Hellraiser
Arcane
The only thing you can do now is sacrifice some virgin dwarves or elven prisoners so that the gods make the volcano erupt and purge the whole place, trapping the daemons beneath basalt, obsidian and other volcanic rock.
-
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Completed I want to be an Urist - A community Dwarf Fortress LP
- Thread starter Krash
- Start date
Krash
Arcane
Well crap. The prisoners of ice are more than we can handle, and they're nothing compared to the demons. Time for an epic larpy end to the fort! I think dwarfkind will be secretly relieved that no more migrants will have to go to die at Virgintraded.
If the fort dies, I'd like the save so I can make a little archeological visit - feels like that would be a good outro
If the fort dies, I'd like the save so I can make a little archeological visit - feels like that would be a good outro
Cassidy
Arcane
Actually, I wanted for them to be able to spawn infinite eyes, mouths and tentacles like the actual shoggoths but that is not possible in the current version of Dwarf Fortress thus I had to limit it to putting a ridiculous number of tentacles and eyes on them.
And I'm not so sure the demons are worse...
Let's say the problem is that with Prisoners of Ice, unlike Forgotten Beasts and other sources of FUN, nobody ever survives to become victims to the syndromes exposure with prisoner of ice blood provokes... and of course, Prisoners of Ice are both immune to syndromes and being shoggoth-like, any fire weaker than a nuclear detonation will be harmless to them and ice... I think I need not even mentioning.
I'm surprised their limbs are so easily detached. If I could add them to the raws exactly as I envisioned, the demons from hell would be the ones being slaughtered right now.
And too bad there is no "climber" tag for monsters, because Prisoners of Ice should easily move vertically although obviously they'd be unable to actually fly.
dextermorgan
Arcane
I hereby request that my avatar be issued a sword and a helmet and released from workshop duties so that he may meet his glorious end in battle against untold horrors, instead of being slain on his stool like a declined sheeple.
Cassidy
Arcane
This thread explains why squats became extinct in Warhammer 40k.
Urist McLurker
Learned
Bad news for you lovers of death, the fortress isn't going to die 
In fact, I suggest we attempt to conquer the underworld.
Here me out..
All of the demons are going up the volcano. In said volcano are prisoners of ice, and at the top of the volcano on our bridge are also many prisoners of ice(not all blacksmiths). Prisoners of ice can't be killed by demons. As far as I can tell, it's simply impossible. They're giving it a good fucking go I can tell you that. It seems like there's maybe 60-70 demons trying to kill 4 or 5 prisoners of ice(whom, ironically, are prisoners of fire now; trapped in the volcano forever), and they simply can't do it. More importantly, it'll give us easily enough time to make the fortress demon-proof so that in 20 or 30 years when they finally give up on the prisoners of ice, they can't get in anyway.
- I was going to actually build a tunnel for the underworld demons to climb directly into the siege of prisoners of ice to do never ending battle with, but the volcano works too. Plus it's more poetic. -
So, the demons are busy trying to kill something that they can't kill, ergo the underworld is left undefended.
We need to make a forward base and barrow right next to the underworld's entrance, prepare the base with everything we'll need, flood the underworld with the underground lagoons that are rather quite close to the floor hatch of hell(so that we may eventually farm and to make a grand entrance), find a way our dwarves can get down into the underworld and build a bunker in hell, populate said bunker, and expand it into a settlement, train up a military good enough to protect our dwarves from any minor demons that might trouble us, and do whatever the fuck we deem worthy to turn hell into. I suggest we eventually build the codex troll out of ice.
I'm not saying it will work, just that it looks completely possible and in the past years not much have been happening, so we might as well die trying to conquer the underworld rather than wait until the demons somehow get past the prisoners of ice.
In fact, I suggest we attempt to conquer the underworld.
Here me out..
