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

[mostly_harmless]

Is it possible to attack the questgiver? It would have been a funny turn of events if you killed the Lord after deciding he was trying to betray you...

You become an enemy of the whole civilisation then. Every peasant will be out to kill you, including the tamed animals, I believe.

You could do this in another civ, though. Kind of declaring war to it. Create that posse of Uberfishes and then march over to Blockfaint, attempting to slaughter the thousand inhabitants.

Although I am not sure whether your companions will follow you.

mh

[uberfish]

Although I am not sure whether your companions will follow you.

mh

Two words:

zombie apocalypse

[Tasunke]

Can non-elf adventurers become necromancers?

[Ichabod]

Very nice story, uberfish. That crazy book about giving the crazy book to the author of the crazy book was very funny. This game is completely crazy.

[mostly_harmless]

Yes. But zombies will count as your followers? If so, there is a cap of 20(?) for the amount of followers.
If zombies do not count, well, you can make a mess!

I guess you have kept the book with the secrets of life and death and will read it as a human now?
I have not found anything about elves not being allowed to necromance.

[uberfish]

By popular demand there will be some necromancy, yes

[uberfish]

Dwarf Fortress: The Necromancy Chronicles

Give Me Give Me The Innocent Wheat And Istro Stasisfin: A Book By Istro
Stasisfin


This is no ordinary book. This book is about the importance of necromancy in the world and the importance of the book Give Me The Innocent Wheat And Istro Stasisfin in necromancy. The reader will learn through the eyes of the great necromancer, Istro Stasisfin, what it means to be a necromancer, and how one can learn from the life experience of Istro Stasisfin.


Chapter 1: The Miserable Failure Of Gorhax Fullblows

Gorhax Fullblows was a peasant who possessed the admirable desire to rise above his station. Yet those born to the privilege of a warrior's training merely laughed at and despised and condescended upon him.



One day he was travelling when a man dropped dead in front of his eyes.



Gorhax knew then he must gather the courage to begin his journey alone. He had heard that an elf in the village of Lovedrills on the western edge of civilization knew of the secrets of life and death. Gathering up all the food he possessed he left his meager farm behind and travelled to Lovedrills.

(Istro Stasisfin would have known that elves are incapable of understanding the higher mysteries of life and death. Had Istro Stasisfin been in the position of Gorhax Fullblows, he would have sought out a great necromancer such as Istro Stasisfist, if Istro Stasisfin had not been dead at the time.)

Gorhax ignored the many interesting activities that must have been going on in a village with the name of Lovedrills and sought out the elf Uberfish Lightpoem the Untoward Balance of Murders. The elf sympathized with his plight, and handed him a book, speaking:

"You wish to know the secrets of life and death. Here, then, is a book that I unjustly robbed from Oilroots the tower of great wisdom, having viciously murdered the great and incomparable Istro Stasisfin in so doing."

"Learn its secrets if that is your chosen path. But know that the power will not bring you happiness."

Gorhax ignored the warning.



He became a necromancer, a master of life and death, no longer needing food, drink or rest.

He travelled to the tower of Oilroots where he knew many corpses were strewn around, having been struck down by the elf, to try his newfound powers.




Here, he made the mistake that would define the rest of his life. He did not go further into the tower in search of the books of Istro Stasisfin. Had he done so, this chapter might be named The Success Of Gorhax Fullblows In Following In The Footsteps Of Istro Stasisfin.

He returned to his village to show off his newfound powers, but immediately found himself unwelcome as he had no control over his pets who mindlessly attacked the civilians:



He was sad at the deaths of the peasants. Or he would have been sad if he was still a peasant himself. Now that he was a necromancer, a higher being, he saw the truth. Peasants were just there to serve mindlessly. On the farm, or part of his army.



He knew what to do. He would travel to the north where the secrets of life and death were unknown and rule there. But first old wrongs had to be redressed.



Crossbowmen were scum and had to die.

He would give the lord one more chance to recognize his worth.



Gorhax Fullblows replied sadly: "You have confirmed your unworthiness. I will now serve the cause of myself, and you will be struck down."



In his travels to the north he was attacked by a variety of strange creatures



But most dangerous were the goblins of the swamp, who brought a small army to block his progress.



A large group of organized warriors was capable of hacking its way through corpses and he had to repeatedly bring them back to life. It was a close thing.



Further in the swamp he was attacked by anaconda men and dingo men, who were pathetic creatures.

As he finally reached the end of the swamp, the goblins came back with a much larger army

His pets scattered in all directions fighting and being killed, and he lost sight of many of them, knowing not if they were dead or alive. He tried to seek them on higher ground.



But was shot by a crossbow.



Most of his zombies were dead and out of sight. All he could do was repeatedly bring back those in sight:



But although they wounded some goblins, the corpses were missing limbs and in such poor fighting condition by now that the goblins were able to dispatch them easily each time and advance on him.



