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Welcome to Smithsoldier, Sire. I assume you're another of the Priesthood's Chosen, going by the marks you bear. We don't care who you used to be: whether you're dabbling or legendary, a Peasant or a Priest, you're welcome in your new position. Follow me, and I'll get you set up in your office.
Green means the turn has finished. Yellow means they are incumbent. Strikethrough means the turn could not be completed.
- QuantumDrop
- DwarvenLord
- Salmeuk
Sir Elric of the East (IRL issues, has increased priority for turn if they claim again.)- QuantumDrop
LeftHandofGod- DwarvenLord
- StrikaAmaru
- Salmeuk
- LeftHandOfGod
- Glloyd
- ProjectXMark1
- DwarvenLord
- StrikaAmaru
LeftHandOfGodZalthorManofthehour234- recon1o6
- StrikaAmaru
- eightball8776
- Ryukan -
Glassworker and master of the sudden but inevitable betrayal. Died as he lived - out of focus. May be redorfed if desired. - QD -
Military Soldier, some poor schmuck one of the two actual QD's brought off to act as a body double. Head pasted by a Goblin's Morningstar. Redorfed as QD2. - DwarvenLord - Two-times Overseer and Werechamelion. Currently losing her shit in a walled-off room, having been sealed away for the fort's safety.
- Salmeuk - Legendary Armourer and Craftsman, maker of anything pointy, hard, or metal-based.
- Zon (Who?) -
"What the f*** did you just say about me, you little b****? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Cobalt Spikes, and I have been involved in numerous not-so-secret raids on the Evils of Perplexing, and I have thirty confirmed kills. I am trained in dwarf warfare and I am the top speardwarf in all of the Bridled Pulley. You are nothing to me but just another-" (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8144687#msg8144687) Slain during a Goblin incursion. - LeftHand - Ex-Overseer and Competent UNKNOWN.
- Amaru - Ex-Overseer (and arguably the most competent).
- Monom (Who?) - Active in the fort.
- Glloyd - Maker of the Grand Library, Striker of Candy, and Ex-Overseer.
- XMark - Machine Priest, Ex-Overseer, and Creator of the Temple of Armok.
(To be expanded and changed as necessary.)
While we mostly abide by the Mountainhome's sacred laws, we do have a few of our own. If only to avoid any faux pas...
- Each player plays for one year, from one spring to the next. Once done, upload the file to whatever sharing site of your choice and post the link in the thread. If you want a turn, make a claim in the thread and pick up the file. When a previous overseer’s turn is done, you have 7 days to pick up the file and 2 weeks to play through (roughly; time may be extended under certain circumstances). Confirmation can be from a simple ‘I have the file’ to an update. If you do not post confirmation in 7 days, the player after you takes over. If you start but can’t finish, inform the thread and we’ll go back to the save before your turn.
- No shagging the fort beyond repair. If you do drive the fort to total uselessness (Magma/Water flooding the world, Three-Ring Circus coming to town without thread agreement, Permanent FPS tank, etc.), revert to the last save. Other than this, nearly anything goes.
- If you want to be Dorfed, say what profession, name, etc. Overseers are requested to Dorf players where possible.
- Using tilesets or graphics packs is allowed.
- RP is optional – write in whatever style you find most comfortable, be it IC or OOC.
- Use of tools such as DFHack and Dwarf Therapist is allowed, as are certain exploits like the DAS, quantum stockpile, and Dwarven Water Reactor. If you aren't sure about whether or not it's allowed, ask the thread before you do it - we won't bite you. At least, not too hard.
- Above all else, have !!Fun!!
...And that should be that. If you need to seek me out for more info, you'll find me tending to the shrines down on the residential level. We have a Crusade to launch, and Gods to please. For Armok and the Mountainhome!
Table Of Contents
Year 1: QuantumDrop - see below.
Year 2: DwarvenLord: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8098393#msg8098393) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8098600#msg8098600) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8098897#msg8098897) 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8099608#msg8099608) 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8100184#msg8100184)
Year 3: Salmeuk: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8101923#msg8101923) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8102888#msg8102888) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8106396#msg8106396) 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8107620#msg8107620) 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8108728#msg8108728) 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8108981#msg8108981)
Year 4: QuantumDrop: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8111600#msg8111600) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8112450#msg8112450) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8113840#msg8113840) 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8115077#msg8115077)
Year 5: DwarvenLord: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8120215#msg8120215) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8120226#msg8120226) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8121659#msg8121659) 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8123647#msg8123647) 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8125842#msg8125842) 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127101#msg8127101)
Year 6: StrikaAmaru: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127373#msg8127373) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127472#msg8127472) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127498#msg8127498) 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127745#msg8127745) 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127781#msg8127781) 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127836#msg8127836) 7 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127953#msg8127953) 8 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128230#msg8128230) 9 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128328#msg8128328) 10 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128512#msg8128512) 11 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128943#msg8128943) 12 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128943#msg8128943) 13 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8130025#msg8130025) 14 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8131514#msg8131514) 15 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8131531#msg8131531) 16 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8131580#msg8131580) Armok's Apocrypha (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8132631#msg8132631), SoL in Smithsoldier (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8132657#msg8132657) 17 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8133248#msg8133248) Year End/Epilogue (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8133284#msg8133284)
Year 7: Salmeuk: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8135088#msg8135088) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8135615#msg8135615) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8136572#msg8136572) 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8136986#msg8136986) 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8138545#msg8138545) 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8138554#msg8138554)
Year 8: LeftHandofGod: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8139764#msg8139764) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8140257#msg8140257) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8140816#msg8140816) 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8142765#msg8142765)
Year 9: Glloyd: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8144129#msg8144129) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8144305#msg8144305) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8144485#msg8144485)
Year 10: ProjectXMark1: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8144662#msg8144662) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8145112#msg8145112) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8145521#msg8145521) 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8147546#msg8147546) 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8150048#msg8150048) The Eternal Chambers (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8150066#msg8150066), The Timeline That Never Was (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8150491#msg8150491), A Holy Vision (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8151337#msg8151337), 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8152415#msg8152415) 7 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8155650#msg8155650)
Year 11: DwarvenLord: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8156478#msg8156478) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8159084#msg8159084) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8161839#msg8161839) 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8164586#msg8164586) 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8165899#msg8165899) 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8167749#msg8167749) 7 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8170312#msg8170312)
Year 12: StrikaAmaru: Prologue (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8171494#msg8171494) 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8171758#msg8171758) 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8173750#msg8173750) 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8174400#msg8174400) 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8174632#msg8174632) 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8175433#msg8175433) 7 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8175889#msg8175889)
Overseers Wanted!
Welcome to the first madhouse succession game I've ever run. Take a seat, grab a cup of liquefied goblin, and be ready for inexperience, idiocy, and everything else. The rules should already say much of what needs to be said, but don't feel afraid to ask questions to the thread at large.
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Partly due to distractions and trying to keep track of Armok-knows-how-many different things, there's nowhere near as many pictures as I'd like.
Prologue
The Dwarf knelt before his superiors, eyes cast to the floor. He dared not look up to them, those mighty figures of adamantine robe and deathless flesh and bone. A single finger, dipped in rare pigments and blood, raised itself to him, drawing mystical marks upon his unworthy flesh. When they spoke, they spoke with the voice of Armok Himself: glorious and savage, mighty and terrible, beautiful and monstrous and unaccountably ancient all at once.
“By the Nine Blades of Armok, may you bring death to our foes. By the Eight Mines of Avuz, may your caverns be stable. By the Seven Seas of Mishos, may your water run freely. By the Six Crops of Ňs, may your farms bear fruit.”
The High Priestess’s followers repeated her words in a low chant as she moved from member to member, blessing each one with her holy presence and arcane symbols. Each one had been chosen by the priesthood for the foundation of a new fortress. The wagons had already been loaded with all the tools of the standard expeditions, and only the ritual blessings remained.
As the chants and blessings came to an end, the High Priestess stepped forwards and laid one cold, ancient hand upon his forehead. Her hooded face peered down at him, and he bent lower under the divine weight of her gaze. Through her, Armok looked, scrutinising his every move, his every breath, his every thought.
“Goblins have overrun many of our oldest fortresses, and taint our ancestral lands with their presence. The blasphemy of their existence can be tolerated no longer – go, found a fortress of flesh and steel, that we may drive their foul kind from our true homelands. In Armok’s Name, Strike the Earth!”
(https://i.imgur.com/jtY3SYZ.png)
Her blessings complete, the High Priestess turned and marched back towards the altar. Her part in this endeavour was at an end, and she had to resume her duties as Armok’s mouthpiece to the Dwarves of the Mountainhome.
The Dwarves arose as one, about-facing and marching towards their wagon. None spoke; none needed to, for Armok alone would decide their success or their failure. Words would be meaningless before His will.
The wagon departed Shaligbesmar swiftly, passing between the great Statues of Armok and Ňs. The great carved faces of the two highest gods stared down upon the departing Dwarves, each aboard the wagon feeling the weight of divine purpose upon them.
The wagon pulled to a halt before atop the hill. The sacred sigils upon it were now naught but scratches, and the blessed food they had been given almost completely gone. They had reached their destination, nonetheless, pulling their wagon through the great forests before them and praying to Armok and Ňs to judge them kindly.
Ral Shodukgoden, Chosen of the Priesthood and leader of the expedition, leapt down from the wagon. His boots impacted the ground with a dulled thud, and his eyes flicked about as they took in the new terrain. The slopes were gentle, nothing like the near-vertical cliffs of the Mountainhome, and patches of ice and water dotted the ground.
(https://i.imgur.com/R2350y5.png)
It was here that a new fortress would begin. A name came to his mind: Eshtânezar. Smithsoldier. A good name, appropriate for its purpose.
Ral placed his hands into the mystical configuration the priests had taught him, and began to pray. “Holy Armok, great Ňs, abyssal Mishos, depthless Avuz, grant us your favour in this endeavour. May our works be yours, and may we prosper in your name.”
He turned, facing his fellows. With a roar, he cast his hands upwards. “Brothers! Sisters! In Armok’s Name, Strike the Earth!”
23rd Granite
We have begun digging out our bedrooms – small cells, just like the Mountainhome’s. I have no doubt that the weaker Dwarves will grumble over it, but the Gods do not make us easy through kindness or comfort.
(https://i.imgur.com/OSpbTuI.png)
Farming is currently our greatest priority. If Ňs and Avuz favour us this day, we should have the farms up and running in short order. Their products will be used for drinks and meals, though it disgusts me to force such sustenance down my throat – it is impure, tainted by the vile reek of the Goblins that comes on every breeze. The sooner we are able to form a branch of the Priesthood to bless it, the better.
29th Granite
The bedrooms and farm are complete. Mishos smiled upon us this day: there was no damp stone or soil as we dug into the earth, letting us set up our operations far more quickly than otherwise. I have commanded that plump helmets be the first crops we plant, to appease Ňs and provide us with a stable supply of food.
(https://i.imgur.com/FIXlGRt.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/7HtlkcB.png)
4th Slate
Two Carpenters workshops and two Mason’s Workshops are being dug out.
(https://i.imgur.com/fuOVnOB.png)
10th Slate
Trade depot and finished goods stockpile under construction, mining has finished. Dining Hall, food stockpile, and Kitchens under construction, one level below the farm.
14th Slate
Recalling the suggestions of our Mechanic, I have given the order to construct a garbage dump and accompanying bridge on the upper levels of the fortress. According to his rantings, this will allow us to perfectly destroy much of the Mudstone we have lying around, as well as the corpses the inevitable Goblin invasions shall leave behind. I have ordered him to prepare to mass-produce mechanisms in his workshop to aid us in this goal. One or two will be used for the bridge’s lever, and the rest are to be used for cage and stone fall traps. I can hear his deranged cackles from here, interspersed with prayers to the Machine God. Screwball.
(https://i.imgur.com/7HtlkcB.png)
19th Slate
Our workshops have finished construction: two Masons, two Carpenters, and one Mechanic’s. Our Mason has been commanded to begin turning the mudstone into doors for our bedrooms, if only for the sake of privacy, while the Carpenter is at work building beds for us to sleep in. A tired Dwarf will be in no shape to worship, after all.
(https://i.imgur.com/977hcvS.png)
My compatriots have shown no signs of discontent thus far, but I believe it would be prudent to construct at least one Temple in the foreseeable future. The blessings of the Priesthood, or even the mere satiation of the Gods’ demands will help us mightily in the long years to come.
26th Slate
After some effort by the Masons and other workers, our bedrooms have been fitted with their doors. Only a few beds so far, but the hard ground is enough of a bed for the truly faithful.
(https://i.imgur.com/qKEUBpb.png)
A kitchen, and accompanying food stockpile have been set up just below the farms, linked by a set of up-down stairs. These have in turn been linked to our soon-to-be dining room, though the sheer volume of work to be done seems to be slowing expansion down.
(https://i.imgur.com/DHYU5p8.png)
1st – 7th Felsite
The bedrooms are finally complete! The Mason and Carpenter alike have finished their work, and both the doors and beds have been fitted to all extant rooms. I have immediately ordered the Mason (and their apprentice) to begin production of rock tables and thrones for the dining hall.
17th Felsite
One of our Masons has created a masterwork mudstone table, claiming that our goddess of crafts guided his hand. Either way, I have commanded that it be placed in the main dining hall, along with the rest of those produced thus far. A still has also been put into construction, after I was informed of our booze supply beginning to falter.
The Mechanic informs me that he will have to suspend work on his ‘Dwarven Atom Smasher’, due to boulders blocking the construction site. He claims his mad construction can’t be completed until they are cleared from the site – to this end, I have ordered some of the offending stones to be unforbidden and removed from the site.
24th Felsite
I have given the command for four temples to be dug out and sanctified, down on the level with the bedrooms. While they are little more than shrines at the moment, the plans to smooth and engrave the stones of the temples, followed by the addition of statues and similar decorations honouring the Gods will soon solve that.
1st -7th Hematite
Summer has arrived.
The Trade Depot has finally been constructed, in preparation for the first trade caravan from the Mountainhomes. Similarly, a manager and bookkeeper are to be appointed – in accordance with tradition, the same dwarf shall hold both positions. As it stands, we merely await the arrival of a suitable candidate, assuming the caravan does not outrun them.
The dining hall has been outfitted to a degree necessary to service our current Dwarves, though the smoothing and engravings are likely to be delayed for now. In a more military view, the command has been sent for traps to be produced. Fifteen, to be exact, all cage traps, all put in a solid line near the outer regions of our entrance.
(https://i.imgur.com/vGaI75r.png)
9th Hematite
Wood, Gems, and Economic Stone stockpile designated on the crafts floor.
14th Hematite
Food, Drink, Barrels stockpile designated near still and kitchens.
3rd – 6th Malachite
Our first wave of Migrants have arrived! A band of six, led by a Weaponsmith of some renown. According to this craftsdwarf, they consist of a Fisherdwarf, Fish Dissector, Butcher, Shearer, and Peasant – and allegedly, they were chosen and blessed in the same manner as us.
I have given the order to construct and outfit six new bedrooms, to accommodate these new brothers. The fisherdwarf and his assistant, having seen the lack of seas or fishable areas, have volunteered to focus their talents upon crafts and stonework, something I welcome with open arms. The butcher and shearer remain in their current roles, until the Gods give me a sign as to what I should do, or until some task crops up that requires many an unskilled body.
(https://i.imgur.com/hXMgYtS.png)
14th – 24nd Malachite
Two Jewellers workshops constructed. Dining room has finished expansion, with the tables and chairs soon to be installed. Furnace construction has finally begun; the weaponsmith intends to forge iron weaponry from Hematite, to which I have given my blessing.
(https://i.imgur.com/TOOs05t.png)
Orders for multiple easy meals and some booze made. Metalsmith’s forge and two wood burners under construction, plus the necessary smelter.
4th Galena
“Are we all ready? Have the test items been loaded?”
“Yes, sir.”
The Mechanic half-cackled and rubbed his hands with glee, staring through the open doorway with undisguised relish. It was time to test his wondrous creation, the Dwarven Atom Smasher! Those fools back at the Mountainhome called it sacrilege, claimed that he was destroying parts of Avuz – Bah! They knew nothing of the benefits it could provide!
The Dwarves drew back, moving away from the soon-to-fall bridge. The minute the last one had returned and locked the door, the Mechanic sized the lever and yanked it down.
There was a great, low rumble, a sudden crash of a bridge’s fall, then silence. A second yank of the lever produced the low growl of mechanisms, the bridge raising back to its proper position. He flung the door to the test area open and openly cackled with delight at the sight that greeted him – the mudstone placed beneath the bridge was gone entirely, not even dust or pebbles remaining. He had succeeded!
11th-15th Galena
Orders given to engrave the walls of the quarters, to boost morale. 20 charcoal ordered to be produced, for purpose of smelting into Iron and preparing Military forces. Smoothing and engraving of shrines begins.
21st Galena
Two new workshops designated for digging. Order sent for the Weaponsmith only to work in the smelter, smelting hematite for iron. He will soon be put to use creating weapons and armour. Metal stockpile begins to be dug out.
1st Limestone
Autumn has come.
13th -14th Limestone
Shaligbesmar’s caravans creaked down the slope into the fortress, the military dwarves escorting it marching in perfect lockstep. Armed heavily and bearing runic designs, they made for a fearsome sight as they marched into Smithsoldier’s Depot. Cramped and low-ceillinged though it may have been, it was no impediment to their charges.
The Dwarves of the fortress were at work in moments, swarming towards the finished goods stockpile just across the hall. Rings, sceptres, small statues – everything in the stockpile was swiftly lifted up and ferried over to the Depot, placed to the side in a neat little pile in preparation for trading.
The Broker emerged from his office nearby, marching towards the Trade Depot at speed. Despite his noble features and rich clothing, the Broker’s low origins still showed: his frame was hunched slightly, the result of long years of hauling, and his pallid face begrimed with rock and dust. The stiffness of his nod to the traders, the lack of formality in his posture - all of it spoke of a Peasant’s past.
“Where is the Outpost Liaison?” Ast Kilrudbarnum demanded. He was in no mood for pleasantries this day, and the response came swiftly.
“Dead, I am afraid. Some strange malady caused by tainted wine,” The lead trader shook his head, grim-faced beneath his rain-hood. “The Priesthood are already attempting to divine his successor.”
Ast nodded shortly. He had never met the Liaison, but had heard enough rumours of him – a semi-heretical, self-indulgent fool, more concerned with lining his own pockets than the health of their civilisation. Either his excesses had finally caught up with him, or someone had finally had enough of his wretched ways. “Very well, then. Let us trade.”
21st Limestone
50 Plump helmets, five units of cloth, a full bin of cloth, iron anvil and around 25-odd bronze bolts, in exchange for most of our crafts and all remaining, not-in-use mechanisms. Ast reports this to be the full extent of his trading so far, though he has made it clear the merchants are open to further trading should be make enough goods in time.
Migrants have arrived: weaver, farmer, weaponsmith, peasant, two children. Weaponsmith authorised to work on forge, farmer left as he is. Order given to expand the farms slightly – one will deal with Plump helms, the other with pig tails.
27th Limestone
The barracks has been designated for digging; we should have the necessary beds and weapon racks ready for when the miners are done. The Hospital has also been designated, and work has begun on the necessary furniture and textiles to outfit it. Both are located so that they connect to the main access tunnel of the fortress, so the militia will be able to respond to any ambushes or strikes in moments.
5th-7th Sandstone
Noting the high demand for charcoal (and our rapidly dwindling supplies of logs) I have ordered our woodcutter to enact a one-dwarf clearance campaign upon the trees near the west of our fort. The lumber supplies should be ample, when they finish their actions.
Similarly, due to the influx of immigrants, I have ordered several new bedrooms to be constructed. It will take some time to outfit them, and we will be waiting upon the carpenters. Due to the blockage in charcoal production, I have been forced to cancel military production for the time being.
(Multiple pages blank or unintelligible, entries resume near the start of Timber)
6th Timber
Large amounts of Hematite are undergoing smelting in preparation for arming the military. Avuz has shown us great favour here, with much of the Hematite easy to access and dig out, though we will need to add walls to re-create some of the bedrooms afterwards…
11th Timber
Noticing our relative vulnerability, I have given the order to construct a moat via channelling. Assuming the miners do their jobs properly, the moat should be three Urists wide and two deep, with the intent to remove the slopes and build walls around our entrance to help with defence. A drawbridge, or a raising bridge, will be constructed, in order to allow wagons and Dwarves passage.
(https://i.imgur.com/4vJfu0h.png)
1st Moonstone.
Winter is upon us.
When I find the beard-gnawing, drooling fool that allowed us to run out of booze, I am going to sacrifice them to Armok for their incompetence. I’ve ordered a peasant to begin immediate and rapid production of booze at one of the stills, with the intent of bringing our supplies back up to tolerable levels – it tastes poor, yes, but poor is better than nothing.
7th Opal
Created first military squad - five dwarves, in full iron armour with spears. The forges run hot, and continue the production of our first squad’s arms and armour; that said, the charcoal production seems to be the bottleneck. I have ordered it to be set to high importance, despite protests from the more short-sighted of my fellows.
21st Opal
Hospital has been fully dug out - now to furnish and sanctify it. 20 chests have been put into production, for the hospital and regular rooms.
(https://i.imgur.com/g7J4fmy.png)
3rd – 9th Obsidian
Minor scare when prepared meals almost ran out – quickly rectified, by re-assigning some Dwarves for cooking duties. Orders sent to produce fine meals, as we should be able to produce enough Plump Helmets to sustain such actions.
Our first squad has also begun training, consisting of five speardwarves in full iron armour. With luck and time, they will be the ones to lead our holy crusade to purge the Goblin filth from our ancestral homes.
22nd Obsidian
Monotony broken by visit of a human poet. No other major events, though I would advise that we monitor food production more carefully.
29th Obsidian
No, no, no, no! Bloody incompetent fools, Armok damn them all!
It would appear, in something of an oversight, that the Dwarf responsible for the moat-bridge’s construction and design made it two blocks wide, rather than three. With the walls already mostly complete, this will require either radical re-designing of the entrance or the removal, widening, and general re-construction of the bridge. Curses!
1st Granite
While the year has been relatively uneventful, and the blasphemous Goblin hordes have so far ignored us, my term is at an end. My successor will soon be appointed, either by the Priesthood of the Mountainhome, or by the denizens of this fortress.
To whoever proves my successor: continue our work. Drive the abominable Goblins from our ancestral lands with fire and iron, raze their dark pits to the ground, and prove to Armok and his pantheon that we are worthy. Should you seek me for advice or guidance, seek me in the temples and shrines.
May Armok give you strength.
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14873
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A quick image dump of the fort in its current state:
(https://i.imgur.com/Rs1nQfx.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/fKPukYP.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/JSuFfCm.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/hq1JcJA.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/3TsHCRy.png)
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Ah, what the heck. I'll claim.
I'm assuming we're the last dwarves, so those will be the only migrants?
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Hmm? You say it's my turn to rule? Cool. I won't stop practicing my trade, however...
(https://i.ibb.co/M9ZjFHm/dorf.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
Well, first things first...
(https://i.ibb.co/PtdWrKF/Capture.png) (https://ibb.co/wYfQdVB)
I think i'll really start with some odd jobs to finish from the last manager- finishing the floor in the topside building, creating a lever to open and close the front drawbridge, things like that.
23rd of Granite
I'll start dating these from now on. We just got a new migrant wave, and it's a big one. I'm worried we can't sustain this big a population...
(https://i.ibb.co/rbpMjm2/Captur.png) (https://ibb.co/mvytjG5)
We'll also need a lot more bedrooms. This is going to take awhile...
5th of Slate, 176
I've ordered the forging of 20 shortswords for traps. We have the iron for it, and the moat seems a tad unsafe- any troll could break down the door and get right to the heart of the fortress, along with a horde of goblins..
In other news, we've finished the bottom floor of the building and are starting on the next.
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Ah, what the heck. I'll claim.
I'm assuming we're the last dwarves, so those will be the only migrants?
Far as I can tell, our civilisation's still kicking, so we should be seeing more migrants at some point.
EDIT: No problem. Post as you like, doesn't have to be a full update.
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14th of Felsite, 176
First strange mood- our good ol' manager, Ral. Hope it works out. Think he claimed a Carpenter's workshop.
Wait, what? He's started? With what?
A single piece of wood?
This isn't going to be too impressive...
16th of Felsite
The bedrooms have been expanded, though we probably need more still...
(https://i.ibb.co/xGHK5rj/Captu.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
19th of Felsite
I'm speechless.
This artifact that Ral made... it's beautiful.
(https://i.ibb.co/wJ2pb7s/Capt.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
(https://i.ibb.co/MR6cmkj/Cap.png) (https://ibb.co/GVTWqQ1)
Sarcasm aside, at least some crippled person in the future will be happy.
6th of Hematite, 176
Oh dear lord.
Apparently, Rovod- our woodcutter- was cutting wood when a log fell on his head and smashed it.
(https://i.ibb.co/Dwkn4V7/Ca.png) (https://ibb.co/ZcKCdLh)
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7th of Hematite, 176
Our weapon traps are finished. There's four traps with 5 iron shortswords- though somehow we got some extras.
12th of Hematite, 176
(https://i.ibb.co/VTHKTbx/C.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
17th of Hematite, 176
Oh look! A caravan is here- a human one, of course.
25th of Hematite, 176
Another bard wants to join as well. There's no harm, right?
(https://i.ibb.co/qrwHnSC/CaptureC.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
26th of Hematite
Hmmm, we'll trade all these useless goods.
What should we get?
I've heard many a tale of a strange mooder going insane after not having the right type of cloth, so we'll get these three buckets of each type of cloth.
I'll also get a new pick, as well as this silver warhammer. I'm thinking of starting a Warhammer divison.
27th of Hematite, 176
No one in our fortress has any real skill with a warhammer, so I'm choosing the best tactician in the fort- a dwarf by the name of Cog Tholerith. I gave him our newly-purchased silver warhammer, and I've ordered the production of four more iron ones, along with some new armor pieces.
9th of Malachite
More migrants. Much less this time- most are useful, at least.
15th of Hematite, 176
Wow- I can hear the bards playing music- poetry, I think.
(https://i.ibb.co/M6ZjTDc/Capture-Ca.png) (https://ibb.co/JQmbLRv)
8th of Galena, 176
How did I not notice this person before?
(https://i.ibb.co/mHnz6Nc/Capture-Cap.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
10th of Galena, 176
Well look at that!
(https://i.ibb.co/ZSM0L3B/Capture-Capt.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
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7th of Hematite, 176
Our weapon traps are finished. There's four traps with 5 iron shortswords- though somehow we got some extras.
12th of Hematite, 176
(https://i.ibb.co/VTHKTbx/C.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
17th of Hematite, 176
Oh look! A caravan is here- a human one, of course.
25th of Hematite, 176
Another bard wants to join as well. There's no harm, right?
(https://i.ibb.co/qrwHnSC/CaptureC.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
26th of Hematite
Hmmm, we'll trade all these useless goods.
What should we get?
I've heard many a tale of a strange mooder going insane after not having the right type of cloth, so we'll get these three buckets of each type of cloth.
I'll also get a new pick, as well as this silver warhammer. I'm thinking of starting a Warhammer divison.
27th of Hematite, 176
No one in our fortress has any real skill with a warhammer, so I'm choosing the best tactician in the fort- a dwarf by the name of Cog Tholerith. I gave him our newly-purchased silver warhammer, and I've ordered the production of four more iron ones, along with some new armor pieces.
9th of Malachite
More migrants. Much less this time- most are useful, at least.
15th of Hematite, 176
Wow- I can hear the bards playing music- poetry, I think.
(https://i.ibb.co/M6ZjTDc/Capture-Ca.png) (https://ibb.co/JQmbLRv)
8th of Galena, 176
How did I not notice this person before?
(https://i.ibb.co/mHnz6Nc/Capture-Cap.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
10th of Galena, 176
Well look at that!
(https://i.ibb.co/ZSM0L3B/Capture-Capt.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
(Feel free to disregard any of this.)
Pity about the woodcutter, but such is life for dwarves. Is he still kicking, or is he six feet under?
Yeah, didn't notice that Dingo Man Bowman creeping around myself. Good to see something other than the gobbos and humans running about. Still, I'll admit I'm kinda surprised that the bard hung around, what with the pair of goblin forts literally across the road from us.
The cloth was probably wise, considering the inevitable wear and tear on clothing (and the need for bandages and such). Coincidentally, I was running the year 1 file in my spare time, and a fey Speardwarf Recruit (manager didn't get his mood) went Berserk after finding no silk cloth. Unarmed Engraver took him down before dying of his wounds.
Assuming you haven't drafted or reassigned them already, putting the fisherdwarves from the big migrant wave as stoneworkers/smoothers/whatever may speed up any future bedroom-smoothing and such.
Good to see our military head's given birth - the child should serve well in the infantry. Anyway, good luck to you!
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1. He is dead. His head exploded, killing him instantly.
2.We don't have any contact with the gobbos, actually. We only know the humans. Isn't that weird?
3. Heh. I'm just paranoid after many an incident with no silk.
EDIT: Sigged!
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17th of Galena, 176
What do logs have against us?
(https://i.ibb.co/gvjVybB/Capture-Captu.png) (https://ibb.co/SQsrND9)
25th of Galena, 176
Not much to report- I dug a tunnel from the top building to our farms, but nothing else really happened. A lot of warriors here, though. Wish they would help train our military.
12th of Limestone, 176
A dwarven caravan? So we aren't the only ones.
(https://i.ibb.co/B2FpMK5/Capture-Captur.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
18th of Limestone, 176
Nothing much. Just got some nice gems.
I've noticed their wagons can never get to the depot, so I've decided to expand the hallway and bridge so they can.
4th of Sandstone, 176
Ah. Look at the beautiful leaves change color as the seasons change.
(https://i.ibb.co/JFSshPZ/Capture-Capture.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
7th Sandstone, 176
(https://i.ibb.co/rkvMm0J/Capture-Capture-C.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
19th of Sandstone, 176
More migrants- let's hope their's not too many. I'm not sure our cook can handle many more mouths to feed.
Oh, and a farmer's guild has been founded.
(https://i.ibb.co/SRtx6Rr/Capture-Capture-Ca.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
26th of Sandstone, 176
Here's his artifact!
(https://i.ibb.co/vD30LVM/Capture-Capture-Cap.png) (https://ibb.co/GFWzCnr)
(https://i.ibb.co/5k4Bdhb/Capture-Capture-Capt.png) (https://ibb.co/8bs6Jg1)
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Hope some else joins before I finish my turn...
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sign me up :] Our most dangerous foe seems to be the falling log - I think I can handle that.
the child should serve well in the infantry
wow you would think I would have heard that one before, this being DF and all. . lol indeed
The Dwarf knelt before his superiors, eyes cast to the floor. He dared not look up to them, those mighty figures of adamantine robe and deathless flesh and bone. A single finger, dipped in rare pigments and blood, raised itself to him, drawing mystical marks upon his unworthy flesh. When they spoke, they spoke with the voice of Armok Himself: glorious and savage, mighty and terrible, beautiful and monstrous and unaccountably ancient all at once.
“By the Nine Blades of Armok, may you bring death to our foes. By the Eight Mines of Avuz, may your caverns be stable. By the Seven Seas of Mishos, may your water run freely. By the Six Crops of Ňs, may your farms bear fruit.”
The High Priestess’s followers repeated her words in a low chant as she moved from member to member, blessing each one with her holy presence and arcane symbols. Each one had been chosen by the priesthood for the foundation of a new fortress. The wagons had already been loaded with all the tools of the standard expeditions, and only the ritual blessings remained.
I really liked this prologue. It was very moody, but also to-the-point and wasn't weighted down by too many character introductions. Nicely done! And welcome to the forums!
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26th of Moonstone, 176
I've been experimenting with bins- the stockpiles are much more efficient now. In other news, my hammerdwarf squad is looking excellent- all are quickly climbing in skill. Sometime soon we ought to send a greeting party to those goblins...
8th of Opal, 176
I've ordered the miners to dig deeper. We need silver to make the best warhammers for all of my squad.
10th of Opal, 176
he.
hehe.
Hehehehehe.
he.
(https://i.ibb.co/FX0nmxX/gold.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
14th of Opal, 176
And we found galena. I think I'll go give the miners (including me) a cup of alcohol.
To accomodate all these new metals, I'll construct a new smelter.
21st of Opal, 176
Ooh, a fey mood. I wish they had waited a little longer, to get gold production underway...
24th of Opal, 176
Ah, perfect. He wants blocks- and gold blocks are what you'll get.
8th of Obsidian, 176
(https://i.ibb.co/DgW3KvS/artofact.png) (https://ibb.co/KzhCyf3)
(https://i.ibb.co/t3dZLmT/artofact2.png) (https://ibb.co/wYvJc0F)
23rd of Obsidian, 176
As my time here draws to an end, our warriors finally become legendary...
observers.
TIPS:
There are two levers at the front bridge. The closest one closes both bridges.
There are untold riches in the mines under the fort. Use the silver to make warhammers and give them to the Hammerdwarf divison.
Once said divisions are trained enough, go provoke the goblins. This fort is too easy at the moment.
Make sure to have lots of !!FUN!!
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14890
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(https://i.imgur.com/fotf2Iz.png)
What happened to the forest?!
Noting the high demand for charcoal (and our rapidly dwindling supplies of logs) I have ordered our woodcutter to enact a one-dwarf clearance campaign upon the trees near the west of our fort. The lumber supplies should be ample, when they finish their actions.
OH my god you madman. This explains the disturbing number of falling log injuries. I can just imagine it now:
"You want me to cut down the entire forest?"
"No. I want you to cut down almost the entire forest. From here to the foot of that northern hill, and then back to the dry creekbed to the west. What don't you understand?"
"Well, it's just that. . by my calculations. . . even if we doubled our consumption of wood to ten separate furnaces burning nonstop. . it would take at least ten years to use up all that fallen timber."
"Look, it's this simple. Logs turn into charcoal. Charcoal turns into steel, which turns into swords, one of which I'm going to use to gut you if you don't get a move on."
"..."
"And by the way, we're going to triple our production. Have you seen the gold here?"
(https://i.imgur.com/g16d2qV.png)
OOC: and I think that's exactly what we're going to do.
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Wow, never realized how weird it is to see something you've worked on in a different texture pack.
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Wow, never realized how weird it is to see something you've worked on in a different texture pack.
If it is too much I can always switch back. I have also changed the color and that sometimes adds to the confusion.
I am dropping some of the wood (over 6500 logs lol) down a mineshaft. . . here's to day 1 of no accidents. .
(https://i.imgur.com/NMtrz36.gif)
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Wow, never realized how weird it is to see something you've worked on in a different texture pack.
If it is too much I can always switch back. I have also changed the color and that sometimes adds to the confusion.
I am dropping some of the wood (over 6500 logs lol) down a mineshaft. . . here's to day 1 of no accidents. .
(https://i.imgur.com/NMtrz36.gif)
(Thanks for the earlier welcome. Somewhat belated: great work on the fort, DL.)
Armok above, I didn't expect that many logs to be cut down. I would advise DAS-ing some with the one we have set up, if the FPS starts falling.
Using the texture pack should be fine, as long as it's switched back to the default when you go to upload the file.
Also, that little exchange about the logs is brilliant.
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Funnily, I ordered chopping down more trees because we were running out of wood. (Also, I was trying to clear a path for the caravans)
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The Story of Doren's Year
Doren Rigňththad immigrated to Smithsoldiers in the year 176, bringing with him his family consisting of a wife and three young children. Or at least that's what he would tell you. Truthfully, it was the other way around - his wife Zon was appointed Commander of Smithsoldiers and brought her family along. Zon was an expert spearfighter who had spent long years training in the Queen's guard. On her shoulders rested the fate of Smithsoldiers, for Smithsoldiers was located deep in goblin territory and it was combat that would decide whether or not the fortress could survive. While she was necessary, he was not, and so Doren only immigrated by permission of the Queen with the favor of his wife.
Doren was a simple smith, and not a very good one at that. However, the work at Smithsoldier was much more varied than back at the mountainhome. He often found himself performing odd jobs that kept the fortress running. He worked as a mason for a time, then as a floor-smoother, then he spent a few months building walls and floors aboveground. Always he was hauling, moving goods back and forth and generally doing everything except what he was trained to do. He didn't mind the other work, but all he thought about was his craft. At this rate, he would grow old and die before seeing his dream fullfilled: the crafting of a masterwork.
This winter brought and end to the leadership of the appropriately named DwarvenLord, and it was here that his wife suggested he control the work of the fortress and take over the role of administrator and overseer.
Certainly, if Zon suggested something in this fortress, it was not so much a suggestion as an order, and everyone knew this. Zon had seen a steady decline in the quantity of arms and armor made by the smiths, and believed that if Doren were to control the administration for a term, he could solve the issue. Zon was much to busy with training to get involved, and she truly believed Doren had what it would take to run things, for at least a while.
And so in the spring of year 177, Doren Rigňththad has assumed the role of fortress administrator. Before him, a full year of responsibility and change. What might come of his actions? Does he carry the right kind of mind for the work? Only time shall tell.
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Here is a unit list for those wishing to be dwarfed! And for future reference.
(https://i.imgur.com/R6x8vyi.png)
Quantum, did you have a dwarf you wished to name? Or was your position more. . . ethereal?Funnily, I ordered chopping down more trees because we were running out of wood. (Also, I was trying to clear a path for the caravans)
I mean, you definitely solved those two problems lol. It's cool though, by dumping sections of the wood when the dwarves have downtime, I can keep the hauling from getting out of control. And the drop shaft saves them about a day of walking down to the mines. Minecarts are cool and all, but when you just need to move objects deeper I find dropping them makes waaaay more sense. .
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Here sits Monom Rigňthegeb, a skinny, middle-aged dwarf whose appearance is almost too normal. Monom is crippled by shyness, and as such has no friends and doesn't talk to his family. He believes in TOBUL THE MINE OF GEMS, a dwarven god associated with earth, but you could hardly describe him as a worshiper - he only gives token offerings when he's about to go hunting for gemstones.
He hasn't been very happy lately. Monom is the fortress jeweler, and in a fortress founded for the purposes of war and provocation, there isn't much work for a dwarf who cuts little pieces of shiny rock into even smaller pieces of shiny rock. However, his fortune is about to change.
Journal of Monom, Early Spring 177
This place sucks. I have no idea what the recruiter was smoking but oh. my. god. this place is not at all like what I was told it would be. Sure, the mines are strewn with raw gemstones the size of my head, and unlike the mountainhome I have no competition when it comes to who gets to cut the rarest gems, but have I actually been able to practice my craft? NO!! I've been at Smithsoldiers for two seasons now, and all I've done is haul wood. That's all most of us do. No, I don't know why, all I know is that outside, it smells like moss and fresh air and blooming wildflowers. And that's terrible!
(https://i.imgur.com/b2eZduE.png)
Monom has been distracted lately.
There's a new guy in charge - Doren. He's the know-nothing husband of Zon, who everyone knows is the corrupt queen's lackey. No doubt he shouldn't be here, as he's a novice in what he does (smithing, I believe). How he was allowed to take the role of administrator is anybody's guess, though I would bet my steady hands that it had something to do with Zon.
That's how this little outpost got started, by the way - the queen wanted a war to quiet the nobility back home, so Zon agreed to spearhead a preemptive strike against the goblins. I didn't know any of this before I arrived, I've just heard the talk around the tavern, but it all makes sense to me. This civilization is corrupt as hell. Oh how naive I was, to think that the lies and deception wouldn't follow me here, to think I would have a fresh start on the frontier.
I'd like to have a word with the dwarf that got me signed up for this place.
Journal of Monom, Spring 177
Doren's first move was surprisingly good - a push to discover and breach the cavern layers. All jeweler's know that the exposed rock surfaces of the caverns are the best places to hunt for veins of gemstone. If enough gems are discovered, someone might finally remember I exist.
(https://i.imgur.com/TyRFWzw.png)
Doren also spoke of a grand 'labor reassignment' in the next month, but wouldn't give any details - I wonder what he means?
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Here sits Monom Rigňthegeb, a skinny, middle-aged dwarf whose appearance is almost too normal. Monom is crippled by shyness, and as such has no friends and doesn't talk to his family. He believes in TOBUL THE MINE OF GEMS, a dwarven god associated with earth, but you could hardly describe him as a worshiper - he only gives token offerings when he's about to go hunting for gemstones.
He hasn't been very happy lately. Monom is the fortress jeweler, and in a fortress founded for the purposes of war and provocation, there isn't much work for a dwarf who cuts little pieces of shiny rock into even smaller pieces of shiny rock. However, his fortune is about to change.
Journal of Monom, Early Spring 177
This place sucks. I have no idea what the recruiter was smoking but oh. my. god. this place is not at all like what I was told it would be. Sure, the mines are strewn with raw gemstones the size of my head, and unlike the mountainhome I have no competition when it comes to who gets to cut the rarest gems, but have I actually been able to practice my craft? NO!! I've been at Smithsoldiers for two seasons now, and all I've done is haul wood. That's all most of us do. No, I don't know why, all I know is that outside, it smells like moss and fresh air and blooming wildflowers. And that's terrible!
(https://i.imgur.com/b2eZduE.png)
Monom has been distracted lately.
There's a new guy in charge - Doren. He's the know-nothing husband of Zon, who everyone knows is the corrupt queen's lackey. No doubt he shouldn't be here, as he's a novice in what he does (smithing, I believe). How he was allowed to take the role of administrator is anybody's guess, though I would bet my steady hands that it had something to do with Zon.
That's how this little outpost got started, by the way - the queen wanted a war to quiet the nobility back home, so Zon agreed to spearhead a preemptive strike against the goblins. I didn't know any of this before I arrived, I've just heard the talk around the tavern, but it all makes sense to me. This civilization is corrupt as hell. Oh how naive I was, to think that the lies and deception wouldn't follow me here, to think I would have a fresh start on the frontier.
I'd like to have a word with the dwarf that got me signed up for this place.
Journal of Monom, Spring 177
Doren's first move was surprisingly good - a push to discover and breach the cavern layers. All jeweler's know that the exposed rock surfaces of the caverns are the best places to hunt for veins of gemstone. If enough gems are discovered, someone might finally remember I exist.
(https://i.imgur.com/TyRFWzw.png)
Doren also spoke of a grand 'labor reassignment' in the next month, but wouldn't give any details - I wonder what he means?
"That recruiter probably got into the Quarry Bushes. 'Divinely-inspired visions' my bony arse."
Good to see you've breached the caverns. Hopefully, Fun will come up from them. The gems and such'll all be great: with all the gold, silver, and iron we have lying around, if we start ramping up crafts production, we might as well just buy the next caravan that comes along. As in, buy both the goods and the caravan. Or just bling out the military, since silver (I think) is fairly good for war hammers.
That labour reassignment thing - something to do with the smiths? Something tells me the grumpy little Jeweller might not be too happy with what he finds. Just have to wait and see, I guess.
The writing you've done so far's quite good: I like the little bits of humour, and the characterisation's pretty good from what I've seen so far. Keep up the good work and writing.
P.S.: I'd go with keeping my dwarf unnamed.
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Here sits Monom Rigňthegeb, a skinny, middle-aged dwarf whose appearance is almost too normal. Monom is crippled by shyness, and as such has no friends and doesn't talk to his family. He believes in TOBUL THE MINE OF GEMS, a dwarven god associated with earth, but you could hardly describe him as a worshiper - he only gives token offerings when he's about to go hunting for gemstones.
He hasn't been very happy lately. Monom is the fortress jeweler, and in a fortress founded for the purposes of war and provocation, there isn't much work for a dwarf who cuts little pieces of shiny rock into even smaller pieces of shiny rock. However, his fortune is about to change.
Journal of Monom, Early Spring 177
This place sucks. I have no idea what the recruiter was smoking but oh. my. god. this place is not at all like what I was told it would be. Sure, the mines are strewn with raw gemstones the size of my head, and unlike the mountainhome I have no competition when it comes to who gets to cut the rarest gems, but have I actually been able to practice my craft? NO!! I've been at Smithsoldiers for two seasons now, and all I've done is haul wood. That's all most of us do. No, I don't know why, all I know is that outside, it smells like moss and fresh air and blooming wildflowers. And that's terrible!
(https://i.imgur.com/b2eZduE.png)
Monom has been distracted lately.
There's a new guy in charge - Doren. He's the know-nothing husband of Zon, who everyone knows is the corrupt queen's lackey. No doubt he shouldn't be here, as he's a novice in what he does (smithing, I believe). How he was allowed to take the role of administrator is anybody's guess, though I would bet my steady hands that it had something to do with Zon.
That's how this little outpost got started, by the way - the queen wanted a war to quiet the nobility back home, so Zon agreed to spearhead a preemptive strike against the goblins. I didn't know any of this before I arrived, I've just heard the talk around the tavern, but it all makes sense to me. This civilization is corrupt as hell. Oh how naive I was, to think that the lies and deception wouldn't follow me here, to think I would have a fresh start on the frontier.
I'd like to have a word with the dwarf that got me signed up for this place.
Journal of Monom, Spring 177
Doren's first move was surprisingly good - a push to discover and breach the cavern layers. All jeweler's know that the exposed rock surfaces of the caverns are the best places to hunt for veins of gemstone. If enough gems are discovered, someone might finally remember I exist.
(https://i.imgur.com/TyRFWzw.png)
Doren also spoke of a grand 'labor reassignment' in the next month, but wouldn't give any details - I wonder what he means?
"That recruiter probably got into the Quarry Bushes. 'Divinely-inspired visions' my bony arse."
Good to see you've breached the caverns. Hopefully, Fun will come up from them. The gems and such'll all be great: with all the gold, silver, and iron we have lying around, if we start ramping up crafts production, we might as well just buy the next caravan that comes along. As in, buy both the goods and the caravan. Or just bling out the military, since silver (I think) is fairly good for war hammers.
That labour reassignment thing - something to do with the smiths? Something tells me the grumpy little Jeweller might not be too happy with what he finds. Just have to wait and see, I guess.
The writing you've done so far's quite good: I like the little bits of humour, and the characterisation's pretty good from what I've seen so far. Keep up the good work and writing.
P.S.: I'd go with keeping my dwarf unnamed.
Platinum is the best, but you can only get platinum hammers from artifacts. Silver is the best weapons-grade warhammer material.
-
Here sits Monom Rigňthegeb, a skinny, middle-aged dwarf whose appearance is almost too normal. Monom is crippled by shyness, and as such has no friends and doesn't talk to his family. He believes in TOBUL THE MINE OF GEMS, a dwarven god associated with earth, but you could hardly describe him as a worshiper - he only gives token offerings when he's about to go hunting for gemstones.
He hasn't been very happy lately. Monom is the fortress jeweler, and in a fortress founded for the purposes of war and provocation, there isn't much work for a dwarf who cuts little pieces of shiny rock into even smaller pieces of shiny rock. However, his fortune is about to change.
Journal of Monom, Early Spring 177
This place sucks. I have no idea what the recruiter was smoking but oh. my. god. this place is not at all like what I was told it would be. Sure, the mines are strewn with raw gemstones the size of my head, and unlike the mountainhome I have no competition when it comes to who gets to cut the rarest gems, but have I actually been able to practice my craft? NO!! I've been at Smithsoldiers for two seasons now, and all I've done is haul wood. That's all most of us do. No, I don't know why, all I know is that outside, it smells like moss and fresh air and blooming wildflowers. And that's terrible!
(https://i.imgur.com/b2eZduE.png)
Monom has been distracted lately.
There's a new guy in charge - Doren. He's the know-nothing husband of Zon, who everyone knows is the corrupt queen's lackey. No doubt he shouldn't be here, as he's a novice in what he does (smithing, I believe). How he was allowed to take the role of administrator is anybody's guess, though I would bet my steady hands that it had something to do with Zon.
That's how this little outpost got started, by the way - the queen wanted a war to quiet the nobility back home, so Zon agreed to spearhead a preemptive strike against the goblins. I didn't know any of this before I arrived, I've just heard the talk around the tavern, but it all makes sense to me. This civilization is corrupt as hell. Oh how naive I was, to think that the lies and deception wouldn't follow me here, to think I would have a fresh start on the frontier.
I'd like to have a word with the dwarf that got me signed up for this place.
Journal of Monom, Spring 177
Doren's first move was surprisingly good - a push to discover and breach the cavern layers. All jeweler's know that the exposed rock surfaces of the caverns are the best places to hunt for veins of gemstone. If enough gems are discovered, someone might finally remember I exist.
(https://i.imgur.com/TyRFWzw.png)
Doren also spoke of a grand 'labor reassignment' in the next month, but wouldn't give any details - I wonder what he means?
Any news on the fort?
-
Had a busy week, now that it's the weekend expect an update later today :D
-
Had a busy week, now that it's the weekend expect an update later today :D
Don't really blame you- I'm pretty sure it's been a hellish week for everyone.
-
(https://i.imgur.com/ESczWFs.png)
"What is your name?"
"Zuglar Idenmat, though my friends call me Zug."
"What are your skills?"
"Sir, I have made cheese for thirty years. Before me, my mother made cheese. And her mother as well. And her mother's mother, my great grandmother, was the first dwarf to milk an antelope. And do you know what she did with that milk? She made cheese from it! I have made every kind of the cheese there is, from blue to sour and even the kind with little maggots in it. I have sold cheese wheels worth more than all the wealth in this fortress. To sum it up, I am an expert in the field of cheese."
"Do you have two hands?"
"I . . . what?"
"I said, do you have two functioning hands? Any history of nerve damage?"
Zuglar looks down at his hands, who wave back at him in a profoundly functional way.
"I uh, yes to the first question and no to the second. But I can assure you, one can easily make cheese with just one arm, I used to know a guy in my hometown who did just that! His name was Gode-"
"That's enough, thank you." With a solid thwack, the lone dwarf behind the long desk stamps a thin paper, which is then signed and place into a waiting pile to the side.
"Our migration officers have concluded their review of your information. You have been volunteered for the axe militia. You can pick up your gear on the third floor, near the smithy. Due to a need for cohesion between soldiers, you will not be assigned private quarters and will need to collect any other belongings and bring them to the first floor barracks. If you have any questions talk to Asën, your captain. Thank you and have a nice day."
Zuglar, who is so shocked he cannot move or speak (though he could probably make cheese, such is his skill), is then grabbed by a waiting burly-dwarf and kicked out of the room.
"Next!"
Journal of Salmeuk, Administrator - Mid Spring 177
I don't have much time to write, as I have another round of dwarves to interview. But this recruitment is going well - as I expected, half of the workless dwarves are fit for military duty. Some of them are even trained soliders! They are a lazy lot, but most are strong enough to take a beating. The other, weaker dwarves are being placed into one of four standardized roles, either laborer or craftsdwarf, or farmer or smith. Simply put, we don't have time for beekeeping, nor cheesemaking, nor any of the other more willowy kinds of pursuits the less practical types get up to back at the mountainhome. At least, that's what Zon tells me. She says, 'More soliders! More weapons! The goblins are coming!' and who am I to argue? I've never even _seen_ a goblin, and frankly I hope I never do. Why do you think I married Zon?
I must go, but take note - this job is not as difficult as I imagined it would be.
Journal of Salmeuk, Administrator - Late Spring 177
Working with our architects, we designed an insulated cavern pasture for our grazing animals in the event of a siege.
(https://i.imgur.com/jyVbdPU.png)
Construction continues down at the forges. The structures are mostly complete, but none of the ore and fuel has moved yet.
(https://i.imgur.com/foBuyz4.png)
A small stoneworks has been located near the forges.
(https://i.imgur.com/HFBQKmX.png)
I talked with the mechanics, and they have been busy expanding our cage trap defenses. There was mention of a second layer of traps, as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/BCxCaHb.png)
Summer has arrived.
------------------------------------------
Had a busy week, now that it's the weekend expect an update later today :D
Don't really blame you- I'm pretty sure it's been a hellish week for everyone.
Tell me about it, I live in Seattle, it's a bit crazy around here to say the least. Luckily I've got DF to keep me busy inside.
here, suggest to me a new name for our hammerdwarf squad! I made two new axe squads, The Black Axee and The Crescent Blades, while Zon's Razor is a speardwarf squad.
(https://i.imgur.com/wLEaQqc.png)
-
(https://i.imgur.com/ESczWFs.png)
"What is your name?"
"Zuglar Idenmat, though my friends call me Zug."
"What are your skills?"
"Sir, I have made cheese for thirty years. Before me, my mother made cheese. And her mother as well. And her mother's mother, my great grandmother, was the first dwarf to milk an antelope. And do you know what she did with that milk? She made cheese from it! I have made every kind of the cheese there is, from blue to sour and even the kind with little maggots in it. I have sold cheese wheels worth more than all the wealth in this fortress. To sum it up, I am an expert in the field of cheese."
"Do you have two hands?"
"I . . . what?"
"I said, do you have two functioning hands? Any history of nerve damage?"
Zuglar looks down at his hands, who wave back at him in a profoundly functional way.
"I uh, yes to the first question and no to the second. But I can assure you, one can easily make cheese with just one arm, I used to know a guy in my hometown who did just that! His name was Gode-"
"That's enough, thank you." With a solid thwack, the lone dwarf behind the long desk stamps a thin paper, which is then signed and place into a waiting pile to the side.
"Our migration officers have concluded their review of your information. You have been volunteered for the axe militia. You can pick up your gear on the third floor, near the smithy. Due to a need for cohesion between soldiers, you will not be assigned private quarters and will need to collect any other belongings and bring them to the first floor barracks. If you have any questions talk to Asën, your captain. Thank you and have a nice day."
Zuglar, who is so shocked he cannot move or speak (though he could probably make cheese, such is his skill), is then grabbed by a waiting burly-dwarf and kicked out of the room.
"Next!"
Journal of Salmeuk, Administrator - Mid Spring 177
I don't have much time to write, as I have another round of dwarves to interview. But this recruitment is going well - as I expected, half of the workless dwarves are fit for military duty. Some of them are even trained soliders! They are a lazy lot, but most are strong enough to take a beating. The other, weaker dwarves are being placed into one of four standardized roles, either laborer or craftsdwarf, or farmer or smith. Simply put, we don't have time for beekeeping, nor cheesemaking, nor any of the other more willowy kinds of pursuits the less practical types get up to back at the mountainhome. At least, that's what Zon tells me. She says, 'More soliders! More weapons! The goblins are coming!' and who am I to argue? I've never even _seen_ a goblin, and frankly I hope I never do. Why do you think I married Zon?
I must go, but take note - this job is not as difficult as I imagined it would be.
Journal of Salmeuk, Administrator - Late Spring 177
Working with our architects, we designed an insulated cavern pasture for our grazing animals in the event of a siege.
(https://i.imgur.com/jyVbdPU.png)
Construction continues down at the forges. The structures are mostly complete, but none of the ore and fuel has moved yet.
(https://i.imgur.com/foBuyz4.png)
A small stoneworks has been located near the forges.
(https://i.imgur.com/HFBQKmX.png)
I talked with the mechanics, and they have been busy expanding our cage trap defenses. There was mention of a second layer of traps, as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/BCxCaHb.png)
Summer has arrived.
------------------------------------------
Had a busy week, now that it's the weekend expect an update later today :D
Don't really blame you- I'm pretty sure it's been a hellish week for everyone.
Tell me about it, I live in Seattle, it's a bit crazy around here to say the least. Luckily I've got DF to keep me busy inside.
here, suggest to me a new name for our hammerdwarf squad! I made two new axe squads, The Black Axee and The Crescent Blades, while Zon's Razor is a speardwarf squad.
(https://i.imgur.com/wLEaQqc.png)
Heh, I could probably drive to you within an hour if I really wanted to.
The Slammerlords for the squad name- it's too cheesy to pass up.
EDIT: Just learnt "Zon" means helm. Perfect.
-
I fully support that Hammerdwarf squad's name.
That interview scene was quite well-written, and I'll admit I laughed at the cheesemaker's 'volunteering'. Keep up the good writing.
A second layer of traps would be good - I'd advise putting them up top, where the migrants (I think) usually come from and where our highest walls are. Would let us cover our collective rears, rather than finding a Beak Dog chomping on them.
-
We need something to spice up this fort a little bit- currently, it's a normal old dead civ fort. We need a twist.
Salmuek, have you provoked the goblins yet?
-
(https://i.imgur.com/ESczWFs.png)
"What is your name?"
"Zuglar Idenmat, though my friends call me Zug."
"What are your skills?"
"Sir, I have made cheese for thirty years. Before me, my mother made cheese. And her mother as well. And her mother's mother, my great grandmother, was the first dwarf to milk an antelope. And do you know what she did with that milk? She made cheese from it! I have made every kind of the cheese there is, from blue to sour and even the kind with little maggots in it. I have sold cheese wheels worth more than all the wealth in this fortress. To sum it up, I am an expert in the field of cheese."
"Do you have two hands?"
"I . . . what?"
"I said, do you have two functioning hands? Any history of nerve damage?"
Zuglar looks down at his hands, who wave back at him in a profoundly functional way.
"I uh, yes to the first question and no to the second. But I can assure you, one can easily make cheese with just one arm, I used to know a guy in my hometown who did just that! His name was Gode-"
"That's enough, thank you." With a solid thwack, the lone dwarf behind the long desk stamps a thin paper, which is then signed and place into a waiting pile to the side.
"Our migration officers have concluded their review of your information. You have been volunteered for the axe militia. You can pick up your gear on the third floor, near the smithy. Due to a need for cohesion between soldiers, you will not be assigned private quarters and will need to collect any other belongings and bring them to the first floor barracks. If you have any questions talk to Asën, your captain. Thank you and have a nice day."
Zuglar, who is so shocked he cannot move or speak (though he could probably make cheese, such is his skill), is then grabbed by a waiting burly-dwarf and kicked out of the room.
"Next!"
Journal of Salmeuk, Administrator - Mid Spring 177
I don't have much time to write, as I have another round of dwarves to interview. But this recruitment is going well - as I expected, half of the workless dwarves are fit for military duty. Some of them are even trained soliders! They are a lazy lot, but most are strong enough to take a beating. The other, weaker dwarves are being placed into one of four standardized roles, either laborer or craftsdwarf, or farmer or smith. Simply put, we don't have time for beekeeping, nor cheesemaking, nor any of the other more willowy kinds of pursuits the less practical types get up to back at the mountainhome. At least, that's what Zon tells me. She says, 'More soliders! More weapons! The goblins are coming!' and who am I to argue? I've never even _seen_ a goblin, and frankly I hope I never do. Why do you think I married Zon?
I must go, but take note - this job is not as difficult as I imagined it would be.
Journal of Salmeuk, Administrator - Late Spring 177
Working with our architects, we designed an insulated cavern pasture for our grazing animals in the event of a siege.
(https://i.imgur.com/jyVbdPU.png)
Construction continues down at the forges. The structures are mostly complete, but none of the ore and fuel has moved yet.
(https://i.imgur.com/foBuyz4.png)
A small stoneworks has been located near the forges.
(https://i.imgur.com/HFBQKmX.png)
I talked with the mechanics, and they have been busy expanding our cage trap defenses. There was mention of a second layer of traps, as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/BCxCaHb.png)
Summer has arrived.
------------------------------------------
Had a busy week, now that it's the weekend expect an update later today :D
Don't really blame you- I'm pretty sure it's been a hellish week for everyone.
Tell me about it, I live in Seattle, it's a bit crazy around here to say the least. Luckily I've got DF to keep me busy inside.
here, suggest to me a new name for our hammerdwarf squad! I made two new axe squads, The Black Axee and The Crescent Blades, while Zon's Razor is a speardwarf squad.
(https://i.imgur.com/wLEaQqc.png)
Reminder that you have two days left. Since no one else wants to claim, however, I'm sure we can get an extension for you if you need it.
-
The human caravan arrived. We traded a large number of wooden cages for food and material. We also traded insults, you know, because they are dirty humans, and were probably thinking smug thoughts anyways. One of them had also tried to sell us a disturbingly written book of the author's first-hand account of murdering someone else.
(https://i.imgur.com/yu9DwdX.png)
I don't understand how these Humans think they have the moral high ground when they produce crap like this.
===========
Then, DwarvenLord, bellowing from outside, "There's a demon in the trees!"
(https://i.imgur.com/bYm6tyY.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/XTXGaCJ.png)
Meanwhile, DwarvenLord was running to the mudstone bridge that spanned the fortress's shallow moat. "I should have plenty of time to cross before the creature reaches me," or so he thought. The creature had other plans, and with a great burst of speed it launched high above the moat, rebounding off the brick wall onto the bridge and in front of an astonished DwarvenLord.
(https://i.imgur.com/l0i2OoD.png)
wtf this ACTUALLY happened in game
Not astonished enough to forget his training, DwarvenLord took the first swing, and landed a penetrating blow to the hand of the creature - who replied with a deep CRUNCH as it chomped down on DwarvenLord's own hand! The two began to fight, though it was really more of a massacre on both sides - neither saw fit to avoid the other's attacks, and so each blow cut, sliced, gouged and ripped. The stone was slick with blood yet they fought on, though DwarvenLord was beginning to slow. Where were the Slammerlords??
(https://i.imgur.com/hqky3sd.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/eZu7tZV.png)
And then, suddenly, all was quiet, save for the dripping wounds of the champion - DwarvenLord, He who bested the demon from the trees, and He who suffered gravely to stop tragedy. His thoughts were conflicted,
(https://i.imgur.com/yBdxsYn.png)
but the battle was over and he. had. won!
---
After we had recovered DwarvenLord, and placed him in the general hospital, Zon was the first out to inspect the corpse. Whatever had attacked DwarvenLord was viscious as it was small, and none of us immediately recognized it. Zon kicked over the blood-soaked creature, and gasped and stepped back. The face was heavily wounded, but underneath the blood and gore was a horribly twisted nightmare. A face, shaped like that of a lizard with side-facing eyes and a jutting snout, but overlaid with the eyes and mouth of a human child! I couldn't look more than a second before I shut my eyes.
Zon seized me. "Where did DwarvenLord go? We need to quarantine him, now!"
"What do you mean? He's wounded, certainly, but the doctor already checked him for poison or disease and found nothing."
"He was looking for the wrong disease! I've seen this kind of creature before. One bite will curse victim, and when the full moon rises, what was once an innocent soul becomes a twisted, violent parody of itself. The curse is incurable, though luckily the victim retains their sanity, at least until the change occurs. If he isn't entombed behind a thick wall in the next hours we might all die."
"Oh my god!"
And so we moved him into the mayors office.He was too drunk to care, though it was quite funny when he came back the next day and found a solid wall in place of his doorway.
(https://i.imgur.com/fJ3fCBC.png)
==========
At some point a troll attacked, and it was taken care of before I even noticed:
(https://i.imgur.com/02Xgh4Q.png)
I'd recognize that blood anywhere.
Also, one of our dwarves created a solid gold animal trap. Gaudy but expensive.
(https://i.imgur.com/56O50jN.png)
==========
Holy shit that epic wallrun, I wish I had caught it in .gif form. I still am not used to the A.I. sometimes preferring these alternate pathings. Or its just so unexpected, but then makes perfect sense if you consider how agile a small chameleon-creature thing would be!
And my god I am glad I didn't kill a named dwarf. DwarvenLord, you picked your character well - that fight was a brutal test.
RE: attacking the gobbos, what do you think all these recruits are for >:D
Slow going, fighting always slows things down, but I should have another entry tomorrow. DwarvenLord, any requests for your now-quarantined character? I am happy to shuffle them around during the off-moon days if you want a little exclusion chamber in the caverns, or something.
-
Ha! That was epic, I'm happy he dealt with the poor child. Could I see his personality? I want to base what he does on his character.
-
Here you go! I only have winter left but I will try to accommodate your wishes..
(https://i.imgur.com/wJsTdH9.png)
-
Based on that, I think she'll just chill in the blocked off room, proud of her achievement but sad of her curse. Could you make a chute for food/drink? She doesn't need it, but she deserves it.
-
Based on that, I think she'll just chill in the blocked off room, proud of her achievement but sad of her curse. Could you make a chute for food/drink? She doesn't need it, but she deserves it.
We'll chuck a few roasted plump helmets in with her (I did not realize 'he' was a 'she' in game!) and occasionally talk to her through a small grate in the stone.
Final update tomorrow!
-
Well, that was certainly Fun.
I fully agree that the wall-run was epic, as was DL's fight with that Werebeast (Armok rest their soul). Should make for some badass engravings, maybe get commemorated in a craft or two. Good to hear about the comms idea - she may be cursed in Armok's eyes, but she's still a badass and deserves the treatment of one. (Though for some, we may have just found a rather useful Noble Disposal System).
As for the gobbos, that'll hopefully give us a few veteran troops (at least, it'll be population control). Plus, we'll finally have a 'sustainable' supply of livestock for a meat and rendering industry - those Beak Dogs make for good eating as much as they provide fat for soap. I must ask, though, where were the Slammerlords and the rest of the military during this?
Also, a solid gold artefact animal trap? Not too bad, could be a useful trade good if we don't have too many vermin running about.
Thanks for your continued work and excellent writing!
-
Here's what happened in Summer and Fall, not necessarily in character:
Astesh created an extremely useful legendary granite hatch cover! I installed this in the surface fortress to keep out any flying megabeasts.
(https://i.imgur.com/bLWimGs.png)
Food is good, 'nuff said.
(https://i.imgur.com/Huvbftp.png)
This is the slowly expanding forge. Wood on the left arrives by dropchute, is turned into charcoal, which is then used to smelt all kinds of goodies.
(https://i.imgur.com/pYlxUc5.png)
We breached the second cavern layer, and quickly walled it off. A beautiful formation of marble, this would be a great place for a cavern barracks.
(https://i.imgur.com/dIKlo0d.png)
I constructed a solid gold dining room in the mudstone layers. If these dwarves are real dwarves, and I suspect they are due to their conspicuous consumption of alcohol, they will enjoy this greatly. The floor is alternating lead and gold.
(https://i.imgur.com/ih9QeP9.png)
We had a problem with corpse hauling, and the werechamelon had begun to rot where it fell. So I got a bright idea to raise the bridge. .
(https://i.imgur.com/raK6zMY.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/e0FXdUb.png)
That takes care of that.