All of the demons are going up the volcano. In said volcano are prisoners of ice, and at the top of the volcano on our bridge are also many prisoners of ice(not all blacksmiths). Prisoners of ice can't be killed by demons. As far as I can tell, it's simply impossible. They're giving it a good fucking go I can tell you that. It seems like there's maybe 60-70 demons trying to kill 4 or 5 prisoners of ice(whom, ironically, are prisoners of fire now; trapped in the volcano forever), and they simply can't do it. More importantly, it'll give us easily enough time to make the fortress demon-proof so that in 20 or 30 years when they finally give up on the prisoners of ice, they can't get in anyway.
- I was going to actually build a tunnel for the underworld demons to climb directly into the siege of prisoners of ice to do never ending battle with, but the volcano works too. Plus it's more poetic. -
So, the demons are busy trying to kill something that they can't kill, ergo the underworld is left undefended.
We need to make a forward base and barrow right next to the underworld's entrance, prepare the base with everything we'll need, flood the underworld with the underground lagoons that are rather quite close to the floor hatch of hell(so that we may eventually farm and to make a grand entrance), find a way our dwarves can get down into the underworld and build a bunker in hell, populate said bunker, and expand it into a settlement, train up a military good enough to protect our dwarves from any minor demons that might trouble us, and do whatever the fuck we deem worthy to turn hell into. I suggest we eventually build the codex troll out of ice.
I'm not saying it will work, just that it looks completely possible and in the past years not much have been happening, so we might as well die trying to conquer the underworld rather than wait until the demons somehow get past the prisoners of ice.
Hellraiser
Arcane
That's insane, even more so than a volcano fortress in the icy middle of nowhere! But it's also very dwarven! To the underworld! The flame of the dwarven socialist revolution knows no boundaries, even daemons shall embrace the dwarven ploretariat utopia!
Cassidy
Arcane
Someone already did it in bay12 forums but it was done without prisoners of ice. And there is one more surprise but I think they will only start appearing very late as I replaced Ogres with this surprise and compared to trolls they are much rarer in sieges.
Urist McLurker
Learned
If I recall correctly, Thataussieguy did it with a checkerboard of marble and obsidian, casting the demons into chess/checker pieces, then proceeded to turn hell into a beach resort before dying, and then doing it all over again. I think I mentioned him on like, page 8 or 9.
The idea that you have put something in here that's even more dangerous than these prisoners of ice is both horrifying and exciting.
ironyuri
Guest
Urist McLurker
Learned
Work has completely swamped me recently, but rest assured update shall come, although it'll be sometime next week I'm afraid.
Krash
Arcane
*cough*
Urist McLurker
Learned
"Free beer tomorrow."
Next weekend is the next free time I have. It's on the calender and everything.
Cassidy
Arcane
You should change your nick to Urist McStereotypicalVillain
Although the blame is also on me for adding so much Prisoner of Ice to this thread
Krash
Arcane
You should be spanked, all of you
Nyarmith
Educated
So, yeah. Anything else we can do? New fort or continuation of this?
Cassidy
Arcane
I bring closure to this thread. Because Urist McStereotypical Villain never sent a saved game, I played the fortress in the hopes of causing a major battle between Prisoners of Ice and demons, but it didn't work exactly as I hoped it would because of stupid pathing of demons and a magma crab slaughtering the only one that made its way up through the volcano to face the Prisoners of Ice. In any case:
=========================================================
In search of the Land of Gold and Ice
Song
Countless died through the stony and frosty road towards what was accounted as unlimited wealth. Virgintraded, one year after its collapse, already became a legend. The world was decaying, the larger human towns, even in the far south, becoming almost abandoned as a great cataclysm only intensified after the end of that legendary fortress, and the remaining dwarfs in many cases sealing completely surface access to their mountainhomes. People began to disappear in those larger towns, and the tales are frightening. Cults to "Great Old Ones" performing mass human sacrifices, tentacles lashing out of the sewers and dragging unfortunate victims in pieces.
