Logs from fort Salveseized, Let's Play Dwarf Fortress - Prologue
1st of Granite, 296
I'm going to die. I can't really imagine this going any other way.
I can't stop thinking about my home city, The Dutiful Galley. Quaint place. Quiet place. Not too cold, not too hot. I lived next to a farm that grew plump helmets (for Ale) and it had some horses. I like horses. There was a pretty big prison there. It held dangerous criminals from many corners of the world and as such it was only a matter of time before someone escaped from it.
I can't stop thinking about that explosion. It echoes through my head every time I sleep. When I close my eyes I relive the events of that fateful day. I hear the explosion from the prison. Find a place to hide. The horses. They're stout, and with their strength they'll surely protect me. I climb into a wagon and hide as best as I can. There's some kind of commotion further into the cave, getting louder. It sounds like fighting, and I can hear dying screams and the clashing of metal. It's coming closer still and I am paralyzed with fear. Footsteps and shouting feels like the thunder. Each strike is closer, louder. I am yanked from my fetal position by an intimidating man with a mask of metal covering his face.
"Ahh, this escape wagon comes with... supplies."
He looks at me with what I infer to be lust. Or hunger. It's hard to tell. I'm pretty sure he's bearing his teeth underneath that mask. There's the slightest bit of saliva pouring out from the breathing holes. Five others are with him, and there are guards coming down the street. "Stand back!" my assailant yells at them. "Or this girl gets it!" He holds me up by the neck like a hunter showing off his latest kill. The guards recoils a bit, seemingly unsure what to do. Amidst this chaos a woman hops onto the horse attached to the wagon and we speed off.
Four men are in the wagon with me, in addition to the woman driving it, and a girl with glasses sitting to my right. The men are odd. There is the one with a mask over his head that has a red and orange pattern on it. I had heard of him before. Bim "Hog Hulkan" Secretsteels is a famous proffesional wrestler who's career ended after having killed too many of his opponents. News spread far and wide about him.
I don't recognize the others yet. There is a man with his face painted green, perhaps so as to camoflague himself. The man to my left doesn't seem too special, though he has an empty, glass-like gaze and I swear I can see drool through his beard. Finally, there is the man who had grabbed me in the first place. His features are mostly dominated by the metal mask covering his mouth and nose, as well as the lust in his eyes while he stares at me. Bodily lust? Bloodlust? I can not tell.
The trip has lasted about a week, at this point. With the wagon completely devoid of supplies save for the weapons that my kidnappers are carrying, we have to make occasional stops to drink. The painted man goes away for a few minutes, and returns with an animal he's shot down. This keeps us fed during the journey, but we have no way of storing his kills so the animals are eaten on the spot and the rests left to rot. The painted man and the one with the metal mask in particular seems to relish in this.
During one such stop, I approach the girl with the glasses. She strikes me as a scholar, perhaps even a noble judging from the way she's done things to her hair.
"We've been trapped togheter for a while now, so I thought it'd only be proper if we made aquintances with one another. I am Geshud Tombstools,"
"I'm honoured, Geshi-chan. I used to be known as Iden Acedinked, but people call me Otaku."
"Otaku?"
"Hai, it's an elvish term for... Oh it's not important."
"You're carrying a weapon. Weren't you taken by these brutes as well?"
"Oh no. I was wrongfully put in prison along with these guys."
"For a crime you didn't commit?"
"For fifteen counts of murder that was completely honourable, justified revenge! I gave them a weapon to fight back with and everything!"
"I see."
"So tell me... Otaku."
"Yes?"
"What am I doing here?"
"Oh, you see. It goes like this:"
Otaku tells me about the explosion I had heard. The man in the metal mask is a skilled mechanic and scientist. He had managed to create a bomb from various spices and waste, and had used that to break the group out of prison. Hog Hulkan had managed to tackle the first few guards, securing weapons for the rest of the group. I had been captured as a bargaining chip, which, of course, I had already infered.
"We'll probably let you go when we think we're far enough from the justice."
"Let her go!?" The mechanic bursts. "She's our only food supply!"
"No! This girl is under my protection, Cannibal-San!"
"Shut up, four-eyes. Besides, if we let her go at our hideout she's going to tell the authorities where we are!"
"...Kuso~."
"I'd rather not be eaten if it's all the same to you."
"You'll stay silent like good livestock or you'll stay silent like good meat. The choice is yours to make."
I acknowledge this with a silent nod, and communicate with Otaku in whispers.
Otaku tells me about the man with the metal face mask. His name is Rovad Drunkendye, but everyone just calls him "Mechannibal" for fairly obvious reasons. His reasons for imprionment, too, needs no explanation. The metal mask had been put on him by the prison guards to keep him from biting people.
The drooling man to my left is called Troll. A stone fell on his head and smashed his skull when he was a kid. Troll smashes things.