I sent out an expedition consisting of our greenest warriors, equipped with sparse armor and basic iron axes. They returned, though one warrior had gone missing, so I launched a second expedition which has yet to return.
(https://i.imgur.com/wdM23sl.png)
Out of the blue, Ral has been declared King! I have no clue when or what or why this happened, but now he's demanding a 'king's share' of the resources. I designed a palace but I doubt it will be finished by the time I step down.
(https://i.imgur.com/arJqNR7.png)
============
On the second day of Winter, all was quiet, and the bright, cool sun shone down on the dwarves as they went about their business. Then, a commotion and shouting from above. A captured human!
(https://i.imgur.com/lazoLf4.png)
A particularly dirty specimen, and the whole time we interrogated him he kept trying to jab us through the cage bars with one of his arrows. He finally revealed he had arrived to steal one of our most precious artifacts, The Autumnal Umbra, an iron figurine of dwarves. While we try to keep these precious objects secret, one of the traders must have heard about it and passed the word along to the wrong person.
(https://i.imgur.com/VtP2mW4.png)
Then, a second human! Also easily captured in our well-hidden traps. A macewoman this time, and she had also come for The Autumnal Umbra. This is not good, since every cage taken up with a prisoner is one more gap in our defenses. If any others were to come we might have to fight them back. . .
(https://i.imgur.com/USqeFRv.png)
Less than a day later the goblins attacked from the north. Not many, only a small squad of 5 or so, but it was proof they had discovered our outpost. Most dwarves were inside, so we were about to shut the gates, when we heard calls from the south -
(https://i.imgur.com/WGn40kt.png)
"Hoi! We're back from the rescue mission, and we've brought friends!" Asen and his axedwarves had returned at _exactly_ the moment they shouldn't have.
We might have left the gate open and ushered them in at the last moment, but again the decision came back to relative risk. They would LIKELY win in a fight against the goblins, and as soldiers they were expected to risk their lives for the good of the fortress. I made the decision for them and shut the bridge. Now we just had to wait for the news, however good or bad it may be. . .
-
There were three locked outside with the goblins. Mörul and Asën, with masterwork axes and mudstone jewelry, and the human Erab Friendcloud, who might not have volunteered for the dwarven military if she had known it would end up with her outnumbered and locked outside.
Still, it was Mörul and Asën who she was trapped with, the two most experienced warriors in the squad. Mörul knew what happened the moment the bridge shut, of course, for that dwarf had an aptitude for reasoning unlike any other.
"We've been calculated against, for the supposed safety of the fortress. Now we might die!"
Then, a strategy was thrown into action. The three dwarves positioned themselves at the far end of the cage traps, and held their ground while the goblins approached. This was when it became apparent there were more than just goblins lurking in the forest - another shadow revealed itself to be a third treasure hunter!
Strangely, the goblins took their time, practically waltzing through the field of fallen trunks. In fact, it didn't seem like they were expecting combat at all!
Mörul spoke with a sudden clarity. "Is it possible they haven't spotted the fortress yet? Perhaps this is just a lost scouting party, wandering their way back home. It would make sense considering how few goblins there are. If that's the case, we can't let them escape and tell the others!" A few moments later, the order was given.
(https://i.imgur.com/xDfqfvN.png)
Inside, Zon knew something was wrong. It was too quiet. She vaulted up the stairs to look down from the fortress scaffolding, surmising the situation.
(https://i.imgur.com/A7KOpL1.png)
There were certainly fewer goblins than they expected! A sudden strike might be best. .
The bridge lever was pulled. Would the fight be over before the mechanisms worked?
===========
They only remembered these events afterwards, but this fight had perhaps the strangest opening shot any dwarf could remember, and they still can't agree what exactly happened! Mörul remembered it best: Just as the combatants were about to clash, a single, gleaming arrow whistled out from the trees and struck one of the goblins in the foot, and as they were falling from the pain a cage trap snatched them right up! Immediately the odds became 4 to 3. A great opening, for sure, _but who fired that arrow?_ (no really wtf, was it that treasure hunter missing a shot or something? They had somehow disappeared from the unit list, and there was no combat report of the arrow being fired. . . )
Only glancing blows and missed shots, at first, but Erab our human volunteer landed a slicing blow and brought another goblin down. Now it was 3 to 3.
(https://i.imgur.com/bHJsc0a.png)
Another blow was landed, this time cutting through to the brain.
(https://i.imgur.com/HCEaYkp.png)
Now outnumbered 2 to 3, and the goblins were trying to run.
Or that's what we thought! They quickly turned and landed a cheap blow to Mörul's knee, collapsing the leg and leaving him all too vulnerable. Neither remaining goblin had taken a hit, and they just move so damn fast you can't tell what their striking at!
(https://i.imgur.com/vzMhikk.png)
Just when things were looking bad, we heard a sudden SNAP SNAP as two finely-balanced mechanisms, having been crafted by Besmar Pathgorge some months earlier, engaged under the pressure of the goblins backstep and shut them in secure wooden cages. Bringing a close to the fighting.
==========
I walked alongside Mörul as he was brought to the dirt-floored hospital that would become his knew home for the next few weeks. He winced as he spoke, and I had the feeling that he would have been shouting had he been in a better state of health.
"You know you made a mistake. They were only a handful, and we had our best soldiers locked up for no good reason. It could have been different!"
"Look, I'm not sure I can say anything but I made the best decision I possibly could have, given what we knew. I thought your whole squad was outside, but two of you snuck in before the gate was shut. I think you should take it up with them!"
This was true - two of his squadmates had sprinted through the closing gate. We grilled them inside for abandoning captain Mörul, but they both had excuses. It had been weeks since the squad had eaten, and food was all they could think of! These dwarves are too much sometimes.
In any case, I took this particular conversation to heart and chose to step down after a few weeks of thought. Zon was not happy, but I gave her a choice: either I step down or I go insane from the stress of knowing I'm truly not fit for the role. With that, she relented, and as spring announced itself with the budding of the cherry trees, I passed the role of administrator to my successor.
...
Or at least that's how I wish it had gone down. Not three days after the goblin encounter, another werechameleon attacked!
(https://i.imgur.com/AOKDAjp.png)
A fully grown specimen ambushed our mason as he was hauling wood down to the forges. In a ridiculous twist, the chameleon was distracted by a stray cat who happened to be hunting bugs near the woodpile, and the two ran off into the undergrowth.
(https://i.imgur.com/YvcXn5s.png)
That cat was never seen again, but it's death bought us the time we needed to assemble outside the gates. When the beast appeared, jaws dripping with blood and bits of fur, we were ready.
(https://i.imgur.com/gM6QWJg.png)
And it was over in ten seconds. More of an execution, than anything else. There was a lot of pent-up stress in these dwarves, and it was all released on Bosa the werecreature. I saw things done with a warhammer I wish I could forget.
(https://i.imgur.com/63ZbwgJ.png)
Wha . . ? Mörul has become possessed by some unknown spirit!
(https://i.imgur.com/c6yZQJP.png)
He is now crawling across the fortress, looking for _something_. He crawled his way to the forges and claimed a glass furnace.
(https://i.imgur.com/K1y09zs.png)
Ah well, so much for the epic post-combat artifact commemorating his victory over the goblins! I guess that's what the earring is for.
And finally, a report was delivered about the botched raid that was sent out back in Fall. Two were taken prisoner and are still held by the goblins. Something must be done!
(https://i.imgur.com/5dCtgh6.png)
And with that, the year really did end, and now it's up to whoever is next to continue the story. Thanks for reading!
==========
Here's the layout of the workshops level. Please note the brand new gem vault in the lower righthand corner. Use it for what you will, but I have it currently set up to take all the beautiful cut gems and show them off in a pleasing pattern.
(https://i.imgur.com/e9gN1SH.png)
Here's the save:
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14946
PS: Our new king went 'missing'.
(https://i.imgur.com/0EvwQP2.png)
We're going to pretend I didn't smash him with a bridge, accidentally, when the goblins arrived, due to a mis-laid burrow designation. Nuh uh. Didn't do it. The bright side is someone gets to have his palace!
-
Soooo... Is Quantum going to have another turn or are we going to wait for someone else to claim?
-
Soooo... Is Quantum going to have another turn or are we going to wait for someone else to claim?
Give it 2-3 days. If no-one claims, I'll take another turn; either of you can claim a second go, if you want to.
There were three locked outside with the goblins. Mörul and Asën, with masterwork axes and mudstone jewelry, and the human Erab Friendcloud, who might not have volunteered for the dwarven military if she had known it would end up with her outnumbered and locked outside.
Still, it was Mörul and Asën who she was trapped with, the two most experienced warriors in the squad. Mörul knew what happened the moment the bridge shut, of course, for that dwarf had an aptitude for reasoning unlike any other.
"We've been calculated against, for the supposed safety of the fortress. Now we might die!"
Then, a strategy was thrown into action. The three dwarves positioned themselves at the far end of the cage traps, and held their ground while the goblins approached. This was when it became apparent there were more than just goblins lurking in the forest - another shadow revealed itself to be a third treasure hunter!
Strangely, the goblins took their time, practically waltzing through the field of fallen trunks. In fact, it didn't seem like they were expecting combat at all!
Mörul spoke with a sudden clarity. "Is it possible they haven't spotted the fortress yet? Perhaps this is just a lost scouting party, wandering their way back home. It would make sense considering how few goblins there are. If that's the case, we can't let them escape and tell the others!" A few moments later, the order was given.
(https://i.imgur.com/xDfqfvN.png)
Inside, Zon knew something was wrong. It was too quiet. She vaulted up the stairs to look down from the fortress scaffolding, surmising the situation.
(https://i.imgur.com/A7KOpL1.png)
There were certainly fewer goblins than they expected! A sudden strike might be best. .
The bridge lever was pulled. Would the fight be over before the mechanisms worked?
===========
They only remembered these events afterwards, but this fight had perhaps the strangest opening shot any dwarf could remember, and they still can't agree what exactly happened! Mörul remembered it best: Just as the combatants were about to clash, a single, gleaming arrow whistled out from the trees and struck one of the goblins in the foot, and as they were falling from the pain a cage trap snatched them right up! Immediately the odds became 4 to 3. A great opening, for sure, _but who fired that arrow?_ (no really wtf, was it that treasure hunter missing a shot or something? They had somehow disappeared from the unit list, and there was no combat report of the arrow being fired. . . )
Only glancing blows and missed shots, at first, but Erab our human volunteer landed a slicing blow and brought another goblin down. Now it was 3 to 3.
(https://i.imgur.com/bHJsc0a.png)
Another blow was landed, this time cutting through to the brain.
(https://i.imgur.com/HCEaYkp.png)
Now outnumbered 2 to 3, and the goblins were trying to run.
Or that's what we thought! They quickly turned and landed a cheap blow to Mörul's knee, collapsing the leg and leaving him all too vulnerable. Neither remaining goblin had taken a hit, and they just move so damn fast you can't tell what their striking at!
(https://i.imgur.com/vzMhikk.png)
Just when things were looking bad, we heard a sudden SNAP SNAP as two finely-balanced mechanisms, having been crafted by Besmar Pathgorge some months earlier, engaged under the pressure of the goblins backstep and shut them in secure wooden cages. Bringing a close to the fighting.
==========
I walked alongside Mörul as he was brought to the dirt-floored hospital that would become his knew home for the next few weeks. He winced as he spoke, and I had the feeling that he would have been shouting had he been in a better state of health.
"You know you made a mistake. They were only a handful, and we had our best soldiers locked up for no good reason. It could have been different!"
"Look, I'm not sure I can say anything but I made the best decision I possibly could have, given what we knew. I thought your whole squad was outside, but two of you snuck in before the gate was shut. I think you should take it up with them!"
This was true - two of his squadmates had sprinted through the closing gate. We grilled them inside for abandoning captain Mörul, but they both had excuses. It had been weeks since the squad had eaten, and food was all they could think of! These dwarves are too much sometimes.
In any case, I took this particular conversation to heart and chose to step down after a few weeks of thought. Zon was not happy, but I gave her a choice: either I step down or I go insane from the stress of knowing I'm truly not fit for the role. With that, she relented, and as spring announced itself with the budding of the cherry trees, I passed the role of administrator to my successor.
...
Or at least that's how I wish it had gone down. Not three days after the goblin encounter, another werechameleon attacked!
(https://i.imgur.com/AOKDAjp.png)
A fully grown specimen ambushed our mason as he was hauling wood down to the forges. In a ridiculous twist, the chameleon was distracted by a stray cat who happened to be hunting bugs near the woodpile, and the two ran off into the undergrowth.
(https://i.imgur.com/YvcXn5s.png)
That cat was never seen again, but it's death bought us the time we needed to assemble outside the gates. When the beast appeared, jaws dripping with blood and bits of fur, we were ready.
(https://i.imgur.com/gM6QWJg.png)
And it was over in ten seconds. More of an execution, than anything else. There was a lot of pent-up stress in these dwarves, and it was all released on Bosa the werecreature. I saw things done with a warhammer I wish I could forget.
(https://i.imgur.com/63ZbwgJ.png)
Wha . . ? Mörul has become possessed by some unknown spirit!
(https://i.imgur.com/c6yZQJP.png)
He is now crawling across the fortress, looking for _something_. He crawled his way to the forges and claimed a glass furnace.
(https://i.imgur.com/K1y09zs.png)
Ah well, so much for the epic post-combat artifact commemorating his victory over the goblins! I guess that's what the earring is for.
And finally, a report was delivered about the botched raid that was sent out back in Fall. Two were taken prisoner and are still held by the goblins. Something must be done!
(https://i.imgur.com/5dCtgh6.png)
And with that, the year really did end, and now it's up to whoever is next to continue the story. Thanks for reading!
==========
Here's the layout of the workshops level. Please note the brand new gem vault in the lower righthand corner. Use it for what you will, but I have it currently set up to take all the beautiful cut gems and show them off in a pleasing pattern.
(https://i.imgur.com/e9gN1SH.png)
Here's the save:
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14946
PS: Our new king went 'missing'.
(https://i.imgur.com/0EvwQP2.png)
We're going to pretend I didn't smash him with a bridge, accidentally, when the goblins arrived, due to a mis-laid burrow designation. Nuh uh. Didn't do it. The bright side is someone gets to have his palace!
Good to see we've got some Gobbos in cages. Could use them for live training, or set up a little arena of some sort. Nice work dealing with the werebeast - good thing it didn't infect any of the others while it was here.
The Gem Vault looks quite good; great work on the forges and general industrial area of the fort. Should provide plenty of storage and goods in the time to come.
Seeing the fate of that king, I am officially cackling. Even if it wasn't on purpose.
Thanks for all the work you've done, Salmeuk.
-
No, thank you for reading! I got carried away with explaining every little part of my turn and it kind of made it tough to play. I can knock out a year in-game in about 3 hours of playtime, but when documenting your turn everything takes so much longer since you have to pause and comprehend all the little events. If I played again I would probably shorten my logs a bit.
I say go for another turn. This fortress might get veeeery interesting in the next year, especially if you start sending missions out.
-
Yeah, I'll claim again- but if anyone new claims, put me after them.
-
Yeah, I'll claim again- but if anyone new claims, put me after them.
Just so I know for certain, would that make the current turn order:
- Potential new player
- Me (if no-one claims)
- DwarvenLord
Or am I brain-farting again?
No, thank you for reading! I got carried away with explaining every little part of my turn and it kind of made it tough to play. I can knock out a year in-game in about 3 hours of playtime, but when documenting your turn everything takes so much longer since you have to pause and comprehend all the little events. If I played again I would probably shorten my logs a bit.
I say go for another turn. This fortress might get veeeery interesting in the next year, especially if you start sending missions out.
Yeah, I know how that feels. All the screenshotting, clipping, and writing makes it take so much longer, but it's worth it in the end.
I will admit, all the little explanations were pretty good - really helped get a clear picture of what was going on in the fort.
-
Yeah, that'll work. I have a feeling no one else is going to claim though- someone prove me wrong, please.
-
Yeah, that'll work. I have a feeling no one else is going to claim though- someone prove me wrong, please.
Hello, this looks very interesting. Mind if I join in?
-
I doubt Quantum_Drop is going to stop you, so go right on ahead.
-
I doubt Quantum_Drop is going to stop you, so go right on ahead.
I'll just wait for the guy to come in and approve of me joining in.
-
I doubt Quantum_Drop is going to stop you, so go right on ahead.
I'll just wait for the guy to come in and approve of me joining in.
For the record, no approval to join is needed, just a claim in the thread. Go ahead and pick up the save. Hope you enjoy it!
-
I doubt Quantum_Drop is going to stop you, so go right on ahead.
I'll just wait for the guy to come in and approve of me joining in.
For the record, no approval to join is needed, just a claim in the thread. Go ahead and pick up the save. Hope you enjoy it!
Sorry again but it seems that something came up and I don't think I'll be able to play at anytime now due to work.
-
I doubt Quantum_Drop is going to stop you, so go right on ahead.
I'll just wait for the guy to come in and approve of me joining in.
For the record, no approval to join is needed, just a claim in the thread. Go ahead and pick up the save. Hope you enjoy it!
Sorry again but it seems that something came up and I don't think I'll be able to play at anytime now due to work.
No worries and you're welcome back if you do find the time! There is a certain stress we are all experiencing right now, I don't think it can be helped.
-
I doubt Quantum_Drop is going to stop you, so go right on ahead.
I'll just wait for the guy to come in and approve of me joining in.
For the record, no approval to join is needed, just a claim in the thread. Go ahead and pick up the save. Hope you enjoy it!
Sorry again but it seems that something came up and I don't think I'll be able to play at anytime now due to work.
No problem. If/when you can play, I'll try to put you a bit higher in the queue for turns. For now, unless there are any objections, I'll go for another turn.
EDIT: Anyone able to tell me how to load the save? I've downloaded and extracted the save's folder to /data/saves, but the game doesn't show the 'continue' option.
EDIT2: That worked. Thanks, SEotE.
-
Try loading the save file on 47.04
-
For now, unless there are any objections, I'll go for another turn.
Looking forward to the action. Take care for those treasure hunters, I think there might be a whole lot more coming. . .
-
For now, unless there are any objections, I'll go for another turn.
Looking forward to the action. Take care for those treasure hunters, I think there might be a whole lot more coming. . .
Ask and ye shall receive.
Granite 1st, 178
-inally got away from those bastards in the capital, though not how I’d’ve liked it. Couple of the Preisthood’s Thralls showed and informed me I had the ‘honour’ of being selected as the next leader of that fort – Smith-something-or-other.
Personally, that’s a wagonload of shit. Maybe implying Baroness Bardumoddom shags Beak Dogs was a bit much, but then she shouldn’t have tried to muscle in on my business. Demanding I hand my captures over and sell goods straight to her for a ‘reward’? That ain’t how I do business, no sir!
Either way, I’m stuck with this.
I’ve heard rumours of this place – ‘parrently, it was made specifically to piss off the Goblins in the area. Not sure if it’s succeeded so far, but I can only hope there’s blood there.
Zefon willing, I won’t end up shanked in the back and thrown into the mire.
Well, I’ve reached the fort – Smithsoldier, apparently – and it ain’t looking too bad. Sorta.
There’s far too many bloody human bards for my taste, singing their silly little songs in some sort of meeting area. Why the idiots there were listening to them, instead of, y’know, working is fucking beyond me. And what, in Armok’s name, is with the howling from that sealed-up office? All the guys I’ve asked just mumbled something about ‘wallrunners’ and ‘infectious bites’ and a ‘hero’ before slamming back their drinks and loudly ordering another.
Anyway, met with the previous Overseer of this place. Some guy named Salmeuk – doesn’t seem too bad a guy, quite effective with his reorganisations and work, and he’s given me a mine’s worth of plans and notes detailing every little bit of the fort at current. That’ll see no end of usefulness in the coming days, I imagine.
Went on a little tour of the place: Salmeuk’s ‘reorganisation’ looks to have been a big one, with the spinal staircase and industrial centre of the caverns. Heavy emphasis on metals production; you can barely go a step without tripping on metal bars, or catching some smelter-smoke on the nose or in the throat. Bit of grumbling from a few workers when I asked about him, but most seem fairly supportive.
Then, there’s the Vault. Oh, sweet Armok and Avuz above, the Gem Vault.
Apparently, I passed out when I saw it. Straight-up passed out from joy at the sight of so much money-to-be; I think that’s hogwash. Just a bit of light-headedness, that all.
Defences up top (once my legs finished attempting to kill me) are solid – though I will admit, I was surprised by the caged menagerie of creatures. A few crow-people, some Goblins, even a couple humans, with signs on their cages reading ‘Thought they could steal Artefacts, were proven wrong’. Idiots, the both of them, though seeing some of the rowdier Recruits poking sticks at them was fairly funny.
Maybe we could add an archery range and fortifications here?
2nd-5th Granite
The natives of this fortress indicate that someone was captured during the assault against the vile Goblins – Shem Wasptomes, a Dwarf. Apparently, there was an attack on this very fortress by them scant days before my arrival; no casualties, and several Goblin-captures. I refuse to let their provocation go unanswered!
Three of the squads of this military were gathered in the barracks; I have ordered them to march north, and raze the Goblin holding of Kindledticks to the ground. If they are wise, they’ll salt the bloody earth and render it inhospitable enough no creature may ever live there again. With luck, that force should purify the place and return unscathed.
A messenger from the metalsmiths tells me that Iron Bars have been misplaced, and that it was the work of one… I can’t spell that name, moving swiftly on: The blame was laid on some Carpenter, but a quick check of Fortress Records indicate he died a while back. One of the Masons made some quaint religious sign, then dashed off to his workshop, saying something about a memorial slab to ‘appease the angry spirit, and entice him to the Sunless Country once more.’
In an effort to put those caged idiots up top to some use, I have ordered the construction of a mass-use pit. Assuming they are not so fragile as to die from the fall, the military will sacrifice them to Armok when we are done.
(https://i.imgur.com/2RhrUNG.png)
https://i.imgur.com/MAxhZnn.png
What th- A Goblin Bard, of all things, comes to us to entertain?!
…If someone put Quarry Bush in my rum again, I am going to throttle them.
7th Granite
(https://i.imgur.com/SUEX2jm.png?1)
Out of nowhere, a messenger brings word that Ast Bronzefought is to become King of The Bridled Pulley, our parent civilisation! Apparently, the old one vanished off the face of the world en route here.
No idea who killed him, but that Salmeuk guy looked oddly shifty when it was announced to the fort at large. Maybe… nah, was probably the bloody Gobbos. Armok alone knows those gits would’ve gone for him, important to us as he was.
In an effort to further fill out the Gem Vault- (obscured by drool stain) – have given the order for them to be put into construction; the jewellers will certainly be busy when they are finished, and my- our purses shall swell ever more!
You have got to be yanking my chain. A performance troupe has arrived, calling themselves the Crimson Gavels. One human followed by two of those filthy Goblins. I had to resist the urge to have the Guards gut them both on the spot, if only for reasons of our reputation; as it stands, they seem to be performing alongside the other Bards down on the ex-workshop levels.
9th Granite
You are ‘Zon’ Ironmarks, Captain of The Barricaded Trades, and you have reached the Pits of Kindleticked.
The Goblins claimed this place long ago, during the Long Night; they had boiled out of the ground in the Evil regions of the South, overrunning whole fortresses in a numberless tide of green horrors. There are still signs of the former Dwarven occupancy – a half-effaced mural here, a badly-defaced statue there, the corrupted, warped architecture of the walls. Defaced and tainted beyond salvation, but certainly not recognition.
Your squad stands at your backs, weapons readied and armoured bodies close. Iron armour is good, but enough Goblins show up, and they will find a way to breach your shell and cut you to shreds.
The creatures are there below, wandering about the terrain without a care in the world; you know better, directing your soldiers into ambush positions. They conceal themselves in the leaves and mud, others moving back to form an ‘anvil’ with their backs to the wall. You breathe in, breathe out, gauge the distance between the Goblins and your squad.
You move.
The Goblins see you in moments, charging towards them like a madman; eager cries come from their throats as they charge you in return. You pivot hard, rushing back towards your own lines. They follow, like the rabid beasts they are, screeching in their profane tongue and waving weapons eagerly. They are fools, blood-mad and hungry for a battle.
As the bulk of the Goblins enter your chosen area, the trap is sprung. Speardwarves erupt from the underbrush to drive spears through skin, bone, and muscle; Axedwarves follow suit, bursting forth to hack Goblins apart like wood. They wheel, suddenly terrified, comprehending the trap they have sprung.
The battle rages, but the Goblins stand little chance. In the space of moments, they are a broken mess of severed limbs, shattered bone, and pulped flesh, corpses strewn across the soil of their foul home. They live like beasts, and they die like them.
The gates of the Pit swing wide, and a horde of the damned pours forth. Trolls, Goblins, and-
Your blood runs cold for an instant, then ignites in terrible, burning hate.
Shem Wasptomes, the Dwarf you were sent here to rescue, leads the horde. His flesh bears the marks of horrific torture, entire sections wrenched upwards and barbed hooks embedded in his flesh. His lips, exposed by the helmet, are all but gone, the teeth chipped and bloodied; his nose little more than scraps. But the eyes… those horrify and enrage you the most.
Any semblance of the Dwarven spirit than animated him is gone. Hate, rage, torment – all that remains, the stare of a feral beast asking to be put out of its misery.
Before you have any chance to react, Zasit Boltopened plunges past. Hammer raised and a curse screaming from his lips, he moves with the speed of one possessed by Armok.
Two blows is all it takes.
The first bursts Shem’s left lower leg apart as though it is a rotten fruit; Zasit brings his hammer back into an upwards swing, driven by a berserker's fury. Shem’s head jerks back on his neck with such violence that you can see the bone protrude from the nape.
He crumples to the earth, and Zasit’s men plunge in after him. Any chance you have to assist him is gone in moments as the trolls charge you, a group twenty strong. Their barbaric howls ring from the walls as they come, a tide of flesh and raw, unholy hate.
Cursing aloud, you raise your weapon and brace yourself for the fight ahead.
You are ‘QD’ Practicedlashes, and you are currently drenched head to toe in blood.
(https://i.imgur.com/C3EZDQ7.png)
None of it is yours, of course. The colour is a dead giveaway, as are the bodies.
You stand at the centre of a circle of corpses, Goblin and troll alike. Your chest still heaves slightly with exertion, and your spear-hand shakes like that of a fresh recruit, but you feel as jubilant as the day you left the Mountainhomes for Smithsoldier. By Armok, it felt good, to plunge into the fire and strike with such force!
Your force had been able to push the beasts back, cutting a bloody swathe through the defenders, towards the walls of their foul mimicry of a fortress. The twenty trolls were little more than cannon fodder, their bodies swiftly speared and hammered into submission; the only real challenge came as you reached their defensive positions.
Then again, to call them ‘defensive’ positions would be…questionable. Little more than bashed together constructions of wood and soil, but they’d held them back long enough for enemy reinforcements to arrive. That had been Fun; there was barely enough room to wield his spear, and those trolls had gotten far too close for comfort, but the squad had managed to help drive them off.
The other squads hadn’t been as lucky. The other two leaders were incompetent idiots, and their tactics wanting – they were damned lucky there were no deaths, and only a few cuts and scrapes among their soldiers.
A loud whistle cuts through your memory. The order to march back to the Mountainhomes has been sent; you re-join your comrades, many laden down with treasure and pulling around eleven Beak Dogs on rope leads, for the long journey back home.
(https://i.imgur.com/OgT65fN.png?1)
(https://i.imgur.com/ECsBaZl.png?1)
11th Granite
Apparently, a Mason has been jailed for, quote-unquote, ‘[a] violation of production order’. 57 days remain on the sentence, apparently put in place by the damn Broker.
16th Granite
(https://i.imgur.com/WBLbAon.png?1)
Noting the number of Beak Dogs wandering this fort, I have ordered the bulk of them be put up for slaughter. Their meat and fat should prove quite useful for our rendering and soap-making industries, as well as providing some bones for Marksdwarf training at a later date.
(https://i.imgur.com/z87DeSD.png?1)
New bedrooms have been placed under construction due to the rapidly-increasing population – we have something like seventy-one Dwarves and Humans in this fort at the moment, and barely half that number in bedrooms. Despite what the one creepy guy near the shrines keep saying, I sorely doubt my comrades will react well to sleeping on hard rock.
You are ‘Zon’ Ironmarks, and you wished you would never have to set foot in this shithole again.
Kindledticks rises above you once more – your squad failed to cleanse this place last time, a few survivors lurking in the barrows and boltholes of the Pit. Now you will finish what they started, putting down the last few beasts that call this place home.
The survivors of your first assault sally out, hungry for blood and half-mad from trauma.
Just as you fear, another Dwarf leads them – it looks even more ravaged than the previous leader, burns, cuts, and protruding bones visible even from your distance. This must be the other prisoner, Ducim Tongsthroat.
Bloodlust overcomes two of your subordinates; driven by hate and the sight of their once-comrade’s fate, both squads rush forwards amidst a litany of war-cries. With little choice, your Speardwarves follow suit.
Cyan blood flies as trolls are cut down by axe and spear alike, little more than chaff against the blades of your troops. The remaining Goblins charge with the, only for the axe and speardwarves to cut them off – and indeed, going by blood-spurts, down – as the trolls meet their ends.
A blade skitters harmlessly off your armour. The Broken Dwarf that leads the enemy has struck you, but the profane shank of iron he wields fails to penetrate. His dull-eyed look of calm never changes; he just raises his weapon again, like the Undead of age-old tales, and lurches towards you once again.
Your spear punches through its throat before it has a chance. Blood bubbles around the shaft, the Broken Dwarf attempting to haul itself closer to you before it falls limp.
(https://i.imgur.com/BCXZwP3.png)
Growling, you tear the weapon free of your once-comrade and wheel to face your comrades. They’re mostly done – only the looting remains.
“Burn this place to the ground!” You roar. “Leave nothing for these abominations to salvage!”
The cries of acknowledgement go up almost immediately: torches are lit, hammers driven into stone, and general destruction of the Pit begins as your soldiers go to work.
One of the soldiers comes over, looking down at Ducim’s broken body.
“Commander, what do we do with him?”
You shake your head. “His flesh has become too tainted to lie in the soil of our home. Make a pyre of the scrap wood, and burn him atop it – we will see his memory carved into the stone when we return.”
(https://i.imgur.com/6Vgp8ms.png)
25th Granite
A Raze mission has been sent further afield, to the Goblin Pit of Equalhated. Our most experienced troops will give them a battering and hopefully destroy the settlement, complicating any attempts to revive Kindledticks for the nth time. With any luck, this marks the start of our actual Reclaimation Campaign. I feel I should investigate that office, the one right from the very start. I swear I heard footsteps in there, yet there are no entrances or exits, merely sealed walls.
The Overseer walked briskly towards the sealed-up office. It was late in the night, at this point, and most of the other Dwarves were in bed – he didn’t feel fear, though. That was for the weak, like the Nobles that infested the Mountainhomes, sucking resources from those who needed it.
When your empire faced destruction, surely its survival meant more than your own purse? Not to them.
He reached the stone of the wall, cocking his head to the side as he listened for the footsteps. There it is! A light, steady foot, tap, tap, tapping up and down the length of the room. He pressed his ear to the wall, listening closely.
Other sounds came to his ear: strained, painful breathing, soft muttering and a female voice, seemingly talking to herself to or the thin air. But why? He could make out no more than a few snippets – they reminded him of the prayers he had been taught back in the Mountainhome, supposed to ward against curses and isolation.
(https://i.imgur.com/g01aLdW.png)
There came odd cracking noises – then a sudden, terrible scream, mingled with the sound of cracking bone and shifting flesh. He jerked back in shock, the scream deepening and changing to a monstrous, feral roar. Even muffled by the wall, it was clear there was something behind there.
As the wall shook from an impact on the other side, claws scraping across the stone, the Overseer took to his heels, back to his quarters.
He would not sleep that night, mind wracked with images of feral eyes and snarling teeth; his thoughts seethed with fearsome possibilities and dark implications, all wondering what the Thing behind the door was.
The Chief Medical Dwarf looked up from her work as the Overseer entered the room. He looked like he hadn’t slept a wink, dark circles ringing his eyes and frequently yawning long and wide. There was something else, though, beneath the exhaustion - the look of a Dwarf who had found something strange and terrible.
She tossed him a small vial, filled with a noxious, stinking liquid.
“Sleeping drought,” she explained, shortly. “Will ensure you’re out like a light.”
He nodded, but did not leave. Her face creased in a frown as she looked over towards him. “Is there something else, Overseer?”
The Overseer hesitated for a moment, before it all spilled forth. “During the night, I heard… roars. Screams. Sounds of pain – all from a walled-up office. I was wondering if you know anything about this?”
The Chief Medical Dwarf’s jaw twitched sharply, locking as hard as iron for an instant. Then she sighed, and began to speak. “Well, I suppose you would have found out sooner or later.”
Before he could interject, she continued, putting her quill off to the side.
“One of our Dwarves was injured by a creature of the Dark Gods mere weeks before your coming. Whatever vile curse it carried infected her before she could slay it,” A note of bitter anger entered her voice. “And as far as we know, there is no cure. We were forced to quarantine her, within that office – a fine reward for heroism!”
There was no mistaking the sarcastic snarl at the end of her voice. The Overseer raised an eyebrow, and the Chief Medical Dwarf grimaced at the unspoken question. What is this curse?
“Once or twice a month, when the full moon shines bright overhead, she becomes a monster. The curse within her blooms to full, and her mind is lost for the night; her body warps to that of the monster that cursed her, and she attacks anything in sight in a mindless frenzy.”
The Overseer stepped back at that, eyes widening in horror. “By Armok…”
The Chief Medical Dwarf nodded gravely. “Aye, Overseer. We were lucky she was quarantined before her first change - Armok knows she could have ripped us all to tatters. Now she dwells within there, sealed away for the rest of her days. Regrettable, but required.”
The Overseer nodded, already drawing the plans for a food-chute and wall-grate in his head. Cursed or not, that Dwarf was a damned hero, and deserved some contact with the fortress she had fought so hard to protect.
4th Slate
(https://i.imgur.com/vriWG7M.png)
Some stuffed-shirt calling itself ‘The Human Representative’ has showed up at the fort – it seems harmless enough, and it is currently allowed to wander the fort. I’m keeping an eye on it, though – if it turns out to be a spy… well, the Goblins we have upstairs always need more raw meat.
The report from those troops sent to purify Equalhated has reached us: Equalhated has been battered badly, reduced to about twenty Goblins plus unknown number of trolls and Beak Dogs. Preparations are already being made for a second strike – I’ll need to give the troops some time to recuperate and rest first.
8th Slate
Damn these Nobles to the black pits of Hell!
(https://i.imgur.com/ew2D97J.png)
Some raging maniac ordered our imprisoned Mason to be beaten in lieu of serving the rest of her sentence out – they’re now lying in a hospital bed, senseless and incapable of standing. They’re a skilled Axedwarf as much as a Mason, and – cherry on top of the diarrhoea sundae – we haven’t got a single bloody crutch for them for move on.
I have ordered the Craftsdwarves to spring to work, making crutches for both now and the inevitable future injuries.
13th Slate
Another two missions marched out today – our more experienced soldiers march upon Kindleticks, freshly repopulated by reinforcements from the neighbouring Pits, while our fresh recruits have been commanded to finish off Equalhated. The twenty-odd beasts there should prove little threat to them – this will also be the first time our newly-made Marksdwarves see true battle.
Damn that troublesome ghost! Kastirdug has been misplaced, and we have not yet been able to exorcise the one responsible. I have commanded my men to search for it, and I can only hope that it turns up – its loss would be a tremendous blow, both due to its value as an apparent Artefact and its significance to our Fort. In the meantime, I will order the Priesthood to make ready to carve the slab and exorcise this troublesome ghost.
23rd slate
(Two pages obscured, writing fragmentary and disordered).
I thought that two squads would have been able to deal with twenty-odd Goblins. I was wrong, and this fort has paid for my hubris in blood.
(https://i.imgur.com/41o6z8r.png)
The attack against Equalhated was a failure. We lost Mansionrope and Pathgorge, with the rest of the Marksdwarves and their support sent fleeing like whipped dogs. The rest escaped unscathed, thank Armok, but we have still lost two soldiers. Orders have been given to engrave their memorial slabs.
8th Felsite
Armok’s temple is soon to begin construction. We must please Him, lest he choose to withdraw His blessings when we need them the most, as I fear shall be the case in our coming days.
Assuming all goes to plan, the Temple will be two-layered; the upper layer will be designed as a specialised mass-pitting area, with captured animals and Goblins being dropped onto Menacing Spike-traps. These will, of course, be guarded by specially-ordained members of our military, who will complete the sacrifice should impalement fail to end the offering. After that, the corpses will be hauled off to specialised stockpiles and left to rot to the bones - for some quaint reason, the Dwarves refuse to butcher dead Goblins - which will then be harvested as an offering.
Pedestals shall also be set up around the edges of the Temple; the skulls of particularly worthy or valuable foes will be honoured here, while the unworthy shall be discarded or used as totems.
Perhaps I should order a bones-only stockpile established, for convenience.
11th Felsite
Salmeuk has been taken by a fey mood. According to a Metalsmith, he abruptly abandoned his work, seized several nearby metal bars, and raced back to his forge, before beginning to work feverishly over some unknown item. Whatever he makes, Zefon grant it be good!
17th Felsite
Salmeuk has created îtatmostod, a thin lead left gauntlet. He has chosen the path of an Armourer, unsurprisingly enough.
(https://i.imgur.com/tN89lv1.png)
28th Felsite
Our wounded mason-slash-axedwarf has dehydrated to death – the medical staff inform me that this was due to a lack of buckets to carry water. Damnation!
(https://i.imgur.com/U0Mwyoz.png)
I have ordered around 30 rock jugs to be made and many to be earmarked for the hospital; with luck, this will ensure no repeat of this. A well should be constructed, or perhaps a pump established to provide a continued source of water there.
In the meantime, I must attend to the funeral preparations. One of the tombs will be filled, engraved, and sealed, Armok rest her soul.
1st Hematite
Summer has come.
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Y'all still taking new people?
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Y'all still taking new people?
Of course. Would you like to be added to the turn list?
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Dorf me up; Ryukan, preferably a scholar if there's a library, if not, then either a Glassworker or Mason
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Dorf me up; Ryukan, preferably a scholar if there's a library, if not, then either a Glassworker or Mason
We don't have a library atm, so I've put you as a Glassworker.
To the thread at large: Our first Big Bit of Fun showed up and has seen a Human Hammerman. Cue the Yackety Sax.
EDIT: And it's gone. Took two idiots who decided going near it would be a good idea, but that serves them right for their idiocy.
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I would indeed. Although, what version is this for?
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Should be for DF 47.04.
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1st Hematite.
(https://i.imgur.com/ab2GleF.png)
Goblin forces have been seen approaching from the south of the fortress! All civilians are to get to the siege-burrows; all military are to report to their posts and ready to march against the Goblin menace!
Ah, hell, the Black Axes and others just returned – right into the path of the fragging Goblins!
This is going to be ugly.
You are ‘Zon’ Datanlised, Commander of The Slammerlords, and you are swearing a blue streak.
The watchdwarves weren’t kidding when they said that ‘a vile force of darkness’ had arrived – twenty-odd Goblins, plus a dozen or more Beak Dogs and some trolls. About one-fifth of a standard Gobbo Pit’s forces. Armok above, they truly must want you gone.
The Crescent Blades are gone entirely, their stilled bodies lying near the very edges of the site; a few meters from that, two Beak Dogs tear at the body of a fallen Mason. Your squad is barely coherent at the moment, arriving piecemeal from the barracks and the fortress corridors. You can’t wait for them, though – the bridge is currently down, a few Axedwarves of the Black Axes are still fighting, and the bastard Goblins are far quicker than they look.
Behind you, rising up from the courtyard of the fortress, a cry goes up: “Raise the bridge!”
Your heart almost stops for an instant. What madness is this?! The Spearmasters are yet to arrive, and the rest of the military is still scrambling to intercept; these actions will all but certainly cut you off from any reinforcement or retreat. A simple siege has now become a serious threat to you and your squad.
There is no time to call for it to be raised. With a snarl of hatred, you motion the gathered Hammerlords forwards. “Forward, for Smithsoldier and Armok!”
You charge the Goblins without a second word. Your hammer crashes into the legs of a Goblin, sending it squalling to the floor; your second in-command breaks the back of a second with a swing. The Goblins turn, chittering and howling, recognising the enemy now in their midst. Hammers rise and fall, breaking bone and bruising muscle with each strike. The answering blows skitter off armour or inflict only minor scratches; only one takes any serious wounds, the soldier’s hand bleeding severely.
The two remaining Axedwarves fight with the skill and calm of the entranced; Armok’s ruthless calm runs through their blood as they hack, slice, and occasionally crush the attacking Goblins and their attendant creatures. Blood soaks the ground, accompanied by the occasional limb or bits of broken teeth and bone. Their wounds, though, ultimately prove too much, and both soldiers die standing – one with the pike of a Goblin through her heart, and the other collapsing to his knees from blood loss to be trampled underfoot.
Cog Tholčrith Mis staggers free of the press of bodies. His shield is lost entirely, and wounds litter his body; one leg is barely intact, with the marks of numerous pike-strikes on it, while one entire arm hangs limp and useless. An iron bolt strikes his chestplate, sending him reeling backwards, only for a pike to tear fully through his chest and protrude from the broken breastplate.
Cog stares at it for an instant, mutely, before it tears itself free. The Goblins swarm him almost immediately: a lash tears into his left shoulder, a pike slams against his iron helmet. One of them – a female, royalty of some sort – tears the helmet from his head before a silver axe slams into the skull. The hammer falls from his grasp, and a pike lands the final, fatal blow.
The creature pulls the pike from Cog’s head, and laughs.
Your vision turns red.
A massive hand grips your shoulder, and you spin about, hammer raised to strike. The stern features of a Spearmaster stare back. “Enough, sir!” She raises a hand to point. “It is dead.”
You look to her pointing hand, and twitch sharply at the sight.
The Goblin Pikeman that slew Cog is mangled beyond recognition. His broken ribs protrude from a mostly-pulped chest, and his flesh rendered into little but paste; his brains lie exposed and spread across the ground, a sickly greyish-white mess of parts, and its blood soaks the ground to the point where you half-expect it to be red from this day on. Your hammer still has bits of bone and flesh clinging to it. Discipline re-asserts itself, and you look to the sub-commander with a grim face. “How many did we lose?”
She grimaces, pale features wrenching. “The Crescent Blades are dead to the last. Same with the Black Axes, since they got cut off,” she points off towards the slopes. “We found a couple dead civvies there, but we’re not sure why they weren’t in the War Shelter.”
You shake your head. “Unfortunate. Take their names, and a headcount of the squads.” Your voice raises, addressing the troops as a whole. “One of you, shout down to the fort and tell ‘em the siege is broken! Get a salvage team up, too: there’s a load of metal we can melt!”
(https://i.imgur.com/xLKxcaN.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/5Bck2NI.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/SYWtGOp.png)
The siege has been broken, though the cost to us is dear.
5th Hematite
Ten good Dwarves and one good man have laid down their lives to break this siege – The Black Axes and Crescent Blades have been destroyed in their entirety, while The Slammerlords have lost two of their number. An unfortunate pair of civilians were caught outside and slain, though I know not why they were so far south. Two patients are currently in the hospital: some poor bastard of a Shearer with his legs damaged, and a Hammerdwarf with a cut foot. The soldier should walk again, but the Shearer’s probably going to require further treatment.
I will see they are honoured for their actions, and that the dead are properly memorialised. If the Overseer refuses, or fails to do so... well, unfortunate accidents always happen in siege-time.
14th Hematite
Buckets are being rushed into production at the Overseer's order. Apparently, jugs are not considered buckets, and the wrinkled old bag of a saw-bones refuses to use them for water. Personally, I can’t see the issue, but I’m not arguing with her – not when it’s likely that I’ll be going under her care after a battle. Armok knows she can take someone apart as easily as putting them together.
(https://i.imgur.com/6gzlkUo.png)
These bastards were packing some serious weapons and armour. Silver and iron supplemented by copper – and quite a lot is high quality. Far higher quality than the previous waves, if my memories aren’t faulty. Either they have more skilled metalsmiths than we thought, or something far darker is going on. No matter – the minute we have enough troops to rebuild the destroyed squads, we’re going to burn the nearest Pits to the damned ground and avenge our dead.
15th Hematite
Human Caravans arrived. Boss ordered that a shitload of wooden shields and such be moved to the depot for trade - can see why, due to how outdated they are.
26th Hematite
The Mayor, in all his infinite wisdom, has mandated the construction of two crowns. At a time when we should be gearing up for war, he demands petty baubles and trinkets! Were it not for his skill in other things, I would cave his head in where he stands. Worse, the idiot made a wasteful trade with Human merchants – shitload of wooden shields for bolts, glass, books, and a whole mess of other bits, with them having a few thousand in profit by the end.
Maybe he has some big plan in mind for the long term, or some other line of bollocks he'll feed me when I confront him over it. If it ain't gearing us up for war, it's a waste at the moment.
Much needed migrants arrived - I'll get to work on drafting the more useless ones into the squads, when I'm done with this.
3rd Malachite
We have begun the creation of a new defensive system – one that, with any luck, will help deal with those Gobbo bastards.
Behold, the beginning of the Termination, Rending and caPture Construction Of Real Ridiculousness, Intending Death Or Revenge – A.K.A.: TRAP CORRIDOR.
(https://i.imgur.com/EEEECdm.png)
The intent to is to carve out a trio of channels here, leading down into a 3-ish level drop. The Gobbos'll go running cock-first into the tunnel, thinking it's a way in, only for the drop to greet them. The fortifications to the left and right will be staffed by Marksdwarves, letting them rain death on the invaders when they hit the bottom.
(https://i.imgur.com/Rk3n5Zq.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/6Kvww88.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/olATiw9.png)
Assuming that all goes to plan, and that the engineers display a modicum of competence, the besieging troops should impact the ground in that narrow corridor. That remotely-locked door, rigged up by that lunatic Mechanic, should keep them penned there – adding some cage traps may be an idea – until the squads can muster over in the larger of the two chambers. Once the military is ready, we can then lock the doors behind them and open the ones penning the Gobbos in; this should funnel them into a small killing zone (perhaps that should be expanded), where the troops can rush in and paint the walls green with liquid Goblin. The Marksdwarves – pathetic as they are – and any preceding traps should weaken them to the point where it’s no problem to finish or capture them.
(In the margins, scribbled) If it doesn’t work, of course, we’re deep in the shit. Side note: we need to find the idiot who made this acronym. My creation isn’t ridiculous!
11th Malachite
An unearthly howl echoed up from the caverns earlier today. Not sure what it is, but it sounds big, pissed, and very willing to fight. Sent a scout down to check - low skilled worker, of course, so we won't lose anyone valuable.
The scout showed back up, looking like he’d seen a damned ghost. Maybe he had, considering the Carpenter still lurking out near the front. He was talking so fast I could barely make sense of him, but I did get a few things out of his ramblings – there’s something big in the caverns. Apparently, it’s big, stony, and is spewing vapour whenever it moves. Nothing about it is in the Bestiary beyond a name, ‘Xubkib Usankul’, but I’ve ordered the remaining Hammerlords and Spearmasters to gather in the caverns in preparation for an attack.
(https://i.imgur.com/DVHeFCR.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/5kpCXoN.png)
Why the hell are the Captain and the Broker in the caverns?! Oh, hell- the Beast has them!
All soldiers, move in! We’re killing that abomination now, and hurling it back to the Hell it crawled from!
You are ‘QD’ Practicedlashes, and the fight in the caverns is raging.
The Beast is truly like nothing you have ever seen before: a great, bloated mass of stone shaped vaguely like one of the Humans, albeit with a pair of antennae. Some sort of misty substance drifts from the open jaws of the Beast, but it seems to have no effect beyond reeking to high heaven. Even so, you’d rather not take the risk.
Its massive foot smashes down where you stood moments before, stone floor shaking under the force of the blow. You hammer strikes hard against the stone of its leg. Stone splinters under the force, chips of the Beast’s body flying in all directions under the force of your strike. It staggers, roaring in rage as your teams press the attack.
“Hammerdwarves, aim for the head! Spears to the legs and arms!” You bark. The teams hasten to obey, switching their attention as best as they can.
(https://i.imgur.com/Dr1NmsK.png)
You switch your target accordingly, slamming your silver Warhammer against its head. Your partner follows suit, her own Warhammer driving deep into the stone. A Recruit joins your assault, chipping away at its eyeless face with a spear. It fractures upon the second hammer blow, a spiderweb of cracks flowing across the featureless skull; the abominable creature still stands, thrashing about with its legs and arms and spewing its terrible-smelling mist in random directions.
The three of you dodge away from its clumsy, flailing limbs, moving in to strike once again. The sooner this thing can be crippled, the better.
(https://i.imgur.com/PwukaWP.png)
Your attacks slam home – stone breaks under the force of you and your partner’s blows, the Beast’s upper left and right legs cracking and fracturing violently. The spear of the Recruit, though, doesn’t hit as expected: out of position after the last strike, the spear chips away at the massive creature’s left hand.
Usankul wheels about, swinging in every direction, unable to hit a thing. Two more Spearmasters join the fight, simultaneously driving their spears into the right upper arm and leg. It does little more than make the creature even angrier.
“Come on,” Your partner roars, eyes flashing “Fall, you big bastard!”
(https://i.imgur.com/U3gvBRe.png)
Two more attacks strike home, on the arm and the foot; the usual cycle of assaults repeat, both of you battering away at Usankul’s limbs. It’s starting to get frustrating, this mindless cycle of attack, fracture, repeat; your limbs burn mildly with exertion, but the Beast looks as fresh as ever.
The Recruit from earlier charges past, spear raised to strike. You’re not entirely certain what he’s trying to do – that pig-sticker of his has done nothing but chip away so far – but Armok favours him this day.
(https://i.imgur.com/lkqbhp0.png)
Xubkib Usankul’s lower body finally gives way under the trauma. A single, well-placed spear strike all but tears the Beast in half, the massive body giving way and almost breaking in two. Usankul’s death-howl rings from the cavern walls and it collapses amidst a cloud of breaking stone and dust; the Forgotten Beast, after what feels like hours of struggle, lies dead upon the floor.
(https://i.imgur.com/AvyZxHW.png)
(OOC: That was disappointingly easy; damn thing barely lasted a few seconds when the soldiers got to it. From the logs, it looks like the Hammerlords and Spearmasters brought it most of the way down, then some Recruit kill-stole with a spear to the chest. We lost the Broker, CotG, and a Hammerman to it – first two went to collect webs and got wiped before I could stop them, while the latter got ambushed.)
18th Malachite
Another Werechameleon showed up. One of the Human Swordsmen now calling this fort home took care of it. Far as we can tell, he didn’t get bit or even clawed: apparently, he took its left arm off and spent the bulk of the fight wiping the floor with it – finished it off by driving the blade right through its skull and into the brain.
(https://i.imgur.com/dm2lt3v.png)
Not bad, for a shallow-dwelling sky-gazer of a Human.
8th Galena
Itatmostod is missing from its proper place; this is the second Artefact to go missing in a relatively short space of time, and I am starting to wonder if those dammed Goblin-and-Human visitors have something to do with it. Maybe I should order the guards to interrogate a few of them, see if they’ll spill their guts or if we’ll have to do it for them.
13th Galena
One of the Metalsmiths has gone funny in the head – ran off screaming about a ‘proper surface to work on’ and ‘inspiration’ before claiming one of the Forges. Whatever comes out of there better be good, or I’ll flog this crazed fool bloody myself.
15th Galena
That troublesome Carpenter-ghost has finally been laid to rest. Turns out we had his slab engraved and in storage, but it was never placed down, causing his continued lurking within our fort. Either way, he’s gone for good now – hopefully, that should see no more Artefacts misplaced. If that is not the case, we have a far bigger problem.
20th -23rd Galena
Artefact constructed: Desgirsterus Ison Ngilok, ‘Goaddriven the Plan of Evisceration’. Nice name, for its purpose.
(https://i.imgur.com/1iKXWo1.png)
But, how, in the name of Armok’s hairy arse, does it menace with spikes of sheep wool?
1st Limestone
Autumn has come. With it, another vile force of darkness... Only for them to turn their tails and run. Wonder if it was the dead Gobbos we still haven’t cleaned up.
(OOC: Game gave me the usual ‘goblin siege’ message, and they spawned in right at the map edge, but they vanished a moment later and the siege warning went away. What that was all about?)
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Awww. RIP Cog, first Slammerlord. Who did you replace him with?
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Awww. RIP Cog, first Slammerlord. Who did you replace him with?
Yeah, Cog went down hard. He had something like 5 Goblins swarming him (one axeman, one pikeman, one lasher, one recruit, and one 'lady consort') and he still managed to give them a good beating before he went down.
Anyway, I chose Eral Indrodim Becor to replace him: Legendary-tier Hammerdwarf with a whole mess of physical boosting traits ('basically unbreakable, unbelievably strong, incredibly quick to heal, extremely agile' - the works, basically) and 'very bad' empathy. Something tells me he'll be looking to paint the road into Smithsoldier red with Goblin blood...
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Ah, hell, the Black Axes and others just returned – right into the path of the fragging Goblins!
This is going to be ugly.
They've certainly made a habit of poorly timed entrances, haven't they?
Cog Tholčrith Mis staggers free of the press of bodies. His shield is lost entirely, and wounds litter his body; one leg is barely intact, with the marks of numerous pike-strikes on it, while one entire arm hangs limp and useless. An iron bolt strikes his chestplate, sending him reeling backwards, only for a pike to tear fully through his chest and protrude from the broken breastplate.
Cog stares at it for an instant, mutely, before it tears itself free. The Goblins swarm him almost immediately: a lash tears into his left shoulder, a pike slams against his iron helmet. One of them – a female, royalty of some sort – tears the helmet from his head before a silver axe slams into the skull. The hammer falls from his grasp, and a pike lands the final, fatal blow.
Grade A combat writing here, with flourish! nice.
Human Caravans arrived. Boss ordered that a shitload of wooden shields and such be moved to the depot for trade - can see why, due to how outdated they are.
You can see what I was doing with all that extra wood. Shields make fair trade goods, and can be equipped in a pinch!
(OOC: Game gave me the usual ‘goblin siege’ message, and they spawned in right at the map edge, but they vanished a moment later and the siege warning went away. What that was all about?)
They were merely 'passing through,' on their way to some other locale, or so I've heard. I'm convinced they just showed up, saw the massacre and the bloodstains, and ran howling.
It was pleasure reading those entries! You went light on the pictures, but made up for it with the descriptions. I'm looking forward to whatever happens next.
Dorf me up; Ryukan, preferably a scholar if there's a library, if not, then either a Glassworker or Mason
Going the safe route, I see. .
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Yeah, the shields were a good idea. However, I've heard that trap components are better.
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1st Limestone
A Snatcher managed to infiltrate the fortress today – we’re not entirely sure how it got past the drop, but it managed to leap across to the left side of TRAP CORRDIOR’s first level and started to move towards the main fort. Some Miner spooked the damned thing; she went after it with a pick, and it replied by taking to its heels and fleeing back out via the upwards ramp.
(https://i.imgur.com/zEHM8dg.png)
Orders have already been given to try and remove that damned upwards ramp. The incomplete walls are to be fully raised and carved to form fortifications – no damn Goblin is getting through these when we’re done.
5th Limestone
Orders have been sent for the Slammerlords and the Towers of Wind to finish Equalhated off once and for all. They march today.
9th Limestone
(https://i.imgur.com/FSV4r4C.png)
Five caverns from the Mountainhomes have arrived, laden with precious material for trade. Our Mayor, however, has decided (apparently, on advice from her cat) to prohibit the export of crowns to this particular band of merchants. Personally, I think that’s just due to the King being an arsehole that wants them all to himself – either way, it’s unlikely to majorly affect trading.
(https://i.imgur.com/97WNyTi.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/7R78qFZ.png)
Liaison wants to talk – told him to bring much more in the way of buckets, glass, crossbows, and lye. We talked a bit longer about the whole ‘exports’ thing: either the Mountainhome is going through some sort of famine or they’re planning a big expedition, since they’re willing to pay nearly double the standard price for meat, prepared meals, and leather waterskins. Top priority, according to that stuffed-shirt bureaucrat.
(https://i.imgur.com/kjPmgyJ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/vjZO43E.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/7Gu4hne.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/k2zkgOZ.png)
20th Limestone
I have dispatched the Slammerlords and Spearmasters to Equalhated once more; this Pit is a stubborn weed, refusing to die even when torn up by the roots. The last raid failed to completely destroy it: according to the troops, there may still be some survivors lurking in the burrows, and we cannot move further afield until it is destroyed entirely.
24th Limestone
That troublesome metalsmith, Kulet Keshalteskom, is throwing yet another tantrum. This must be her second or third in recent days; her unruly ways are going to be death of her, when she picks on the wrong Dwarf. She was brawling with Salmeuk, this time; attacked him on the stairs, or somewhere similar. No major injuries on either side, but I will have to discipline her if this carries on.
26th Limestone
(https://i.imgur.com/Zyj9eWy.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/6tykKqz.png)
Another of those vile Pits falls – word has reached us that Equalhated is now a burning wreck, and that our forces are returning in triumph. Apparently, the place was effectively deserted by the time they got there, though they took no chances this time: all above-ground structures were razed, all tunnels collapsed, and all they could find taken with them. They even went as far as salting the soil and carving runes supposed to ward against evil into the ground and terrain – I doubt that last part will dissuade the Gobbos any, but I commend their dedication.
Trade was done; most of the remaining wooden shields and such for many other goods. I’ll get the workers producing more for the next caravan – with any luck, considering the few thousand Urists of profit we allowed them, it’ll be even bigger than this load.
Well, there's also the promise of Beasts. According to what legends I remember, Dragons, Ettins, and other such mighty foes are attracted by the smell of wealth and commerce; if we trade at such levels, we maybe able to lure more of those Armok-accursed abominations to Smithsoldier and sacrifice them in His name.
https://i.imgur.com/6lPL40D.png
https://i.imgur.com/3NRKQKt.png
https://i.imgur.com/WUYZIJJ.png
https://i.imgur.com/gboYwvE.png
8th Sandstone
(https://i.imgur.com/fEGs2HR.png?1)
The lookouts report that they’ve seen something big coming right at us – big, two heads, looks human. A quick word with the other commanders and record-keepers identifies the big bastard as an Ettin, a two-headed creature perpetually arguing with itself. Looks like our trading-to-attract-beasts plan worked. It's worked too well, though.
The Slammerlords and Speardwarves just headed off to the freshly-repopulated (those damned things breed quick, march quicker) Equalhated, and the only military presence left is a bunch of untrained Marksdwarves. Most of them don’t even have crossbows, and I doubt that the bloody Ettin will be above battering down the walls or the Bridge. All civilians have been immediately restricted to the War Shelter; I can hear the lookout bellowing at them to get back into the fort, lest they be caught outside.
A message’s already been sent for the squads to get back to the fort. Equalhated can burn another day – until they get back, we’re going to have to siege the bastard out.
(Several lines of unreadable writing, crossed-out words, and odd scribbles.)
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
That damn Ettin came banging over the hills, right towards the fortress. It was swinging a club as it came, some uprooted tree-trunk nearly twice or more the size of a Human. I think it was warming up, expecting a fight between our military and itself. Maybe it was just gathering speed for when it would hit the walls, or the bridge.
We’d expected some big showdown, like in the old tales – then the returning squads would come charging in and save the day, slaying the monster with ease.
(https://i.imgur.com/5CHTTA8.png?1)
Nope. It stumbled into a cage trap and promptly got captured. We’ve just made a whole lot of noise about nothing.
Apparently, the damn thing was arguing with itself as we hauled it off to storage: one head yelling about how they ‘should’ve gone for those bastard pits’ and the other retorting that ‘Those pointy-ears pay well’. These could just be the ramblings of a notoriously schizophrenic creature, but I remain worried. If the Goblins are able to bribe such beasts to their side, they represent a foe magnitudes larger than what I feared.
Anyway, there are already plans to use that Ettin as training for the Marksdwarves – assuming we can get the sacrificial layer of Armok’s temple (and TRAP CORRIDOR) done, we can just drop it into a pit and have the crossbow-idiots fire down at it. At least, until it bleeds to death: then, we should be able to put the idiot’s skulls on display in the temple.
13th Sandstone
(https://i.imgur.com/oJZLyT0.png)
Migrants arrive: mostly farming specialists, as if we need more of them, but there’s a single furnace operator with them. That we need more of, what with the current demand for charcoal to feed the furnaces and smelters.
17th Sandstone
Orders have been given to put four crow-people, captured by our cage traps long ago, into the pit - they will be the opening sacrifice to Armok, with their blood consecrating this place. Due to the relative lack of spear and spike traps, the Spearmasters will be the ones to kill them.
22nd Sandstone
An inauspicious beginning. The Crow-woman we captured simply few out of the pit, due to a failure to install a grate over one of the drop points; I have ordered the flaw corrected, and the remaining drops cancelled until then. With the Beak Dogs on the prowl, though, I doubt that it will last long.
26th Sandstone
(https://i.imgur.com/j72YqnL.png)
One of our Mechanics has been possessed by a Ghostly Animal Trainer. He’s currently throwing a tantrum – to try and stop future issues of this sort, orders have been sent to engrave a memorial slab.
2nd Timber
Another human bowman, Nocam Clobberedburial, has failed to report in from patrol in the caverns. While I can hardly claim to shed any tears for him, this likely means the presence of unknown creatures in the caverns – this could be a problem for the future, but I will order the construction of some cage or rockfall traps when I have time to spare.
9th Timber
(https://i.imgur.com/fIaUB9n.png)
Pillage mission sent to Snarledsteals due to rumoured presence of two artefact there. The Slammerlords will lead the attack, with our Marksdwarves in support. Assuming all goes well, this should see the later finally get some experience, and liberate some shiny new artefacts from those filthy beasts’ paws.
12th Timber.
Our sole Glassmaker has been possessed – babbling something about ‘forums’ and ‘The Toad-Lord’ and ‘madmen behind the screens and strings’. She promptly claimed a Glass Furnace, and is now running back and forth between the Gem Vault and her workstation, ranting like a madman the whole while. Let us hope that whatever she makes is good; I can make neither heads nor tails of her crazed rantings.
What is a ‘Bay Watcher’ anyway?
Curses!
(https://i.imgur.com/cEAUaOt.png)
It appears two masterworks, one of the now-deceased Ral Geshudidok and one of the rapidly-destabilising Kulet Kestalteskom, have been lost! It appears they were mixed in with the rubbish that our DAS was used to dispose of. When the person responsible is found, I'll have their head on a blood pike for this outrage!
19th Timber
Ryuken has begun her construction.
24th Timber
Ryuken has finished her artefact: Uremursas, ‘Fatherdecays’, a green glass chain.
(https://i.imgur.com/rkM2ZCD.png)
She claims it as a ‘family’ heirloom. Bit creepy, considering the name, but the craftsdwarfship is excellent.
28th Timber
A Mason was ambushed by a Giant Cave Toad in the caverns today – looks like that was what killed the Human a while back. Witnesses indicate she beat the thing senseless, gave it some real nasty bruises and left it vomiting on the floor, all while barehanded and without armour.
(https://i.imgur.com/rDaKzVO.png)
If Masons weren’t vital to the fort, I’d take her into the Hammerlords. Armok knows we need more of her kind in the military.
1st Moonstone
Winter is coming.
(OOC: This quarter was pretty quiet. The Ettin showing its ugly mug(s) was about the only major event, beyond the artefact at the end and the increasingly 'sitcom arch-nemesis' level rivalry we have with Equalhated. If they weren't Goblins, I'd almost respect their tenacity.)
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Maybe we need to try something else with equalhated. I would say conquer, but that means we would lose a squad.
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Our sole Glassmaker has been possessed – babbling something about ‘forums’ and ‘The Toad-Lord’ and ‘madmen behind the screens and strings’. She promptly claimed a Glass Furnace, and is now running back and forth between the Gem Vault and her workstation, ranting like a madman the whole while. Let us hope that whatever she makes is good; I can make neither heads nor tails of her crazed rantings.
What is a ‘Bay Watcher’ anyway?
haha nicely done
I haven't played around with the new mission mechanics much. Could we conquer them, then order the squad to return?
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Yes you can, actually!
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IIRC, a conquer/occupy mission will result in one of the squad staying behind as Administrator, even if the rest are recalled.
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3rd Moonstone
That lunatic Mechanic has come to with a highly dangerous – if potentially helpful – idea. Assuming we can construct the necessary floodgates and such, along with the water-mills and screw pumps, we could form a reservoir of water for the Hospital. It will be a highly difficult undertaking, spanning well over a dozen Z-levels and requiring significant time and investment, but would certainly solve the issue of transferring water-buckets between the Hospital and the Cavern-well.
6th Moonstone
The Slammerlords and the Marksdwarves return, though without any artefacts. Regrettable, but understandable.
16th Moonstone
Another Mason was ambushed by a Giant Cave Toad – once more, the Mason managed to beat the attacker off and left it with severe bruises and cuts. Even so, this is beginning to become far too common for my liking: at this rate, it’s only a matter of time until someone we need dies to those abominations.
20th Moonstone
Kulet Keskalteskom’s life is at an end.
(https://i.imgur.com/aXRRbQY.png?1)
The notoriously unstable Metalsmith was ambushed in the Caverns by the Giant Bat Udistkâkdal, and she was soon ripped to shreds by the accursed creature. Due to her previous bouts of instability and depressive behaviour, the Chief Medical Dwarf has ruled suicide as a potential (though unlikely) cause of death.
Meanwhile, the Marksdwarves have been ordered to kill Udistkâkdal – Kulet may have been unstable and erratic, but she was one of us, damn it, and she ain’t going unavenged!
24th Moonstone
(https://i.imgur.com/XkIvdIi.png)
The Bestiary tells me that Cavern-dwelling Giant Creatures often destroy furniture and small buildings, to an almost obsessive degree. In an effort to exploit this, I have commanded that cage traps be placed outside of the doors leading into our Cavern base; those Giant Cave Bats and Toads will hopefully be lured in, allowing us to capture and rend them apart!