And yet, as the age of the humans and dwarves was ending and the age of the Great Old Ones, whatever they are, was nigh, people still were driven by the tales of the lost fortress and its immense wealth in gold... and an even more valuable metal than gold. The cautionary tales on how Virgintraded was seized by the Great Old Ones from inside, on how their denizens worshipped those who will bring the end of all races in the world in the hopes of being eaten first.
Of how even the most fearsome creatures were casted into the eternal fires and aghast, unable to fight back against the infinite might of the Eldritch horrors to whom such massive beasts and all other enemies of Virgintraded were sacrificed.
Yet, nothing in Virgintraded was more legendary than the battle axe their militia commander used, although the chances of it still being inside the fortress were slim, because of what the tales claim to have happened.
A pandemonium was unleashed over Virgintraded, but they still conducted trade for one more year after the incident. They managed to seal the demonic infestation at first, and continued on that fortress pretending that such terrors didn't exist and that they were safe. It is not known what exactly caused Virgintraded to be forsaken, only that the last survivors evacuated the fortress towards an uncertain and dangerous future as they headed on south, apparently determined to establish a new fortress in a safer area, as if there could be any safer area now that every day, more and more towns almost, when not fully disappear, ending with a minuscle population over such ghost towns that usually is extremely unfriendly to outsiders, and refused to give any answers to what really happened to the countless missing.
S.V. Sanaspecut was one of many adventurers who embarked on the longest journey from the far south to the far north, but first, all of them tried their chances against bandits and other less dangerous threats than whatever could lurk over the ruins of the Land of Gold and Ice.
The motivation behind his adventure however is ugly. What drove this man to such a dangerous adventure was more than the lure of wealth and some of the most powerful weapons in the world. His birthplace has become a mausoleum, a ghost town, where most survivors remain most of the time with their houses and doors bolted shut, and those who don't are strange, deranged and hostile people with visible deformities yet not history of inbreeding. There is a much greater shadow over this town now than over Virgintraded, and the fearful whispers talk of Deep Goblins living among the degenerates, and even of reviled intercourse between deep goblins and humans as part of a sick initiation step to the Esoteric Order of Dagonag'II, the epicenter of the depopulation horrors that afflicted this once proud and bustling town.
Stereotypical Villain, fearing the denizens of the surface, found a mistaken safety in the long dried and forsaken canals beneath, only to be spotted in his skulking by another creature of the deeps, that unlike the others, now only skeletons because of the lack of water, was still alive. He fought well, but eventually, in a great mistake, SV allowed himself to be surrounded, and thus, his journey ended before it could even start.
But SV was far from the first or last to try reaching Virgintraded.
Ultimately, the truth was singular:
Unlike Stereotypical Villainess, SV died a cisgendered white male because he forgot to check his privilege
Stereotypical Villainess found an abandoned warehouse in one of those ghost towns along her(or is "her" actually a him?) way, packed with copper armor, which was better than none. Considering that the owners were dead, or worse, she decided to remove useful gear from that inventory, which was boring like hell because of the total lack of organization of the inventories, and took longer than it would otherwise. And thus, ready, she entered into a temple in the center of the town, where a priest, who didn't notice her sneaking around, particularly because he was concentrated in his "Ia Dagon, Ia Hydra, Ia Cthulhu!" chant, and stood next to a shrine with a statue of a winged demon with the head of an octopus, which gave her shivers, making her feel extremely unsettled from merely looking at it.
And thus, from the temple she made her way into the catacombs, where criminal gangs were said to be hiding, and to pack lots of valuables, including iron weapons and armor. Being at one with the shadows, Stereotypical Villainess slaughtered them silently with an axe, because there is nothing more AWESOME than a stealth kill with an Axe. Daggers are for pussies and self-hatingtrannies women brainwashed into misoginy. Major leaders of criminal organizations had their heads rolling ,and then the Villainess realized they had almost hidden amphibian features, exactly like the Deep Goblins.
This town was just wrong, and upon finding a clothing shop, the wrongness would become even clearer.
