Part 88: Sirocco: Update 23

Sirocco's Year: Part Twenty-Three

Spawn. Everywhere. From all directions they swarmed.

'My God...' tehsid gasped. THA-DUNK. He collapsed to the ground, an arrow quivering in his chest.

'tehsid!' Sirocco yelled, kneeling by his fallen comrade. 'You're going to be OK, man! We'll get through this.' He was dead. Sirocco looked back towards the ramp. They moved like a turbulent river. Syntax! was face down in a pool of blood. First Oni Elem then Robindaybird were swept aside like tiny bearded ragdolls. Alius raised his crossbow but was brutally shoved from the bridge to a rocky death below.

'Not like this!' screamed Spermy Smurf, backing away towards the cliff. 'Not like this!' He turned and leapt from the edge only to be grabbed by the head in mid-arc by one of the creatures. It bit off his face in one swift, gruesome movement and smashed his still spasming corpse into the ground where it lay still save the odd twitch.

Screams. From the fortress. Sirocco stared towards the golden road. They were inside the fortress.

A gurgle. Sirocco looked up to see Tinny Turtler get an arrow in the throat before slowly toppling over the edge of the tower and into the moat. Sirocco winced and stood up to face the army closing in. He was alone. The last dwarf of Syrupleaf.

'By the beard of Armok I'll kill you all!' he screamed. He raised Patsy far above his head and ran into the hundred-strong crowd of Holistic Spawn. He swung the hammer as if the gods themselves guided it into the face of the closest Spawn - where it broke into two large chunks of useless metal.

The monster laughed. A deep, horrible laugh. It was all over. Sirocco fell to his knees and closed his eyes. Waiting for the end. He heard the swish of the blade and then-

===

I opened my eyes. I was in my bed and while the air was chill, it was not freezing. It felt like... summer? A dark shape loomed over me. It was a dwarf. A tall dwarf with strange dark glasses. He had a clipboard. I think I heard him mutter something like 'Moderate success' but I fell asleep so soon afterwards I'm not sure if was reality or just a dream...

Journal, when I awoke That Morning, the day my life doubled back and went down a different fork in the road, I found things to be most... odd. All the entries I wrote in you were missing, the concert hall wasn't even THERE, and I almost wet myself the first time I saw IceDrake walk past me, as real as the pen I'm writing with! No one remembers but me though... it's surreal, it's creepy... it's like everything...

... Started over.

___

TO. BE. CONTINUED.


Archivist's Note:
At this point, Sirocco's computer rebelled against him, as Dwarf Fortress slowed everything to a crawl.
When the dust cleared, he had lost the save file - forever.

Fortunately he had a backup from much earlier in the year, thanks to a bug with some sand raiders.
Undeterred, he decided to continue, and replay the year...

---

Bobbin Threadbare wrote :-

While the other dwarves were distracted by talk of moles and war, I spent my time much more wisely. In the depths of the night, taking leave at times when my presence would not be missed, I approached that mysterious trap door and entered that realm of madness and evil. Day by day, I searched through those forbidden halls, and oh! What secrets I have found! What dark and hideous answers I received to the unasked questions only madness could have proffered! I would tell you, dear readers, exactly what it is I discovered, but you would call me mad and set this work down in a huff. And I would not blame you. In the years before my arrival at SyrupLeaf, I would have done the same.

But then--disaster! They have arrived, and this time They cannot be stopped! As dwarves rush past my workshop, I hear reports of our greatest champions falling, the Spawn have not halted, they are headed this way! I can do nothing, I have only a small rock pick that would require several years of persistent effort to bore through a Spawn skull. They enter the room, I stare down the gibbering maw of a Spawn as it slowly approaches me. It knows its next meal is captive and in its power. I can do naught but throw the gems on the table, throw the effort of my hand at its face, but nothing works. It gapes its mouth wide, and--

Then I awake, and it is summer again.

---

Jazzimus Prime wrote :-

As the two of us finish off an entire barrel of Spoonboy's best Dwarven ale, I consider the overseer's words.

"And that's what I saw," Sirocco says. His typical dementedly optimistic expression has been replaced with one that seems, incredibly enough for him, to be almost -- for lack of a better word -- apprehensive.

I let out a long, deep sigh. "The demon has been sending me such visions for over two years now," I reply. "And trust me, it only gets worse. Seldom are the days now that I can discern what is real and what is not."

As I say these words, I try not to wonder whether this is all Sirocco's hallucination ... or my own.

---

Leperflesh wrote :-

"Mommy... I haded a bad dream."

"Hush, dear. It wasn't real. Shhh."

"....kay."

"....Mommy?"

"Yes, my dear Leperfish?"

"Don't want no mole no more. They's bad."

"Really? Actually I thought they were kind of fascinating and..."

"NO. NO mommy. No. They's BAD. NO MOLES."

---

Robindaybird wrote :-

From one Robindaybird:

Bloody Hell!

Looney-Boy, it has to be Looney-boy screamin'.

I'd probably get better sleep next to a river of undead carp. What's with everyone getting tenser then a knotted up snake? Pffft...

I'm going back to bed, unless Looney-boy wakes up screamin' again. Then I'll sharpen my axe on his teeth.

---

Daeren wrote :-

Somebody likes my stuff!



I do not even know what date it is today. The entire fortress has apparently awoken from a shared dream, one that ended in horrible tragedy, as the Spawn of Holistic appeared and slaughtered us all. Their forms were more nightmarish than I could ever have imagined. How we all dreamt this I do not know, but one sentence dances feverishly through my head as I think back to my fading memories of the dream.

"I curse you by the name of Ostësh the Sadnesses of Silence."

I fear that even the light of Litast may soon fail to reach us in this frozen nightmare. I will pray to Him for guidance.

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