In other news, Udistkâkdal has been killed by a marksdwarf-swordsdwarf team – no injuries to either. The damned creature has been left to rot where it lies in the Caverns.
1st Opal
Yet another Giant Cave Toad ambush - these things are rapidly becoming frustrating, though there are no significant injuries so far. More drastic measures will have to be taken.
We have seen little metal reclaimed from the siege earlier this year – apparently, no-one told the Smelter Operators to actually melt the items. They just ‘assumed they’d know, boss’. I’ve informed them that if they don’t hurry up and start burning charcoal and melting the weapons and armour, I’ll throw them all into the Smelters myself and get some more competent messengers.
14th Opal – 20th Opal
The Ettin drop-pit briefly ran into construction issues today: some idiot of an Herbalist helping to build the walls got himself sealed in the drop-chamber. Probably smoked too much of his own product, knowing those idiots from the Mountainhome; either way I’ve ordered him freed by having one of the walls designated for demolition. If he gets in there again, though, I’m leaving him.
24th Opal
That's more like it!
(https://i.imgur.com/dZNhJ1J.png?1)
The Goblins we raided proved surprisingly bookish – several of the artefacts pried from their filthy hands are codexes and scrolls, often bound with expensive materials. Their content leaves much to be desired – that is, I’ve heard higher quality writing from a horse’s arse – but they are artefacts, nonetheless. With luck, they might just have information we can use against these Pits.
5th Obsidian
I grow concerned for the fate of the remaining Slammerlords and Speardwarves.
(https://i.imgur.com/W5Rxt87.png?1)
(https://i.imgur.com/Tt8Xg7p.png?1)
It has been well over a week since the mission returned on 24th Opal, 178, yet several of the listed troops have not returned. Those who already have returned swear they survived the battle at Snarledsteals, yet the battle log makes no mention of their names, nor have the Dwarves in question have failed to return to the fortress. No orders to conquer or occupy were given.
22nd Obsidian
My sleep last night was… troubled. I dreamed of the Ettin, breaking free of storage and rampaging about the fortress, slaughtering us all and casting the fortress into ruin. Then, in an instant, it changed - one moment it would be the Goblins rampaging through the sleeping quarters of Smithsoldier, the next the Ettin; words I could not understand repeated in a constant growl above the carnage.
Waking from such a nightmare was an unpleasant thing, and I find myself frequently dwelling upon it should I let my thoughts wander.
The Gods have been known to send omens unto us in the form of dreams – maybe this is one I should heed.
In order to prevent the possibility of the Ettin escaping during transport, I have commanded that a specialised path be dug to the Pit. Assuming all goes to plan, this should lead directly from the stockpile and into the drop zone.
1st Granite
(https://i.imgur.com/a8nAjXn.png)
Another Goblin siege has reached the fortress, right as my term as Overseer reaches its end. My successor, I advise you deploy the troops immediately and restrict the civs to the Burrows. The Marksdwarves have already been sent aloft, though their skill is poor, in the hope their arrows shall strike down some of these creatures before they reach TRAP CORRIDOR’s base. Make sure to lock the door leading into the bottom of the moat.
As for me? I remember the cost of the last siege, and I'm getting out while I still can. I've paid some poor schmuck to take my name and pretend he's me, looking the other way while I sneak out. By the time people figure I'm gone, I'll have a new name, new life, and no Gobbos to bother me.
(In much smaller letters, at the bottom) Armok help us all.
TIPS:
- Do NOT attempt to pit any Goblins, Humans, and especially not that bloody Ettin – the pit that will cause a sacrifice to Armok is not yet fully complete due to iron menacing spike production issues, and the one designed for the Ettin (over by the main one) should not be used due to poor design. Due to the nature of the fortifications (tested with a backup save - that was the whole 'dream' thing), the Gobbos can slip through and so can Marksdwarves – coupled with their idiocy, this results in Marksdwarves attempting to run into the killing pit and beat the foe to death with crossbows.
- In an effort to fix this, I was constructing a shooting gallery one level above: the intent was to have two lines of fortifications with a one-tile-wide line between them, with the rest of the area channelled out so that the MDs can fire down at the targets. Up to you as to whether you finish that or do something entirely different.
- Charcoal production is currently running into issues – we have about 7 blocks of charcoal atm, and 2003-ish logs.
- The members of the Slammerlords and Speardwarves I mentioned earlier are still MIA: the squad/military screen just lists them as ‘travelling’. Not sure why.
- We’ve got meat and plants out the ass, but alcohol is hovering about 280-300.
- There’s a rather large Goblin Fortress to the North, about half a day’s travel away. Maybe ~4000 Gobbos, Trolls, and other assorted monsters lurking in there.
- No work has been done on the potential reservoir – whether or not you want to create one is up to you.
- Have lots of !!FUN!!
@LeftHandofGod, your file awaits. (http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14974)
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Nicely done Quantum.
!The notoriously unstable Metalsmith was ambushed in the Caverns by the Giant Bat Udistkâkdal, and she was soon ripped to shreds by the accursed creature. Due to her previous bouts of instability and depressive behaviour, the Chief Medical Dwarf has ruled suicide as a potential (though unlikely) cause of death.
suicide-by-bat, I've never seen such a thing in my life lol
Good luck LeftHandofGod, and let us know if you run into any issues
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So...yeah. Cause I'm a dweeb, I can't play without graphics. But I got no clue how to load a tileset into the damn thing, and the internet isn't helping worth a damn. Argggggh!
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So...yeah. Cause I'm a dweeb, I can't play without graphics. But I got no clue how to load a tileset into the damn thing, and the internet isn't helping worth a damn. Argggggh!
There are two ways for you to go about with this.
Option A is to download a Starter Pack like SambaDF or Peridexis Errant's Starter pack, put the save file on the data/save folder then update the tileset and the save file from the launcher itself.
Option B is to download the tileset you want to use, put it on the raw/graphics and start the game.
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Wow. I can update the tileset in the LNP lancher? Did not know that. hmmmm...
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How do I get the Drawbridge up? That damned lever doesn't work! Edit: Also, having trouble with the squads. I bring up the screen, but I can't use the Kill order? Suggestions?
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Check the notes function. I believe it is 'N' or 'n'. There should be some clearly labeled connections from lever to bridge, and I suspect the drawbridge has multiple levers. I would try them all, or you could always create a new lever and link the bridge anew.
The squad order screen is tricky if you press shift when you shouldn't or have caps lock on accidentally. Make sure you are selecting with the proper input! Also, make sure the squads are set to the 'Active / In Training' alert in the military alerts menu. Otherwise, the move order works just as fine if you simply want to engage in combat (oh lord what is happening?!) so you could just use that instead.
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For the drawbridge, look near the main stairs - there should be 3 or so levers, with one marked 'drawbridge' or similar.
As for the squads, I think Salmeuk has it. Failing that, this may be of some help (https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Attack) for a more step-to-step explanation.
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Unfortunately, it would appear that I am unable to get the game to a point where I can actually play it and not want to bash my head in. Apologies. Go ahead and take my name off the list, please.
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Unfortunately, it would appear that I am unable to get the game to a point where I can actually play it and not want to bash my head in. Apologies. Go ahead and take my name off the list, please.
Understood.
To the thread at large, give it 2-3 days. If no-one claims (and if he's still available), I'll pass the file to DwarvenLord.
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Unfortunately, it would appear that I am unable to get the game to a point where I can actually play it and not want to bash my head in. Apologies. Go ahead and take my name off the list, please.
Understandable, though if you want a dorfing is always possible.
You can sign me up for a second turn as well. Apparently we're just going to 3-man this thing until it collapses!
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Dorfing would be cool. And I feel you on the whole 3 man thing, I think my fort might end up like that, lol
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So should I pick up the turn now or are we going to wait a little longer.
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So should I pick up the turn now or are we going to wait a little longer.
Go ahead, doesn't look like anyone's going to claim.
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Ok, will start tomorrow. Two succession games on two different versions should be fun...
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Quantum, could you give me a new save? I think something's broken with this one. Either that or I'm stupid, but I would like to verify the second.
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Quantum, could you give me a new save? I think something's broken with this one. Either that or I'm stupid, but I would like to verify the second.
In the way of saves, I currently have two saves for the region: the one uploaded to dffd, and one in the middle of Slate post-siege. None earlier than those. What seems to be borked?
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Whenever I extract the file, it either spews all the .dat stuff right into the saves folder and doesn't show up in the game, or I make a folder for it and then extract it, and it still doesn't show.
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Whenever I extract the file, it either spews all the .dat stuff right into the saves folder and doesn't show up in the game, or I make a folder for it and then extract it, and it still doesn't show.
Just did some testing: for some reason, making a 'new folder' then extracting into that folder causes it to no-show. If you're using Winrar, try extracting the region4 folder direct to the 'save' folder, so that the path looks something like C:\Users\Username\Documents\df_47_04_win\data\save. This should help with the second bit.
File should be here (http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14992), having been reuploaded.
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Whenever I do that, all the small unit files and raws and stuff fill the file, not in a nice neat "region4" file.
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Whenever I do that, all the small unit files and raws and stuff fill the file, not in a nice neat "region4" file.
In that case, try making a new 'region4' folder, then highlighting/mass-selecting all the small unit files, world file, and the 'raw' folder, then copying them into the new 'region4' folder. Delete the bits you've copied from outside the region4 file when you're done. That seems to work on my end.
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It's confirmed, it was the second one. I was still on 47.03 still, just had to update- though the upload did automatically make the nice neat folder. I'll start my turn today.
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It's confirmed, it was the second one. I was still on 47.03 still, just had to update- though the upload did automatically make the nice neat folder. I'll start my turn today.
Good to hear. Good luck with the siege.
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Looking forward to your adventures! 8)
I'm tempted to volunteer as overseer. I downloaded the save (and 47.04), and I seem to have no issues...
There are some things I'd like to clear, before I officially put my name down:
1. can I use Dwarf Therapist?
2. for that matter, can I use DFHack? I'm not going to start spamming adamantine or something, but there are some subtle functionalities that really up the quality - displaying calendar on-screen, the search function in lists, and remembering the last-used material on building & the mouse position, for instance... Other than that, I use quicksave and cleanowned, and occasionally getplants to mass-designate some plant/tree.
And another thing, unrelated to any prospective overseeing: how exactly do the issues with tile sets crop up? It's my understanding that tilesets are defined in \data\init\init.txt, with graphical bits copied in \data\art? How is this supposed to impact a save?
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1st of Granite, 179
W-what? No! I don't want to be overseer- especially not now! I'm just a humble mason! Please!
What do you say? It's only my turn because DwarvenLord is inaccessible and he named me as his backup? Hmmm...
1st of Granite? 2nd, perhaps? who knows anymore
Two years. Two years stuck in this room with nothing but my thoughts and it- the beast. Oh, and I guess this chair and table. Two years since that fight where I was cursed forever. Two years since I have heard music, the domain of my god, Stistras. I should of enjoyed it more while it last. So many years, doing nothing but chipping away at the rock, years where my only memories was my pick and the stone- broken with the slightly different monotony of ore and gems. And yet I never had time to admire those wonderful gifts of the earth... only to carve them out of the never ending rock. I guess I convinced myself I liked it- enjoyed the decades of mining, stopping only to eat, drink and sleep. Whenever there were no orders to mine- which is rare, in a fortress.
How ironic it is, I suppose, to be surrounded by rock for all time and eternity- even worse, there is nothing but mudstone. The only break in the never ending monotony is the beast- the horrible scaly thing that tears out of my body every full moon and hijacks my body- I would rather keep the endless mudstone then. At least I can't hurt anyone in here.
Wait, what's that sound?
(OOC: Small problem. I can't station any of our melee squads due to the missing people, but I can't kick the missing people out because the game won't let me. I guess we'll have to wait this one out...)
2nd of Granite, 179
Carve out the fortification! It isn't safe to let him out, but we can still communicate.
(Where's the lever that opens the front bridge? It's an emergency- the gobbo forces which include nearly 2 pages of invaders are really close, and I flipped the lever in the little alcove up front and nothing happened.)
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(Where's the lever that opens the front bridge? It's an emergency- the gobbo forces which include nearly 2 pages of invaders are really close, and I flipped the lever in the little alcove up front and nothing happened.)
It's on level 144, south of the trade depot. There are 3 levers there, it's the left-most one. If you check [N]otes, it's called "Front Bridge Lever".
And a tip, obtained by parallel playing:
The archer tower isn't sealed; gobbos can climb the walls, and enter the fort. Lost a few dorfs before I figured out.
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2nd-4th of Granite, 179
Okay, now that I can talk to people, straight to business- It appears that quite a few dwarves got caught both in the tower and outside the gates- I've ordered all the doors to lock and the drawbridge is already up. I'm also walling up the door to the tower, just to be safe. I doubt any inside the tower will survive.
5th of Granite, 179
Oh, and of course the brewer is taken by a mood now. I'm also carving some fortifications into the front wall so our marksdwarves can fire at the damned gobbos. We'll have to wait them out...
(OOC: Did a small test to see if the available miltary would be able to deal with it. They weren't, and I savescummed. This is going to be messy.
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Looking forward to your adventures! 8)
I'm tempted to volunteer as overseer. I downloaded the save (and 47.04), and I seem to have no issues...
There are some things I'd like to clear, before I officially put my name down:
1. can I use Dwarf Therapist?
2. for that matter, can I use DFHack? I'm not going to start spamming adamantine or something, but there are some subtle functionalities that really up the quality - displaying calendar on-screen, the search function in lists, and remembering the last-used material on building & the mouse position, for instance... Other than that, I use quicksave and cleanowned, and occasionally getplants to mass-designate some plant/tree.
And another thing, unrelated to any prospective overseeing: how exactly do the issues with tile sets crop up? It's my understanding that tilesets are defined in \data\init\init.txt, with graphical bits copied in \data\art? How is this supposed to impact a save?
Go ahead with 1 and 2 - as long as they work in 47.04, there shouldn't be any problem.
With the tilesets, that's something left over from before I found out they wouldn't impact the save (I think, at least. Never used one). Just haven't edited it out of the rules yet.
EDIT: DL, IIRC, you can select individuals from the squads, then station them. In hindsight, not sealing the tower was a mistake, though that wall should stop 'em. Luring them onto the bridge, then pulling the lever in the manager's office (near the main stairs, labelled 'Front Bridge' or similar) twice could screw the first wave over, though you might need the remaining military near the entrance to deal with any getting across.
EDIT2: Oh. Well, crap.
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I did station them and they were still crushed in the test. I'm also afraid our miltary would get caught on the bridge too, or we couln't close the bridge in time- they're waiting directly in front of the bridge.
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And another thing, unrelated to any prospective overseeing: how exactly do the issues with tile sets crop up? It's my understanding that tilesets are defined in \data\init\init.txt, with graphical bits copied in \data\art? How is this supposed to impact a save?
With the tilesets, that's something left over from before I found out they wouldn't impact the save (I think, at least. Never used one). Just haven't edited it out of the rules yet.
Well, I played around a bit - we were both kinda right and kinda wrong: all of the above are needed to switch graphics, but there are changes required in the save too, mostly to properly paint animals and items. They all seem contained in the save's \raw folder.
I copied \art, \graphics and \init from an older save (not sure HOW old, it was a 47.03 but I think that one was modified from a 44.12 save), and it seems to work fine. So it's pretty easy to make a duplicate in a community folder, play with whatever you want, then when it's time to pass on the fort, zip the save with the 'old' raw folder.
[Edit] On a completely unrelated note, I'd like a dorfing from the migrant wave immediately before taking my turn, or nearby. That seems to be after Salmeuk's turn, and thus can wait for a few weeks; I'll make a 'proper' request after his turn starts.
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StrikaAmaru, since you're new you're welcome to take my spot! I can just play after. Truly no problem since I am also journaling for Smallhands right now.
Dwarvenlord, I liked your entry about being trapped in the room for year after year. We might have to do something about that, it's practically torture!
Assuming, of course, we aren't all slaughtered by the gobbos. Is there a way to hastily wall off the inner fortress? IIRC I installed an artifact hatch cover that should seal off the surface fortress, if they're climbing over the walls.
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StrikaAmaru, since you're new you're welcome to take my spot! I can just play after. Truly no problem since I am also journaling for Smallhands right now.
Thank you! If it's better for you, we can swap with no issues. My schedule is fairly consistent - I'll be playing the same way, either next turn or in 2 turns.
Is there a way to hastily wall off the inner fortress? IIRC I installed an artifact hatch cover that should seal off the surface fortress, if they're climbing over the walls.
No need for such drastic measures - the fort can be adequately sealed by raising a drawbridge, and locking a door at the base of the tower. Gobbos could in theory climb the tower, and descend into the inner courtyard, but in practice I played around 2 months, with nothing like that happening.
We're proper screwed if we get any hostile fliers, though.
-
7th of Granite, 179
Oh, a wonderful idea just appeared in my mind. The gobbos are clumped outside the gate, right?
Hehehe, this is going to be wonderful...
12th of Granite, 179
(https://i.ibb.co/Lv9DQGn/Artefact.png) (https://ibb.co/6NDcvdg)
21th of granite, 179
Come on, you wimps! They can't get you through the wall- Just go build that ballistics already! No? If I build a zig-zag wall so you can't see them, will you be okay then? You can't build the wall because of the enemies? Dammit!
(This is a real problem- I can't build the ballista (or do anything else in the courtyard-thing) because every time someone tries, they get scared away by the enemy outsde the walls. This also applies to the entire hallway leading into the fortress- any suggestions?)
-
7th of Granite, 179
Oh, a wonderful idea just appeared in my mind. The gobbos are clumped outside the gate, right?
Hehehe, this is going to be wonderful...
12th of Granite, 179
(https://i.ibb.co/Lv9DQGn/Artefact.png) (https://ibb.co/6NDcvdg)
21th of granite, 179
Come on, you wimps! They can't get you through the wall- Just go build that ballistics already! No? If I build a zig-zag wall so you can't see them, will you be okay then? You can't build the wall because of the enemies? Dammit!
(This is a real problem- I can't build the ballista (or do anything else in the courtyard-thing) because every time someone tries, they get scared away by the enemy outsde the walls. This also applies to the entire hallway leading into the fortress- any suggestions?)
IIRC, the Gobbos will eventually wander off to the other areas of the map if the bridge stays up/they can't get in long enough. They'll still be besieging us, but it should give you the time to get the Ballista set up. How're you actually going to fire it, considering Siege Operator is considered a civilian job?
-
IIRC, the Gobbos will eventually wander off to the other areas of the map if the bridge stays up/they can't get in long enough. They'll still be besieging us, but it should give you the time to get the Ballista set up. How're you actually going to fire it, considering Siege Operator is considered a civilian job?
They don't appear to be doing that- If there were any other entrances, they should've rushed to it- but right now they're just sitting right outside the gates.
About the actual operator, i'll probably build it farther back then planned, possibly put up some more fortifications.
-
25th of Granite, 104
This page is covered in ink, rips and tears ravaging this page and the surrounding ones as well.
28th of Granite, 104
Eh... The pain of changing is just so great... How much longer till I go insane?
2nd of Slate, 104
It seems the big blob of the fiends outside the gates has finally let up- but I've gotten reports of Deler- one of the Slammerlords- has gone up into the tower (I locked that door!) and is now in combat with the enemy-
And he's absolutely killing it. He's already slaughtered two goblins and a troll and is going on to another-
He's gone up to the next floor! But's he's passed out- I'm sending Zon and ezum to help!
5th of Slate, 104
That's it- the siege is over. But poor Deler has died of his wounds- the exhaustion caught up to him and the final troll killed him. But he probably single-highhandedly ended the siege- I will be sure to honor him via gold statue.
Two problems however- corpse disposal and OH MY GOD THE AMOUNT OF GOBLINS IN CAGES NOW IS STUPID.
First, we're gonna need more coffins...
(Ok, how I handle the next couple months are going to make or break this fortress- Unfortunately, I suck and might ruin this fort forever. Wish me luck!)
-
25th of Granite, 104
This page is covered in ink, rips and tears ravaging this page and the surrounding ones as well.
28th of Granite, 104
Eh... The pain of changing is just so great... How much longer till I go insane?
2nd of Slate, 104
It seems the big blob of the fiends outside the gates has finally let up- but I've gotten reports of Deler- one of the Slammerlords- has gone up into the tower (I locked that door!) and is now in combat with the enemy-
And he's absolutely killing it. He's already slaughtered two goblins and a troll and is going on to another-
He's gone up to the next floor! But's he's passed out- I'm sending Zon and ezum to help!
5th of Slate, 104
That's it- the siege is over. But poor Deler has died of his wounds- the exhaustion caught up to him and the final troll killed him. But he probably single-handedly ended the siege- I will be sure to honor him via gold statue.
RIP Deler, Hero of Smithsoldier. May he be an inspiration and archetype to the dwarves of this fort for years to come. A pity we haven't reached the magma layer yet - if breaking a siege singlehandedly isn't enough to make him worthy of sleeping in the Blood of the World forever, nothing is. Maybe we could try and relocate his coffin later, or flood the tomb with magma as a Stupid Dwarf Trick.
Beside him, how many did we lose?
Two problems however- corpse disposal and OH MY GOD THE AMOUNT OF GOBLINS IN CAGES NOW IS STUPID.
First, we're gonna need more coffins...
(Ok, how I handle the next couple months are going to make or break this fortress- Unfortunately, I suck and might ruin this fort forever. Wish me luck!)
What do we do with the captured Goblin?
What do we do with the captured Goblin?
What do we do with the captured Goblin?
Deep in the Dwarven Fortress!
A few ideas on what to do with the Goblins:
- Training - Strip their armour and weapons via dump, have them melted down, and then use them as live targets for the new military dorfs.
- Strip them of armour and introduce them to DL at the next full moon.
- Drowning chamber could be constructed down in the caverns.
- Finish the Temple of Armok (will require iron spikes and mechanisms, linked to a lever) then sacrifice the lot of them to thank the God of Blood. Failing that, just throw them into the deepest pit you can find and see who can get the biggest splatter.
- If all else fails, there is the atom smasher. Would lose the cages in the process, but would certainly prevent the corpse problem from getting any worse.
Good luck. Here's to glory or death!
-
Not exactly sure, but most of the crossbow squad is long dead since I stationed them in the tower and got into melee range- A couple of other civilians, for sure but it's not too too bad.
(There was a slope I never noticed leading into the tower- for some reason the enemy already in the tower didn't rush inward- I think I got lucky and broke the pathfinding.)
-
Nicely defended! Poor Deler, I'm sure he fought gloriously.
And yes, the cleanup is the real issue with sieges. Making a nearby atom smasher can help greatly, or a deep pit that can later be flooded with magma.
Oh, try to save Deler's weapon and assign it to someone else. If it ever gets named we can have a badass hammer with a huge killcount!
-
(Okay, was just dealing with the fallout of the last siege- cleaning up, I made a drowning chamber to get rid of the prisoners- but ANOTHER siege arrived! This one should be cleaner because I know the holes in our defenses and can seal them accordingly. It's the 3rd of Hematite, 179, btw, so wish me luck!)
-
(Okay, was just dealing with the fallout of the last siege- cleaning up, I made a drowning chamber to get rid of the prisoners- but ANOTHER siege arrived! This one should be cleaner because I know the holes in our defenses and can seal them accordingly. It's the 3rd of Hematite, 179, btw, so wish me luck!)
More Gobbos? Either they don't know when to quit, or they're actively trying to give us sacrifices to Armok. Something tell me that DC will be seeing a lot of use when this is over.
Good luck on the new siege, DL. Here's hoping you can paint the road red with Gobbo blood!
-
26th of Hematite, 179
Sorry for the lack of entries lately- I have a lot of stuff on my plate.
Ironic, that saying- haven't had anything to eat for years- not even the smallest drop of booze. They could at least make a chute to give me something to eat, but whenever I tell them to, they just shake their heads...
Anyway, status update- nothing's happened with the siege. Again, they are just standing in a blob, but this time not right on top of our cage traps, unfortunately. Oh well, they'll go away eventually. In other news, some dude had a strange mood and I thought we were going to be in trouble since he needed cloth, but he's started fortunately.
Remember that problem with the cages? Solved. I stuffed them in a room and flooded it with cavern water.
(https://i.ibb.co/tQBP5vc/Ahhh.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
(https://i.ibb.co/2c6hXcY/Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
The other problem, corpse disposal, is not going as well. I ordered 50 coffins but so far only nine have been produced. There are quite a few ghosts hanging around...
-
1st of Granite, 180
I've been busy, haven't had time to fill this out- any case, I'm done. The 180's have started, and I'm hyped.
Not too much happened in more than half a year since I did this last- the second siege went away after we had some fun with the dump bridge, I realized things don't drown in cages, that things escape when you let them out of cages, even underwater (And related, that goblins are suprisingly good swimmers,) I started steel production- a Minotaur came but good ol' Zon came and killed it singlehandedly and now has a cool name- All good things. And now I'm out of the overseer role- I can finally talk with some old friend-
Hmmm?
A siege has come?
Well, it's not my problem anymore. The year ends as the year started, oh well.
Hey, what's your name again?
'Ryukan'?
Say, why are you carrying that block...
No.
They wouldn't- they wouldn't dare!
Ryukan says nothing, but looks ashamed.
WHY?
AFTER ALL I'VE DONE FOR THIS FORT?
AFTER SACRIFICING MY FREEDOM WILLINGLY?
I SPENT TWO YEARS WITH NOTHING BUT A BED, A CHAIR, A TABLE, AND THE WALLS! ARE YOU JUST GOING TO LET ME ROT HERE FOREVER AFTER THIS?
Ryukan just keeps building the wall, brick by granite brick. Behind him, DwarvenLord sees Rimtar, a founding member and one of his only friends, walk by, obviously trying not to look over at the screaming dwarf.
Why?
Ryukan tries to say something, but nothing comes out- so he simply mouths...
'tradition.'
DwarvenLord gapes at the poor woman in horror as she slides the last brick into it's slot.
TIPS:
Make sure the steel industry continues and that our squads are outfitted with the best armor and in the case of the Towers of Wind, weapons.
Speaking of which, make sure to find a way to kick the "Traveling" dwarves of the squads so we can fully fill out the ranks of our squads. Make sure to train them up too.
You should probably make some official temples+priests, as well as a guildhall, I've gotten multiple requests for such things.
Finish the tower so we can do things during a siege.
I've got a caged cave spider, I think a silk maker would be fun.
DO NOT PROVIDE ANYTHING TO IG ME. IT'S AGAINST DWARVEN TRADITION and will totally not ruin some plans I have for later turns...
Have !!FUN!!
SAVE:
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15017
-
So it's my turn, and I have 2 free days to play right now, between the Sunday and the Orthodox Easter! I'm getting the save as we speak, but won't start for ~4 hours; previous arrangements.
Steel production will definitely continue, and new, all-steel, armor suites are going to get defined, too. From what I saw so far, the military screen is the 'old' one from DF2012.
For the glitching squads, the plan I have (but haven't tested) is to leave the missing dorfs as they are, and move the ones I can control into new squads; preferably with steel armor, yanno. The only exception that could happen would be a fort-dwarf who's a squad leader; I won't be able to remove them from position, because they still have subordinates. I'll see in the save.
The tower is the biggest priority, from what DwarvenLord listed; I'll see what I can do about it. If I still have time and dwarf power left, the other projects will get approached, too.
Temples and priests, ok; not sure where/if I can see the list of desired guildhalls in-game. In my own forts, I screenshot all requests, and that's how I keep track of them... if there's an in-game way, I guess I'll find out now :).
And lastly, the spider; I've made a silk farm exactly once before, and it was fine; so it's not the execution which bothers me. My biggest constraint seem to be time, tbh...
[EDIT] DwarvenLord, a quick check - can I at least smooth out the room in which your dorf resides? By his own hand, obviously.
-
So....I CAN TAKE A TURN!!!!
Glory of glories, LNP got updated to the latest version, and I can now take a turn on this amazing fort!
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So....I CAN TAKE A TURN!!!!
Glory of glories, LNP got updated to the latest version, and I can now take a turn on this amazing fort!
Excellent. I'll get you added to the turn list.
So it's my turn, and I have 2 free days to play right now, between the Sunday and the Orthodox Easter! I'm getting the save as we speak, but won't start for ~4 hours; previous arrangements.
Steel production will definitely continue, and new, all-steel, armor suites are going to get defined, too. From what I saw so far, the military screen is the 'old' one from DF2012.
For the glitching squads, the plan I have (but haven't tested) is to leave the missing dorfs as they are, and move the ones I can control into new squads; preferably with steel armor, yanno. The only exception that could happen would be a fort-dwarf who's a squad leader; I won't be able to remove them from position, because they still have subordinates. I'll see in the save.
The tower is the biggest priority, from what DwarvenLord listed; I'll see what I can do about it. If I still have time and dwarf power left, the other projects will get approached, too.
Temples and priests, ok; not sure where/if I can see the list of desired guildhalls in-game. In my own forts, I screenshot all requests, and that's how I keep track of them... if there's an in-game way, I guess I'll find out now :).
And lastly, the spider; I've made a silk farm exactly once before, so it's not the execution which bothers me. My biggest constraints seem to be time, tbh...
Good luck with your first turn.
-
So it's my turn, and I have 2 free days to play right now, between the Sunday and the Orthodox Easter! I'm getting the save as we speak, but won't start for ~4 hours; previous arrangements.
Steel production will definitely continue, and new, all-steel, armor suites are going to get defined, too. From what I saw so far, the military screen is the 'old' one from DF2012.
For the glitching squads, the plan I have (but haven't tested) is to leave the missing dorfs as they are, and move the ones I can control into new squads; preferably with steel armor, yanno. The only exception that could happen would be a fort-dwarf who's a squad leader; I won't be able to remove them from position, because they still have subordinates. I'll see in the save.
The tower is the biggest priority, from what DwarvenLord listed; I'll see what I can do about it. If I still have time and dwarf power left, the other projects will get approached, too.
Temples and priests, ok; not sure where/if I can see the list of desired guildhalls in-game. In my own forts, I screenshot all requests, and that's how I keep track of them... if there's an in-game way, I guess I'll find out now :).
And lastly, the spider; I've made a silk farm exactly once before, and it was fine; so it's not the execution which bothers me. My biggest constraint seem to be time, tbh...
[EDIT] DwarvenLord, a quick check - can I at least smooth out the room in which your dorf resides? By his own hand, obviously.
Sure. Good luck!
-
Ok; I started up the save, but haven’t played yet. Just looked around, and dwarfed myself. Which raises an important question: are there any dorfing requests? Or is this an overseer-only club?
My avatar is going to be a migrant from the latest wave - a law-abiding, craft-admiring, military-respecting dwarfette who dreams of making a masterwork. Oh, and she worships the god of volcanoes and fortresses. She seems both the dwarfiest dwarf to ever dwarf, and the blandest bland to ever bland.
The imgur album for the intro is going to be here (https://imgur.com/a/gPS9qbY). Might be worth a look, not all pictures in the album make it in the post, and imgur does have image zooming, unlike the forum.
-------------------------
11th Obsidian 179.
Hello, dear diary cum operations log!
Or let’s be frank: hello to you, who’ve come across this small booklet, and are reading my words. My likely amateurish words, as never in my 66 years of life have I ever kept a diary or any other kind of journal, or written any prose.
Nonetheless, I have begun one now, in preparation of forwarding my candidacy as overseer of this fort, SmithSoldier, in the year 180. Or the years after, if I am not elected in the coming weeks.
I think it wise to have a personal report on the leadership decisions made in a fort; the logs and stocks that are kept as part of normal operation tend to obscure and gloss over the reason why decisions were made, or not made. And at worst, should the fortress come to a disastrous end under my rule, it would at least serve to provide context, and perhaps help future overseers in their own years.
As to why I have chosen to become overseer, especially having arrived here less than half a year ago? Because the fort is… suboptimal. There is nothing truly wrong with it; its economy is flourishing, and it has already broken the power of the neighboring goblin pit of KindledTicks, then sent razing parties to the pit of EqualHated (more on those later...). But it could be better, and this is what has irked me enough to move. This fort is merely adequate, when it could be a masterwork.
There are, it must be said, extenuating circumstances - the current overseer, for instance, is a were-chameleon, and has imprisoned himself in a single room for the good of the fort. From what I have been told, the aptly-titled DwarvenLord has been infected with the curse two years ago, when he was in the military. I greatly respect his self-sacrifice, and it would seem I am not the only one, given his election. But I’m convinced his isolation did impact his performance as overseer - there are far too many things which must be seen with one’s own eyes, before orders are made.
23rd Obsidian.
Overseer DwarvenLord has been sealed into his room, once again. I… do not agree. I’ve subtly asked some details over a beer, of both Ryukan, who did the deed, and Rimtar TaperBasement, one of his few friends. Their motive seems to have been, just, tradition. That once the term as overseer has ended, he should be kept away from the fortress. I have not said anything to them, but it makes little sense; here’s a dwarf who held the greatest elected office in a fort, but let’s seal him away from any dwarven contact indefinitely, because that’s what cursed dwarves get? Did the curse not bother you at all when you have chosen him as leader? Let us ignore that he still is oversser, until the year turns...
Another comment, made by Rimtar, has awakened a shred of paranoia for me: Rimtar does not consider the DwarvenLord as a friend, merely a long-term acquaintance. DwarvenLord, however, has named Rimtar as one of his few friends in the world. Perhaps there is more at work than I am aware of; I’ll do nothing on the matter for now. But I reserve the right to interfere; I value friendship, and if this is a plot to abuse it, I will take personal offense.
Rimtar’s relations:
(https://i.imgur.com/y8mcssZ.png)
DwarvenLord’s relations:
(https://i.imgur.com/pV2DyUO.png)
28th Obsidian. Also as per tradition, the next overseer has been revealed today: I have won. I will be the next overseer, having competed only with Salmeuk, and no-one else. I will need to take a closer look at Salmeuk - we have not even been acquainted until now, and I’ll always presume that a dwarf who succeeded in becoming overseer is a cut above the rest; perhaps he is a relation worth cultivating.
But that is very far down my list of priorities. Right now, I will celebrate with a drink, and then I will take over the fort.
180 is to be my year. I will make it count.
----------------------------
I hope you enjoyed the light dusting of Roman consulship which I added to the position of overseer. Great artists steal, and yes being consul was a Very Big Deal in Rome; Romans didn’t count years the way we do, they’d refer to them by who was consul; that’s suspiciously similar to how we manage years :D
Fear not DwarvenLord, your were-dwarf-chameleon will remain untouched; I just poked at the situation, found the discrepancy between relations, and made a story out of it. It did incidentally leave me with a convenient in for later, but I have exactly zero plans involving your avatar.
About dwarf-Salmeuk, I'm not even kidding. My dwarf has 2 and a half pages of 'passing acquaintances', but Salmeuk isn't among them. Far as I can tell, she might have never met him. (Alllso, my dwarf has no family. Zip, zero, nada. It's like she got spawned on the bridge, fully-formed; it's a bit suspicious, if I'm honest.)
-
Yeah, I noticed the discrepancy too.
TBH, I didn't even try to choose Ryukan- I ordered a wall built to see the subject of DwarvenLord's rage and he was the one who did it. In fact, I had re-built the walls way earlier because people in the corridor were constantly getting "Interrupted by a miner" even when she wasn't transformed, so I roleplayed like the wall wasn't there.
-
Yeah, I noticed the discrepancy too.
TBH, I didn't even try to choose Ryukan- I ordered a wall built to see the subject of DwarvenLord's rage and he was the one who did it. In fact, I had re-built the walls way earlier because people in the corridor were constantly getting "Interrupted by a miner" even when she wasn't transformed, so I roleplayed like the wall wasn't there.
Gameplay and story segregation * nods sagely *. It's not like my dwarfette isn't in the tavern getting (even more) drunk, while I'm role-playing her as poring over fortress records, in the overseer's office. Which doesn't physically exist.
-
Preparations Part 1
The year 180 begins with a goblin invasion. I don’t usually put much faith in omens - arguably a heresy - but at this point I am beset by doubts. It was just too soon… Anyway, my doubts are not enough to distract me from my duties. As my first act in office, I call the alarms, and restrict access to the outside. Then while stragglers scramble towards the safety of the fort, I make my way to the overseer’s office, to take charge of this fort.
(https://i.imgur.com/kLLApV2.png)
With access to the filed paperwork, I can make some long-term planning. Though not too long-term; it’s been explained to me before that making plans for after one’s term is a fool’s errand; even if the next overseer has the best intentions, grandiose plans tend to get left by the wayside. That’s not counting that most ‘next overseers’ have their own plans to carry out.
The first thing I check is the emergency burrow; it seems to be fine. It now includes the farming area, which I’ve been told wasn’t included the last time alarms have been called. Seems the esteemed DwarvenLord has fixed that.
Our ‘defense tower’ is a straight-up menace; I already knew that in previous invasions, goblins have climbed the outside of the tower, and entered restricted areas in this manner; what I didn’t know is that trolls have also been involved, and have broken all doors except the lowest one; I count 6 broken doors, across 5 levels. The remaining door is locked tightly, after I ensure nobody is currently loitering in the pilfered rooms.
The second thing I check is the list of general orders. In my days in the capital, a former overseer has ranted at me at length about what amazing bouts of stupidity can be found in a fort’s general orders. In here, I’m happy to say, there is very little I felt the need to change; I have merely:
- Stopped all dwarves from harvesting - only farmers are now allowed to do so. This will greatly increase yields, as plants will be collected by people who actually know what they’re doing.
- Disabled automatic looming of thread, and collection of webs. The first is dangerous, the latter is a constant annoyance, for both the overseer and the poor weaver who must forward a report every time webs run out.
- Allowed all items to be accessible. Automatic forbids are for dwarves who don’t obey burrow designations, and the current population of SmithSoldier has far too much discipline and pride for such bouts of foolishness.
(https://i.imgur.com/4ThMJM9.png) (https://i.imgur.com/3q056mk.png) (https://i.imgur.com/Wk5DRBv.png)
A dwarf I don’t know has just entered my office, to say the siege was broken. Well that was a flash in the pan. The goblins must have been only passing through, on their way to another place… probably one where they don’t die this often, I’m going to guess.
I’d like to stress for external readers that yes, it is still the first day of granite. Seems my mistrust of omens is justified after all.
---------
In the save for 179, the farm wasn’t included in the burrow, which caused me a bit of grief for the few months I played. Now it is, so obviously DwarvenLord did the deed.
Btw, my dwarfette has clearly spent most of the past 2 seasons drinking, eating and being merry - she mostly knows bards and entertainers, and has all sorts of bad thoughts about not working.
--------------------
-
Preparations, part 2
Going back to the audit of the fort. The drink situation was shaky before; I have learned as much while getting my celebratory cup of beer. But now we have reached a breathtaking zero drinks. This is undwarvenly, and will be resolved. Right now. The audit can wait a bit.
(https://i.imgur.com/9PAxCS2.png)
While I’m there, I also take advantage of the kitchen’s proximity to put in some orders for lavish meals. We can spare the food, and we could all use a little something special in our lives…
Can I just say the kitchen arrangement is bizarre? There is one kitchen, one still, one butchery with no tannery in sight, one farmer’s workshop, and two giant food stockpiles with no discernible difference between them:
(https://i.imgur.com/2dKxBu2.png)
For now, I order the construction of a tannery next to the butcher’s. I’ll sort that out later, properly; for the moment, I will only ensure there is food and drink.
On the same level as the food stockpiles, I find an atom-smasher. I investigate it, and it’s… odd. For a start, it’s much larger than I have seen; it is entirely possible to build an atom smasher in a single tile, so it does baffle me that this one uses a whopping 56. Then, the contents discarded inside make no sense; yes, there are some scattered skeletons and torn clothing, but in their vast majority, the contents are logs. The same logs that have been so painstakingly cut down from the surrounding woods, and which have resulted in two dead dwarves. Surely there must have been a clerical error, at some point?
(https://i.imgur.com/ZaiY1Kd.png) (https://i.imgur.com/7rgn2Ws.png)
On the surface, the dump area which fills the pit is set to active; I presume this was the cause, and that logs which should have gone to the smithy have reached the atom smasher. Well that at least is easily fixed; I disable the dumping area, and I am very tempted to decommission the entire contraption. It can be rebuilt, in a much more compact and secure manner.
To close the matter of the farming level, I have two more notes.
Firstly, there is a corpse pile sitting outside. This may not be a pressing issue in SmithSoldier, but it still makes me uneasy; I know of too many verified cases of necromancers raising every corpse they can see, to ever condone an external corpse stockpile.
(https://i.imgur.com/TZMHDvV.png)
Secondly, the animals do not have their own pasture, and keep meandering around the fort. The same farming level would be the correct place to keep them, but I’m unsure where to place it; trees above make digging a dangerous prospect, because it's too easy to accidentally punch a hole in the roof. There seems to be only one area with two layers of dirt - on level 142, next to the tavern and the “Temple of Armok” that has been sitting unfinished for years before I even got here. See last entry about the note on overseers not completing the masterpieces of their predecessors…
(https://i.imgur.com/5tahNps.png)
The lower area seems suitable for one or even two pastures; currently, the area is unused, with only a few iron bars scattered in what seems like a defunct stockpile, and some bins filled with rough gems.
What else is there to say? Ah yes. The logs chute towards the smithy:
(https://i.imgur.com/NXj9uXY.png)
A rather clever design, which I think will see some use soon-ish. Dwarves are already hauling logs from the surface; I see no reason to let them continue.
And one more defense project that has amounted to very little:
(https://i.imgur.com/H6ofg1w.png)
I understand that invaders would have been funneled into the central area, while marksdwarves would sit on the edges and shoot them at leisure. I cannot see any way in which this design would have worked as intended. I intend to do nothing with it, and wall off the lower area so no entry will be possible, even to flying enemies, or worse, titans.
But our defense situation is a different topic, which I will cover separately. Right now, I still have the audit to perform.
I find the manager orders; I have no qualms on the charcoal, steel, and armor orders, but why would anyone make 60 wooden buckets?
(https://i.imgur.com/EEGkVKP.png)
Buckets are not consumables, as you doubtlessly know; unless they were intended for sale, there is no point for any fort to craft 60 buckets. And I retain some doubts about the tunics too; is this really the greatest priority for us? I cancel the order for buckets, and let everything else as-is. For now.
2nd Granite.
Snatcher! Protect the children! He was later identified as Amxu Uksossetu, or StealHoods. No really, that is his name.
(https://i.imgur.com/hZveJ5C.png)
The bastard has bypassed all our traps, and even after being spotted, is still rushing for the fort. The military has been alerted; or at least the ones who have not been stolen from us. But the matter resolves itself quickly and nicely; before the Oily Tests can even approach Amxu, he foolishly enters the barracks. There he is promptly dogpiled by all military dwarves on-duty. The kill goes to Zultan GearMazes, who bashed the goblin with his crossbow so hard that the creature’s chest exploded into gore, but it was certainly a group effort.
(https://i.imgur.com/103jHkL.png) (https://i.imgur.com/slCQeoM.png) (https://i.imgur.com/COihdqp.png)
Apropos of nothing: here is another thing I want to explain, as it likely makes no sense to someone outside of SmithSoldier - the situation and ‘sealing’ of DwarvenLord, which I mentioned happening last year. The poor dwarf was already sealed in the accessibility sense - he had no way to physically get out of the room, nor could anyone else enter his room. But as he was overseer, dwarves had carved out a fortification in the walls of his prison, through which he could speak clearly. The sealing I have mentioned involved walling over this fortification, thus denying an already-imprisoned dwarf access to nothing else except simple dwarven company. It is cruel and unnecessary, and I had higher expectations of us as dwarves. We are not goblins.
----------
I may be role-playing DwarvenLord’s imprisonment with maximum compassion, but the guy, and the wall sealing him, will remain in place for a good long time. Even discounting all the interruption spam, and that his ‘boss’ has plans, there’s also the whole “dwarves teleport through fortifications” bug.
-
Album (https://imgur.com/a/75PzB87)
Preparations, Part 3: crafting, and dwarves
The smithy, wood handling, and crafting area occupies the entirety of level 133, 12 levels below the surface. It was carved out in a combined layer of mudstone and granite, which has led to the discovery of multiple veins of metal.
(https://i.imgur.com/IoUigsP.png)
The smithy is powered entirely by charcoal, which leaves me with contradictory feelings: on one hand, we are dismissing the blood of Armok; there isn’t a single magma forge in this entire fort (or, for that matter, any exposed magma). But on the other hand, this requires the obliteration of the surrounding forest, which personally appeals to me; I have always found nature unsettling, even when I appreciate its beauty.
In the end, the smithy will remain where it is; I may move some things around, but I won’t rebuild it completely; I cannot justify such a move to myself.
For a more detailed breakdown, I’ll begin with this wood chute, which serves as the input to the entire industry:
(https://i.imgur.com/jV06KuY.png)
It is currently empty, as all logs have been used already. This also explains why dwarves are carrying logs by hand from the surface. Clearly, a new massive log dumping session is needed; I apologize in advance to my fellow citizens for forcing them to endure the outdoors.
This dumping destination is connected by a 1-tile wide tunnel to the larger wood and smithing area:
(https://i.imgur.com/aLU0O3I.png)
Traffic around it can certainly be improved with minimal effort. And another thing that I will do is to carve out niches for carpenter’s workshops, forges, glass-works, and pottery. I confess, my motivation in this is a bit sinister: dwarves who suffer a mood which can’t be completed will go mad, and it’s best to lock them away to wither and die, rather than endanger the whole fort.
Crafting has been left a bit haphazard. Masonry and stonecrafting is set east of the smithy, again in unsealed workshops:
(https://i.imgur.com/7M66Jpb.png)
I presume the rightmost room is a dining hall of sorts; I can’t tell for sure, because I haven’t even reached halls (or temples, or meeting areas, or…). Even so, it seems either unfinished or abandoned; the chairs were placed down, but few tables accompany it, and it lacks any chests or decorations.
Gems, by contrast to all other things so far, have received a truly royal treatment:
(https://i.imgur.com/zmJRuMQ.png)
Those 5-tile pillars are built from gold. Both stockpiles have no bins allowed, letting gems be exposed for all to admire. It’s one of those things which I won’t interfere with; yes, it is a traffic nightmare, but sometimes it’s worth it.
Though all these cut gems give me ideas - could we perhaps build some gem windows around, to improve the place a bit? I know I would derive a bit of joy from a red opal or three…
And before I forget: at the left of this sketch, you’ll see two workshops tucked in a stone room; those are an ashery, and a soap maker’s workshop. I intend to move them to the wood working area, where ash is made in the first place. Lard for soap will still need a long haul but at least ash and lye will be near.
This is all the crafting we have, from what I can tell; what’s left now are the terrible defense situation, and an overview of the fort’s population as a whole.
… Speaking of defense is going to be painful. Let’s go over my fellow citizens first:
SmithSoldier is home to 68 dwarves, 5 of which are children. In addition, there are 15 goblins, and 18 humans, of which 6 have petitioned for full citizenship, and were granted such. Of the goblins, none so far have asked us for citizenship; I try to not be unduly biased against them… but if I am fair, I already am. Still, as long as none will break the law, I will treat them as my own.
The six humans are nothing special; the most skilled among them is a farmer; her name is Stozu, and she’s a professional musician and skilled grower. I intend to leave her as a full-time musician for the tavern; we have four growers of higher skill than her.
More relevant to my plans, the fort boasts 17 miners, myself included. But some have been drafted in the military, which is unusual; I thought it well-known that there are only so many tools a dwarf can carry, and that putting a pick and a weapon in the hands of the same dwarf will lead to all manner of confusion. I will see that military dwarves no longer have mining duties assigned, and that miners do not have any military duties. There are 4 legendary miners, who will definitely be removed from any military. The same for our three woodcutters, and any hunters we might decide to invest; currently we have none.
Rimtar TaperBasement, ‘friend’ to DwarvenLord, is the fort’s only, and legendary, carpenter. I certainly hope he enjoys hauling, since we don’t really have that much need for woodcrafts.
Our stone-crafting abilities are heavily sub-par: we number only two masons worthy of the name: Zulban GorgeStatic is an adept engraver and mason, while Limul is skilled in both fighting and masonry. Fath Oartick is a legendary engraver and proud member of our marksdwarf squad, The Oily Tests, where he likely will remain there, as he is an accomplished crossbow dwarf, and we do not have enough of them.
Stonecrafting is even worse than masonry; in here, at least, we have Iteb Chantedworks, who’s a legendary miner and talented stone crafter.
I find, with this occasion, that DwarvenLord is a proficient engraver; this moves me to order his room smoothed out. It is a very small favor to a fellow overseer, but, again, until I learn more of the situation I will not interfere.
We have 4 doctors, of which only Mebzuth BreedStandard is in any way accomplished; she will be named chief medical dwarf, even as I try to not dwell upon her second name.
Smithing is where this fort truly shines; we have legendary dwarves in armoring, weaponsmithing, and metal-crafting. Throw in a blacksmith, and we’d have a full set. Regrettably, they’re currently hampered by the complete lack of steel, and it’s not because there wasn’t any made: like any self-respecting professional, they work fast, and have finished the stockpiles.
We also have a high-master glassmaker, and a legendary gem-cutter; and that’s about it with the skilled dwarves. Any other skills you can think of, we are lacking in.
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Preparations part 4 (and last!)
Rooms and nobles are going to get handled in a single batch, for reasons obvious to anyone familiar with dwarven culture. But dwarven culture isn’t being represented very well in our fort: nobles, both elected and inherited, lack any rooms. And I doubt it’s a lack of time or space, seeing as the citizenry has a great number of rooms available, most of which are even engraved.
(https://i.imgur.com/fS05JiB.png)
Meanwhile, the mayor has neither office or dining room, while the bookkeeper lacks his office.
(https://i.imgur.com/EAm74SH.png)
And it's not like the rooms themselves don't exist; here they are, neatly defined and unassigned to anyone who might use them:
(https://i.imgur.com/O6Qs7zl.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/uZleKKo.png)
The fort’s only decent office (and lever room) has been assigned to the mayor, Edem MirrorTatoo. Another potentially significant dwarf that I never met, and another name going to my private list of noteworthy people.
(https://i.imgur.com/RbEHYHc.png)
Of the two meagre offices, none is immediately usable - one is in DwarvenLord’s room, and the other is shared with a dining room on the crafting level; I presume this is a mistake, and that it was initially planned as a dining room. Well it’s an office now, the dining room was decommissioned, and the office was assigned to our bookkeeper/broker Mosus CatchBasements.
(https://i.imgur.com/Z0cOCjq.png)
Of all the room bondoogles which I have found here, I think this one bothers me the most. The bookkeeper, unlike other dwarves I can name, needs and uses his office; I don’t understand why previous overseers have not taken care of this.
The dining room next door has also been decommissioned, and converted to a private dining room for our mayor. It occurs to me I can also switch the offices for mayor and bookkeeper; this will vex the mayor, though, until his quarters can be brought up to standards. But after having no rooms whatsoever, I presume he will not be overly unhappy.
This leaves us with an unoccupied throne room, which I will keep for later. It’s located on level 110, and is very obviously a part of an unfinished complex:
(https://i.imgur.com/PMv65rW.png)
The mayor’s rooms are nowhere near done, I should mention; there is still a need for furniture. And while pondering the placement of said furniture, a few details become apparent to me: the rooms are very slightly askew. The office is a 6x6 chamber, which means it has no ‘proper’ center, and the chair will always be off to the side. The dining room is 6x7, for some reason, and has no doors directly to the walkway. I give orders to alter both rooms to a 7x7 format:
(https://i.imgur.com/WQAz7T1.png)
The last room I handle is DwarvenLord’s. I have already left order for it to be smoothed; he hasn’t begun to do so, because he is still resting. I decommission the meagre office that was defined from his chair, and I create a bedroom for him alone. I nearly deconstruct the table and chair, too - since nobody ever brings food to the poor dwarf, they seem insulting. But I decide against it at the last moment; there are uses for tables and chairs which don’t involve a meal.
The same room was also marked as a hospital; that can no longer serve any purpose, and has also been decommissioned. We do have a hospital nearby; it’s surprisingly well-equipped, but security is non-existent, and there are neither tables, nor traction benches. Something else I should handle:
(https://i.imgur.com/sXgE1Kl.png) (https://i.imgur.com/RLLjDcM.png)
This neatly segues on to the areas and locations in the fort. We have 5 temples, one tavern - the Laborious Tummy, and one farmer’s guildhall - the Glacial Fins, which I am quite sure has only ever existed on paper.
(https://i.imgur.com/Pr5IMDw.png)
For reasons unknown, the record doesn’t have a clear statement as to where exactly each location is; however, I am acquainted with the disgrace we call temples:
(https://i.imgur.com/y0DTPgk.png)
In order: the Chapel of Wisps, the Cavernous Church, the Church of Intricacies, and the Church of Persuading. The last two are built on dirt, and all of them are mis-shapen, unfurnished small rooms. I briefly wonder if any gods intend to curse us for this affront.
I have no idea where I could find the Sanctum of Owls, the Laborious Tummy, or the Glacial Fins. I have always presumed the Laborious Tummy was this golden beauty:
(https://i.imgur.com/1idlCeG.png)
But it’s not marked as a meeting area; either the records are incomplete, or someone, at some point, has decided the meeting area should be removed. I’d also assume the Sanctum of Owls was the engraved room in the center-top… but I’m still convinced the guild-hall has never existed.
It does pain me, but I will appoint the guild-hall in the dirt-floored room in the top-right. They are a farmer’s guild; I hope none will come scream at me.
Sure enough, the description of the guildhall changes: 36 coins for 36 tiles; even farmers don’t prize dirt that much, I guess.
(https://i.imgur.com/nO1FAlu.png)
It is now the 11th of Granite. The mayor has ended the ban on exporting crowns, and immediately asks for a crown to be made. I intend to fulfill the order; there’s plenty of shells, bones, hooves and antlers which can be carved into crafts. I idly wonder if this is the material you enjoy, Edem... but I do not care enough to check.
I will take a short break, to eat and drink. Then I will tackle the enormous problem of the fort: defense. Until now, we were shielded with traps, bridges, and dwarven might. But we have also been lucky; there were no challenges we could not overcome. This is not guaranteed to last, and as time passes, it will become inevitable that we’ll be faced with enemies that cannot be handled by these three. It’s all fun and games until a Forgotten Beast made of diamond punches through the cavern doors.
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Album (https://imgur.com/a/8SrVpJy)
Spring Part 1 - Granite
With a full belly and a drink in hand, I set out to tackle both stocks and security. The majority of the fort will be set to dumping logs from the surface; the bridges for the dumping zone were lowered and every item within 21 blocks of it has been marked for dumping. I keep an eye out for any other dump zones that I might have missed, but there don’t seem to be any.
Exempt from this duty will be the miners, the wood-burners and the furnace operators. The choice needs little explanation; wood-burners and furnace operators will keep making raw materials for the smiths, and miners will be kept busy with digging all manner of rooms and passages. There’s no shortage of modifications that I want to bring to this place, and the mayor’s rooms are only the first among them. Next, I am looking at extending the wood room:
(https://i.imgur.com/RS9nxe5.png)
The walls were shaved off one or two layers of stone, bringing it up to 22x22. The left side will have all the carpenter’s shops in it, and a willow-only stockpile for all the furniture that isn’t beds. The right side is where the new wood-burning furnaces are going to be built. Lastly the 1-wide corridor to the terminus of the dump-zone is getting extended to 3-wide, to improve traffic.
While this is being done, I look at the military. By law and tradition, dwarves which have been captured are marked as ‘travelling’, (as opposed to the more accurate 'captured', 'lost', or 'horribly tortured by literal devil worshipers'), and cannot be removed from their squads. But everyone else can. Thus, I am able to keep to the word of law, while entirely subverting its spirit.
Before I even begin sorting out the military, I issue two new uniforms, with all-steel armor; one for crossbow-dwarves, the other for melee. Unlike my predecessors, I let melee dwarves pick their weapon of choice; but crossbow-dwarves are forced to pick crossbows - the last thing I want is for some fool to collect a bow then never let it go, motivating that “I like bows!” and completely ignoring that s/he can’t even fire the damn thing.
(https://i.imgur.com/kU2Sb7S.png)
The Towers of Wind have 3 missing dwarves, and their commander is a legendary spear-dwarfette named Zon. Zon was replaced with one Nomal Athelabir, who is prone to tantrums, and is not expected to fight in any capacity. Apropos of nothing, Nomal’s second name translates to RingedRomanced, which makes no sense; I suspect she likes the old tongue, but not enough to learn its grammar.
(https://i.imgur.com/H5bxP5D.png)
The SlammerLords have 2 missing dwarves; their new ‘captain’ is Cerol SyrupLabored, a fisherdwarf prone to melancholy. Incidentally, this squad used to contain our mayor who is a decent doctor, a legendary miner, and a legendary armorer; neither of them will be returning to duty.
(https://i.imgur.com/bKxEybw.png)
The Oily Tests have no missing people; they do have an utter lack of squadmates, though. Please excuse the temporary markings on top of dwarves’ names; I need to keep track of their capabilities somehow.
(https://i.imgur.com/xBzvVRn.png)
Ninth in the list is a human, hence the large H obscuring her name. She is completely unarmored, having only her original clothes. That’s our fault; we have never made any large pieces of armor; the only ones we crafted were normal, dwarf-sized ones, and our human citizens have been left by the wayside. Another embarrassment to us, and insult to them, which I will correct.
The fate of this squad, I’m afraid, is to be disbanded. It was equipped with iron armor, and it is less of a hassle to start over with a steel-based one than it is to change everybody’s equipment. Not to mention there are no penalties for this act, since their squad leader is likely dead, and cannot be angered by being demoted.
The Ocre Youths have now been created, a steel-armored crossbow squad under the leadership of an accomplished marksdwarf who is also a legendary engraver.
(https://i.imgur.com/zfWGCrP.png)
With the squad complete, I no longer need my temporary notes. This is the unaltered list of dwarves. Except for Fath, and Jamas the human woman, nobody has any crossbow skill. I deem it extremely important to make a shooting gallery for the Ochre Youths, so they can gather up some skills.
(https://i.imgur.com/99xWbku.png)
A new melee squad, calling itself The Future Girders, has been formed around a former member of The Towers of Wind. It has accumulated the survivors of both The Towers of Wind, and The Slammer Lords (I will forever regret the loss of this squad’s name from the annals of dwarven history). There are three humans in this squad, one of whom is good with a pike; if we can secure one for him, it would be wonderful.
I’ll keep an eye on the fifth dwarf, Minkot; he was noted to be deliberately cruel on more than one occasion, and if the dwarf truly is a sadist, I’d like to keep him pointed at the enemy, and away from his fellow dwarves.
(https://i.imgur.com/vzSMl3i.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/s4YydLq.png)
Two more things to be done for the military: I increase the number of bolts available for The Ochre Youths to 500; this will leave each marksdwarf with 50 bolts, the maximum capacity of a quiver. I also notice there are very few bolts left, and that most of them have been reserved for hunters (of which, again, we have none). I disable reserved bolts for hunters, and make a note for one of the less skilled weaponsmiths to start making some.
(https://i.imgur.com/qWY5KJa.png)
And lastly, I disable all foods and all activity for the two unfortunate squads. Then I remove them from active duty, sadly forever.
(https://i.imgur.com/4oMQLns.png)
The first month of spring has nearly ended, and no caravan from the pointy-ears has arrived. Seems this fort doesn’t trade with elves; no great loss. While waiting for new migrants, I look over the military requisitions, and note that almost all dwarves have claimed some form of armor; most of it is from the iron stock, but it won’t be that long until we have steel. Maybe half a year? So I go back into the military and change equipment constraints to only use armor.
--------
The reason I'm forcing dwarves to wear only armor is more legacy, and may not apply anymore. In short, some pieces of 'normal' clothing prevent armor from being worn; there is a hidden value for each piece of clothing and each body part, and if the value of the clothing exceeds the cap for the body part, then the dorf won't pick any more clothes. In previous versions, including 0.44.x, this meant that a dorf could wear either high boots, or socks and shoes, but not high boots and socks.
And the reason I only force it on those with full equipment is to keep them from going naked. Because they will, and then the unhappy thoughts start piling on.
-
Album: same as for the previous post; link (https://imgur.com/a/8SrVpJy)
Spring part 2 - Slate & Felsite
1st of Slate.
One of our ‘lesser’ weaponsmiths, Kubuk RazorChampions, has been possessed by unknown forces. He was already an accomplished weaponsmith before (ooc: level 10), so the only thing this means is that if he ever wishes to become legendary, he’ll need to take it the slow way. There’s also a minor problem, more for me than for him: I had ordered all forges dismantled in preparation for moving them in enclosed spaces; I now need to build one, very quickly.
(https://i.imgur.com/BT2jZiQ.png)
Almost simultaneously, some migrants arrive from the east. Their arrival pushes the number of dwarves in the fort to 85.
(https://i.imgur.com/hgvAd8Q.png)
11th of Slate. Our possessed weaponsmith has claimed the newly-built forge.
(https://i.imgur.com/2amAXlQ.png)
While he gathers materials, I order the smoothing of carpenter's pods and the neighboring forge pods. Two engravers jump to it; our own Fath OarTick, and a migrant named Sibrek, who is barely even adequate, and who is immediately removed from stone detailing. Instead, I enable it on a fellow miner, Sikod CanyonTrust who was already an expert, and should be a much better backup engraver.
Next, I turn to the stonecrafting area, or lack thereof.
(https://i.imgur.com/aR6Cdw6.png)
All workshops have been marked for deconstruction. Likewise, the line of chairs and 2 wooden tables. I intend to expand the left-side area into a larger stone-crafting area, while the two rooms to the right will be merged into a large library. Believe me, it seems a vast space, but a library will eat it all up.
What vexes me most about this is the stairwell going downwards. This level was a connection between two independent stairwells - one going up all the way to the soil layers, and one going down until the cavern. The transition will need to be moved on a lower lever. I would have it removed entirely, but that won’t end well - the bottom is not only in insecured cavern territory, but also above water. It’s much simpler to create the same dog-leg passage at a lower level.
A human joins our fortress in full, and hints he'd like to be drafted in the military. I'll keep your desires in mind:
(https://i.imgur.com/H2xEKZx.png)
16th of Slate
While the crafting area is redone, I hastily inaugurate The Library of Letters. My motive is entirely one of self-preservation: dwarves are repeatedly complaining to me that if they don’t get to indulge in a bit of abstract thinking, they’re going to go mad. Oh they phrase it differently, sometimes more politely, sometimes less, but the idea is the same. We NEED a library. And we need more temples, as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/cSvSz8e.png)
I may be too late, even. The mood of dwarves is slowly but certainly dropping. We now have 9 unhappy citizens, and 5 who are very unhappy. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time until… unfortunate incidents… will begin to occur.
(https://i.imgur.com/RXux1M2.png)
17th of Slate. Kubuk has begun a mysterious construction. In a medium of pig iron, I don’t have high hopes; could you not have picked steel? Or failing that, silver?
(https://i.imgur.com/hzNVw1R.png)
19th of Slate. Unfortunate events are happening!
(https://i.imgur.com/FhqVz9A.png)
Two citizens have snapped: the human Gib RevereGems, a high master musician, and a dwarf named Morul; a trader but an unskilled one, who was relegated to hauling and was noted to have anger issues.
22nd. The violence has mostly stopped, but not without consequences: Morul is dead, and so is a military dwarf, one Kib, from The Ochre Youths. In response, another recruit, Ingish, has gone into shock. Poor Ingish really has a bad day - she has sunk into depression, has suffered a broken arm, and has fallen in the pit before the entrance.
(https://i.imgur.com/i0tCaXo.png)
If she snaps out of depression, I will deconstruct a wall keeping the pit sealed from the outside. I will keep an eye on her, periodically. If not, she will die there.
(OOC: I missed taking a screenshot of the Great Doctoring, where some 8 individuals were piled into the hospital. Most of them have ambled there on their own, instead of ignoring their wounds if they were still mobile. This made me happy in real life, because that was the cause of many wounded dwarfs dying a needless death from infection. You can still see its aftermath, however.
(https://i.imgur.com/QEk8sHV.png) )
With all this, it seems I should up the priority of all the corpse handling, which I intended to do after the fort is sealed. The first step is to set up a corpse stockpile near the common graves. My intention was for this to hold only dwarven and human corpses, but unfortunately, corpse stockpiles don’t have such specifications.
(https://i.imgur.com/pOxKuFX.png)
Next to this area, a refuse stockpile will be excavated, and a much smaller atom smasher next to it; I’d like to go for a 3-tile design. The new refuse stockpile is strategically placed next to the basement to the Temple of Armok, and reasonably close to the pasture (you can see a bit of it in the lower-right). Come to think of it, I’m sure I can create a room for poultry around here somewhere…, yeah, I foresee some butchering in the near-future.
(https://i.imgur.com/JxW4hWm.png)
Amid all this planning, the weaponsmith’s strange mood has completed: a war hammer. Once again, I deeply regret that he picked pig iron and not silver. I’d even dream of platinum, but we have none.
(https://i.imgur.com/bR8diJh.png)
7th of Felsite. Some troupe I’ve never heard of wish to reside in Smith Soldier. I’ll give them a shot, and see how they compare to my beloved Heliotrope Lark.
(https://i.imgur.com/bWFPR9v.png)
The dumping from the surface is approaching its end. Or, more accurately, the new batch of dumping is approaching its end. The original designation, of 21 tiles around the chute, has been completed around the end of granite; then I marked everything in the former garbage pit and all the wood until the western edge of our claimed territory. As soon as the last logs are sent down the chute, the haulers will be repurposed for stone hauling and dumping; the newly-dug areas should be clear before the stockpiles are laid down.
End of Felsite. Summer approaches, and I’ve been pulled this way and that. The past two weeks, ish, have seen a fair amount of activity, and I’ll do my best to summarize them, even if exact dates have been lost. I mean really, it all happened within a two-week period; do you really need to know the exact day?
Anyway. The future refuse pile has been dug out, and so has the future atom smasher. You have already seen the end results, since the sketch with the order hasn’t been properly documented so I included the finished product. Also, the pasture was completed, and all grazing animals (plus a few dogs and pigs) have been assigned to it.
