"You have been struck down." - Dwarf Fortress Adventure stories

[mostly_harmless]

Well, behind the door it holds three more peasant corpses. Yuck!

I open the next door to ...

yet another big room apparently filled with treasures and this:


Urgh, the room is full of bad people it seems!
The moment I open the door three bolts fly at me, two I can avoid, but one hits badly!
A broken spleen! So much for the iron greaves! But to be fair it was actually a *copper bolt*, which means superior crafted. I know that, because the bloody bolt still sticks in my lower body! (I think the quality has an impact on the effectiveness of weapons and ammunition.)
I can see two goblins in the room and two humans in the doorway. A Spearman and a Swordsman. One on the floor. And my fellow Ebe on top of them.
Here the new isometric battle view!

Some chaos in the doorway.
Adil is actually a goblin (next to a statue).
You can also make out the peasant corpse (red spot) in that niche the way we came.

I think the sensible thing here is to move to the back!

[mostly_harmless]

As I move back one tile and throw my copper dagger into the chaos (not hitting anything!). And things are really heating up in that doorway!


I think Ebe the Axewoman is pretty much gone now. The lord consort is also on the floor with a leg wound.

(And here the 3D viewer reveals two more humans approaching the doorway from the new treasure room, that I cannot see in the DF window. Spoiler! Not good.)

I decide to cover both Ebe the heavily wounded Axewoman and the lord consort and step out of my niche.
Still in pain and slowed down by my lower body wound, I slash at the enemy Spearman and bring him down.
But then this happens at the same time:


AN AXE LORD WITH A FRIGGING MASTERFUL HALBERD!!!

I can't see him yet, but he must be right around that corner, if he managed to hit Ebe in the doorway. I will stay where I am for now and stab away at the prone Spearman.

I aim at the weapon arm and manage a disabling attack. In a combined effort we pretty much take the Spearman out of the fight. Meanwhile the Goblin Sword and the Axe Lord appeared in the doorway.

As it is quite exceptional here the Axe Lady's (actually!) inventory.
Lots of masterful items!

I am so going to strip her, IF I survive!
The Axe Lady goes by the name of Cobar Rudgogol, for later reference.

(I checked and masterful weapons give a 2x combat modifier. Superior does not give any buffs.)

So as I step back one tile to not be the initial target of both the Axe Lady and the goblin my fellows ignore the main danger and keep on attacking the Spearman!
The Spearman becomes rightfully enraged by that!


I put him out of his misery, allowing my four companions (all on the same tile like Athis. Unfortunately three of them are on the ground, only one with a good reason, being injured!!) to focus on the three enemies in the doorway (also all on the same tile, the Axe Lady, the goblin Sword and another Hammerman)


(The presence of Uhos is the spoiler information revealed by the 3D viewer.)

[mostly_harmless]

What ensues then is one of the most hectic close combat scenes ever. 8 people fighting in a small corridor and doorway!

Lots of attacks get blocked or miss in the chaos. As the enemies are coming out slightly ahead in successful attacks, I decide to ignore the Axe Lady for a few moments and disarm the Hammerman and the Goblin.


The enemy Hammerman has fled the scene. Athis and the Axe Lady are in the doorway, while the goblin somehow ended up behind us.
Two of my fellows are wounded, leaving only two plus me in proper fighting shape, well except for the broken spleen slowing me down!

Before the Axe Lady can escape I lunge at her and kill her:

(I will cut down on posting the full battle logs here, only highlights from now on, unless people want to see the full history?)

As my companions rush into the new treasure room to finish off the injured Hammerman and that hidden archer, I chase down the goblin and cut him down together with Irsi my injured Axewoman.

Having lost sight of the others I rush into the treasure room as well.

Seems like I have missed some of the heavy fighting, as Athis kills a Goblin Crossbowman and one of my Axes is fighting a "boss"?
A bit confused as I reach an enemy archer, while Athis kills a ELITE Crossbowman!
By Ulet, who are these people?

I kill the Crossbowman. The lord consort does not look too well. Altogether my party seems somewhat in a mess!

We follow a trail of blood through an adjacent room. I check the stairs leading up (and to lots more peasant corpses!) while apparently Athis has found some more enemies:

[mostly_harmless]

I lose overview over the situation. We fighting in small rooms and there always seems to be an enemy just around the corner.
I think I killed two more while Athis killed at least one more as well.

We stagger along the narrow corridors and I am suddenly face to face with Uhos the Swordsman from earlier. He is pale and has lost on hand apparently.
After I take him down with a slash to the leg, I go all berserker mode and ...


We bring down one more enemy Hammerman, and then I decide to make our way to the surface again. We have lost one companion, Ebe, and two of the remaining are heavily wounded. And I still have that bolt stuck in my lower body.

So to the surface it is, rest, heal, regroup and explore this bandit nest.
I have no idea what we stumble upon here.

Trying to find a short cut to the surface or the temple, we enter yet another treasure room and get attacked by a Pikedwarf!!! I kill him.



And another room and another set of enemies. Athis and me cut them down easily. But, by Ulet, what is this place? Who are all those people?

And yet another room full of enemies. And among all the slaughter, the lord consort dies! Argh! I wish I had not looked for a shortcut.
Well, thank Ulet for Athis, the Hammerwoman. She must have killed at least as many as I did.

In my killing frenzy I actually cut a goblin in two halves!


We finally make it back to the proper basement with Citu the exalted ape in it.


Phew!

[Twinkletoes89]

So, after all that, did you actually steal any treasure?

I'd say you earned it!

[mostly_harmless]

I speak to the Citu the exalted ape at length. Asking him who all those people in his cellars were. Apparently he is delighted to hear we killed Tiquo Postdined!
Well ...

We make our way towards the nearest shop. It is already night outside.
I pull out the bolt that still sticks in my lower body, starting the bleeding again! Only a little bit though.
Some water to drink and some meat to eat, rethinking the past two hours!
I killed 15 people with my sword down there and at least on with my fist!
have to talk to Athis in the morning, she is just such a good fighter.

Also apparently I earned myself a "title". I am now Harmless Seaplots the Dabbling Incenses of Catching"

But for now ... sleep!

mh

[mostly_harmless]

So, after all that, did you actually steal any treasure?

I'd say you earned it!

I equipped myself with a couple of iron cloths in the very beginning, planning to confront that vampire.
That whole bandit episode in the cellars, was completely unexpected. During the rush back to the surface, I managed to grab an iron dagger, since I threw mine at an enemy at the very beginning. But everything else I just left there.

Keep in mind, that additional weight will just slow me down, and we were just encountering endless bandits down there.

I plan to replenish the ranks of my party and then probably go down there the next day to properly explore the cellars and grab whatever is useful.

One thing to consider is, that tons of money and jewels won't do you any good. Sure you can buy some armor and weapons for it, but you might as well grab that from the dead and treasure rooms.

If I play a variant (which I might actually) in where I define a "home" and fill it with treasure and artifacts, then I would probably have a thorough search of everything lying around.

Which reminds me, I have to nick the cloths off that dead Axe Lady and checkout that Elite Crossbowman, Athis killed, for interesting items.

mh

[uberfish]

Is the exalted ape... actually an ape?

[Brackard]

So, with the number of bandits you've killed in the basement here would ALMOST match the number of predecessors and cohorts that were killed on all your previous trials to date.

[mostly_harmless]

Is the exalted ape... actually an ape?

No, its just a title, like holy ship (in Empiresstring) and I imagine Dalai Lama.

mh