The man with the green paint is Ilral Waxyinked, but everyone calls him "Ghost". He had been sent on a scouting mission back in a fortress called Asanam, "Cavernages". During his scouting mission, his fortress had been besieged and everyone inside murdered. Nobody found Ghost, so he survived but was left stranded hundreds of miles from the nearest friendly civilization. When he finally found his way to a dwarven city, he could no longer see friends. In his mind he was still back in Asanam. Hiding. Hunting. Killing.
Finally, Otaku tells me about the woman driving the carriage. They call her Ax=Battler, though her name is Kivish Armourcrested. She was a resident and an axedwarf at a poorly managed fortress. During a goblin siege their supplies started to dwindle. Alcohol was the first thing to run out. Sanity the second. Everyone in the fortress started losing it one by one. At first, Ax=Battler only killed in self-defence and for the protection of others, but she eventually snapped herself. She was the sole survivor of the ensuing massacre.
As I am writing this, we're rolling past a mountainside called The Leaky Points. It's said to be haunted by evil and it's uncomfortably warm here. Hopefully we'll be through here soon. Wait, the wagon is stopping. Could something be wrong? I'll write more later if I still live.
- Geshud Tombstools
Out of character notes (that you may skip, if you're so inclined):
Welcome to my Let's Play of Dwarf Fortress! I've somewhat learned the ropes of this game by settling down in a quiet area and alt-tabbing to the DF Wiki every five seconds but I've never actually been involved in combat with the game. I've read a few LPs of this game before and they've invariably made me want to actually try it out for myself. Some DFLPs use a gimmick or another to make things different and interesting, like trying to create the strongest dwarf in the world, trying to survive with only one dorf, have an elf as a king or something.
All I have is this background story I thought up in about five minutes and obsessed about for five hours, I'll also be making these sprite-based pictures which'll probably take more time to create than the combined time of playing Dwarf Fortress and writing the story for it. Nice priorities there, jackass.
Oh, and five of my dwarves are combat-oriented and I didn't bring any food whatsoever. At first I tried doing this at a glazier but my dwarves promptly dehydrated. The prologue you just read had to be heavily rewritten to accompany the new set of dwarves I was handed. (The first set of dwarves consisted of five men and two women: Cityboy Citygirl and Ax=Battler.. I originally envisioned them as an all-men team because I'm terrible at writing women but I've gotta work with what I've got. Citygirl also liked Cows for their haunting moos the first time.) I think it turned out for the better, already proving that Dwarf Fortress is forcing me to improve upon my writing to Let's Play it. Do comment if you like it and especially if you don't.
LET'S RUN THIS CRAP INTO THE GROUND!
I'm going to die. I can't really imagine this going any other way.
I can't stop thinking about my home city, The Dutiful Galley. Quaint place. Quiet place. Not too cold, not too hot. I lived next to a farm that grew plump helmets (for Ale) and it had some horses. I like horses. There was a pretty big prison there. It held dangerous criminals from many corners of the world and as such it was only a matter of time before someone escaped from it.
I can't stop thinking about that explosion. It echoes through my head every time I sleep. When I close my eyes I relive the events of that fateful day. I hear the explosion from the prison. Find a place to hide. The horses. They're stout, and with their strength they'll surely protect me. I climb into a wagon and hide as best as I can. There's some kind of commotion further into the cave, getting louder. It sounds like fighting, and I can hear dying screams and the clashing of metal. It's coming closer still and I am paralyzed with fear. Footsteps and shouting feels like the thunder. Each strike is closer, louder. I am yanked from my fetal position by an intimidating man with a mask of metal covering his face.
"Ahh, this escape wagon comes with... supplies."
He looks at me with what I infer to be lust. Or hunger. It's hard to tell. I'm pretty sure he's bearing his teeth underneath that mask. There's the slightest bit of saliva pouring out from the breathing holes. Five others are with him, and there are guards coming down the street. "Stand back!" my assailant yells at them. "Or this girl gets it!" He holds me up by the neck like a hunter showing off his latest kill. The guards recoils a bit, seemingly unsure what to do. Amidst this chaos a woman hops onto the horse attached to the wagon and we speed off.
Four men are in the wagon with me, in addition to the woman driving it, and a girl with glasses sitting to my right. The men are odd. There is the one with a mask over his head that has a red and orange pattern on it. I had heard of him before. Bim "Hog Hulkan" Secretsteels is a famous proffesional wrestler who's career ended after having killed too many of his opponents. News spread far and wide about him.
I don't recognize the others yet. There is a man with his face painted green, perhaps so as to camoflague himself. The man to my left doesn't seem too special, though he has an empty, glass-like gaze and I swear I can see drool through his beard. Finally, there is the man who had grabbed me in the first place. His features are mostly dominated by the metal mask covering his mouth and nose, as well as the lust in his eyes while he stares at me. Bodily lust? Bloodlust? I can not tell.