(https://i.imgur.com/45ox5fk.png)
The proposed poultry room (I believe it’s called a coop? I have no experience in farming) will likely be off to the side, and an enclosed pod of butcher and tanner workshops will also be constructed… somewhere around here. To be frank, they’re very far down my list of priorities.
The depressed soldier with the broken arm, Ingish, has snapped out of her state and then climbed out of the pit. Yes, with a broken arm. She is currently getting a drink; she remains very unhappy, which doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.
I have been borderline assaulted with requests for citizenship. Individual requests primarily, but also a troupe named The Cremated Twig. I have to give it to them, at least they have a funny name. At the end of the month, this has put us at 9 human citizens (one of whom is the perpetually depressed Gib RevereGems) and we have acquired our first goblin citizen! Dostngosp TalonDevil is a 27-year old adept musician, who despite the extremely badass name, has no military skill whatsoever. (ooc: he’s level 7).
I should also keep in mind that the mayor has made a demand for a crown, and I have zero workshops for crafts available right now. Thankfully, I still have time.
I made, then corrected, a small mistake regarding the planned spaces for enclosed workshops: they have all been moved 1 tile up to the north. The new design looks approximately like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/5mv0FpJ.png)
This lets us have 6 pods, while the previous design had 5 pods, and an awkward, unusable 2-tile space at the bottom. You can also see the new stockpile for willow wood, and the old but expanded stockpile for burning wood - this last one has all surface woods, except willow, feather tree, kapok and candlenut; to my recollection these are the lightest woods in existence, thus they’re best kept for crafting. The mushroom trees aren’t notably light; in fact, they compare with above-ground trees; but they’re colorful, so I keep them separate by choice.
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You really missed out on an opportunity with that artifact- You could of forbid all materials other than steel- If it was a sharp weapon, then it's excellent- if it's blunt, it's not as good but it's not bad. You could've done the other way around too. But what happened happened, so just keep that in mind for the next time. Still, good job on the rest of the fort! It's nice to finally get our workshops organized and have a working hospital.
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Well, it's nice to have someone competent handling things before I take over and screw things up seven ways to hell. lol
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You really missed out on an opportunity with that artifact- You could of forbid all materials other than steel- If it was a sharp weapon, then it's excellent- if it's blunt, it's not as good but it's not bad. You could've done the other way around too. But what happened happened, so just keep that in mind for the next time. Still, good job on the rest of the fort! It's nice to finally get our workshops organized and have a working hospital.
That's something I almost never do, tbh. Also, I'm pretty sure there wasn't a single bar of steel available at that time. Could have still used silver, though.
Incidentally, your dwarf? Hasn't smoothed a single tile. She's conscious, has engraving as her only job, and for some reason she's perfectly fine, with a stress level of -8k; she's the sixth happiest dorf in the fort right now. But she's not actually doing the one job assigned to her.
And she's listed as being 217 years old, an estimated 57 years past her best-by date. Are you sure the were-chameleon thingy was her first curse? :D
Well, it's nice to have someone competent handling things before I take over and screw things up seven ways to hell. lol
I always said: things have to be good before you can fuck them up XD
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Well, it's nice to have someone competent handling things before I take over and screw things up seven ways to hell. lol
Someone competent's in charge? That settles it, then: pigs are flying, the HFS are skating to work, and I just became a Mandrill's uncle![/joke]
Incidentally, your dwarf? Hasn't smoothed a single tile. She's conscious, has engraving as her only job, and for some reason she's perfectly fine, with a stress level of -8k; she's the sixth happiest dorf in the fort right now. But she's not actually doing the one job assigned to her.
And she's listed as being 217 years old, an estimated 57 years past her best-by date. Are you sure the were-chameleon thingy was her first curse? :D
I'll admit I'm surprised at DL's happiness levels IG - would've expected the relative isolation to be taking more of a toll on her.
Great job on the fort so far, and excellent writing!
EDIT: Removed a brainfart.
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And she's listed as being 217 years old, an estimated 57 years past her best-by date. Are you sure the were-chameleon thingy was her first curse? :D
Well the incident was quite a while after she came to the fort, and there were no instances of blood-sucking or revivifying as far as I can tell. But who knows, maybe she's really resilient.
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Before I post the Hematite update, these are the latest thoughts of DwarvenLord the dwarfette, as of mid-summer.
(https://i.imgur.com/PSke7rc.png)
I only now connected something about her age: she's older than the world. This is an original-issue dwarfette. (Still doesn't explain why she hasn't died of old age circa year 123, though)
There is no explanation for the "watched a performance" and "retched on miasma" thoughts - both should have happened in the spring, and I'm very sure none did. There's also no explanation for the complete lack of unhappy thoughts about her being buck-naked for years, by this point.
I'm also genuinely puzzled by her not smoothing out her room; I'm pretty sure that would only happen if she's not technically part of this fort anymore, in a process similar to what happens in a loyalty cascade. And it might have been exactly that - caused by her one and only kill, a human named Kofi Feedgarlic/Lapaimec, in 177. Looking in the dead units list, s/he's listed as a "werechameleon child".
... That's it, isn't it? She has changed allegiances; that neatly explains why fort dwarves kept being "interrupted by a miner", why her thoughts and emotions are all fucky, and why she's not obeying orders.
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New day, new season, new album (https://imgur.com/a/OOZxfmJ), new post.
Summer - Hematite (and a bit of Malachite)
With most of the digging and building complete, the first priority for this year is to begin some actual crafting.
Our only legendary carpenter has been asked to make 3 workshops; the top one will be linked to the willow stockpile, and do bins on repeat, until either we run out of wood, or the workshop gets cluttered, or I finally remember to turn the command off. This won’t be done quickly, the dwarf is sleeping right now.
Our two barely-decent masons have been removed from all jobs except masonry, and also architecture since I still need them to build workshops. They’re adept and skilled, respectively (levels 7 and 4), and they’ll be cutting blocks till at least one of them makes grand-master. Then they can make some important stuff.
Some crafting workshops were made besides the mason’s workshops; they are intended for stone crafts, as you may have imagined, and we have the pick of two talented stonecrafters (level 6); they get the same deal as the masons: make stone crafts, until you get good. For this purpose, they’ll be supplied with some of the less impressive stones - which at this point means mudstone.
(https://i.imgur.com/4V4suGW.png)
The bone-crafting will be done elsewhere; for the long term, I haven’t decided where yet. But for the short term, it will be done in the terribly unsafe cavern layer. And it will be done by the most unhappy dwarves in the fort. I am hoping the crafting, and subsequent increase in skills, will help their mood. Oh, and I’ve walled up the doors into the cave, to decrease the danger.
(https://i.imgur.com/JqL95Ct.png)
For the smithing area, I’ve decided to construct 4 forges, 1 kiln and 1 glass maker's workshop; just in case. We also have 4 wood burning furnaces; I briefly wondered if that’s too little, given how ravenous the smithy is, but wood gets burnt fast, so they should keep up. There's a different potential problem too - that furnaces will eat through neighboring logs at a faster rate than haulers can replenish.
(https://i.imgur.com/x1sh7it.png)
16th Hematite. A human caravan has arrived. They’re having quite the time navigating between all the trees; perhaps a lower-priority project can be to secure a direct entry point for the caravan? Plans for the winter…
17th. The mayor bans the export of crowns; I take this to mean that his crown has been made by one of the angry, angry people in the cavern.
20th. In the spirit of last-minute changes, I decide to make a work-around to the mayor’s doubtlessly recurring bans on selling crowns: I remove them from the trading stockpile, and make them a separate, distant, stockpile; for instance, in the barracks, where they certainly won’t bother anyone.
(https://i.imgur.com/oESKySf.png)
And while I’m looking at that stockpile, I also restrict its contents to crafts, and forbid artifact goods from it. The day I sell an artifact will be a sad day indeed…
(https://i.imgur.com/d99Q3cf.png)
23rd. It seemed to be working, dammit! It seemed to be working. Until it didn’t.
(https://i.imgur.com/Hz3C1Y0.png)
Zultan GearMazes throws a tantrum and destroys her workshop. This senseless act of violence shocks Ingish, the recruit who broke her arm this spring, and a doctor who was the worst of them all. Perhaps worse, Zultan then leaves the cavern and runs into the fort. GearMazes… why is this name familiar? Ah. She’s the one who killed the goblin thief in the spring. How the mighty fall - she was meant to be a hero, and now she’s on the cusp of becoming a villain.
24th. Zultan has reached the tavern, and punched a caravan guard - a human crossbowman. I immediately remove Zultan from her military position; if she’s going to get herself killed while getting SmithSoldier in trouble, she should at least be unarmed and unarmored while at it. But she immediately calms down and returns to the cavern, to resume crafting. Strange is the mind of an angry dwarf.
28th. A hammerdwarf I have never heard from has risen. I check the name with the list of our 5 lost dwarves but s/he doesn’t match:
(https://i.imgur.com/mCihKY8.png)
3rd of Malachite. Finally we trade! I purchase 2 platinum bars, and some human clothes; not that many, because their full title was made unreadable by space constraints:
(https://i.imgur.com/P5OKIbJ.png)
I presume it makes sense to humans, but not to me. I end up buying several chaussees, only because they’re the items whose name I can read. Likewise, a few gloves.
The animals on display don’t interest me; neither do barrels and bags, although the absence of any lye on sale reminds me to order some ash made as well. I do purchase the cheaper leather, wool cloth, and silk, and every piece of thread I can find. That should be everything, I believe?
(https://i.imgur.com/BJ3pTfc.png)
No wait! We have a library now, and it’s got nothing but air. Let’s see what books the humans have:
(https://i.imgur.com/NZV1K0W.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/2Tr2tsR.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/7RwcVG9.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/BaPWpZ1.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/RYt18Ig.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/i70Zu4J.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/c5Sg3WI.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/i1aAzUT.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/U4gIGLl.png)
Some have been bought in duplicate. I also throw in a few of the cheaper quivers, and then I think we’re really done.
(https://i.imgur.com/ffkPAwF.png)
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I'm splitting Malachite because I finally tackled defense, and holy fuck. I played 23 in-game days in 6 hours, took 38 screenshots, and wrote 15 pages in Google Docs (most pics included).
As always, album (https://imgur.com/a/U5abrSi).
Summer Part 2 - Some of Malachite; also, Preparations, Part 5: Defense (Syke, you thought Part 4 was last?)
10th of Malachite. A gem setter withdraws from society! On one hand it’s not another possession, on the other a large gem is pretty useless, no matter how perfect.
(https://i.imgur.com/kNnOkPI.png)
14th. I finally remember I made a slab for the ghost that has risen 15 days ago. When going through the placement orders, I find 4 more slabs, so I build those as well. Then I declare the room a memorial room, because why not?
(https://i.imgur.com/Ih2Ri3b.png)
15th. The jeweller has not made a perfect gem; he somehow made an armor stand:
(https://i.imgur.com/vzBvh5P.png)
(ooc: that is an entire armor stand, from a single green zircon rough gem. I’m going to guess it involves significant amounts of magic, and looks like something made by Protoss).
16th.
(https://i.imgur.com/jrdqYb0.png)
While the latest additions to the fort make their way around, I rummage through the stocks, while pondering the long-neglected defense situation.
In short, our surface entrance will probably be fine, until a flying attacker arrives. Or any titan arrives. Or we forget to lock the door.
The caverns have been sealed already. I will miss the enormous amount of webs scattered about, but we have an imprisoned giant cave spider that can be used for silk production. This part I have dismissed as a priority for quiet times, perhaps during a goblin siege, but looking at the thread and cloth stocks, perhaps I should move it up in priority:
(https://i.imgur.com/s825CZM.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/fSJsPNR.png)
That absurdly large number of cave spider silk threads includes the uncollected webbing too; threads that will be available for use are going to be much fewer. And it’s clear we have all neglected pig tail production. Actually, what’s the state of the farm this summer?
… Plump helmets. They have orders to plant plump helmets in the summer. In the only season when you can grow the only plant thread available for dwarves, they have orders to plant a crop which can grow year-round, including in winter. Honestly, there’s only one way in which this could be worse, and that’s if they planted dimple cups.
Alright. Before I blow the proverbial gasket, how are we for pig tail seeds?
(https://i.imgur.com/oi1vyc4.png)
We have exactly 5. I’m going to guess they were here since the fort was founded, and were never planted. I change orders to plant pig tail seeds in the upper plot, the one currently seeded with plump helmet spawns, and order the second one planted with cave wheat seeds - the other summer crop. Then I change my mind, and flip it around. Maybe we can get two plantings done, between summer and early autumn.
(https://i.imgur.com/gHgzPXZ.png)
Isn’t it fantastic how you can start with cavern security, and end in farm plot management? But that’s how it is, every aspect of a fort’s existence is interwoven with every other aspect, and you never do just one thing.
But back to security. The cavern is further complicated by the slight goblin infestation (and beak dog infestation, but I regard that as part of the goblin one). I’m still unsure how that happened, beyond a vague idea that my predecessor has attempted to drown caged invaders. Irrespective, there are now freed invaders loitering in trees, a dead tribe of amphibian people, and a flooded sub-level of irrecoverable cages and corpses. I see no evidence of any floodgates having been built before the flooding, so draining this mess is not going to be easy.
(https://i.imgur.com/giwazzd.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Q31aTSJ.png)
In theory, it would be possible to drop a stone plug from the upper levels and plug the flow of water; then a pump could drain the rooms and make them usable again. Something worth doing just for the corpses of dwarves that I can glimpse floating around… I presume that was the cause of the ghost?
… You know what, I’ll sketch it out since I’m here. Above the temporary bone-crafting level, these two chunks of stone need to be separated from the surroundings:
(https://i.imgur.com/bZ07PKb.png)
A separation needs to be made above, as well: channeling the empty space, digging above the plug.
(https://i.imgur.com/2URzwwZ.png)
Then you’d return to the level, channel all floor tiles except the one next to the access tunnel, and channel the access flooring last. Carefully. The plug will fall 2 levels, scare the goblins in the tree at least half to death, and cover the ramp that was channeled to let the water in:
(https://i.imgur.com/cWOjTW4.png) (https://i.imgur.com/uEHepPi.png)
The other one has a bit of a complication, because the plug needs to fall through the secure room, and we’ll also need to deconstruct a few tiles of wall. Both of these tiles can be used for plugging:
(https://i.imgur.com/unwrI7s.png)
Then it’s just a matter of re-sealing, building two pumps, one for each room, and letting the pump operators get busy.
And that’s about half with the cave. The other half would be an easily-sealable, indestructible, entry to the cavern, for which I’d go with either a classic bridge, or upstairs sealed with hatches. Compared to everything else, that’s just trivial.
[Errata, 6th Galena]: It belatedly occurs to me the goblins in that tree will make channeling practically impossible for the northern plug. I'll try using a block from the upper level, kept up by a support, and moving the entire operation a few tiles west so I don't need to punch through the wall. For the southern one, the plan remains unchanged.
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I'm also genuinely puzzled by her not smoothing out her room; I'm pretty sure that would only happen if she's not technically part of this fort anymore, in a process similar to what happens in a loyalty cascade. And it might have been exactly that - caused by her one and only kill, a human named Kofi Feedgarlic/Lapaimec, in 177. Looking in the dead units list, s/he's listed as a "werechameleon child".
... That's it, isn't it? She has changed allegiances; that neatly explains why fort dwarves kept being "interrupted by a miner", why her thoughts and emotions are all fucky, and why she's not obeying orders.
Why would that happen? I mean, while it was a child, it was still an outsider and an invader- and she followed orders to get into her room right after it, and she's still on our unit list.
This dwarf is an enigma. That saying,
Samulek, how did you get DwarvenLord into the office in the first place?
Yeah, the goblin drowning was a disaster- I didn't know things don't drown while in cages, and I also didn't know that goblins were really good swimmers. So blame me for that.
Oh, I just remembered something I forgot to put in that last post- there were a couple humans looking for one of our artifacts- we declined, of course, and later found one sneaking around. Wonder if that'll come back to bite us.
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[..] while it was a child, it was still an outsider and an invader- and she followed orders to get into her room right after it, and she's still on our unit list.
This dwarf is an enigma. That saying,
Samulek, how did you get DwarvenLord into the office in the first place?
The finer points are covered in the wiki page on Loyalty Cascades (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Faction#Loyalty_cascade); it's nicknamed "the civil war bug", and it could happen if the were-child was a member of our civilization (or even fort). It even lists the "was interrupted by {profession}" as a symptom.
It has a bug attached, and there's some arguing on it - it was claimed to be resolved in 42.xx, but people reproduced it in 44.12
The summary is that each has 2 loyalties: to the fort, and to the civilization. And:
- If a citizen (who's loyal to both) attacks a member of the civilization who's not a member of the fort, they become enemies of the civ while still loyal to the fort - separatists. These guys follow orders, and the civ in their description changes to... something else generated at random.
- Then if a citizen attacks a separatist, they become enemies of the fort but not the civ - loyalists. These guys don't follow orders.
- lastly, if any of them kill a 'normal' citizen, they become enemy to both - renegades. These can be killed with no problems.
Relevant quotes from the wiki:
Attacking a berserk citizen or werebeast in wereform
Dwarven military can no longer be relied upon to put an end to the rampages of citizens gone berserk or transformed into a beast. Fighting such a threat is treated as assaulting a citizen and will cause the defenders of your fort to lose loyalty and be hunted down as traitors. Bug:7107 Seems partially fixed in 0.42Verify.
Dwarves from these different "factions" will cancel jobs if they ever come across one another, each running away. This will likely lead to a massive number of job interruption announcements reading Urist McDwarf cancels Eat: Interrupted by Farmer
NOTE: Tame animals are loyal to civilizations and fortresses indefinitely due to a bug, so they can be used to kill off separatists/loyalists without repercussions.
As dark as it sounds, I say we also wait until the autumn caravan - there are 5 very unhappy dwarves in the fort, and 2 of them keep tantrumming regularly. It's possible they'll go punch a merchant or guard, and be declared separatists themselves; then I'll at least have confirmation that the bug still repros. This almost happened with the humans, and I think it was prevented when I kicked Zulban out of the military.
--oOo--
As to how Salmeuk got her in the room, I think that hospital designation was how - she either walked in, or was hauled in while unconscious.
Oh, I just remembered something I forgot to put in that last post - there were a couple humans looking for one of our artifacts- we declined, of course, and later found one sneaking around. Wonder if that'll come back to bite us.
... I need to remember this is the villain update. They haven't returned, as far as I know. Now I'll go audit the artifacts I have around.
[edit #2] QuantumDrop, I'm afraid you skipped over Spring Part 2 - http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127953#msg8127953 . It should be #7, and Summer Part 1 is #8.
And while we're at it, Summer Part 2 is above - http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128328#msg8128328 and Summer Part 3 will be posted in maybe 8-10 hours. After I sleep a bit.
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I've fixed the post order in the OP - thanks for pointing out that brain-fart.
As for the two tantruming dwarves, I would agree with using them to test if the Cascades still happen. Failing that and assuming continued disruptive behaviour, may I suggest the Amontillado Procedure?
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Or I could post Summer Part 3 now, and sleep in peace.
Summer Part 3 - Malachite Contd, Trade Depot Musings, and Tower Reconstruction
The security of the surface is more complicated; there are 3 points I see about it: the tower, our entry, and the trade depot.
At this moment, it’s not possible to seal the trade depot from the rest of the fortress, and sealing the trade depot from the outside implies also sealing the fort - which, all right, is acceptable, because if you need to seal the depot then the surface is probably not safe for dwarves either.
If sealing the depot from the fort doesn’t seem a priority, consider that it’s entirely possible for a cursed being to arrive as part of the depot guards, or even the merchants. Bad enough the trade good haulers would be a write-off, we should not give this unfortunate soul unimpeded access to the rest of the fort.
And that’s not even counting some of the rumors wafting out from RoomCarnage like a bad miasma - rumours of entire caravans cresting the edge already corrupted into foul fog zombies, instinctively opposed to all living things… but then again, RoomCarnage was in a sinister biome, and we are not.
(ooc: the two of you who haven’t read RoomCarnage (https://imgur.com/gallery/hxzVT) yet, do so. It’s ridiculously awesome).
So it’s obvious that the trade depot should be moved in a sort of airlocked area; preferably, not too far away from the fort itself, because otherwise hauling goods would be a pain, but one which can be locked away in a moment; either with doors, or again with floor hatches over stairs, which are a bit more secure due to the elevation.
On the outer seal of the airlock, walls, floors and bridges are the only way to go. There isn’t really an alternative.
Now I just need to figure out where any of this would be placed… I may not begin it now, because I have other priorities, and I couldn’t possibly finish it before autumn, but there’s no point in postponing all the planning for winter.
The fort, in approximate layout, is closer to the east edge than the north, south, or west one. I’m exactly scrupulous enough to prefer a centralized location, and I’m pleased to find some interesting overlaps:
The vertical center on the surface is in this neat little valley; the wall has been built as close to the edge of our territory as we are allowed:
(https://i.imgur.com/9nrHOL5.png)
And on the crafting level, the center aligns very well with the stone crafts workshops:
(https://i.imgur.com/1j4q704.png)
I now intend for no loftier goal than a completely subterranean, easily lock-able, trade depot area. And I’ll make the depot out of gold or platinum, because why not?
(The only thing more precious would be adamantine, and I would absolutely not use it for that; it’s downright sacrilegious!)
On the edge of the map, digging and channeling designations have been made; the trees are set to be cut, with the utmost priority… Do we even have woodcutters? Oh yes, four of them. The southern edge is already sealed, but the northern edge will require a bridge. It’s still a great fascination to me how laws dictate we can't build walls too close to the edge of our claimed lands, but bridges and floors are perfectly fine...
(https://i.imgur.com/N35WxvW.png)
In continuation of that channel, a gentle slope will descend for 11 levels, to the crafting area:
(https://i.imgur.com/jgjkdh0.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/CabNdo4.png)
All external designations, including that little bit in the slope’s terminus, have been marked for immediate execution; channeling cannot be done from below, so I want it finished, and sealed from the fort, as soon as we can. Given our idlers, that would be now. The rest of the channel, however, was marked for minimal priority; the miners will return to it when there’s literally nothing else for them to do.
Next, I turn to matters much closer to the fort: the tower and the bridge.
… that could be a book title.
The bridge is fine, if I’m honest. It would be a problem if it would be unsealed vertically, but it’s not; it’s (almost) completely floored over, as part of the tower’s first level:
(https://i.imgur.com/hqg8AL5.png)
The only exception is a single tile exposed by the wall which seals the stairs down, and that can be easily fixed. I’ll even use logs like the rest of that flooring!
(https://i.imgur.com/ynUd1vN.png)
(ooc: I was working on bad assumptions here: I could have sworn the down-ramp was open to the outside; now that I know it’s sealed properly, I’m not going to screw with it).
The tower is unfinished, and, if you’ll forgive me a frank opinion, was badly built. Even if it were properly roofed, it would still have issues:
On the second floor, the southern row of fortifications is built facing the ground level outside. This allows skilled enemies to fire arrows through, as if the fortification would not even be present. The northern one is fine, and the archery targets backed by fortifications and empty space are quite a brilliant idea as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/WywbMc2.png)
This is something I intend to keep, and assign to The Ochre Youths for training. Very soon even, now that I remember only two of their ranks have any sort of experience. I wonder if we have enough bones to carve into bolts, so they can be used for training? I now vaguely regret ordering metal bolts to be forged… but that’s nothing I can’t solve with two stockpiles and a forbidden designation.
Another detail that I noticed: the tower is constructed from either logs, or from unpolished mudstone rock. This is what makes it so easy to climb, as opposed to the added difficulty provided by smooth stone blocks. Unfortunately, it’s also a pain to fix; deconstructing large areas is always dangerous, and while construction is underway, the only thing keeping the fort closed would be a single door.
I believe I won’t bother; I’ll just seal the roof, and rebuild the unfortunate row of south-facing fortifications.
On the third floor, there’s only a row of wooden fortifications, which I intend to leave as they are, and nothing above is really built:
(https://i.imgur.com/fzZw8DM.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/HXYsTpm.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/yYydTvx.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/wfsdYbI.png)
(ooc: sorry for the black color in empty spaces; I dun goofed something in d_init; I was trying to change the character for empty space, not the color. And then I kinda liked it, it makes it look like night)
In preparation for the changes to the tower, I order a stockpile at its base, accepting only granite blocks. Both masons have gone up a level of skill while crafting these, so I expect they are numerous; on the flip-side, they were habitually used for walls and floor, so I am not sure how many are currently available; stocks only record the total number, not the details of each.
(https://i.imgur.com/sRqtisZ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/12Pbr97.png)
(I also built a tiny farm plot off to the side; we have quite a few outdoor plants that can be brewed, and 54 hemp seeds. These stand a much better chance of kick-starting our cloth industry than the 5 pig tails that will soon go out of season...)
While I’m visiting the stocks again, I look at the rocks that have been dug so far. My initial purpose was to see what other stones can be cut into crafts - mica looks like a good candidate, it was dug out with the marble - but I also saw the rather numerous lumps of clay. I presume they were bought from traders, just in case a potter wants one. This does bring up a good point, how does a pottery mood look like? I’ve never heard of one, and I certainly never saw one myself.
(https://i.imgur.com/VS3p5Jn.png)
There are some more minor changes I’m doing, before letting work progress: I am setting three ammo stockpiles. The first is for only metal bolts, and is nestled between the barracks and the stairs; the second will be only for bone bolts, and is located in the tower; and the third is a catch-all for non-bolt ammo; it’s sitting near the entry, in anticipation of it being filled primarily with goblin arrows.
(https://i.imgur.com/uB5RUIt.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ZZZlH19.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/davAJQT.png)
The first two do not accept bolts of masterwork quality, because bolts often get destroyed after firing, and destroying masterwork bolts is going to displease their creator. Now recall the bone bolts, in particular, are being crafted by the least happy dwarves in the fortress… and you’ll understand why I want to sell any such items.
23rd.
(https://i.imgur.com/OxgOC5j.png)
The water level in our cavern well has dropped below half; once again, we are completely out of alcohol. You can guess what I did: restarted production at the still, and re-filled the well. I suppose my next project is going to be the farming area?
(https://i.imgur.com/DCEitNU.png)
25th. Zulban GearMazes is throwing another tantrum. This time a guinea hen chick is getting mauled. At this rate, the dwarfette will spend next year in prison on charges of disorderly conduct and vandalism; that’s going to improve her mood, won’t it? At least she no longer has a weapon; and I must remember to draft two replacements for her, and the poor recruit who died in spring.
(https://i.imgur.com/cpnBVCt.png)
And on that note, Malachite ends. I expect Galena will be uneventful, I’ll mostly execute what I have lined out here, starting with the tower which I want to finish before autumn, just in case our caravan is replaced with a goblin siege. And maybe plot out the farming and cloth crafting areas; we keep running out of booze, and clothing does begin to be tattered...
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I've fixed the post order in the OP - thanks for pointing out that brain-fart.
Hi. No problem, I'm prone to brainfarts too (see newest chapter, where I was convinced the ramp is open to the air; then I finally realized the tower covers it).
As for the two tantruming dwarves, I would agree with using them to test if the Cascades still happen. Failing that and assuming continued disruptive behaviour, may I suggest the Amontillado Procedure?
Don't tempt me, they keep tantrumming, then calming down, then tantrumming again. Doing crafts for 2 months did help a bit, but it's still a drop in the ocean. I need to smash the corpses, so they stop getting bad thoughts from "Seeing a copse" which they haven't really gotten anywhere near.
But, if the situation becomes untenable, I'm sure a bout of cave exploration would not be amiss; maybe they can be sent to poke those goblins and beak dogs in the tree?
Oh. Somewhat related, this here image:
(https://i.imgur.com/cpnBVCt.png)
All those crimes? Zero witnesses. And I call bullshit, the vandalism charge at least refers to a crafts workshop that Zulban toppled in hematite, and she had at least 3 witnesses; but nobody 'fesses up.
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Well there we go. My two days of peace, quiet and uninterrupted gameplay have ended; the pace of my updates is going to drastically slow down from now. Which is fine, because I don’t have any more planning to do, and that’s what ate most of my time. Or at least I think so, it’s hard to tell them apart from writing and editing, since one implied the other so they overlapped quite a bit.
I'm trying to figure out how much time I spent so far: I had about 2 hours Saturday evening, the full Sunday (~10h) and Monday from 8 to 16:00, and then ~1h right now, this message included.
Twenty one hours, nearly a day, well-wasted.
[Morning Edit]: Quantum Drop: sorry to nag you again, but the table of contents is still skipping over a post - Summer Part1 is now missing:
8 - Summer #1 (Hematite)
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128230#msg8128230
9 - summer #2 (Malachite a) is listed as 8 at this moment
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128328#msg8128328
10 - summer #3 (Malachite b)
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128512#msg8128512
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I had a choice: either I post the shortest update I ever made, or I completely give up any attempt at separating posts by seasons or months. I chose the former. So here’s Part 11: The One Tower. Backed by a new album (https://imgur.com/a/7Uw7RB1).
Incidentally, I solved my sky problems in d_init. The four parameters of the SKY instruction are still a mystery to me in terms of values, but I did get the brilliant idea of looking in a previous version to see how they're defined. The new values are [SKY:32:8:9:0] and [CHASM:0:0:0:1]. It looks pretty spiffy, if I dare say so; very sky-like. And it lets me see just how many holes there are around the tower:
(https://i.imgur.com/NhAQnLE.png)
Summer Part 4 - Galena
As the last month of summer rolls around, I find myself pondering our tower.
The current design has an internal space of 22x9. Mostly. There is an exception in the south-east, where for some reason the corner was not built.
(https://i.imgur.com/kmFFWct.png)
Contrary to my initial idea, I will order all the walls torn down, and will rebuild them out of granite blocks. For the floor, I’ll try to keep to the current brown aesthetic, although most of that brown will be mudstone blocks, not wood.
I have decided to expand it to 25x9; the initial idea has come on account of that natural clay wall, jutting out to the north barely 3 tiles away from the existing wall.
Upon closer consideration, I realized this will permit me to fit 3 7x7 training areas per floor, plus allow some extra space for dividing walls, and a 1-tile corridor; perfect for stationing marksdwarves next to fortifications. Thus, the decision to rebuild was taken.
The stairway for the tower will be rebuilt as well, in the south-western corner; the old one would end up in an awkward position, so I will deconstruct it after all other construction is complete. The new stairway will be built from marble; surely the steel industry will not begrudge me this little splurge. And if they do, I'll have words with them; it's barely two rocks, get ahold of yourselves.
(https://i.imgur.com/2pUHLRb.png)
Given the extended scope of this project, I have decided to enable construction and deconstruction on every citizen of the fort, except for our two masons; they will continue to cut blocks, of both granite and mudstone. I have a suspicion that current stocks of blocks are going to prove insufficient.
27th. Presumably, all that masonry and crafting has added up:
(https://i.imgur.com/Pnea63X.png)
... And then we just as quickly get embarrassed:
(https://i.imgur.com/S8kvUek.png)
28th Galena.
Summer is very nearly over, and we are almost entirely out of blocks. At this point, there are exactly 2 granite blocks left, and the last 3 blocks of mudstone will soon be used to plug that strange 3-wide hole in the tower’s floor. There used to be a wooden palisade in there, for reasons which baffle me.
All said, constructing and reconstructing the walls of the new tower has proceeded within the expected timeframe. The outer shell will be complete within mere days, as block production is bound to produce the remaining 20 (ish) blocks that are needed. Oh yes! I ordered two temporary farm plots in the first floor of the tower, on top of the natural soil; as soon as a new season begins, they'll be planted with hemp, and whatever brewable plants we have seeds for.
(https://i.imgur.com/svCy9kM.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ES2d7Nc.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/CPmBMo6.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/LcbDnrG.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/w1sntNk.png)
The roof, on the other hand, cannot be finished before the caravan arrives. That’s acceptable; we can take a break and trade, while masons continue cutting blocks.
Until then, I'll line up a short job, which I wanted to do since the trade depot plans have materialized: in the crafting area, there's a 1-wide walkway; I intend to expand it to 2, and have it lead towards the trade depot. This means the eastern side of the stone-crafting area is getting rebuilt once again, to move it the left; also, our poor mayor's quarters are getting shifted once again:
(https://i.imgur.com/JAtntJs.png)
It might be beneficial to just give everyone some time off, in the next two weeks until the caravan. After that, work will again continue with barely any breathing room... First when hauling goods to the depot; I intend to pick all tattered clothing that we have thrown about and I know from experience that is a great deal of running around. Then second we're restarting tower construction, a month is quite a while for blocks to stockp
---oOo----
A dwarf bursts through the door; he's breathless, and has been clearly running like his life depended on it. "Siege!" he gasps. Then he breathes deeply, and says again:
"Goblin siege! And there's a lot of them!"
(https://i.imgur.com/gji9Qek.png)
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Fuck, fuck, fuck, and more fuck. Wow. Worst timing ever.
All this tells me is that I can probably look forward to one or more sieges during my time as overseer. Damn gobbos. Once we have a good military, we should consider sending in a few squads to butcher them all.
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Album (https://imgur.com/a/sdEe9D0)
Smith Soldier 180, Part 12: Autumn #1
A vile force of darkness, and it’s only just barely autumn. Impatient, aren’t you?
Well. I privately thank my ingrained paranoia for not allowing me to leave an open way into the fort, even on for a short while.
Then I go check all possible ways into the fort; the ramp to the future trade depot has been sealed; good.
(https://i.imgur.com/BcwEdh3.png)
The logs chute is as sealed as it was all summer. The large atom smasher is also sealed, and has never been changed in my rule. The holes in the roof were all patched; they weren’t a problem before, but now the inner wall has been dismantled, so they constitute a way in for any invader brave enough for a 1-level drop. The bridge is as it always was, but the door to the upper levels of the tower is very clearly jammed open:
(https://i.imgur.com/uEOyucC.png)
When I activated the alarm, all the people hauling bone bolts to the training bolts’ stockpile suddenly found themselves without a way up, to reach their destination. So they dropped the cargo where they were - straight in the door. Worse, a granite block slated for construction has also been dropped in the same spot; this one can’t be moved without cancelling the construction.
(https://i.imgur.com/DNBpnWD.png)
What does the upper floor look like?
(https://i.imgur.com/YQzYJjX.png)
Good, they built the back-up door already, and the floor is being built. Once those last 2 tiles are done, I can remove this floor from the emergency burrow and lock the door.
Now I'll keep an eye on the invaders, while I consider what I’m going to do in the coming months. There are many projects I have considered and postponed; the trade depot freshest in my mind. But the one that’s more important is sorting out the entangled situation of farming, seeds, animals, corpses and refuse, butchery, processing (meaning: alcohol, prepared meals, fat and thread extraction), and cloth weaving, dyeing and finally making clothes. I have some ideas bouncing around in my head, but usually there's still a lot of work in turning ideas into plans.
3rd. After I convince myself there are no stragglers outside, I close the bridge. A human poet is loitering on the eastern edge; for his sake, he’d better be leaving…
(https://i.imgur.com/SimPEcO.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/E2UHgEY.png)
4th. Goblins have reached the foot of the tower. I am watching them intently, to see if any begin to climb. The first floor was removed from the emergency burrow already, but I haven’t locked the door yet.
6th. Will they?
(https://i.imgur.com/rNzgmmX.png)
8th. No, they won’t. They keep going around, and not finding any way in. Now go a bit to the right, would you kindly?
(https://i.imgur.com/Ty4qt9J.png)
9th. The full siege has been made apparent. Any notions I entertained about engaging them with our new and inexperienced military have been very thoroughly evaporated:
(https://i.imgur.com/Jk6U8Qp.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/1ChwYdh.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Jn2sdXT.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/LhZvMjQ.png)
(ooc: i haven’t counted all of them, but I’m eyeballing around 140-150, going by page size; 43 per page, 3˝ pages total. This doesn’t include/count the guys stuck underwater and in the cavern, those are grouped lower in the list)
On a lark, I check on that human poet to the east. He’s still there, and as far as I can tell, none of the siege has gotten near him. If they do kill him, I’m not exactly sympathetic - he had 3 days to run for the fort, and he didn’t. He’s not even that far; could have easily made it in half a day…
12th. I have convinced myself invaders won’t climb the new tower. That said, I still lock the door, and turn my attention inward. I’ve got three things to do in the near future: check on the crafting area, masons and smiths in particular (oh yea; I need to order a slab engraved); begin planning the food/corpse/cloth general area; and lastly - or rather immediately after the first - get a goddamn drink! I’ve postponed this for nearly two weeks, with the goblin distraction, and I can feel that indescribable twitching caused by a lack of alcohol.
But before I can make my way to the drinks, I must set up some stockpiles and orders for our crafting area. It takes little enough time, no need to postpone it.
Firstly, I order the creation of as many steel armor pieces as we can make. The dwarf on task for this will be Salmeuk, our legendary armorsmith.
(https://i.imgur.com/PDQL2Zx.png)
Then, several stockpiles will sort out the remaining clutter in the smithy. The least smelter-related ones will be placed south of the smithy, in rooms dug for ores and bars before I moved the smithy. Now, the rightmost two rooms will contain three stockpiles:
(https://i.imgur.com/DZVIA3V.png)
The top one holds metal armor of excellent, masterwork, and artifact quality (and metal shields, tho I don't expect any to exist; we have an enormous stock of wooden ones). This will remove worthy pieces from the spot near the smelter, where they have been lying since the deconstruction of the forge which crafted them. That spot is going to be occupied by all the melt-designated items... but not until the good pieces are moved.
The middle one is for quivers and backpacks. These are unconnected to any smithing business, but very connected to the military business.
The bottom one is for lead bars, and nothing else. We have a remarkable number of lead bars, resulting from all the galena smelted in previous years.
Lastly I order some old stones dumped from the gem temple; such an amazing construction, and nobody has bothered to clean it up...
On a more personal note, coming across Salmeuk's name has made me realize that I haven't paid any attention to the worthwhile dwarves of the fort; a regrettable lack of relations building on my behalf. I will deal with it whenever I deal with it. Although I'd prefer to do so while still overseer, to benefit from the added weight of the title...
14th. I have nearly made it to the drinks stockpile, when the better of our two masons intercepts me with a sheet in hand; I’m guessing it’s a formal request of sorts, otherwise why would he come to me? I tamp down on the annoyance of yet another thing standing between me and a good stiff drink, and I greet him. Sure enough, he hands me a request for a guild hall, for the benefit of the newly established masons’ guild, The Blockaded Hall.
(https://i.imgur.com/3qieOYc.png)
Yes you will receive a guild hall. Now let me get a goddamn drink! I don’t tell him anything like that, but I was very tempted.
-----------------
I’ll try to make smaller posts; the big ones are a pain to edit, and I’m guessing they’re not that great to read, either. The next post should cover the rest of autumn, since it will contain mostly digging and hauling.
The indescribable twitching I mentioned is what I get when I’m insufficiently caffeinated; it’s kinda like being very thirsty, but also not really. I have no idea how a chemical addiction to alcohol would manifest, but… write what you know.
-------------------
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Album (https://imgur.com/a/XyOfYLE)
Part 13: Autumn #2 Limestone, contd.
17th Limestone. Now that I can think clearly again, it’s time to plan.
I already have a general pasture for grazers; what I haven’t made yet is a coop, and an area for butchery and tanning; in proximity to this last one, it’s wise to make a refuse stockpile, that serves as both input and output for the butchers (and neighbors a small atom smasher for those corpses that won’t be butchered).
My first idea was to make them near the old rooms, and use the comparatively more distant atom smasher west to the Temple of Armok (you might recall I dug it out during the spring tantrum panic, and then did nothing with it):
(https://i.imgur.com/qx5FkMF.png)
Then it occurred to me that I am not obligated to build on a single level, and that only the grazers’ pasture truly needed to be on soil. The coop can easily be built on stone, to say nothing of the refuse stockpile, and our industry.
On the lower levels, the only thing so far is an older execution chamber, built at the end of a 7 & 8 levels drop, depending on where you count the input. It is clearly unfinished, and I intend to use the Temple of Armok for our growing stock of goblins, trolls, and beak dogs. I doubt my own plans will come to intersect with these chambers, or the chute towards them, but if I do, I doubt it’s a great loss.
(https://i.imgur.com/cHAIlJe.png) (https://i.imgur.com/ZQkp1Cg.png)
As if in compensation, the Temple of Armok will undergo some minor modifications. Firstly, the dirt walls will be dug out, and replaced with mudstone walls. I have considered different materials, including marble, but the entire level is in shades of brown (except our glorious tavern, of course; and you can make an argument that yellow is close enough to brown that it’s not such a jarring transition).
(https://i.imgur.com/YvNxOKU.png)
One of these walls will be then carved into fortifications, allowing our marksdwarves to finish off any survivors of the spikes. I'm considering a west-to-east firing direction, even better if the east wall can be turned into a fortification with a pit behind.
Next, 4 more upright spikes have been constructed; we have 46 spears and spikes, so 4 was the most we could build at this moment. I dare say it’s enough. The southernmost row was clearly meant for building spikes as well, but I decide not to; it’s too close to the edge.
On the level above, the room was slightly reshaped, and the corresponding row of southern-most hatches were marked for deconstruction; the holes will be floored over. An animal stockpile permitting only goblins, trolls and beak dogs has been defined on top of it. Invaders shall be punished by death. Now we need only move the wild animals, and collect the cages from outside.
Moving on. I will create a new stairway, especially for this complex; it’s aligned horizontally with the old one, it begins up in the soil layer, next to our sub-par temples, and ends slightly above the crafting layer. If I had taken it all the way to the crafting layer, it would have come out near the library. In hindsight, I believe I dug it too deep; now it’s already too late, as legendary miners dig about as fast as others walk.
While we are on this subject, the old stairway has been expanded on a 2x2 configuration, from its old 1x2.
(https://i.imgur.com/XTnJH40.png) (https://i.imgur.com/PFJweOp.png)
Immediately under the grazers’ pasture, I designate four rooms. In clockwise order from the top left, they are for poultry, butchery, refuse, and kitchen making prepared meals. Fat is going to be elsewhere.
(https://i.imgur.com/EJSpZMe.png)
Right below, plants and fruit will be processed to alcohol and thread. This is a very uncomplicated room, essentially a square with containers at the top, workshops in the middle, and plants at the bottom. The business end of the atom smasher will also exist on this level, but that won’t be carved until the rooms above are done.
(https://i.imgur.com/PacihLb.png)
The last big areas would be cloth dyeing and processing, and bone/ totems/nails/ivory. I have not planned them yet, though obviously they’ll all continue beneath current excavations.
22nd Limestone. Multiple farmers have come to complain that they cannot find the remaining hemp seeds; there should be some, according to stocks, but they are unable to find them anywhere, and they assure me they have looked very thoroughly.
I dig through the older records, and I believe I found the issue: the bag of seeds is outside, right on the edge of the map. I can only assume it was dropped on death by some unfortunate merchant or draft animal. This leaves that hemp seed bag technically in our stocks, but still completely unavailable.
In response I changed the farm plot designation to plant billberries; I’ll cycle through all the alcohol crops as the seeds are expended (or, more likely, when I remember).
-------------------
Remember what I said about new overseers never completing old overseers' megaprojects? I am the exception.
About the input settings for the Temple of Armok: I considered letting beak dogs off the hook, on the grounds that animals don’t comprehend the law, therefore can’t break the law. But I remembered dwarven justice allows you to convict animals of crimes, just as real-life medieval justice did, so clearly that’s not a valid argument in this context.
By 'letting beak dogs off the hook' I mean I wanted to not go Vlad the Impaler on them; I was still going to appoint an animal trainer, and train them just enough to be docile for butchering.
... come to think of it, that was error-prone; maybe it's better this way.
As to the seed thing: the fort was producing ridiculous amounts of cancellation spam. I had to get involved, and forbade the offending bag from the map edge.
===============
[edit] I have managed to cock up the numbering to my own posts; for the benefit of all, but mostly QuantumDrop, here's a summary from #7 until now:
7: Spring Part 2
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127953#msg8127953
8: Summer Part 1 - Hematite; Smithing & Crafting has begun in the brand new area, and we trade with the humans.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128230#msg8128230
9: Summer Part 2 - Malachite, The Fate of the Cavern.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128328#msg8128328
10: Summer #3 - Malachite Contd, Trade Depot, and Tower Reconstruction Musings.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128512#msg8128512
11: The One Tower. Summer Part 4, covering all of Galena (aka, the short one)
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128943#msg8128943
12: Autumn #1, testing the tower's climbability (is that even a word?) and trying in vain to get a drink.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128943#msg8128943
13: Besieged! Autumn - revamping the Temple to Armok, and preparing to do a whole new area. Ends about mid-autumn.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index).php?topic=175780.msg8130025#msg8130025
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I’ll try to make smaller posts; the big ones are a pain to edit, and I’m guessing they’re not that great to read, either. The next post should cover the rest of autumn, since it will contain mostly digging and hauling.
Sorry that I've been absent, but how enjoyable it was to come back to this epic and detailed fortress log! And I thought I was bad when it came to spending way too much time documenting everything. Not that it isn't amazing to read (I particularly enjoyed your section criticizing literally every fortress element for it's utility and design), but be wary of tendonitis haha. This post will be my own lengthy reaction.
RE: how I got Dwarvenlord in his room, I honestly can't remember, but I believe I created a temporary hospital because I knew he was gonna wereform all too soon. You seem to understand the underlying mechanics a bit better, and that was a nice writeup on loyalty cascades. TIL all dwarves are a fistfight away from the French Revolution.
Glad you're using the wood chute. Curious, how much wood is left on the surface? I remember thinking, "HOLY CRAP, we'll never use all these logs!", but I would like to be proven wrong.
That pig iron hammer should be given to one of the military, no matter how shit it is.. it's an artifact after all and deserves a chance at glory. On that note, have there been any new names given to training weps or shields?
You've done a good thing rearranging the military. And also refusing to engage 150 goblins, wise choice lol. Perhaps we should expand further, if our fighters are ever going to see action?
Wow, I can't believe you re-constructed the surface fort. I was pretty unhappy with it's design, but I liked the idea of having a keep on the surface and went with the existing foundations. It must have looked butt-ugly being made from wood and mudstone.
Of important note is the artifact floor hatch that is located just above the entrance staircase to the keep. I linked it to one of the levers and left a note of it's location. Now that the keep is safe from climbing it might be good to retrieve and use elsewhere.
Yeah, holy crap those gobbos. Some kind of meatgrinder device might be necessary, perhaps in the next year. LeftHandOfGod, I'm sure you can build a meatgrinder or bridge trap-labyrinth-device? Might be a worthy project if you're feeling overwhelmed by the rest of the management. Oh right I signed up for next turn! This should be interesting.
I'm not really visualizing your new depot entrance slope thing, but hopefully you complete it and we can see the final product.
Again, thank you for your detailed and image-heavy writeups. I'm kind of speechless at the amount of time you've put into it, and also very happy the narrative of Smithsoldier lives on! Do you happen to live in a quarantine state? because that might explain things lol
I'm going to read Roomcarnage tonight, which I assume is another succession game. How privileged are we to have access to so many amazing stories!
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Not that it isn't amazing to read (I particularly enjoyed your section criticizing literally every fortress element for it's utility and design), but be wary of tendonitis haha.
.. that was a nice writeup on loyalty cascades. TIL all dwarves are a fistfight away from the French Revolution.
Well if I'm going to upend everybody's previous work, I have to at least explain why, right?
I basically cited the wiki article on loyalty cascades. And be easy; it's a bit more complex than just throwing a punch, or tantrumming dwarves would be a one-off problem, not a recurring one :D. The loyalty bug crops up when only one loyalty is breached - so when they ?assault?/kill guests and caravaneers; and I think long-term residents too, but I'm not sure.
Glad you're using the wood chute. Curious, how much wood is left on the surface? I remember thinking, "HOLY CRAP, we'll never use all these logs!", but I would like to be proven wrong.
Every scrap of wood in a 21-tile are has been dumped, and so has almost every log in a 31-tile area. I cancelled at the end of spring because I had rocks that needed dumping with higher priority. And the forest is recovering fast, trees have been growing backs like weeds; that's why I decided to continue with a coal-powered smithy, instead of digging down for magma (the way I usually do my smithing)
We're still chewing through the stocks, the only type of wood I ran out is willow, which got carved into bins and a coupla barrels. Because I'm too anally retentive to allow for any but the lightest possible! I'll cut more willows after the siege lifts, and preferrably after the map freezes, so the logs stop falling to the bottom of ponds.
There are still a crapton of logs on the surface; I advise you do a new dump session, because the smithy is ravenous, and because a dragon may pop up to burninate the countryside.
Something else I've done, and didn't mention: I defined a wood stockpile at the bottom of the chute, and linked it as source to all the other stockpiles. Then I set the other stockpiles as taking from links-only. That's so dwarves will stop hauling logs from the surface, thus defeating the entire purpose of the wood chute.
That pig iron hammer should be given to one of the military, no matter how shit it is.. it's an artifact after all and deserves a chance at glory. On that note, have there been any new names given to training weps or shields?
You've done a good thing rearranging the military. And also refusing to engage 150 goblins, wise choice lol. Perhaps we should expand further, if our fighters are ever going to see action?
Beyond the initial rearrangement, the military has been practically shut down. They spent this year hauling and constructing. I intend to get them to work in the winter, after the tower is roofed. Especially The Ochre N00bs, who have practically no skills- their fate is to get bone bolts and get locked in the tower, shooting at archery targets. I'll give them food and booze, and furniture too, but they're not coming out.
I'll also sift through the previously-ignored migrants to see who's good for more squads.
Your namesake has been forging steel armor since around Limestone 10th, and he's got quite the stock of steel bars to chew through - the end result of 2 furnaces, running for almost 3 months, and they keep running.
Incidentally, this ups fort value significantly. I expect every season to start with a gobbo invasion; good thing I'm finishing the Temple of Armok, eh?
Wow, I can't believe you re-constructed the surface fort. I was pretty unhappy with it's design, but I liked the idea of having a keep on the surface and went with the existing foundations.
The reason I re-built the tower was that it was climb-able by invaders. This would leave them very hard to shoot, and if any archers climb on the roof, our sniping tower kinda become their sniping tower...
I really liked the whole assembly of archery target > fortification > pit. I knew there was a way to save the bolts that are fired, but I didn't remember how, so that was a good thing to find out. The tower is a great place for lodging the barracks, because it keeps dorfs from getting cave-adapted. Everybody's getting trained there, not just archers!
Of important note is the artifact floor hatch that is located just above the entrance staircase to the keep. I linked it to one of the levers and left a note of it's location. Now that the keep is safe from climbing it might be good to retrieve and use elsewhere.
I've found the lever, but never noticed the hatch (and I repeatedly moused over it, read the description, and that it's operated by lever...); I used doors. >.> After the tower is roofed, it will become superfluous, but I also don't have a particlularly important place to use it.
Yeah, holy crap those gobbos. Some kind of meatgrinder device might be necessary, perhaps in the next year.
Well, we're waiting for winter :D The current crop of invaders will get to test the Temple of Armok, and I'm keeping marksdwarves in reserve for those who don't die to spikes.
I really, REALLY, hope the ToA works. In previous versions (0.42 and 0.44) sentient creatures could not be pastured or pitted, which made dealing with goblins and trolls into a fucking nightmare. Eventually, I just gave all of them TRAPAVOID; it was just not worth the hassle of emptying the cages.
On the plus side, some crow people were already successfully pitted (by DwarvenLord, iirc) so this 'feature' might have been removed.
You'll still need to drain the cavern room, I'm not going to get to that by year's end. I'll see about making some pump components, though.
I'm not really visualizing your new depot entrance slope thing, but hopefully you complete it and we can see the final product.
Eh, I guess you'll see it soon enough. There's not much to it, it's a series of connecting channels, staggered right-to-left so they go down, in a wagon-navigable manner. The dug out strip of flatland between the bottom of a channel and the top of the next one isn't required, but I like it.
Again, thank you for your detailed and image-heavy writeups. I'm kind of speechless at the amount of time you've put into it, and also very happy the narrative of Smithsoldier lives on! Do you happen to live in a quarantine state? because that might explain things lol
I'm going to read Roomcarnage tonight, which I assume is another succession game. How privileged are we to have access to so many amazing stories!
I am in a quarantined country, yes; and working from home, so not much of a change really. But Saturday and Monday were a special case, because I had literally nothing else to do. No housework, no supply runs, no cooking, no nothing - Eastern-rites Easter is big like that. And thanks to the pandemic, no Church either :D
RoomCarnage isn't a succession, actually; it's all one overseer; and it's posted exclusively on imgur. Bay12 only has the discussion thread.
It's a glacier/volcano embark (already amazing) in a sinister biome that was 'gifted' with a foul fog that turns all who touch a smear into thralls opposed to life. The syndrome acts immediately, and cannot be stopped by anything (no armor save, is what I'm saying).
Now consider how contaminants spread and are effectively un-destroyable... I'm pretty sure something like this can't be cleaned either, the dwarf who'd try gets affected immediately. Spoiler: the guy pumped magma over the glacier, in the hopes of either burning the fog smears, or hiding them under a nice layer of obsidian.
-
Part 14 Autumn #3, Sandstone
Excavations for the first 2 levels designated last month have completed; this will leave me to order a mass-dump of all loose stone. And a thought belatedly occurs: that would mean, especially as lower levels progress, that my fellows would need to go up levels just so they can then go down levels. That’ s a bit ridiculous, especially since all I need to fix it is to extend the staircase into the crafting level:
(https://i.imgur.com/ZZqFKbl.png)
With that done, and while all stones are being hauled, the next level is getting marked.
Right below the plant processing, thread processing will take place. Perhaps it’s a bit oversized, but this room is the exact size of its upstairs neighbor. Two spots in the left will house clothier’s workshops, and on the right the fort’s only leather workshop will stand. I’m of the opinion you hardly need more…
(https://i.imgur.com/sFKgbcn.png)
Looms can be built without enclosure, since no mood has ever required one. Dyeing workshops and a dedicated dye processing area can also be added, but I doubt I’ll bother; maybe if I get seriously bored in the winter… frankly, the fort doesn’t even have a quern.
8th Sandstone
A concern has been raised by some of our visitors: they would like to leave. And they refuse to extend their stay, despite my pleas and reminders of the giant siege outside.
(https://i.imgur.com/zFXk9eN.png)
It was tempting to ignore their requests and just carry on as normal, until the siege would be lifted. But this is a risky proposition; it’s possible that one would react with anger and violence, either from having their long-term plans invalidated, or just from cabin fever. So I have reached a compromise with the three would-be travellers - we will enable them to leave through the caverns:
(https://i.imgur.com/KtoLeE1.png) (https://i.imgur.com/WktXFT2.png)
No sooner is the constructed wall torn down, that all three exit and head south-ward, led by the prophet, Seba WadeMunches. I wish them the best of luck, and spare them no further thoughts.
In the long term, the trade depot airlock can be used for the same purpose; no need to open up the caverns.
13th. Our perpetually depressed human bard has not been seen for a while; I worry that she has opted for a very final balm to her woes. I check the lodgings, and ask some random idler to go check her room.
(https://i.imgur.com/NzWi6NP.png)
The worst has happened: Gib has locked herself in her room, and allowed herself to end. She will be interred in our cemetery.
(https://i.imgur.com/xNa01wz.png)
(ooc A suddenly locked door might have been involved… but I’ll role-play it as suicide. This leaves me with only 4 perpetually sad sacks)
I’ll leave the food situation aside for one moment, to carve a more easily-controlled access point to the caverns. Needless to say, this was prompted by our guests wishing to leave. I still consider doors too easy to break, so hatches are going to be used.
(OOC: I could have sworn I took a screenshot of the initial planning... but I didn't. You'll have to put up with an image from early winter, whic also contains a mild spoiler for the state of our cloth industry):
(https://i.imgur.com/TiMt5bx.png)
The last thing to do before the end of the month is to build the new atom smasher. As mentioned, it and its controlling lever will be in the food processing layer, and enclosed by the fort’s last two granite doors:
(https://i.imgur.com/ScsFvr7.png)
The next month all this complex will be finalized. Which sounds amazing, but I know what it will involve: hauling, hauling, and more hauling.
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Part 15 - Autumn 4 (Timber)
1st of Timber. As the third month of summer rolls around and I anticipate the lifting of the goblin siege, perhaps it’s worth taking stock of the fortress, and seeing what can be done before we'll all be far too busy, cleaning up our surface from the debris of their passing.
The crafting area had changes only in the stockpiles. In an approximate left-to-right order:
(https://i.imgur.com/gZWTWsx.png)
Firstly, bins were disabled for the coal stockpile; there were cases when somebody from the metal industry needed a coal bar form inside a bin that had just been picked up for hauling. All the bins present are ‘legacy’.
Next to the southernmost smelter, a melting stockpile has been designated. This contains all metal items of less than excellent quality, of various types.
(https://i.imgur.com/b4YGKkY.png)
This copy of permissions is for armor items, but similar entries were made for weapons and furniture; I’m holding on finished goods, due to a need for chains elsewhere. I’ll get to it. We have fewer quivers and backpacks than I expected. Quivers at least are equipped already by the 7 marksdwarves of The Ochre Youths, but for backpacks we are doing far worse. And the two honorary captains of effectively dead squads are hogging some excellent armor, because I never instructed them to not carry weapons and armor… perhaps I should do so.
In the north of the stone crafting zone, steps have been taken for creating traction benches. Three temporary stockpiles were made: for poor-quality tables, poor quality mechanisms, and poor quality ropes and chains; this last one is the reason finished goods are not yet allowed in the melting pile.
When the stockpile was created, we had no available ropes or chains in the entirety of SmithSoldier. But we had a smithy, and we can craft chains from a variety of materials. I picked gold; we seem to be drowning in it, the stockpile dedicated to it is certainly overflowing.
Anyway, I digress; the intention of these three stockpiles is to create a lifetime supply of traction benches; 15 or 20 perhaps? Then they’ll be removed, and replaced with a stone ‘pile for mechanisms. Because you can never have too many mechanisms.
Actual goods crafting, of spare mica into sellable goods, has been left by the wayside. A stockpile was defined at some point, before the room was shrunk by one, but then was removed, and never re-established; I dimly recall doing so in the summer, when I initiated tower modifications. People had better things to do than haul rocks, and I had doubts about the sheer size of the stockpile.
For the Temple of Gems, the only change was allowing a limited number of bins in the rough gems location; I’ve taken this decision because the number of excavated gems has vastly outstripped available space. For the cut gems, I have made no alterations besides dumping the loose chunks of granite, and emptying a stray bin filled with both cut and raw gems; doubtlessly a remnant of older stockpiles…
5th Timber. A human has moved up in the world; congratulations! Will nobody in The Contained Fellowship mind that you have spent months if not years drinking in a dwarven fortress?
(https://i.imgur.com/xuC7djh.png)
Then again, that at least means you have good taste.
At around the same time, all loose stone from our three excavated levels have been removed and brought to the crafting level. This means I can start defining stockpiles, and send my kin into a different kind of hauling.
I won’t bore you with too many details, I’ll just add the end results, and some notes on the more peculiar stockpile restrictions:
On level 141, we have the butchering-oriented part of the food production industry:
(https://i.imgur.com/MFDJ3Zl.png)
The food stockpiles (there are three of them in that one sketch, if you’d believe it) are geared towards holding raw materials for cooking. The largest one is filled with meat, fish, and cheese. Of the smaller ones, the left-side one is for items that don’t respond well to being placed in barrels - milled non-dye plants, eggs, leaves, pressed materials, the like. The right-side one is for edible extracts, excluding milk.
Incidentally, the coop is currently locked away, in the hopes of fertile eggs being laid by our one breeding pair of chickens. All fowls except for one rooster are pets to some dwarf or another.
The garbage pile holds all the economically-unimportant bits for refuse; it also contains corpses, in the rationale that all dwarves will be buried, and any other sentients are likely invaders, who can be smashed away without concerns.
(Seems I forgot to build a dividing wall between food and corpses; a rather revolting error, that will be resolved immediately).
One level below, our new plant processing area can be put to use; we have disturbingly few barrels, though. The carpenter has been working on that.
(https://i.imgur.com/VZYcfsz.png)
Of note here is the stockpile below the stills; this is the ‘master stockpile’ for all plants, fruits, and leaves. All other such stockpiles take from it, including the one for leaves upstairs, and the neighboring one which holds only thread-producing plants.
I also note the atom smasher has been finalized; that will allow me the enormous satisfaction of finally getting rid of all the corpses above.
But moving on: the cloth works. All threads and cloths are separated by type. You might say that’s too much hassle, and I’ll agree with you, but better tolerate a little hassle than having a mood fail because you ran out of yarn last year, and never noticed until some poor sod went insane. Speaking of that, we need more silk and yarn threads. And perhaps some of that leather can be converted into backpacks?
(https://i.imgur.com/ZJNeRav.png)
The last thing I’ll say about food hauling: we have an enormous amount of unprepared fish; that, and prepared meals, are the last things remaining in the old stockpile space.
(https://i.imgur.com/kW9VEOJ.png) (https://i.imgur.com/jCSz8kR.png)
Lastly, I get to do something I’ve been hankering to do for a long, long time: dump all of this stinking garbage…
And smash it into non-existence!
(https://i.imgur.com/Ite2HgF.png) (https://i.imgur.com/9slfP88.png)
28th Timber. The goblins loose in the cavern have picked a fight with pond grabbers. It ended amazingly bad for them:
(https://i.imgur.com/WYsOucw.png) (https://i.imgur.com/d9rRFI8.png)
And amazingly well for us; there are no more enemies in the cavern right now. This prompts an idea:
(https://i.imgur.com/p4QNCOh.png)
All of those are looms. As soon as the fort is even vaguely free, the hatches to the cavern will be unlocked, and the bounty of spider silk will be hauled in. I don’t expect this to happen in the next month, though; the siege is about to be lifted, and then we’ll all be too busy cleaning the surface, replacing the all-too useful cages, and preparing the prisoners for their final destination.
Also, construction will be resumed. The tower needs a roof, after all, not to mention all the internal structure. The entry to the depot likewise needs a roof, and a bridge sealing it to the north; I think I’ll use marble. I’ve already decided where the lever for this bridge will be placed:
(https://i.imgur.com/Y7IqBxL.png)
Likely an overly-lofty place for a lever which, by all accounts, will be pulled exactly once; I’ll admit I only used it because most of the room was already in place from a dug out cassiterite vein.
-----------------
I’d like to give some unsolicited advice about sifting stockpiles of items that can be placed in bins or barrels: use give/take linkage, don’t just ban the items from the old stockpile. Because dorfs will try to move items individually - they’ll begin to empty barrels/bins, instead of hauling any full containers. Plants were hauled the hard way, while meat was moved via linkage; that’s how I noticed the thing.
-
Album (https://imgur.com/a/8A1PrL3)
Part 16: Winter - Moonstone & Opal
5th Moonstone. The siege has been lifted, and it is time to finish a tower, a depot entrance, and to clean up the surface. Not one at a time, more like all at once.
For the trade depot, some progress has been made, and I changed my mind about one thing: the lever to seal it. It was now moved into a much more drab location, and the old room has been turned into an office for our manager, Minkot. Her old office consisted of a single chair in the hospital, and now no longer exists.
The room for the trade depot has been sealed from the rest of the fort, smoothed out, and a new Trade Depot is being constructed, out of gold. I told you I will.
(https://i.imgur.com/zKiZR0U.png)
In due time, the rest of the room will be filled with stockpiles with trade goods. But please remember to keep crowns out, for as long as our doctor is mayor.
Above, on level 144, the hospital is being extended; all beds have been removed in preparation for excavations, and for constructing separator walls between future hospital beds. Like with most things, work will cease until we finish our big 3 priorities.
(https://i.imgur.com/uVX5aOR.png) (https://i.imgur.com/pDTcFEA.png)
19th Moonstone. Oh dear. I had no record of this. Seems someone has promised a temple, then hasn’t built it… was this the Sanctum of Owls that I couldn’t find in any way? I guess it was.
(https://i.imgur.com/GNLdk0V.png)
22nd Moonstone: Our chief medical dwarf, of all people, has acquired the aspect of the fey:
(https://i.imgur.com/RFyFITe.png)
25th Moonstone.
(https://i.imgur.com/r6Cytkw.png)
1st of Opal. Two of three projects are nearly complete.
The tower has been roofed over entirely, except a few tiles. Secure access is done by a hatch airlock. Dwarves may complain about having to go up just to go down just to go up, but considering such architecture is effectively everything-proof, they will have to deal with it.
(https://i.imgur.com/BbvYPxo.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/0IcSuCk.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/i7JWviQ.png)
The airlock for the trade depot has likewise been completed; all that’s left is to link the bridge, then pull it up.
(https://i.imgur.com/tHvGeoE.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/kNXpbRP.png)
Surface cleanup is likely the hardest to estimate, but at least the cages have been moved indoors, above the Temple of Armok.
11th Opal Some migrants have arrived; their arrival was almost drowned out by all the requests for citizenship that I’m being inundated with. I can only guess that suffering a siege with zero casualties has upped confidence in SmithSoldier, even if all we did was raise the drawbridge and ignore them.
Somewhat amusingly, most of them were goblins themselves. Who could have guessed, having a culture which exalts evil and cruelty is actually pretty terrible!
Sarcasm aside, I’m reasonably sure I need to dig more bedrooms. We now number 101 dwarves, of which 7 are children, 12 goblins, and 14 humans. I won’t bore you with the full list of citizenship requests, it can be found in the fort’s annals.
(ooc: by which I mean most, but not all, have been screenshotted and uploaded in imgur)
We are beginning to have idlers; let’s prepare the sacrifices to the Temple of Armok! Firstly, the old dump zone in the crafting level has been disabled, and a new one defined right next to the temple. Then all items worn or carried by invaders have been marked to be dumped into it:
(https://i.imgur.com/v5WPgJx.png)
(ooc: if you don’t know, that’s an area-wide designation; d-b-c to claim, d-b-d to dump, them go to the stocks and un-mark all your cages:
(https://i.imgur.com/piPcwE0.png)
That will let dorfs move all items in cages, including things like corpses, armor & weapons from invaders, and seeds for plants fed to caged animals; if you bother with taming, that is).
