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

[mostly_harmless]

Harmless "Beerjewels" Onafcobim, set out to bring home Harmless Girlishbridge.

Same starting stats. A Lasher. Setting out from Creamslength.

So the path is set. North east to Breechesspring, then crossing the Harmless Strait.

And I was wrong about my lands not having those amazing sites. Not as deep, but pretty impressive as well:


I will definitely use the bridge here!

Sneaking and barn owl hunting I make my way to Knifesilver where I spent the night.

[mostly_harmless]

The second day of my journey brings me to Breechesspring, where people are worried about Harmless Girlishbridge's long absence.
I promise them, I will try to find him!

I spent the day improving my explorer skills, mainly sneaking and swimming my way here. And hunting down some animals.

Tomorrow I will cross the Harmless Strait and try to make it to the lone settlement on the other side for the night!

All goes well. No weird creatures and in the early afternoon I reach Abyssround. The rest of the day I spend practising my swimming in the nearby stream, which the villagers ensure me is quite safe.

Harmless Girlishbridge pass through here as well. He told the villagers that he wanted to explore a river system to the far south east.

[mostly_harmless]

The next morning I follow the directions given by the villagers and head straight south to more populated areas.

I see strange creatures, tick-men, Giant Ticks, Giant Lice, louse-men, thrips-men, Giant Thrips, Giant Grasshoppers, a flock of Giant Parakeets. But I leave them alone.

I am actually relieved entering an area where mostly rhinos graze. Those I can easily sneak around.

I pass the fortress of Pathwondered, through the town of Blockfaint and spend the night in Rushgear.

I am running low on provisions, so I will have to make a detour to the beach to get some crab meat. before heading inland.

[uberfish]

I will definitely use the bridge here!

well it IS your name

[mostly_harmless]

I stock up on crab meat and continue south easterly.
People have vaguely heard about an explorer passing through this lands, but I get the impression, I am taking a more southerly route here.
Here some nice artwork I find during my brief visits in hamlets and fortresses:

It is raining a lot today and the clouds hang low, impairing visibility. Furthermore I ran through thick forests, bumping into trees a lot, further slowing me down.

But then I see Elephants! Mighty beast. Feared by the dwarves more than underground megabeasts!


Ah, yes. And I see elves living with the humans in their villages.

Finally I make it to the hamlet of Slipurns. The people here remember the one legged, one armed explorer who wanted to see the canyons. All they know is that he went due east from here, some weeks ago.

As the sun sets, I decide to call it a day, and continue onwards tomorrow.

[mostly_harmless]

Early on the fifth day of my journey, I stand at the edge of that magnificent waterfall and can see Harmless Girlishbridge's mutilated corpse right underneath the torrent of water. Getting hammered over and over again.


The tragic thing is, that there was a bridge across that river just a few hundred meters back. He must have missed it.
Now, how to get down there. I can either follow the main river downstream or upstream finding a suitable place to get into the water. From the rough local map I have, I think I will try the upstream option first.

I have to keep in mind that I will have to swim the distance and back again with a corpse and items. So better hope it is not too far away and have a sharp look out for beasts in the water.

I have perfected my sneaking to the point, where I can sneak-swim. Although if the river is too narrow, that's not much help.

...
Found a place. Not too far away. But I can see carp and milkfish swimming in the river here. Surely they are harmless, right?

To be safe, I begin sneak swimming, bypass some of the fish with no problem, then see an Alligator further down teh stream and get promptly spotted by a swarm of milkfish, that blow my cover!
I quickly swim back to a corner of the canyon and try again my sneak swimming. I am not sure how well I would fare against an alligator in the water!


That's me swimming northwards. There is the alligator at the bend and the watchful milkfish in between.

I don't know, I don't know. It took me 5 days to come here. Should I risk this? Maybe I can climb back out of the river, get on top of that cliff and throw stones at the alligator first?
Yes, lets try this.

I find the cliff overlooking that river bend, and there are actually two alligators!
I collect stones, and even go through the process of knapping, giving them a sharp edge, hoping they will inflict more damage this way. Needless to say, my throwing skills are non existent!
So after sharpening and throwing a hundred stones, I have maybe landed 10 hits. The majority on the alligator I was NOT aiming for! Doh. At this rate, I will block the canyons with small stones!

Lets keep this up, though. The day is still young and I might get a lucky hit.

[mostly_harmless]

This is not going anywhere. I have some temporary luck with one of the alligators passing out for a short moment due to a smashed open toe. But that's it.

When I go back to the place where I can safely wade into the river, there are three more alligators!

Well, I lure one out on land and kill it. Then I sneak my way into the river and swim.
A huge risk, but I pass unseen the two alligators and a swarm of fish a stingray and when I reach the river bend where I threw my stones, the alligators are gone.

Hmmm, so I swim to Girlishbridge's body and grab what I think is needed:


I leave his backpack and the gems and his armour and clothes where they are. I am already overloaded with his corpse.

Now lets swim carefully back and hope the alligators have not shifted their position.

...

Damn!

[mostly_harmless]

I make it. Phew!

I leave my onw whip and dagger at the top of the waterfall, indicating the spot where Girlishbridge fell. His whip and knife are to be my weapons now. I also wear his earring.

I am quite slow, carrying his heavy corpse around. So I try his crutch as a kind of support / walking stick.

It is slow going.

....

It takes me more almost three full days until I reach the coast again.
Here I can finally safely replenish my food supplies with albatross meat.
I also spot a pack of lions for the first time!

And this is what happens, when you climb a slope without carefully checking what await on top:


I had a few close encounters already, but this time I must have stumbled into the rhino head on. I am lucks though, and survive!

As night falls I reach Abyssround. Another close one. I am still miscalculating how slow I am with the his corpse. Beign caught in the wilderness at night by bogeymen would be a disaster now.

In the end I make it to Breechesspring. I put Harmless Girlishbridge down with his crutch in the same house where he had his stack of souvenirs and treasure.

It took me 9 days to complete the journey.

My clothes start to get tattered a bit but I acquired a nice skillset. My sneaking skills are legendary to the point where I can move into a flock of albatrosses, kill one, butcher it and sneak away without alarming the other birds!

I will retire here in Breechesspring for a while.

mh

[uberfish]

This isn't even reading like a fantasy game anymore, more of a crazy safari exploration adventure!

[mostly_harmless]

In memory of Harmless Girlishbridge, the first to swim the Harmless Strait and venture eastwards, the dwarves of The Oars of Channeling have begun an epic project:

Under scorching temperatures with hardly any source of fresh water, wood or stone the starting crew of 7 dwarves labours onwards. Jaguars and leopards roam the wilds and rotten albatross and crab corpses can be found everywhere.

mh