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Voting closed: August 07, 2015, 06:46:40 am

[Bearskie]

The Lancers of Justifying (D)



“So, what do you know about Tempesttowers?”

I glanced around the room furtively, wracking my still-inebriated brain for answers. The name did ring a bell, but nobody was home.

Mud walls. Flickering torches. Battered furniture. The place was Pulleysquirts, formerly an abandoned hillock before it became the temporary HQ for the Lancers of Justifying high command. Generals, military, barons and the fledgling queen Eta Questsqueezed, all fixing their gazes on me, waiting for an answer. At last, a shred of memory arose from the depths.

“Firstborn fortress of the Stake of Healers. A seat of power for their civilization since the dawn of time”, I said automatically and decided to add, ”Home to the mad queen Catten Murdermirror”. 

Queen Eta smirked lightly. “Well, allow me to update you with more recent news. Tempesttowers has just fallen. Catten is dead. The Stake of Healers is in disarray, their citizens scattered throughout the countryside. As we were a year ago.” The air in the room seemed to darken. Just a year ago then, since the elves of the Pear of Canyons laid siege to Spingranite in the War of Cuts, tearing our civilization apart and murdering our former queen. The resemblance to Tempesttowers was uncanny. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But we had survived. Most of the Lancers had fled to the triple hillocks Fencedinked, Baldcity and Fedclasped, while high command moved to reclaim Pulleysquirts, an old dwarven site. Deep within these mountains the elves cannot reach us.  For all it was worth, the Lancers of Justifying remains the largest dwarven civilization. Hundreds of hill dwarves, all hiding out in fortified hillocks. We do not fall so easily.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“Change is on the horizon, Lancepoints", she whispered. "Even as we speak, refugees from the Stake of Healers flee across the land. Where they go... well...”  Leaning forward, she tapped a point near the bottom of the map. “They call it Constructivory. Commissioned as a vanity project by Catten in the year 50. It is said to be a tower built to pierce the sky, although recent news indicate that the whole thing is really built out of clay,” she said, scarcely hiding her distaste.

“Lancepoints, I want you to go there and monitor the situation as it develops. Primary disguise being a Stake refugee, of course. Necessary identification will be provided. Your acting capacity will be that of a neutral observer until further orders arrive from high command. Understood?”

I had the nerve to actually consider her suggestion before I replied, “Understood”. Understood, certainly, but not agreed. We were knee-deep in our war with the elves right now. Frankly speaking, the last thing we should be doing is poking our noses into another civilization’s business.

But what was that old military saying again? Orders were orders, and Eta was queen. So, southwards then, into the cold tundra. Better pack my alpaca wool socks.




That was two years ago.

It turns out that the socks hadn’t been enough; I pitied the few poor bastards who ran around in the cold naked. Grumbling darkly, I awaited my sparring partners - Captain Awesome and Urvad the Avenger, always together and always late.

[Rose]

Spoiler: It turns out we're under heavy cloudcover. (click to show/hide)

[Bearskie]

^ Virtual cloud-gazing has never been so good.


3 Reasons to go to Constructivory

“Well, itsa bleedin’ dwarven fortress yea? One of only two left in this world that ain’t overrun by stinkin’ invaders, the other being Scorchedcrafted, which let’s face it, ain’t your normal dwarven fortress by a long shot. Psah!” he spat, sending a projectile of saliva mixed with ale (saleiva?) over my shoulder.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I actually quite liked Scorchcrafted - it being quite admirable and modern what they were doing over there, but I gave Stinhad a nod of vague agreement nonetheless. Getting into an argument with these old dwarves was useless; it was like arguing over granite.

“Aye, we dwarves ain’t doin so well attamoment”, he slurred. “But wait you see, we’re like this… spring-thingy the mechanics tell me about. Push us all tight together, annnndd then, y’know, poof.”

“Poof?”

“Sure a-poof”

“Are we still talking about springs here?”

“What springs?”

“Nevermind. You were saying, sarge?”

“Yesssh. My point being, you’ll be in the middle of it all”, he waved his hands wildly. “In the middle of the poof. The poof that starts the great war, only this time we’ll be winning it, see? The Fellowship of Dwarves, all striking back. And together we will kick at the balls of evil, and avenge the Tenacious Relic.”

Stinhad's grand vision was put on hold as he took yet another swig of his booze. I buried my face in my hands.

