StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Winter passes. Thanks to a quick assembly of a butcher's shop and a slaughter of all 3 mules (who were, to no one's surprise, not producing more mules and thus not a good food crop) along with tons of seafood-related meals produces a good amount of food. Alcohol remains a luxury but is present in rations.

2 dogs are trained by The Vortex Empire to be war animals for our protection. The Labourer "The Dark" is put to work smoothing the walls of the cavernous dining room while Mason Ford Prefect cranks out table and chair after table and chair. We plan it to be the greatest and most magnificent room in all of history. We shall wait until a legendary artisan comes, and fill the room with his sculptures, and a legendary engraver shall carve our glories into the walls.

Until then it'll just be a big dining room.

Suddenly, as we are settled in the groove, planting seeds, carving tables, and all around tidying up the fortress and making it a better place to live (such as giving each bedroom its own chest to keep possessions in, placing a door on the refuse heap room to prevent miasma from getting out, and establishing a food storage room behind the butchery and tanner's shops near the Kitchen end of the Great Hall)...

Well, I'll let this picture do the talking. Better ready the hounds of war, my friends, because these folks are running for the shelter of our caves.



NEXT ON PALELABOR 2:
The 2nd Wave Immigrants Battle the Zombie Warthogs! Battle Report

Animal trainer, eh? Certainly much better than peasant. What good are two war dogs going to do against zombie warthogs?

24 Slate, 1052 (<- Last Year was actually 1051, not 1050), 3rd Age; Dwarven Calendar; Mid-Spring

"Sir?" said Pick. "You'd better have a look at this."

Kuja grimaced. His role as acting leader meant that when someone said Sir it was never a good sign. They headed through the defensive shaft's leisurely downward slope and out the main entrance.

Pick pointed. Squinting, Kuja could barely make out what it was.

Shit.

The reflective glint of a crossbow bolt shone in the distance. There were people, and some sort of quadrupeds. The animals were charging, and the people were running towards the fortress.

They proceeded down to the river to get a better look.

The first thing that Kuja noticed was that the immigrants had the numerical advantage. There were over a dozen of them, including one armoured warrior with a crossbow. There were only four warthog zombies. One of the zombies had an iron crossbow bolt stuck through its leg, and was lurching too slow to get there. A second bolt struck out but landed low, bouncing off the zombie's hoof.

4 to 1 odds is better than the reverse he convinced himself as he watched the migrants run for their lives. A dwarf dodged right past a warthog, who snapped and threw its tusks but could not hit the lucky one.

The marksdwarf had reloaded, and fired another bolt. This one flew true, burying itself inside the stomach of the lead warthog. Its distended stomach sprayed ichorous blood and dripped bits of long-decayed organs.

The marksdwarf pumped another two bolts into the zombie, hitting it to no effect. Finally, one shot smashed through its face, killing it.

One immobilized, one... redead? That's half already.

Another Marksdwarf came from behind his comrade from the trees and fired, missing. Still, it doubled their volume of fire.

They just might make it

The warthogs loped along at their leisurely pace, unable to move with the vigour of the living. The Dwarves fled right past them as the warthogs drew fire, only managing to attack (and miss) one dwarf and a pet cat. The warthogs waddled towards the river, intent on pursuing.

The marksdwarves continued to stand their ground at the ford of the river and put fire into the warthogs until the other two were down for the count. Celebrating, they made a hasty retreat into the fortress.

All in all, it was not nearly as epic as Pick and Kuja had worried it would be, but a quick skirmish resulting in Dwarven victory with no casualties.

Historically, this small battle demonstrated for the denizens of Palelabor two facts about the undead. Firstly, that Warthogs, it was noted, were not dangerous except in large packs. Elephants or Giant Leopards might be, though, so a military excursion by the fledgling Palelabor Free Army was not planned. But more importantly, it taught them with proper tactics the evil in the swamp was not invincible.



NEXT ON PALELABOR: Dwarven roll call, 19 new SDN immigrants!

