I just saw Markus walking down the halls with the most serene look on his face. It's as if he doesn't even register what's going on anymore. I had him and all the other handless soldiers de-drafted because they just sat around screaming about how they couldn't get their equipment.

Honestly, I don't blame him for getting a drink.



Yet more recruits rush in, yet more recruits get disemboweled and beheaded.



Great, something in the main hallway's rotting. I can't tell if it's a corpse or food, but it stinks so badly my beard is curling.



The killing just doesn't stop. They're marching to their deaths like lemmings.



One in particular struck with me. A child walked in with a huge smile on his face, and strolled right up to the demon with her arms open wide.



I guess she lost her mind from facing the end.



I almost can't even bring myself to care about the deaths anymore. They're just faceless dwarves marching into oblivion.

...Markus just walked past me again. He was heading for the bar with a knife tied to his arm stump.



He's just standing there, staring at her. She's not even moving. I think she's confused by a dwarf that's not running at her, or away from her.

He still looks so calm. How can he look so calm?

She's running at him now. He's smiling.



I guess he's at peace, now.

I think we all will be soon.



She's come out of the bar for the first time in days, and she's coming in hot. Dust spewing everywhere, fangs and talons ripping.



Some of the few dwarves left standing tried to stop her, but she was barely even slowed. She's running towards the last dwarves left standing in Gemclod, the only ones between her and us cripples...

...she's stopped? They're not dead?



Holy shit, is that Charlie72? In ARMOR? With another dwarf helping him? ALSO IN ARMOR!?



They have ACTUAL WEAPONS?



They're killing her! They're actually killing her!

They've collapsed from the dust, but she's fallen to the ground too. She's spewing blood from her severed leg and screaming, but she's getting sluggish...



...she's stopped moving.



Slitheredlow has been killed.

I'm alive.

We're alive.

Hahaha.

Hahehahahahehe.

AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

WELCOME TO FUCKING GEMCLOD! WE'RE SO RETARDED WE CAN'T EVEN DIE RIGHT!



Her death throes and last spewed gouts of dust made a good number of dwarves give up the ghost, though.



But fuck em! WE'RE ALIVE! SHE'S DEAD! WHO WANTS TO FUCKING PARTY!?



Oh.



Oh crap. Looking at this list, we have 25 dwarves who are either crippled, unable to hold objects, or paralyzed and possibly about to bleed out or choke to death. My two bed-carriers Spermy Smurf and Skanky Burns, Yeol, and Magil Zeal are the only able-bodied dwarves left alive in Gemclod, but Skanky and Smurf are the only ones who can do anything because Yeol's sealed in her chamber and Magil barely knows how to talk.

Well, shit.










markus_cz wrote :-



His life was a failure. Whatever he did, failed. A great Architect? Hah! He had thought he might do well back in Frogtrampled and how did it end? Four dozens dwarves eaten, four dozens children kidnapped, seven refugees. "Gemclod would be better!" Certainly. And then he struck the ground in a greenskins' marsh. Of malodours. Enzer died because of him. And Pozzo. And Leperfish.



Gemclod, the last bastion of the Famous Palisade. He tried to make the place safe. Failed. Didn't stop pretending, though. How many others did he lure out to the false hope of Gemclod? Hundreds? Blood on his hands.



It became clear Gemclod would fall. No other way. He could not save the dwarves so he tried at least to protect the hollow fortress. The shell of Gemclod, the Hall, the engravings, the artifacts. Not to fall in enemies hands. He had a plan. Failed, of course. Now it was too late to pull the lever. The pumps weren't ready, and nobody to repair them.



Then everyone whom he had lured into the trap of Gemclod started dying, one after another. It was not in his power to save all, but he could at least save some. He took some refugees, mainly children, and led them to the undercaves. To start anew. Instead he made a mistake when designing a well and drowned them all. There was a Flaw in the Design.



Yet he lived. When the bodies started piling up, he tried to take care of them. Protect them. House them in memorial halls and a necropolis. The least he could do. A way of apology. Not a difficult task. Still he failed.



Now the fortress was full of blood, of guts, of death, of rubble. Getting destroyed. Bodies lay everywhere and he was the gravekeeper. His duty to provide for them. And he stood there, the left hand dead, the right hand missing, and no way to move the bodies. Graves empty. Hollow eyes staring, accusing.

There comes the time to admit failure. It was now. There was still an honourable end. He wouldn't fail Mondul, at least.

ElPottoGrande wrote :-

(I just wanted to neatly wrap things up. Big thanks to everyone who contributed to the development of my dwarf's character, and to ElPottoGrande for the amazing picture)


Charlie72 wrote :-



Log: DATE UNKOWN

Subject subdued. Project: NEW SECTEAM LEADER has begun.



Hopefully this will work as well as I'm thinking it will.




ZeeToo wrote :-


Mental journal of ZeeToo Zalissazir

I LIVE

Not even the most horrifying monster in history can kill me. Such is my devotion to my ever-blessed squares. No one else truly understands and appreciates them, and they give me the strength to press on.