“Two, those goblins are a nasty bunch. What they call themselves, the Liers or summat. This stuff’s confidential, so I can’t tell ye, but I’m drunk, so I’m gonna tell ye. They’ve been attacking virtually every sorry bastard within their range. Big bullies. Mark my words, if they come after us,” he mimicked a knife slitting his throat. “Dead. Elves from the west, goblins from the east. No more pension plan for poor ol’ me.”

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“That sounds pretty horrible.”

Stinhad brightened up considerably. “Nah, first they’ve gotta destroy this tower place first. So no worries. ‘M sure you’ll do a spanking job warding off the forces of darkness with your silver mace and woolly socks.”

“Thanks,” I said drily. Despite the general incoherence, there was a thread of logic running through Stinhad's words. Dwarves and goblins. So…

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“Three, ELVES.”  His face was suddenly as grave as a funeral. “They say this queen Catten’s been getting all chummy with them. We’ve tracked their trade caravans heading to Constructivory. Mind you, not just any elves. The Pear of Canyons. The very same elves who took Spingranite. The very same elves who murdered my family.”

Welp. That got serious quick. Frantically, I tried to reverse from the conversational black hole, but soon realized it was too damn late. Stinhad himself simply stared into his beer mug with a desolate look.

“Okaaay… erm… that’s all yea?” I said lamely. “I’ll just… leave you alone then… don’t want to disturb you any further…”

In hindsight, it was kind of an ass thing to do.

[Hiddenleafguy]

Oh, and don't forget the fucking werebeasts, they destroy everything! Even my secret love with [EXPUNGED] plot! Well, I've got some adamantine to mine, so bye!

[TheCheeseMaker]

Wow, the dwarves are not doing do well here.  It says a lot when a succession fortress is one of two of the safest places in the world.

[Hiddenleafguy]

Yep, wait......... AMORKDAMNIT!! We are fucking doomed! We are all going to die!

[Bearskie]

Wow, the dwarves are not doing do well here.  It says a lot when a succession fortress is one of two of the safest places in the world.

They still have plenty of hillocks though.  Problem with the fortresses is that most has been conquered by other races, similar to what had happened in Tempesttowers and Spingranite.  Those sites still have significant dwarf numbers, but they are all living under invader rule.

[DDDragoni]

“Lancepoints, I want you to go there and monitor the situation as it develops. Primary disguise being a Stake refugee, of course. Necessary identification will be provided. Your acting capacity will be that of a neutral observer until further orders arrive from high command. Understood?”

So what you're saying, is that my Dorf is right about there being a spy, (2 if you count Heretic,) but totally off about the source.

[Bearskie]

Hey, I din't push noone into any well. *shifty eyes*

[MobRules]

TheCheeseMaker got the last word in about DDDraconi's accusations. (more to follow, when I do the post).

[DDDragoni]

TheCheeseMaker got the last word in about DDDraconi's accusations. (more to follow, when I do the post).

She may have had the last word, but I will have the last laugh! Ha! Hahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

((I'm dead, aren't I? It seems overseers don't last long around here.))

[MobRules]

1 Hematite, Part I
(ooc: splitting this into multiple posts, because it's easier that way, what with images and alll)

Well. Spring's done, then.

Soap: Don't know why no one thought to bring Lye on the embark, or request it from the mountainhome. Been trying to get some made, but after creating some ash and building an ashery, the lyemaker keeps claiming there is no ash, even when there is plainly ash. At this point, I think I'm gonna have to hope the humans bring some this summer, otherwise we may have to wait for fall. May have to put the lyemaker in with the Captain of the Guard, if he keeps refusing to make lye.

Well: Built a roof over the top of the well, 'cause a well ain't much use if it's frozen. Still hasn't thawed yet, even had the miners mine it out, but it just remained ice. Hopefully now that summer's here it will finally thaw out, and hopefully the roof will keep it from freezing next year.

Werelizard:
I've made the werelizard the Captain of the Guard. To prevent other members of her squad from enacting misdemenor capitol sentences in her absence, I removed them all and created a new sqad for the non-lycanthrope swordsdwarfs. They decided to call themselves the "Innocent Towns", don't ask me why, wasn't my idea. Heritic seemed to be the most experienced of the three of them, so he's in charge:


OOC: I have a hard time keeping track of more than a dozen or so dwarves unless I name them after the role I've given them -- hence the name "Swordsdwarf" above. These names don't count as Dorfings, and can be changed and/or removed based on need. They are sill available if folks want to get Dorfed.)

Meanwhile, Sanju has about the nicest digs of anyone here, 'cept for the queen. Initially, the queen refused to let me bring her any furnature, since she wasn't in the tower. I said "OK, then, I'll bring 'er up to the tower!" Queen turned pale, and allowed the Werelizard an exception to the rediculous no-buildings-underground rule, just so long as no one else had access.



