the glow disappeared from them. They were free. As free as a soul could be in this fortress.

Or at least, that was his intention. Instead, the device sucked it all into one sphere. A much, much smaller sphere, about the size of a marble. It did not glow, instead it was just the same color as that of the non-glowing emblems. He placed this in his pocket, after fiddling with the device some more. Of course, not every soul was grabbed by the device. Not enough room, thankfully. He briefly considered breaking open the marble, in an attempt to truly free the souls, but then... they would still be trapped inside the fortress. Or worse, erased from existence.

He grabbed Globofglob's emblem. He had noticed a special part of the totem. One that accepted emblems. He placed the emblem into the spot. Hopefully this would work. It had to. Otherwise...Globofglob would be ill prepared to face the evil that Silento had become. Kgummy could only trust him for this. Silento would react predictably. Try to put Globofglob into a golem. Or something similar, at least. Then the experiments would begin. Although... it would be more like punishment. With the knowledge that would hopefully passed, Globofglob would stand a chance at taking down Silento.

He removed the emblem, and headed off to find Silento. He would be told to watch the experiments. Either part of the whole 'transformation' deal... or as a lesson. Not to cross Parasol. Either way, this would be interesting.

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Globofglob wrote :-

The Ghostly thoughts of Globofglob:

Can't anyone in this damn fortress leave a soul well enough alone!? I die, I wait till a few migrants come, I choose one, take over it's body, then retake the fort. That was the plan. It was a good plan. I liked that plan.

Daeren tried to catch me first, but Dirt Five-o'-Eight saved me. By breaking the obsidian into thousands of tiny peices. Maybe that monstrosity wasn't all that bad.

And now Kgummy trapped me in some emblem-gem-thing. I have no clue what it is, but it's confining and I don't like it and Kgummy said Silento's going to make me a Golem or something. A golem. And perform experiments on me. He explained this all to me very nicely, before sticking my emblem-body into some totem. So far, my soul feels all tingly, but nothing bad's happened. Though I do have a weird voice in my head, telling me stuff about parasol. Turns out it's a company! I thought Silento just liked the things. The guy seems to like fairies, too, so I just assumed he was a bit of a fruit.

Anyway, that Silento. Hate him. Hate him. I could have been hovering over Daeren's shoulder, spooking him out or making faces at him behind his back, but no. He has to trap me. Once I get a proper body, he is going to pay. Silento's got a hold of this place. The spawn have this place. If you kill them, they stay. If you let them live, they slaughter us. This is a bad place for dwarves, though rich in adamantium.

And now I'm going to be "experimented" on. I wonder if the demons in the adamantium wanted this all along. Or is Silento rebelling against them? Or is Silento working for them, and my rebellion against Silento means I rebelled against them? If that was the case, was I revived just so I could be punished? Or maybe there are different factions of spawn. Each spawn community does have different names and symbols, so maybe they aren't a giant hive-mind of mangled, defiled dwarves. And why are they attacking us, anyway? Do they hate us? Do they just enjoy it? Or do they want something in Syrupleaf?

If so, how long until Holistic herself shows up? If she does, what will happen Syrupleaf? More importantly, what will happen to me? These questions give me a goddamn soul-ache. Fucking totem, making me think. I mean, I consiously avoided that during life, and now all I have to do during death is think, think, think. Whatever, if I must think, I might as well think of something interesting.

So, if I ever get a body again, I will kill Silento. I will finish off Silento, or at least entrap him. I'll find a way.

And you know what? I'll do it with style. I'll do it with flair. I'll make it the most amazing execution/entrapment of a soul that all of dwarvenkind shall know my name.

That idiot Daeren would probably just pour lava on him.

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Knockknees wrote :-

The thing that I find tragic about Siccoro's death, is that he knew that death in Syrupleaf wasn't really final once. But he fixed that. And now he's dead, forever. I bet he didn't think it would come so soon for him. It must have been bittersweet.

1st Limestone

How long have I been here at Syrupleaf? Five months already? Six? And still, I haven't had the chance to pursue the dream that I had for this place.

Back at the Mountainhome, I was just a lye maker. A glorified wood-burner, passing the product of my hard labor on to the uninspired soap makers. And what did they make? Boring old mountain goat soap. Not even scented! And I never had a chance to move up to soap maker, there was just too much competition in a huge fort like that. Even for someone with big ideas. Someone like me.

But then I heard the stories of Syrupleaf. Other people were scared, but not me, I heard only opportunity. Spawn, Frost Giants, Titans, Giant Moles! Do you know how much soap made from the fat of those creatures would go for on the current market? I don't know, but I bet a lot! Or even better, soap floors, soaps walls, and soap towers. Pearly white, translucent, almost glowing, white frozen bricks made from the rendered fat of your enemies - It could be glorious!

So I've been here almost six months, and we've seen plenty of those creatures, and more blood spilled than I care to reflect on. And what have I been doing? Freaking hauling. Mostly refuse, chunks of dwarf, bones, and mole shit. They don't even have a soap industry here. One day though, if the overseer reads any of the letters I've sent him... I can see it now: Knockknees, Head Soaper. Mothers would tell their little ones: be a good little dwarf or Knockknees will melt you into tallow! Heh heh.


Anyway, in my free time I wrote a little song about soap. Maybe I can use it as a jingle if my dream ever gets off the ground...

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