And thus ended the life of Gorhax Fullblows, who paid dearly for his miserable failure to seek out the wisdom of Istro Stasisfin.

[uberfish]

Chapter 2: The Hilarious Fate Of An Unknown Necromancer

One day, a necromancer was crossing a river when he was swept over a waterfall. Fifty zombies were also swept over the waterfall and landed on his head, killing him.

If he had read the book Give Me The Innocent Wheat And Istro Stasisfin, or even its predecessor The Innocent Wheat And Istro Stasisfin, he would have known better.

[pling]

Chapter 2: The Hilarious Fate Of An Unknown Necromancer

One day, a necromancer was crossing a river when he was swept over a waterfall. Fifty zombies were also swept over the waterfall and landed on his head, killing him.

If he had read the book Give Me The Innocent Wheat And Istro Stasisfin, or even its predecessor The Innocent Wheat And Istro Stasisfin, he would have known better.

[uberfish]

Chapter 3: Can Istro Stasisfin Save The World?

Istro Stasisfin had not been dead a year when his goddess The Moist Rose called him to a personal audience.



(Note the were-elephant curse! Perhaps a future adventurer could become a were-elephant?)

"As my first and greatest follower I am sending you back to the mortal world on an important mission. A human lord in the barbaric north is sending adventurers to kill dragons. Dragons are an endangered species and much cooler than humans. You will save the world by punishing the humans."




(note: I moved the slab to the keep of the nearest town to Oilroots necro tower for easier access)

The reborn Istro Stasisfin began by using his power on small creatures.



Zombie cat attack!



Zombie cats and turkey heads are not very effective, they took forever to kill this elf.



Istro Stasisfin learned from the mistakes of Istro Stasisfin in the previous life of Istro Stasisfin and also from the miserable failure of Gorhax Fullblows. Having no skill with weapons or armour got you killed by random adventurers or dying because you had 500 speed in full armour. He spent a while fighting turkeys, cats and civilians in order to train his armour skill to a good level so he could walk around in full armour at high speed.

(Unfortunately some skill grinding seems to be necessary in DF unless you start as a demigod. Armour is too important.)

Istro Stasisfin returned to Oilroots and commanded the zombies there to give him Give Me The Innocent Wheat And Istro Stasisfin and other important books.



He then began his journey to the dragon caves. Unlike the miserable failure Gorhax Fullblows, he gradually upgraded the creatures in his army and abandoned the weaker ones as they died; he started with elves and boars, took rhinos and giant parakeets as they attacked, and finally on reaching the dragon cave resurrected two of the dragons that had been slain by the elf Uberfish Lightpoem.

These more powerful followers were able to defeat goblin attacks.

At the second dragon cave Istro Stasisfin was attacked by a bunch of humans.



Istro Stasisfin personally recommends zombie rhinos:



Inside the lair:



These miserable humans were formerly the followers of Harmless Tipgoose the Tube of Decency, the other dragon slayer. He considered taking the corpse and throwing it in the face of the lord, but then realised it was perfectly capable of walking.



He took the legendary whip with him



Along with the dragon eggs, that one day they might hatch in a safe place.



Goblins sought to stop the progress of Istro Stasisfin several times.



His followers were zombie dragons, zombie rhinos, zombie elephants and a zombie Harmless. The goblins didn't stand a chance.

Harmless was enjoying his new career as a zombie:



Istro Stasisfin crossed the Girlish Bridge. Time seemed to slow in this place for mysterious reasons.

(no idea what's going on, maybe the game generated creatures with broken pathing but the bridge kills my FPS now)



He reached the town of Freesquashes, sneaked into the keep and placed the following objects there.



(IE Necro manual for semi-convenient access)

Then let his creatures loose. Obin Felnastrisp, the lord who had tried to exterminate all dragons, appropriately had his head ripped off by a zombie dragon!



The dragon was still stained with Harmless Tipgoose's blood.



Istro Stasisfin turned the lord into a mindless zombie. This was probably an upgrade to his mental capacities.



It was time to punish the humans! Zombie apocalypse! Yes there are undead guinea fowl and ducks!




The undead rampaged around the walled town, although the dragons ran off somewhere and got lost. When they completed their circuit the market had somehow become repopulated. (I suppose this is just a flaw in how DF handles the multitudes of sites, it's probably just generating new creatures to fill them on the fly.)

There seemed to be no limit to the powers of Istro Stasisfin and he could raise over 400 zombies at once.



Eventually Istro Stasisfin returned to the keep and decided to settle there and begin a reign of terror.

(he hadn't attacked anyone personally so the game let him settle. I'm not sure what happens to the 400+ zombies that were following him... so they might be wandering around or not!)


BTW Harmless' corpse got 12 kills!