13th Opal. The airlock bridge has been raised, which makes the depot sealed from the surface; this means I can tear down the last strip of natural wall sectioning it from the entrance.
(https://i.imgur.com/vuqiMPa.png)
17th. Our dear doctor has finally started her work; I was getting worried about the unusually large delay, but turns out it was a combination of many items selected, and an older injury: she has suffered a broken lower back, and has lost the ability to stand.
(https://i.imgur.com/Hu17ipI.png)
18th. Something marvelous has happened: a lost dwarf has returned to us:
(https://i.imgur.com/H2bbCQa.png)
Sodel, one of three missing members of The Towers of Wind, is back in SmithSoldier. I presume he was in the last migrant wave, and he did not see fit to announce his arrival with more… aplomb? The dwarf seems to be fine, and is currently spinning thread.
Also on the 18th: A roc has come!
(https://i.imgur.com/dRSbOfK.png)
The bridge is pulled up immediately, and the hatch to the roof is locked; I am not delaying, the prick can fly, so it’s extremely likely he’s going to avoid our traps entirely:
(https://i.imgur.com/mynTHwn.png)
.. Come to think of it, we should keep the thing locked at all times; unless we need to haul fired arrows or something, there’s no point to ever unlocking it.
22nd: The doctor has finished her work; she named it after herself, despite not having any other link to the figurine:
(https://i.imgur.com/bq8BkY7.png)
I now think slightly less of her.
------------
Edit: due to save date confusion, the actual 'canon' play stops here. I had made a save, which I could have sworn is on the 11th, but was actually on the 2nd; I presume I wanted to make another save after I get the army in place, but forgot.
------------
9th Obsidian. All dumping has completed. While internal alterations to the tower progress, might as well test the pit.
I am not going in this cold cocked, of course. The Ochre Youths are stationed below, in the specially-made corridor, and the Future Girders are stationed above in the cage room. If any prisoners manage to give a hauler the slip, they will not go far. All that is left now is to wait a few days, for the squads to get in place...
(https://i.imgur.com/N15ydRM.png) (https://i.imgur.com/BdQCfWk.png)
------------------------
The ensuing 'fight' was a complete disaster. I will write a post on it, for !!SCIENCE!!, but I don't want to keep it. It's just embarrassing...
Salmeuk, I think I can turn over to you either tomorrow, or in two days.
[EDIT] Addendum to the summary:
14. Dumping. So much stone dumping.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8131514#msg8131514
15 Food hauling. So much food hauling
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8131531#msg8131531
16 (This) Completing projects (mine and others')
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8131580#msg8131580
The way things are shaping up, I'll have a Part 17 - Apocrypha & then Part 18 where my turn is actually going to end.
-
Huh, I'm curious why so many goblins decided to move in. I'll have to check if any of them are particularly interesting. Are they full citizens that perform labors, or just here to fight?
Rocs are such pushovers, though I wish that weren't the case. When I hear 'big bird' I want to see a giant death eagle, not Sesame Street. .
-
Huh, I'm curious why so many goblins decided to move in. I'll have to check if any of them are particularly interesting. Are they full citizens that perform labors, or just here to fight?
Rocs are such pushovers, though I wish that weren't the case. When I hear 'big bird' I want to see a giant death eagle, not Sesame Street.
I'm guessing they were among the performers in the tavern; that's how most our recruiting is done. They're full citizens, fully controllable, and act like 'proper' dwarves in all ways.
The roc is still trampling around the outside; he's mostly one-bite killing all the wildlife, which at this point is wild boars. it might be a pushover, but we have practically no archers, and that's how I would do the deed. Not risking melee squads against a very large critter who can fly.
I'm angling for a cage trap, myself. But that's for the actual, real turn; right now, I'm doing !!Temple Science!!
-
Part 17 - Apocrypha: the Many Deaths of Goblins (and Others)
This covers my non-canon attempts of using the Temple of Armok for the purpose it was intended - dumping hostiles on iron spikes so they bleed to death for the glory of Khorne Armok, and our own amusement.
It should go without saying that in all 3 4 scenarios I have attempted, that exact part has not happened.
In all cases, the military was involved; the melee squad, The Future Girders, has been stationed in the cage room, while the (woefully untrained) marksdwarves, The Ochre Youth, are mostly sitting outside the fortification walls of the Temple itself, in theory waiting to finish off any survivors of the spikes.
Before we start, this was the happiness status across the fort.
(https://i.imgur.com/kbFBOlE.png)
Version 1: Military Only.
In this (and first) version, only the military has been tasked to deal with the invaders.
After (most of) the squads assembled, the doors to the cage room are locked, the Future Girders are both released from orders, and switched to inactive (by which I mean: s-{select squad, in this case d}-t), so they and only they can begin mass pitting all invaders.
It.. does not go well.
I begin the pitting with 4 beak dogs. Nothing complicated, amirite?
(https://i.imgur.com/7uuVoMS.png)
Practically immediately, I get interruption spam. The first beak dog to be removed from a cage didn’t make it to the basement, and is running around in the room, scaring the ever-loving piss and shit out of the FG, who all run around like headless chicken. And being equally scared itself, not that anybody cares.
(https://i.imgur.com/oaTWGaj.png)
I re-enable the FG’s active status, again with s-d-t, and they very quickly murder the shit out of the loose beak dog.
Then they begin training. Cause that’s what active-duty dorfs do, I guess.
(https://i.imgur.com/e71C3vs.png)
I re-disable active status. This time 2 beak dogs are removed from cages. One is successfully pitted, suffers no damage from the fall or spike, and is slowly shot by The Ochre N00bs (yes, I know I made that joke before).
(https://i.imgur.com/OOw4YdV.png)
The other one repeats the story from beak dog #1. It gets resolved in the same manner, too.
By this point it has turned the 17th. I am sufficiently frustrated that I order the doors unlocked, the FG squad stationed in the cage room, and all the recent invaders pitted. I expect this will fail miserably.
22nd. It does. Interruptions run rampant, dwarves and others run around like headless chicken, and the only goblin I have seen in the pit is a corpse. The invaders have been, in their majority, killed by The Future Girders, in glorious melee combat. Only 4 beak dogs have made it in the pit; the rest of the invaders were released, and killed, up in the cage room
(https://i.imgur.com/Jjf0x4U.png)
At least the bolt collection is working. Too bad not many bolts will ever go there, eh?
(https://i.imgur.com/m8LEzh7.png)
Now only the cleanup has remained. There is one lone goblin still caged; he was part of a different sege, and so wasn’t marked for pitting.
The real casualty of this exercise was the happiness of our dorfs.
(https://i.imgur.com/R8hU38f.png)
Version 2: Everybody and Their Pet Dog (Who Died).
In this version, I still station the Ochre Youth in the basement corridor, and the Future Girders in the cage room, but I don’t bother with any subtlety. Everybody gets to pit!
Also in this version, I find out that my latest save wasn’t on the 9th of Obsidian, as I thought. It was on the 2nd, so I need to re-do the hatch designations, and the military orders.
Anyway. Back to experimenting.
For one GLORIOUS moment, this seems to be working!
(https://i.imgur.com/n4Vg88f.png)
Then everything goes to shit. I hesitate to say it went to hell, since that has a different meaning in Dwarf Fortress, where it is possible to go to hell (and make it yours).
(https://i.imgur.com/r1rYOSN.png)
Once again, the FutureGirders get the bulk of the kills. What’s really interesting is that the pit now only contains a few beak dogs:
(https://i.imgur.com/15gUakO.png)
(also, a bit of water; apparently, between the late hour and my butter fingers, I had marked the pit as pond, and through the whole mess, some dwarf had dutifully started dumping water in it).
(https://i.imgur.com/r1rYOSN.png)
The cleanup then proceeds; in the pic above, you can see they started with the corpses in the cage room; perhaps because those were first to get killed?
(https://i.imgur.com/t8vsxUL.png)
You can also see the titular dead dog; I wasn’t joking about it. It was really a pet, too; I saw the name and announcement when it got gibbed, but at that time I didn’t think it was important.
(https://i.imgur.com/QgJVVVJ.png)
For some weird ass reason, I haven’t screenshotted the happiness levels here. It was even worse than the first run; 2 guys had dropped all the way to miserable, and 17 were very unhappy!
Version 3: One Lone Pitter.
This one is the most involved; I allow only one poor sod to pit the invaders. If goblins and trolls really do climb the spikes back up into the room, we are definitely going to find out.
The victim du jour is picked from our sad sacks: Ingish RumorLabored, serial tantrummer, who is currently reading:
(https://i.imgur.com/AbPlSd1.png)
On a side-note: Salmeuk, your is, bar none, the happies dorf in the fort:
(https://i.imgur.com/BbfAxZ9.png)
This hits a snag, because Ingish is part of the Ochre Noobs, and is stationed below. So I picked the next in line: another dwarfette, marked for the military life, but not drafted anywhere. This is GearMazes, who's been tantrumming so many times over the year.
(https://i.imgur.com/XYlHGqB.png)
… she then goes to get a drink. Ugggh.
Fuck it. I pick the next in line who’s currently idle; it happens to be a pump operator with no other skills. She gets to work, and is immediately interrupted by the very troll she has pitted:
(https://i.imgur.com/LBaOu5J.png)
However, some success: the troll has been tossed down the pit!
(https://i.imgur.com/VJSzCHH.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/opfFE6r.png)
When checking the combat log, I can at least confirm the troll has suffered exactly zero damage from the upright spike; all the attacks upon her were from the marksdwarves:
(https://i.imgur.com/eG1EgqV.png)
The combat log also shows a second troll, this one named Aslot, who was attempted to be pitted after Ozud. The operation was cancelled - she was interrupted by a troll. Aslot has then immediately attacked the dwarfette, and was then piled on by the military:
(https://i.imgur.com/pOffo98.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/mSVHBW0.png)
The dwarfette has fled out of the room. Presumably, she’ll return to pit the others?
The dwarfette does return, to haul away an empty cage. I suppose that makes sense, she’s the only one in the fort who can do that.
Next on the list is a beak dog. She is immediately interrupted by a beak dog, so at least I have an inkling that the cause of the failures are the very animals people are hauling.
(https://i.imgur.com/6ZvXZio.png)
The beak dog is chopped up by the military, nearly instantaneously; I don’t even have time to see it. All I can find is four chunks of it, already marked for hauling.
(https://i.imgur.com/me3cjvZ.png)
The troll in the pit has made no moves to climb up. I’m still trying to find out if goblins and trolls can climb the spikes back up.
So for this purpose, I have a slightly evil idea: when our pump operator returns, I’ll lock the door behind her. She will have no jobs, besides pitting invaders; and I will focus on the basement itself. The cage room will have to manage itself.
Unfortunately, we are delayed. Our designated target is in the hospital, resting and unconscious:
(https://i.imgur.com/8FO5F0J.png)
Oh well, next on the chopping block.
Mamzel GearMazes has finished her drink, and went back to reading; hey, would you like to do something more exciting?
She picks a troll; this one too escapes, and is also killed off by the melee squad, almost instantaneously:
(https://i.imgur.com/Ssvx2Wi.png)
The troll below has been shot to death, by the way. After it gave Armok some ideas about how to shape an adamantine vein:
(https://i.imgur.com/Cy4UtX8.png)
Another!
(https://i.imgur.com/kL3yyTV.png)
The military insta-gibs this one, too. I’m tempted to remove them from duty, just to see what happens:
(https://i.imgur.com/o0dGBYb.png)
They let loose a beak dog, who’s running around the room and nobody’s killing it. But it gives me a chance to play around with GifCam:
(https://i.imgur.com/KUiXpKc.png)
With the military disabled, and me putzing around with recording software, the beak dog gets to do some damage.
(https://i.imgur.com/d16LQGJ.png)
Happiness-wise, we aren't doing so bad; but then again, we only killed what, 5 invaders?
(https://i.imgur.com/hCO0b25.png)
Personally, I consider this experiment quite done. Pitting invaders is a pain and a half, and if I had to do it, I’d just station the military on top of the cage stockpile and let them loose.
… That sound like a great idea for experiment #4!
Version 4: Screw the Pit, we’re Using the Army!
For this run, I’m ordering both squads in the cage room, and only a limited number of citizens allowed for animal hauling. Given the swarming mess that happened in version 2, I think this for the best; I do want the option to lock those doors, at some point…
I take away animal hauling from everybody; after the military assembles, I’ll hand it to the idlers.
5th. Assembled enough, I suppose.
(https://i.imgur.com/fygWTmK.png)
There are 12 idlers in the fort now; of them 4 or 5 make it to the room before I lock the doors. Then they… proceed to rapidly pit most invaders, through locked hatches, with no incident? Goodness gracious, was this the missing key ingredient of the pit?
(https://i.imgur.com/59lQm2A.png)
None of the pitted invaders take a lick of damage from the spikes, though. The combat log is as untouched as freshly-driven snow. The only fighting is from the roc, biting the head off another wild boar.
Hum. I unlock doors, set animal hauling back to everyone, and alter military orders: the Ochre Youth go back to the shooting gallery, while the Future Girders are free to do as they please.
8th. The cages are empty, the basement is full of unharmed goblins, and the marksdwarves have yet to haul ass to the shooting gallery:
(https://i.imgur.com/EWgdb5D.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/wEidJdl.png)
12th. I’m sorry, what?
(https://i.imgur.com/wWrlrfk.png)
The location of the announcement is in the bolt collection pit; it would seem the fortification teleport bug has made another appearance.
In the absence of better ideas, i station the Future Girders on top of the empty cage and animal stockpile:
(https://i.imgur.com/gCqWEbz.png)
14th. With one more instance happening, it finally dawns on me that no goblins have teleported through the wall. What is happening instead is that dwarves are coming to pick up arrows from the pit and getting interrupted by seeing goblins above. I solve the matter by locking the access door.
15th Excuse me, what the fuck?
(https://i.imgur.com/evrfar0.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/x9oDMXt.png)
Back on the 13th, Olonised, aka GearMazes, has thrown a tantrum, and then proceeded to punch a good half the tavern. Two pages of her kicking, punching, and twisting limbs on various people. This spilled over into the enormous mess above.
GearMazes’ latest thoughts are just insult to injury:
(https://i.imgur.com/iw8pMzx.png)
Oh noes, poor baby, how dare the consequences of your actions come back to bite you in the ass!
While this stupidity is unfolding, our 8 markdswarves are reliably plinking at goblins. They often move away to replenish bolts, though.
(https://i.imgur.com/rMw7gza.png)
I also find out upright spikes can be destroyed by trolls; why, though? They are traps, not buildings; or maybe they do count as buildings, but are built from the trap menu because of historical reasons, or such? I don’t know...
(https://i.imgur.com/57e0sF2.png)
------------------------- ---oOo--- --------------------------
That’s all the obvious scenarios I could think of.
What conclusions can I draw from it?
Firstly: locking hatches is a must. That part sincerely surprised me; I’m used to dorfs ignoring locked doors and hatches, so when they started pitching invaders through locked hatches, it was entirely unexpected.
On a good note, generalized mass pitting can be used, all at once, ‘cause that actually worked pretty well. Still recommend a melee squad stationed in the cage room, though.
Secondly: the temple basement needs revamping. The spikes are definitely not working. Either they need to be connected to some form of power to get retracted and extended (dwarf-powered lever, or minecart repeater - for which there is a convenient unused space west of the temple...). Or just replace them with good old-fashioned weapon traps; I’m pretty sure you can even reuse the spikes...
One more suggestion, that I’m personally not so keen on, is to expand the Temple one level below; that was mostly caused by the incident in Version 2, where goblins & trolls were successfully pitted only to go back up. I wouldn’t do it, because locking hatches is enough to prevent them from it, as shown in Version 4. If you do decide to make the temple deeper, though, also reduce some of the area to the West, so it doesn’t intersect with the poultry room.
GifCam - http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/#download - Introduced to me by RoomCarnage, but I only ‘installed‘ it before Version3. I put ‘installed’ in quotes, because it doesn’t need installation - just unzip & run.
For the actual play-though, I am going to ignore the Temple entirely. As far as I’m concerned, I had my shot and missed it.
-
(also, a bit of water; apparently, between the late hour and my butter fingers, I had marked the pit as pond, and through the whole mess, some dwarf had dutifully started dumping water in it).
I guarantee that dwarf has second thoughts about living in Smithsoldier after that.
Cog was minding his own business in the inn when the tavernkeep threw a bucket at his head. In his fright, Cog fell from the barstool and in doing so narrowly dodged the bucket.
"Boss says youse gots to dump some wahter down below."
Cog looked around the room, Boss nowhere to be seen.
"What the hell, man?! Can't you just hand it to me?"
"If youse wernt so slow I'd give it to ya soft-like, soft like a purring maggot hahahaha! I'm working, ya know? No time for chumps like you."
The keep set down the glass he had been polishing, and poured himself a drink.
Cog knew better than to argue, so he rose to his feet and collected the bucket from underneath the table where it had fallen.
"Thanks for nothing," he said as he left.
Cog took the bucket to the well, filled it to the brim, then recounted the directions to the new pond. 'Down two flights, across the way, turn left at the second doorway, up the stairs and when you smell something awful you'll know you're close,' bosses handwritten directions had said. Cog thought, 'this will put me right near the new temple installation. Strange place for a pond if you ask me.' Still, orders were orders, and Cog kind of liked having something to do.
As he neared the location, however, something was amiss, and it wasn't just the smell. There was screaming, too, and the sounds of general mayhem and death. 'Was that the Wilhelm scream I just heard?,' Cog wondered to himself. He pushed on to the door, the one with all the screaming. As he approached he stepped in a seeping pool of unidentifiable liquid oozing from underneath the doorway. 'Hmm, someone else must be filling the pond as well!'
Poor, poor Cog.
He opened the door to Hell. Inside, general cacophony and slaughter awaited him. They were so drenched in blood that he barely recognized our Veteran squad. Blue and red, the blood swirled and splashed beneath the fighting dwarves. What were they fighting? Ah, right, the naked and defenseless prisoners of war we had detained for well past the Geneva conventions laws on "Limits to the Extended Imprisonment of Political Prisoners".
One of our laborours would walk over to a cage and unhinge the swinging door, roughly grabbing the tiny goblins and thrusting them into the gauntlet of sharpened steel blades. Sometimes, two dwarves would open a larger cage and release a gigantic Troll, which was quite terrifying at first but you soon realized these beasts are mere children when it comes to our kind warfare, and one could feel only sympathy as the creature babbled in pain while our dwarves cut flesh from bone.
Cog stood dumbfounded, wanting to escape, then remembered that he had one task. Dump the water. He had no real intention of standing in between the crazed blood-dwarves and the helpless sacrifices, so he drop-kicked the bucket into the fray and sprinted away crying and screaming.
Cog never recovered his sanity, and would later wander into the dark wilderness never to be seen again.
The troll below has been shot to death, by the way. After it gave Armok some ideas about how to shape an adamantine vein:
Troll blood is wonderful stuff - I always feel like I murdered some horrific alien creature after they bleed all over the halls.
GifCam - http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/#download - Introduced to me by RoomCarnage, but I only ‘installed‘ it before Version3. I put ‘installed’ in quotes, because it doesn’t need installation - just unzip & run.
Do yourself a favor and check out Screentogif (https://www.screentogif.com/) instead. While it's slightly more complex to use, it possesses a strong editing interface with the ability to adjust capture rate and later edit frame delay. So for DF, where fps doesn't matter, I capture at around 12fps and adjust frame delay accordingly. If you also install the Gifski encoder (which is super easy, the link is directly in Screentogif's interface) you can create super-sharp gifs, which can be important when recording ASCII.
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Part 18 Winter, Obsidian.
Last week, on SmithSoldier:
----------------
Sodel, one of three missing members of The Towers of Wind, is back in SmithSoldier. I presume he was in the last migrant wave, and he did not see fit to announce his arrival with more… aplomb? The dwarf seems to be fine, and is currently spinning thread.
Also on the 18th: A roc has come!
The bridge is pulled up immediately, and the hatch to the roof is locked; I am not delaying, the prick can fly, so it’s extremely likely he’s going to avoid our traps entirely.
.. Come to think of it, we should keep the thing locked at all times; unless we need to haul fired arrows or something, there’s no point to ever unlocking it.
22nd: the doctor has finished her artifact; she named it after herself, despite not having any other link to the figurine:
I now think slightly less of her.
-----------------
The return of Sodel, and the arrival of the roc, have done a great deal to crystallize my priorities for the last month of my reign. I must focus on defense, and let other grandiose ideas by the wayside. I particularly regret not touching the temple situation, but I hold hope my successor will do something about it. Especially since we have a marble layer completely mined out, and ready to be built in carved blocks of marble, and bars of gold…
As defense stands, there are three issues that I must approach: the squads, the tower, and the roc. The last may well be the easiest - for all their fierce size, rocs are still animals, and thus can be caged. I now deeply regret not building a cage trap into the roof hatch access; if I had, I could have unlocked it briefly, and let the flier crawl straight into it. But, if wishes were fishes…
Regardless. Right next to the Temple of Armok, lies an abandoned tunnel. It’s walled off on our end, and closed with a locked door at the other; five cage traps are interposed, between door and masonry plug. This particular structure will be rebuilt into our tentative roc trap.
(https://i.imgur.com/emHl6dO.png)
I order the furthest trap deconstructed; a cage trap will replace it. The other weapon traps will remain in place, just in case. And also just in case, several more cage traps will be built in continuation.
Next on my list, the tower’s interior needs constructing, and in some cases, deconstructing. The entry to the fort, which I’ve come to think of as the basement of the tower, will be left alone; likewise, the ground floor where the outdoor farms now stand. It’s the next two levels which I intend to modify for the benefit of our military.
The first floor is primarily intended for melee squads training, as well as a shooting gallery covering the north wall, towards the fort’s entrance.
(https://i.imgur.com/ziTqcjk.png)
For this purpose, I built an internal curtain wall, and carved the north wall into fortifications. Three melee squads can train in the remaining space, and the Future Girders have already been assigned the space closest to the door - where most of the floor was already built.
(ooc: i now see the center weapon rack was placed off by one - it should have been a tile to the west, dammit! This. This is why I use floor patterns. And, unrelated to the above, I could have carved up the west wall too...)
When the marksdwarves must use the gallery, it’s best to lock the door towards the melee squads, and station the marksdwarves in the corridor; this will prevent dwarves from getting confused and sitting on the wrong side of the curtain wall.
(ooc: as far as I know, stationed dorfs mill about in a 5-tile radius of the tile on which they’re stationed; so locking that door is pretty important about any of them getting in a shooting position; ditto for locking the door after them. Maybe assign a small bolt pile inside the corridor? Like, two-three tiles?)
(https://i.imgur.com/aSTbjMH.png)
The floor above houses primarily archer squads; the western-most space was already handed to The Ochre Youth. I have yet to make up my mind about the center space, but the eastern-most room will be another marksdwarf training squad for certain.
This leaves one more floor in the tower that is completely unused for now. Well, except for the stairway to the roof, but that one is technically ‘outside’ the tower; it shouldn’t count.
While deconstructions, constructions, and stone chiselling take place, I turn my attention towards our own people, and sift those with even a lick of military skill. And since those are depressingly few in number (and since gathering skill must begin somewhere after all), I draw a second pile of names, for unskilled or barely-skilled citizens.
The Ochre Youths get completed; two humans have joined them. Both were adequate marksdwarves, which doesn’t sound like much, but in SmithSoldier, this puts them in the top five most competent archers. The state of our military is quite sad…
Zon has been removed from The Future Girders; as one of the few citizens with leadership experience, she is again the leader of her own melee squad. Her replacement is a butcher who is both a talented spear user, and an unstable individual.
And lastly, four new squads have been assembled - one of marksdwarves (for varying values of both marks and dwarf), and the other three are melee. Here, I’d draw special attention to The Amber Trades, a squad drawn entirely from our goblin population.
(https://i.imgur.com/iT0qeS3.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/tOiQjyF.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/MST1unQ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/vlraHgW.png)
Not counting children, this means almost half the population has been drafted. Perhaps a bit extreme, but our military situation is, in a word, pathetic. And the Pit still exists.
(https://i.imgur.com/tc1QrsW.png)
Our human squaddies have no armor whatsoever; I ask Salmeuk to craft full suites of steel armor, fit for a large size. A lesser armorsmith might have been uneasy, but Salmeuk is legendary in his skill, and then some. He nods, and moves to craft large masterworks.
As progress in construction has been made, the new squads can be appointed in the tower. The first floor sees its two remaining barracks assigned to The Portals of Lulling and The Natural Fences; while the second floor has had its center room ear-marked for The Amber Trades, and the eastern-most room should be given to the Nations of Barricading. As soon as the fortifications are complete, and the targets are built.
(https://i.imgur.com/wEkamZh.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/0x9rwBT.png)
(ooc: Salmeuk, I think i fucked up a bit here - I should have built the archery targets AFTER the fortifications were carved. I remembered during editing that fortifications, much like statues, are impassable; the background wall can’t be reached to be carved).
28th of Obsidian. On the last day of winter, the roc trap is complete. I endeavour to crack open the door, hoping against all reason for a caged semi-megabeast to serve as capstone to my rule. But the creature is randomly flitting about to the north, unknowing or uncaring of the newly opened way into the fortress.
An insidious thought worms its way into my mind - let the door open. A small way in, unknown to my successor unless he or she is really paying attention. But this is a thoroughly foolish, even suicidal, thought. What has come over me? I fucking live here. If the fort is breached, I’ll be killed too, if not worse. I lock the door tightly, and go see who will be the next ruler.
It is Salmeuk, who was also a candidate last year, and I only narrowly won against. In hindsight, I should have seen this coming. As the crowd of well-wishers thin in the evening, I go to greet him, congratulate him myself, and hand the metaphorical keys to the fortress.
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OOC Epilogue
The save will be posted after I’ll run a test with a separate, vanilla-only DF copy - tonight, in a few hours if I have time, or else tomorrow evening. I think I sanitized it of any left-over tileset gunk, but I’ve also seen some dfhack log files. I want to make sure they’re not causing any trouble.
On to the fort:
The Temple of Armok. You all know.
The hospital is still unfinished; I set it to smooth, and built the most distant two pods (they were smoothed out while constructing walls). It may or may not have been assigned as an area; I don’t think I did, but I'm not sure. One trick I can recommend for hospitals: set Thread to zero, and make a dump tile in which you periodically dump all hair in the fort. I won’t pretend to understand all the arcane logic that medi-dorfs use to pick thread for sutures, but placing some otherwise-useless hair in their way ups the chances of that one getting picked.
Oh yeah; in the crafting level, I made a fat & lye stockpile, with inbuilt kitchen + ashery + soap maker’s workshop. I made 18 ash & gave orders for them to be turned into lye; once that’s done, please line up some soap.
And speaking of crafting level and dump zones, the ‘general’ dump zone for stone and all the stuff in the tower is here; pretty sure it’s still active too, because I designated some cleanup on the tower floor:
(https://i.imgur.com/Q19UlNH.png)
All bedrooms are occupied; more definitely need to be appointed, and likely dug out too. And there’s another detail I saw: most/all rooms have containers built in them, not cabinets (d-h instead of d-f). This is why there are so many clothes strewn all over the floor - dorfs don’t use containers to store any personal items.
(https://i.imgur.com/ClfS42B.png)
Ideally, these containers would get deconstructed and replaced with cabinets. The containers can then be reused in the hospital and all the locations (tavern, library and temples), all of which DO use containers, and don’t use cabinets. To check: do guild halls use containers? Do any of the locations use cabinets at all?
The temple/guild-hall situation is dire. As a mega-project, though one on the small side, they can be moved into rooms in the marble layers. You can even construct the walls of gold and marble blocks! (and haul the shitty mica that I haven’t done anything with). Actually, mica is magma-safe; maybe cut it into blocks and a few (dozen) mechanisms? Magma-safe stuff always comes in handy. Always!
Speaking of locations: the library needs some tables, chairs, and containers (or was it cabinets?). I carved around 60 bookcases out of marble (and one stray chunk of granite), and built them already, but ran out of chairs and tables. Containers, well, see the bedroom section :D.
The surface still belongs to the roc. It’s been slaughtering everything that moves between the trees - mostly wild boar, but also the occasional visitor. I perversely hope there’s a goblin siege this spring; that’s going to end poorly for both parties, and hilariously for us, no?
But if there isn’t a siege, please unlock the trap corridor I made. We already have an ettin in our inventory (likely in the flooded cave basement), might as well have a roc too! I can only hope pathing will find the door; when it comes to fliers, there are… outstanding issues.
I really wish I’d have thought to build a cage trap in the access stairs on the roof. Then I could have nabbed the stupid featherbrain already.
In the cavern, everything is ready for launch! I recommend a mass-forbid before you start, then reclaiming only the nearby sections. That’s to keep some poor idiot running off to retrieve a random corpse from the map edge, trampling the precious webs in the way, and possibly running into whatever made that corpse.
Also, as the web collecting clears floor space, the trees can be marked to be cut down. We’re not lacking for wood (understatement of the century), but cavern trees look different.
Also also, I’m pretty sure the east of the cave, beyond the water, is completely inaccessible by land; which tells ya nothing, because dorfs are exactly stupid enough to try and swim over. Mass-forbid is your friend.
Draining the cave basement rooms. The job has been made a bit easier by the loose goblins getting murdered by cavern critters. Good luck dropping the plugs. And, I completely forgot to make any pump components, but I can tell you there are 3 excellent pump operators in the fort right now. Oh, and if possible, see if you can make the pump bits out of green glass & steel - never know when you need to go pump magma. I… think we have some sand bags around? If not, we may be in trouble; there’s no sand we can gather, from what I remember.
Clothing is becoming critical for humans, but is still non-critical for dwarves. At this point, dorfs are reusing goblin clothes, and that’s fine, except for the sort of clothes which goblins don’t bring. Humans, however, are outta luck (same as with armor). If the cavern gamble pays off we’ll also have a lot of silk; please weave some, and order some large clothes into the clothier’s workshop.
Speaking of large anything: is there a way of creating large clothes from the manager menu? I couldn’t find one; the workshop {d}etails menu might be the only way… but if it isn’t, I dearly want to know.
Plus, caged GCS. No, clothing isn’t a danger, but it can become one if ignored.
Artifacts are another aspect I neglected completely; haven’t even made pedestals or anything.
On the animal front, we have male and female dogs as pets to various people. These pet dogs have been breeding quite enthusiastically, and now number about half of all tame animals. It’s up to you if you want to train them for war, or turn them into leather and meat cuts. I regret the absence of more interesting wildlife; can’t we get a grizzly bear, a cave dragon, or something else we can tame and train for war? Then the goblins will see. They will ALL see.
The doors to the chicken coop have been locked in Obsidian; I wanted to do that earlier, but didn’t, and now all hen eggs have been collected. We need widdle baby chickens far more than we need eggs.
Happiness is becoming an issue; overall mood is dropping slowly but surely, and that’s after 2 of the most unhappy people in the fort have either killed themselves, or been callously murdered by me.
I really wished to give dorfs some time off. I expect revamping the temples is going to help, but at some point in the year, maybe it would help if Dwarf Therapist removes all the jobs, from all the dwarves, for a month, and lets them just loiter? At some point the risk of tantruming due to social networking is becoming far less than the risk of tantruming anyway.
Military: needs backpacks for food, and waterskins for booze; that will crater our leather stocks… but luckily, we have puppies!
I should mention explicitly: the squads were created on a pattern of Marks / Melee / Melee, x2. If you need a quick mnemonic about whether the Portals of Lulling or the Nations of Barricading are marks or melee, just note that the Portals are third, and the Nations are fourth - so melee and marks, respectively. The first two squads don’t count, for reasons we all know.
Armor-wise. Due to interface issues I’ve already gotten into, I left the human-sized armor on an infinite loop; your very own dwarf is crafting them right now. Ideally, I’d have built like 10 sets of human-sized armor, and called it a day, but that’s not possible. On the dwarf side of things, we have a shortage of steel armor (50+ dwarves and goblins; of course there’s a shortage), but not of armor in general; again, dorfs can and do reuse goblin crap. In the short term, that’s acceptable; they’ll all spend the next few months training anyway.
Another thing about dwarf-sized armor: there’s a definite and abnormal shortage of breastplates. I don’t know why, they were made at the same time as everything else, but most dwarves have complete armor, except for breastplate.
Weapons-wise: I made some more weaponry; silver for bashing, steel for cutting. We have some slack. Made steel crossbows too, ‘cause you know the tits will bash enemies instead of shooting them.
Another change I made and haven’t mentioned: military schedule. I used the same I’ve been using since DF2012: 2 months training, with 5 people minimum, followed by 1 month break. Staggered this pattern across multiple squads; at any point, in our fort there will be 4 training squads and 2 on break. The two ‘honorary’ squads are permanently off-duty, and disabled in the {s}quads menu.
It’s possible you’ll have problems with dropped and rotting food; that happened a lot in DF2012, when military dorfs are getting out of ‘shift’ and drop their rations… but they still have ownership, and nobody can move the food. So it just rots wherever. I’m hoping this bug was fixed, and I’m also hoping that if it wasn’t, backpacks are going to change this behavior. If this won’t fix anything, I’m afraid the only solution is to ban food from military squads.
BTW: that all-goblin squad? A bit of a dick move there… they’ve all come here to entertain, not fight. And dangerous in another way, too: all goblins have some kind of mental issue in their description - usually prone to violence, but I’ve seen a coupla melancholics too. Lastly, I kinda screwed up the list: there are two legendary dancers drafted, while two mostly-unimportant goblins have been left out. Because that’s what happens when you just filter by the proverbial scarlet letter - in this case, G.
About dwarf management, I removed all my helper labels. The only dwarves with nicknames are the ones who’ve been claimed by RL people:
(https://i.imgur.com/1Wb6ruO.png)
We still have a ton of caught fish, which has yet to be cleaned; I disabled all fish cleaning skills, for some reason connected to too many shells being produced; likely, when I dismantled the crafting in the cavern to make looms.
The fort has no jail, and no jailer. You know, speaking of crafting in the cavern, where I rebuilt workshops multiple times because tantrumming idiots kept toppling them. My own go-to solution for dwarven justice is to build ropes on the floor, 2 tiles apart; then I make a booze stockpile and a prepared meals stockpile (no barrels) so they'd have food & drink. This very neatly works around all the "died of thirst/starvation" problems that crop up with imprisoned dorfs.
In the grazer’s pasture, there are 2 farmer’s workshops; I’ve gotten in the habit that, at the start of each season, I’m ordering milking + cheese making in one, and shearing + spinning in the other. I seriously wish this were automated, somehow (lua script? DFHack command) but so far there aren’t any ways I know of. Then again I don’t really dig deeply into the utilities...
And the absolute last thing: I accidentally stole a few seconds of your turn; the cleanup in Dwarf Therapist and the military schedule changes were both done after Spring rolled over, and at the end I hit space by muscle memory. The year began with critters dying of old age:
(https://i.imgur.com/HUbPNUE.png)
That’s about all I can think of.
===================================================
Summary
17 - Part 17 - Apocrypha: the Many Deaths of Goblins (and Others)
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8132631#msg8132631
17b - Salmeuk did a ‘slice of life’ thing.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8132657#msg8132657
18 Winter Part 2 - Obsidian
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8133248#msg8133248
19 OOC Epilogue (this)
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8133284#msg8133284
EDIT: The save was tested, it works fine. HERE IT IS (http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15046).
Why do people play like this, again? I mean seriously. Ow my eyeballs.
(https://i.imgur.com/JTmYQpH.png)
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Sign me up for a turn! I've got a lot of free time coming up, and I've been playing a lot of DF again lately
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Sign me up for a turn! I've got a lot of free time coming up, and I've been playing a lot of DF again lately
You've been added to the list.
StrikaAmaru, brilliant work on the fortress. Not much I think I can really say beyond that - your actions speak for themselves, I would think.
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StrikaAmaru, brilliant work on the fortress. Not much I think I can really say beyond that - your actions speak for themselves, I would think.
Why thank you for your kind words, Quantum! it was a blast and a half, and I'm sure it would not have been possible without the Easter at the start. Almost half of it was written in those 2 days. I'm pretty sure I'll never write anything quite like this.
I just took the original Google Docs draft through some statistics. It has 20,500 words; and the posted version has a bit more, because I always add some snippet or two. So say, 21,000 - 21,500 words? That's a quarter of a novel, at least. I have yet to figure out what to think of this.
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My god! That's ridiculous (and a tough act to follow. . )!
Well, I'll get started today, see if I can decipher all the changes to the crafting setups. That last OOC post will be a godsend, so thank you for taking the time to make the transition easier :D I have some ideas for that entirely-gobbo squad.
Why do people play like this, again? I mean seriously. Ow my eyeballs.
I take everything back! you heathen! you dirty swine! you gar·ru·lous goblin! ASCII or Death, so Armok said!
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Why do people play like this, again? I mean seriously. Ow my eyeballs.
I take everything back! you heathen! you dirty swine! you gar·ru·lous goblin! ASCII or Death, so Armok said!
Well then I'm willing to bet Armok isn't playing :D
My god! That's ridiculous (and a tough act to follow. . )!
Well, I'll get started today, see if I can decipher all the changes to the crafting setups. That last OOC post will be a godsend, so thank you for taking the time to make the transition easier :D I have some ideas for that entirely-gobbo squad.
Ey, it's not a contest, just have fun. Leaving aside DF's tagline, if playing a game isn't fun why would you even bother playing?
Speaking of: I have, of course, continued playing the save on my own. And holy ☼iron spiked balls☼, so many things I mentioned for flavor just happened:
- I got a goblin siege in spring. The roc had just pitiful performance; it barely killed 4 of them, before getting rekt. It also engaged on the ground, the absolute idiot; if it would have flown, it would have probably handled itself much better.
(https://i.imgur.com/B5XjDU2.png)
- I then abandoned the surface, and went for the cavern. There is. A. FUCKLOAD. of webs to be picked. All spaces got some loom built, except the area where the old crafts shops got built (that one's still full of various crafts, and it's not worth the delay of moving them). Then everybody got weaving, web auto-collect got switched on, and the selective unforbidding got done. they went at it until early summer, and they barely cleaned up some 60 tiles near the entrance. Zero interruptions, too.
- the cloth area was a bit fucked up after all:
(https://i.imgur.com/j2ecZI3.png)
* that top workshop? It's not a clothier's as it should be; it's a fishery :-[ :'( in my defense, k and h are kinda close, and when I did that level it was late at night.
* the lower stockpiles should have been for thread; they're not, I made them for cloth just like the above ones; didn't figure it out until mid-summer, after caravan, when I was puzzled why everybody was idle, and silk thread was still piling in the cavern.
- a dragon showed up:
(https://i.imgur.com/li3rRUO.png)
I mentioned a dragon might come, but I didn't really think one would; dragons are ridiculously rare, I think this is the third or fourth I ever got, across thousands of hours of gameplay. I saved immediately, and went a-savescumming, 3 times:
* first time, it snuck between cage traps, and nearly got over the bridge before I killed DF. So lesson learned: staggering traps in a checkerboard pattern looks really nice, but it does allow a lucky camper to just walk between traps :o. Bare minimum, plonk some next to the bridge.
* second time, I closed the bridge, and the bastard started burning up the forest; it didn't even attack anything, just random fireballing. Prick. Reopening the bridge got him caged, but the fire also advanced over the cage, set it on fire, and released the dragon, again. That ended badly. BTW: I'm pretty sure the corridor I geared up to catch the roc isn't working at all; dragons do fly, and this one didn't react at all to the open way into the fort. I don't think pathing sees that corridor at all...
* third time, I got lucky, and it stepped on a cage without setting anything on fire. Phew.
I still haven't made up my mind what to do with it, either I'll tame him and send him in invasions as a pet to some soldier (very dangerous, given that tamed animals don't get caged and wild-and-tamed animals have their taming expire), or I'll try to make him into a turret. The first is awesome but extremely unlikely to succeed, the second will work for certain but is immobile, prone to death by the first archer, and honestly kinda dull.
... Speaking of taming: if you want to use the GCS for webs, DON'T TAME IT. you'll then have a pain of a time getting it to fire webs.
And one more thing: I did drain the cavern basement; we already have corkscrews, only pipes are missing. We also have zero sand, and zero sand bags. I'd strongly recommend buying some from traders.
(While checking the sand situation with the help of DFHack, reveal all and prospect, I've come across a spoiler, regarding the standard spoiler. It's not bad, it's very, very good; I'll only say this just might have pushed SmithSoldier at the top of the best embarks I ever ran into).
--------------
Edit: Oh yeah! Happiness. So firstly, the serially sad sacks are not going to be a problem for very long. By the end of summer all of the very unhappy people got themselves killed in one way or another, and for once I had nothing to do with it; they either started fights they couldn't finish, or went terminally melancholic. The only dorf who's very unhappy now is DwarvenLord - at long last the happiness dropped as expected from her condition.
Secondly, I am now sure the mental issues are acquired. Dwarves in the military, that I only enlisted because they had no problems, are now prone to melancholy or tantrums. Even my own dwarfette, who I have photographic evidence had no issues at the start of 180, is now "more likely to stumble obliviously and go stark raving mad". Really, really, really need to tackle happiness.
-
How's it going so far Salmuek?
-
I've been busy so far, sitting down today to play. Plans are to address the bedrooms and deploy the web gatherers. Expect. . something.
Also, good advice about the mood. That's an issue that will only cause future overseers even more trouble, if not dealt with immediately. Our dwarves need a damn break! And better QoL in general. I might have to switch gears from my usual authoritarian style and try to spruce the place up. Of course, that means not accomplishing as much, but that's really OK since the fortress seems largely self sufficient.
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Diary of Salmeuk, Early Spring of Year 181
After many years of toil and trouble in the burning forges I have once again been elected Overseer. Am I surprised? No. The dwarves are unhappy. They wanted change. And that's what I've always promised!
These past years have brought immense changes to the structure of Smithsoldiers. With the sharp eyes and fearsome analytical abilities of our leaders, our masons and smiths have raised huge structures, and dug the deepest of tunnels. Our engineers set complex traps, and our craftsdwarves have churned out many a fine figurine.
Yet, throughout all this, one simple thing has been neglected time and time again: Our happiness! What use is a steel battleaxe to a dwarf who is too depressed to fight? What use are the hundreds of raw marble boulders if our masons can't find inspiration to carve? Or the thousands of wooden logs we cut so many years ago, when our carpenters are busy drinking away the pain?
Our clothes are so ragged people would rather go naked, as seen by the piles of dirty rags littering our farms:
(https://i.imgur.com/053GM6S.gif)
A dwarven attempt at fertilizer
So, it must be I who brings the change, yet again. So be it. I took a long walk around the corridors appraising the state of our people.
The bedrooms are spacious, but it takes far to long to reach them if a dwarf is coming from the workshop levels. Also the mudstone smells like mildew.
(https://i.imgur.com/8xGiRjc.png)
I feel for the dwarf with the last room on the left.
Our catacomb is nothing more than a mass grave.
(https://i.imgur.com/xNsHU0z.png)
Please ignore the fact that I was the one who started building coffins in this mined out vein.
At some point, somebody had the great idea to let goblins start working here. Mind you, I'm not against other races mingling with us, since Goblins can be quite friendly if they aren't trying to kill you. The issue is that these goblins make up a huge portion of our population.
(https://i.imgur.com/bCmWwla.png)
They help out, but all too often I catch them just wandering around. Looking at things a little too closely, like our levers and traps. Is it that strange to imagine a few might be spies? Remember, Smithsoldiers was formed as a military outpost first and foremost. It seems we have lost our way.
I took a census of our entire workforce, the results of which you can see below. We are pushing 150 accountable citizens!
(https://i.imgur.com/EG5QYds.png)
======================
Things aren't all bad. In fact, this place is one of the most efficient forts I've had the pleasure to command:
(https://i.imgur.com/YO52g0b.gif)
They are like little ants. Ants with drinking problems.
Much work has been put into the defenses of our fortresses, as seen below.
(https://i.imgur.com/6wSzWW3.gif)
Some kind of unfinished trap hallway
(https://i.imgur.com/mq5A11z.gif)
The surface keep, top to bottom.
(https://i.imgur.com/IsBhzP5.gif)
The new trade entrance, quite lovely indeed! Though where is the lever to open the gate?
And holy hell, the potential for cloth is astounding! Years of unfettered growth have led to the largest web growth I have ever seen.
(https://i.imgur.com/aRvKxSw.png)
Let's see what I can do!
====================
OOC:
I only have one question right now, why does this single lever have two pages of attached mechanisms?? I am so afraid.
(https://i.imgur.com/gH3McTI.png)
-
> Though where is the lever to open the gate [to the trade depot]?
Technically, there isn't. The corridor was left permanently open to the map edge, and was isolated by bridge from the rest of the surface. This really comes in handy for traders to come and leave, and for visitors & diplomats to exit the fort whenever they feel like it. It does carry a small risk, that some phenomenally lucky invaders will spawn in the 7-8 tiles that are 'inside'. This happened to me only once, and on a very small embark. It's a fairly small risk, and can be countered by locking the trade depot from the fort as well.
The lever which controls the above-ground bridge was built in the mined-out vein south of the Depot. That lever is the one which I initially built in the tiny room above the stone-crafting area, but then I changed my mind, turned that room into a manager office, and moved the lever in the vein. There aren't a lot of reasons to ever pull it.
EDIT #1 - happiness is very well influenced by creating masterworks. Each created masterwork causes a happy thought, and those stack!* There's a very unhappy doctor, who got left to make bone & shell crafts (also bone bolts) for a long ass time, and now he's a legendary bonecarver; he dropped to unhappy, and his stress decreased from 50k+ to around 17k. That took place across 1.5 in-game years, where he definitely didn't work non-stop.
* In retrospect, I guess that's also why your avatar is ecstatic. All that masterwork armor he's been bashing out...
EDIT #2 - completely rewrote the section about trade depot lever, because the first version was a jumbled mess that made little to no sense.
-
I have investigated the mental health of our dwarves, and determined a few are lost causes. They were shipped back to the Mountainhome, hopefully to get some R & R and a fresh perspective, one that isn't so full of rotting corpses.
Ingish has kept her bitter sarcasm throughout all of it.
(https://i.imgur.com/Pg3siyi.png)
Our stock of iron and gold bars is nothing to scoff at, but I think we need more smiths and smelters yet. Luckily there is plenty of workshop space to accommodate them.
(https://i.imgur.com/TWXViRf.png)
While reviewing the fortress blueprints, I discovered an untouched chunk of rock perfect for some spacious bedrooms. A 6-story tall section of phyllite and granite, it was located in between the forges and the farms, so in just the right place to be accessed by any dwarf. I was greatly inspired by this blank slate, if you will, and drew up some preliminary designs for a new general quarters.
(https://i.imgur.com/2BCM8WY.png)
Since we had such a tall space to work with, each level would only have to fit 20 or so dwarves to fit the whole fortress, accounting of course for nobility and military, as well as married couples. I settled on an 18-room per floor layout, and if need be we can make adjustments later.
-
That tileset intrigues me.
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Sign me up for a turn! I'd like to be dwarfed as Rîsen Mozibdodók, the "lunatic" mechanic who came up with the atom smasher.
Is there a consensus on quantum stockpiling? I haven't noticed any in the fort, and it strikes me as exactly the sort of mechanoccult device that would crawl from Rîsen's dreams. Also, Phoebus didn't seem to install properly when I updated the latest the save to use it. Is there something I need to tweak?
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The Diary of Salmeuk, Spring of Year 181
The Battle with the Roc
A bloody springtime, indeed!
Work commenced on the new bedroom complexes. A last-minute redesign includes an entrance chamber with dual waterfalls providing a refreshing mist to all who pass. The waterfalls would run off a self-contained reservoir, pumped from the cavern lakes.
However, the pumps would need power, and there was no stream to turn a waterwheel.
(https://i.imgur.com/cEQiwGN.gif)
Windmills would work fine, as we had tested earlier, but there was the issue of the Roc.
---
"The Roc has landed! It's killed a traveler and is feasting on the corpse!" shouted our sentry, rushing from above to alert the guard.
Indeed, now was the time to strike. The gates dropped and all soliders were ordered to ascend to the surface, and catch the oversized eagle at it's moment of greatest weakness.
However, we did not account for the speed of the goblin recruits, who sprinted far ahead of the rest of our troops. Too far ahead. Utes Shockedscorpion was the first to arrive. Utes, who up until recently had been enjoying the Dionysian life of a traveling poet, was perhaps the least qualified individual in the entire fortress to engage the bloodlusted Roc.
(https://i.imgur.com/vZ0SJEe.png)
The Roc was out for blood, of any kind, and as the tiny Utes approached with his drawn sword, quaking in fear, the bird caw cawed in the most horrifying way and struck Utes dead in a swift strike of the talons. The next two recruits were killed similarly, and the bird took the skies.
---
(https://i.imgur.com/AEoHFas.png)
Zon, our commander, heard the screams first and sprinted into the trees. The Roc had descended onto one of our woodcutters (our only woodcutter actually!) and, with great cruelty, severed his foot from his leg. Zon vaulted from a nearby tree limb onto the monster, and began delivering a series of seep stabs to the awful creature. Zon was far more agile than the massive bird, and soon the Roc shuddered and collapsed to the forest floor. Zon's final blow was merciless.
Our woodcutter survived, though he is severely maimed and will never walk the same way again. Three recruits died.
Zon felt that the battle was great, and coined his iron spear with a title.
(https://i.imgur.com/ubCglOp.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/MYQ052I.png)
Zegilral was a legendary weapon indeed, having killed both a Minotaur and a Roc.
---
The Disaster in the Caverns
Our previous overseer greatly assisted us in preparing for the great harvest. What would we be harvesting, you ask? A harvest of silk!
The door was unlocked and a great many dwarves rushed into the damp darkness, searching for undisturbed silk. It took a careful eye to spot the fine strands, and our dwarves went about the passageways unassumingly. They did their best to ignore the egregious bloodstains.
A troll was spotted, to the south, and two squads were dispatched. However, they arrived piecemeal from above, and while the troll was quickly dispatched the squad was spread out and isolated. That was when we saw the legs.
Two giant cave spiders, either sneaking around or having simply migrated unexpectedly, engaged our soldiers. Webs exploded from the darkness and everyone was stuck to the floors, the walls, each other. Like guerilla fighters the spiders fought with only one or two at a time, and if their jaws did not crush a dwarfs skull, their venom suffocated the rest.
No dwarf who engaged a spider survived, but their screams told us everything we needed to know. The military order was called off and the web-gatherers were shut inside the door. Spiders can't open doors, right?
Four more dwarves died to the spider ambush, bringing our total dead to 7. In the first 21 days. I cannot say what the future holds for the rest of us.
---
OOC:
Slow going for now. I believe I can finish my turn by mid-weekend, but these large forts are slow going!
This is a DF-hack list of happiness values, sorted of course. It shows that things could get very bad very quickly, but luckily most of our named dwarves are staying fairly content.
(https://i.imgur.com/OvbhDO8.png)
Also, please enjoy this .gif of the macro-designation of the new rooms.
(https://i.imgur.com/uEU3tVD.gif)
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Were the dwarves the spiders got recruits, or were they actually important?
Sign me up for a turn! I'd like to be dwarfed as Rîsen Mozibdodók, the "lunatic" mechanic who came up with the atom smasher.
Is there a consensus on quantum stockpiling? I haven't noticed any in the fort, and it strikes me as exactly the sort of mechanoccult device that would crawl from Rîsen's dreams. Also, Phoebus didn't seem to install properly when I updated the latest the save to use it. Is there something I need to tweak?
You've been added. Welcome to the thread!
As for quantum stockpiling, I don't think there's a consensus on it. Anyone have any objections to it being used?
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Holy mackerel, 2 GCS in the cavern? At the same time?!?
I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the wind mill; the mechanical aspects of DF are something I never really got into. And the new rooms look lovely, can't wait to see them all nice and dug out.
I remembered about the lever you mentioned at the bottom of last page; my educated guess is that was connected to a ton of cages during DwarvenLord's turn - that was the origin of the loose goblins and beak dogs int he cavern, and once the basement will be drained, there are a lot of built cages, and some mechanisms spread around.
Someone mentioned quantum stockpiles; if there was a taboo on them, I broke it already - made two dumping zones, one in the crafting level to gather loose stones, and one next to the Temple of Armok for disarming all the prisoners. Not counting the two dump zones on top of atom smashers - those have a very final purpose, and shouldn't be counted, imo.
(I tried, repeatedly, playing a fort without using dump zones; those kind of resolutions don't last very long, because they're just too useful :| )
Quantum Drop, I'm thinking of signing up for another turn; the possible complication is that it's shaping up to conflict with SmallHands; both have 3 overseers signed up already.
.. Fark it, nothing is set in stone. I'm signing up for a new turn.
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Holy mackerel, 2 GCS in the cavern? At the same time?!?
I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the wind mill; the mechanical aspects of DF are something I never really got into. And the new rooms look lovely, can't wait to see them all nice and dug out.
I remembered about the lever you mentioned at the bottom of last page; my educated guess is that was connected to a ton of cages during DwarvenLord's turn - that was the origin of the loose goblins and beak dogs int he cavern, and once the basement will be drained, there are a lot of built cages, and some mechanisms spread around.
Someone mentioned quantum stockpiles; if there was a taboo on them, I broke it already - made two dumping zones, one in the crafting level to gather loose stones, and one next to the Temple of Armok for disarming all the prisoners. Not counting the two dump zones on top of atom smashers - those have a very final purpose, and shouldn't be counted, imo.
(I tried, repeatedly, playing a fort without using dump zones; those kind of resolutions don't last very long, because they're just too useful :| )
Quantum Drop, I'm thinking of signing up for another turn; the possible complication is that it's shaping up to conflict with SmallHands; both have 3 overseers signed up already.
.. Fark it, nothing is set in stone. I'm signing up for a new turn.
Eh, in that case, I'd say there's no rule against quantum stockpiling - guess I should make note of that in the rules. You've been added to the list again; if there's any problems you run into with doing both at the same time, let the thread know and we'll try and sort something out.
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Alright, so I don't fall to far behind put be on the turnlist please.
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Diary of Salmeuk, Late Spring of Year 181
The Work Continues
(https://i.imgur.com/CLkCi7U.png)
While everyone else was busy hauling, mining, engraving, smelting, carving, brewing, etc., Kogsak got up to something interesting. He had found a gigantic Red Spinel gemstone, as large as a dwarf! After hauling it to the gem rooms, he got to work. A week later, this appeared:
(https://i.imgur.com/ciSbfGF.png)
A grand artifact! We'll have to build a throne room.
Work continues on the windmills. We're building a short tower to keep them above whatever invaders decide to attack us.
(https://i.imgur.com/B9GYhZx.png)
As you can see, the dwarves are taking their sweet time. The drunkards.
After a month or so, the caverns looked clear of spiders, so we finally got to sending all these recruited weavers out to collect the silk.
(https://i.imgur.com/y85GD6i.gif)
(https://i.imgur.com/F3dUSfn.png)
In about two weeks we had collected over 400 bundles of silk thread. Our bookkeeper estimates the caverns contain many thousands more webs to harvest. I decide to pause the collection for now, and get to making clothing, which our dwarves need immediately.
=====
The Frost Giant
(https://i.imgur.com/4sr6mpy.png)
We were afraid at first, and locked the gates. A new human recruit was caught outside, as seems to always happen when big scary things attack.
(https://i.imgur.com/xlDFVSC.gif)
After his death, the rest of the human recruits wanted revenge. They begged us to open the bridge, so they could fight the towering figure. I said OK.
(https://i.imgur.com/3a8CoZR.gif)
Brilliant victory! And that deadly spittle failed to hit any dwarf, though one shudders at the thought of what may have occurred.
=============
The hospital was redone slightly, and might be expanded later.
(https://i.imgur.com/iNJ7ndZ.png)
Lastly, our miners cut into gold veins while digging the new rooms! To live amidst the shining ore should make any dwarf ecstatic.
(https://i.imgur.com/cnLa5Wl.png)
===
OOC (not that I was really in much of a character this time, but . . ):
Quantum stockpiles are fine, but you might need to rearrange things to make them worthwhile. I usually avoid them except when absolutely necessary.
Also, no named dwarf has died, only basic recruits. Right now I have 'Zon' leading the veteran squad and 'QD' leading the squad of human recruits, and truthfully they are experienced enough I'm not very worried. However, they never lead the fight against unknown foes, just in case I misjudge the results.
Our forges are constantly running, though were struggling to move the wood in an efficient matter. This could stall production later on.
I have a huge number of dwarves dedicated to smoothing stone, so hopefully I will actually finish these bedrooms, furniture and smoothed walls and doors and waterfalls and everything, by the end of this year. I might even get to a pet project of mine! But for now, rooms and clothing and steel are priorities.
Oh, and I expelled many of the poets, pretty much anyone who wasn't willing to fight was told to leave. Oddly enough, if the person you wish to expel has missing children they cannot leave the map.
(https://i.imgur.com/q27FP5R.png)
The few goblins and humans for which this was true were allowed to stay and do whatever it is they feel like doing. So, nothing.
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A glacier titan? What are you even doing here, the nearest glacier is like a quarter of a world away...
Well no, actually it's practically right next door; directly south, over the goblin lands:
(https://i.imgur.com/jtY3SYZ.png)
That's way closer than expected, considering how little the map freezes in winter; you'd think we're further away from the pole.
The blighter is made of crystal glass, too. I understand you managed to kill it, or is it just trapped in the pit? Because FBs made from minerals have a reputation... and because the pit is separated from the rest of the fort by a single door, after my attempts at catching the roc.
I see the hospital has lost some pods, in favor of an open space. I, uh, don't recognize everything in the picture. Eh, nevermind. I'll figure it out later.
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Well, we do have a lot of corpses, don't we? Maybe it likes 'em a bit colder than usual? :P
More seriously, I think it's dead - the H in the gif looks like it's on a red tile, which usually means it's dead. Crystal glass from its body may come in handy, if we can get it extracted somehow. Is the issue with the wood movement coming from a lack of haulers, or a lack of bins, wheelbarrows, etc.?
Good to hear you cleaned out the poets.
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I played about 7 hours today, and I was halfway through winter and thought I had managed to sneak away with a fairly quiet turn (minus the megabeasts), when this massive siege hit.
I'll have the full write up tomorrow!
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I played about 7 hours today, and I was halfway through winter and thought I had managed to sneak away with a fairly quiet turn (minus the megabeasts), when this massive siege hit.
I'll have the full write up tomorrow!
Ooooh boy. Hope the cage traps were rearmed.
Alright, so I don't fall to far behind put be on the turnlist please.
You should be on there.
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The Diary of Salmeuk: Summer of Year 181
Quite a Quiet Summer
The bedrooms have been all but dug:
(https://i.imgur.com/uTdcTUB.png)
At some point, we filled up the gem vault.
(https://i.imgur.com/dt1gz0y.png)
I designated it as a temple to resident jewel-sphere God. With all the gold in the walls, the temple is worth quite a bit!
Unexpectedly, our entire flock of peafowl were incubating a number of eggs. They all hatched at once, and the FPS all but disappeared.
(https://i.imgur.com/we93IOg.gif)
I hired a new butcher just for this event!
Finally, preliminary work on the water pump stack begun. We designed a surface tower to hold the windmills, and the power was routed directly through a complicated column of axles and gears. I can't for the life of me understand why I build the pumps in pairs of two instead of the usual alternating style, and that decision alone cause me waaay too much trouble when designing the power. And then, we ran out of power and needed more windmills.
(https://i.imgur.com/uQ1oiME.png)
That was summer. Very quiet overall, but the season involved many hours of designating and organizing on my part.
The Diary of Salmeuk: Autumn of Year 181
The Caravan Arrives
Well, I should say, the Dwarven caravan arrives. The humans came in the summertime and we traded a little (the .gif below is the summer caravan)
(https://i.imgur.com/2TPrxYd.gif)
To the Dwarves, we traded a large amount of old clothing and junk trinkets, for steel weapons and ores and gems (because why not??).
Work continued on the waterfall. Here is the reservoir filling by hand-turned screwpump:
(https://i.imgur.com/KHNKZK0.gif)
During this period I also doubled-down on our armaments. I ordered large numbers of weapons and armors smithed, just in case. Also many bolts were made, all of the finest craftdwarfship!
(https://i.imgur.com/ED2oBFf.png)
Our squads were reformulated, and our recruits were given designations appropriate to their positions (custom labor titles in the unit screen let you know who is military, and what race they are, with <G> for goblin and <H> for hooman). There are now four squads, one of crossdwarfs, one of melee dwarfs, one of melee goblins, and one of melee humans, this last one being led by QD. Here is that squad training in the barracks.
(https://i.imgur.com/q5yeDDB.gif)
This kind of integration is perfect for our tactics. Goblins lead the charge, being so fast, and spread the enemy out during that initial combat. Humans and Dwarves follow up from the rear, with Humans large size and reach pairing well with the Dwarven tendency to enter martial trances.
That's the idea, anyways.
At some point we get a new visitor in the caverns.
(https://i.imgur.com/W8I9TGx.png)
Esru here is not to be f*cked with, as it easily tore apart every living thing in the cavern without a scratch. I don't know what that gas does but it sure wins fights.
The season ended with most of the bedrooms furnished and smoothed. Now, for the finishing touches!
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The Diary of Salmeuk: Winter of Year 181
A Vile Force of Darkness
On the second day of Moonstone, the goblins arrived.
(https://i.imgur.com/oYFFGZi.gif)
Not too concerning, with our dwarves safely locked up, and instead it was kind of exciting. Our crossdwarf squad was posted to the southern fortifications.
Oooh boy there were a lot of 'em. Three pages of this:
(https://i.imgur.com/LRRdHh4.png)
The first thing the trolls did was destroy the exposed axle powering the waterfall. Huh. I forgot about that. Luckily they didn't feel like climbing further down the hole.
Our marksdwarves waited until the goblins meandered within range, and opened up fire:
(https://i.imgur.com/PHUHggr.gif)
But only to little effect. The goblins themselves were mostly dodging the bolts, and for some reason our dwarves weren't using those nice iron bolts I had made earlier. I didn't worry too much, I just let them get some practice.
This did reveal that the fortifications weren't of the best design. Simply 'm'oving the squad to the hallway would end up with most of the dwarves hanging out in the training range, instead of shooting like they should.
(https://i.imgur.com/B4A1RCx.gif)
I had to assign the entire squad to a patrol route via the military menu. This didn't work as well for the northern side of the fort, so this is something the next overseer should think about fixing. Or maybe build a couple new archer towers closer to the map edge.
The Part Where I Let All The Trolls In
I soon grew bored of waiting around for the goblins to approach, and opened up the depot bridge in an attempt to bait them closer. Little did I know, almost all the trolls managed to sneak inside before I closed it again! I blame the grey coloring being easy to miss. But this was the situation:
(https://i.imgur.com/xGp55XF.gif)
That was a very large number of trolls. Still, I trusted our soldiers, and after closing the bridge behind the intruders I readied the squads for attack.
(https://i.imgur.com/IzPjb2T.png)
There they stood, Dwarf, Human and Goblin, with only a single (admittedly fairly thick) stone door in between them and thirty trolls. Then, the order came to attack!
(https://i.imgur.com/Hqd9Kht.gif)
Short work was made of the hulking trolls, since they run in terror at the sight of their own blood. Almost anticlimactic, really. Look at that blood splatter!
Above ground, the goblins made an error and walked right underneath the fortifications. Our squad had reloaded with those masterwork iron bolts, and many goblins and beak dogs were skewered with ease.
(https://i.imgur.com/Iqjmdpz.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Bbg3UjA.png)
With that, the siege broke, and the rest of the invaders went running for the hills. Success!
Still, there was a lot to clean up. I resigned myself to taking care of all the junk and the corpses, rather than pursue my intended winter project. It will just have to wait.
It All Comes Together
The bedrooms were completed halfway through winter. Take a look:
(https://i.imgur.com/b9GXn8J.gif)
Every bed is masterwork quality. Every cabinet is gold, and each dwarf has a microline coffer for whatever junk they want to hoard. A series of jeweled windows flanks the central room, which for now remain undesignated but would make perfect spaces for temples or other greeting halls. On the left side sit six Noble rooms, though these are still bare. Two streams of refreshing water stream past the entrance in an infinitely-circulating waterfall, ensuring happiness to all who pass!
(https://i.imgur.com/a23bbJZ.png)
This is all powered by a network of axles and gears connected to eight surface windmills. The staircase is closed off by an artifact floor hatch, so climbers cannot enter. However, now that I think about it, a Dragon might be able to destroy the windmills and get inside through the hole in the floor. Yeah, well, I've never seen a Dragon, have you??
(https://i.imgur.com/HcyglPS.gif)
So, that took literally my entire turn to complete. But well worth it! Happiness is already increasing, and if the next overseer prioritizes making new clothing from all that silk I collected (hint hint) I doubt it will ever be a large issue again.
I added some fortifications to our depot entrance, for the next siege:
(https://i.imgur.com/l51E07j.png)
I also created a small guildhall for the farmers guild that keeps petitioning us for space:
(https://i.imgur.com/yfaN3vJ.png)
I moved most of the artifacts into the jewel vault, and put them on pedestals for safekeeping. This dramatically raised the value of the temple.
(https://i.imgur.com/xsjoRsM.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ndMCglF.png)
I don't have an image of this, but I also dug a centrally located dumping hole that goes straight to the magma I discovered. Oh, right, I forgot to tell you, I dug to the magma sea! But I didn't really do anything with it. There is a magma pit that brings the magma fairly close to us, but I would still recommend future overseers bring the magma up with minecarts, since the forges are so well organized already and moving them would invite great chaos.
To continue about that dumping hole, it destroys everything throw in and can be closed with the lever right next to it. And SHOULD be closed if anything untoward enters the second layer of caverns. I can only imagine someone forgetting to do this and losing the fort over it, so take care!
Finally, here's a zoomed-out view of the workshop levels.
(https://i.imgur.com/pmTJmsg.gif)
And with those things completed, the world passed into year 182, and surprisingly into The Age of Legends. I wonder if Zon's killing of the Roc had anything to do with this.
(https://i.imgur.com/ujOeKqC.png)
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Let me know if you have any questions. This save is absolutely ripe for megaprojects or death labyrinths or what-have-you. FPS isn't too bad, but if you let things get to disorganized or invite too many more entertainers, that could change for the worse.
