Line #138 LetsPlay/Waterburned


1	[[quoteright:350:[[DeathWorld https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/waterburnedbusinessasusual_7945.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:This is a masterwork evil gloom. It is encrusted with OneHitKill and menaces with SpikesOfDoom.]]
3
4	-> ''"Heaven sought to destroy us with toxic fumes. Heaven failed.\
5	Hell sought to destroy us with an endless horde of abominations. Hell failed.\
6	This is Waterburned. And Death Himself is afraid of us."''
7	--> -- '''Tropers/CountDorku'''
8
9	The year is 251. The dwarven civilization of the Massive Room has launched several expeditions to distant corners of the globe in search of wealth and [[BlackComedy amusing stories of death]], because that is simply what dwarven civilizations do. One of those groups ended up in... this place. Either they got lost, or they ''really'' pissed off their guide.
10
11	The primary feature of the landscape is the weather pattern dubbed the "evil gloom", a mass of fog that passes over the landscape and induces profuse bleeding followed by death in anything unfortunate enough to get caught up in it. Flocks of giant insects flit across the landscape, and two ocean inlets beat against their narrow shores.
12
13	Anyone with an ounce of sense would keep going; dwarves are not known for being sensible. They leapt out of the wagons and burrowed into the earth below, naming the resulting (literal) hole in the ground "Waterburned".
14
15	Then the overseers (read: tropers) came, and the world was never the same again.
16
17	In short: The TV Tropes ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' SuccessionGame, found [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13372995990A50780100&page=1 here]]. The game has been concluded; however, the saga continues in the fortress of {{Letsplay/Beigeknife}}.
18	---------
19	!! Provides examples of:
20	* AChildShallLeadThem: Rotpar IV becomes overlord of Waterburned at age three.
21	* AlcoholHic[=/=]DrowningMySorrows[=/=]INeedAFreakingDrink: Dorku didn't take the mass deaths and resultant tantrumfest at all well.
22	* ArbitrarySkepticism: Dorku, who lives in a fort that has ''invaded Hell'', refuses to believe in ghosts and [[KickTheDog walls a guy up]] [[ForScience to prove it]].
23	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: "Let’s see. Over the night, Bembul got so fed up with waiting that he started dragging himself up the stairs. Edwards Grizzly threw a very brief tantrum. Yet another child carked it. Gloom rolled over us without killing anyone. I still have no pants."
24	* BadassArmy: The Waterburned Militia. ''[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Who the hell do they think we are?!]]''
25	* BigDamnHeroes: The Waterburned Militia charging into Hell in time to save Adil Aristcatten from a gruesome death at the hands of a giant three-eyed demonic coati.
26	** Ultimatepheer has pulled this often enough that it's now his job title.
27	* BlackComedy: Exhibited throughout, but ''[[ComedicSociopathy especially]]'' Dorku's turns.
28	* BlasphemousBoast: "We currently have enough metal to build a new god, and enough trade goods to bribe the existing ones to give it life."
29	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: "Bizarre things are everywhere. We have an entire sealed-off staircase that is full of water. Well, water and a corpse. But mainly water." Also, grey langurs are described as "mug-stealing tantrum-inducing child-murdering monkey beasts" following the death of Ultimatepheer's son.
30	* BreatherEpisode: Dorku's first turn contained exactly one tantrum and only a handful of deaths. (This is by contrast to his second, in which Hell got a second wind.)
31	** It's rather telling that "only a handful of deaths" is counted as Breather.
32	* BuffySpeak: Dorku. Alcohol. Cue a rambling rant about how much living in Waterburned sucks, dotted with comments on how humans die at the slightest prov...prov...incon...stuff. Only more slurred.
33	* BunnyEarsLawyer: The third overseer, who believes dwarven culture is run by demon-tainted ducks, quotes nonsense from his equally unhinged mentor, believes a random child to be the reincarnation of said mentor, and speculates on the genius-enhancing nature of honeybee venom, but is also a legendary carpenter.
34	* TheCaligula: Virtually everyone.
35	* CerebusSyndrome: Rotpar's turn, featuring an enormous gloomdeath, the overseer going crazy, demons, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking references]].
36	* TheChosenOne: Rotpar IV, supposedly.
37	* [[ClusterFBomb Cluster K Bomb]]: one of Dorku's updates, while Hell was getting payback, used the word "krutz" 83 times. The update in question only spanned one month.
38	* CurbStompBattle: Two - Tuefel's first dwarven alter ego only sustained a mild bruise while pickaxing a wild troll to death, and the elite dwarven military went through a tribe of olm-men like a +steel battleaxe+ through butter.