Post Victory Analysis:

We were lucky as hell to get a pair of marksdwarves in this wave, and would have probably taken 2-3+ casualties without the second guy. Double that for no marksman. Warthogs are, in zombie form, slow and weak enough to need to be a sort of pack hunter rather than tanks, their slow gate as zombies means we could pump fire into them and they were unlucky enough to take several leg shots pinning the closer ones nearly in place while they were subjected to heavy fire.

A repeat of this battle with larger, fiercer enemies or faster ones (as larger enemies are wont to stride longer than smaller ones) would be a lot more fair. And fair in this case means more blood for less purpose.

So, am I in the current wave and will I go nuts and kill everyone? Or cause a cave-in? Or am I one of those bad-ass marksdwarves? Edge of my seat, man!

Here's hoping that I become a Marksman. Then you will have no problem quelling even the slightest rebellion with extreme prejudice.

I am betting I am NOT on of the marksdwarves, more than likely I'd be running in panic or flining drawing implaments at them.

Just wait till crap starts coming out of the chasm...

Is there a combat log option? I was never able to do much more than watch my dwarf icons shooting/moving towards the monster icons. It was hard to get a sense of how battle works in DF, all I ever saw were the results.

GuppyShark wrote:Is there a combat log option? I was never able to do much more than watch my dwarf icons shooting/moving towards the monster icons. It was hard to get a sense of how battle works in DF, all I ever saw were the results.

I pause, use "." to advance one frame, and watch for adjacent creatures to suffer wounds or bolts to fly. Then I extrapolate and dramatize. Works pretty well. Slows combat to a crawl though.

It's to bad it doesnt describe combat like it does in adventure mode. (It's some pretty gory stuff....) Of course, this would be horrible for the announcments page, because in a combat with multiple enemies, it would change faster than you can read it...

MRDOD wrote:So it's short straw long straw as far as which one of you gets stuck with meat shielding us from the hordes instead of working in the shop. And I'm cheating on the random straws on this one here, because I don't trust you anywhere near the Sacred Anvil.

So I get to be a meat shield like I wanted?

Dwarven Roll Call
27 Slate, 1052, 3rd Age; Dwarven Calendar; Mid Spring

The Godhead
MRDOD, Omniscient Simdeity

The Nobility- The Government
None

The Equestrians- The Heroes
None

The Patricians- The Originals
Kuja, Master Miner
rhoenix, Professional Miner
Master of Cards, Wood Cutter and Carpenter
Ford Prefect, Skilled Mason
Pick, Blacksmith and Weaponsmith
HSTRG, Stone Crafter
Adrian Laguna, Competant Fisher
Guppyshark, Talented Farmer

Plebians of the First Rank- The Intrepid
BilateralRope, Blacksmith
Utsanomiko, Stone Crafter
Lusankya, Cook and Butcher
Tasoth, Brewer and Tanner
Grandmaster Jogurt, Janitor
The Dark, Manual Labourer
Rawtooth, Furniture Mover
The Vortex Empire, Animal Trainer

Plebians of the Second Rank- The Moderate
Nepthys, Miner
Darksilver, Miner
Covenant, Mason
Darth Mordius, Mason
Wolveraptor, Armorsmith and Blacksmith
Fleet Admiral JD, Armorsmith and Blacksmith
Crossroads Inc, Fisherdwarf
Darthbob, Fisherdwarf
Exonerate, Fisherdwarf
ColonialAdmiral, Farmer
Vehrec, Farmer
Eris, Manual Labourer
Third Impact, Farmer-in-Training [Peasant]
Erik von Nein, Manual Labourer
Starglider, Manual Labourer

ACTIVE MILITARY
==Lonestar, Marksdwarf and Leader of Military [Trapper, Pleb 2]
==Stark, Marksdwarf [Trapper, Pleb 2]
==Civil War Man, Recruit [Jeweler, Pleb 2]
==Cincinnatus, Recruit [Peasant, Pleb 2]
==GeneralSchatten, Recruit [Metalsmith, Pleb 1]


Total Dwarves- 36

17 Hematite, 1052, 3rd Age; Dwarven Calendar; Early Summer

Spring has passed the fortress by. Food production is stable, Alcohol prodution is booming, and the exponential growth of the fortress is causing more to get done. Starglinder gets swept off the bridge in a Ford Prefect, but he is on the right side and so the current sweeps him back into it.