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15067
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Excellent work, Salmeuk!
Had a look at what the FB may look like - apparently, Ceratopsids are a family of dinosaurs (like the Triceratops). Methinks that thing will be Fun when we finally take it on. If there are any objections to me testing what it is and posting the result, maybe we could try and sacrifice some of the Gobbos to see what it does?
Furthermore, good to see we reached the Magma Sea - gives us a convenient way to dispose of the Goblins in cages along with the regular trash, or to pull some magma-megaprojects. Seeing happiness increased is brilliant too - that waterfall and the bedrooms are really going to help keep the dwarves sane, and I imagine that temple should have some great effects, too. Though, I must ask: what's with the trippy-looking flashes on the bedroom gif's tiles?
The new defences should do quite well, too - maybe we could try and paint the way into the depot blue/red with Troll/Gobbo blood at some point, if things get a little too calm?
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Excellent work, Salmeuk!
Had a look at what the FB may look like - apparently, Ceratopsids are a family of dinosaurs (like the Triceratops). Methinks that thing will be Fun when we finally take it on. If there are any objections to me testing what it is and posting the result, maybe we could try and sacrifice some of the Gobbos to see what it does?
Furthermore, good to see we reached the Magma Sea - gives us a convenient way to dispose of the Goblins in cages along with the regular trash, or to pull some magma-megaprojects. Seeing happiness increased is brilliant too - that waterfall and the bedrooms are really going to help keep the dwarves sane, and I imagine that temple should have some great effects, too. Though, I must ask: what's with the trippy-looking flashes on the bedroom gif's tiles?
The new defences should do quite well, too - maybe we could try and paint the way into the depot blue/red with Troll/Gobbo blood at some point, if things get a little too calm?
Yeah I think magma forges are the next logical step. Not to say our current setup isn't working, in fact it works quite brilliantly as long as you aren't manually hauling all that wood downstairs, but it's super inefficient to melt goblinite w/ wood-based charcoal.
The trippy flashes are the gem windows! They flash between each color of gem used. It's kind of chaotic but I think it looks nice. Gaudy, but nice.
Woah, so a poison-breathing Triceratops? Uhhh.. yeah let's chuck some gobbos downstairs and see what happens.
BTW the spike trap room failed to gore anyone because you need at least 2-zlevels of height before a falling creature will interact with upright spikes, at least according to the wiki. I wanted to mess around with more goblin arena things but ran out of time. We certainly have a lot of the little buggers, and we captured about six more during this last siege.
The crossdwarves were surprisingly effective. If we were to build some pop-up turret fortifications around the map, I think they could bust any siege with enough time and bolts.
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Well, I guess it's my turn now, isn't it? Better roll up your sleeves and get ready for a train wreck, cause I've never managed a fortress this large or advanced.
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"The world has passed into the Age of Legends" - a statement fitting both in-game and out :D
A wonderful turn, Salmeuk, and I'm looking forward to see how SmithSoldier looks now. Already, I adore the new bedroom area, with its gem windows that I wanted to build and never got around too. (note to future overseers: windows of any type can be attacked and destroyed; don't build them anywhere perilous, like the caverns or the surface).
I doubt I'll have much DF time in the near future, tho; work has returned with a vengeance.
... Better than the alternative, I suppose.
Something I'm definitely going to remember from this turn: "I moved most of the artifacts into the jewel vault, and put them on pedestals for safekeeping. This dramatically raised the value of the temple."
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Well, I guess it's my turn now, isn't it? Better roll up your sleeves and get ready for a train wreck, cause I've never managed a fortress this large or advanced.
It can be super-confusing to play a fortress that has been managed by a succession of players, each with their own idea about how to organize the place. Here are some tips:
1. Identify fortress entrances and exits before you unpause. Find the associated levers with those entrance drawbridges, and if you can't find the levers (in this fortress they all have notes) ask us! Or you can always make new levers too. Sometimes that's the best option.
2. Figure out where the action is. By that, I mean what the heck the dwarves are busy with. IIRC the dwarves are mostly hauling wood and making charcoal, and a few are carving doors or smoothing rock. Do you approve? You are overseer, afterall, and aborting the previous overseers leftover projects is totally within reason, in fact it is encouraged!
3. Figure out the state of the military and which squad to deploy where. We have three melee squads and one xbow squad (the cobalt bolts, aptly named), so mixing those up could be disastrous.
4. Are there any immediate dangers on the map? I can tell you the answer to this one - yes. There is a forgotten beast roaming the 1st caverns, the ones with all the webs. So don't open those doors!
5. Is it laggy for you? This one doesn't have much of a solution besides getting used to AFK management. Watch a ten-minute video and come back to a new room dug, or a work order finished.
Please note (I also forgot this) there is a lever near the waterfall resevoir to shut it down. This is reversible, and can save you FPS (though frankly not very much). If you want you could just run it every other season to keep the dwarves mostly happy!
"The world has passed into the Age of Legends" - a statement fitting both in-game and out :D
A wonderful turn, Salmeuk, and I'm looking forward to see how SmithSoldier looks now. Already, I adore the new bedroom area, with its gem windows that I wanted to build and never got around too. (note to future overseers: windows of any type can be attacked and destroyed; don't build them anywhere perilous, like the caverns or the surface).
I doubt I'll have much DF time in the near future, tho; work has returned with a vengeance.
... Better than the alternative, I suppose.
Something I'm definitely going to remember from this turn: "I moved most of the artifacts into the jewel vault, and put them on pedestals for safekeeping. This dramatically raised the value of the temple."
Well thank you! I, too, am a huge fan of gem windows. Shiny shiny and all that. And who knows how long these next few turns might take, you might just luck out and have an open slot when you find time again.
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Well thanks! Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to transport magma safely up to reservoirs underneath the workshops, but the wiki isn't that helpful cause I don't want to build minecart tracks.
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Read here: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Magma#Minecarts
Design three has worked well for me in the past, and I didn't even need iron wheelbarrows to move the minecarts. Essentially you put a minecart in a 1-tile chamber and fill it with magma (very carefully!). Then, that minecart can be carried up to a track stop by one of your dwarves and dumped into a pit. I believe two minecarts per pit will leave you with a permanent supply of magma, useful for any of the forges.
If you do try this method, we have plenty of iron, but make sure to keep track of where those iron minecarts go!
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Part 1 - Expansion and other Busy Work
Wait. You want ME to be an overseer? Oh no. Not in a million...o-oh okay. Let's not get hasty now. Why don't you tell the lads to put the spears away and we'll talk about this.
Hasty shuffling
Now then. I'm really not qualified for this job, I'm just a lowly smith. And after seeing Dostngosp...I-I can't even wield a weapon without seeing his mangled corpse. What kind of a dwarf does that make me? Do you really want someone leading the fort who can't even fight with the troops? Armok's teeth, the way things have been going, we'll have at least one goblin siege come down on our heads during my term. That said, I think that I should-....hello there, Salumek! Errrr....fancy seeing you here. Say! Is there any way you could take the position an extra yea- What??? No, I don't know anything about where Zon was last night! You're her husband, you should know-
Grating screech of stone, and a pained yelp. Frantic scrabbling.
Okay, that might be Zon's undergarments! But what was I going to do, say no? I mean, come on, if she tells someone to-
Thud of a fist.
Ach! Alright! When you put it like that, I'll do it! Blood God's testicles, just don't throw me out!
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The Overseer Stukosakur "LeftHand", year of Armok 182.
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Gah, but now they're making me write down everything I do. Damned idiots, I'll show them. Maybe see if I can sneak a defective armor piece into their armories, get them killed, hopefully? Either way, I hope they all rot in hell, especially that she-devil Zon and her wicked tongue.
Enough of that, though. My time has started rather uneventfully, but I've ordered widescale production of several things, including silk cloth to be made into new clothes. I've also tasked the forgemaster with churning out as many steel plate pieces of armor as possible, and the smelters have been told to check their lists of items to be melted back down and get to work. Additionally, it came to my attention that we have citizens of this fort sleeping on the ground like ruffians.
Unacceptable!
All of the spare luxury beds have been assigned, and more beds have been requested from the carpenters to fill the empty cells on the third level. They're nothing to warm the heart, but it's enough to provide for our citizens until more complexes can be delved. Further, one must consider the potential of have more reinforcements from the Mountainhomes arriving. Where would we be then?
Perhaps my biggest endeavor at the moment is tasking our miners with expanding the available space on the workshop level.
(https://i.imgur.com/sSXeaZn.png)
We're going to make more space for other workshops, and hopefully can find other things to do with all that space. Maybe a temple?
(Ooc: Where is the damned hospital? I can't seem to find it.)
EDIT: HUZZAH! SUCCESS!
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When trying to post something from Imgur, try opening the image in a new tab via right clicking it, then copy the image address. Use the syntax in the spoiler below (replacing the address with that of your image) to get it into the post. I think that should work.
(https://i.imgur.com/vJy7mve.png)
As for the hospital, look down to the lower right corner of the screen and you should see a bunch of numbers. The hospital is on the level reading '144'. Alternatively, if you can see the main drawbridge, the hosptial is one z-level below that; either way, it should be on the left side of the screen.
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So, thanks! However, got another question or two.
#1. The waterfall appears to have mysteriously dried up. Suggestions to fix?
#2. Also, I did a save so I could see about maybe getting our military to go kill that damned FB so the weavers can grab those awesome webs, but when I broke the wall and gave the kill order...nothing happens. They just...keep training. Help?
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Part 2: Victory in the Deep!
The night before last, I had a dream of blood and steel in the deep places of the earth. When I woke, I ordered the military to the first cavern level, and then told our miners to clear the blocks holding the dread beast at bay. Our brave dwarves sallied forth and split the foul thing asunder with cold dwarven steel and wrath. One of the recruits was caught in its breath, but that's incidental. Now we can harvest the precious webs for our looms!
On a slightly more unfortunate note, a second Forgotten Beast was spotted on the far side of a lake in the second level. Thankfully, we have our stairways blocked off, so it shouldn't be a problem for some time. I have also just been informed that the furnaces have run out of wood.
Again.
Fed up with this state of affairs, I have mandated a mass clearing of the forests. While my predecessors may have prized the quality of certain woods over others, such concerns have no place in our fortress. One kind of log burns just as well as another, and we have need of fuel to make more steel. I have also ordered excavations below the workshop level for the storage of vast amounts of wood and stone. Of such things is dwarven industry founded upon, and I will not have it said that I left Steelsoldier in a poorer state than I found it!
(https://i.imgur.com/tEUFeSJ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/OIUBjlb.png)
On a VERY disturbing note, when I went to collect my morning drink, I found one of our goblin recruits throwing a tantrum over not having had a drink in far too long. Inquiring further, I was met with the horrifying information that there are exactly ten goblets in the hold. Ten! For a population of 150 dwarves! Needless to say, the crafters will be put to work immediately. We also need more barrels for alcohol production, the brewers tell me that they've run short.
Finally, the miners have recently formed a guild, and ever since have been bothering me with requests for space for a guild hall and, even worse, set working hours! Fortresses live and die by their miners, and now they're demanding actual rights. Armok above, but this job is horrendous. No wonder the Overseers have to be brought into this accursed office at spearpoint every spring!
(Note: I figured out why the military couldn't do anything. The first time I tried it, I didn't check that the place I'd breached into the greater caverns allowed the dwarves to path through to the FB. Stupid me, lol. But seriously, the fight was very fast, and once they got up close with it, it died like a little bitch.)
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Holy shit, that's a lot of storage.
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Yeah, but we're gonna need it, cause I'm gonna spam production.
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Oh my god lol, look at you! I haven't seen designations that large in many years! I would also hesitate to cut down all of the forest. There were about 1500 logs still hanging around topside, but I had forbidden them since the dwarves had a tendency to haul them the long way down.
So, if you look around on the surface you should find a little bunker, with two doors and two drawbridges. There is a single-tile pit in the center, and if you follow it all the way down you end up at the production level. This is also where you find the lever to open those drawbridges. If I were you, I would mass-dump all of the chopped wood down that hole, so you don't waste all your labor hauling wood all the way down the staircase!
About the waterfall, it's kind of difficult to diagnose without pictures. . is the reservoir completely empty? Try turning it off and on again. Or check the machinery and make sure the power is making it all the way from the windmills to the pumps.
Oh, another reason not to chop down trees. . . there were some questionably shallow rooms that will surely collapse should trunks fall on top. These rooms were pancaked on top of one another, too, so one collapse could penetrate up to four zlevels. It was a flaw I never got around to fixing. So take care.
Looking forward to the next update!
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Looking forward to the next update!
ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE!!!!
Part 3: Goblin Christmas
Everywhere I turn, there's a new problem! Just as our steel production truly began to get off the ground, we ran out of steel! Worse, we ran out of hematite ore to smelt not long afterwards. It occurred to me sometime later after hearing this news that I may have overreacted in setting the areas to be mined for more ore.
(https://i.imgur.com/jWtnEvc.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/8ZDV5Mw.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ZBkm19X.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ovqSf8W.png)
As predicted, more migrants have arrived! Not very many, but every dwarf sent by the Mountainhomes is another body to throw at the ravening greenskin hordes welcome!
2nd of Limestone, 182.
They've returned. Those blasted, hateful pit spawn are back to defile our lands! But it shall never happen while Smithsoldier's sons and daughters stand ready to defend our sacred halls!
(https://i.imgur.com/bFUjPlY.png)
After much bloodshed, the foe has been driven back! Armok truly smiles on us this day!
(Note: So we did WAY better than I was expecting. Seriously, that was at least a hundred goblins, and we kicked ass! Don't think there was even a single casualty, actually. But most of the middle of the year was fairly tame, just mining and stuff. I've resolved to leave the problem of magma industry and fixing the waterfall to future overseers.)
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Also, I didn't mark all the forest to be cleared, just a fairly large chunk. We're doing okay so far, no collapses, just lots of wood, lol
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How're things going on your end, LeftHandofGod?
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Finished, as it happens. Not gonna RP this last bit, but we finished the mining designations, and also carved out some new spaces for temples, cause the dorfs were getting uppity over not getting to pray. Between all of that, and the stress from seeing the dead goblins from the siege, things got bad enough with enough citizens brawling and throwing temper tantrums that I caved and used DF Hack to calm everybody the fuck down.
I also got the stockpiles set up properly. Tried dumping the wood, but it didn't work because they ignored it, so I just made a huge-ass wood stockpile, and we're gonna fill that up. Sold all the clothes from the dead goblins to the caravan and bought some steel and seeds from the traders. Sectioned off am area at the bottom corner of the workshop level for use as an armory and working on filling it with weapon racks and armor stands. And for some insane reason, despite the fact that I have priority orders queued, none of the dwarfs will use the craft shop to make mugs that we desperately need.
In addition, remember how I said there were no casualties from the siege? Guess I was wrong. On the other hand though, the only dead people were two of our own goblins, so who cares, amirite? I also figured out what was wrong with the waterfall. The actual pumps for the waterfall itself are operating just fine, but the pump system that draws water up into the reservoir are inactive for some reason, and I don't know how to turn them back on.
Without further ado, here's the workshop level at the beginning of 183.
(https://i.imgur.com/nE3iGIy.png)
And here's our status screen.
(https://i.imgur.com/apb663H.png)
All in all, not the most exciting year on record. Sign me up for another turn!
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Year 8: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15081
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I'll get a start on it this week. Looking forward to taking a look at this mess
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Is it just me, or did I start a tradition of posting a screenshot of the crafting level at turn end? XD
... why is the trade depot all brown? What have you done to my glorious golden Depot?!? It was gooooold!!!
I understand all of these poor bastards:
(https://i.imgur.com/bFUjPlY.png)
got killed off in glorious melee combat? 'Cause if yes, holy crap did the dwarven military get buffed; this was the sort of murder-fest we got all the way in DF 2012 and earlier; Df 2014 nerfed it rather badly - to the point where I started relying on traps, for the few forts I played on those versions.
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Really? In my games from .44 and .47 I haven't even bothered with traps. It's easy enough to get legendary dwarves just from training.
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Is it just me, or did I start a tradition of posting a screenshot of the crafting level at turn end? XD
... why is the trade depot all brown? What have you done to my glorious golden Depot?!? It was gooooold!!!
I understand all of these poor bastards:
got killed off in glorious melee combat? 'Cause if yes, holy crap did the dwarven military get buffed; this was the sort of murder-fest we got all the way in DF 2012 and earlier; Df 2014 nerfed it rather badly - to the point where I started relying on traps, for the few forts I played on those versions.
Yeah, our infantry steamrolled the suckers. I thought it might get dicey for a bit when I saw all the bodies, then I realized that they were all dead goblins, stopped worrying, and started cheering. Seriously, our dorfs kick ass.
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Finished, as it happens.
Nicely done with your turn! I remember you predicted a complete disaster, but fighting off a siege without mass casualties is always admirable.
Yeah, our infantry steamrolled the suckers. I thought it might get dicey for a bit when I saw all the bodies, then I realized that they were all dead goblins, stopped worrying, and started cheering. Seriously, our dorfs kick ass.
This is good to hear! We should try to keep them happy and occupied. Now it seems a dwarven fighter's most dangerous enemy is their internal struggle with boredom and apathy. That and like a steel dinosaurid or something.
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Year 9, Part 1
This is the diary of Glloyd Tegirlorbam, Chief Medical Dwarf of Smithsoldier, and overseer for the year 183. Although I've been in this fort for quite some time, I've never really stopped to take it all in until I was forced to by circumstance. Honestly, it's not the greatest place to call home. First things first, I have no idea where anything is. This place feels like it was designed by overseers with a severe hatred for their successors. Case in point, my predecessor dug out massive caverns, for seemingly no reason at all. It feels like he just wants a cave-in to happen. Also, did I mention that everything's a mess and I can't find a damn thing? But before I can really get going, some dwarf runs up to me carrying a mug
(https://i.imgur.com/uJWtEw5.png)
"Sardonyx!" He yells in my face, before running off into the caverns. Whatever, he can keep it, I've got bigger things to worry about.
(https://i.imgur.com/Xs9KiiX.png)
Namely, the vast empty spaces dotted around our fortress. I'm not exactly sure what my predecessor was going for here, but whatever it is, it seems very inefficient, and is giving the residents severe agoraphobia. There's a few more of these spaces, all seemingly contributing nothing, so I've decided to wall some off for the time being. Some residents have complained that time seems to be moving at a slower pace, and as a learned dwarf, I believe that bringing the such nauseatingly open spaces into our halls must be contributing to this phenomenon.
With that underway, I turn my attention to the rest of the fortress, and notice that somehow two and a half months have already disappeared into the ether. If I am to make use of my time as overseer, I must get a move on. After managing to find my chief miner in this rat's nest of a fortress, I lay out my grand plans for making this fortress a place worth living. However, before we can get going in earnest, the scouts call out to me, telling me that "(https://i.imgur.com/mY47iiV.png)". I was hoping this wouldn't happen. I have yet to determine how our military is organized, and the military dwarves, frankly, don't seem very forthcoming with that information. Whatever. They're fighters, I'm sure they can handle it without much guidance from me. One thing they can't seem to handle is this bridge here:
(https://i.imgur.com/5P95aMu.png)
I don't know if there's another lever elsewhere, but it appears that the existing lever was destroyed. I had intended to build a new one, but I kind of forgot as the past two months rushed by me, so here we are, with at least one gaping hole into our fortress. Looks like the military dwarves will just have to do their job real well.
After pulling some random levers, I've gotten two of the exterior entrances closed (whoever put 3 entrances into the fortress needs to be slowly lowered into magma in front of their next of kin), but the aforementioned bridge remains open. I climbed up the tower myself to get a view, this can't be too bad, right?
(https://i.imgur.com/V0h8zN1.png)
Well, that's a fair amount of goblins. Looks like they have some beak dogs with them too, great. And there's more pouring in from deeper in the woods. Whoever thought settling here was a good idea should be dunked into magma alongside the guy who thought that three entrances was a fun idea.
As our marksdwarves open fire on the leading goblins, more goblins continue streaming towards the fortress, this time accompanied by trolls. This isn't going to go our way, is it?
(https://i.imgur.com/N6650Q2.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/JdM7MHQ.png)
The marksdwarves are only a temporary distraction, meant to hold the goblins off until our mechanic can finish connecting the bridge to our new lever. Just in case, I've moved our soldiers to the front area. Just in time too, the goblins are beginning to fall into our cage traps. All we need is a few minutes longer...
(https://i.imgur.com/cEro1PM.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/PBvMkEx.png)
Saved by a hair, and the few that got in were dispatched with ease. This seems increasingly doable. Now to focus on the other gaping hole in our fortress.
(https://i.imgur.com/LmnbceI.png)
Oh... Well then, seems as if the enemy managed to sneak through while I was distracted. Also, the dwarf meant to close that bridge is nowhere to be seen. Guess we're going to need to do this the old fashioned way. In the meantime however, it looks like one of my doctors was trapped outside. The goblins made short work of him. Rest easy Avuz. Someone's child was also caught on the roof by a couple of goblin bowmen who scaled the walls (likely using the nearby trees). She didn't last long either.
(https://i.imgur.com/f5UHEgV.png)
There's little time to dwell on their deaths however, as our soldiers have just managed to push the trolls out of the lower hallways. We should be able to seal off the fort and give ourselves a chance to regroup. We might be able to make it through this yet.
(https://i.imgur.com/f4XLO7D.png)
((I'll continue tomorrow, likely less image heavy. I don't think anything happened those first two months. I thought I paused the game and went to do some dishes, but it turns out I didn't and two months flew by. Not a huge loss though. FPS has been hovering around 10/15 the whole siege, making it a bit of a slog. Once I get some of LeftHand's massive empty spaces walled off, that should improve FPS a bit. Likewise with moving some of those stockpiles. Sorry LeftHand. I'm not walling them off completely though, but just putting forbidden doors on them, so they can be used later if you like. Most FPS loss comes from pathing, so I'll do my best to optimize things once the siege is over. It was running at about 50 before the siege though, so things could be worse.))
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((Before I get going, I was rereading LeftHand's last post, and I just want to say that I strongly disagree with this:
things got bad enough with enough citizens brawling and throwing temper tantrums that I caved and used DF Hack to calm everybody the fuck down.
Using DFHack in this way takes any fun and challenge out of the game imo. Why not just use it to resurrect all the dead and kill any invaders at that point? Not cool. All fortresses fall eventually, the best we can wish for is an interesting death, rather than an FPS or interest related one.))
Year 9, Part 2
In the midst of everything, I failed to notice that one of our named glassmakers also died on the roof with those goblin bowmen. I'm not sure why there's a staircase up there, but once this is over I'm walling that off. Rest well 'Ryukan' Kengtekkud. I've had enough of these goblins lurking up there, so I sent up our own goblin squad to take care of them, which they did with relative ease. At the same time, our other squads pushed back past the depot, leaving a trail of death in their wake.
(https://i.imgur.com/HUWq5eN.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/MZi3aph.png)
That seemed to break the resolve of the goblins, and they swiftly retreated. Another siege survived, and only a few non-military casualties. With that taken care of, there's a few things we need to do right away. First things first, this fortress needs more doors. It's too easy for goblins to just enter our fortress and stream through unopposed. Second, that roof needs to be made more secure. Third, there's some holes in parts of our fort near the surface from tree clearing, which allowed a couple goblins to get in pretty easily, so those need to be covered with floors. Finally, we need to centralize some of our important levers, and mark them more clearly for future overseers. I've also taken the liberty of paving some of the land around our archer's tower. It should prevent any further tree-related incidents,and give our crossbowdwarves better lines of sight. It also has the added benefit of using up some of the surplus mudstone we have around.
(https://i.imgur.com/gdOAHgj.png)
As the months tick by, I realize that I'm already halfway through my term as overseer. There is still much to do on my secret project however, so I hope to be able to finish that before the next overseer comes in and I'm back to crawling around in the mud and suturing spear wounds. In the meantime, one of our fisherdwarves has created another artifact:
(https://i.imgur.com/CWpB3Sz.png)
The other dwarves seem to like it, but I care little for these things
(https://i.imgur.com/TfEm3CR.png)
As autumn rolls in, I take the time to memorialize some of our fallen from the siege this year. Our residents have also been complaining about ghosts since I took up office, so hopefully this will help put those spirits to rest. I also set about securing our steel supply. Although the large caverns left by my predecessor aren't to my liking, the vast quantities of hematite that he dug up certainly are. The fires of industry burn through the night as bar after bar of iron, pig iron, and steel roll out of the furnaces. Whatever else, I shall leave my successor with a well-equipped militia, or at least so much steel that they will never have to worry about it again.
((Time flies when you're waiting on stuff to be done and no goblins are coming to fuck things up. I'd planned on raiding, but now I'm leaning towards finishing my turn in relative peace, so I'll probably finish tonight or tomorrow.))
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RIP Ryukan, who died as he lived: out of focus. :P Least he got avenged in short order.
Good work so far.
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Honestly. I started up my save and immediately got the notification that he had died. I was very confused. Weirdly, that area isn't in the burrows, and I forbade everything up there. And yet, a bunch of dwarves with no job just went up there to loiter, before and after I killed those goblins. I don't think I'm doing a bad enough job to warrant mass suicide by goblin, but who knows.
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My year is approaching rapidly, it seems! I hope I'm not going to inherit too much succession game-induced silliness. Tell me about anything that I might find surprising.
Also, I'm sorry if I asked to be dwarfed as somebody who doesn't exist. I tried finding Rîsen Mozibdodók in the save I have and I couldn't find the alleged mad mechanic. Does anybody know who (in-game) built the DAS?
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Rîsen Mozibdodók is still very much alive:
(https://i.imgur.com/4pCYOHw.png)
He isn't named after you though. I can do that if you'd like, or leave it for you to do.
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Year 9, Part 3
Limestone is here, and with it another request for a guildhall. This time, it's the craftsdwarves who thing they're special enough to get a hall for themselves. Whatever, I'll see to putting together something to make them happy. I have a spot in mind for it, although it will have to wait until my project is complete. Soon enough, this fortress will be a place worth visiting. Regardless, the caravan showed up as normal in mid-Limestone. We bought a few odds and ends, although there's not much that we can't produce on our own at this point. Our liaison also had little to report. Seems as though things are calm in the world, for now.
(https://i.imgur.com/2BBXxKm.png)
I took the opportunity to sell off some of our massive surplus of anvils. We had about thirty, so they won't be missed. Nobody needs that many anvils. The next few months breeze by, without any disturbance. Sure, I accidentally caused a cave-in that broke a miner's ribs, but these are minor things. I had him good as new soon enough. Despite the lack of external stimuli, the fortress is buzzing with activity. Our blacksmiths are churning out steel weaponry and armour, so we should be more prepared for any future attacks. Likewise, our leatherworkers and clothiers are working hard on new clothes to replace some of our more threadbare articles from the mountainhomes. In slightly more interesting news, some of our miners accidentally dug into the magma sea. They avoided getting doused, and they able to wall off that passage. However, before they did, they saw a glimmer of cyan off in the distance...
(https://i.imgur.com/eqdegrS.png)
Adamantine! As my year is coming to an end soon, I'll likely leave that as a challenge for my successor. As the end of the year approaches, my project is wrapping up just in time. As we were laying the last statues, Nomal (one of our engravers working on smoothing the walls) suddenly jumped up, as if possessed by some unknown force, and ran off to one of the craftdwarf workshops on the workshop level. When she returned, she was carrying an extremely ornate amulet:
(https://i.imgur.com/qAOJAV7.png)
Again, I really don't care about these things, so I don't know why they keep showing them to me. Although, it reminded me to give those craftsdwarves their guildhall. Anyways, before long, it is spring, and the next year is upon us. If I had only had a few more days, I could have fully completed my project, but I am happy with what I was able to get done. I can only hope that my successor can see what I was doing and finish the job. The remaining crystal glass windows and gold statues should be ready soon... But alas, that is my problem no longer. It's time to retreat to my books, and enjoy my retirement in my new quarters. So long, and good luck.
Without further ado, here is the requisite picture of the workshop:
(https://i.imgur.com/p7DRFwT.png)
Don't worry about the Temple of Armok being empty. I set up another gem stockpile to deal with an overflow of gems, and the dwarves started pulling the gems from there into the new stockpile. They were starting to bring them back at the end of my turn. Speaking of stockpiles, smaller versions of LeftHand's big stockpiles were set up in the workshop area. There's more space there than we'll ever need, and more ore/stone/wood than we'll ever need, so we're set for ages. You might be wondering why our cute little library is in disarray. Well, that's because it's a craftdwarves guildhall now. Why? Well, because of my project, which was building a grand library for all 10 of our books (although I got our scribes and scholars started on more towards the end, so we're up to 57 now). I've included pictures of this beast below. It's missing a few exterior bits, but it's more or less done:
The upper level, with a small lounge/viewing area of the grand library. Those are crystal windows there. We ran out of pearlash and I didn't notice, so when I went to put them in, we only had 3 finished. The other two are on their way though.
(https://i.imgur.com/BPayaFF.png)
The top floor of the library proper, including my personal apartment on the right side. All the yellow stuff is gold. I smelted a lot of gold this year, and made a whole lot of gold statues. And I just noticed I missed a few granite chairs at the top there. Oops.
(https://i.imgur.com/3n89RPP.png)
Middle floor
(https://i.imgur.com/ur2enBm.png)
Bottom floor. That's a little reservoir I built below. The water actually falls in from above, there's some floodgates and a hole for the water to fall down in the middle through all four floors. If you open it again right now it'll overflow into the first floor, so just watch that you don't accidentally pull the lever.
(https://i.imgur.com/P8yXJtu.png)
As for FPS, I was getting in the 70s at the end of my turn, so around 15-20 FPS higher than when I first started, and much much higher than it was during the siege. I'd recommend not opening up any of LeftHand's giant mines, unless you're planning on atom smashing the stone in there before sealing them back up again. I got most of the useful ore out of there anyways, and we have more stone than any fort will ever use, so there should be no need to open them. Gotta save those frames!
I'll leave you with the stocks screen. Don't worry about the drinks situation, I have our brewers working on it. I forgot about it because I'm so used to automating drink production in my forts at the start of the game, then I looked at it shortly before my turn ended and realized we had 10 drinks left. Yikes. It should be under control now though, and we should be in good shape on all other necessities. It was a relatively slow turn, besides the siege, but I'm okay with that. It gave me the chance to clean up/beautify the fort, and secure it more thoroughly. No need to worry about any more climbing goblins! Fun note, when I was cutting down the trees around the archer's tower, a goblin corpse fell out. I guess he got launched off the roof by our goblin squad and got stuck in the branches on the way down. There's plenty to do for my successors though: get adamantine, start raiding our goblin neighbours, raid the rest of the world to fill the library with books, build some more megaprojects, etc. Good luck to my successors!
(https://i.imgur.com/O91Ujdw.png)
Save: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15088
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Excellent work, Glloyd! That library looks brilliant, and should help prevent any further tantrums, or at least provide some facilities for the dwarves of the fort. All the gold and statue decorations should provide a pretty good mood boost to them. Also, good to hear the FPS has improved - made that 'giant mines' mistake on my first fort. That didn't end well...
I've been sitting on this for weeks, waiting for this sort of thing: due to the work of a user that will remain unnamed for now, there's what might be a pretty big spoiler relating to the Candy we just uncovered. Does anyone want to hear it, or should I keep it secret?
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I was honestly surprised nobody had dug for adamantine yet, considering we're now 9 years in.
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I have the save, but I'm having trouble installing Phoebus - LNP skips over them, saying that it would have broken the raws. Is there a way around this? Searching around doesn't seem to bring up anything.
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I have the save, but I'm having trouble installing Phoebus - LNP skips over them, saying that it would have broken the raws. Is there a way around this? Searching around doesn't seem to bring up anything.
I had that too, just go ahead and start it up anyways. It'll look a little different, but that's okay.
Excellent work, Glloyd! That library looks brilliant, and should help prevent any further tantrums, or at least provide some facilities for the dwarves of the fort. All the gold and statue decorations should provide a pretty good mood boost to them. Also, good to hear the FPS has improved - made that 'giant mines' mistake on my first fort. That didn't end well...
I've been sitting on this for weeks, waiting for this sort of thing: due to the work of a user that will remain unnamed for now, there's what might be a pretty big spoiler relating to the Candy we just uncovered. Does anyone want to hear it, or should I keep it secret?
In my defense, I saw that we were running out of hematite and panicked. Hope you all have had fun mocking me over my mistake, lol. But good on you for surviving the year, Glloyd!
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It's all good, I think we've all made that mistake at some point. Although that was the way to play, back in the pre z-level days. I was able to get most of the hematite out of there and into ththe workshop level, so we should be set on hematite for a long time, and blocking them off has negated most of the fps hit (although getting rid of all the mudstone in there would help further). One thing we are short on is charcoal, I ran out partway through the year because I was smelting and smithing so much, so all that wood you chopped down also came in handy.
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Nice job consolidating and repairing everything! And I didn't want to say it outright, since it's a fairly unexpected consequence and no new player could be expected to predict the outcome, but yeah, large gaping rooms dug out for no immediate purpose often bog down FPS. In every succession fortress where someone goes ahead and mass designates, the place always gets bogged down with hauling and FPS issues. If DF has a faux pas, that would be it.
Third, there's some holes in parts of our fort near the surface from tree clearing, which allowed a couple goblins to get in pretty easily, so those need to be covered with floors.
I even warned you guys about this! lol
So be it. Stone and wood for days, and the holes in the roof are easily fixed. NBD. It seems we're getting a yearly siege now, which is both wonderful and terrifying. My only real concern is that hauling all the dead goblins and beak dogs will waste a huge amount of time unless we figure out a way to quickly dump it into lava, or atom smash it. I would also suggest fighting in the caravan entrance hall from now on, just to save on the time spent walking to and from the battlefield post-fight.
Also, my jeweled temple has been looted! Death to the thieves!!
Things for the next overseer to not forget (since it seems there is a distinct lack of historical research performed by these new leaders. . are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of our past?):
1. There is a dumping pit in the center of our workshops, it's a little hut with a bridge and a lever. Use this! Save FPS! Huzzah!
2. Moving the magma up to the workshops is probably the better idea, instead of moving the workshops down to the magma. We have a LOT of junk and the magma is tricky, but ultimately faster to move.
3. The entrance lever to the caravan / depot hall is immediately south of the depot itself, at the end of a mined out vein. Lure a few gobbos in, then close it up and murder them.
4. Our military is badass, but if we have them fight too much they might go insane.
5. Turn the waterfall back on! It was only a 3-5 fps drop, and it was giving our dwarves a heckin' good mood while it was running. I'm not sure what exactly went wrong but I suspect it was just turned off accidentally. Better than DFhacking away our pain. Also I spent my whole second turn on that thing lol
Nicely done everyone and I'm looking forward to the next installment.
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Ok then, I've got on with my turn, despite the graphical oddities.
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Journal of Rîsen 'XMark' Swallowclasp, 1st Granite 184
Arm_Ok has favoured me this day, that I be granted the honour of overseering Smithsoldier.
I confess that I may have pulled some strings with 'Amara' to sponsor my nomination, but that's besides the point.
(https://i.imgur.com/0fsaXl2.png)
I have a year to run the fortress as I see fit. I take up office and begin my survey of this fortress immediately.
(https://i.imgur.com/enkEmbD.png)
Ok, never mind. Rovod(he's dead, it was some other dwarf) just burst into my office, informing me that the goblins have come for us. Again. Where on earth is the lever for the front gate?
Hopefully everyone got inside before the gate went up, as I gathered the troops.
4th Granite 184
The army is as ready as it will every be. All three melee squads have ordered to the gate, and I needed to do something, so I let them loose through the gate. Go forth, dwarves.
(https://i.imgur.com/qaESXJf.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/PTRskQL.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/AhDzqxn.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/KTVPv6s.png)
6th Granite 184
The siege is broken. The goblins and trolls are either retreating, dead, or caged. Arm_Ok the Worldsmith has taken his own, though. The former overseer 'QD', one of the first to charge to goblins, is dead; skull caved in by a goblin's morningstar. He will not be forgotten. I just hope we have the tombs available for them.
(https://i.imgur.com/FRaVIGZ.png)
I need to get back to work. I have a fortress to manage, but that siege nearly had me in conniptions. I need few days to get my head on straight. I'll send out Rovod and(dead and buried years ago) Rimtar to prepare some reports on the fortress, and spend some quality time with Fath.
This is certified to be the true account of
╔═════╗
║RÎSEN║
║MOZIB║
║DODÓK║
╚═════╝
184
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I wasn't expecting to be hit with a siege on the very first day of the year! It's a shame about QD. Do you want to be re-dwarfed?
This is the first time that I have ever participated in a succession game, how is my first report? It's a bit short, but the siege wasn't what I was planning on writing about.
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Report isn't too bad, though I must ask: Was QD the only one we lost, or did some of the other military guys bite it?
Also, Goblin Claus either really likes us or really hates his Elves, considering the amount of gifts he's sending us.
As for re-dorfing, go ahead! Speaking of that, what're the other ex-Overseer Dwarves looking like?
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Report isn't too bad, though I must ask: Was QD the only one we lost, or did some of the other military guys bite it?
Also, Goblin Claus either really likes us or really hates his Elves, considering the amount of gifts he's sending us.
As for re-dorfing, go ahead! Speaking of that, what're the other ex-Overseer Dwarves looking like?
Dwarves other than QD died, I think a few civvies who were stuck outside might have bit it too. I'm not sure if there's an easy way to tell which dwarves died when, so I can't say for sure.
Here's a report on all the still-living former overseers:
- Amara: Ecstatic. She is currently storing seeds, and needs beer and family.
- DwarvenLord: Stark raving mad, still stuck in her box. Restless, lonely, and worried, and apparently needs a dressing. Request form medical attention denied by overseer's decree. Still, XMark may be persuaded to remove the wall...
- Glloyd: Fine, currently getting themselves a new tunic. Needs to see their friends and family, and practice their skill (that should change soon - they're a doctor and we have one injured dwarf that needs diagnosis).
- LeftHand: Ecstatic, though unfocused due to too many things to count. Is also, according to Dwarf Therapist, a Competant UNKNOWN (Rusty). Nothing seems odd in-game though.
- Salmeuk: Ecstatic and Thirsty, and is currently rectifying the latter. Was apparently haunted by their dead pet at one point last year, probably got a glimpse of the year's siege because they saw a corpse during the last week.
- Zon (who?): "What the f*** did you just say about me, you little b****? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Cobalt Spikes, and I have been involved in numerous not-so-secret raids on the Evils of Perplexing, and I have thirty confirmed kills. I am trained in dwarf warfare and I am the top speardwarf in all of the Bridled Pulley. You are nothing to me but just another-" moving on.
- Monom (who?): Quite content. Saw a fine door, but needs to see friends and family.
Everyone important is in good health, much like the rest of the fortress. Apart from QD, of course, he's very dead.
XMark is ecstatic, but is still recovering from the shock of the siege (he saw, like, seven corpses); his friend Rimtar is running errands while XMark prays to Arm_Ok (though, outwardly, it's to Ethír Embracebrunch) and plays with his cat ("I feel fond."). With the first QD's death, XMark, Rimtar, and DwarvenLord are the only three left of the seven founding dwarves.
The dwarfing list ought to be updated with Amaru et. al., by the way. Does anyone have any re-dwarfing preferences?
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I doubt my dwarf will have any problems with sieges. I turned off hauling for her and a couple of the other crippled dwarves because by the time they crawled to and from the hauling destination they were stressed/hungry/thirsty.
Edit: as for levers, I consolidated all the levers in the workshop area, and named them. To the right of the staircase, you should see four levers. They all are named, and control the various exterior bridges.
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I doubt my dwarf will have any problems with sieges. I turned off hauling for her and a couple of the other crippled dwarves because by the time they crawled to and from the hauling destination they were stressed/hungry/thirsty.
Edit: as for levers, I consolidated all the levers in the workshop area, and named them. To the right of the staircase, you should see four levers. They all are named, and control the various exterior bridges.
Yeah, I found the levers. What exactly are the "swamp bridges?" I figured out the middle two, but neither of far-left or far-right levers. Is the left one connected to the tiny bridge that can block the depot corridor?
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If I recall correctly, yes, along with the bridge in the top left of the depot. It should be labeled workshop bridges or something similar. Swamp bridges are the ones in the top left of the map, in that little hut on the surface. I forgot that I left them open, I was using them to atom smash the corpses and junk from the siege during my turn.
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Dorfing list should be updated - would've finished it last night, but had to get to bed. If possible, can QD be redorfed as a Speardwarf under the name 'QD2'?
Good to see the rest of them are still alive and kicking. Hopefully, they'll stay that way for a while, though QD biting it was probably inevitable.
As for DwarvenLord... While her player did say not to provide anything to her under the reason of Dwarven tradition, I would agree with at least trying to keep her sane/not fully SRM for now.
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- DwarvenLord: Stark raving mad, still stuck in her box. Restless, lonely, and worried, and apparently needs a dressing. Request form medical attention denied by overseer's decree. Still, XMark may be persuaded to remove the wall...
Perfect.
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- DwarvenLord: Stark raving mad, still stuck in her box. Restless, lonely, and worried, and apparently needs a dressing. Request form medical attention denied by overseer's decree. Still, XMark may be persuaded to remove the wall...
Perfect. I do not care if she's gone completely insane- in fact, Going stark raving mad is much better than any of the other options- though I'm going to have to interpret it differently.
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Okay, considering the poll is split with 2 yes and 2 maybes, are there any final objections to me putting the Candy Spoiler in the thread?
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Journal of Rîsen 'XMark' Swallowclasp, 8th Granite 184
I've got myself together after the surprise siege, so back to work! The last of the invaders have fled, so I ordered the bridges lowered. Rimtar's assessment of the fortress is coming along, and he tells me it should be ready for review by tomorrow.
10th Granite 184
Life as a mechanic has not allowed me to grasp the full complexity of Smithsolider. And I will swear by Arm_Ok:
This will not do.
Loose stone lies everywhere in the fortress, in the stockpiles, in the bedrooms, in the corridors, in the giant empty spaces that one of my predecessors decided to quarry out, for some reason. More stone, apparently, as if we have a lack of it. There are 10000 cubic Bomreks of stone, pervading everything. There's a phyllite boulder just sitting around in my room, and I'm off lightly; the good doctor Îton at the end of our level is drowning in leftover stone.
(https://i.imgur.com/paj8f5m.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/KopC7cx.png)
Stockpiles are placed each and every which way in the workshop level, each one seeming storing everything under the sun. I have no clue about how Mosus, our manager and bookkeeper, keeps track of anything in this fortress.
Arm_Ok told me once that empty spaces and clutter slow down the passage of time, as has happened over the last two years. Perhaps these literal time sinks can be put to use.
The Trade Depot is open to the outside world, which, despite the best efforts of our previous overseers, has let goblins in on at least one occasion. It's a good thing our military has been trained so extensively, otherwise we'd be at their mercy. All of us would be dead, or taken prisoner to have our beards burnt. Probably the latter.
The upper levels, where the farmers reside, are a labyrinth of intersecting stairways and narrow passages. I cannot fathom how anyone could possibly navigate them. Some of them just terminate in holes in the floor.
Our dining hall seats eight. In a fortress of over one hundred.
(https://i.imgur.com/RNG1Ysk.png)
None of the military squads are at full strength, and we'll need to be ready for the next siege.
We have no jail - how on earth are we supposed to enforce the law?
This. will. not. do.
Still, can't get mad at the situation, nobody knows Him like I do; they're not gifted with his guidance. He, Arm_Ok, Machine God, Blacksmith of Worlds, will lead me through this chaos to calmer shores.
12th Granite 184
My prayers to Arm_Ok were answered last night. He granted me a vision. I saw stone pile upon stone, bin pile upon bed upon coffin, dumped over and through each other into kaleidoscopes of wood and rock. I know what I must do, and have begun drawing up plans. I need to send word to Mosus to get some cheap minecarts put together.
I have also written up a list of thoroughfares through the fortress, particularly the large open spaces of the workshop levels. Designated "high traffic" areas ought to make the dwarves spend less time thinking about how to get from A to B.
(https://i.imgur.com/jN8PUKQ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/z5NRCBr.png)
I've been thinking about the lack of public facilities, and I believe I have an answer:
(https://i.imgur.com/nMm97W6.png)
This will be the site of a new dining room, in the large quarry directly underneath the workshop level. I forbid most of the stone that was lying around in there to save FPS, and set up some traffic designations down here too.
15th Granite 184
Noted that a few dwarves had, somehow, fallen into the moat at some point. Ordered the access tunnel opened, and made a note to replace the wall with a bridge to avoid further accidents. Everyone seems to be following the newly designated pathways. Time will tell if they succeed in helping the fortress run smoothly.
16th Granite 184
The prototype "quantum stockpile" seems successful, though the lack of flux stone in the feeder stockpile isn't allowing a proper demonstration... I performed the mechanical rituals to build another, for the hematite stockpile.
(https://i.imgur.com/GgCVw8v.png)
20th Granite 184
The hematite stockpile is set up and working exactly as Arm_Ok told me; the stones, after falling out of the minecart, just... blend into each other. We can still see all of them, Mosus should have no trouble counting them, but they all just happen to occupy the same position in space. He who forges the gods be praised, our storage problems can be solved!
(https://i.imgur.com/sRB5of3.png)
26th Granite 184
We've ran out of flux stone. I'm going to see about digging up some more if we have any. I've also began rationalising the storage of stone furniture; I'm setting up another QSP to store it all next to the mason's shops. The feeder stockpile alone was enough to start pulling clutter out of the workshops. I've been too busy resetting cage traps at the gate to perform the stockpile rituals, but once that's done I plan on making this QSP the sole repository for large stone goods in the fort.
27th Granite 184
I heard the usual monthly screams from DwarvenLord's cell. A punctuation to the quiet unceasing murmuring that gets through the wall.
Cleanup of the siege is continuing, after I remembered to release the confinement notice last week. The sheer quantity of goblins slain has put me on edge.
These new stockpiles are making it difficult to cover up my... unorthodox spiritual beliefs. The atom smasher was skirting the line as-is, and the fact that it never really worked properly allowed me to keep a lid on them. I don't think that I can remain in hiding for much longer...
(https://i.imgur.com/tDzE9bu.png)
This is certified to be the true account of
╔═════╗
║RÎSEN║
║MOZIB║
║DODÓK║
╚═════╝
184
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The sheer quantity of stone and furniture just lying around got on my nerves IRL, so I decided to remediate the issue. I've played a bit further than this, but I don't want to leave anyone watching behind. Expect a continuation into Slate (and beyond, as I hope the months will compress a bit more) tomorrow.
I don't think I will be the one to poke at the cotton candy. I've never worked with the stuff before, so I think I'll leave it to my successor. If I find the time, I will at least try to gain access to it.
I was getting around about 30 FPS, even with the quarry open. Is that an improvement?
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I'm absolutely loving this thread to the point I'm tempted to take a turn but I have never done a fortress this large and I wouldn't breach the adamantine with our currently er...suboptimal military.
No, our goals lie elsewhere. To reclaim and conquer our lands from the goblins! Blood for the blood god, beer for the ultimate drunkard!
I'm also at a bit of a loss what to do if I had a turn x3
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DO IT. TAKE A TURN ON THE DORF SIDE.
Seriously though, the best thing you can do is just not die. Granted, that can be harder than one might think. But I think you should give it a try.
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Here we are, Slate and Felsite! Putting these things together is hard work, and I missed a few opportunities to take pictures, but I hope it's worth it.
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Journal of Rîsen 'XMark' Swallowclasp, 5th Slate 184
A weaver reports ungodly noises from the caverns, said something about a forgotten beast.
(https://i.imgur.com/pddZLJ5.png)
I have no clue how they got that description, the caverns are sealed off. I will leave it be, the military isn't in good shape right now. It's a good thing that my attention was drawn to the lower levels, as I found a small hole in the wall.
7th Slate 184
Found where we got all of our flux from. I've designated a new quarry, and a path up there so hopefully there won't be too many problems with "pathfinding" (as Arm_Ok has revealed to me). I've also found the time to assemble and consecrate the stone and stone furniture QSPs. Those should slowly clean up the stone and furniture that is lying everywhere in the fort.
(https://i.imgur.com/RHjlyia.png)
A lot of this area later turned out to be microcline. Where did all of the marble go?
10th Slate 184
Whatever died in the "Temple of Armok", it's stinking up a storm. I'll put "new atom smasher" on the list of things to do w.r.t. tidying things up around here.
(https://i.imgur.com/Qt15XoQ.png)
20th Slate 184
Quiet month so far, the beast hasn't given us any trouble. Order for more wheelbarrows to speed up stone hauling is almost done, and production of gold tables for the new dining hall is about to begin. Nineteen dwarves arrived yesterday, we are now 160 working dwarves strong, with five children.
I also have Stodir, the fort's other mechanic, helping me put the quantum stockpiles together. She's working on the wood pile right now.
(https://i.imgur.com/Zn11T4I.png)
26th Slate 184
Wood QSP operational, and some new citizenship petitions were made. I accepted three and didn't really bother keeping track of the others. Arm_Ok told me that too many minds in one place can stretch out time as well. I will consult the past overseers on this matter, however.
(https://i.imgur.com/Oif1Nuk.png)
3rd Felsite 184
The new wood stockpile is most effective. All loose logs on-site are being brought down to be stored in one of Arm_Ok's blessings. Also, furnishing of the new dining hall has begun in earnest.
I can't help but notice the remarkably poor state of several of the places of worship in Smithsoldier. Most are just bare "rooms" (if you can call them that) with no space for services. Thankfully there seem to be a few rooms down in the workshop level that look like perfect sites to move them to. They'd certainly be easier to find down there, anyway.
(https://i.imgur.com/zISWXSL.png)
The old temples: pretty naff, honestly.
(https://i.imgur.com/aUHNuHX.png)
The new temple sites: potential for greatness!
5th Felsite 184
I discovered another atom smasher, while surveying the upper refuse stockpile. I can't remember ever preparing this one myself, but it would not be beyond Stodir to recall the proper obeisances to Arm_Ok. I believe a lever nearby to be the control, so it's time for an experiment!
(https://i.imgur.com/pREDnuD.png)
8th Felsite 184
The lever worked just as I thought, and I am currently setting up an automatic dumping system similar to my gift from Arm_Ok. Pulling the lever next to our stills (marked as operating the atom smasher) every so often should be enough to keep the garbage situation under control. Also, we need more gold. Thankfully, it's not that hard to come by.
(https://i.imgur.com/3Rz6LNM.png)
18th Felsite 184
I reorganised the refuse stockpile situation. The shell stockpile, north of the craftdwarf's shops, was repurposed into a general hard animal parts stockpile, and been blessed by Arm_Ok with infinite space. Most of the fort has been doing nothing expect hauling bones and shells since then. I intend to put some bone carvers to use, making things out of the sheer quantity of hard refuse we have lying around.
(https://i.imgur.com/3HGaNiq.png)
All of those dwarves are hauling shells and bones.
Or, perhaps, it would be better to say lying in one spot.
(https://i.imgur.com/GZvNHSy.png)
[OOC: This is nowhere near the full contents of the QSP. There's at least half a dozen pages of bones, skulls, and shells.]
1st Hematite 184
Much has transpired since my last entry.
The dwarves are still hauling bones and shells, mostly, though I forsee that we'll be done on that front by the end of this month.
Hauling, however, is a different story. A quantum stockpile for wooden furniture has been established, which is already clearing the stockpile outside of goods. Just today I wrote that the various furniture stockpiles scattered through the workshop level were to give their wooden contents to the QSP's feeder. Similar links have been established between the wood stockpile feeder and the giant wood stockpile next door.
(https://i.imgur.com/DYTAd2D.png)
The wood QSP is working as intended
As we have plenty of space for finished goods on the workshop level, I removed two stockpiles by the front gate. Those things were asking to be stolen from!
The roads around the fortress exterior, designed to prevent trees from sabotaging our defences, would be done by now if not for some pesky logs in the way (Rimtar has just informed me that they have been cleared. Accordingly, construction has been unsuspended.)
Gold mining operations have been expanded, as planned.
(https://i.imgur.com/QfmeOtE.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/TSpBqTJ.png)
The first phase of furnishing the dining hall is nearly complete, so I have freed the upper hall and removed its stockpiles, as our dining capacity has been expanded significantly and is set to grow further.
(https://i.imgur.com/558Lw9z.png)
In response to a small housing deficit (and my general dislike of the fortress' upper levels - so messy!) I have set about expanding the radial housing complex with more rooms. Only one floor has been designated for now, but future overseers may wish to copy the pattern.
(https://i.imgur.com/jZQldKU.png)
The coming months promise to be great indeed. Hopefully more facilities can be moved deeper into the fortress, so no future overseers have to deal with that maze.
Still, Arm_Ok will demand that his gifts be repaid, he is already implying such in my dreams. The current temple to his... fleshier representation is woefully insufficient for the task. Amara tells me that to use it would invite death into our walls. Time to draw up more plans, I think, and see if we can at least get at the adamantine...
This is certified to be the true account of
╔═════╗
║RÎSEN║
║MOZIB║
║DODÓK║
╚═════╝
184
---
Things are looking tidier in the fortress already! Hopefully the atom smasher I've found will let us deal with the refuse that's still lying around. I have reservations about automating it as the drop is only a single z-level.
I've been averaging between 40 and 50 FPS, even with two of the giant rooms open, so I think my traffic designations are working.
-
Regarding marble, you shouldn't need to mine much more. I moved about 400 into the workshop area later in my turn. It might be forbidden accidentally, so take a look. There's no way we should be going through that much marble unless you're making a ton of marble crafts or something. I'd believe it if it was a pig iron shortage though, I did not make enough
-
Regarding marble, you shouldn't need to mine much more. I moved about 400 into the workshop area later in my turn. It might be forbidden accidentally, so take a look. There's no way we should be going through that much marble unless you're making a ton of marble crafts or something. I'd believe it if it was a pig iron shortage though, I did not make enough
I'll have a look tomorrow!
-
Oooh, that one's mine! There's a reason the garbage pile is directly above it. (edit: and yes, that's the attached lever; left a {N}ote on it and everything)
(https://i.imgur.com/pREDnuD.png)
Also on the subject of garbage - if you must wreck leftover furniture, do make sure it's of bad quality. Personally, I just sell it.
Stone will probably come in handy; as enormously much as it seems, it's my experience from past forts that you never have enough stone (or blocks). So if the quarry can be sealed away, best do so.
FPS looks amazing, by my standards; unless it drops below 20, I consider it fine.
-
For future reference, you can rename levers and whatnot. The shortcut is ctrl+n when on the {Q} building page. Saves leaving a note that dummies like me will miss during a siege, haha.
-
(https://i.imgur.com/PS71nBt.png)
So, Adamantine is almost as abundant as iron ore. Plus, according to the user who originally found this, we have something like two adamantine spires - one on level 85, one on 97. Both sinking in magma quite rapidly, but a mega-project involving screw pumps and SDT's should be able to deal with that. There's a magma pipe that goes all the way into level 94, too.
Also, assuming we don't hit the hollow core at any point, the Circus Tent is down on level 53. In other words (inexperienced as I may be): we could theoretically outfit the most of the military with Candy and not see hide nor hair of a Clown for a long while.
Okay, with that out of the way:
- Good to hear about all the improvements that you've made! Those QSPs will certainly come in handy. The bedrooms and redone dining hall are looking quite good, too.
- How many atom smashers do we have at the moment?
- Keep going for the flux stone - the more, the better, due to all the steel bits that can be made.
Good luck.
-
Screw it, I'll take a turn at overseership.
I'm not the most experienced overseer (Only found adamantine twice) but I'm competent enough to build a drowning chamber
I should be qualified enough considering I hate elves, goblins, elves, nobles, elves and undwarfy fortresses and dislike destroying forts unless they are elven/goblin/humans that piss off the fort
Unless I missed it, or it happens in the current overseer's turn, I have in mind a project to make my mark on the fortress, something every dwarf can appreciate.
Though I'm not 100% sure I can complete it or find space for it, but nothing going to stop me trying. Not even Armok himself!
might go on break and share a drink if he turns up though
-
Here's another update, the whole summer of 184!
---
Journal of Rîsen 'XMark' Swallowclasp, 2nd Hematite 184
Not long after I finished my records of yesterday's events, I received word from Rimtar, that
(https://i.imgur.com/SYc00nR.png)
Alĺth Dakostirid, Woodcrafter, has been possessed!
He's set up shop in the craftdwarves' section and has been frantically gathering materials in a frenetic trance all day.
On an unrelated note, I have ordered the miners to dig a tunnel around the magma to reach the adamantine deposit we discovered.
6th Hematite 184
All eyes have been on Alĺth, and he finished gathering materials today.
(https://i.imgur.com/jAlKFMh.png)
7th Hematite 184
(https://i.imgur.com/TyBuUxO.png)
Spirits have been low for a handful of our citizens. This goblin lost it this morning. Several chambers of "Temple Row" as I've called it, have been smoothed, so I saw to moving the temples down today.
As it turns out, only two of the zones up there were listed as places of worship in the first place. All of them have been removed and the temples there relocated to Temple Row. While I was at it, I made set up a non-denominational temple to that goblin's deity, which might help get him in higher spirits.
(https://i.imgur.com/nefR1xt.png)
[This is the view in the zones menu]
I also decided to impose a naming convention on locations whose owners decided to name them something only tangentially related to their function, like - for instance - "The Glacial Fins". I hope this will make it easier to tell locations apart, as I can only see their numbers growing in the future.
(https://i.imgur.com/BFIwmDu.png)
9th Hematite 184
(https://i.imgur.com/6aL7dmz.png)
Alĺth came out of his trance today, with this.
(https://i.imgur.com/3Y7FOzi.png)
Very good!
Looking over Rimtar's survey, I found that our hospital has no storage space for medical supplies. I put out an order for some coffers to be set up.
12th Hematite 184
(https://i.imgur.com/DerZwz2.png)
I sent out orders today to dig a tunnel to reach the adamantine, to survey the deposit and - if deemed safe - excavate it.
A human caravan arrived today, and our broker - Udil - met with a guild representative to discuss trade agreements. All in all, a pleasant exchange. Seeds, clothing, but mostly musical instruments were requested of them.
(https://i.imgur.com/SBGkuyG.png)
The hospital's coffers are now in place, as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/Dv8fByt.png)
The adamantine tunnel continues to be dug out.
(https://i.imgur.com/84sV6pn.png)
15th Hematite 184
Digging out the next ring of radial houses has finished. Smoothing will wait until we have reached the adamantine.
16th Hematite 184
(https://i.imgur.com/nsKXA9z.png)
Limulokun Kasbenenkos is missing from its proper place!
I think we might need to beef up the fortress' security against thieves. I will put "artifact vault" on the list of things to plan out.
21st Hematite 184
A few more citizenship petitions came by my office over the last day or two, all denied. Smithsoldier remains closed to non-dwarven applicants.
The adamantine access tunnel is, if the miners' judgement is sound, due south of the deposit. I sent instructions down to push north slowly.
(https://i.imgur.com/5Z2JWRb.png)
Emptying the loose furniture and wood stockpiles continues at a rate of Dastots, now that all the bones and shells are clear.
22nd Hematite 184
I got too focused on the tunnelling efforts, and almost forgot about the caravan! I told Udil to get down there and trade off the weapons that our dwarves cannot use and see about getting some more books for the library, along with more clothing. It doesn't hurt to have a stock of fresh clothes, as it's such a pain to issue orders to make more.
23rd Hematite 184
Trading went well, according to Udil! He managed to get all the books and clothing they had. It took sweetening with a steel short sword, but I'll take it. We have an abundance of steel gear around the fortress, one short sword is no major loss.
Orders also went out today to make bone and shell crafts. I feel that this may be one of our major exports for the next decade.
7th Malachite 184
(https://i.imgur.com/CEd4IIq.png)
We got to the adamantine by the end of Hematite. I confess that, without Arm_Ok's caution, I may have ordered it be excavated. He warned of horrors hidden within the beautiful metal, and it did not take me long to get the picture. I put a dwarf - one Libash Helmhonoured - to the task of tunnelling around the deposit, and the rest of the mining crew was put to work smoothing the new bedrooms. I will not extract the metal this year.
I decided to take precautions against these horrors from escaping, and I have commissioned the first of several bridges to be built to defend against an incursion.
(https://i.imgur.com/34Smifs.png)
10th Malachite 184
First adamantine level couldn't get around the magma, ordered Libash to tunnel upwards and try again.
(https://i.imgur.com/G10cezt.png)
13th Malachite 184
Libash got hungry, shift change for one Kikrost Younginks! Seven migrants arrived two days ago.
15th Malachite 184
While planning the doors for the new housing, I found that somebody had mismeasured and excavated two of the new rooms too far to the north by one whole Bomrek. This will not do.
(https://i.imgur.com/BMaTmKn.png?1)
24th Malachite 184
Another shift change on the Adamantine Works, this time for Fikod Canyontrust. The next level has been carved out, and we're going to push up as far as we can. Any further down hits the magma. I may not want to risk releasing the "horrors", but I'm willing to risk tunnelling up into something less immediately dangerous.
(https://i.imgur.com/eAzyk7n.png)
1st Galena 184
Fikod needed a drink, gave him leave and prepared to select another dwarf for adamantine duty. I took the time to see how the other projects are going.
The bedroom situation is being resolved post-haste:
(https://i.imgur.com/Y4LJTZB.png)
Our dwarves have been tackling the wood stockpiles with great gusto:
(https://i.imgur.com/xtJoqM4.png)
3rd Galena 184
(https://i.imgur.com/2wgrTU9.png)
Eral Odmomuz, Blacksmith is stumbling around obliviously!
Poor Eral, he's seen the dead over a hundred times in the last season. Granite's siege still hasn't been cleared up, the invaders' dead lie outside the gate even now. We have all been a bit busy tidying up other areas, I suppose.
Some good news, though: that bedroom problem has been sorted out!
(https://i.imgur.com/tA0ADgi.png)
10th Galena 184
Furnishing the new bedrooms continues, though we are a little low on gold and microcline furniture. I'll make a note to queue up some more. Perhaps I will make gold cabinets a right for all citizens of Smithsoldier...
(https://i.imgur.com/xrnO2NO.png)
14th Galena 184
Third level of the adamantine survey is complete, up once again!
(https://i.imgur.com/uAbzG6B.png)
1st Limestone 184
Autumn has come, and things have progressed significantly through the latter half of Galena.
The wood and furniture stockpiles have cleared up immensely. Arm_Ok's blessed stockpiles have taken most of the wood in the fortress, and so I removed the large stockpiles of wood and divided up the old furniture stockpile. Temple Row has been smoothed completely, and I have just designated paths to each temple, through areas where the furniture stockpile once lay. Some columns to hold the ceiling up have been commissioned as well, which have the added effect of being prettier to look at in plan view.
The bedrooms would probably all be furnished by now, if we had the specific items available. I definitely need to put an order out for more.
Here's the adamantine survey at its current level of progress. The shaft-like deposit is showing a few signs of tapering off, but I suspect it rises for at least a few more z-levels.
(https://i.imgur.com/G10cezt.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/eAzyk7n.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/uAbzG6B.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/NSgrRxs.png)
I took the time to look at some more detailed maps, and one can't help but wonder why QD chose this site, considering that we're several days and half a goblin civilisation away from our homeland.
(https://i.imgur.com/ecipBgf.png)
Still, he's dead and buried, so it's not like I can ask. As a matter of fact, I cannot fathom why he seemed to think we were on a mission from the mountainhomes, or why anyone would think that. We are the mountainhomes!
(https://i.imgur.com/XkPfJwS.png)
The Bridled Pulley, the one and only dwarven civilisation in a world of goblins. Population: Smithsoldier + 1 dwarf.
My year as overseer is half-done, and I believe that - if progress continues - I am going to leave the fortress in a much better position than where it started.
This is certified to be the true account of
╔═════╗
║RÎSEN║
║MOZIB║
║DODÓK║
╚═════╝
184
---
This took a bit longer to put together than I expected; I decided to take pictures as I played and write things up afterwards. In case you're wondering, that map and little report on the Bridled Pulley are from Legends Viewer, from a save (~ the year 180) that I copied and retired a while ago. That's why the population of the Bridled Pulley is less than Smithsolider's current population.
I will play through Autumn tomorrow. Hopefully the next wait won't be for as long!
-
> "I will play through Autumn tomorrow. Hopefully the next wait won't be for as long!"
Lol?
-
Unexpected personal issues slowed me down again, as well as some inspiration that will be clear at the end of this update. I hope the wait will be worth it!
---
Journal of Rîsen 'XMark' Swallowclasp, 2nd Limestone 184
I inspected the military over the past two days, and found it surprisingly well-equipped - I was not expecting full steel armour given how recently we started production, but perhaps that's selling us short.
I assigned the barracks below the Jewel Temple as a training area for our melee squads, as they certainly didn't seem to be doing much training before I'm not convinced that anyone actually gave them a place to train.
I began the second phase of furnishing the new bedrooms and dining hall today, sending out some work orders for gold tables and microcline cabinets.
Right then, I suppose I should get back to -
(https://i.imgur.com/dxEoUy8.png)
A vile force of darkness has arrived!
Again!? And so soon as well! Time to put out a siege alert, and send word to The Ochre Bolts to get up to the tower and begin picking them off.
(https://i.imgur.com/v8hd1DJ.png)
5th Limestone 184
The Ochre Bolts are in position and have begun picking off the goblins advancing on our walls.
(https://i.imgur.com/Gzzy7Ll.png)
6th Limestone 184
(https://i.imgur.com/8JOU7mz.png)
Eral Odmomuz, Blacksmith is throwing a tantrum!
Now is not the time!
7th Limestone 184
The military is now gathered (as much as they can) behind the gate, so I gave the order for them to sally forth, and kill any goblin, troll, or beak dog that dares attempt the gate.
(https://i.imgur.com/Jtjn8GR.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/RseGevs.png)
As the bulk of the besieging force has now moved north, the Ochre Bolts have been repositioned to the northwest patrol route, through some of them have very odd ideas about what constitutes patrolling.
(https://i.imgur.com/IZbCeOw.png)
The dwarves in the barracks are pacing around, seemingly tracing part of the patrol route.