A "friendly" Deep Goblin was the one who explained to the Villainess how to reach the legendary Virgintraded. Something was really fishy in this town. To add to the creepiness, the shop had something sticky and completely alien being weaved into cloth by the twisted goblin, something the axewoman decided it would be wiser to not ask questions about after the Deep Goblin mentioned it was the nervous tissue from a Prisoner of Ice.
She was tired though, and thus, before departing, she looked for an abandoned house to sleep at. The next day, she sneaked inside that clothing shop, and barely held herself quiet after seeing how one of the human shopkeepers was doing, and what the others were saying:
"Elder Gods, we offer you this sacrifice! IA DAGON! IA HYDRA!"
The Villainess sneaked away, but she glimpsed a horribly mutilated corpse over a symbol write in blood. Better to make the journey onwards and never return to this cursed town again. And it is one of the few major towns of humanity. Could this mean... that humanity has been completely subjugated by the Great Old Ones already, and now only the dwarves futilely resist?
The journey was long, and lonely. To keep boogeyman away, the warrior lady surrounded herself with campfires before sleeping, and that trick worked.
As the farthest northern reaches of the world were found, gold became more commonly witnessed over the walls. If there was gold even on the surface in a far more hospitable land...
Oh... not having to use coal because of magma, of course!
There was still a long way north. Fortunately the warehouse in that forsaken town was full of food, and from rivers and wells, the Villainess filled parts of her backpack with water. Many things could kill this brave adventurer, but starvation and dehydration fortunately weren't among them.
Eventually, luck ran out, and now, to continue on the way north, the axewoman would have to sneak through a vile land with wiggling worms and wicked plants with eyes gazing over all who cross their way all around. The only good news was that, in spite of being completely twisted, that region apparently had neither undead or wicked weather. And so, through vile lands she walked, until reaching the eternal glaciers, and crossing through a frozen ocean, in a land of eternal blizzards and freezing cold where the sun could never be seen amidst such a harsh weather. Eventually, at last:
The outskirts of Virgintraded itself! Items were spread all over the place, probably because of deep goblins. This could be a very dangerous, but already a great step, for Stereotypical Villainess was the first adventurer to go this far.
Old and sad bones of the fallen dwarves could be seen sticking out of the snow. A warning to the dangers of this place. Yet, when "civilized" towns are host to gruesome human sacrifices, is there any safety?
Later, the confirmation arrived that this is indeed the legendary Virgintraded. It was then that the Villainess decided to look for alternate entrances first, because if there is one thing dwarf fortress never lack, it is deadly traps in their main entrances.
She found something, but it was walled off. That could be an older entrance to Virgintraded that was blocked in favor of the new one through the mouth of the Volcano. There were some engravings on a wall, none particularly interesting.
After some disorientation from the heavy blizzard, she finally found another way inside: a flight of stairs that seemed to go a very, very long way down.
Tired of the horrors, The Villainess decided to fight back. The Deep Goblin, staying on those stairs that seemed to never reach an end, had no chance against her surprise attack.
Suddenly, her heart froze.
And without further thought, she ran upstairs as fast as she could, not looking back.
Fortunately, being a Legendary master of the shadows and of ice of course, the Villainess managed to evade whatever monstrosity tried to crush her and its webs, and once again was in the safety of darkness. With little hope, she looked for another way in.
Curiously, she found it behind the main entrance. Was it a back door or an escape tunnel hastily dug by the last remaining survivors to get the hell out of here while there was time? She wasn't sure, but she suspected that the legendary axe built in here could no longer be around, but instead brought with the militia commander when they abandoned it. Over the icy and stony walls, glimpses of History survived:
They resisted for years against the horrors, but eventually, they collapsed.
Finally the first hint of how truthful the legends were. Doors were forged in solid gold, a truly amazing sight even in this forsaken land and fort.
To the west, there was something that appeared to be an armory, and there, the Villainess found a Deep Goblin. One more down.
Inside the armory, a legendary artifact stood. It was too small to fit for her, but she knew its value, and decided to bring it with her for trading it later, if there is a remnant of civilization once she returns.