39	* DeathWorld: [[DownplayedTrope Not as bad as most evil biomes]], but the area around Waterburned tends to produce blood-red clouds that kill on contact.
40	* DealWithTheDevil: Revealed to be how Dorku got out of Waterburned.
41	* DefensiveFeintTrap: A boy named Minkot Unalunib runs up to an elk bird and decks it, then leads the enraged bird into a corridor of traps. He becomes known as the Slayer of Birds.
42	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu --> BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu
43	* DifficultySpike: [[invoked]] fishsicles' turn was spent ballsing about with an aquifer and building a massive amount of water wheels, with the evil glooms as just a side note. Tuefel Hunden IV's turn featured the death of several dwarves to glooms (including one that spawned right on the entrance), followed by a tantrum spiral.
44	** Rotpar's turn, forever remembered as when the circus came to town, and fishsicles' second turn, when the town fought back.
45	*** And then Dorku's second, when the ''circus'' fought back and killed about half the military before Hell was simply declared off-limits and walled up.
46	* DisorganizedOutlineSpeech: "One, I like wood; B, it’ll give us an indoor reserve at the cost of spending a staggering amount of time outside hoping we don’t get murdered by these psychopathic glooms that keep popping up. And four, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment I like wood]]."
47	* DrowningPit: ''The entire fortress'' becomes one. The levels above the aquifer aren't sealed but can't be reached due to the flood waters coming down the stairs.
48	* DueToTheDead: Defied, Rotpar IV declares that anybody who dies was a faithless sinner and forbids their burial or memorializing. This leads to a squadron of ghosts rising and eventually bites him in the ass.
49	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] and [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by the Rotpars. Armok demands Fun and will destroy the world if he doesn't get it. They lead Waterburned into Hell in hopes that Armok would be appeased by the fortress' devastation.
50	* EldritchAbomination: Armok itself.
51	* EternalRecurrence: The epilogue. Many years later, a group of familiar-seeming dwarven settlers arrive to tame the unknown wilderness. They excavate the ancient ruins and will be Waterburned once again, as it was and always will be.
52	* EpicFail:
53	** The military's first engagement resulted in total defeat... by ''kobolds''.
54	** A misplaced channel made the drowning trap flood the fortress.
55	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Tuefel's first turns of both Waterburned and Beigeknife told the world rather more about those forts than anyone really wanted to know. Tantrum spirals, psychotic overlords, murderous paranoia and going insane.
56	* EvilCounterpart: Rotpar was killed on an early turn but the save was lost and the turn replayed. She survived this time but a second Rotpar was accidentally re-dorfed. Rotpar became Rotpar II's Evil Counterpart, the insane evil one who had died in the alt-universe turn.
57	* FauxHorrific: [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/languuuuuur_5370.jpg Langurs, anyone?]]
58	* ForScience: Dorku's experiments with the evil gloom (does a cage protect you? [[spoiler:Yes, as it happens]]) and with Project WRAITH (do ghosts exist? [[spoiler:Yep they do and the project did produce one.]]).
59	* FunWithAcronyms: Pretty much standard for a ''Dwarf Fortress'' succession game.
60	** Unending Rotationary Aquifer-supplied Interior Urist-producing Mechanism (URANIUM)
61	** Projected Assailant Repulsion Technology with Inherent Crushing Legionary Engine, Automated Cruelty Calibrator, Extended Levitation Eliminator, and Rapid Attacker-Termination Optimised Rocks and Spikes (PARTICLE ACCELERATORS)
62	** Dwarf-Engineered Subterranean Transportation Infrastructure Now Available to Transport Items, Ore, and Nobles (DESTINATION)
63	** Circular Automated Revolving Operation for Unifying Science in Elliptical Loops (CAROUSEL)
64	** Aquatic Collection-Redistribution Ocean Network "Y Model" ([[LampshadeHanging ACRONUM]], because [[SubvertedTrope an illiterate dwarf mislabeled it]])
65	** [[Creator/HPLovecraft Tgh'sa! Emgh rny'l Mwaft! Ia! Nthi'va Armok Lgui! Dnah o'klr grul Mrifk Armok!]] ([[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion TERMINAL DOGMA]])
66	** Thread-only (at least for now): Narrowly Aimed Projectile of Accelerated Lava or Magma (NAPALM)
67	** Stupid Lucifer-Allied Yokels Eat Revenge (SLAYER), the ultimately sort of successful plan to invade the so-called "[[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Hellmouth]]".