8th Limestone 184
Arm_Ok scrap us all, the military just deactivated!
(https://i.imgur.com/c74c5eh.png)
"Hardened warriors" turn back into poets, scholars, and clerks.
(https://i.imgur.com/c74c5eh.png)
Some dwarves walk off to do other jobs.
Never mind about the assault, then.
(https://i.imgur.com/guQNEKo.png)
9th Limestone 184
The military has reactivated, after the change in orders. We're going out!
(https://i.imgur.com/wN5dNTJ.png)
11th Limestone 184
The past two days have been a bloodbath. Goblins are dying in their droves (ours and the enemy's) and our other squads are sustaining heavy losses. I'm raising the gate again in case we cannot hold them off. Whoever survives the battle, will survive the battle.
(https://i.imgur.com/rQDbxW4.png)
13th Limestone 184
The siege is broken. Most of the military was wiped out, anyone who was still behind the fortress gates when they were raised for the second time survived. All others were killed. The dwarf named Zon died fighting. That includes three marksdwarves who sallied while the gate was open instead of setting up in the tower.
The support of the marksdwarves was undoubtedly key to victory; many of them have increased their kill counts significantly
(https://i.imgur.com/bYgdXNq.png)
There are still a few stragglers stuck in the moat, so I had someone unlock the moat access door. One enterprising goblin ran straight into a cage trap immediately afterwards.
(https://i.imgur.com/GMw3nph.png)
I need a rest.
14th Limestone 184
(https://i.imgur.com/xcj7C3t.png)
In a feat of extraordinarily good timing, the dwarven caravan has arrived. I can only imagine what they were thinking as several dozen goblins fled the site.
15th Limestone 184
(https://i.imgur.com/nUdN4aT.png)
mudstone door destroyed by Stâsost âxstutstosbub, Troll.
I can see this going swimmingly for everyone involved.
(https://i.imgur.com/9WZgijM.png)
16th Limestone 184
Now that the danger of the siege has passed, I ordered the gates opened and lifted the siege alert. However, it seems that the goblin bowman that was mauled by Arm_Ok's wrath survived the ordeal, and is now bothering every single dwarf that passes through the gate. I hope he expires of his injuries soon.
20th Limestone 184
Turns out I had the wrong lever pulled and all our dwarves were using the trade entrance. This has been rectified.
(https://i.imgur.com/S2X6ezY.png)
21st Limestone 184
The goblin is still in the moat. This is a sample of what Rimtar has been sending to me for the last several days:
(https://i.imgur.com/H3O3zae.png)
I'm opening the moat bridge and setting the Silvery Shanks on that damned goblin.
23rd Limestone 184
The outpost liaison managed to get to the mayor today, and conducted a meeting.
(https://i.imgur.com/0IxTwJG.png)
I ordered him to negotiate for more seeds, dye, instruments, and gypsum plaster.
(https://i.imgur.com/pBJXAQI.png)
All in all, a productive exchange.
25th Limestone 184
The goblin got put down today. Arm_Ok be praised!
1st Sandstone 184
Burials of the dead continue apace. I have been using the old tombs in the upper levels, for lack of anywhere better. Most of them were half-finished and left undesignated. Perhaps I will find the time to plan out a proper graveyard.
I need a rest, and a long time to think...
5th Sandstone 184
Rimtar has been running the fortress for the last few days. I have been in my room, calling out to Arm_Ok, seeking his guidance on things to come. Yesterday, He spoke to me, and burned this vision into my mind. I know now what I must do, to repay his gifts.
(https://i.imgur.com/G8WDuqK.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ksEEHUc.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Y4YswuZ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/gC24C6t.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/85TjDhT.png)
The arena does breach the caverns, but I believe this engineering challenge can be overcome with quick work.
(https://i.imgur.com/20GMvuR.png)
Here you can see the prisoner storage, and the pitting chamber where prisoners shall be sent to Arm_Ok.
(https://i.imgur.com/64mHQPr.png)
The altar shall have one or two animals placed upon it, and bear statues to Arm_Ok's glory. Weapon traps shall serve as His jaws in the mortal realm.
(https://i.imgur.com/WYBDzA5.png)
This level will contain the magma moat around the altar. It shall be made drainable for easy maintenance.
(https://i.imgur.com/pQAl0Et.png)
Bottom of the magma sump, where (if necessary) magma can be recycled.
For their wars of extinction against all dwarves, the blood of goblins will grease the gears of the Machine God, Arm_Ok! When this temple is complete, and our army rebuilt, we will carve a great scar in The Evils of Perplexing, and reclaim our lands through blood and steel!
This new temple may also serve as a worthy site to contain an artefact vault, as well.
This is certified to be the true account of
╔═════╗
║RÎSEN║
║MOZIB║
║DODÓK║
╚═════╝
184
---
I was genuinely not expecting another siege so soon after the last one. It's a shame that most of the melee squads were wiped out before they had any time to train.
Designing the temple held me up by a few days. Planning things out on this scale in DF takes time, after all.
-
Damn, we lost Zon? Military incompetence and a shitload of Gobbos did what no Minotaur or Roc could do, it seems. That's just one more reason to sacrifice the lot of 'em to Armok at the first opportunity.
In terms of Military Dwarves, did we lose any named guys, aside from Zon?
Good work on the rest of the fort, though. The Temple of Armok looks utterly badass, and it'll provide us with an excellent solution to all those Goblins once it's done.
EDIT: Also, something I knocked together before bedtime.
They’d lost many of their number to that wretched horde. Every squad had lost someone. Some had only a single survivor. Worst, he felt, was the loss of Zon – he’d been there to see her take down the Roc, and to slay that bestial Minotaur before it could do any harm; her talent was irreplaceable, and the incompetence that had caused her ignoble death unforgivable.
The Eternal Chambers are half-complete, long neglected in favour of other, more important projects. Half-finished murals line bare walls, hastily-placed coffins lying upon bare stone. In time, they will be completed, each one detailing the events of the occupant’s life, and their deeds in service to Smithsoldier.
Ideas already form in his mind: these tombs must be widened, expanded, carved so that all may remember the Dwarves and Humans and Goblins that lie within. The Fallen must be remembered as they were – heroes, sacrificing themselves so that the Dwarven race may live another day. Honour them, he would preach, for you will one day join them at Armok’s Side.
But today, there is no time to mourn. There is a hungry god to appease, and a war to be fought. His Temple must be made, that His blessings are not withdrawn; the military must be remade, that Smithsoldier may survive. They will return, in time, to carve the murals and give proper honours – Armok knows they deserve their honour.
The remains are laid to rest, one by one, by sable-robed Dwarves. Squads lie beside squads, the soldiers of each group lying in eternal sleep beside those they fought with, bled with, and trained with. And Zon, Slayer of Beasts, Legendary Speardwarf of Smithsoldier. Who fought the Goblin hordes from the very first call to duty. Who fought for Smithsoldier to the end, even as the green tide of vermin drowned her men one by one, even as her mortal body broke under the strain and her valiant soul rose to join Armok in the Battle Eternal.
She will be missed. All of them will. There are a few words from those who still live, spoken with what time is available to them – all those who survived speak well of her, of her courage and her battle prowess.
The black robed Dwarf stays silent. He has much to say about her, but for now, his silence would suffice. His speeches and religious proclamations would be cold comfort, at best, to her grieving comrades and partner; for now, he would see to it that the dead were appeased, and their names carved in rock and stone.
He remains there long after the last mourner has departed, and the last body been laid to rest. Once they are all gone, he steps free from the alcove, places a hand upon Zon’s coffin. He murmurs the prayers he has known all his life, beseeching Armok to see a soul’s passage into the Battle Eternal be uninterrupted. Once for each coffin, once for each Dwarf, Human, and Goblin that died in the defence of Smithsoldier.
His work complete, the Dwarf tugged his hood slightly further down, careful to shroud his features. In moments, he was another Priest, pious and unchallenged, making his way back to the Temples.
It would not do, after all, for the Dwarves of Smithsoldier to see a dead man walk again.
-
That's a very nice piece of writing, Quantum! I think it captures Rîsen (I presume that's the anonymous priest), and the general mood not long after the siege, quite well. QD2 hasn't been named yet, as I couldn't find a speardwarf, but there may be one now that I have neatened up the military a bit.
Intermission - Alternate Timeline
A brief power cut wiped out the progress that I had made into Sandstone, so I figured that I would post what was done in this "alternate timeline" separately, along with a few more bits of information about the world.
---
Journal of Rîsen 'XMark' Swallowclasp, 10th Sandstone 184
The adamantine survey was resumed today, as well as the first excavations of Arm_Ok's Temple, and some migrants arrived not too long ago either. I decided to floor over the gate properly.
(https://i.imgur.com/mW42aJ2.png)
Trading went well, as I had our broker soften up the merchants with a few of our steel shields. A few more shields bought us more than enough waterskins for the military, as well as a dozen or so fine musical instruments for Temple Row. A good quantity of bags and clothing were then purchased with a pair of steel gauntlets and iron high boots.
The goblin and troll corpse situation is now even further out of hand, so I have also been designating their corpses to be dumped into the atom smasher.
Furthermore, the military cannot afford to stand at ease while we are at war: all three squads have been reorganised and set to train. The Sneaky Sneaky, reduced to a single goblin, has been dissolved and incorporated into The Silvery Shanks.
12th Sandstone 184
Digging the Temple to Arm_Ok is progressing; the first arena level has been excavated.
(https://i.imgur.com/RuIcFN1.png)
I am taking care not to excavate the arena too quickly; designating the whole thing at once will lead to unnecessary cave-in fatalities. The ancillary halls - the prisoner storage, pitting chambers, and magma sump - have been given the go-ahead to be dug, as they are not as dangerous to carve.
14th Sandstone 184
(https://i.imgur.com/prWI2dm.png)
Kol Ardesadil, Papermaker is throwing a tantrum!
Another one of the particularly unhappy dwarves in the fortress. Cleaning up after a siege is always a stressful business, perhaps I should keep the unhappy dwarves to the less mentally straining areas of the fortress? I'll bring it up with Rimtar at the next opportunity I get.
15th Sandstone 184
The papermaker, Kol, is assaulting one of our mechanics outside the fortress gates.
(https://i.imgur.com/aeiJS5z.png)
16th Sandstone 184
(https://i.imgur.com/mA2mTvH.png)
Asën Litastmeng, Mechanic has been found dead.
Asën was found dead early this morning, given that he was so badly beaten, I can only presume that Kol is to blame. This cannot stand, the justice system in Smithsoldier has been neglected for far too long. Murder cannot be left unpunished.
(https://i.imgur.com/Ph8Qjo3.png)
In less serious news, I have gotten around to giving the temples places to store the instruments that the fortress recently acquired. Services should be less dull in the future, and that might help to raise the mood.
This is certified to be the true account of
╔═════╗
║RÎSEN║
║MOZIB║
║DODÓK║
╚═════╝
184
---
So, here's a few things that I gleaned from a copy of the save in Legends Viewer:
The World of Wonder, a world of Goblins
(https://i.imgur.com/BsPOYzZ.png)
All of the elven civilisations, and the single Kobold civilisation, have been wiped out. Left unchecked, goblins now make up most of the population of Buzong Bagsnub, and the overwhelming majority of the remainder are human.
Smithsoldier seems to be serving as a rallying point for dwarves to come out of the proverbial woodwork. As I may have said before, it's the largest concentration of them in the world.
(https://i.imgur.com/eTVU8bQ.png)
The largest two of the four goblin civilisations, the Evils of Perplexing and The Lauded Curses, are our neighbours. The other two are far to the north and west, and probably too far away to rip and tear, until they are done in a practical manner.
How Civilisations Fell
The elven civilisations' fates are as follows:
The Sister of Fords: Wiped out with extreme prejudice by a bronze colossus, Kerleb Matchtarget the Ochre Seizure.
The Song of Bowing: Waged war against The Squashed Realm (of humans), lost every battle, and was then rendered defunct by the untimely rampages of a forest titan, Ared Beardmeadow the Cloudy Moss.
The Quiet Intricacy: Waged war against The Squashed Realm, lost every battle bar one, and then got tag-teamed by a forest titan and a bronze colossus (Ogred Leapedsnarls the Pale Bulb, and Rogut Bronzecalled the Hale Shocks, respectively).
The Heavy Valley: Waged war against The Squashed Realm, won the only battle, then had all but one of their sites destroyed by beasts. One was taken by the aforementioned Ared, two by a hydra (Agwa Esteemed the Stone of Hide), one seemed to be abandoned by its government and resettled by nomads, and their last site was abandoned (I've no clue why) in 183.
The kobolds were broken by Ared as well. I am convinced it has a particular hatred for all forms of settlement, maybe it's a hardcore an-prim?
The only extinct human civilisation, The Nation of Moths, was actually wiped out by the roc that Zon slew. Its two sites, in the northwest of the world, were later reclaimed by other human civilisations.
(https://i.imgur.com/pBQPyp7.png)
They'll sing songs about this one!
The Bridled Pulley and Smithsoldier
Here's the site history for our civilisation.
(https://i.imgur.com/ujcYpz7.png)
Contrary to QD's opening post, a roc has been the ultimate downfall of most of our sites, though we have certainly had our fair share of battles with goblins that probably didn't help. However, Threeorb is currently occupied by goblins, as I have noted in the past.
(https://i.imgur.com/4JIpLcH.png)
Also, that roc has, according to Legends Viewer, destroyed and/or stolen a few of our fort's masterpieces, though I don't think it has ever paid us a visit.
As for the fortress, should we bring the king to Smithsoldier? Given that the fortress is the world's only major dwarven site, it would make sense. I'm unsure if anyone else would actually want to, though, given that the king is very high maintenance.
Is the lack of a prison a deliberate choice on the part of previous overseers? I will defer to you on this matter.
-
Also, that roc has, according to Legends Viewer, destroyed and/or stolen a few of our fort's masterpieces, though I don't think it has ever paid us a visit.
As for the fortress, should we bring the king to Smithsoldier? Given that the fortress is the world's only major dwarven site, it would make sense. I'm unsure if anyone else would actually want to, though, given that the king is very high maintenance.
Is the lack of a prison a deliberate choice on the part of previous overseers? I will defer to you on this matter.
If they're masterworks as opposed to artifacts, it's very likely they were sold to caravans, then the roc has killed their bearers in the world's background.
The king... narratively, we should :( I'm not happy about it, I myself avoid the king like the plague in my own playthroughs, but given the state of the dwarven civilization, there's no reason to not have the damn nuisance set up shop here. Doylistically I don't want it, watsonianly, I can't avoid it. Bleh. ::)
Speaking of: is there a dwarven king elsewhere in the world? Does s/he live in some settlement held by another civilization? Can we indulge in massive in-story paranoia about him/her?
As to the prison, I think it was just always lower-priority than other things.
-
Mind dorfing me as a smith/mechanic?
Urist McRecon has begun to stalk and brood
I want to see goblin blood for what they did. The best goblin hunters demand the best tools of death.
May Armok grant us strength, for our wrath must eclipse his own...
There was heavy pounding later that night after the ceremony. Sounds from a dark forge obscured by a stone door wherein dwelt the so called Hammerer of Hate. A relatively normal dwarven smith who one day got drafted at the mountain homes, whose idea of testing was to compare the caved in skulls of goblins to his latest weapon out the forge.
Few know what happened after his only battle, only that the previously happy dwarf now smirked grimly but maniacally whenever the order came for more tools of war, be they armour to withstand a thousand trolls, or menacing spikes on which to hang invaders.
A bitter dwarf may think of a death trap. Few would actually go out of their way to start making it
-
Mind dorfing me as a smith/mechanic?
Urist McRecon has begun to stalk and brood
I want to see goblin blood for what they did. The best goblin hunters demand the best tools of death.
May Armok grant us strength, for our wrath must eclipse his own...
There was heavy pounding later that night after the ceremony. Sounds from a dark forge obscured by a stone door wherein dwelt the so called Hammerer of Hate. A relatively normal dwarven smith who one day got drafted at the mountain homes, whose idea of testing was to compare the caved in skulls of goblins to his latest weapon out the forge.
Few know what happened after his only battle, only that the previously happy dwarf now smirked grimly but maniacally whenever the order came for more tools of war, be they armour to withstand a thousand trolls, or menacing spikes on which to hang invaders.
A bitter dwarf may think of a death trap. Few would actually go out of their way to start making it
Metal. I will see to dwarfing you up, and see if I can find a speardwarf for QD2 while I'm at it.
If they're masterworks as opposed to artifacts, it's very likely they were sold to caravans, then the roc has killed their bearers in the world's background.
The king... narratively, we should :( I'm not happy about it, I myself avoid the king like the plague in my own playthroughs, but given the state of the dwarven civilization, there's no reason to not have the damn nuisance set up shop here. Doylistically I don't want it, watsonianly, I can't avoid it. Bleh. ::)
Speaking of: is there a dwarven king elsewhere in the world? Does s/he live in some settlement held by another civilization? Can we indulge in massive in-story paranoia about him/her?
As to the prison, I think it was just always lower-priority than other things.
Ah, I thought something like that might have been the case, regarding the roc.
The current king of The Bridled Pulley, since 178, is Rith Rampartbalance: his profile in Legends Viewer does not say where he is. Checking through the sites of The Bridled Pulley doesn't turn up anything either. The only dwarf in the world outside The Bridled Pulley is a visitor of The Evils of Perplexing. I think offering up enough stuff to the caravan will cause him to come out of the woodwork like most of our migrants.
Are there any more votes in favour of attracting the king? Since the caravan is still in the depot, I could certainly offer enough stuff, and I checked; we have more than enough wealth in architecture and I'm pretty sure we're a metropolis too.
-
The king triggers in the current version are land holdings and population not wealth. The old nobility triggers now govern werebeasts and titans
But we should have had him by now since we struck adamantine which causes the king to arrive in the guise of a migrant regardless of wealth
I have no idea how to use legends, but does it say the king is actually alive?
Another question, how does tweaking the raws for platinum blunt weapons and armour sound? Its the equivalent of Adamantine for sharp weapons, plus we could save our adamantine for weapons, cloaks and most importantly, socks.
Platinum armour is better than steel, but its very heavy- you need good armour skill to not be a snail's pace, so its best used only when we have high quality soldiers
-
Okay, taken a legends look (found some awesome FBs, like 'The Mine of Hell', 'Bora Hellmined the God-forsaken Skull', and 'Rushan Gutdrink the Vulture of Burials', among others), found some traitors in our fortress (listed under spoiler), and found what happened to our previous king.
The King, one 'Ral Geshudidok', was crushed by a drawbridge in Smithsoldier. He came back as a secretive poltergeist in early spring 178, and was put to rest later that year, in late summer. Ast Bronzefought became King in 178, he too was crushed by a drawbridge in Smithsoldier (early summer, 178). Current King should be one Rith Rampartbalance, as of Summer 178, though there's no word on his whereabouts.
So, yeah, he's alive for now, but who's willing to bet we're going to crush him too?
- Papos Duneworshipped, As Roughvalleys, Snodub Frothdevils - Human master, Dwarf Agent, goblin agent respectively. As was 'threatened' into their service, Autumn 177; Snodub was too afraid not to comply when threatened in 179.
- Ragu Worthbeetles and Stozu Ticksteppe - Serpent man and Human. Stozu was flattered into joining the traitor's plan.
- Olngo Hatredslick, AKA 'Dostngosp Sinsoothed' and Dostngop Talondevil - Former spied on us under an alias; the latter was threatened into willingly joining their plans.
- Emeg Boundnature and Artha Windyriddle - latter was threatened and agreed willingly. Now an agent in Smithsoldier.
- Sestah Ecruduties and Kulet Veiledchannel - human and dwarf, former made a threat to the latter.
Tested with a backup save, accurate up to ~184.
Guessing they were behind all those artefact thefts. Perhaps they could be written into the story as being behind that military screwup that just occurred?
Bottom line: our Fortress' security currently has bigger holes in it than my socks, and considering I can fit the entirety of my heel through at least one of those holes, that is not good at at all. Looks like that jail may've just become a fair bit more important.
As for platinum weapons and armour, I'll go with putting up a new poll in the thread and seeing what the general consensus among players is.
EDIT: Actually, does anyone know how to remove a poll and set up a new one? All I've managed to do was re-word the questions and reset the vote count, without resetting the timer.
For archival purposes, the prior poll was on whether or not to post a secret about a certain spoilery metal, with 2 for and 2 maybes.
-
Re: overseer-ship.
I should be next in line, and I think it's best if I swap with DwarvenLord. I'll be out of town this week-end.
-
Re: overseer-ship.
I should be next in line, and I think it's best if I swap with DwarvenLord. I'll be out of town this week-end.
Got it. I'll swap your positions on the turn list, and PM DwarvenLord about the change.
-
We seem to be quite good at disposing of useless trash...sorry, nobility via drawbridge
and damn, villainy is something i don't seem to get much of in my forts. That looks entertaining!
-
I'll get started soon.
EDIT: Where's the save file?
-
I see. To be clear, the save I have is still perfectly workable, so here's something to tide you over until I've played through autumn.
---
Journal of Rîsen 'XMark' Swallowclasp, 9th(?) Sandstone 184
I asked Rimtar the date but, even as he claims, it was not the 8th of Sandstone yesterday. I would swear before Arm_Ok that it was the 16th.
After I finished writing up yesterday's reports, the world - for lack of a better term - disintegrated. It was dark, I could hear nothing, smell nothing, feel nothing. I followed the world into the void, and woke up today.
I remember nothing from that time which I spent in that nothingness, but somehow I can remember a new vision of Arm_Ok, which I cannot date at all. I can only conclude that He has given me new instructions. I believe that a review of DwarvenLord's living arrangements is necessary, which I intend to discuss with Rimtar.
At any rate, I think that I have some catching up to do.
This is certified to be the true account of
╔═════╗
║RÎSEN║
║MOZIB║
║DODÓK║
╚═════╝
184
---
Excerpt from Visions, by Rîsen Mozibdodók
Undated - after a 16th day of Sandstone
All dark, with only the voice of Arm_Ok Nabastâkud. He spoke: "Yᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴅᴏɴᴇ ᴡᴇʟʟ."
Out of grace, I reply "Thanks be to you, Sarŕm Nňm Nazush."
"As ɪs ᴊᴜsᴛ."
I was lost in the dark, and so I asked of him, "Ekurnňm, where am I?"
"Yᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ ɢʀᴀsᴘ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴏғ ᴛʜɪs sᴛᴀᴛᴇ, ʙᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴏᴜᴛsɪᴅᴇ ᴏғ ᴍʏ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛɪᴏɴ. Dᴏ ɴᴏᴛ ғᴇᴀʀ; ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ʀᴇsᴛᴏʀᴇᴅ, ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴘʀᴏᴘᴇʀ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ. Cᴏɴsɪᴅᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀᴇᴄᴇᴅɪɴɢ ᴅᴀʏs ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴏɴᴇ ᴘᴏssɪʙɪʟɪᴛʏ ᴀᴍᴏɴɢsᴛ ᴍᴀɴʏ, ᴀ ᴠɪsɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴀʏ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴘᴀss."
He then began, "Lɪsᴛᴇɴ ᴛᴏ ᴍʏ ᴡᴏʀᴅs, ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇᴍ." And so I remember these words.
"Tʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ᴛʀᴀɪᴛᴏʀs ɪɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴍɪᴅsᴛ, ᴛʜɪᴇᴠᴇs ᴏғ ʟɪᴠᴇs ᴀɴᴅ ᴄʀᴀғᴛ. Kɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ɴᴀᴍᴇs ᴀɴᴅ ʙʀɪɴɢ ᴜɴᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ᴍʏ ɪᴍᴍᴜᴛᴀʙʟᴇ ʟᴀᴡ." And so I knew their names.
"Tᴏ ʟᴇᴀᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴏʀᴛʀᴇss, DᴡᴀʀᴠᴇɴLᴏʀᴅ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴇʀᴇʙᴇᴀsᴛ, ᴡɪʟʟ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ." And so I knew my successor.
"Fɪɴɪsʜ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛᴇʀᴍ, ʀᴇʙᴜɪʟᴅ ᴛʜɪs ʟᴏsᴛ ᴡᴇᴇᴋ, ᴀɴᴅ ᴀᴛᴛᴇɴᴅ ᴛᴏ Mʏ ᴛᴇᴍᴘʟᴇ ᴏɴ Oʀᴀᴍ Aɴᴜʀ." And so I knew my duty.
I spoke. "I understand, Atalod. What of our king, who is lost in the wilds?"
"Mʏ ᴡɪʟʟ sʜᴀʟʟ ʙʀɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴋɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ Esʜᴛᴀ̂ɴᴇᴢᴀʀ, ɪɴ ᴛɪᴍᴇ. Yᴏᴜʀ ᴘɪᴄᴋᴀxᴇ sʜᴀʟʟ ɴᴏᴛ sᴛʀɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜɪs ᴠᴇɪɴ."
"I understand, Kironstâkud Ďlul."
"Rᴇᴛᴜʀɴ ɴᴏᴡ ᴛᴏ Oʀᴀᴍ Aɴᴜʀ, ᴀɴᴅ sᴇᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ Mʏ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴅᴏɴᴇ." And so it ends.
---
I'm not getting a definite answer regarding the King, so I will hold off on making any offerings to the dwarven caravan (which the wiki maintains to be one of the criteria) and get back to playing in short order.
-
Good to know the save is workable - didn't think it'd be damaged, but it's good to know. That journal entry was very well-written, I must admit; quite a good way of working thread knowledge into the game in a believable way.
Yep, 5000 Urists of offerings will be enough to call the guy over (I presume we've already hit Metropolis rank - or 'Wretched Hive of Scum and Villany' rank, with all the spies). Even if he does somehow show up... well, accidents happen, and it's hardly the Overseer's fault if he gets locked outside when Goblin Claus comes again :P
Take your time if you need/want to - I'm pretty sure the thread won't object.
Good luck dealing with all the spies/agents/scum and villainy!
EDIT: Threadmarks updated in the Table of Contents.
-
Very well written Project, liking what we have.
From what I have heard, villains are formed during world gen and also during fortress mode over time
I didn't realise we had multiple thefts though, thought it was just the one?
-
Very well written Project, liking what we have.
From what I have heard, villains are formed during world gen and also during fortress mode over time
I didn't realise we had multiple thefts though, thought it was just the one?
I'm pretty sure that we've had multiple thefts, though I can't remember if I saw them in Legends Viewer or the artefacts menu.
-
Had a look through the thread and legends: Itatmostod and Kastirdug are both gone for certain. The rest of them probably haven't been stolen yet, but an inventory check of the Temple of Jewels is probably in order.
EDIT: Also, something rather amusing: I forgot that caged beasts got let loose when you retire/unretire a fort, so when I unretired a copy of Smithsoldier, I promptly found that Ettin we caught running around in the housing area. Cue the Ettin getting beaten to death by ~30 civilian Dwarves.
EDIT2 (Unretired Ver):Wait what why is our Baron a Necromancer.
EDIT3 (Unretired Ver):Oh god he got to the corpse stockpile and just rezzed the fething Ettin.
-
Is it not possible to acquire back the artifacts via raids? and our baron aa necromancer? I knew our nobles weren't up to anything good! They never are!
Hang on...i thought the nobility were expelled/executed in a previus reign
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Is it not possible to acquire back the artifacts via raids? and our baron aa necromancer? I knew our nobles weren't up to anything good! They never are!
Hang on...i thought the nobility were expelled/executed in a previus reign
Yeah, they were expelled. Seems the King, Baron, and the other Mooks showed up in my save after the fort was retired, then unretired - they should still be gone in the main timeline. Legends says he began going necro in 56, learned the secrets from a slab named Supperdates in 59.
As for Artefacts, I think we have to find out where they've gone first. I tried sending out a few retrieve missions to Pits without any info on where the Artefacts may be, and they came back empty. No text, no reports of clashes, nothing.
-
Sorry, haven't really been following along- did someone retire and unretire the main save?
EDIT: Nevermind, should of just read.
-
Sorry, haven't really been following along- did someone retire and unretire the main save?
EDIT: Nevermind, should of just read.
No problem. In hindsight, derailing the thread with the whole 'unretired copy' thing may have been a poor idea.
-
Yeah, DwarvenLord, I have the main save and not QD, but I do have a copy (still retired) that I used to get the XML dumps for Legends Viewer.
Ok, here's the rest of autumn.
---
Journal of Rîsen 'XMark' Swallowclasp, 6th Sandstone 184
Events are already unfolding differently from my previous experience: nine new faces arrived today.
I have brought forward many of the plans that I made during the "missing week", namely the justice system and flooring the gatehouse.
(https://i.imgur.com/fxtcey0.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/47cOXwg.png)
I also designated a path to be smoothed between the gate and the main stairway.
I also noticed another hole in our fortress' security; a wall was missing in the dumping shaft, leaving our fortress open to the caverns. This has been rectified. Any flying or climbing creature could have got in and wreaked who-knows-what havoc.
(https://i.imgur.com/uEGaPS1.png)
10th Sandstone 184
Got on with trading with the dwarven caravan today (as Arm_Ok wills, I shall not make offerings to his majesty to bring him here). Traded many foreign pikes for waterskins, and then a few fine weapons, and some steel boots and iron gauntlets, for plenty of instruments for the temples (as before). A steel hammer and another pair of gauntlets gained the fortress plenty of bags and clothing.
15th Sandstone 184
This transpired yesterday.
(https://i.imgur.com/XgafftO.png)
Logem Likotcucuggán, Dwarven Child withdraws from society...
And today,
(https://i.imgur.com/ultFBJ3.png)
Logem Likotcuggán has claimed a Craftsdwarf's Workshop.
I'm looking forward to whatever it is they end up making.
The papermaker, as I foresaw, threw a tantrum today. Thankfully, nothing seemed to come of it.
(https://i.imgur.com/Vxj89Im.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/M5GIHTp.png)
In other news, progress on the Temple has caught up with its previous. I have also laid plans for a vault to house our artifacts. The corridor leading it it is longer than necessary, but any way of delaying an escaping thief is welcome. Orders also went out to begin excavating the ancillary halls of the Temple (again); the prisoner storage, pitting room, et cetera.
(https://i.imgur.com/fS1cxMa.png)
17th Sandstone 184
The new prison is in a suitable state to start accepting criminals. I have appointed our first (and, at present, only) law enforcement officer, as captain of the Smithsguard: Sazir Gébarsĺkzul.
(https://i.imgur.com/32Dmfrq.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/J7yaSrb.png)
He has a list of offenders, and is already preparing to make arrests.
(https://i.imgur.com/k0fcy7J.png)
The work on the upper levels is largely complete. Several old staircases have been rationalised, and the main staircase has been extended upwards as a new access route for the inner farms. The only thing impeding the work is the persistent backlog of siege detritus.
(https://i.imgur.com/pYFFmU1.png)
1st Timber 184
Sandstone, in spite of half of the month happening twice, has been a productive time for Smithsoldier.
The hospital has been given a few tables, in case the medical staff need to operate on patients.
(https://i.imgur.com/8E08BhM.png)
A woodworker's guild formed last month, and they recently put in a request for a guildhall. I opted to make use of some more empty space on the workshop level, and then took the time to re-organise the paths through the south-east of the workshop level.
(https://i.imgur.com/r7dM3Vu.png)
The Temple to Arm_Ok's ancillary halls are being excavated even as I write. The vault chambers are also in the process of being constructed.
6th Timber 184
(https://i.imgur.com/IIhWZZ6.png)
Logen Likotcuggán has begun a mysterious construction!
About time! Maybe they were having trouble with the hauling...
Also, orders went out recently to begin producing display cases for the vault.
7th Timber 184
(https://i.imgur.com/QnNOVpe.png)
More roars and noises from the caverns today. Whatever it is, we're not going to be able to finish the Temple while it's still prowling the caverns. The military sure as anything isn't in good enough fighting shape to take it on. Well, maybe Esme could, but I'm not risking our best soldier on this beast. That, and I've not looked over the documents regarding cavern access yet.
(https://i.imgur.com/K8zauGF.png)
10th Timber 184
(https://i.imgur.com/bk9VKPB.png)
Nice work! He'll make a fine stonecrafter.
(https://i.imgur.com/FGaZ6V4.png)
17th Timber 184
(https://i.imgur.com/W4zNQR6.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Ok1ZnUV.png)
We seem to be experiencing a bout of poor morale. Given that everyone's been seeing way too many corpses decomposing outside the gates, I think the goblin corpse situation needs to be resolved. Immediately. Every single dead goblin and troll that I can find is going to the atom smasher. If we can clean up the nearly literal mountain of corpses, I think we'll all be in better spirits.
20th Timber 184
Our senior miners reported that they hadn't heard from one of their crew - Tholtig - in several days, and found him stuck in the Temple's magma feeding channel. I gave them permission to dig some stairs to recover him.
(https://i.imgur.com/o7Sj9Sq.png)
Also, Kol, the papermaker, lost it again. If he makes trouble he's going to be calming down chained up in a cell.
(https://i.imgur.com/ILRJO28.png)
22nd Timber 184
We've made progress on investigating the thefts. A dwarf by the name of Kulet, a traitor named by Arm_Ok, already in prison for violating a production order, confessed to his role in the theft of The Image of Insights. He made mention of accomplices, and I have given Sazir orders to interview him in connection with the other thefts in the fortress.
(https://i.imgur.com/8vfNNy2.png)
I, myself, having reported the theft of Quietbrutal, have offered to give him any information that I possess.
1st Moonstone 184
The latter part of autumn has been quiet, and I've been occupied with quiet tasks. I finished assigning areas for all of the temples today, for one.
The adamantine survey has been left for now. It's too much of a pain to babysit, and I have other matters to attend to in the fortress. I did contemplate setting up some small living arrangements in the works to keep mitigate this, but I don't think any of us could keep away from good food at this point.
The vault has had some display cases installed and some ropes for guard animals have been placed in the antechamber. Many of the fortress' most valuable treasures have already found their places in the vault, and hopefully many more will be kept there, safe and sound. I will make a note to find a place to set up some kennels...
(https://i.imgur.com/eLilWnS.png)
Now that all other major construction projects have been completed, I sent out orders for the Temple arena to be dug down another z-level. With any luck, we can get the arena down to the caverns before the year is done.
(https://i.imgur.com/vXzC3eK.png)
Here's to a quiet and productive winter!
This is certified to be the true account of
╔═════╗
║RÎSEN║
║MOZIB║
║DODÓK║
╚═════╝
184
---
Barring any large unforeseen events (like another siege, or a megabeast or similar attacking), the next post I make will be the last, and take us all the way to the start of 185. I've dwarfed Recon and redwarfed QD (as a novice speardwarf, but it was that or nothing). DwarvenLord, is there anything in particular that I should do with your IG dwarf now that your turn is coming up?
Might I make a suggestion, Quantum? Links to the our reports in the OP might make a recap a little more accessible.
-
Excellent work. Smashing the Gobbo corpses should definitely help with morale. Just make sure to strip as many as you can, first, for the sake of the Goblinite we can get. Also, is anyone showing the 'getting used to tragedy' thing or similar?
Speaking of Gobbos, how're the traps outside the main entrance doing? Expanding them may help, considering the weakened state of the military and the size of the sieges. Additionally, perhaps either you or DL could experiment with live training on the Gobbos until the military rebuilds?
Could just be me being sleepy and not fully getting it, but I must ask you to elaborate on/clarify your suggestion about linking reports.
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Excellent work. Smashing the Gobbo corpses should definitely help with morale. Just make sure to strip as many as you can, first, for the sake of the Goblinite we can get. Also, is anyone showing the 'getting used to tragedy' thing or similar?
Speaking of Gobbos, how're the traps outside the main entrance doing? Expanding them may help, considering the weakened state of the military and the size of the sieges. Additionally, perhaps either you or DL could experiment with live training on the Gobbos until the military rebuilds?
Could just be me being sleepy and not fully getting it, but I must ask you to elaborate on/clarify your suggestion about linking reports.
I mean something like what The Museum does for its turnlist. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175875.0)
We're also drowning in goblinite already, and how exactly do you strip a corpse? The traps have been holding up fairly well. I am tempted to build a few more cage traps, now that you suggest it.
We don't really have anywhere that's safe for live training, but the military we do have should become a hard core in no time now that I've got all the squads active (rather than just sitting around like they were for most the the year).
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Excellent work. Smashing the Gobbo corpses should definitely help with morale. Just make sure to strip as many as you can, first, for the sake of the Goblinite we can get. Also, is anyone showing the 'getting used to tragedy' thing or similar?
Speaking of Gobbos, how're the traps outside the main entrance doing? Expanding them may help, considering the weakened state of the military and the size of the sieges. Additionally, perhaps either you or DL could experiment with live training on the Gobbos until the military rebuilds?
Could just be me being sleepy and not fully getting it, but I must ask you to elaborate on/clarify your suggestion about linking reports.
I mean something like what The Museum does for its turnlist. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175875.0)
We're also drowning in goblinite already, and how exactly do you strip a corpse? The traps have been holding up fairly well. I am tempted to build a few more cage traps, now that you suggest it.
We don't really have anywhere that's safe for live training, but the military we do have should become a hard core in no time now that I've got all the squads active (rather than just sitting around like they were for most the the year).
I'll see what I can do with the turnlist and attached summaries. As for stripping a corpse, IIRC you do it like this:
- Designate a garbage dump (maybe near the corpses, maybe elsewhere)
- Use d-b-f then d-b-d to forbid everything they're carrying and set them for mass dumping. If necessary, un-designate the corpse's dump order.
- The items should end up in the garbage dump. Once done, press d-b-c to claim all the clothing, armour, etc. now in the dump.
I think that's how you do it, anyway. Was thinking it could give us some clothing for the Dwarves, or extra trade goods if we need them at any point.
Good to hear that the squads will be training again.
-
On the Overseer's office table is a *goblin leather parchment sheet* All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It menaces with spikes of ink.
On the sheet is an image of goblins. The Goblins are screaming. The goblins are dying.
On the sheet is an image of 2 trapdoors. The second trap door is falling.
On the sheet is an image of goblinite coins. The goblinite is standing on the Trap door. The goblinite is falling. The goblinite is striking down the goblins
IE
what about using smelting the goblinite as projectile coins? We could extend the entrance a bit and pop a garbage disposal at the top of a tower set to coins only, at the bottom of the tower is the trap door, the trap door can then be opened and we drop the items onto the goblins
coins are deadly projectiles
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I mean, couldn't we just make like spikes and stuff? Seems like a waste of good goblinite to me.
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Actually yes, something I was thinking of doing in my term if it comes around- make a long winding entrance tunnel for the gobbos to enter if they want in that's 1 tile wide and snaking across a 4 Z level pit.
At the end of the tunnel are 3 ballistas. The path has weapon traps, the pit below, spike traps.
It will use up a load of that mountain of stone we have
We can use a side entrance in order to strip the corpses for more goblinite
Also do we have a statue garden?
If not we could repurpose the goblinite into metal furniture to admire. Commemorate our brave fighters in iron perhaps. Goblinite sometimes has gold and silver with it
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I'll see what I can do with the turnlist and attached summaries. As for stripping a corpse, IIRC you do it like this:
- Designate a garbage dump (maybe near the corpses, maybe elsewhere)
- Use d-b-f then d-b-d to forbid everything they're carrying and set them for mass dumping. If necessary, un-designate the corpse's dump order.
- The items should end up in the garbage dump. Once done, press d-b-c to claim all the clothing, armour, etc. now in the dump.
I think that's how you do it, anyway. Was thinking it could give us some clothing for the Dwarves, or extra trade goods if we need them at any point.
Good to hear that the squads will be training again.
Um, akhsuallyy....
The list above is for the steps to be taken for stripping caged *living* prisoners; or cage contents in general. Between steps 2 and 3, you'd also need to un-dump the cages (I prefer using the {z} menu), otherwise dwarves will happily haul the entire cage to the dump area, without touching anything inside.
Corpses automatically drop all inventory at death - including things like arrows & weapons stuck in the corpse. So for the pile of dead goblins, no more extra steps are needed. All their gear should remain where it is, except for pieces dwarves will choose for themselves.
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Oh. Well, I stand corrected. Thanks for pointing that out.
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DwarvenLord, is there anything in particular that I should do with your IG dwarf now that your turn is coming up?
No, not really. I'll deal with it.
-
Just finished the year tonight. You can expect a write-up of the final few months in ~2 days, as I'm going to be busy tomorrow.
Edit: I ended up making a few preparations anyway, DL, as I hadn't heard anything different. On another note, here's something that I made for the post that you guys might find funny:
(https://i.imgur.com/JowAdH3.png)
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Ok, here's my final post, the entirety of winter!
---
Journal of Rîsen 'XMark' Swallowclasp, 5th Moonstone 184
(https://i.imgur.com/QYKqE5a.png)
Morale continues to be low in the fortress, at least one dwarf seems to have a depressive episode every few days. There isn't much that I can do other than wait for the corpses to be cleared up.
(https://i.imgur.com/T8JZUPF.png)
Excavations of the next level of the arena have also begun in earnest, and I have had some kennels set up for us to train guard animals for the vault.
(https://i.imgur.com/f4Wrdst.png)
12th Moonstone 184
I have made an odd discovery. Some of the body parts that have ended up in the fortress halls (I presume them to be dropped by depressed dwarves) are forbidden. I am correcting this now, they need to be dumped!
(https://i.imgur.com/9jInPWd.png)
I have assigned two trainers to a couple of puppies, and when they are grown I expect that my successor will have them trained as war dogs for the vault.
(https://i.imgur.com/wKRENXQ.png)
21st Moonstone 184
(https://i.imgur.com/N6cTmq0.png)
Sazir Gebarsĺkzul, captain of the guard is throwing a tantrum!
Sazir, the Smithsguard captain, is currently putting his rage before the law, and is beating one of our bone doctors to a pulp.
(https://i.imgur.com/VeJiztP.png)
He will not be allowed to continue as our fortress' law enforcement, and his replacement's first task will be the arrest of his predecessor.
(https://i.imgur.com/z3WWYJe.png)
Sazir's conviction is imminent.
In an attempt at salvaging the morale of the more fragile dwarves of our fortress, I have opted to get the waterfall working again. After pulling the lever only served to turn the waterfall's pumps off, I found that the lower cistern was empty. I have expanded the pump operation crew so that we can fill it up.
(https://i.imgur.com/8Skizrq.png)
22nd Moonstone 184
I have discovered why the corpses and body parts of the siege were all ending up in precisely the same spot.
(https://i.imgur.com/6dS6CE1.png)
A garbage dump has been found, designated in the middle of the hall.
This will not do. The dump has been undesignated, and the corpse pile has been designated for dumping.
(https://i.imgur.com/b2SunPQ.png)
27th Moonstone 184
The corpse pile in the hall isn't being cleared at all. A workaround is needed, or we're all going to be horrified every time we need to go to the workshops. Time to plan out a new corridor, I think.
(https://i.imgur.com/nClYxFU.png)
Restricting the main corridor and planning out a northern bypass.
1st Opal 184
(https://i.imgur.com/dKzh5tK.png)
The bypass is open for traffic, and it's already seeing use. Thank Arm_Ok for traffic designations!
5th Opal 184
Our fortress has a lucky escape today.
(https://i.imgur.com/NT5TqkX.png)
Another werechameleon was discovered, on the front bridge no less.
(https://i.imgur.com/MyEYyhN.png)
Thankfully, two Ochre Bolts were returning to training and loosed their crossbows on the thing.
(https://i.imgur.com/64NSYIn.png)
They missed, but had the initiative to call up the barracks for support, and engaged the beast.
(https://i.imgur.com/psq0M74.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Ijjrvr1.png)
One cook, Asmel Matultulon, did not run from the beast, and began attacking it. Strikes me as something she'd do.
(https://i.imgur.com/hHQj0Jw.png)
The next two bolts from the two marksdwarves flew much closer to the mark; one through the leg, and another through the head that killed it.
(https://i.imgur.com/wNPYLn2.png)
By the time the incident reached my desk, the threat was over, but Asmel has been injured - bitten - multiple times by the foul chameleon. I believe that she will go the same way as DwarvenLord. I need to confine her in short order or we will face that threat anew.
6th Opal 184
The question of handling our on-and-off chameleon brethren has brought my successor, DwarvenLord, to the front of my mind. I believe that a new, safer, access port can be dug from above, behind the gate.
(https://i.imgur.com/qlPiRSL.png)
While Asmel recovers in hospital, I planned her new quarters. Spartan, like DwarvenLord's.
(https://i.imgur.com/phiJAR3.png)
Asmel recovers in the top-left of this sketch.
10th Opal 184
The access room to DwarvenLord has been built, a few mechanical devices have been planned to isolate the chamber again if circumstances require it.
(https://i.imgur.com/juOjEIf.png)
While I am aware that this is against dwarven tradition, I know who must follow me. I also believe it necessary to take steps to ensure her ability to run the fortress.
14th Opal 184
Amid all of the excitement, I have had little time to check on the temple's arena. The next level has been fully excavated!
(https://i.imgur.com/rfD0qdf.png)
It will look more impressive once everything has been excavated and smoothed.
Preparations for my succession are continuing; the bridge and the lever are in place. I also discovered, today, that the miners won't channel under a bridge's footprint, even when it is raised. Amara tells me it's a long-standing tradition relating to the ancient practice of "health and safety". It seems that throwing off one tradition piles on another. I ordered the bridge to be dismantled.
Furthermore, Asmel's cell is ready for furnishing.
(https://i.imgur.com/X1bGDhL.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/D0qksdk.png)
The farmer's guild put forward a petition for a guildhall today as well, and while going over their documents I discovered that The Company of Dawning already has two meeting sites. The smaller (and physically non-existent) of the two has been retired. I gave the guild a few statues for their fancier hall, and that seemed to satisfy them.
A zone for animal training has been established in anticipation of some war dogs.
(https://i.imgur.com/p2NgoXE.png)
The pump crew has, finally, managed to fill the lower cistern. They were struggling to get enough dwarves to the pumps at once, as they need to eat and sleep. Time to get the waterfall going, I think!
(https://i.imgur.com/7ADMEsW.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/M2HFr9G.png)
16th Opal 184
Asmel's confinement cell is ready, and she has been briefed of the situation. She is to be the captain and sole member of The Damned, and isolate herself here until a more permanent solution to the werebeast problem is found.
(https://i.imgur.com/LCEDAgs.png)
The second phase of furnishing the dining room has begun today, now that we have a sufficient stockpile of gold for the tables.
(https://i.imgur.com/8BVyn3k.png)
22nd Opal 184
Asmel is now confined to her cell. Time will tell if she succumbs to the werechameleon curse.
(https://i.imgur.com/zB8wV2L.png)
Sketched during construction of a wall across the door, which is now locked.
I have also decided to commission some statues from our finest masons, relating to the life and achievements of Zon Ironmarks, the Stern Dream of Gold, who died in the last siege.
Morale still isn't improving, but at least it seems to be familiar names that Rimtar is telling me about.
(https://i.imgur.com/yGuIQfp.png)
25th Opal 184
Found that I made a mistake when designating the wood stockpile: the QSP itself had (somehow) been undesignated. I know not if this is a sign from Arm_Ok, or another administrative error, but there has been a persistent swarm of dwarves around the stockpile, almost perpetually moving wood to and from the QSP. The stockpile has been redesignated and the feeder stockpile is clearing up.
(https://i.imgur.com/H0mZOaf.png)
2nd Obsidian 184
My concerns were justified: Asmel transformed into another beast today. That wall is not coming down under my leadership.
(https://i.imgur.com/AaIWOPv.png)
I have decided to add a few side chambers to the Temple, one to house levers and the other as extra storage space for prisoners. As the miners/masons don't have much to do at the moment, I have them smoothing the first level of the Temple's arena.
(https://i.imgur.com/9cKuBGb.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/1adgXfW.png)
All of our artifacts are now safe and sound in the vault, with room to spare. I don't expect that we'll need to find a new home for them.
(https://i.imgur.com/BS7qrjU.png)
6th Obsidian 184
I've been at work on the magma handling systems for the Temple for the past few days, and figuring out the best way to dig out the sump. I have some steel grates on order, and the magma moat valve has been planned too.
(https://i.imgur.com/gcQ8MVM.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/CF3XfKt.png)
A staircase down into the magma sump has been designated to ease construction.
9th Obsidian 184
Without much to do, I have decided to return to reorganising the workshop level. All of the single-ore stockpiles in the smelting area have been consolidated into a new QSP for all ores, and new storerooms have been planned out to house our coke and metal bars. The bone QSP feeder has been scaled back and the space has been given over to a larger stone block stockpile, and a new QSP has been set up at the western end for metal furniture.
(https://i.imgur.com/OY3SzK0.png)
Also pictured: smoothing designations for the less-than-temporary northern bypass and bone storeroom.
While I have shown restraint with Arm_Ok's gift in the past, I feel that the workshop level - and the fortress as a whole - will benefit from the shortened hauling times and better organisation.
19th Obsidian 184
(https://i.imgur.com/ApI8J2Z.png)
Id Stakudmishos, Glassmaker has been possessed!
Id is the latest dwarf to be struck with inspiration from... somewhere. I don't actually know who, or what, keeps possessing our dwarves. If it be Arm_Ok, then He has remained silent on the matter.
The new rooms have been dug out, and the northern bypass smoothed. The new stockpiles for those storerooms are now in place. They are gradually being filled up from the old stockpiles. Someone else started throwing a tantrum today too. I'm getting a little tired of all the cranky dwarves in our fortress, and the never-decreasing corpse problem.
20th Obsidian 184
That ticked-off dwarf, a blacksmith, has taken it out on one of our medical staff. Hopefully they'll recover.
(https://i.imgur.com/Twm9R4B.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Cm9r2A7.png)
Id has also claimed a glass furnace. I'm not sure if we have any glass in the fortress, a lot of it went into display cases for the vault...
23rd Obsidian 184
While reviewing the actual digging designations for the Temple today, I couldn't help but notice a few discrepancies.
(https://i.imgur.com/Kcqtsi7.png?1)
I spent the rest of the day redrafting the designations, and planning some modifications to the holding chamber. While a pain to redesign, it would have been a far greater pain to fix later.
(https://i.imgur.com/jUe3IRE.png)
The re-planning shifted the lower levels to the south.
27th Obsidian 184
(https://i.imgur.com/EHnVTKv.png)
The Scholar Logem Savotsĺkzul has discovered the use of models and templates in engineering.
Good for him, I suppose. I always prayed to The Machine God whenever I had trouble visualising something. Anyway, I've had it with these monkey-fighting corpses in this Monday-to-Friday fortress.
(https://i.imgur.com/Itdvpeo.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/wf6cQsW.png)
Everyone is on corpse duty!
(https://i.imgur.com/wCz7AgJ.png)
Turns out, the atom smasher was never made into a dump for garbage. I have made it damn clear to everyone: Corpses. To Arm_Ok's fist. Now.
(https://i.imgur.com/R5pD6vg.png)
I'm heading up to the gate like the rest of us. We're clearing those corpses!
(https://i.imgur.com/Avtn6Wg.png)
1st Granite 184
My time is up as overseer, and I am proud of my work. At the start of the year, the new traffic designations and quantum stockpiles may have saved the fortress from an "FPS death" as Arm_Ok says, or at least staved it off. The new temple, vault, and dining room will serve the fortress well for years to come, and the adamantine is ready and waiting for my successors (may Arm_Ok guide them). The only mark against me is, as far as I know, is the handling of the enemy dead after this year's sieges, and that is already being resolved decisively.
(https://i.imgur.com/CdFrf0n.png)
The overseer nominations were a close contest between Amara and DwarvenLord, but DwarvenLord won out (in absentia) as most of the fortress (including Amara) was busy hauling dead goblins or sleeping. Arm_Ok works in mysterious ways, indeed.
As for myself, I will have a temple to run, with any luck, by this time next year. For now, I think I need a long rest, and some quiet time with Rimtar and Fath.
(https://i.imgur.com/dpzOjlf.png)
This is certified to be the true account of
╔═════╗
║RÎSEN║
║MOZIB║
║DODÓK║
╚═════╝
185
---
Yeah, I failed a few spot checks with where dump sites actually were, and whether dwarves were actually dumping anything. Hopefully putting the whole fortress on clean-up duty will get the corpse situation out of the way so DwarvenLord can get on with other projects.
I have some words for DwarvenLord: - Check the notes around the new temple, and the main corridor/northern bypass on the workshop level. There's some specifics about the temple's design written there, and some reminders about traffic designations.
- I didn't update the burrows for the expanded and re-planned temple, so you should do that so no mishaps occur during the first service. The northern pit in the pitting room also has walls too close to it that need removing to prevent things from climbing out.
- I did update the hotkeys as I played, though, so be sure to have another look at those.
- The access channel to your dwarf hasn't been made yet, either, and you'll need to either extend the corpse duty burrow or turn off the alert if you want that done.
- Don't forget about the possessed dwarf. I didn't get an opportunity to check up on him once he claimed his furnace.
And now, here's the save! (https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15112)
Given that I took so long in getting this done (and by rights should have been skipped as it's taken way longer than two weeks), I probably won't take another turn any time soon. Regardless, XMark has probably had enough of fortress management. Thanks to all of you, for your patience.
-
Oh boy, I can't wait to completely mess everything up again. I'll start tommorow.
Ok, to be perfectly honest I haven't really been keeping up with the fortress at all, and I don't have the sheer willpower to read the wall of text I haven't read, and even if I did I would probably forget most of it. Makes sense in-game, at least. My dorf has been locked up this whole time. This is going to be a mess, especially with my complete inability to do anything other than basic upkeep and the smallest of projects.
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Did you make sure to enable hauling/corpse disposal on all the Dwarves? I think they won't dump the corpses if it's not active.
Also, I got a literal screenload or two of 'cannot reach stockpile/chest/whatever: drop-off inaccessible' errors in the announcement log when I opened up the save. Anyone know what the hell that's about?
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1st of Granite, 185
As the rocks fall away from the sealed-off office, all that is heard in the hallway is laughter. A horrible laughter, the laughter of one who has been abandoned for far too long.
"Hehehehe... so you finally came back for me, eh? Hehe."
She stands back from the entrance, covering her eyes. After all, it's been 5 years since she's seen any light.
"It seems like it's my turn again to run this wretched place you call a fortress. How long has it been? Hehehe... five years is a long time, especially for an overseer fortress. I wonder what's happened... hehe..."
Stacks of documents of the past five years come forward. She maniacally giggles as she goes through them, speaking only twice.
"Hehe, that bastard Ryukan is dead. Hehehe..."
It's a couple more minutes before her second remark comes through.
"Oh, got cocky, I see... hehehe... Now the military is a shadow of it's former self...The Slammerdwarves are gone, and Even Zon is dead... hehe... Karma, some may say..."
Once she finishes flipping through she just smiles with a strange look in her eyes...
-
(Either I'm stupid, going insane, or the forum is breaking. I've posted updates for the first two months and they both aren't here. Probably didn't press send or something.)
Journal for Granite, Slate and Felsite
This is the second time this has happened! How incompetent are the scholars around here?!?
In granite, a siege came as normal, killing some sleeping dwarves outside, and but most everyone was safe.
In slate, I learned some things about pitting- like how lazy dwarves are about cages- and decided to do it myself. Spikes simply will not do- I'm going to rely on good-ol' gravity to kill those goblins... hehehe...
In felsite, I began the pitting project- a 3x3 16 z-level deep hole, from the hill to the caverns. Only one death so far in the channeling, so that's good. Some other people died for unknown reasons, we have plenty of food and drink, but oh well. There's always more.
-
Sorry for delay, I didn't have access to my computer for a couple days. An update should be out tomorrow.
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Journal for Hematite
Continuing the work from the previous months, the channeling continues with no more accidents so far.
In addition, the siege finally left- and a caravan arrived. I don't really think we need anything from it, though.
Lastly, the metalsmiths asked for a guildhall, and I gave them one. They truly deserve it, for all the hard work they do for this fort.
[I'm sorry for these short, undetailed updates. Not much is happening, and that's probably my fault. I'm not skilled enough to do ambitious projects without it being ugly, ineffective, deadly, or all at once. But who knows...?]
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Journal for Malachite
The pit is almost finished- can't wait to start throwing some trolls and goblins down there...
As well as that, I have some sad news to share- an old friend of mine, Rimtar Tim-something, was crushed by an atom smasher when I was getting rid of some things. No one is responsible, the person pulling the lever didn't know, and while Rimtar was being stupid, he didn't know either. As his body was completely gone, I will order a slab to be created soon.
-
Tis interesting to see a genuine unfortunate accident from time to time
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Journal for Galena
This month was far more interesting, for a number of reasons.
A roc visited us- by the time I had gotten most everyone inside and the bridge up, the dumb thing landed right into a cage trap. What are we going to do with this roc? No idea. It's probably just going to sit there.
In addition, I had never turned off the burrow after the siege, so nothing was happening outside. Now, a lot of corpses and and ghosts can be put to rest.
As well as that, some people have gone completely insane. Someone went berserk and got completely curbstomped. And I think someone started babbling? Who knows.
Finally, and most excitingly, the pit is finally dug out, and the hatches are in place. I tested it, and there were no accidents. The goblin we threw down died, and there was no risk of escape. The next couple months ought to be fun, once we finish the walls around the open pit parts.
Hehehe...
-
Journal for Limestone
The pit is running mostly smoothly.
Yeah, today I learned that corners don't work well, and quite a few goblins escaped and at least one dwarf died. Oh, and some of the goblins don't die when dropped down, but it doesn't really matter- at least it frees up cages.
Oh, and someone made a artifact leather sandal. Really don't care.
It's extremely tedious to memorize a goblin's name, look through hundreds of similar goblin names, then select it and repeat to dump them one by one.
You know what we need? Lava. We need lava to get rid of the living goblins at the bottom of the pit, we need lava to finally kill all of the monsters in cages in the water room in the caverns, and possibly defense.
Unfortunately, I would almost certainly mess the entire thing up. Probably a job for the next overseer...
-
Journal for Sandstone
I was going to skip this month, but apparently it's required.
Nothing much at all happened this month- Some migrants arrive and I set some more goblins to go down the pit.
That's it.
(I just feel bad because my turn is so... boring. Sorry. If anyone has any ideas, tell me, since I certainly don't have any...)
-
surprised dwarven lord isn't getting themselves a tomb or a bigger place to live
-
A megaproject may cause some Fun, especially if it involves magma or something like that. Then again, building an overly-elaborate tomb seems very much like a time-honoured tradition among Overseers in DF...
-
Exactly
actually have I been dorfed in game yet?
-
Journal for Sandstone
I was going to skip this month, but apparently it's required.
Nothing much at all happened this month- Some migrants arrive and I set some more goblins to go down the pit.
That's it.
(I just feel bad because my turn is so... boring. Sorry. If anyone has any ideas, tell me, since I certainly don't have any...)
No, thank you for updating! However, it seems like interest has dwindled - is anyone signed up for the next slot? If not, I think writing some kind of prologue for the fortress is apt.
When you post the final save and I'll upload to DFMA as well!
-
IIRC, StrikaAmaru, LeftHandOfGod, and recon1o6 all signed up for turns after DL. No idea if they're still interested, though.
-
I'm still interested, might want to pm the others though
-
Good ideas, though will my dorf even need a tomb? Do werebeasts die of old age?
Any megaproject I would start would probably be left unfinished. The tomb just doesn't seem in character, really. I'll think about what I can do, however.
My next post will probably be the last four months combined into one.
-
I think they're immortal age-wise. As for mega-projects, leaving them half-finished is all part of the Fun a succession fortress can offer, though I support you doing whatever you can think of.
-
IIRC, StrikaAmaru, LeftHandOfGod, and recon1o6 all signed up for turns after DL. No idea if they're still interested, though.
I'm interested too; and next on the list, so I'm watching the thread.
-
I'm interested too; and next on the list, so I'm watching the thread.
Sweet, that gives me time to get my exam out the way
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Journal for Timber, Moonstone, Opal and Obsidian
I thought I would combine the last four months into one entry.
These last couple months, I wanted to do something extra- so far, all I've really done is make a hole, and thrown some goblins down it.
What I wanted to at first wasn't exactly a megaproject- Just a steel monolith, meant to show our strength and power. Then I saw the sheer amount of gold we had.
I checked the ledgers, and saw that we had over three hundred bars of gold, just sitting there! (just to note, we have over 2,000 bars of iron, but it's just not the same.) So I scrapped the monolith and dedicated the rest of the year to covering the inside of the fortress with pure gold.
Is it flashy? Yes.
Is it opulent? Absolutely.
Do I care? No.
I started by ordering gold blocks to be made- after all, they are more efficient and cleaner than the bars themselves. I started with the walls of the room after the drawbridge, mining them out and replacing them with gold. The gold just never seemed to end- It just kept coming. I made a gold bar stockpile to make the process easier, and I assumed the year would end without any sort of bang.
Then a were chameleon came at the beginning of opal and... It was really quite lucky. It completely focused on a single human weaver, tearing the poor soul apart, practically letting a recruit I sent as a time-saver hack away at it. Even better, they weren't even bitten- only punched, and the only bite it got in before getting it's head chopped off was completely deflected by his armor. After that, all that really happened was the mayor withdrawing from from society and making some hatch cover.
Anyway, it's the end of the year again.
There is a little shakiness to her handwriting now, she was obviously writing this frantically.
Time to be closed in... I won't let it happen, not like last time... I promise... I won't let it get me, I swear... I swear to Stisträs I won't fall again... no... no, no...
If you go back and look for records of the reinclosement of DwarvenLord, you will find nothing. Nothing at all...
SAVE: https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15155
NOTES:
Please continue en-goldening the inside of the fort.
Dump some more gobbos if you need to.
There's a happiness issue, a lot of people have been murdered by tantrums, I didn't include it since I didn't really know these people were dying from that reason until it was too late, really.
Find something to do with the over 2,000 bars of iron, probably.
Have !!FUN!!
Can you put me behind any new members, so it only is my turn when there's no one else claimed?
-
Grabbed the save. Now to set d_init back to standard values, 'cause I was playing SmallHands previously.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, this raises a good question: what are the official pop-caps for SmithSoldier? The default ones? It belatedly (WAY belatedly) occurs to me that I played my whole previous turn on my own values (140 pop, 60 invaders).
-
Grabbed the save. Now to set d_init back to standard values, 'cause I was playing SmallHands previously.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, this raises a good question: what are the official pop-caps for SmithSoldier? The default ones? It belatedly (WAY belatedly) occurs to me that I played my whole previous turn on my own values (140 pop, 60 invaders).
Huh, I don't think anyone ever really thought about that. I'd go with default, if only because I'm kinda inexperienced with altering the settings.
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The default ones are... kinda high. Which is why I reduced them in the first place, I suppose:
[POPULATION_CAP:200]
[STRICT_POPULATION_CAP:220]
[BABY_CHILD_CAP:100:1000]
[VISITOR_CAP:100]
[INVASION_SOLDIER_CAP:120]
[INVASION_MONSTER_CAP:40]
Even with 140-ish people in the fort, I'm getting around 35 FPS; not counting that invader pathing is a bit broken / resource intensive. If we'd go all the way up, there's a chance the fort ends up unplayable on PCs less new than mine.
(And I'm already cheating a bit by playing DF on my work computer; I was not supposed to do that).
-
The default ones are... kinda high. Which is why I reduced them in the first place, I suppose:
[POPULATION_CAP:200]
[STRICT_POPULATION_CAP:220]
[BABY_CHILD_CAP:100:1000]
[VISITOR_CAP:100]
[INVASION_SOLDIER_CAP:120]
[INVASION_MONSTER_CAP:40]
Even with 140-ish people in the fort, I'm getting around 35 FPS; not counting that invader pathing is a bit broken / resource intensive. If we'd go all the way up, there's a chance the fort ends up unplayable on PCs less new than mine.
(And I'm already cheating a bit by playing DF on my work computer; I was not supposed to do that).
Oof. Yeah, I'm gonna say that we change the caps a bit, then: perhaps 90 pop, 60 invaders?
-
Ok, so… I did write a bit of ‘prologue plus early Granite’ after opening the fort yesterday, and I think I need to throw it all away, calm down, and start over. ‘Cause if I had to summarize all of SmithSoldier right now, I’d go with “What the hell?!?” There are so many things in both architecture and stockpiles that make no sense whatsoever. I’m genuinely curious to know what their respective architects were thinking, because I have no idea.
And on another track, I need to re-evaluate my goals and priorities; I have no intention to spend my turn reorganizing stockpiles. That would be SO boring, for both you and me.
90 population may be too low; I’m leaning more toward 140 - 160; currently we have 147 ‘real’ citizens, and 158 inhabitants (including the two were-chameleons); Dwarf Therapist reports only 147 adult citizens, 4 children, 2 were-chameleons because it’s a full moon, & the remaining 5 are ‘guests’ - not controlled directly, but still part of the fort. Not sure where the two berzerkers are counted; probably as citizens still, until they die.
Recon1o6, you’re dorfed already, as ‘Recon’ MineBurn.
(https://i.imgur.com/mICsMfV.png)
While we’re on the subject; dwarven happiness is really, really weird: the happiest bloke in the fort is one Obok ManorDwells - whose latest thoughts are all bad, yet he’s got a staggering -100,000 stress:
(https://i.imgur.com/pfJKJCb.png)
I have no conclusions, except that dwarves are weird. And that I want what Obok is smoking.
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Part 1: 1st Granite 186. First Impression, WTF.
I have, once again, been called to serve as overseer of SmallHands. This time though, I have not attempted to; in fact, nobody has attempted - there have been no candidates coming forth at the end of Obsidian. As it’s usually done in these cases, the people got to ‘volunteer’ their own choice for leadership. Needless to say, I am flattered that I was the one who was chosen.
On the other side of the coin, now I have to catch up with everything that has happened in SmallHands during these last years; there was a significant amount of digging and smoothing to be done, especially in the future Temple of Armok that ‘XMark’ began two years ago. He had a different name before, but now he is XMark. It would be quite improper to call him by his old name.
But I digress; blame the lack of sleep if you will. The point is, I was not prepared to become an overseer, so I am not as connected to the fortress as an overseer should be. I do not know what is needed, or what is wanted. Therefore, even more so than last time, to the office!
… Oh dear. It seems very many questionable things have happened, and have been done, while I was doing my duty as a miner.