Through some fortifications, the axewoman realized that had she tried to reach Virgintraded through the main entrance, it would have been a waste of time, for, either to keep those even more mythical and horrifying Prisoners of Ice away, or because of the demons, the entrance was buried under countless urists of stone.
The trip was long, and wading through the blizzard exhausting. Having no other choice, the Villainess found a relatively safe bedroom to sleep at. When she woke up, she felt something crawling under her skin. Taking no risks, the Villainess blended into the shadows like a master thief.
Fortunately, the massive beast was lacking in eyesight and perception, and the axewoman gave her best shot.
It was a long and bloody struggle, with many close moments where she barely dodged the horrific things the monster expelled, but eventually, with her masterful agility, she inflicted so many cuts on the creature with her axe that it bled to death.
A new legend was born today, the legend of Stereotypical Villlainess.
The engravings were macabre, specially those about the founder of Virgintraded. It is clear many tragedies happened in this place.
The only question is: why is a engraving about a dwarf raising a coffin called "The Gaze of Wheat"? Is there something wicked behind dwarf wheat? Something monstrous? Something chimeric wheat?
Along the way, more trouble:
Better to not take any chances against a demon made of milk opal.
Yet, to not exact revenge on the destroyers of humanity would be cowardice.
It must be the freezing weather, but there was still food in edible condition in what appeared to be the food storage of Virgintraded... dishes of exceptional flavor and quality, much better than the raw dingo meat Stereotypical Villainess had to endure.
By Armok! While checking the food barrels, the woman forgot to check her surroundings for a terrible demon of Papa Nursperger that found her hiding spot! RUN!
That was close like... very close.
But it is possible to avoid combat in Dwarf Fortress.
In one of the battles against the abominations of the Great Old Ones, Stereotypical Villainess discovered a macabre detail of the anatomy of the things: They have a head inside their torso! What the?
Eventually, she made her way through the infamous sacrificial chamber and mausoleum, and considering the name in that golden sarcophagus and its position, this Jacob must have been the creator of this wicked chamber. The layout of this chamber was almost hypnotic. Statues depicting horrific things and events were all around, and on the bottom, a pool of magma where the unfortunate prisoners of Virgintraded met their demise.
Somehow, a horse was still alive amidst Deep Goblins and terrible demons. The horse had a plate with the name Andyman Messiah in it. Further down, the Villainess carefully made her way through the shadows.
And eventually, found the legendary metal and some weapons forged with it. This will be worth a fortune, and perhaps, perhaps, only this Adamantine could be capable of defeating the Prisoners of Ice.
After searching deep into the adamantine veins, and realizing that apparently, upon breaching the realm of demons, the Dwarves dug veins around the breaches to continue mining adamantine without risking another demonic infestation, the Villainess found herself ready to get the hell out of this cursed place. Upon going back through the long way up to that escape tunnel near the armory, she entered in the same room she slept at before, and checked again what she managed to find of immense worth:
"I AM RICH! HAHAHA!" she cheered upon counting the adamantine she was carrying, plus that artifact armor too small to fit for her but still valuable. Yet, she was cold, freezing actually, and thus, she decided she wanted to heat herself a bit before heading outside through the unforgiving blizzard of this frozen land, in search of a bastion of civilization untainted by the Great Old Ones.
Stereotypical Villainess thus was securing her future, for now, and emerging as a successful adventurer, against all odds. As she prepared the campfire, she knew she did it, and was extremely happy about surviving and making her way back with so much wealth and powerful weapons.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
OR PERHAPS NOT
THE END
=========================================================
In search of the Land of Gold and Ice
Song
Countless died through the stony and frosty road towards what was accounted as unlimited wealth. Virgintraded, one year after its collapse, already became a legend. The world was decaying, the larger human towns, even in the far south, becoming almost abandoned as a great cataclysm only intensified after the end of that legendary fortress, and the remaining dwarfs in many cases sealing completely surface access to their mountainhomes. People began to disappear in those larger towns, and the tales are frightening. Cults to "Great Old Ones" performing mass human sacrifices, tentacles lashing out of the sewers and dragging unfortunate victims in pieces.
