By early Galena, the settlement was in high spirits. No thieves or snatchers were seen in nearly two weeks and Skull was becoming a master in his art of bone carving. Usi organized a formal celebration of Muscov's birth, and they also decided to celebrate the births of Frost and Cobra as well as a sign of respect to Cobalt's children. Feral saw no harm in this, after all if they were needed they were always close at hand, and getting to share stories from home was a good way to pass time and help build the bonds of the little clan. Some proposed that they dig a separate place for newcomers to live, with the current residents staying in the stockade. Others thought that unfair; They had enough to live comfortably as it was, why not share it with others who made the journey? They had also decided to rig up weapon traps near the log bridge spanning the river, as they had piles of otherwise unused daggers sitting in one of three bins and some weapons too large for them to use. Who knew, maybe they'd be the difference between life and death? A few days after the last trap at the ancillary door was rigged up Silver Xelics were spotted. They had little to trade, and apologized for it. Evidently they'd been robbed by bugbears in the area. However, once trading was done, Corai handed in the usual report. While the purchase parts were blank it was clear that they wanted to be ready with the ledger showing things they'd never even bought yet.
Our recent purchases - Summer of year 7; Silver Xelic caravan
Presiding Merchant: Corai.[/u]
Metal
Ingot, Orichalum
Ingot, Crucible Steel
Ingot, Gold
Ingot, Bronze
1 Ingot, Wrought Iron
1 Ingot, Ward Iron
Ingot, Standard Iron
Ingot, Copper
Ingot, Tin
Glass and glassmaking materials
2 raw green glass
raw clear glass
raw crystal glass
1 sandbag
Flasks
Booze
units/Barrels, Longland Beer
units/Barrels, Blackberry Cordial
units/Barrels, River Spirits
Units/Barrels, Fischer Berry Wine
Units/Barrels, Whip Wine
Units/Barrels, Strawberry Wine
Units/Barrels, Prickle Berry Wine
Edible plants
Bushels, Wild Strawberries
Bushles, Raspberries
Bushels, Fischer Berries
5 Bushels, Rat weed
Bushels, Blue berries
Bushels, Valley Herbs
Bushels, Blackberries
Bushels, Muck roots
5 Bushels, Prickle berries
Meat
(Scales broken. Exact weights no longer known.)
5 units, smoked donkey meat
Fish
30 units, smoked fish of various types
Seeds
bag, hide root
bag, blade weed
1 bag, rat weed
bag, fischer berry
bag, prickle berry
bag, raspberry
bag, blackberry
bag, blueberry
bag, wild strawberry
bag, crystal
Cheese
wheels, reindeer origin
wheels, horse origin
wheels, donkey origin
wheels, goat origin
wheels, llama origin
wheels, alpaca origin
10 wheels, water buffalo origin
Flour
1 bag, longland grass
bag, whip vine
Cloth, thread
Clay
1 bag, fire clay
Gems
Armor
Weapons
Medical
Animals
Other
3 bags, leather, various species
2 ropes, rope reed
Clothing
SOLD ITEMS
Flasks
Goblets
Clothing
Weapons
Armor
Ammo
1 bundle of arrows, tempestium (basically made them buy thier own stuff back.)
Crafts
Other[/i]
Soon bodies began piling up, one gravely wounded violet xelic and several of his comrades falling to the pick and dagger laden weapon trap by the ancillary. Soon humans were also spotted, which greatly rose Feral's spirits, as he recognized many of them. As they came in, the tell tale sign of inturders was heard as bugbears in the hills started shouting challenges. Splint and Lev came rushing in, out of breath, having narrowly avoided being hammered to death. [Legitimately shocking. I was expecting them to run up hill.] “Six of'em boss... Chieftain’s got a spear....” Lev said trying to catch his breath. Splint recovered faster than Lev did, and said he wanted a weapon, any weapon, so he could help fight. “Why would you want to fight? You're a maker of arms and armor, not a wielder of the same.” Wax said as he assembled the Battleminers. All were armed and ready, save Slade who'd arrived armed not with pick or mattock, but with a scourge and dagger. “You sure you know how to use those?” Mona asked. Slade looked at his weapons and shrugged. “I'll learn quick. So we off the chief and the rest'll scatter yeah?” He asked the group. Usi nodded. “He'll probably be leading the charge, so if we down him, we can pick off the rest at leisure if we can catch them.” “First time ina real scrape Splinty?” Mona asked the smith. He nodded. Clearly he was afraid She looked at the dwarf and noticed something etched into the breastplate he'd scavenged for himself. “May the gods be with us” in dwarven runes. “It'll be alright. We have a reason to fight, those brutes don't.” Slade said as he kicked a dead xelic snatcher from the doorway. Wax took the lead, bellowing “The gods side with us this day!” And lead the militia out.
