Dwarf Fortress story - Part 5: The Walls of Sky and Underground

After the bridge had been finished, all that was left was testing the bridge. This is an dangerous issue, as with a fortress of this many dwarves, an unlucky dwarf might be crossing the bridge when the bridge rises. With human drawbriges this might be safe, but dwarven drawbridges are efficient. A blink of an eye and BANG it's up. If someone is unlucky enough to stand on the bridge when it happens, he or she is instantly tossed far away. That's not a pretty way to die.

Unless you are a filthy goblin

The amount of us is already overwhelming me, even though I know more will always come. I don't recognize every face anymore, I keep on forgetting the names I should have already learned. It might be too many new people coming in, or me spending too much time on the ground, under the wide sky.

It was time to go back underground. Back to where we all belong to.

The mines have been expanding. I just stepped in the new section of mines when something happened. I could hear a sharp shout from the upper levels. It wasn't a goblin, but a dwarf.

Something had happened to Urdim Madushavuz. He had gone into a berserker rage. We had been focusing too much on everything else and somehow neglected whatever had happened to him. It was useless trying to reason with him, as he attacked anyone on sight.

So we had to do the necessary. The military squads were told to kill him. One of the squads, The Valleys of Iron, had to attack a comrade of theirs. Urdim had been a member of the squad since the squad had been formed. Urdim was struck down with few fast hits and it was over. No-one else was seriously injured. No tears were shed. All that was left was a pool of blood and the corpse.

It was just a real shame, that this time we had to kill one of our own. No wall built outside can defend us from ourselves.

Day to day, week to week. We are now merely doing our tasks. Babies are born but we are not paying that much attention. Our spirit has been let down, once again. We are digging one tunnel and another, until we've built a network of tunnels anyone could get lost into. No precious metals found, no iron, nothing. Only silver and gems, as we would be some fashion loving pansies.

We want something more.

And finally we found something... else.
It's not metal. It's not a gem.

We found the underground.

As we struck through the wall and could see the underground network of tunnels.. we were amazed. And horrified.
We cannot know what lives in here. We cannot know how far these tunnels lead. All kinds of creatures live underground, from antmen and ratmen to huge forgotten beasts, which at worst can breathe poison, fly and kill a dwarf with a single swing of the tail.

We did what any reasonable dwarf would do. We set up a door to the underground caves and locked it. To keep us safe.