In 'The Eternal Dimensions' of the year 300 seven brave (or possibly stupid) dwarves are sent from 'The Imprisoned Syrups' to try and create a foothold in the east; their goal seems simple enough: Mark the beginning of a huge planned expansion to the east in an attempt to make their already expansive civilization. The only other notable dwarven civilization is 'The Orb of Lulling', and they control the eastern part of the world. The secondary goal of the fort is to act as an outpost to try and thin the numbers of 'The Larval Scourge'; a goblin civilization that, in just the past ten years, has founded numerous new outpost.
The Eternal Dimensions in year 290
(http://i.imgur.com/ZSSuVkA.png)
The Eternal Dimensions in year 300 (a mere 10 years later and our embark year)
(http://i.imgur.com/MzTGRhz.png)
Legend
(http://i.imgur.com/3R5Ca81.png)The Imprisoned Syrups - Dwarven
(http://i.imgur.com/AXDM0sW.png)The Orb of Lulling - Dwarven
(http://i.imgur.com/9WWgYZN.png)The Larval Scourge - Goblin
(http://i.imgur.com/eIyk87Y.png)The Empire of Scholars - Human
(http://i.imgur.com/gzcv0Bw.png)The Grooved Realms - Human
(http://i.imgur.com/HuibNgc.png)The Pine of Sounding - Elven
(http://i.imgur.com/HaA9R0f.png)The Righteous Coast - Elven
The embark location:
Consist of 1 volcano, clay, little soil, shallow metal, and deep metal(s)
(http://i.imgur.com/4fqa7Xs.png) There's actually deep metals
(http://i.imgur.com/oBNhkg8.png)The evil temperate freshwater marsh
(http://i.imgur.com/EXIIpDy.png)The not-so-evil mountain
(http://i.imgur.com/IX5WM9O.png)Neighbors are always good
(http://i.imgur.com/snAWIhE.png)The civilization we will embark with
(http://i.imgur.com/GGvebHg.png)The civilization we will NOT embark with (our opposing dwarven civ)
Embark preparations: The pets are just the dogs and cats.
(http://i.imgur.com/FE1a8yt.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/2g9njGU.png)Name of our fort
(http://i.imgur.com/gwBtxDF.png)Group name
And finally...
(http://i.imgur.com/coMOr8V.png)
Sorry about all the spoiler tags, I wanted to be sure you could had as an in-depth view of the world as possible. :) I will be sure to get Spring and Summer up really soon (Spring was really eventful and Fun) and if anyone knows how I can make the images a little smaller, it would be nice (I play on a 1920x1080 monitor, so I know it's pretty big for some people)
First Spring, year 300 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=146979.msg5907076#msg5907076)
First Summer, year 300 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=146979.msg5938559#msg5938559)
(http://i.imgur.com/coMOr8V.png)
As the dwarves top a hill they see far out in the distance the site they are destined to call home and, perhaps for some, their final resting place. Before the exhausted and now well-traveled dwarves lay a volcano that can be best described as a caldera or perhaps a volcanic crater.
(http://i.imgur.com/RlYKt5z.png)NOTE: This was taken in autumn so my fort is already underway, I didn't think to take a picture with stone sense at embark. I apologize.
(http://i.imgur.com/VHHMfnF.png)
As the dwarves quickly park their wagon near the volcano the three dwarves who volunteer to be miners begin to quickly search for a good place to set up.