Where the chieftain was, none could say but quickly the group moved to engage the hammerbears. Wax met the enemy first of course, and planted his pick in his opponent's midsection, while Splint charged another hammerbear. Further away, Usi severed the arm and leg of his prey, while Mona popped the same bear's guts out of a massive tear in the beast's armor. Splint could be heard flying into a frothing rage as the bug bear landed two hits that did little more than bruise. Meanwhile, a second hammerbear attacked Wax who had managed to remove both of his first foe's legs and his weapon arm. “So you wish to meat the gods of death as well? So be it!” Wax said in a challenge to the second aggressor. Splint meanwhile, finally managed to find purchase in his enemy's leg and with a follow-up strike tore away its foot. Slade scored the death blow on the opponent he, Mona, and Usi were fighting, his scourge silencing the bugbear.
Eventually Wax's first foe was left a silent amputee in a puddle of his own blood, and he turned his attention to his next foe, as did the other Battleminers while Splint continued to batter his foe with the steel pick in his hands. The bugbear swung its maul haphazardly, Splint parrying it and counterstriking with a limb severing hit to the armpit tearing away the hammerbear's entire left arm.
Then a foot.
Then the other arm.
Then the rest of the leg
Then disembowlment.
It was clear Splint had become blinded in his rage as to just how much damage he was actually doing.
Wax meanwhile, swung on but missed the second bear to try and face him. The group was beginning to waver and try to flee. Wax however felt that would be too merciful of him to let it live and managed to hook it by it's hand. And took said hand just for good measure. He then knocked it over and plowed the forward spike of his pick through it's head, putting a rather obvious hole in the side of the helmet. By the time the group had gathered their wits from the scuffle, they saw Splint had resorted to beating the bugbear to death with a now quite bloody mess. “Splint?” Slade said tentatively, not wanting to get a rock sent through his head. “What the fuck do you want mother fucker!?” Splint yelled back, hand stopped mid swing with his blood coated rock. “There's uh... Still a couple more to best man. Come on.” Splint pondered this despite his mental state, whacked the dead hammerbear once more, and wrenched the pick out of the corpse.
As soon as he saw the bugbear however, Splint was lost once more as he attacked, angrily charging the bugbear chieftain. It cost Splint his left hand, as well as his self-respect as Wax rushed to his aid and smashed his pick into the brute's head. Shortly thereafter, the sole surviving hammerbear was left dead, Wax having wheeled around and hitting him with a backstroke. Stone and Targe cautiously came out of the ancillary when the cries of battle ceased, Stone instantly rushing to help Splint to the dormitory before he bled to death. “Don't worry man, you'll be ok. I promise.” He said to the wounded fellow. Wax stayed at the battle site to provide security as Targe went to fetch the others to clean up the battle.
Meanwhile Corai heard horrid cries of something that sounded wounded, and saw a number of mangled bugbears facing him. Several were clearly dead, others yowling pitifully or not even awake anymore, the pain from a mess of broken bones and shredded muscles being too much to bear for them. Corai moved quickly and managed to fumble his sword out and moved to put the invaders down, which over all went quickly, if a little noisily.
[So yeah! Adding those traps to the choke points made thief alerts suddenly nonexistant. Roughly five thieves/snatchers were pretty much reduced to corpses or in one case captured. The only bad thing of note is Splint losing his hand, but thankfully that won't impair his ability to swing a hammer to forge new tools and weapons. He basically lost his shit after he got two superficial wounds and seriously fucked up one of the hammerbears. The spearbear on the other hand.... yeah. Corai got to get in on it a little as well, decapitating one and putting down what amounted to a mess of dying animals.]