In the days or weeks (Feb lost count, due to all of the extended breaks she took in caves to rest and recuperate) that Feb traveled from Silverywind to Luckystream, she evolved from a mere rockcrafter, with no formal (or informal) combat training whatsoever, into a hardened steel warrior. On her long and hard journey, she had many grievous wounds inflicted on her, including the destruction of her left arm's motor nerve. Because of this, she could no longer yield a weapon, or even a shield, with her left hand. She adapted to her disability by inventing a fighting style in which she wielded a shield and spear (she left the steel pickaxe embedded in the head of a giant cave swallow long ago, now favoring the masterwork spear) with the same hand. This required superdwarven agility and quick thinking. Unfortunately, Feb had neither (hence why she had to spend so much of the journey resting in caves). Regardless of her inability to defend herself properly, the wounds inflicted on her were dealt ten fold back on to the beasts responsible. By the time she finally reached her destination, her kill count was thirty-one, including several animal people and one human lycanthrope (the cave of whom she subsequently slept in). Anyway, her painful trek was behind her. She was finally at Luckystream, which was a tremendous navigating feat seeing as how the only directions she was given to find the remote place was "go northwest". Plot holes aside, she made it there and that's that.
Although she no longer searched for a stonecrafting position (indeed it is highly doubtful that she could even resume her craft with only one working arm), she hoped that Luckystream would be a prosperous mountainhome, where she could live comfortably for the rest of her life off of the treasure scavenged from Silverywind (which was currently stashed in an empty booze barrel in one of the many caves that Feb slept in). She was about to find out if this was the case.
Approaching from the east, Feb saw the white walls of Luckystream gleaming along with the dazzling desert sands it was built upon. She judged that the stone used was limestone, but she wasn't sure (she rarely got to work with flux stone at Ishenmistem).
Upon approaching, Feb saw that the yellow sand of the desert around Luckystream was punctuated by broken arrows and crossbow bolts, which littered the ground. Lying among the piles of broken ammunition were dead goblins. What was strange was the fact that the goblins were completely naked, apart from their copper armor (which in most cases was just a helmet). She wasn't sure whether the fortress was inhabited by perverted dwarves or if nudity was some sort of goblin tribal custom. Either way she wasn't too put off by the corpses. After all, at least there weren't any dead dwarves, which was a huge step up from Silverywind. The fortress also wasn't covered in phosphorescent mucus or freezing cold; Feb concluded that it was several steps up from Silverywind.
Following the shallow moat that surrounded the (probably) limestone walls of Luckystream north, Feb found the main entrance and road into the fortress (that she somehow missed on the way in). The fortress's gate was, interestingly, built on top of a rocky brook, but in a way so as to not disrupt the stream's flow. Feb assumed that this must be the body of water homonymous with the fort, and must be a geographical feature of religious significance to the goblin-murdering dwarves within. The drawbridge over the stream, unluckily [irony], was raised. Feb would have to find another way in.
Following the wall further north, and around the corner to the west, Feb met a fellow dwarf, standing atop a pile of naked corpses and broken bolts. He was clad in a patchwork set of armor, with its pieces made of various types of metal and with various amounts of skill. His axe, however, was an impressive work of dwarven craftsmanship, as was the style in which he wore his sideburns.
Feb greeted him, complimented his axe, and oggled his facial hair. It had been too long since she had been in the company of a dwarf. He likewise complimented her spear, and oggled her breastplate. When she asked his name, he responded "Adil Wereskin the Suffering of Burning". When he proceeded to explain how he earned that title, Feb cut him off. The name in and of itself was awesome enough, in conjunction with his bitchin axe, to make Feb blurt out "JOIN ME ON MY ADVENTURES!".
And they lived happily ever after. Just kidding; this is Dwarf Fortress.
Feb asked Adil if he knew a back entrance into Luckystream, but he replied that he only knew the main gate. He told her that he was locked outside after being ordered to kill some ogres outside, and had been waiting to be let back in ever since. Feb sighed and told him to follow her as she continued to follow the fort's wall around.
They found several more dwarves, all sat in the dirt and on top of enemy corpses outside the fort's walls. One was engraving pictures of cheese with half of a copper bolt in the dirt, while a dwarven child played with a severed vulture tongue. When Adil introduced Feb to them the engraver didn't even look up.
After circling the fort's walls once, the only thing remotely resembling an entrance that Feb and Adil found was a small hole in the dirt on the fort's north side, with a ramp leading down into it.
Feb looked at Adil, who said "I wouldn't go down there if I were you."
"Why not? What is it, your kobold bondage dungeon? Don't worry, we've got one of those back at Ishenmistem; it's no big deal," Feb said as she walked down the ramp.
"Feb. Feb, wait!"
But she was already too deep underground to hear him. When she turned around to tell him that it was only a bridge, she stepped backwards onto one of the traps on said bridge. What she had perceived as a strategic chokepoint for marksdwarves was also apparently rigged with traps. A massive bronze axeblade swung with an extreme velocity from her right like a pendulum, striking her square in the chest. It only left a small scratch on her armor, but the force transferred to her launched her off of the bridge, sending Feb plummeting several meters down a chasm.