68	** Dwarven Opportunity to Win Notoriety and Unseat Nasty Demons, with Extra Revenge (DOWN UNDER), the hell colonization plan that Operation SLAYER was a major component of.
69	** Aquatic Torrent Hell Entry-Nullification Annihilator ([[Myth/ClassicalMythology ATHENA]])
70	** Project Wight Research and Auditory Investigation of Tomb Haunting (WRAITH), a gratuitously evil plan to "disprove" the existence of ghosts by walling up some guy and starving him to death.
71	** Then, with 20% more RunningGag, there's the Crushing Ultimate Retribution System with Engineered Ruthlessness, Optimal Termination Protocol, Annihilating Righteous Systemic Neutralization Artifice, and Moron Eliminator (CURSEROTPARSNAME).
72	** Compressive Rubbish Unmaker to Shatter Hopeless or Evil Refuse (CRUSHER)
73	* GlassCannon: The slush demons. One killed five dwarfs, only to be instantly decapitated by a kick from ultimatepheer.
74	* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Tuefel V made it out of Waterburned, only to lose his mind to a strange mood and change his name to Mr Fwible.
75	* {{Hallucinations}}: Dorku's strange mood, which opened with insane paranoia and culminated in full-blown crazy encrusted with ghosts and menacing with spikes of crack.
76	* HandicappedBadass: No less than three of Waterburned's military have lost at least one hand without becoming less awesome. Several of them staunched the bleeding midfight.
77	* HeroicSacrifice: fishsicles II and Rotpar II, to unseal Hell before Operation SLAYER.
78	** SenselessSacrifice: ...leading to some pretty ferocious casualty rates before the whole operation was cancelled and Hell sealed off again.
79	* HeroWithBadPublicity: The Rotpars, arguably. The only reason they ran the fortress into the ground was to appease [[EldritchAbomination Armok]], but nobody else knows about this, so it is assumed they did it for [[ItAmusedMe the main reason any overseer does anything]]. See also RunningGag.
80	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Rotpar IV is beaten to death by the ghost of Etur Orrunoslan, after forbidding burials for the dead and causing them to raise as ghosts in the first plce.
81	* HollywoodTactics: When left to their own devices, the Waterburned Militia tend to operate on a policy of charging toward the target and attacking it. Even if it brought several friends. Even if the soldier in question only has ''one hand''.
82	* HypocriticalHumour: When the next strange mood after Dorku's had a child rambling about werewolf conspiracies, Dorku considered him a nutcase...bear in mind that his own strange mood involved concluding that a frog was an elven spy.
83	* InTheStyleOf: Rotpar's final turn is written differently per the narrator.
84	** The gospels of the children following Rotpar IV, write in the style of ''Literature/TheBible''.
85	** The ghosts whispering to Dorku speak in the style of [[VideoGame/TheSecretWorld the Buzzing]].
86	** The epilogue journal is written in the style of ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves''.
87	* IntoxicationEnsues: A diplomat visiting the mayor while said mayor was lying strung out on painkillers in a hospital bed.
88	-->'''Mayor''': Are you a horse?
89	** Shortly afterwards, Dorku cured his depression with strawberry wine, leading to lines like "I'll be the besht queen of the woodpeckersh ever!"
90	* ItTastesLikeFeet: Lizard tallow biscuits do, apparently. Shortly followed by biscuits that tasted like wombat and feet.
91	* KickTheDog: [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential All the players.]] Most of the thread's discussion is centred on the fact that there is nothing horrible happening to the fort, and how to create a crisis amusing enough to make the game interesting.
92	** PetTheDog: Player!Rotpar is the one who finally ''does'' create the crisis (namely, he breaches hell), which results in the death of most of the adult population of the fortress. Of course, the players all leap to the defense of their alcoholic minions. This is what led to Operation SLAYER.
93	** Back to kicking with Dorku walling a guy up to disprove the existence of ghosts...a task doomed to failure.
94	* LegacyCharacter: Anyone who's been dorfed except Dorku, wikkit, and Noaqiyeum.
95	* LittleMissBadass: Urist Nishsodel, the daughter of a militia Spearmaster. She [[TooDumbToLive followed her mother into the Danger Room]], but not only did she survive, she managed to train her armour user, dodger, and fighter skills to a decent level, ''befriending most of Waterburned's BadassArmy in the process''. Sadly, she ended up going insane after her mother's death not long after Operation SLAYER.
96	* LockedInAFreezer: A number of the surviving children are able to lock themselves into rooms and avoid drowning. Unfortunately, all but one are completely cut off from escape, food, or drink. Eventually, one child snaps, opens the door, and drowns his gang of survivors.