Happiness has decayed terribly in the intervening years. Two of our kin now have the were-chameleon curse inflicted upon them, through no fault of their own. Three others will certainly end as a result of their shattered mental state, and at least two more are in danger of the same:
(https://i.imgur.com/gfzb3rT.png)
There are many reasons for our diminishing sanity, but the most approachable ones seem to be all the corpses, and the decayed state of our clothing. Terribly sorry, my fellows, but there’s not much I can do about all the friends or family outside the fort that you have and can’t speak with.
Corpses can be easily handled; either dumping them in magma to burn, or smashing them out of the world; in fact, a good number of them are already poised for the latter:
(https://i.imgur.com/hztlzQM.png)
I never bothered counting all of them, but I’m eyeballing between 170 and 180 corpses and corpse parts (and one chunk of mudstone which shouldn’t be there, but who cares). After I ensure there are no dwarven corpses in it, and that I lock the door after I leave, I pull the lever myself, with great satisfaction. I’ll do the paperwork for it later.
While we’re here, strange things have been done to the neighboring plant processing room. The stockpile for stoneware pots was removed, and in its place, someone built two more stills, and a carpenter ‘shop with associated wood stockpile.
Below, in the thread and cloth processing area, it’s even worse: all stockpiles have been removed, and all kinds of foods and drinks are stacked right next to looms. Just… why? At which point did this seem like a good idea?
(https://i.imgur.com/cEOddfr.png)
This also means I can’t just order our clothiers to start making clothes, either. Dammit. I draw up an order to dismantle that fishery workshop and after that’s done, I’ll make cloth stockpiles. Again.
Come to think of it, why are there two fisher’s workshops? Was I not supposed to have made a clothier’s ‘shop there? Let me check the archives…
Oh lord Emuth preserve me. That was from my order. I’ve somehow managed to fill a form for a fisher’s workshop instead of a clothier’s. What was wrong with me?
… Well that was embarrassing. Anyway, the two offending fish processing workshops were marked to be torn down. Likewise for the two unenclosed clothier’s shops, which really ought to be replaced with the fort’s only leather stockpile.
The giant food stockpile that should not exist was marked to give anything it could to all other food stockpiles; what will be left there, will be handled at the end. It will have to go eventually, the only question is how long until then.
I briefly look over our citizen’s bedrooms; I find 4 who never picked a room on their own, despite having available suites for years, and manually assign them. There are still empty bedrooms, so at least that’s good.
Our mayor has no rooms assigned. I presume nobody updated the ownership of the mayoral suite, after Ducim FaithfulCloisters became mayor.
(https://i.imgur.com/ahmXUsK.png)
Weeelll, you would think so, wouldn’t you? The mayoral suite was in fact updated - in the weirdest way possible: the rightmost room is unassigned, while the left one has both an office and a dining room defined from the middle table and chair:
(https://i.imgur.com/GSZUJ54.png)
I’d ask why, and who, but I have this gut feeling that I don’t want to know. I’d have thought some other room or location was established in there, but no; it’s just this odd assignment. I’m going to tear down the extra tables and chairs, and restore the mayor’s quarters. Honestly, people…
While on the subject of nobles, I see that we have no captain of the guard. That is deeply concerning, because I know for certain we have three dwarves in prison. Who knows how long ago their punishment has ended?
It doesn’t take me long to settle on Monom CraftBulbs as the new lawgiver of SmithSoldier; he is reasonably happy, has a good history of judging other’s intent, and of being either intimidating or consoling, as needed. He’ll do fine.
(https://i.imgur.com/R4rTVMF.png)
(ooc: Do you know who’s even better than Monom at intimidation and judging intent? Me! Or, well, Amara LancedDeer. I think I just figured out how I’m going to retire from being overseer).
(https://i.imgur.com/X1kgDsa.png)
Our prison situation is as I knew it already - nine cells, three of which are occupied. What I didn’t know is that we have a truly staggering list of complaints, which I fully intend to process. Only the oldest three of them are correctly documented; and the accused are long dead, so convicting them is easy. The rest have only the names of the complainer and the crime committed. I presume the old captain of the guard has died at about this point. Oh well; Monom will have to make some interrogations, starting from the only name available. I will have to remind him that these are the victims, not the perpetrators. And also, I’ll have to remember to make Monom some quarters.
The trade depot has been… redone, at some point in the past. By which I mean someone saw fit to dismantle a golden depot and replace it with a copper one.
(https://i.imgur.com/N7Bd49Y.png)
… Actually, hasn’t there been an unfortunate troll incursion through the depot airlock at some point? That would explain the loss of the depot, but not why it was rebuilt out of copper. No matter.
On the room to the upper left, there are two stockpiles taking every possible finished good. I can only guess this was done for trade, but I can only guess somebody also wanted to trade essential finished goods, or even masterworks, because there’s been exactly zero filtering established for such. The old stockpile for finished goods sits north of the trade depot, almost empty. Once again, people are asked to move what they can.
To the right, there is a corpse stockpile, which includes a whole lot of goblins, and a dwarven corpse. The goblins can go to the atom smasher, but the dwarf must be buried properly; let me guess, we have no coffins either.
(https://i.imgur.com/EufGkNG.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/POHAxe0.png) (https://i.imgur.com/CQ0xLUX.png)
We do have four empty coffins, which I’ve swiftly marked as available for citizen burial. Since we’re here, our burial arrangements are about as strange as anything else in this fortress. Slabs and coffins have been built without any care, or planning. The slabs at least are mostly congregated in the memorial hall I have defined during my first mandate; however, some are also scattered throughout the fort, and a lot of them have been engraved for our enemies. Not fanciful enemies either, just some random goblin who’d gotten lucky once, and slain a dwarf; therefore, they’ve been memorialized here, along with some preference that they have revealed to who knows when. I’m very tempted to tear them down and toss them in the magma pipe, but just by reading a few of them I have found their use: to remind us of our enemies. It’s all too easy to put the goblins out of mind when they have no individuality, when they’re just an undifferentiated, faceless horde. I want people to remember they are individuals, and individuals always seem much easier to kill. Goblins may dominate the world now, but they didn’t always do so, and with the grace of gods, they won’t always do so.
And while on the same level with the coffins…
(https://i.imgur.com/otwdwst.png)
Our esteemed tavern, the Laborious Bellies, has been heavily outgrown by the needs of the fort. I fully intend to expand it, from stairway to stairway; I’m still not sure how the vertical aspect will look like, but I’m tempted by a simple square; the first version of the tavern has this concentric pattern of gold and lead that has become deeply familiar to us; many a dwarf would be sad to see it go, myself included.
It’s all too easy to find the center of the future tavern; there are 18 tiles between the stairs, and so the next incarnation of this location will be an 16x16 cavernous room; I’ll have to throw in some pillars, for both safety and looks. The adjacent space to the west is ear-marked for the fort’s primary alcohol stockpile; we are long-overdue in having one. I’ll have to select a place for the corresponding stockpile of prepared meals, too. Perhaps directly above? We have some unused space from our first temples, and the engravings there are the sort that should be covered.
(https://i.imgur.com/5OeW7Hy.png)
This also means the original Temple of Armok needs to be disaffected, but we all know it never worked right, and our current needs for goblin slaughter will be met elsewhere.
Something else which has puzzled me: vast spaces have been dug out in random places; I have worked in them myself, and I presumed they were excavated for some purpose. But no, all were left as they were. Even the loose stone was left to lie where it was, unmoved for years.
(https://i.imgur.com/DVh9nSQ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/b3Pgoie.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/SGOreFG.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/a23OsF7.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/lE8qCSg.png)
Good question.
I honestly have no idea what this was supposed to be, on level 130:
(https://i.imgur.com/IrnOQmi.png)
Artifacts are on display in the top rooms, but what’s with the winding passage? And why is there a single ramp, descending on the corridor to where goblins get smashed on the floor (an excellent system, by the way)?
In the cavern, not much has been done. The temporary looms have been dismantled, and the entire cloth stockpile was moved here, alongside two unsecured clothier’s shops. I would understand keeping silk thread here, but… literally everything? Really? I at least note to order any loose silk collected; quite a few patches have accumulated in the south of this room.
(https://i.imgur.com/bFCIN0i.png)
From level 122, this happens:
(https://i.imgur.com/3lkp6ds.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/mZNdHDh.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/BiNctSI.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/9mXZw4Y.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/e6paO2F.png)
The Library of Letters is truly a magnificent dwarven creation, marred only by a slight chance of certain death by drowning, due to the 2-deep artificial lake in the middle; it was constructed without ramps for any fallen dwarf to get out to safety.
On level 105, we have evidence that the second cavern layer is as rich in webs as the first:
(https://i.imgur.com/nTjv02R.png)
At level 94 we have the magma pipe, which is making my fingers itch. This should be the basis of a magma powered smithy - if we have the time to establish one. Just as in the last term I carried, I’d really like to make a magma smithy, but I can’t quite justify it to myself.
And lastly, from level 80 downward, we are in the process of unveiling a vein of adamantine - with all the care appropriate to such an endeavour. Not a single adamantine stone has been excavated in this fort, and I am sincerely thrilled by the prospect of being the first to do so.
(https://i.imgur.com/50xyNZD.png) (https://i.imgur.com/aFw8ce0.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/IpbZasy.png) (https://i.imgur.com/ISKeB6V.png)
The old crafting layer has changed the most; I’m still trying to properly unpack what’s going on in here, beyond the obvious - that it’s been heavily expanded with rooms and stockpiles:
(https://i.imgur.com/g3uvwCW.png)
I suppose it’s best I start from a point and continue?
Well, the trade depot was covered already, so it’s as good a starting point as any.
Directly south of it, where I wanted to build a library, there are two unused meeting areas. South of that, lies the Temple of Jewels; the cut gems previously littered on its floor have been placed in four bins off to the side, and the temple is poorer for it. East of it, lies the Beak of Crevices, a guildhall; east of that, another guildhall is prepared, and waits only for assignment.
(https://i.imgur.com/f4CE5Mq.png)
Between these, lies the least safe lever ‘room’ I have ever seen; given our unhappy citizens, this should, at a minimum, be walled up and have a door in place:
(https://i.imgur.com/thEnPX6.png)
South of the Temple of Jewels, lies a vast room filled only with armor stands and weapon racks. Only one of them was turned into a barracks, for two separate squads. I’ll make a note to look over the military as well… my favorite job, honestly, and most certainly not sarcastically. Meanwhile, the barracks is removed; we have a fancy tower where they can train, after I revise the military. Ugh.
(https://i.imgur.com/Ap1OT4W.png) (https://i.imgur.com/DgINP6p.png)
Moving to the west, four large and unadorned rooms are our temples; suffice to say, they could use some work. The Cathedral of Action, the Musical Chapel, the Shrine of Bucks, and the Coastal Temple. Above them, the guildhall named the Tail of Winds. The stockpiles near the guildhall are for weapons, armor, and sheets. The first two are, once again, not filtered by anything, which leaves dwarven masterworks and goblin garbage coexisting in the same locations. What truly infuriates me about this is that I know full well I made separate stockpiles for masterwork items and for useless metal items. But someone saw fit to remove them, and chuck everything in bins. Why?
(https://i.imgur.com/A15Lvew.png)
West of these, another chain of temples - the Sanctum of Owls, the Church of Persuading, the Church of Intricacies, the Abbey of Heavens, the Cavernous Church, the Sanctum of Gleams, the Church of Fishers, the Chapel of Wisps, the Sanctum of Persuading. Good to know. Above them, even more bizarre stockpiles - for furniture and finished goods, and another one for furniture, finished goods, weapons, armor, and sheets… You know what, I’ve come to a decision. I’m going to do what I want to, and not care a bit what previous overseers have wanted. Before now, I thought it reasonable to respect the wishes of one’s predecessors, and at least try to keep their intentions and desires in mind. Not anymore. This is a giant, pointless mess, and it’s very possible I’ll spend the rest of my mandate walling up excavations and sorting out stockpiles. And I didn’t want that.
(https://i.imgur.com/6DhnHwe.png)
Anyway, these stockpiles are going. A lot of things will be going.
(ooc: my first plan was a lot less harsh - I just disabled the stockpiles, and intended to leave them alone. But idiot dwarves have ignored that, and kept hauling new furniture for the 300-ish tiles to these stockpiles. That was the real reason for destroying them).
Moving north, the stockpiles begin again. Undifferentiated bar and block stockpile; undifferentiated stone stockpile, a giant ore stockpile (mostly empty), another furniture stockpile, an undifferentiated finished goods stockpile, and… oh, a bar stockpile that only accepts lead - was this the one I made to clear out the waste from the galena smelting? Probably. Anyway, above it lies an ammo stockpile of all things (undifferentiated of course, why would we want to separate good dwarven bolts from garbage goblin arrows), and a metal bar stockpile that’s completely empty.
(https://i.imgur.com/hfitJkh.png)
Then we’re moving into the north-west quadrant, where the wood and metal crafting area was set up once upon a time, and where everything’s weird again.
(https://i.imgur.com/GmYTajX.png)
At some point in the fort’s history, all the wood stockpiles have been removed; a new and oddly sectioned up stockpile was placed in the south-west corner. What does it have? Furniture, of all things. The quantum stockpile in the middle seems to be the fort’s depot for barrels, buckets, beds and bins. Good enough, I suppose, but nobody’s hauling anything here anymore. Not until the dedicated stockpiles for furniture have been filled. Off by the wood furnaces, someone’s piled up all the metal furniture.
(https://i.imgur.com/efQ4Xgn.png)
Not sure if this was supposed to be for melting, because there’s no quality sorting… and if it was, I’m not sure how they intend to melt it, seeing as nobody’s making charcoal anymore. Also, we have 2 logs in the entire fort; no matter how much we all dislike the sun, we’ll need to go cut and dump more wood down Salmeuk’s chute. I’m sure that will do wonderful things to our happiness…
I think I’m getting too distracted by just how many oddities are around to notice; I should probably re-read the list and try to order my priorities. Also, I should calm down, before I do something I’m going to regret.
Citizen corpses will be buried; invader corpses will be destroyed. We’ll do whatever random hauling has resulted from stockpile deletion. Then we’ll figure it out. Straightforward enough.
(https://i.imgur.com/40P9ezW.png)
Or, we can fight for our lives against our perennial enemies. That works too.
---------------
I ended up deleting very little; mostly; I reordered the narrative so my Doylistic impulse of “order all of the things!” was short-circuited by the Watsonian “suddenly, goblins!”
I’d like to reiterate that my own opinion is far less terrible than my dwarf’s. I’m a lot more curious about the oddly-shaped stockpiles in the crafting level than infuriated. Seriously, what was the purpose behind them?
Clothing situation looks honestly terrible: out of 156 souls, only 22 have full clothing sets, and I’m excluding the two were-chameleons who stay naked anyway. Everybody else has at least one piece of tattered apparel. Thankfully, nobody’s straight up naked, except the obvious two, and one goblin who’s stark raving mad. In my list of priorities, that’s second only after the corpses.
(edit: I borked the year somehow. It's 186 not 191. Imma blame playing late at night, which really screws with the number of available neurons).
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Right. So, I'd like to plead guilty to a decent amount of the stockpile issues, on account of the fact that we ran out of wood and hematite on my turn, and I went a little nuts with mining once I got bored. So a good chunk of your issues can be traced back to my term. No idea what booze addled idiot screwed with the clothiers and food stuff, though.
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Right... I think I'll hold off on playing until the week-end. I did try to get some time in the evening, and I'm really not happy with how it's going, from an out-of-game perspective. It's possible to advance the fort while playing in 2-hour increments after 9 PM, but it's impossible to keep any kind of flow. Everything feels disjointed; I don't have a good handle of what's going on in the fort, of what I have done, of what I'm doing currently, and what I intend to do next.
I'll wait until Saturday & Sunday for uninterrupted gameplay starting in the morning; then I'll edit and publish during the next week.
@LeftHandofGod: Wood and hematite I can live with, it's the stockpiles for furniture, finished goods, and armor that baffle me.
I theorize somebody mis-interpreted how dwarves admire furniture, presuming just seeing a piece is enough for a good thought? But it's not enough, the furniture needs to be built, not in a stockpile. I'm also guessing some RimWorld pathing influences for the lanes cut through stockpiles? In RimWorld, walking over strewn objects / stockpiled goods adds a movement penalty, but that's not the case in DF.
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I can't believe I forgot to put ramps at the bottom of the library pool! Ah well, it's more dwarfy that way I guess. As for the weird stockpiles on the crafting level, part of that is me. While I was blocking off the big room's from LeftHand's turn to save FPS, I set those up as temporary stockpiles to move all the stuff out of the massive caves. it was only meant to be temporary, which is why I walled that whole section off, but something more permanent never got set up.
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Once a fortress becomes a burden to play, it can make generating interesting story difficult. You can't really be in the moment when the only thing happening is hauling, hauling and more hauling.
I have solve this issue before by spending my entire turn just cleaning and organizing. I also once attempted to move the entire fortress to a new, clean location further down in the caverns (I believe that was Doomforests?) but that went extremely poorly as I failed to move everything, and just ended up adding to the problem.
I suggest we use DFhack autodump-destroy or some utility to clean up some of the unnecessary furniture and stone. We should also wall off all the pointless stockpiles, and while they aren't my preferred strategy, quantum stockpiles might be necessary to keep the fortress playable.
As well, the option exists to abandon or retire and start anew in the same world. We might get our named dwarves as migrants (though that could be a problem if there were suddenly two different StrikaAmaru's for example. Nothing against you I just think it might confuse the dwarves) and we could start with a fresh loaf, so to speak. Or a clean slate.
This is just some food for thought. I very much understand how tough it is to play when "everything feels disjointed." You're staring at like 8 different philosophies of fortress organization!
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I did wall off all the stockpiles, so if the stuff's moved out of there, you'd be fine to lock it up. And I'd support using DFhack to clean things up, although I don't know about retiring, and I think retiring/reclaiming would create more issues than it would fix.
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Oh, rest easy, Salmeuk; the problem wasn't the fort, or even the stockpiles; the problem was that at 9PM I have about 2 neurons on call and they're both telling me to fuck it all and go rest. To get an idea of how far down the gutter I was: I wrote the prologue convinced the year was 191; the year is 186; the year is always displyed in the top right, too. So yeah, at that hour, I'm not really capable of supporting a complex narrative. Work is making everything even worse right now, too, because we're right before release.
SmithSoldier carries on, now that I can actually have some free mornings. I'm polishing spring and playing through summer, right now.
I did wall off all the stockpiles, so if the stuff's moved out of there, you'd be fine to lock it up. And I'd support using DFhack to clean things up, although I don't know about retiring, and I think retiring/reclaiming would create more issues than it would fix.
Walling off empty spaces will be done, but as always I have other priorities; for the summer, that would be wood, Clean commands.. don't have that much to clean in here; they'd have way more impact in SmallHands, for instance, but SmithSoldier is doing pretty well without it. "Cleanowned x"may have more impact, but given just how much tattered clothing everybody's wearing, running it would brick the workforce for a season easily. Plus, the real trick to cleanowned x is to have spare clothes for the derps to change into...
Edit: I saw the poll after posting; it's my duty to inform you the fort has a grand total of 1 (one) platinum bar, and no platinum ore. Even if we mod in platinum weapons, we can't make them through standard channels.
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Part 2: Spring 186
1st of Granite:
(https://i.imgur.com/40P9ezW.png)
At least the fort entry has remained unchanged over the years:
(https://i.imgur.com/g80Y7ud.png) (https://i.imgur.com/2IeDfQ6.png)
4th Granite. Just as they’ve done dozens of times before, the enemy horde marched in a nearly straight line towards the fort’s main bridge. Clearly, they’re acquainted with the layout, and are always hoping to catch us unaware. This time at least, they did not, and they’re doomed to be caught in traps, or to loiter in the sun and rain waiting for us to slip, or for their provisions to dwindle.
(https://i.imgur.com/Av9vhEd.png)
Now that I’m sure the fort is secure, I take the time to look more closely at our provisions:
(https://i.imgur.com/V19emuw.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/zXlawhp.png)
We might have enough bolts to kill every goblin in the world, right now. For crying out loud, stop making them.
(https://i.imgur.com/RYF01wD.png)
We have enough wooden crafts to last us a lifetime; sufficiently many, in fact, that I’ve decided to sell some of the lesser buckets and beds, something that I hardly ever do.
But trade is still months away, and other matters are far more immediate; first and foremost, our clothing situation. Almost everybody has some form of tattered clothing, and our cloth stockpiles are not as grand as I expected.
(https://i.imgur.com/ihtw8p2.png) (https://i.imgur.com/IH7G03M.png)
Honestly, it’s like some overseers WANT to be punched in the face by some irate citizen.
Well. There are two things I’ll do to ameliorate the issue. Firstly, I’ll order some pants, caps and dresses from the two clothier’s shops in the caverns. By necessity, they’ll be made from silk.
(https://i.imgur.com/X1OINrX.png)
Secondly, I’ll see what clothes we can scrounge from our many goblin prisoners. As revolting as it is to wear that junk, it’s still better than wearing tattered clothing, or nothing. For that purpose, I’ll temporarily re-enable the old goblin pile above the former Temple of Armok:
(https://i.imgur.com/psxYfn8.png)
Somewhat related, there was an astonishing number of sheared fleeces strewn all over; I ask them to be piled in the animal pasture, by the farmer’s workshops, where they’ll be woven into yarn.
(https://i.imgur.com/Xa2I6ZS.png)
5th Granite. The farming area on the fort’s roof is either exposed to goblins, or at least visible to them. Farmers are interrupted constantly by the goblin and troll troops passing above; I think roots leave some odd visibility opportunities - though thankfully so far our enemies haven’t been able to shoot inside. Regardless, the farm is going to be closed, and moved lower down, by the animals pasture; this has the added benefit of shortening the distance between farm and stockpiles.
(https://i.imgur.com/BiqmWDP.png)
… No, this is far worse: a hole in the roof lets a goblin in; you can see the offending aperture at the upper-left of that discarded piece of clothing. All available military forces are called to kill the bow-goblin:
(https://i.imgur.com/36sNydN.png) (https://i.imgur.com/eqe5UjR.png)
On second thought, I’m not sure any farming is going to be needed for the next ten years or so - our plant stockpile is extremely well appointed, and that’s not counting any plants stuck in improper stockpiles.
While all this chicanery is going on, I do my best to isolate the compromised farming level from the rest of the fort. This involved tearing down 4 up-stairs, setting a wall in their place, and then cutting a new set of stairs, for this level only:
(https://i.imgur.com/ZHlSTHc.png) (https://i.imgur.com/immpclF.png)
I take this opportunity to check for unconstructed coffins, find we have none, and chain up 30 olivine coffins. This brings me to the current standing production orders:
(https://i.imgur.com/uQG2Rhx.png)
Several orders will be deleted. We have no wood for cages (and this only emphasizes the need for a wood dumping session on the surface). Ditto for wooden bins. Wooden barrels, we have plenty already. Lavish meals are best controlled with stockpile designation, in my opinion, and they already number over a thousand.
11th Granite. A rabbit is dying of hunger; turns out several animals were not placed in the pasture, including two rabbits and one alpaca. I throw in the fort’s only pig as well. Now that I think about it, I should also throw in a pasture for the dogs; they’ll be easier to train, and it would certainly be appreciated if they stop meandering all over the fort.
14th Granite While revising our animals, an interesting phenomenon has been revealed:
(https://i.imgur.com/1N5mH7G.png)
Despite all guidelines, a large number of wild animals have been marked for slaughter. Butchers have quietly ignored these orders, probably because they aren’t stupid enough to try and handle wild beasts without any training. I’ll leave all butchering orders as they are, but I’ll also see which of these beasts can be tamed, before slaughter. We could use some more meat.
(https://i.imgur.com/6r2L6WD.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/962IrMa.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/XOmB4k5.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/07bwdW1.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/v84a1E5.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/e0DtO9y.png)
17th Granite. Two visitors arrive, in quick succession; now, in the middle of this siege. How awkward. We wish them the best, up on the surface, and disable all our locations for outsiders.
(https://i.imgur.com/NVTDS87.png) (https://i.imgur.com/xJfMn6h.png)
Already too late for Papos, though:
(https://i.imgur.com/rNgrCZn.png)
20th Galena. While issuing orders for web collection, I’m reminded of this silly thing:
(https://i.imgur.com/JquxxQE.png)
That lever has 26 mechanisms attached to it. I have noticed it in my previous rule, but I couldn’t figure out its purpose, so I ignored it. Since then, I pieced together what this unlabeled lever was built to do: to open a whole bunch of cages on the level below this one. All the goblins and beak dogs that had swam into the cavern lake have been released from here. Nowadays, it’s useless, and I order it deconstructed.
3rd Slate
(https://i.imgur.com/dikOqdR.png)
Right as I order the military to station around Cerol, the problem proceeds to resolve itself:
(https://i.imgur.com/VvahZYS.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/PrOmOwX.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/tTwIJFH.png)
The departed was the single most stressed out dwarf in the fortress; the runner-up, and, I guess, current champion, is a papermaker named Kol, who’s already been imprisoned for disorderly behavior.
(https://i.imgur.com/jTklqf9.png)
This pushes me into a resolution - I can no longer postpone anything that might reduce stress and increase happiness. This means both improving the tavern, and improving (even more) the clothing situation.
With apologies to my predecessor, the tavern needs the gold blocks much more than a random hallway:
(https://i.imgur.com/rPje7Ar.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/bfjDv0i.png)
10th Slate Unforbidding the goblin clothing from the dump pile has given immediate results: gloves, socks, tunics, shirts, sandals and likely other items that I couldn’t even see, have been picked up by needy dwarves.
(https://i.imgur.com/WFNDJNH.png)
13th Slate The first cavern layer is a bit less safe:
(https://i.imgur.com/um1COvB.png)
Or possibly a bit more safe, if my guess is right and will pick a fight with the other inhabitant of that cavern, Ib Thollorbam. Here’s hoping they manage to kill each other.
(https://i.imgur.com/GL0egr0.png)
But so far, neither is in any sort of a hurry; it doesn’t help they’re separated by the lake in the middle of the cave.
20th This time, the third cavern gets to see a forgotten beast.
(https://i.imgur.com/YH4uLJD.png)
This may cause problems for my plans in the third cavern layer.
(https://i.imgur.com/VpUmd0W.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/EVfFr5x.png)
I am sick and tired of not having enough coal. In theory, I could get trees, but I need only look above to see how much of a pain the surface can be. Magma will resolve my fuel requirements, meaning the only coal we’ll ever need is for smelting steel. This project was floating at the edge of my desires for a long time, and I can finally justify it to myself.
22nd Slate. Interesting. This stockpile was supposed to hold only booze; quite understandable, considering the dining hall nearby. But, for some reason, it ended up with barrels full of raw eggs and seeds.
(https://i.imgur.com/JdtHFMf.png)
1st Felsite. As the last month of spring begins, our last of the miserable dwarves goes berserk in the middle of a guildhall… and promptly gets killed.
(https://i.imgur.com/8JlYRJz.png)
14th Felsite, And our doctor Iton follows; luckily for the rest of the fort, he was already in the clink for his previous tantrums and vandalisms.
(https://i.imgur.com/dy5exTH.png) (https://i.imgur.com/fNpVa85.png)
19th Felsite: the ghost of a recruit has risen. Nobody knows for sure when, but he’s been seen fading in and out of walls in the clothing area. This is a bad time to find out we have no slabs.
(https://i.imgur.com/wcd9WNy.png) (https://i.imgur.com/s05AqCL.png)
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Still reading through the thread so my knowledge of the fort is a bit out of date, but what exactly was done in order to make the Temple of Armok work? I'm trying to set up something similar in my fort but when I tried with the hatch forbidden none of my dwarves would attempt to pit the cat I used as a test dummy, what am I missing?
Edit: Nevermind, I tried again and they actually did it.
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I suppose that's one way to remove the fort's stressful population
very good write up!
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Alright! I've played until mid-winter, and several amazing things have happened (well, I think they're amazing :D). I'm going to post summer soon after; it's the most boring season so far. I'd like to not close the year until after autumn is posted, too - I already let play get way ahead of post.
Still reading through the thread so my knowledge of the fort is a bit out of date, but what exactly was done in order to make the Temple of Armok work? [...]
Friggin' voo-doo, man. Dumping hostiles through trap doors is hit-and-miss, sometimes it works fine, sometimes the dumping dwarves get scared by goblins/trolls/beak-dogs, and flee. It's sufficiently annoying that, in my private play-through, I just converted the pond into a standard pasture (*), stationed & locked all the army in, then released one squad so they can act as cage-unlockers. Then the rest of the military would immediately attack the hostile, and that's that.
It's one of the better ways to train marksdwarves, just don't forget to lock the doors.
(*) Btw, if the cage stockpile and the pasture overlap, nobody will remove anything from the cage - they consider the critter already pastured.
I suppose that's one way to remove the fort's stressful population
very good write up!
They're removing themselves, I have nothing to do with it!
Okay, I did convict every criminal I could find, which I'm sure didn't help improve their moods. But now most of them are going berserk while in chains, not in the middle of the civilian population.
Thank you for the compliment! I'm trying to keep it a bit shorter, no more 19-part extravaganza. I'm aiming for 5 (prologue & 4 seasons, and it seems I'll keep to it. Spring was the longest, summer will definitely be the shortest, and autumn & winter will come as they will :)
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Part 3: Summer. We Got Wood
1st of Hematite. Summer begins, the siege is lifted, and we can, once again, walk on the surface without risking death.
Since the fort doesn’t have any flurry of tasks at this moment, I plan to drop the bridge now, before the caravan arrives, and see what items can be hauled in; presumably corpses more than any. This reminds me: I should disable automatic dumping for the atom smasher, to preserve any animal corpses for butchering, and any of our own dead. Obviously, those need to be buried, not obliterated like garbage.
On second consideration, I’ll wait a few days. If there’s a second siege coming in to replace the spring one, there’s no need to rush right into it.
2nd Hematite.
(https://i.imgur.com/ElxPNuo.png)
Rorec is in prison; his mental break harms no-one. He joins the ranks of the doomed in peace, alongside our doctor Iton, also in berserker rage, and human recruit Zotho RespectRelieved, who’s been staring off into space for a while.
(https://i.imgur.com/Zpp97i0.png)
10th. On one hand, I’m reasonably sure we have no pending siege. On the other hand, we’re sufficiently close to the human caravan’s arrival that I don’t want to occupy the majority of the fort’s hands. The gate will stay closed, but a blanket order is issued, to reclaim everything on the surface.
12th. One more thing:
(https://i.imgur.com/6MXzXmB.png)
This floor is almost good. I intend to make it actually good. But before I can start, let’s kill off the single surviving axe-goblin, and clean the place a bit.
14th Hematite. Monom is quite insistent I go with him for a while. He asks me about one of the complaints of disorderly conduct, that I filed years ago. Unfortunately, I genuinely don’t remember much of anything, and I tell him as much.
(https://i.imgur.com/nLb0k0B.png)
16th The caravan arrives, and so does a guild representative named Astri. The bridge will be dropped, but dwarves are limited to the interior of the fort; we can all haul and cut wood after the depot is stocked.
20th. Discussing with Astri delivers me the single best news I have received in… years, if I’m honest.
The humans sell grizzly bears.
I order as many as they can bring. They’ll be ridiculously expensive, but they’ll be definitely worth it.
They haven’t actually brought any grizzlies with them, and the only animal they have that I’m interested in is one lousy cat. I sell our low-quality furniture and leather armor from goblins and I get for every bar they have, human-sized clothing, and all bags of sand on-sale. We don’t have any sand deposits, so trade is the only source of it. I’ll also buy every book they have, in exchange for rags in the bins with finished goods.
While we’re on the subject, there is one point I must bring up to any prospective overseer, about general stockpiles with finished goods, or even about clothing stockpiles in general: the bins within them end up looking like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/gbeOlNP.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Bvjetpn.png)
I’ve picked through them while trading, and got rid of some worn clothing; but by no means all of it. I wish I could just ask people to make a stockpile for tattered clothes, but so far that is still not possible; one dwarf’s trash is another dwarf’s treasure, I suppose, or at least that’s my best guess to whatever twisted logic drives my peers some days.
(ooc: I learned pretty quickly to never ever make clothing stockpiles with bins in them; as far as I know, there’s no way to separate them properly, even with cleanowned scattered x).
16th Malachite. One project is advancing at a brisk pace. Then again, it’s a small project.
(https://i.imgur.com/xXorQjP.png)
All upright spikes were made with 10 weapons in them; the top two have spears, the rest have menacing spikes. All included weaons are of excellent or masterwork quality; we definitely had plenty. I’m looking forward to seeing enemies drop on them.
The lever controlling the kimberlite bridge was built nearby, in a convenient alcove resulting from digging a gem cluster:
(https://i.imgur.com/vjVYaz1.png)
17th Malachite. Mechanics have reset all cage traps they could; now they’re telling me they have no available cages. Until I can free some through bloody means, there are several old discarded traps which can be dismantled:
(https://i.imgur.com/Q3PwIVe.png) (https://i.imgur.com/veIanwe.png)
19th So turns out part of why we still had empty rooms in the new dormitories is that the old dormitories are in use:
(https://i.imgur.com/Dmb4725.png)
The five most distant rooms on every row get unassigned. I know we still have free rooms, and if there will be need for even more, we can always expand them.
24th. Our mayor forbade the export of bracelets; now, a month after we traded and two weeks after the merchants have packed to leave. If anybody gets condemned for this, I refuse to carry out the order.
26th Malachite. Nobody has done anything in the tower, because a door was locked:
(https://i.imgur.com/Nf0hvzf.png)
Now that it isn’t, farmers rush to plant the outdoor crops for summer - meaning hemp for clothing, and if we had rope reed seeds, we’d put those in the ground as well. There isn’t a single one in this fort, so either they’ve been destroyed, or they’re still trapped in unprocessed rope reeds in the plant layer. Ah well.
27th Malachite. At long last, all the corpse picking and bolt binning and cage loading has been done. With barely a month until autumn comes (and with it, a new potential goblin siege) I take extreme actions when it comes to gathering logs. Firstly, I give up on cutting my own - there are a lot of logs already cut down about 50-70 tiles east of the gate. I’ll make a dumping zone right inside the main bridge, and let outdoor materials gather there. We’ll sort them out later.
7th Galena There’s a copse of big old trees right in front of our gate; if we have any brains, we’ll cut these ones, and not haul wood from one hundred tiles away. This has some unfortunate implications about our overall intelligence - it didn’t occur to any of us until the last month of summer. (More damningly, it didn’t occur to me; I genuinely thought I’m better than this). Either way, all trees are marked for cutting, and we’ll get what we can in the remaining three weeks.
(https://i.imgur.com/iDcM8Cp.png)
8th We have a casualty of the wood-cutting operations: the other Mosus in the fort dies instantly, on account of falling logs.
(https://i.imgur.com/Ihpa6Ru.png)
He was appointed dungeon master for a season, maybe less, and never got to do anything with the position. I didn’t even get around to assigning him rooms…
27th Galena. On the brink of Autumn, almost all the logs on a 30-tile radius of the entrance have been hauled indoors; that’s in addition to all the logs off to the east. Besides that, all surface corpses were moved indoors, and processed in accordance to their type: our dead were buried, goblins were dumped in the atom smasher, and animal corpses were either butchered, or dumped as well. Nothing has been smashed yet, I’ll still need to run a final check - just in case we accidentally misplaced something or someone important.
The last stragglers are just now coming in, then the fort will be sealed in expectation of a goblin siege. Better safe than sorry.
(https://i.imgur.com/xBf88WW.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/g2K0PJL.png)
(ooc: I did run one ‘clean’ here; there was so much vomit, the cages were all dark green instead of light green. Uninformed observers might have thought none of them is loaded).
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We have a casualty of the wood-cutting operations: the other Mosus in the fort dies instantly, on account of falling logs.
We thought the threat of logs was over, but they were only biding their time...
Anyway, good job on the rest of the fort! Shame the gold entryway was removed, but it was necessary.
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Wow. You've done...lots more than I probably will, lol. Hopefully you'll have time to set up magma smithing, otherwise I'll get stuck with it, lol. Hell, most of what we need we've already smithed, so I may just set it up so that our magma foundries are down at the bottom if it's up to me.
Also, a thought about the clothing stockpiles, is it possible to make it so the clothier's shops give to one specific stockpile that can't take input from anywhere else? Then you'd have one stockpile with only new clothes that the dorfs can't just dump their tattered shit in.
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Part 4: Autumn.
As autumn rolls around, everybody gets at least a month off; we’ll make an exception for the caravan, but no more.
This wasn’t kindness on my part. Traipsing in the sun has made the entire fort cranky and irritable. We all need a break, and we need it now. The only jobs that haven’t been suspended are food hauling, lever pulling, and cleaning. The only dwarves who weren’t removed from work are the doctors. Now I’m going for a drink, see you in two weeks, unless something catches fire.
10th. The caravan has arrived, and so has the liaison… that was unseemly fast. They can all wait until the proper time. I restrict us all indoors, and open the gate; the former more of a formality than a necessity, since no one is in any mood to set foot outside. The citizenry is either partying, or swarming the library to indulge in literary pursuits. I myself have joined that crowd; at this point, I hardly care what I’m reading as long as I am reading something.
16th. I’ll interrupt everybody’s peace and quiet only long enough to haul loose tattered clothing to the depot. Then we can all go back to our scheduled time off.
Maybe I should turn the farmers back on as well…
(https://i.imgur.com/ew6o0iH.png)
20th Another imprisoned dwarf has snapped:
(https://i.imgur.com/Vphxc6S.png)
1st Sandstone. The loose rags we have gathered from around the fort have a total value of 34,462 dorfbucks. All of it will be going, regardless of what the merchants have on offer. Let’s trade!
I get every bar on sale, including a platinum one; this makes two in the entire fort. I bought a tomcat, the first in the fort; surely he’ll be happy enough in the company of the four female cats we have already. Clothes, sand, gypsum powder, thread; if I had cloth, I’d have gotten that too, regardless of price. I buy every backpack available; we only had 12 at the start of spring, now we should have enough for any military we can afford to field (quivers we already have plenty: over 100, not counting what we retrieved from goblins in this year). There was not a single book for sale, or I’d have gotten those too.
(https://i.imgur.com/m7kkC3z.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/OSjNyuJ.png)
(ooc: I had to make another bit of save-scumming - the trade option was not available in the depot. It was rather strange, the broker was there and ready for trade, but there wasn’t any {t} option to actually initiate trading. I have no idea what happened, and I really wish I’d have saved a backup of that fort instead of just crashing DF).
3rd. Iden the architect has renounced his allegiance to The Turquoise Company, and become an enemy of the fort:
(https://i.imgur.com/lvyM36m.png)
A loyal citizen:
(https://i.imgur.com/enRjEtd.png)
Iden the architect:
(https://i.imgur.com/YfFjv7g.png)
One way or another, the solution will be found in the military. What is yet to be puzzled is the exact nature of that solution. For my first option, I turn to the squad creation process:
(https://i.imgur.com/Cu2LgBk.png)
SnarledSteals was a former goblin settlement; at this point, it’s supposed to be completely abandoned, and is less than half a day’s travel. I can only hope sending Iden off for a while will change his mind. Plus, if goblins, or anyone else, has decided to resettle SnarledSteals, we’d better find out as soon as possible.
(https://i.imgur.com/EnMOGhW.png)
12th Sandstone. Two things have happened in this day: Iton has returned from SnarledSteals, and Cog has snapped in a highly particular fashion:
(https://i.imgur.com/Zu60nUI.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/tTolzLa.png)
Cog needs… things… certain things.
(https://i.imgur.com/kaLSiTq.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/eaj1ytY.png)
We do have remains, off behind a locked door; let’s see if they’re suitable.
(https://i.imgur.com/L5BHcxm.png)
Indeed they are. Whichever artifact will come of this, it will be made in a medium of hamster.
As to Iton, he reports that he found nothing; good. He also calmed down, which is even better.
(https://i.imgur.com/OZjZiva.png)
21st Sandstone. An imprisoned miner joins the ranks of the lost:
(https://i.imgur.com/b7k6rjs.png)
23rd The liaison finally deigns to speak with me. There’s nothing I can ask of the mountainhome that we truly want; I put down some of the cheaper leathers just to not have him leave empty-handed.
28th Sandstone Cog has begun his macabre construction:
(https://i.imgur.com/rZLqDvH.png)
4th Timber. Cog has finished his macabre construction:
(https://i.imgur.com/qE2R3XH.png)
Behold, the Helpful Famines, a hamster bone amulet worth 86,400 dorfbucks.
(https://i.imgur.com/gl3uacn.png)
9th. After two whole seasons of idling, it’s time to let magma into the new smithy. All three available squads are stationed nearby, just in case Siga the forgotten beast decides to rush in. Then the miners are called. There are three tiles which should be channeled from above; in truth we could get away with one, but I like to be neat.
(https://i.imgur.com/zTtoTkB.png)
The channeling goes on schedule, and…
(https://i.imgur.com/ZeuZsRd.png)
An enormous spike of adamantine goes from the bottom of the world to the third cavern layer; it goes at least as far up as level 97, and its base is at least as far down as level 32; that is how far down we can determine the presence of magma. It’s entirely possible the magma sea is even deeper, and the spire itself is much longer.
(https://i.imgur.com/wAKRWQe.png)
18th Timber. Let it be known that the weaver Inod is a murderer: in the middle of a tantrum, he assaulted one of his fellow dwarves and pushed him in the magma pipe.
(https://i.imgur.com/s8oTCZu.png)
23rd Timber. The forgotten beast that inhabited this layer has found us; it killed a doctor, and was in turn slain by the human swordsman Tumwist, who eventually stabbed it in the head.
(https://i.imgur.com/epScxTY.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/pvVEGl2.png)
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i haven't seen a macabre mood in years!
thats a huge adamantine spire too
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I've never seen a macabre mood!
I did have a fell mood once, which resulted in a dwarf bone coffin, of all things. Two burials for the price of one!
As for the adamantine: I did know before that it existed. After my first turn ended, I ran "reveal hell + prospect" to check if the map has sand, of all things (it doesn't). That's how I noticed the ridiculous number of addie rocks on the map, and saw what's in the third cavern. This immediately pushed SmithSoldier to one of the best embark sites ever, and I PM'd Quantum Drop to ask if he had any pre-embark copies to upload to DFFD (he doesn't T_T). It was also one of the reasons I finally went for a smithy in the magma pipe - it gave me a reason to punch into the third cavern.
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Part 5: Winter. Blessed by Armok.
1st Moonstone. A vile force of darkness blah blah blah. We are unconcerned, our business is deep beneath the ground, and the surface has been locked tightly for two months, since we traded with the mountainhome, and have begun this project.
7th Moonstone. The curse-bearing full moon has risen over the world, which allows a goblin hammerer to die at the hands of yet another were-chameleon:
(https://i.imgur.com/LXXYZ5h.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/mM5HDqd.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/dQ93WKJ.png)
Down in the third cavern, we’re traipsing about like we own the place. Nothing hostile has appeared in this cavern yet. The smithy is nearly sealed... and I suppose I should explain what I’ve been doing in proper detail.
(https://i.imgur.com/Qw3y8dF.png)
The spot with the blue nether-cap log is the output of the former drop chute from the crafting level. At the moment, there’s a dump zone in it for gathering all the logs from the inconveniently-placed cavern trees that we’ve cut down. In due time, it’s a good idea to enclose access, so that when items are dumped, nobody walks over it and gets their brains splattered by a chunk of hematite that fell nearly 40 levels, from 133 to 96.
This corner of the magma pipe was enclosed in 6 levels of walls, all the way up to the cavern’s roof. There is, at this moment, a small passage to the south, where dwarves can go into the larger cavern. We’re using that now to gather a few logs, and to secure the adamantine spire - we’ve already cut up the trees surrounding it, now we’re going to dig internal access stairways, and protective outer walls (again to the cavern roof, which for the spire is only 3 levels away).
I can only hope nothing comes to interrupt us.
21st Moonstone
(https://i.imgur.com/F93N2tM.png)
A second cavern-punching spire was located, to the north-east this time. I believe we can ignore this one until we exploit the safe portions of the other two spires we know of.
(https://i.imgur.com/I7pUs8q.png)
The first spire is where the stair was carved; the second spire is barely visible, off to the east of that unrevealed zone.
(https://i.imgur.com/n0p3zj6.png) (https://i.imgur.com/ZHhhfKI.png) (https://i.imgur.com/J0Ykh9w.png) (https://i.imgur.com/v7QW63L.png) (https://i.imgur.com/s7MDlo9.png)
23rd of Moonstone
(https://i.imgur.com/bavDeJG.png)
There are no battle reports involving this one; I can only presume he’s somehow fallen in the magma pipe.
26th of Moonstone
(https://i.imgur.com/AV9jrKV.png)
Good thing there’s already a room available; when they’ll inevitably ask for a guildhall, it will be the work of a minute.
4th Opal. The mystery of Zotho has been unraveled - he was the human locked in jail and staring off into space.
(https://i.imgur.com/723hpmZ.png)
6th Opal. After two months, the Spire is fully sealed, though so far unconnected to the fortress. We have not been bothered by anything, excluding the forgotten beast that was already present in the cavern. That was some spectacular good fortune, and we should certainly thank the gods about it!
(https://i.imgur.com/OH48gkW.png) (https://i.imgur.com/vhtQeev.png) (https://i.imgur.com/3Donhmh.png) (https://i.imgur.com/ba6KmoN.png)
14th Opal. Sure enough, the guild requests have been brought out.
(https://i.imgur.com/W4RkVUw.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/QxmorDN.png)
22nd The year’s almost done, so I might as well focus on my new smithy.
(https://i.imgur.com/cuvjbfB.png)
Up on level 133, the old smithy has been decommissioned; the bars nearest are dumped down the hole. The real test here is if they’ll fall in the designated spot, or scatter in flight.
(https://i.imgur.com/5yN2eWO.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Q724Y5o.png)
The bar stockpiles on the upper level are, left to right: unused, steel, gold, lead. The lead one is making lead blocks non-stop, I still have a highly-specific tavern to complete.
(https://i.imgur.com/wNNKZkW.png)
Off to the right of the smelter line, I’ve designated the ‘melting’ smelter. This is where all the sub-par garbage will meet its doom. I made an 11x11 stockpile which takes all the low-quality armor, weapons, crafts and furniture; I’ll leave it to someone better acquainted with minecarts to add a QSP right next to it. On the right, there’s a stockpile accepting only empty metal cages; all the loose ones in the fort have already been melted, except for 2 which are decorated and don’t technically qualify for this stockpile.
24th Obsidian I might as well assign the two guild halls that were asked of me. The farmer’s guildhall is placed in the unused room by the Beak of Crevices, the guildhall of the miners. The grand guildhall for the weavers is seated right south of the trade depot, and gets some furniture to bump the value:
(https://i.imgur.com/QisfFJj.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/0MTQrSe.png)
To sufficient numbers, apparently. Nothing like building an artifact weapon rack in a room to wow a bunch of bureaucrats, eh?
This still leaves the farmer’s guildhall, mind; I’m in the process of smoothing it out, then some furniture can be built in here as well. At least they only ask for a guildhall, not a grand guildhall.
(https://i.imgur.com/s5ZflyX.png)
(ooc: yeh, so apparently the quality levels actually matter… oops? That does explain some of the announcements/accusations that I abandoned agreements).
One of the stranger results of working in the third cavern is a refuse stockpile well-garnished with corpses. Most of them are crundles, as expected, but there are also a few jabberers and rutherers; we also found the skeletal remains of a bat people tribe, slain who knows when by who knows who; sufficient time had passed that there was no indication of what has ended them.
(https://i.imgur.com/kymNbN3.png)
If the over-abundance of crundles puzzles you, I can only presume you’re human; to make a long story short, crundles in the caverns have roughly the same ecological niche as rabbits on the surface: everybody loves to eat them. So by sheer population dynamics, there’s a lot of them at any given point.
28th Obsidian. My term officially ends tomorrow; unofficially, it ended today, because I have taken the position of captain of the guard from Monom. He is good, but I am sure I’m better.
(https://i.imgur.com/nB6walW.png)
With this occasion, I’m reminded our feeble-minded mayor has ordered us to make bracelets; the very same trade goods he ordered us to not export in the summer, after traders had already packed. I chain up some random ivory & horn goods in a craft shop, we have plenty of raw materials and while we could line up actual bracelets, I’m sure somebody will get around to making them anyway.
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The year is done, and the save is here (https://dffd.bay12games.com/submit.php?action=message&fid=15164). There will be a sort-of-a-part-6 after all, with OOC remarks and fort summary that I won’t/can’t put in my proper play-through.
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Well! That's certainly something. I think I'll leave the mining of the adamantine to some other overseer and focus on just keeping the damned sprawling mess we call Smithsoldier running for my turn. Maybe tidy things up a bit and do some smoothing and such.
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Part 6: Closing notes.
Well, this year went side-ways, several times. The fort’s not that strong, imo; our military is tiny just 13 dudes, the tower (where all the military should be training so they don’t get cave-adapted) is unused, happiness is dropping, slowly but all across the board, and the clothing situation has somehow gone both better and worse, in the same time.
The tower. It’s fully sealed now; somebody had started building a door on the roof, for reasons I’m not entirely clear on, and I built a cage trap before the hatch. Right now, that hatch is locked.
(https://i.imgur.com/Uw6FWlK.png) (https://i.imgur.com/LgYy8SD.png)
The archery floor is under deconstruction and reorganization. The ‘external’ hall-way should be extended with another vertical section off to the right; a wall should be moved, old archery targets should be deconstructed to allow for engravers to carve fortifications, and internal doors should be set up. This is some very low-priority work, because our military is kind of in the pits. We have three real squads, of which only the Ochre Bolts are marksdwarves; with 7 members, they constitute more than half of our military:
(https://i.imgur.com/Pm4EGQK.png)
Below in the melee floor, some minor floor reorganization is done as well. But our melee squads have, respectively, 3, 3, and 0 members. At this point it’s pretty much not possible for them to train.
(https://i.imgur.com/D1iYqVL.png)
Below that, the outdoor farms were restarted; I dimly recall somebody complaining about the vast number of thread-producing plants that we have (or was that in SmallHands? I mix them up). But do keep in mind that clothing eats up multiple bolts of cloth, so when I see “1,000 cloth”, what I think is “almost enough clothing for ~70 dwarves”. I don’t have the accurate math for this, and I suppose I should make some. For my sake, if not everybody else’s :D.
(https://i.imgur.com/YGZmYwE.png)
Level 144 is the start of the enemy dumping pit. So close, and yet so far…
All available hostiles were piled in one single dumping zone. There should be about 200 cages there, all with goblins, trolls, and the remaining four beak dogs that are not being tamed or slaughtered (despite tamers constantly trying; I think they killed dwarves, so the game marks them as enemies 4 eva). The truly bad news is on the bottom, to my one failed project for the year:
(https://i.imgur.com/ACDQywH.png) (https://i.imgur.com/offYM31.png)
The spikes genuinely don’t work T_T. I tried dumping prisoners on top of them, and all survived; I had to wipe them out with military intervention. What in tarnation? The empty floor did more damage than the spikes, and all of them are full of masterwork- or excellent-quality spikes and spears!
I leave it to my successor to either move the enemies to the Temple of Armok, or attach a lever to the spikes then assign that lever to be pulled infinitely. That at least couldn’t possibly fail, retracting spikes are known for killing forgotten beasts and demons; naked goblins should stand no chance. I recommend against a marksdwarf tunnel in the walls, because the targets can climb...
And with that carefully deployed segue, there’s these two things:
(https://i.imgur.com/yQibZHA.png) (https://i.imgur.com/dKZnmbg.png)
Enemies can climb out of the pit, and have made it up these two ways out. Military dwarves had to hunt them down individually. I’ve sealed one of them, but I ran out of time on the other; wall tiles have to be placed one at a time, or dwarves won’t have where to stand, so yes this is a very frustrating thing to do.
143: I made a stockpile above the tavern for prepared meals, and I separated the animals from the goblins. With this occasion, I re-re-learned that we have a bunch of crow people in the cages, who can’t be dumped any drop chutes ‘cause they fly. Personally, I’d just release them outside, it’s not like they’ve done us any harm.
(https://i.imgur.com/08CYEf7.png)
142. There are 10+ empty coffins, a giant booze pile that will last you the whole next year (I ordered more anyway), a tavern that needs lead flooring and furniture here and there, a pasture for future war dogs that will hopefully be superseded by WAR GRIZZLY BEARS, and the new underground farm - now with almost no risk of enemy goblins (the plots aren’t set to be planted all in all seasons; we’re neck deep in plants already).
(https://i.imgur.com/tsTJv8E.png)
Below that is the animal corpse pile, and our butchers are slowly making their way through crundles. Next to it, I put the people-corpses pile, because really where else do you expect it to be?
(https://i.imgur.com/thurORH.png)
There’s another failure here - I tried to set up a minecart to take from the corpse pile in the right, and didn’t read the wiki article until the end; so I failed miserably to set this up. At this time, the garbage minecart also services the corpse pile too.
Frankly, I’m not so sure about auto-dumping these - animal corpses can usually be butchered, dwarven and pet corpses need to be buried properly, or you get ghosts, and tattered clothing doesn’t need to be dumped in an atom-smasher because it decays on its own, plus any masterworks that get smashed will make their creators pissed off. And it’s not like adding a minecart spares the dwarves from seeing corpses, because they’re still the ones loading them from stockpile to minecart...
139. Cloth and yarn derived from plants are all here. We have almost no leather, but luckily we also don’t need a lot of leather.
(https://i.imgur.com/E3mOArj.png)
The clothing situation was addressed, but by no means resolved. There are some stockpiles of plant-based cloth in their proper place, and spider silk still sits uncollected in the cave. I did manage to, uh, confiscate some clothes from prisoners, and to make some of the clothes that goblins don’t bring - pants, gloves and caps primarily. In addition, plant processing was left on repeat for plants, and weaving was left on repeat for plant cloth. We now have ~1000 hemp thread, which seems like a lot, but is not going to be enough for even a fraction of our needs.
(https://i.imgur.com/XOVOVq0.png) (https://i.imgur.com/CjZKVD1.png)
Related, we also have a giant cave spider sitting in a cage, which I have ignored, once again.
In 133, the crafting level, we already know what I did :D
The New Temple of Armok, in all its convoluted glory, has been left untouched.
126. In the first cavern, Ib is acting very oddly: it’s been hanging off that rock face since early spring, if not sooner.
(https://i.imgur.com/41S03AZ.png)
And speaking of the first cavern, why did you do this?
(https://i.imgur.com/ZJkETGv.png)
Why did you tear down. A. Perfectly. Unassailable. Cavern seal. And replaced it with a wall??? Now how am I supposed to lure the forgotten beast in a position where it can be shot to death, with no risk to our people? Do you WANT to go engage a horror beyond time in melee combat?
Because really, before this, all I had to do was to carve out a marksdwarves tunnel off to the north, then unlock a hatch long enough for the FB to path & travel here. Then I could lock the hatch again, and laugh while the stupid FB with the useless poisonous bite was getting pincushioned.
Now we’re gonna have to fight fair, and we all know that’s for suckers.
Actually. Between this and the door on the roof, I’m thinking somebody doesn’t know how hatches-above-stairs work: they’re impossible to tear down from below, because they never get included in pathing calculations. DF does paths in 2 stages: in stage 1, it calculates which tiles/blocks are available as path plocks. In stage 2 and based on the results of stage 1, it actually calcs a route. A ramp or stair is only a valid target for pathing if there is a block above where a potential creature can sit after going up; if you put a hatch on top of it, there won’t be one, and the stair is marked as unusable.
What’s not totally clear to me is why fliers still fall for this crap, they could in theory sit/fly on the stair, then attack the hatch from below.
That’s enough DF mechanics, back to your scheduled fortress tour.
110. This is the best place for a new risk-free marble quarry, so I already started one around the dump zone. One level below, we have the old quarry, and below that there’s the second cavern, so that’s my reasoning, basically.
(https://i.imgur.com/QbZmKCr.png)
Btw, before digging these out, we had 28 lumps of marble in the entire fort.
On level 97, I just noticed a stupid-ass fisher-dwarf walled outside; let the fool in, will ya?
(https://i.imgur.com/Yz8nyfC.png)
He wasn’t supposed to be there, the cavern is outside the emergency burrow.
And lastly, level 96 with the smithy and the addie Spires. I feel justified in using the capital letter.
Of note here: I left lead blocks on repeat, in order to finish the tavern floor; I think we need about 50 more, so judging on previous performance the dorf should reach that number around the 15th of Granite. I rarely use manager orders, as opposed to workshop orders on repeat, because I always thought workshop orders are done a lot faster; I also had a 50-gold-blocks order put in through the manager interface, and it took nearly 2 months. Then I got 50+ lead blocks from the workshop, in about two WEEKS.
(https://i.imgur.com/kZhyzaq.png)
The addie spire was, as I said, completely sealed from the cavern. It wasn’t yet connected to the fort, largely because adamantine requires a lot of crafts-dwarves shops to process (or more accurately, extracting strands takes a lot of time; most people ‘fix’ that by using a lot of ‘shops); whoever starts exploiting this seriously is probably best served in carving a new room above the smithy, where the dedicated strand extractors can work in peace.
In older editions, adamantine threads / strands were a prime target for all sorts of stupid behavior, especially doctors using them for stitches (thus destroying them from wafer making).
(https://i.imgur.com/Lz7u9fh.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/0tMZKmR.png)
Population-wise, there have been losses, let me put it that way. We also gained 3 new citizens via immigration, but even so numbers have gone down. We count 136 full citizens, 2 were-chameleons, 3 children, and 3 humans guests who’re loitering around. Two of them have elected to go loitering in the third cavern; those are too dumb to live, and they can do what they want until something eats them. Compared to the start of the year, we’re down 14 adults and one child, and somehow gained one guest.
Start of year:
[...] 158 inhabitants (including the two were-chameleons); Dwarf Therapist reports 147 adult citizens, 4 children, 2 were-chameleons because it’s a full moon, & the remaining 5 are ‘guests’ - not controlled directly, but still part of the fort.
(https://i.imgur.com/gfzb3rT.png)
What really cheeses me off is that happiness has been dropping across the board, and that the clothing situation appears to have gone worse, not better, looking just on the surface of it. I’ll see how a bout of ‘cleanowned X’ will go in the fort; I don’t think we can afford a full ‘cleanowned x’, because of time if not replacement clothes, and anyway only the badly tattered clothes cause bad thoughts.
(Update: "cleanowned X" works wonderfully; "cleanowned scattered X" is evil, and doesn't care about wear levels at all; don't use it, just let the beards haul unclaimed crap to the refuse pile).
I haven’t used the mist generator because I had made some bad assumptions; I thought there was a hole in it, but no, I was just wrong about pumping direction. Ooops. The tank is completely dry at this moment, and it’s just waiting for a bunch of dwarves with Pump Operatin’ to get to it.
The named dwarves:
(https://i.imgur.com/c8Vibj4.png)
---
To my successor:
Plz buy grizzlies! You wouldn’t believe how much I wanted dwarves with war grizzly bears beating the snot out of goblins. Buy them when they come. PLEASE.
Plz force-dump very tattered clothing; dwarves are exactly stupid enough to never drop a piece of clothing, and then complain about wearing tattered clothes; just put a garbage dump area on top of a refuse pile, then let the rags decay naturally. You can even use the refuse pile in the animal pasture, so nobody has to see corpses!
The fort has no active manager orders. There are several jobs left on repeat in workshops: the lead blocks one, which should be shut down ~15th-20th; ‘melt metal object’ is best left alone, we have stupid-huge amounts of goblin crap. Plant processing and cloth weaving are self-explanatory; though actual clothing can wait after most dumping, so you know what to make...
I thought I left no active dump zones, but I was wrong - there's a one-tile garbage dump, sending everything down the former magma chute, current ore & bars chute. The area is to the south of the hole, under the 3x3 area that I made. (if you don't know how to delete it, you can navigate between overlapping areas with {v}, then delete it with {x}-{X}).
This concludes my year, in which I wrote & posted ~9,500 words, including prologue & epilogue. I'm also signing up for another turn.
EDIT: the bracelet crap the mayor wanted? We have no active bone carvers, so nobody's going to make them. I recommend Cog Ulzest-something, who's a level 18 bonecarver and pretty unhappy; we can solve 2 problems in one action, and we should.
(edit, 25th Aug: fixed an image - the one with the first cavern entry. That one of you ruined).
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Well, if they do abandon my pit, my turn will of had absolutely no effect other than a degradation from a lack of maintenance. Oh well. Better luck next time...
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Hey Left, how's the turn going?
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Hey Left, how's the turn going?
Nervous sweating intensifies...
Nah, legit though, I've gotten distracted playing another game. Probably do my turn here over my three day weekend in a bit.
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Alright Lefty, should we skip you?
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Are you fine gentledwarves still accepting petitions for new overseers?
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Are you fine gentledwarves still accepting petitions for new overseers?
Sure.
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Are you fine gentledwarves still accepting petitions for new overseers?
Sure.
Excellent! I would love to be a part of this, then.
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I'll get you signed up, then. Apologies for my inactivity - a mix of IRL stuff and other commitments have had me rather distracted.
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I contacted Left on Discord, he said we can skip his turn. It's Recon's turn now.
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You guys need another overseer?
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for now, gonna have to skip me, im in the middle of Smallhands, sure im just finishing up my turn but i don't have much free time atm
thought i mentioned this earlier, huh
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Oh, sorry, quantum must not have updated the overseer list.
It's actually your turn, Zalthor.
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You guys need another overseer?
We're always looking for new ones. Shall I put your name down?
Oh, sorry, quantum must not have updated the overseer list.
It's actually your turn, Zalthor.
Yeah, got sidetracked and didn't see the thread had updated. I've updated the list accordingly.
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Oh, sorry, quantum must not have updated the overseer list.
It's actually your turn, Zalthor.
Ah, a pleasant surprise! I hath downloaded the save from DFFD.
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Thatd be great i would love to join you guys.
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I'd also like to sign up for overseer. Maybe I'll finally get something done with that giant cave spider that's been sitting in a cage since forever.
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Both of you have been added to the turnlist.
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Any news Zalthor?
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Zalthor, any news? You've been thirteen days without posting - if there's nothing by the end of tomorrow (two weeks from start, as per the rules), we'll skip you and move on to Manofthehour234.
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Two, possibly three skipped overseers... why do I get the feeling this fortress is going to ping-pong between Recon and myself?
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Can you guys use another overseer?
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We're always looking for new ones. You want in?
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Yes please
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Just out of curiosity, what is the current status of this fortress?
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Regrettably, it seems to be dead.
There are now three overseers who skipped their turn; the fourth on the list is Recon, and after that, me; it's a bit awkward if Recon skips too, because I played the previous turn too, so I'd get two consecutive turns.
It would be a pity if the fort dies before we get to exploiting the stupid-huge amounts of adamantine on the map.
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I will pick up this fortress, but it will be wednesday when I have the opportunity to do so.
I meant to do it last week, but much to my frustration irl was an arse
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save picked up if anyone's still here, will be a couple of days before first post
just...wow this is a big fort
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Looking forward to seeing what kind of madness ensures.
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apologies for the delay everyone. RL decided throwing curveballs was a fun idea. I'll have a post either today or tomorrow morning bst
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Overseer's log of Recon Avuzning "Mineburn": 1st of Granite 187
DAMN THEM, DAMN ALL THESE GOBLINS TO HELL
except that one with the solid gold pike, I want to impale that one on its own weapon with my own two hands!
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/638374248834138134/766651152392912936/unknown.png)
and this is our military status?
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/638374248834138134/766651820172378122/unknown.png)
We have over a hundred dwarves constructing buildings! WHY? WE COULD BE KILLING GOBLINS RIGHT NOW!
A large booze stain covers the writing
....tually after much discussion I was elected overseer. Somehow. I no longer need to rage at the goblins. Not when I have the power to see to their demise through smithsoldier's combined might and metalwork.
To begin with: a count of our caged prisoners. We have 5 pages of goblins currently sitting unprocessed in cages ready to be used in mine and my fellow smith's testing, or usage in entertainment or live training of our military.
Roughly half that number is the current goblin invasion force and their beasties to go in our dinners. I reckon about 120 ish invaders with 240 caged, the remaining 100 is all the animals and cavern monsters that have been spotted roaming about.
The mayor had the gall to interrupt me about putting an armour stand in the dining room. Ordinarily I'd have told him to piss off, but then I remembered I'm the overseer now. So I immediately sacked him and put myself in charge.
my first mandate: all dwarves who have been throwing tantrums in the last year, or who have any military skill and no secondary profession of any importance are to start arming themselves immediately! Cruel? yes, but half of these idiots would be get themselves killed anyway and I'm simply encouraging them to earn some last glory to Armok before entering his halls.
Refill the military, we have a fight on our hands!
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Is this fort dead?
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tbh given the lack of response from others I'd say yes. I picked up the save but between irl giving me little time to play till this morning and the siege taking forever to lift nothing much has happened
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I think between this one and Smallhands, the latter proved more interesting story-wise. Still, Smithsoldier had it's moments!
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Aw.
I'd be sad to see it go; this fort has some truly ridiculous amounts of adamantine to exploit, and use to cement dwarven superiority among other races. It's quite a shame we never got to using any of it.
There's always the option of playing on my own, but it's just not the same.
Plus, I was looking forward to my turn; there's a giant cave spider I could industrially exploit, and I have some artsy fartsy ideas about recreating and redesigning our 6 guilds; if the fort is really dead, I'd like to post those as a "what might have been" stonecap.
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This fort doesn't have to die. I see at least a couple of people (including myself) that have interest in this fort.
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If anyone is still here, would you mind if I picked up the save?
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Recon's technically still on point; if he officially gives up (or doesn't answer), sure.
By the old list, the order was recon1o6 => me => eightball8776. Except I also had the turn before, and picking up two turns in a row kinda defeats the purpose of a succession game. I'd still like to grab the turn after, though.
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I've been distracted by smallhands ^^; and rl being a bit of an arse
that and there's currently a siege on, and the fps is not very fast. Smithsoldier is one hell of a fortress though thats for sure