'Course, I forgot about some of the required Captain-of-the-Gaurd furnature before sealing her in, but it should be possible to add it later. Tried to get the dwarves to deliver her a weapon, but no one wanted the job, so she's training as a wrestler in her copious spare time.

Taupe made a lovely masterwork stature of Sanju, which I had installed in her room before sealing it off:

This is a masterful schist sttue of 'Sanju' Craftwards created by 'Taupe' Fikodistam.

The item is a masterfully designed image of 'Sanju' Craftwards the dwarf and dwarves in schist by 'Taupe' Fikodistam. 'Sanju' Craftwards is surrounded by the dwarves. The artwork relates to the appointment of the dwarf 'Sanju' Craftwards to the position of bookkeeper of The Lucid Figure in the early spring of 51.

[MobRules]

Hematite 1, Part II

Speaking of the military.

I asked the training squads why they seemed to always be standin' around waitin' for training to begin, rather than actually training ('cept for "individual combat drills'). They showed me the schedule showed that they were very specifically 'supposed to wait for ten members of the squad to show up before beginning. I told 'em that none of the squads HAVE ten members. They said they know, that's why they never get around to actually doing demonstrations.

Damn beurocrats. Found the schedule, and altered it so that they only need to wait for a number of squad members equal to the size of the squad minus one.

Also, I reassigned them all to the same training ground. No reason why an axedwarf and a macedwarf can't spar with each other; more likely that folks'll have someone to spar with if they're all in the same place. Troops insisted on keeping their individual training grounds as well, but only the shard one is actually active.



Wait a second, you ask, is that the Queen? Sure is. Turns out she's a pretty decent Macedwarf, so she joined the Macedwarf squad. I don't know why she didn't take over as Mace-Captain, but for some reason she left Luna in charge of the squad.

OOC: I had added her to the squad before Luna's IC postings above, and was trying to come up with an IC reason for her to leave Luna in charge of the Macedwarves, since OOC I didn't want to remove Luna right after dorfing her for Bearski. Maybe she wants to keep an eye on her? Not sure.


Also built a proper archery range for the marksdwarves



I put one craftsdwarf full time on making wood bolts, and another full time on making bone bolts. No hunters at the momenet, 'cause we got plenty of meat, and for some reason marksdwarves refuse to use the same crossbow for huntin' as they do for the military, which makes having the same dwaves fill both roles complicated.

We really need to get some magma up here, since the Queen, in her infinite wisdom, refuses to let us build magma forges down where the magma is. So, I've created a glass furnace, and have ordered a bunch of green glass tubes and green glass corkscrews. Also, I've got two wood furnaces makin' charcoal full tiem.

Oh, almost forgot! I've been keepin' pretty busy myself as well:


Best morian-covered-with-baugette-cut-morians I've ever seen, if I do say so m'self.


More Hematite 1 entries to appear, probably tomorrow....

[Bearskie]

Meanwhile, Sanju has about the nicest digs of anyone here, 'cept for the queen. Initially, the queen refused to let me bring her any furnature, since she wasn't in the tower. I said "OK, then, I'll bring 'er up to the tower!" Queen turned pale, and allowed the Werelizard an exception to the rediculous no-buildings-underground rule, just so long as no one else had access.

Ehhhhh... fair play I suppose, I'll allow it, but future overseers might see what they can do about bringing Sanju and her digs up to the tower.  Just to keep some consistency in the rules.  Afterall, you only need a calendar to move a werebeast safely.

That's a gorgeous tileset + color scheme you're using btw.

----------

Clarification: Constructions and stockpiles outside the tower are ok, buildings are not (exception being farms, which must be outside)

[MobRules]

Meanwhile, Sanju has about the nicest digs of anyone here, 'cept for the queen. Initially, the queen refused to let me bring her any furnature, since she wasn't in the tower. I said "OK, then, I'll bring 'er up to the tower!" Queen turned pale, and allowed the Werelizard an exception to the rediculous no-buildings-underground rule, just so long as no one else had access.

Ehhhhh... fair play I suppose, I'll allow it, but future overseers might see what they can do about bringing Sanju and her digs up to the tower.  Just to keep some consistency in the rules.  Afterall, you only need a calendar to move a werebeast safely.

That's a gorgeous tileset + color scheme you're using btw.

Clarification: Constructions outside the tower are ok, buildings are not (exception being farms, which must be outside)

Fair enough. I'll get that all demolished and moved.