The trip has lasted about a week, at this point. With the wagon completely devoid of supplies save for the weapons that my kidnappers are carrying, we have to make occasional stops to drink. The painted man goes away for a few minutes, and returns with an animal he's shot down. This keeps us fed during the journey, but we have no way of storing his kills so the animals are eaten on the spot and the rests left to rot. The painted man and the one with the metal mask in particular seems to relish in this.
During one such stop, I approach the girl with the glasses. She strikes me as a scholar, perhaps even a noble judging from the way she's done things to her hair.
"We've been trapped togheter for a while now, so I thought it'd only be proper if we made aquintances with one another. I am Geshud Tombstools,"
"I'm honoured, Geshi-chan. I used to be known as Iden Acedinked, but people call me Otaku."
"Otaku?"
"Hai, it's an elvish term for... Oh it's not important."
"You're carrying a weapon. Weren't you taken by these brutes as well?"
"Oh no. I was wrongfully put in prison along with these guys."
"For a crime you didn't commit?"
"For fifteen counts of murder that was completely honourable, justified revenge! I gave them a weapon to fight back with and everything!"
"I see."
"So tell me... Otaku."
"Yes?"
"What am I doing here?"
"Oh, you see. It goes like this:"
Otaku tells me about the explosion I had heard. The man in the metal mask is a skilled mechanic and scientist. He had managed to create a bomb from various spices and waste, and had used that to break the group out of prison. Hog Hulkan had managed to tackle the first few guards, securing weapons for the rest of the group. I had been captured as a bargaining chip, which, of course, I had already infered.
"We'll probably let you go when we think we're far enough from the justice."
"Let her go!?" The mechanic bursts. "She's our only food supply!"
"No! This girl is under my protection, Cannibal-San!"
"Shut up, four-eyes. Besides, if we let her go at our hideout she's going to tell the authorities where we are!"
"...Kuso~."
"I'd rather not be eaten if it's all the same to you."
"You'll stay silent like good livestock or you'll stay silent like good meat. The choice is yours to make."
I acknowledge this with a silent nod, and communicate with Otaku in whispers.
Otaku tells me about the man with the metal face mask. His name is Rovad Drunkendye, but everyone just calls him "Mechannibal" for fairly obvious reasons. His reasons for imprionment, too, needs no explanation. The metal mask had been put on him by the prison guards to keep him from biting people.
The drooling man to my left is called Troll. A stone fell on his head and smashed his skull when he was a kid. Troll smashes things.
The man with the green paint is Ilral Waxyinked, but everyone calls him "Ghost". He had been sent on a scouting mission back in a fortress called Asanam, "Cavernages". During his scouting mission, his fortress had been besieged and everyone inside murdered. Nobody found Ghost, so he survived but was left stranded hundreds of miles from the nearest friendly civilization. When he finally found his way to a dwarven city, he could no longer see friends. In his mind he was still back in Asanam. Hiding. Hunting. Killing.
Finally, Otaku tells me about the woman driving the carriage. They call her Ax=Battler, though her name is Kivish Armourcrested. She was a resident and an axedwarf at a poorly managed fortress. During a goblin siege their supplies started to dwindle. Alcohol was the first thing to run out. Sanity the second. Everyone in the fortress started losing it one by one. At first, Ax=Battler only killed in self-defence and for the protection of others, but she eventually snapped herself. She was the sole survivor of the ensuing massacre.
As I am writing this, we're rolling past a mountainside called The Leaky Points. It's said to be haunted by evil and it's uncomfortably warm here. Hopefully we'll be through here soon. Wait, the wagon is stopping. Could something be wrong? I'll write more later if I still live.
- Geshud Tombstools
Out of character notes (that you may skip, if you're so inclined):
Welcome to my Let's Play of Dwarf Fortress! I've somewhat learned the ropes of this game by settling down in a quiet area and alt-tabbing to the DF Wiki every five seconds but I've never actually been involved in combat with the game. I've read a few LPs of this game before and they've invariably made me want to actually try it out for myself. Some DFLPs use a gimmick or another to make things different and interesting, like trying to create the strongest dwarf in the world, trying to survive with only one dorf, have an elf as a king or something.
All I have is this background story I thought up in about five minutes and obsessed about for five hours, I'll also be making these sprite-based pictures which'll probably take more time to create than the combined time of playing Dwarf Fortress and writing the story for it. Nice priorities there, jackass.
Oh, and five of my dwarves are combat-oriented and I didn't bring any food whatsoever. At first I tried doing this at a glazier but my dwarves promptly dehydrated. The prologue you just read had to be heavily rewritten to accompany the new set of dwarves I was handed. (The first set of dwarves consisted of five men and two women: Cityboy Citygirl and Ax=Battler.. I originally envisioned them as an all-men team because I'm terrible at writing women but I've gotta work with what I've got. Citygirl also liked Cows for their haunting moos the first time.) I think it turned out for the better, already proving that Dwarf Fortress is forcing me to improve upon my writing to Let's Play it. Do comment if you like it and especially if you don't.
LET'S RUN THIS CRAP INTO THE GROUND!