And yet, as the age of the humans and dwarves was ending and the age of the Great Old Ones, whatever they are, was nigh, people still were driven by the tales of the lost fortress and its immense wealth in gold... and an even more valuable metal than gold. The cautionary tales on how Virgintraded was seized by the Great Old Ones from inside, on how their denizens worshipped those who will bring the end of all races in the world in the hopes of being eaten first.
Of how even the most fearsome creatures were casted into the eternal fires and aghast, unable to fight back against the infinite might of the Eldritch horrors to whom such massive beasts and all other enemies of Virgintraded were sacrificed.
Yet, nothing in Virgintraded was more legendary than the battle axe their militia commander used, although the chances of it still being inside the fortress were slim, because of what the tales claim to have happened.
A pandemonium was unleashed over Virgintraded, but they still conducted trade for one more year after the incident. They managed to seal the demonic infestation at first, and continued on that fortress pretending that such terrors didn't exist and that they were safe. It is not known what exactly caused Virgintraded to be forsaken, only that the last survivors evacuated the fortress towards an uncertain and dangerous future as they headed on south, apparently determined to establish a new fortress in a safer area, as if there could be any safer area now that every day, more and more towns almost, when not fully disappear, ending with a minuscle population over such ghost towns that usually is extremely unfriendly to outsiders, and refused to give any answers to what really happened to the countless missing.
S.V. Sanaspecut was one of many adventurers who embarked on the longest journey from the far south to the far north, but first, all of them tried their chances against bandits and other less dangerous threats than whatever could lurk over the ruins of the Land of Gold and Ice.
The motivation behind his adventure however is ugly. What drove this man to such a dangerous adventure was more than the lure of wealth and some of the most powerful weapons in the world. His birthplace has become a mausoleum, a ghost town, where most survivors remain most of the time with their houses and doors bolted shut, and those who don't are strange, deranged and hostile people with visible deformities yet not history of inbreeding. There is a much greater shadow over this town now than over Virgintraded, and the fearful whispers talk of Deep Goblins living among the degenerates, and even of reviled intercourse between deep goblins and humans as part of a sick initiation step to the Esoteric Order of Dagonag'II, the epicenter of the depopulation horrors that afflicted this once proud and bustling town.
Stereotypical Villain, fearing the denizens of the surface, found a mistaken safety in the long dried and forsaken canals beneath, only to be spotted in his skulking by another creature of the deeps, that unlike the others, now only skeletons because of the lack of water, was still alive. He fought well, but eventually, in a great mistake, SV allowed himself to be surrounded, and thus, his journey ended before it could even start.
But SV was far from the first or last to try reaching Virgintraded.
Ultimately, the truth was singular:
Unlike Stereotypical Villainess, SV died a cisgendered white male because he forgot to check his privilege
Stereotypical Villainess found an abandoned warehouse in one of those ghost towns along her(or is "her" actually a him?) way, packed with copper armor, which was better than none. Considering that the owners were dead, or worse, she decided to remove useful gear from that inventory, which was boring like hell because of the total lack of organization of the inventories, and took longer than it would otherwise. And thus, ready, she entered into a temple in the center of the town, where a priest, who didn't notice her sneaking around, particularly because he was concentrated in his "Ia Dagon, Ia Hydra, Ia Cthulhu!" chant, and stood next to a shrine with a statue of a winged demon with the head of an octopus, which gave her shivers, making her feel extremely unsettled from merely looking at it.
And thus, from the temple she made her way into the catacombs, where criminal gangs were said to be hiding, and to pack lots of valuables, including iron weapons and armor. Being at one with the shadows, Stereotypical Villainess slaughtered them silently with an axe, because there is nothing more AWESOME than a stealth kill with an Axe. Daggers are for pussies and self-hating
This town was just wrong, and upon finding a clothing shop, the wrongness would become even clearer.