Ford Prefect is building a bridge over the chasm so we can tunnel into it and see what's there.

The military, the Palelabor Free Army, has been assembled under the Marksdwarves Stark and Lonestar. GeneralSchatten, Civil War Man, and Cincinnatus are their first trainees, although we have not made crossbows nor bolts for them yet. HSTRG and Uts should be able to handle that.

A second mason's shop, a second fish cleaner's, a 20-bedroom block of housing, and a few other minor rooms have been carved due to the new immigrants. The masons are producing doors and furniture as fast as they can and Master of Cards is logging the near side of the river like a madman to get more wood for Beds, but right now they are all sleeping on the floor in the military barracksroom except a handful whose rooms are complete.

A caravan of humans arrived today. They saw no road and turned to go away, but then awesomenes^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H tragedy struck them.

If by tragedy you mean a rampaging swarm of undead loxodonts and by struck you mean struck down. "Battle" report coming next.

17 Hematite, 1052, 3rd Age; Dwarven Calendar; Several Seconds Later

Two of the caravans, the mule-pulled wagons, were far enough ahead to get away from the ambush.

The rear guards weren't. Their names were Uzin Asribegu and Rosmic Buhduqueh and they were both fierce amazon swordswomen of their home county of Monraconbehal, armed with bronze swords and shields and bronze chain mail. That was not sufficient for this day.

A zombie elephant, emitting a roar that was neither moan nor trumpet but some hell noise that combined both, charged and smashed both of them to the ground, stunning Rosmic and knocking the other mercifully unconcious. Hearing this, the four other Elephants of the pack turned to rush the downed humans.

The first Elephant stepped on Rosmic's left foot, which emitted a snapping sound and was broken. Rosmic screamed. This woke Uzin up, who struggled to her feet just as the second elephant reached them.

Uzin rushed the first Elephant while it was focusing on her comrade, hoping to drive the creature off. It casually tossed her backwards. Rosmic took this opportunity and whipped her sword into it's head, ripping bloody chunks from the creature's ear and lacerating its face. The monster hardly noticed. Indeed, it seemed that the sprain her middle finger had taken in the blow concerned her more than the huge slices concerned the undead beast.

A third Elephant trudged over, and another followed two followed behind it. The two followers paused and turned, seeing the caravan trying madly to wheel around and escape. They started their limp over there. The caravan could not turn in such a small radius, and each one careened into their very own elephant.

Surrounded by three zombified elephants, the two women dodged and weaved with all of their near-supernatural skill. But regardless of how agile and tough they were, they could not dodge all day. One of the elephants tusks caught Uzin's left shin, piercing all the way down to the bone and ripping with a flick of it's head.

She fell, and despite her partner's attempts to protect her, the next blow crushed her sword hand into a bloody pulp of unrecognizable bone fragments.

Uzin was steadily calm as she watched the fight from eyes that did not seem to be her own. She saw blood everywhere, and dimly realized it was her own blood. Vomiting from the pain, stuck without a weapon, she scrabbled away, ribs cracking as another glancing shot from the elephants hit her.

Behind her, her friend tried to cover their escape, swinging wildly at the elephants. Accepting a stinging blow instead of backing off like any rational herbivore, the undead monstrosity, smelling blood, chased after the fleeing human. In the process it walked on top of Rosmic, breaking her shin bone in half and turning the pieces at impossible angles to one another. With a heavy thud into the blood soaked bush, she collapsed.

The elephants, still failing to pursue the smaller and faster wagons, ignored them in favour of the now injured prey behind them. Elephants can smell blood, even non-dwarven blood, at several hundred meters away, and they were hungry for the living.

Casually, one of the elephants crushed the skull of the unconcious swordsmaiden. Death was virtually instantaneous. Uzin didn't even turn back to see it, she was running towards the caravan for safety in numbers. The caravan was in turn running towards the fortress.

The dwarves were understandably worried about where this was going. Log haulers hurriedly declared a day off of work and Master of Cards decided it was a good time to let the trees live and go inside to make beds.