(http://i.imgur.com/FCxsVGk.png)First miner
(http://i.imgur.com/llT8UG7.png)Second miner
(http://i.imgur.com/sUNTQD0.png)Third miner
While the other dwarves quickly volunteer for their own jobs:
One volunteers to be a stone detailer and farmer, at least until migrants arrive to replace him. (http://i.imgur.com/7SW0gZY.png)
Monom exclaims he wants to work with stone, so we assign him as our mason. (http://i.imgur.com/uK47LN9.png)
Nish, our expedition leader, says he will do architecture and mechanics. (http://i.imgur.com/gFcM1yW.png)
And finally, Nish. He says he will do just about anything, so we throw him into general labor. Basically carpentry, wood cutting, butchery and tanning, and anything else we feel needs done. (http://i.imgur.com/SRICu5t.png)
Aside from our dwarves we have two male horses. Not much use, being male an all. We can't even milk them. We decide to keep them around none the less.. For now at least. In the end the miners decide on an area just south of the wagon to mine our initial entrance, Ber insist we can expand it later if we must to allow wagons through and to an alternate entrance deeper into the fort. In the end we all agree that would be the best place, and designate it to be mined. (http://i.imgur.com/CjfOFcr.png)
Soon after they finish the entrance and all the dwarves have rushed into the narrow cave that was formed it begins to rain... But it isn't rain it's... Well... (http://i.imgur.com/CmXZdcm.png)
interpret it as you may... It's rather disturbing seeing... Filth fall from the sky... Nish quickly suggest we all stay inside and attempt to do a kind of experiment to test and see if there's any adverse affects caused by the erm.. 'filth'. We quickly decide the best candidate for this lovely experiment would be one of the two very useless horses. As we begin to herd the horse, and long before we have a chance to react, a cat runs out of the cave! At first we all watched and laughed, amused how any creature would actually want to be outside in such weather.
Our laughs quickly ceased when we all witnessed the most gruesome thing any of us have ever seen, accompanied by a stench that rivals even that of the filth. Before our very eyes the cat began to... For lack of a better word, it began to rot. Upon close observation Nish suggested the theory that the rain causes severe necrosis, so severe in fact that it caused nearly instant affects. With this instant necrosis came the side affect of full body paralysis. (http://i.imgur.com/pC3sTFM.png)
We all looked helplessly, none willing to reach their hand out to try and pull the cat in. All of us knowing that it was good as dead anyway. Within seconds the cat drew its last breath... By no means was it a swift or painless end, but perhaps that is the most merciful death any of us will endure.
But the cat wasn't the only thing that was affected. With horror Ber pointed out past the rain. We all had to squint to see what she did... And then we seen, a mere flash as something fell from a tree. No, not a tree... The Sky. So not even flighted creatures were safe from this vicious rain that turned the most healthy creatures into decomposing heaps of flesh and bone. One of the others, I don't recall who, made a half hearted joke about 'This takes acid rain to a whole new level'. Some of us forced a laugh, but not Nish.
"This means no going back." We all looked at him, totally shocked. Sure, the rain was dangerous, but couldn't we find a way back? Maybe to contact people? I voiced these thoughts but Nish simply shook his head.
"We don't have the supplies to leave. And, if by some miracle someone from the outside managed to arrive between the rain storms, they would have to hope the weather remained clear long enough for them to get into our gates. Assuming by some blessing of Armok, they managed THAT they would have to make the dash back from this evil place and make it all the way back to the mountain homes to ask the king if we may leave this place... So, we stay. For now at least." He began to walk away, deeper into the cave that we now felt was our prison. We tried to protest, to explain to him that we MUST leave, no one will ever survive this weather to get here. "Precisely." he grunted. "No one will ever come help us, so until we find our own way out we're stuck here. Make sure to wall up the entrance when you decide to quit gawking at the weather."
So, with heavy hearts, we slowly pulled ourselves away from the entrance, one by one. When we were all gone at some point Monom finally bricked up the entrance, so no one could leave. It was more for our safety truly, if anything could survive that rain we wouldn't want to mess with it. (http://i.imgur.com/tu9NQAp.png) sorry about this picture, don't know what happened.
We all set about making a plan. We needed to get our supplies, and the dash from the entrance of our cave to the wagon was far too long to do. So, in the end, we decided on a plan. We would build a new entrance just below the surface where we could quickly get inside. We wouldn't risk grabbing much, just the essentials. Like the seeds we desperately needed to make both food and drink. (http://i.imgur.com/ckLlXka.png)The original idea was to drop the wagon from the upper z-level to the lower z-level.. Until I realized that wouldn't help matters at all.