A "friendly" Deep Goblin was the one who explained to the Villainess how to reach the legendary Virgintraded. Something was really fishy in this town. To add to the creepiness, the shop had something sticky and completely alien being weaved into cloth by the twisted goblin, something the axewoman decided it would be wiser to not ask questions about after the Deep Goblin mentioned it was the nervous tissue from a Prisoner of Ice.
She was tired though, and thus, before departing, she looked for an abandoned house to sleep at. The next day, she sneaked inside that clothing shop, and barely held herself quiet after seeing how one of the human shopkeepers was doing, and what the others were saying:
"Elder Gods, we offer you this sacrifice! IA DAGON! IA HYDRA!"
The Villainess sneaked away, but she glimpsed a horribly mutilated corpse over a symbol write in blood. Better to make the journey onwards and never return to this cursed town again. And it is one of the few major towns of humanity. Could this mean... that humanity has been completely subjugated by the Great Old Ones already, and now only the dwarves futilely resist?
The journey was long, and lonely. To keep boogeyman away, the warrior lady surrounded herself with campfires before sleeping, and that trick worked.
As the farthest northern reaches of the world were found, gold became more commonly witnessed over the walls. If there was gold even on the surface in a far more hospitable land...
Oh... not having to use coal because of magma, of course!
There was still a long way north. Fortunately the warehouse in that forsaken town was full of food, and from rivers and wells, the Villainess filled parts of her backpack with water. Many things could kill this brave adventurer, but starvation and dehydration fortunately weren't among them.
Eventually, luck ran out, and now, to continue on the way north, the axewoman would have to sneak through a vile land with wiggling worms and wicked plants with eyes gazing over all who cross their way all around. The only good news was that, in spite of being completely twisted, that region apparently had neither undead or wicked weather. And so, through vile lands she walked, until reaching the eternal glaciers, and crossing through a frozen ocean, in a land of eternal blizzards and freezing cold where the sun could never be seen amidst such a harsh weather. Eventually, at last:
The outskirts of Virgintraded itself! Items were spread all over the place, probably because of deep goblins. This could be a very dangerous, but already a great step, for Stereotypical Villainess was the first adventurer to go this far.
Old and sad bones of the fallen dwarves could be seen sticking out of the snow. A warning to the dangers of this place. Yet, when "civilized" towns are host to gruesome human sacrifices, is there any safety?
Later, the confirmation arrived that this is indeed the legendary Virgintraded. It was then that the Villainess decided to look for alternate entrances first, because if there is one thing dwarf fortress never lack, it is deadly traps in their main entrances.
She found something, but it was walled off. That could be an older entrance to Virgintraded that was blocked in favor of the new one through the mouth of the Volcano. There were some engravings on a wall, none particularly interesting.
After some disorientation from the heavy blizzard, she finally found another way inside: a flight of stairs that seemed to go a very, very long way down.
Tired of the horrors, The Villainess decided to fight back. The Deep Goblin, staying on those stairs that seemed to never reach an end, had no chance against her surprise attack.
Suddenly, her heart froze.
And without further thought, she ran upstairs as fast as she could, not looking back.
Fortunately, being a Legendary master of the shadows and of ice of course, the Villainess managed to evade whatever monstrosity tried to crush her and its webs, and once again was in the safety of darkness. With little hope, she looked for another way in.
Curiously, she found it behind the main entrance. Was it a back door or an escape tunnel hastily dug by the last remaining survivors to get the hell out of here while there was time? She wasn't sure, but she suspected that the legendary axe built in here could no longer be around, but instead brought with the militia commander when they abandoned it. Over the icy and stony walls, glimpses of History survived:
They resisted for years against the horrors, but eventually, they collapsed.
Finally the first hint of how truthful the legends were. Doors were forged in solid gold, a truly amazing sight even in this forsaken land and fort.
To the west, there was something that appeared to be an armory, and there, the Villainess found a Deep Goblin. One more down.