Feb awoke to the sound of Adil shouting her name from far above. When she opened her eyes, she saw a the rotten severed head of a goblin staring her in the face. She screamed and scrambled away from the thing, sending throbbing pain throughout her entire body. Although the pain was immense, it was temporary. Any major damage she had taken by the fall had been mitigated by her armor. She said a silent prayer to the (no-doubt insane or brutally murdered) unknown artisan who forged it. Once she had calmed down, she shouted up to the bridge that she was alright, and that Adil should just wait for her on the safe side of the bridge. He called to her that he had personally helped design the traps, and knew how to avoid them. He shouted at her that if she had just waited and listened to him, they could have crossed the bridge safely the first time. She shouted up at him inquiring as to why he didn't mention this when she first asked him about other entrances to the fort. He shouted at her to shut up and that he was coming down there.
With that taken care of, she looked around the pit she was in. It was full of the severed body parts of various beasts, broken military equipment, and lots of rocks. She took this opportunity to upgrade her equipment, swapping her copper greaves for a superiorly-designed bronze set, still intact on the severed lower body of a goblin. She also found an owner-less bronze mail shirt, which she put on underneath her steel plate for added protection. Perhaps baring those traps was worth it after all. Just as Feb finished changing, Adil called to her from where he was standing on a spiral staircase leading both upwards and downwards. She told him to hold on a minute, that she wanted to pick through the putrid pile of miasmic refuse for a little while longer in search of treasure. Adil raised his eyebrows.
Finding no treasure other than a few steel bolts, which she kept, Feb informed Adil that it was time to move on and they ascended the stairs. Whilst climbing, Feb found a superiorly crafted bronze gauntlet, but she left it where it was since it was made for the left hand, a hand which Feb had no interest in keeping intact.
Upon reaching the top of the stairs, which connected directly and solely to the trapped bridge, Feb decided that she really did not want to cross the bridge again unless she really had to. When Adil tried to convince her that it would be perfectly safe if he just told her where the traps were, but Feb could not forget the intense pain she still felt from her last encounter with the bridge. "Maybe later. For now, show me the deeper levels". Adil admitted that he had never actually been to the deep levels underneath the trapped bridge, so it would be an adventure for both of them. Feb made a quip about Adil's usefulness.
*sigh* "It looks like I'm taking the bridge again."
Adil assured her that the other half of the bridge wasn't even trapped, and that he was sure that there was another exit from deeper into the fort. Nevertheless, Feb shook the entire time as she carefully stepped over the goblin limbs that covered the narrow bridge.
At the junction at the end of the trapped bridge, Feb first went north. All she found was what appeared to be an incomplete second trap bridge. Adil didn't really know what it was either. Feb also found another bronze mail shirt, which she probably could've worn, but she figured that she was about as protected as she was going to get; any additional body armor would just be superfluous weight. Anyway, they went up the staircase to the south, and ended up on the surface level within the fortress.
Before extensively exploring the surface, Feb proceed down the ramp that led back underground. Of course, she could have just asked Adil about the layout of Luckystream, but she seemed content to explore it herself, so he kept his mouth shut. On the first subterranean layer, Feb found a warehouse full of weapons, armor, and ammunition. Although few of the objects were made of steel, and thus were inferior to Feb's current equipment, she did find an exceptional bronze gauntlet for her dominant hand, as well as a wooden spear to train with (the steel one killed things too quickly to learn anything). There was also a lever on that level, which Feb instinctively pulled.
The level below that was full to the brim with cages.
"Aha!
This must be your kobold bondage dungeon."
Feb returned to the surface to find the main gate still closed. She wondered what that lever did, then.
Feb walked past the trade depot, which was mostly full of useless elven goods (and the corpses of their creators), but also had one or two minecarts in it. Feb made a mental note of these, but did not take them just yet. She moved towards the limestone tower in the center of the courtyard, which had a peculiar entrance that involved climbing up stairs, then down again through trap doors. At the base of the tower was yet another lever, which Feb immediately pulled.
Feb and Adil then proceeded down the stairs in the center of the staircase to find several levels of a subterranean compound. They found:
A lever room (Feb pulled all four),
a dirt-floored, fungus-covered room apparently used to store barrels of animal blood,
and a floor with assorted industries and amenities
Feb assumed that the large spiral staircase was the entrance to the dwarven fort proper, but yelled at Adil not to tell her if she was right; she wanted to find out for herself. Adil seemed to be growing increasingly distressed at his decision to adventure with Feb.
Feb descended the large staircase one level, and began exploring it. She found a room full of abandoned woodworkers' workshops. In one of them stood dust-covered masterpieces. The most beautiful beds and barrels Feb had seen in her entire life sat rotting in piles in the large room. Chief among these abandoned masterpieces was a wooden grate of legendary craftsmanship. When she looked at the grate, Feb felt awe and a tinge of jealousy at how the spirit of dwarven creation had favored this carpenter, a practitioner of a terribly undwarven craft, over herself. When Feb tried to show the awesome grate to Adil, he just shrugged and said "seen it".
Needless to say, Feb took it with her.
Feb and her companion then each took masterfully crafted beds in the shop to sleep in. Feb sighed with relief as her sore muscles were finally able to relax, after having lugged hundreds of kilograms of armor around all day and suffering sever beatings.
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Topic: The Museum: Adventure mode succession world (DF 34.11) (Read 819278 times)