The plan went smoothly, we all ran above and quickly grabbed the seeds we needed. After that we quickly walled the area off again, some of us hoping that maybe one day we could put it to use. After that was done Rigoth went to work on building several farm plots, so we would have somewhere to plant and grow our crops.
(http://i.imgur.com/doC6GWp.png)
It became painfully clear, however, that we would not have enough food to survive until harvest... So we did what we had to do... We slaughtered the horses.
(http://i.imgur.com/rqNdZUP.png)
It's not as if it mattered much, if were to set them to graze outside they would surely suffer the same fate as the cat, and if we didn't let them graze they would starve. So we felt it was our only option.
After the most immediate and obvious threat of starvation was solved, we realized one last thing... We had no source of water. Once again we sprang into action, drawing up a quick plan to tap water from one of the surface ponds to bring water into the fort. It may not be exactly the cleanest water, and it wasn't he safest plan, but it had to be done. We channeled a 3x3 area for the water to safely flow into. The idea was to fill it up and then use that as our temporary source of water.Unfortunately in our haste we forgot about water pressure. (http://i.imgur.com/SbHqx1B.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/1UqU0WL.png)To the right you can see the stockpiles and workshop zones.
The flooding wasn't bad, but it was enough to startle us and remind us to avoid that in the future....
And with the new opening in our fort you could feel the warm summer breeze.... (http://i.imgur.com/I6xU4Wt.png)
Too bad for the cat. Does the biome have reanimating effects?
That will be revealed in the future. ;)
In all honesty I can't give you a straight answer. From my understanding zombies need a more or less intact head, but the rotting prevents that from ever happening and even if they could reanimate the full body necrosis the rain causes paralyzes any creature. So you would fully paralyzed zombies unable to do anything except decompose as it rains. I should add the paralyzing thing, I forgot to mention that.
Well, no...
...As long as the remains of a creature contain a body part capable of grasping, be it a hand or head or the entire upper half, those remains can be animated. This can lead to animated hands and heads, which seems comical until you consider the implications of a swarm of such monstrosities and the havoc that they might wreak. Even some parts of creatures which should be incapable of autonomous movement can be raised, such as the hair or skin or even mussel shells. They are, however, predictably nonlethal, mostly serving as a B-movie terror monster to scare your dwarves into running around. A body part can be resurrected as a zombie even if it has already done so and been de-animated again. However, pulping damage (that is, "exploding into gore", "cloven asunder", "torn into shreds" and so on) to the head, lower body, or upper body will turn the corpse into a "mangled corpse", ensuring that the zombie cannot rise up again. Likewise, destroying the structural integrity of an animate body-part will stop its reanimation.
From http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Undead
I do not think nerves apply to undead.
(http://i.imgur.com/I6xU4Wt.png)
The warm summer breeze was a comforting feeling to have.. Aside from the stench that the breeze carried.. None of us could help it, we stood there for a few minutes feeling the warmth of the air on our skins. We all knew it would be a long time before we felt air again... And as if on cue Nish quickly yelled a stream of orders, all resulting in the walling of the precious opening to the surface that could be our salvation one day. But for now, it was only a death sentence. Before the wall could be finished though we heard agonizing screams. Nish quickly ran through our small cave, making sure no one was hurt.. When it became clear the source was not from within the fort we all gathered around the new found opening.
After moments that seemed to be an eternity someone finally broke the silence with a simple question. "What is that?" the truth is none of us knew, we just knew it was the agonizing screams of a dwarf... Or some sort of humanoid at the least.
"Those idiots from the mountain home must of sent dwarves here to die! Are they all mad?! They should of never come!" The sheer amount of anger that resided in Ber's voice would of startled even the bravest of Dwarves, and you could hear the amount of anger in her voice build up with every word. "We have to help them!"
