Fired up Rimworld for the first time in a while. Started a new colony.
My colonists were full of hope and promise. Abundant resources, ideal climate. Even the pet warg was happier than a muffalo roaming the open fields.
Grendel is the glue that holds the colony together. He's the farmer, gardener, and chef of the colony.
One fine Aprimay morning, Grendel was merrily sowing rice and corn - staple crops to feed them through the winter. I was busy focusing on my other two colonists who were building a few bedrooms in another area of the map. They were warm in their sheep wool parkas but cranky because they ate without a table.
I received a dreaded event alert - a lynx was taking revenge. On Grendel. I scrolled over just in time to save Grendel from the worst, but not before the lynx managed to gouge his left eye out.
Doc Anatoly patched him up, Trev made sure that lynx regretted ever being born, and Grendel recovered and pulled it all back together - albeit with half his vision. But he soldiered on, kept cooking, planting, gardening, and feeding everyone.
They all had a good laugh about it while eating a simple lynx and rice meal, and wearing warm lynx tuques.
Things were good for a while. Maybe too good.
Then the raids started. They were mostly handled with aplomb. The colony had grown to half a dozen, and there were some sharpshooters among them.
One raid did not go so well - the enemy pods landed directly inside the base, in the middle of the night. Havoc ensued. A dry lightning storm shorted out the power. Things were on fire, blood was everywhere.
And Grendel was down.
After the enemy was dispatched, Doc Anatoly did what he could to save Grendel. He would live. But he would now be without a kidney.
No left eye. No right kidney. Bullet wounds in his arm and torso. High on smokeleaf to numb the pain.
Many moons later, the crew managed to capture a few raiders alive, and kept them as prisoners.
One was recruited, and Grendel fell in love. He and Nora got married and eventually had a child, Shah.
Things were good.
Until Nora had an affair with Slick, one of the men that was captured and recruited.
Grendel lost his mind. Went into a rage. Destroyed resources. Fought with Slick. Became depressed. Went into hiding. His productivity was low and his mood was even lower. He was at risk of a major break.
So he did the only thing he could.
He asked his good pal Anatoly to harvest Slick's kidney and amputate both his legs. Anatoly was happy to oblige. Then he asked Brennan to craft him a bionic eye, which he did with pleasure.
In the end, Grendel was a new bionic man. Better than ever. The pain was gone, his sight was superhuman, his faith restored.
Slick was left to slowly die in a cold room with no legs and a missing kidney. Eventually Anatoly harvested the remaining good organs - no sense letting those go to waste.
All's well that ends well.
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