Part 49: YOTC: Update 5
A set of skeletal fingers reach down and picked up the aluminum bound book, setting it on one of the nearby coffins and flipping it open to the first page.
2nd Moonstone
Well at least they're aren't a lot of them. I order the population inside and lower the south gatehouse bridge, which has been renamed the SWATJester memorial bridge.(The north one is obviously the Royal W memorial bridge.)
3rd Moonstone
We've been standing around waiting for them for a whole day now, slow ass giants. I mean come one, Sewermancer came up today to tell me that
Seriously bored out here. Cold too.
4th Moonstone
Jazzimus came to me today to tell me that some things I ordered done on the first day of my rule were finally finished. Still waiting on those frost Giants.
5th Moonstone
Finally, the giants are at the top of the hill and on their way down to fight us.
Apparenly Spermy smirf, Firos, and tehsid decided that this is boring and it was time to get krunked. Alius decided he was hungry and went with them. Well that leaves half our champions as I stand here dumbfounded as to why they're off drinking instead of killing the FUCKING FROST GIANTS coming down the hill.
6th Moonstone
They're finally here, early in the morning, not that there is a sun around here in the winter or anything, but they're finally attacking! The first spearman charged Syntax with his spear extended and was met with a sidestep and his head getting knocked clean off into the air by what I could only describe as a hammer powered uppercut.
The battle quickly moved out onto the drawbridge and it lasted a total of maybe 3 minutes. I think the other champions were right. These frost giants were pansies.
I mean they're giants, and look how far Male Man tossed that one with a single hammerblow to his chest. Hell they started running away after like 3 of them got one shotted by hammer blows. Only the one that was still making his way down the hill even got away and that was because he was on a war horse.
BATTLE REPORT:
We did loose two dogs during the fight to frost giant spears. Damn things are huge.
Also, body parts of frost giants EVERYWHERE. You'd think we dropped them into some kind of horrible saw blade trap the way limbs were flying in that fight.
This is gonna take forever to clean up...
15th Moonstone
We have reports that the cave swallows are getting bigger around here again. I've ordered Alius to go deal with them with his crossbow.
16th Moonstone
Alius reported that he killed one of the foul beasts up on the southern hill... and proceeed to kill two mountain goats up there for some reason as well...
17th Moonstone
I got to watch Alius chase down another of the beast today, it was to the north of the project and it was... slightly disturbing.
He just kept running at it, occasionally shooting a bolt at it while cackling like a mad man. His first shot clipped its wing and it just kept trying to flap away, I almost felt sorry for the beast but its kind had taken many a dwarf lives and it HAD to go.
Even after he had taken it down he just ran up to it and started beating it with the butt of his crossbow. I'm a little worried about him.
Seriously, 1: that crossbow shoots MAD fast, there were like 4-7 bolts on screen at once and he was only experienced, I can't wait till hes legendary at it (he's almost there actually, I forget what I left him at when I finished my turn but it was pretty far up the tree) And he kept running out of bolts because he would fire like 8 off to kill one thing because the first one would hit it and it would take 3-5 more hits before it even hit the ground unconscious.
18th Moonstone
On the way back to the fortress Alius saw one of the Mammoths and decided it needed to die for ... something...(no idea what) and proceeded to give chase as he was already out of bolts.
I will tell you that watching a dwarf beat on an elephant sized monster with the butt of a crossbow is pretty entertaining, I think the mammoth was more annoyed than anything else and it eventually ran straight into one of the cage traps.
Lucky for us I guess. I've ordered it to be tamed by the dungeon master though who knows when he'll get to it.
20th Opal
Work on the project is mostly done, just a few more pieces to go. Though odd thing,
bobthethurd keeps demanding green glass things in his office... Doesn't he know we can't make green glass here. Maybe the humans will bring some. I'm not sure if our other fortresses haven't been overrun by THEM at this point.