Inside the armory, a legendary artifact stood. It was too small to fit for her, but she knew its value, and decided to bring it with her for trading it later, if there is a remnant of civilization once she returns.
Through some fortifications, the axewoman realized that had she tried to reach Virgintraded through the main entrance, it would have been a waste of time, for, either to keep those even more mythical and horrifying Prisoners of Ice away, or because of the demons, the entrance was buried under countless urists of stone.
The trip was long, and wading through the blizzard exhausting. Having no other choice, the Villainess found a relatively safe bedroom to sleep at. When she woke up, she felt something crawling under her skin. Taking no risks, the Villainess blended into the shadows like a master thief.
Fortunately, the massive beast was lacking in eyesight and perception, and the axewoman gave her best shot.
It was a long and bloody struggle, with many close moments where she barely dodged the horrific things the monster expelled, but eventually, with her masterful agility, she inflicted so many cuts on the creature with her axe that it bled to death.
A new legend was born today, the legend of Stereotypical Villlainess.
The engravings were macabre, specially those about the founder of Virgintraded. It is clear many tragedies happened in this place.
The only question is: why is a engraving about a dwarf raising a coffin called "The Gaze of Wheat"? Is there something wicked behind dwarf wheat? Something monstrous? Something chimeric wheat?
Along the way, more trouble:
Better to not take any chances against a demon made of milk opal.
Yet, to not exact revenge on the destroyers of humanity would be cowardice.
It must be the freezing weather, but there was still food in edible condition in what appeared to be the food storage of Virgintraded... dishes of exceptional flavor and quality, much better than the raw dingo meat Stereotypical Villainess had to endure.
By Armok! While checking the food barrels, the woman forgot to check her surroundings for a terrible demon of Papa Nursperger that found her hiding spot! RUN!
That was close like... very close.
But it is possible to avoid combat in Dwarf Fortress.
In one of the battles against the abominations of the Great Old Ones, Stereotypical Villainess discovered a macabre detail of the anatomy of the things: They have a head inside their torso! What the?
Eventually, she made her way through the infamous sacrificial chamber and mausoleum, and considering the name in that golden sarcophagus and its position, this Jacob must have been the creator of this wicked chamber. The layout of this chamber was almost hypnotic. Statues depicting horrific things and events were all around, and on the bottom, a pool of magma where the unfortunate prisoners of Virgintraded met their demise.
Somehow, a horse was still alive amidst Deep Goblins and terrible demons. The horse had a plate with the name Andyman Messiah in it. Further down, the Villainess carefully made her way through the shadows.
And eventually, found the legendary metal and some weapons forged with it. This will be worth a fortune, and perhaps, perhaps, only this Adamantine could be capable of defeating the Prisoners of Ice.
After searching deep into the adamantine veins, and realizing that apparently, upon breaching the realm of demons, the Dwarves dug veins around the breaches to continue mining adamantine without risking another demonic infestation, the Villainess found herself ready to get the hell out of this cursed place. Upon going back through the long way up to that escape tunnel near the armory, she entered in the same room she slept at before, and checked again what she managed to find of immense worth:
"I AM RICH! HAHAHA!" she cheered upon counting the adamantine she was carrying, plus that artifact armor too small to fit for her but still valuable. Yet, she was cold, freezing actually, and thus, she decided she wanted to heat herself a bit before heading outside through the unforgiving blizzard of this frozen land, in search of a bastion of civilization untainted by the Great Old Ones.
Stereotypical Villainess thus was securing her future, for now, and emerging as a successful adventurer, against all odds. As she prepared the campfire, she knew she did it, and was extremely happy about surviving and making her way back with so much wealth and powerful weapons.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
OR PERHAPS NOT
THE END
Hellraiser
Arcane
Forever a prisoner of ice.
Yeesh
Magister
The word 'epic' is tossed around a lot these days, but this tale of woe was so very truly just that.
Hellraiser
Arcane
Krash
Arcane
Nice, thought this was a goner. Updated OP
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