Part 190: Orangesoda: Update 5
While I opened the tap on one of those kegs of old wine I mentioned before (Spoonboy already claimed the ale one) Nielsm ran into the room gibbering like a madman still, claiming an old tailor's workshop.
"Hey Nielsm, why aren't you using one of the ones upstairs?" I asked, figuring he'd want to use a fully stocked workstation that isn't covered in cave spiders and about five inches of rock dust.
"B-because!" he gasped "I must be close to the adamantine! I-It..gives me ideas, my inspiraaaatiooonnn..." his voice trailed off before he laughed again, searching the room desperately.
Adamantine!? This..blue ore that litters the room, THIS is the legendary metal!? Syurpleaf had found adamantine! No wonder they were so rich! Spoonyboy and even Nielsm looked at me as if I were crazy as I danced around, praising the gods.
"Uh, yeah. We've had this stuff for a long time you know."
My celebration was cut short by a scream from above, followed by "BY ARMOK THERE'S STILL GIANTS HERE!"
Chance II had encountered a giant on a mangled warhorse while on battlefield cleanup duty.
Witnesses say his first act was to kick the warhorse out from under the giant, then hundreds of feet to the northeast off the mountain. A full grown horse punted like a pebble with one swift kick.
He then brought his hammer down on the fallen giant's belly so hard that it's spine burst from it's back and it's organs exploded out. Iv'e been told Chance knew much of anatomy and the inner workings of creatures dwarf and non-dwarf. He must have put his knowledge of pressure points, weak points and muscle density to use in battle now, a style he calls "The hammer of the four pointed star"
There was no counterattack. After all, he was already dead.
Later, I found out how to fix the farms. You see, one of the previous overseers was some sort of genius or something. In his infinite wisdom, he decided that the same lever we pull to raise the bridges outside should ALSO open all of the farm's floodgates and pour in the entire river at various locations, including the food preparation area, somehow fighting off the siege! This guy must've been such a genius that he couldn't chew his food properly and had to wear his special genius helmet at all times.
I too hope that I don't become genius in this place, though it could be inevitable the way those guys swing their hammers around.
I'll also claim I fixed the farms on purpose.
The immigrants have all settled in, sadly most of them were unskilled peasants, but we did get a bowyer, a farmer and best of all a skilled soldier from the mountainhomes, Obmeiste! A few of the more...uniquely skilled workers were drafted into the military as well. Also, the hammerer had given away his position just to enlist after seeing Tehsid fall. The dwarves of Syrupleaf may be downright insane, but they're brave.
This is all of the current military personnel, though Oni Elem is out for good and Country is still recovering. Iv'e since put ObMeiste in charge of the recruits temporarily.
The new military will be using our finest steel hammers rather than bare fists. A few have complained of this, to be exact. They say that our old military did just fine without weapons. I didn't say this, of course, but our old military is also dead.
Looking back on the notes of previous overseers, it seems that every year the sieges grow more and more powerful. We'll need to adapt and after seeing the damage that Chance's hammer did to a giant, I think they'll be the right choice.
The forges are now burning day and night, creating steel plate armor and steel hammers. I've never been more than a simple crafter before I came to Syrupleaf, but anyone should know that production is the other half of a war.
The first half is slaughter.
It also seems someone had the same idea as me for the champion monument, statues of Syrupleaf's fallen heroes overlooking the entrance from the roof above. I ordered a new solid gold statue of Tehsid to be placed and I will soon be turning the area into a sort of temple/museum. Weapons, engravings, armor and more will be featured here, so that generations from now all dwarves will be able to learn the stories of Syrupleaf's warriors.
That night, I had the strangest dream.
I dreamed I was in that abandoned chamber beneath the fortress again, the one with the abandoned shops, workstations and adamantine. Everything was black and white, as if the world itself had been scribbled onto pig tail paper with charcoal. Everything except the extracted adamantine, which glowed an eerie red rather than it's usual blue.
"Do you know something?" a strange female voice called out to me "One of your ancestors was a friend of mine."
I felt dizzy, images of a strange fortress entered my head, flashing by faster than I could see, yet I somehow remembered them all..images of catacomb-like hallways, a giant civil war, a giant bat lunging for me and strangest of all, fighting against a skeletal dwarf.
"He was the captain of the guard and at one point the overseer. Much like the rest of us, he possessed godlike combat skills even if he was one of the weakest of the champions. Furthermore, he defied death itself and rose as a living corpse, his own head severed but still functioning."
This was complete bullshit, i'm sure of it, but this was just a dream after all. Yes, a horrible, horrible dream that I wished I would wake up form. Now, if possible. Or now. Please now.
"I killed him, of course, but he managed to at least put up a small fight. It pains me to return here with that damned thing on that pyramid outside...if you get rid of it, i'll come back. You will be rewarded, given your history."
After that, I awoke to a horrible pain in my neck, I wondered briefly if a dwarf, angry with my inability to save Tehsid, had slit my throat. It was worse. Far worse
I awoke to a massive, horrible scar going all around my neck, as if my head had been stitched back onto my shoulders. There was even marks for the stitches, actually.
There wasn't much sleep for the rest of the night, which I spent in the dining hall with a few tankards of the fort's strongest ale.
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Yeah, sorry that there wasn't any comical way to fix the problem or the fort didn't end up half underwater or something, I actually fixed the farms on total accident. You see, I DID pull sirocco's lever. I also forgot I pulled it and decided to pull it this session and see what it did. That fixed the farms and one of the bridges, though who knows what else it did.
Also the dwarfing list is complete up to Desideratus, if anyone wants to know what they were dwarfed as, feel free to ask!
Chance II wrote :-
You should have known this was coming.... FIST OF THE DWARF STAR!