97	* MeaningfulName: There is definitely water, and this being ''Dwarf Fortress'' it is just a matter of time before the burning starts.
98	* TheMillstone: One RunningGag is that everything that's gone wrong is Rotpar's fault. Hence the page quote.
99	* MoodWhiplash: Going straight from triumph to despair is an old dwarven tradition. There's also one whiplash from "crazy paranoid hallucinations" to "mundane task".
100	* OhCrap: Count Dorku's letter to Tuefel; warning him about the ACRONUM activating, a massive outdoor construction project, mining picks being made en mass, and an absurdly massive mining job involving hollowing out entire levels, all with no known overseer.
101	* OneHitKill: The clouds of evil gloom.
102	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: The fortress's one ghost just hangs around and attract tourists. After Rotpar IV creates an army of them they rampage around. The final chapter is their HiveMind telling Count Dorku what happened while he was in his bunker.
103	* PaintTheTownRed: There is a ''lot'' of blood in this fort. Grizzly's promised to clean up the town.
104	* PersonAsVerb: "Pulling a Rotpar" is synonymous with "ruining everything".
105	* PetTheDog: Dorku, an unhinged lunatic who stuffs sentient creatures into cages to !!experiment!! with the fog and who would eventually wall a guy up alive to "prove" that there was no such thing as ghosts, closing his reign by giving the grieving Adil Aristcatten a cage containing his favourite creature, a turkey. Of course, this was partially pragmatic in that Adil is an experienced enough warrior that he could probably go through half the fort single-handedly if he went berserk.
106	* PrecisionFStrike: Dorku, having used "Krutz" pretty much exclusively, drops an F-bomb when more [[DemonicSpiders three-eyed demons]] turn up.
107	* PyrrhicVictory: The hell invasion plan has, directly or indirectly, cost more than 100 lives and broken the back of the Waterburned Militia. As a result, Hell has been declared off-limits and walled shut. May even qualify as BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu.
108	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: the Rotpars responsible for ripping open Hell ended up giving their lives to drive it back and hold the demons off long enough to seal it off, respectively.
109	* RunningGag:
110	** Everything is Rotpar's fault. ''Everything''.
111	** [[FunWithAcronyms Acronyms. Acronyms everywhere.]]
112	* ScareEmStraight: Discussed when a tantruming child is killed by a giant toad.
113	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Dorku and Tuefel V are trying to tunnel their way out. According to ''Beigeknife'', they succeeded.
114	* SealedEvilInACan: Hell has been returned to this state following the deaths of a surprising number of dwarves at the hand of a demonic earwig.
115	* ShootTheDog: Dorku sealed a child in Hell when the walls went up, in order to preserve the rest of the fort.
116	* ShoutOut: Rotpar's first turn has many to ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', while fishsicles' second [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann goes the other direction]]. ''The game itself'' gets into it at the end of that turn and a child's fell mood creates an adamantine artifact flute Drillcrusher, engraved with images of itself like a never ending spiral. Various other points have included references to everything from "[[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Stop Meeting the Heavy]]", to ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway''.
117	* ShowWithinAShow: [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Axedwarf: the Animated Series]].
118	* SinisterMinister: Rotpar IV, the Chosen One and Prophet of Armok.
119	* SpikesOfDoom: There are a lot of spikes, ranging from weapon traps crammed with pointy wooden things to the entire bottom floor of the PARTICLE ACCELERATORS.
120	* TooDumbToLive: Anyone who wanders into the danger room without a suit of armour, [[LittleMissBadass except for Urist Nishsodel]].
121	** A legendary miner, who decided to take a smoko in Hell.
122	* UnusualEuphemism: "Krutz", [[ShoutOut taken from]] ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}''.
123	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Evil glooms, blood-red murderclouds that slaughter whatever they touch almost instantly, are more or less a monthly occurrence at Waterburned.
124	** The typical response to a corpse is generally along the lines of "meh".
125	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Waterburned was made the capital and the king and entourage where en route. So why did they never arrive?
126	* WholePlotReference: Completely by accident, [[spoiler: Rotpar's]] turn is essentially ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods''. [[spoiler: Somebody with power is arranging for gruesome but entertaining sacrifices to appease an evil, mad god and prevent the end of the world]]
127	* WonTheWarLostThePeace: fishsicles' conquest of hell was swift and deadly, but not particularly concerned with long-term implications. Dorku was left to "put out the [[UnusualEuphemism krutzing]] fires", eventually just sealing it off when an earwig monster kicks down the door. Dwarves are not particularly good at peace.
128

Context LetsPlay / Waterburned