20th Obsidian
A small child ran by me today, I think it was the one who lost his mother in a battle long ago. He had that look in his eyes, the one that says 'I MUST BUILD SOMETHING'
25th Obsidian
The child finished today apparnely, rushing into the main hall with an impressive.... wooden scepter.
The image is understandable given his past experiences, but still...
2nd Granite
The project is finished, and as such I take my leave tommorow, I must visit another fortress and help them. For that is my job, to travel from fortress to fortress, and help them to survive the harshness of these worlds. Though I do leave the details of the project here:
This is the tower, it's fairly tall and stand directly over our dinning hall, though its quite a higher up than the dinning hall.
I have placed a pressure pad in the fortress somewhere where it will be stepped on all the time, thus causing the bridge to raise and lower all the time, in tribute to Royal W and SWATJesters heroic sacrifice.
Oh and by the way, the drawbridge is made of SOLID ADAMANTIUM.
Hmm.. I think I'll leave something in the snow to the north on the way out of here so people know I was here.
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The book hits the far wall of the chamber, breaking into pieces and falling atop the flayed corpse of an elf. "Damn, not this one either," The hooded figgure says as it picks up its backpack with skeletal fingers and turns to walk out the door. It makes a motion with its hand and the spawn behind it quickly exit the room, following their masters bidding.
Chance II wrote :-
The Honorable Gnashermaws Bonesarrows replies:
"Deuced bad luck there old boy but how about giving one the other chaps a go at it, wot wot?"
Chance II wrote :-
"Heavyhand's World" by Chance II. On the wall is a finely engraved image of the Frost Giant Heavyhands Coldfeet and Skyfoundations a dwarven memorial drawbridge. Heavyhands Coldfeet is bleeding. Skyfoundations is lowering.
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Another round of name that homage! A hint is in the name....
Chance II wrote :-
Aw and I just finished this....
Flat Banana wrote :-
My earliest memory of the wind was it whipping around my feet at dusk, outside the tent. I didn't recognise it at the time, but I had heard the women of the tribe chanting for good luck and for prosperity. I wanted to see what was going on.
I pushed aside the cloth door of the tent, and saw. Large and small tents, arranged in a circle. Outside was a an unfathomable exapanse of rocks, gravel and the occassional plant. The setting sun had painted it all orange, and I could see the dark tips of mountains where the sun was setting.
Women sat in the centre around a fire, singing songs passed down since the first sand raider tribe begun to wander the wasteland. I remember seeing other men and women too, but I was afraid of them. They had black scars on their faces and arms and wore heavy black bangles.
I remember the wind picked up, and the sand got in my face. I let out a cry of pain. I had never felt that way before. Some of the women in the circle looked back, and one of them got up and walked back to the tent. It was the matron. She picked me up like a sack of rocks, and half-dragged me back into the tent.
I remember other children too. As matron put me back into the tent, she scolded Tosid, the eldest of the children. He looked at me with the blackest stare, but then shied away to a corner as matron strided up to him to slap him.
Later that night, matron brought out all the children to the fire. A man, larger than the rest of the men in the tribe and a scar on his face running from his hairline to his chin began to speak to us. He was dressed in a legendary carp leather tunic menacing with elephant bones and a finely spun turban, and a superior carved bone dagger engraved with of the deeds of his forefathers hung from his waist.
He told us our history. As people of the sand, we are born to serve the tribe. Those who are born warriors shall bring honour to the tribe and the way of the sand people, and those who are born as the black servants shall serve the warriors and bring honour to the tribe in a different way.
Such is the way of the sand people, whom have freely chosen the Noble Sacrifice entrusted to them by Flametongue the Exile. One day, Flametongue shall reinstate us as the rightful rulers of The Momentuous Universe. We are here freely, we stay freely, and we serve freely. Anyone can freely choose to leave but forsake his heritage and lose his rightful place as king. You are the black servants of the free exile kings, and you freely serve. You are free!
That day, I learnt that I was free. I was happy to be free. I am free. I am a black servant, freely serving the Exiled Kings of the Sand.