In the calmest voice I believe I have ever heard Rith simply stated "We can't. It's simply impossible. If any of use step out there we'll end up with the same fate as them.." Many of us nodded at Rith's statement, even Dakost who is easily one of the bravest of us all. We all wanted to help.. Well, except for maybe Rith. I could of swore I heard the smallest hint of glee in her voice...
As if she had lost a battle Ber simply slumped her shoulders and walked away, ignoring everyone on her way past us. We all knew what had to be done... Without even being ordered to do so, we finished the construction of the wall; once again sealing ourselves into our cave that could be our salvation as easily as it could be our tomb.
(http://i.imgur.com/PkUUQ3e.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/TXi4n5Y.png)
The fate of one of the immigrants.
(http://i.imgur.com/QJCMbDx.png)
The wall we built
Uneventful days pass until one day someone complains about a stench. In all honesty, I don't think many noticed the rodent remains that littered the floor here and there. Most of us smelled pretty bad from not bathing.. Not to mention some of us had gotten caught in the non-lethal variant of the filth. But when the smell of rotten carcasses began to overpower the other stenches, we decided it was time to make a refuse pile.
(http://i.imgur.com/YeyAczB.png)
As more days pass we suddenly get the feeling that summer has finally passed... (http://i.imgur.com/UGMacE6.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/UGMacE6.png)
Nish walked up to everyone one day and made an announcement. "Today marks the first day of autumn." He showed us all the calendar he had been keeping, and a wave of relief flooded through everyone, and hopes that we would be saved.
"Don't look so relieved... With Autumn comes the cold, and then winter. We likely won't see a caravan this year due to the.. Filth that plagues the surface. So we shouldn't expect it.. However, we still need to build a depot for traders, just in case. And we need to keep an eye out for the traders. They very well may be our salvation..."
Everyone nodded, taking in this new information.. As everyone realized what was happening the look of relief and joy quickly turned into fear. We would be trapped down here for another year. That was it, no one dared to object and no one even complained. We knew we had work to do.. So we got to it.
Days passed before we heard the screams. We couldn't figure out what it was at first.. And then we realized it must of been the traders. They arrived.. And they died.
(http://i.imgur.com/IUX57TR.png)
We still tried to save them though, knowing that it could be our last chance for a full year. Quickly Nish ordered a type of 'airlock' created.
(http://i.imgur.com/F2Z243r.png)
It was an attempt to keep us from running out there without thinking, and to keep our animals in as well as keep the horrors of outside out there.
We were also informed that the depot was finally finished, and we rejoiced hoping that perhaps there were some survivors.. But days passed...
(http://i.imgur.com/7KjLo3N.png)
After a few days Nish ordered the doors locked, perhaps for good. No trade this year, and likely no survivors from the caravan...
After a couple days passed Nish reported that he had seen a ghost.. As he barked orders for us to make slabs to appease the dead we all assumed he had gone mad.. But we still obeyed, not wanting to take the chance that he may of been right..
(http://i.imgur.com/qLa1Ii9.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/Jg2Ap4i.png)
The theory, and perhaps the hope, that Nish had gone mad was obliterated when we all seen the ghost... Rigoth was busy engraving slabs when he was frightened by a ghost. A real ghost!
(http://i.imgur.com/G1eRnJX.png)
The fear of what could happen if a ghost decided to try and take revenge on us began to drive some of us mad.. Ber was mumbling about how we should of helped, that we could of done more but didn't.. I'm beginning to worry she's going to lose it...
However, we don't have just bad news.. We hit cinnabar today while digging a shaft deep into the earth, not sure what the stuff is good for.. Rith mentioned dropping rocks on a goblins head and that it makes a good 'splat' sound.. I guess it's a fairly dense stone..
(http://i.imgur.com/z6NfLBT.png)
And apparently a cat has taken a liking to Ber, whom she has named "Lorbam"
(http://i.imgur.com/UYbVsly.png)
Nish announced to us that Winter was upon us.. And with it, the fear that we wouldn't last.. But also the hope of an Elven Caravan come spring...
(http://i.imgur.com/tRwaNY1.png)