Spermy Smurf mopped the sweat from his brow as he continued chiseling away at the slab. This was proving to be much more difficult than he anticipated.
For one thing, he didn't know anything about ZarathrustraFollower, the dwarf he was memorializing. He had to comb through the old fortress records -- records that were no longer being maintained -- but he eventually determined that she was once a militia captain in Gemclod, and was killed in a battle against the Arrogant Ones in the summer of 271.
But there was another problem that impeded his progress.
He just wasn't very good at this stone-working stuff.
Unfortunately, with only two able-bodied dwarves in the fortress, it wasn't like there was anyone else who could do a better job.
He went back to work, tediously engraving generic scenes from an epic battle between Dwarves and High Elves to the best of his ability.
---
Yeol had started heading back the way she came. Perhaps if she could make it back to her demesne, she could fashion a pick at the forges there, and dig her way out.
But as she started to make her way down the first stair, she collapsed from exhaustion. It took all of her remaining strength to keep from falling all the way down the stairwell.
She was too weak, too hungry, too tired. She knew would never make it all the way down and back up again in this condition.
She knew that if she went back up the stairs and opened that door, she would die.
But she also knew that if she did not go back up the stairs and open that door, she would die.
Fighting back tears, she beat her steel-mailed fist against the wall of the stairwell in frustration.
---
Skanky Burns carried a bucket of water through the main chamber, heading towards the old fortress hospital. Nimby was the only one of the injured who was still resting in the old hospital, as all of the others had been moved to a more convenient location some time ago. Up ahead, MortuusLupus and FebrezeNinja were sitting on the chamber floor, talking with each other.
FebrezeNinja turned to look at Skanky Burns. "I really wish we could help you," he said almost apologetically, "but neither one of us can pick anything up in this condition."
"Is there anything we can do that doesn't involve, well... picking anything up?" MortuusLupus asked.
Skanky Burns thought for a moment. "Can either of you pick up a pen? Or a quill? Or work an abacus?"
FebrezeNinja and MortuusLupus looked at each other. "Uh... probably?" MortuusLupus answered uncertainly.
"There are a couple of desk jobs that aren't getting done right now. You guys can probably handle that kind of work."
"Sounds good to me," FebrezeNinja said.
"Me too," MortuusLupus added.
There was an awkward silence for a moment. The silence was broken by a shout from Nimby in the hospital.
"Hey!"
"I'll be right there with your water," Skanky Burns called out.
"While you're at it, can you do something about that tapping sound coming from the other room?" yelled Nimby. "I'm trying to rest here."
---
Yeol stopped banging her fist against the wall. She accepted the fact that her situation was hopeless. There was no choice but to brave the door upstairs, and the inevitable deluge which would almost certainly kill her. Slowly, she stood to her feet.
And then she heard a tapping sound coming from the other side of the wall.
---
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Nimby?" Skanky Burns yelled as she continued to swing her mining pick. "Isn't this what got the fortress into trouble in the first place? You know, digging into areas to find out where the mysterious sounds are coming from?"
"It should be fine," Nimby yelled back from the other room. "There shouldn't be anything back there that leads to hell. I'm pretty sure I remember all the miners building a stairway back there a few years ago, right before Yeol vanished."
"Who's Yeol?"
"Former overseer who was in charge of this place before I got hurt. She declared herself to be Emperor of all Dwarvenkind, and then she disappeared. It all happened a long time ago, before you got here."
Skanky Burns's pick finally broke through to a hollow area. She looked through the hole and saw a winding stairwell, which vanished in the distance both above and below. Sitting on the stairway near the freshly mined hole, a huddled, shivering dwarf looked up.
---
"Here's your water. Sorry about all the delays." Skanky Burns handed the bucket to Nimby, who drank deeply before speaking.
"So, what was it?"
"I think it was that Yeol you were talking about. It looked like she was near mad. She said she was starving to death, and then headed straight in the direction of the dining room."
As Skanky Burns and Nimby talked, a spectre flitted about in a nearby room of the hospital. Unlike the other spirits haunting Gemclod, which were all horrifying but mostly benign, this particular spectre had murdered the living once before, and intended to do so again.
