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

[mostly_harmless]

As the day breaks, I still feel the bolt wound and I am still not up to full speed. I hope the wound heals better in the coming days.
I eat and drink some of my last rations. Have to find a food store pretty soon.

Athis comes into the house and we talk at length about what happened yesterday and she tells me about her family. Its a big family with tons of cousins.

But lets find the others and see if we can get more to join our party before braving danger again.

We all show the scars of last night's fight. Irsi has lost her axe. (I think the game is not yet clever enough for her to grab a new axe. )

Not much look in finding any soldiers in the hundreds of shops outside the city walls. But I buy some prepared ibex brain from a goblin food merchant.

And after admiring the sewer system that extents even outside the city walls, my party enters the city proper through the north gate and gawk at the massive walls!


Being universally interested in the great achievements of my civilisation and knowing that the city walls are manned by soldiers I make complete tour of the battlements circling the city.
Humans and goblins are guarding the walls and towers. My fame manages to let my party grow to 10!
Here a picture of parts of the city walls and my fellowship.


I tour the city some more, in search of a well, to refill my waterskin. It is already afternoon. My sightseeing has taken the better half of the day already and I have not even visited the keep yet.

Here a map of Freesquashes for later reference:


I get into a conversation with a local about quests and stuff:


Giant ticks?! That sounds ineresting!
Also that Utesh Homagewrings could be our new king and Netfigures the name of the town in the far north east? have to check that out.
And what the heck is a "hungry head" and how does it slither?

Lets check out the keep. Then for the vampire before its night.

[VM]

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

[mostly_harmless]

Here is the keep:


And here the lord's quest:

So he is not that troubled by the vampire then?

During a tour of the keep we meet the lord consort and the kids. Nothing to exciting. Given the past experience, we will NOT enter the cellars (yet).

Let's find that vampire!
...

After hours of searching for the right leather clothing shop, I find him!
The human tooth crown is somewhat giving him away. As is the extremely muscular build with the white hair.

I will talk to him first while my party pours into the room.

Since he must be quite old (his daughter already died of old age 20 years ago!) some of his family members were struck down by mystical beast when the world was still young.
Some heroes and some black sheep among the family as well.

Ah well, it must be getting lonely at the family reunions for you. Lets make an end to to this!


Uhm, that was rather quick. I did not even drew my sword properly!

I grab the vampires boning knife and his human jewellery as artifacts.

[mostly_harmless]

Yes, thanks I am on my way to the temple cellars now.

[mostly_harmless]

Entering the cellars of the temple again and opening the first door my party gets a good nose full of the blood and gore that awaits us and we are immediately greeted by three bandits!

And bandits, and bandits and bandits ...

Urgh!

And then I get unlucky:


Manage to crawl away and head back into the fight. Lost my shield though and my left arm is useless.
Nevertheless manage to kill another bandit.

It's a bloody mess down here. As far as I can tell, two of my companions are dead already, with more wounded to various degrees.
I can hear the noises of fights and screams, a couple of my companions at my side we try to find the right room.

And then I find the wrong room, with a couple of silver bolts to the body I go down and a bandit Spearman finishes me off.
"I was once a adventurer like you. But then I took a spear to the head!"

Shit!



Well, DF Ladies and Gentlemen. You can hack and slay your way through countless bandits and axe lords and then get an unlucky bolt to a vital part and your party of 11 companions is no help. I like the realism. It still sucks. I had so many plans.

mh

[Jkaen]

Ahh thats a shame, thought you were finally getting some momentum behind you on this play through.

Is it safer to go ranged and have your minions in the front line rather than you?

[mostly_harmless]

Ranged requires some time to reload, and is pretty useless in narrow cellars.
I think the better tactic is to go with melee and just have the minions surround you, i.e. don't lead from the front but, do a step forward, then wait for your fellows to join you.
But there is not much glory in that kind of play, but certainly a better chance on a pension.

The last adventurer serves as a good example how demigod start does not guarantee you an easy game. Its a lot more satisfying for most of the fights, if you actually hit and kill, but being up against superior numbers and competent archers you die just the same.

I think this game appeals to me, because the very first 1 vs. 1 fight could permakill you. Compare this to other games, where your single character kills hundreds of enemies in one play through all by himself.

mh

[mostly_harmless]

Some interesting facts from the legends:

Athis the hammerwoman died as well by hands of the same Spearman as I did.
She actually killed only half a dozen people during my lead. Enough to earn her the title "The Muscular Length of Luck".
And that Axe Lady we encountered one day ago? Cobar? That was Athis third eldest daughter!!! Oh boy.

Unfortunately it seems there is a bug in the game, as most of the bandits we encountered the second time where already killed by us the first time.
So legends actually report the Spearman that killed me as dead (by my own hands). There are two people saved under the same name.

I am not sure, whether the dead get resurrected accidentally or whether new character get assigned old names. Will have to browse the DF forums for that. Because that might be a big issue for continuing these tales. Lost two characters to this "bug" already.

The group of bandits (outcasts actually) down in the cellars is actually "The Swift Society", the primary criminal organization in Freesquashes since year 77. So almost 50 years of crime explains the treasures and all the dead peasants, I guess.

This Harmless made it to 24 kills, 22 with the sword, one with the shield and one with the fist.

Here the details on Kina the vampire. An interesting read. She certainly raised a lot of suspicions wherever she went.
And her mother was (is?) a necromancer!

mh

[mostly_harmless]

Would people be interested to move these tales into a succession kind of game? To have a go at your own adventures in this world?
A bit like that museum game from the DF forums. Each player tries an adventurer and passes on the saved world after death or retirement.

I could list a number of objectives (first to swim the narrow channel?) and rules / guidelines.

I hope I have created enough interest here for at least some of you to give it a go.
Let me know.

mh

[Kylearan]

Shaking someone around by the tongue?!?