the craziest thing that has happened to me was a little story of a ghost town (coincidentally, it happened in stonehearth a couple of weeks ago)
So, I start the settlement, everything is going hunky dory, 2 fighters, but I am working my herbalist to become a cleric. Houses are being built, there is plenty of crops, and so far the sentient stones have not been so much of a problem as we might have thought.
that is… until the stone golem arrived.
after a particularly bad attack of the walking skeletons, the defense force was heavily injured, once the attack was dealt with, they returned to their quarters to sleep their injuries off.
IMMEDIATLY after they went to sleep, a stone giant appeared on the horizon, and the footmen were still sleeping
eventually, when the golem was at the gates, one of the footmen awoke with slightly under half health, not ideal, but better than nothing.
That beast ate through the defense like he was made of paper, even trying to retreat and have the citizens provide support while the brave fighter recovered was of no help. The second fighter awoke and joined the carnage,but it was too late to save the town.
after the citizens fled to avoid being stomped by this stone creature, the fighter did his best to tackle this colossus, but to no avail, for one wooden sword could not defeat this monstruosity.
He was slain, and the behemoth yearned for hearthling blood.
The following fight was nothing short of a massacre, one after the other this monster chased each citizen until they were far enough from the town flag, and anihilated one by one until the once thriving forest outpost was nothing more of a ghost town.
and for a night, all was quiet.
Having found no more poor souls to destroy, the golem returned to the mountains, where many claim he remains to this day.
The morning after the carnage, a lone wanderer came into town. Finding an empty town must be quite puzzling all on its own, specially with such a large ammount of food and tools lying arround. The terrifying realization came to this lone hearthling once he saw… the plethera of graves that adorned the citizen’s last stand (this is actually where I found that sounds glitch I reported into the forums, and it eventually game me the idea for custom tombstones… which is now being turned into a mod by @Hamnisu )
with all the terror and reverence one can have for the dead, he set about to collect the remains of what was once a town, he placed the dead in a row, collected some food, and surveyed the now rotten farms, which would yield no food for some time. He set about trying to find a sustainable way of feeding himself, as there were enough resources to continue construction on the dormitories and masonry.
That is when the globins came.
Being one lone fighter (having changed classes to become a footman before they arrived) he stood no chance against an armed goblin raiding party, as he lay on the ground, fainted, all seemed lost.
But as the hours passed, his strength proved to be his saving grace, his heart kept beating, and while unconscious, he remained alive…
as dawn emerged, there was a glint of hope on the horizon, a moving figure, a rustling bush, a creeping shadow.
A faithful and compassionate cultist arrived just as our brave defender had his last portion of heart flicker. With much haste she hurried him off to the nearest bed, where he slept, narrowly escaping death.
This cultist began to gather food for herself, and surveyed the land, the goblins were aproaching, you could smell their camp smoke.
That is when they decided, to move on, or to perish as their predecesors did.
an all out migration began, as much as one person can migrate. Stone and wood were stockpiled, food and tools were accounted for, and furniture was packed.
One by one, what was worth saving from the town was salvaged, the comfy bed, a mason table, a cook spoon, 3 log piles, 4 empty storage boxes, a stone firepit, and a wooden town center.
the day after, the survivor awoke, and agreed that something must be done, as the aproaching goblins were to return at any moment
2 days it took, for everything to be moved, leaving the inconsequential behind to apease the goblins, were they to return.
It was all moved to the adjacent mountains, where they could live in peace, and start anew. They made a new friend, who immediatly became a mason and helped remove all that was worth removing.
and with that, our pursued hearthlings left what was once a beautifull and blooming home, destroyed by both stone and goblins, to the mountains.
They escaped, and as the goblins made their next atack to destroy their new settlement, the last ladders were being removed, focus was to change from woodworking to masonry, as trees tend to grow less on boulders.
aaaaaaand that concludes the saga of “the forgotten”. The little hearthlings DID move all the old tomsbtones out of respect, but that had to be done right after they salvaged everything that was worth anything.
I actually had a lot of fun with this game, I eventually started another town, but man, this was an adventure
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