Later: The exciting finish to the battle of Uzin Blazedates with the Elephant Horde! Are we fucked or are we mildly fucked? Place your bets!

Elephant Strike Part II

Uzin limped across the battlefield, leg broken, towards the caravan. The dwarves hastily scurried into the mountain.

She paused. The elephants had killed her lifelong friend and companion. She raised her shield in defiance, turned, and stumbled backwards. She could not retreat. That would be spitting on the sacrifice of Rosmic's life.

Then she paused again, turning. What good would honorable suicide do right now? Rosmic was still dead. She had died so that the others would live.

Struggling with this potent philosophical and ethical quandry gave the elephants time to catch up with her. Knocked to the ground by a swipe with a dessicated trunk, she decided on living to fight another day.

Groaning with the pain, she limped across the ford in the river.

Or tried to, anyhow. Just a few meters away, she blacked out, and the elephants lurched along behind her steadily. She woke up in time to watch them complete the last steps towards he, raise their feet in grotesque unison, and pause. She was just meters away from safety. If she could just get a little further, she thought, as she tried to stand and her broken leg crumpled beneath her-

There was a sudden burst of movement, and Uzin's pain vanished.

The caravan merchants watched in horrified silence as the elephants crushed her, this time slowly and methodically.

Strangely, at the river the beasts merely stared in hatred at the dwarves now carefully creeping out to deposit trade goods for the horrified merchants. The tiny solanum-powered brains of the elephants clunked and grinded with effort as they attempted to correlate being able to walk underwater in ponds with crossing a shallow river.

For now, the troika of zombies staring across the river were harmless. For now.

NEXT ON PALELABOR: Human Traders from the Holy Wilderness Kingdom

Oh, man. Are we ever lucky zombie elephants are dumb as bricks.

So, the traders decided to give us stuff instead of running for their lives? Man, they can give those elephants a run for their money for smarts.

Erik von Nein wrote: So, the traders decided to give us stuff instead of running for their lives? Man, they can give those elephants a run for their money for smarts.

No, now this thing is dumb.

Its brain is the size of a walnut and it doesn't even really have one anymore.


No, that's actually what the game has on there. It's at a different ford in the river, don't worry. Quite far away.

But yes, I had to rationalize why the stupid trading detachment kept coming, their guards fighting the elephants, instead of just turning around and heading for Happy Sunshine Town instead.

That poor, poor stegosaur.

Too bad it can't be tamed, that there is a novelty worth keeping around. Until it maims some unlucky guest, of course.

Erik von Nein wrote:That poor, poor stegosaur.

Too bad it can't be tamed, that there is a novelty worth keeping around. Until it maims some unlucky guest, of course.

I would suggest turning the big lumbering beast into food...but yeah, it's a zombie. No thanks.

OK people, Immigrant Wave 3 has arrived in game. I need 7 lucky volunteers!

Of course, if we can't fulfill manpower requirements, I might be forced to keep some of them as dwarven-named Redshirts or something.

Ugh, how horrible.

I'm in the Palelabor Free Army? Yes. I hope I get to fuck some zombies up.

Or maybe I'll just get killed in training or something.

MRDOD wrote:OK people, Immigrant Wave 3 has arrived in game. I need 7 lucky volunteers!

Of course, if we can't fulfill manpower requirements, I might be forced to keep some of them as dwarven-named Redshirts or something.

Ugh, how horrible.

Have me and my guild of Masons arrived yet? I'd happily become a mace or axe dwarf, as those are also quite useful. I enjoyed whacking monsters back into the chasm as a Macedwarf in one game.

MRDOD wrote:OK people, Immigrant Wave 3 has arrived in game. I need 7 lucky volunteers!

Of course, if we can't fulfill manpower requirements, I might be forced to keep some of them as dwarven-named Redshirts or something.

Ugh, how horrible.

Sure, I'll give it a go.

Man, life sure is exciting in New Palelabor.

Hah, I'd be pleased if you used myself. Though how you can handle those ASCII graphics I'll never know.

Thankfully, they're optional - you can get graphical tilesets.