Bay 12 Games Forum

My latest epic adventurer, a Master Swordsman(from hero beginnings, so I had been playing him for a while), by the name of Bugi Braveankles the Saturninity of Paddles and performer of such epic feats such as breaking a hydra's upper spine with the first blow of the battle and killing a Desert Titan with a single kick, found himself without any real challenge and decided to travel to the very ass-end of the world to annihilate a dark fortress located at the frigid and perpetually foggy southern edge of the world. Beginning with thirteen varyingly experienced followers(admittedly, two of them were crippled), the fellowship soon found itself under incessant goblin attacks and no place to hide(and a visibility of one square in every direction due to the fog, even during the day.). By the time Bugi was drawing close to the sinister fortress, all of his companions had been slain, but he was confident that he could take on any number of goblins by himself. So, with the shadow of the stronghold on the horizon, he went to sleep one last time before the great battle of our time.

He woke up some hours later to the peculiar and uncomfortable sensation of a steel arrow piercing through his upper spine, paralyzing him. A few seconds later, another dart whistled out of the fog to put him out of his misery.

(Sure, I deserved that for sleeping alone close to a fortress(or anywhere outside, for that matter), but I was sure I could survive the first few hits since just a few minutes earlier I had watched a pikegoblin try in vain for several minutes to deliver the killing blow to my crippled axeman friend, but being foiled by his <<bronze helm>>)

Ah sweet!

Name: "The Wight"
Gender: Female
Weapon: ≡Copper Mace≡ (300☼)
Armour: ≡Copper Shield≡ (150☼)
Fighting style/mindset: Shriek like a banshee and batter the opponent into submission while they are stunned with fear and revulsion.

Coffer: 50☼

Or just make a channel around him.

I tend to make very little impact on the surface, at least to begin with. For most of my forts, a human could theoretically pass very close by without suspecting a bustling dwarf city thrives beneath their feet. Admittedly, this only lasts until my fort's survival is pretty much guaranteed. Then I start making constructions above ground. Massive constructions.
In one fort, I made a massive wall to enclose the valley where the entrance to my fort, only reachable by a silver bridge, was located(sadly I've lost the save).
In another, I made a giant square over a small tropical(and rather boring, I'm afraid) lake which connected my fortress to lands beyond.
Now I'm making a tower rising out of a valley made by the convergence of two rivers, complete with a waterfall which I will build my dining room around. Too bad the rivers are full of skeletal carp...

If you have rock crystal you can make crystal glass. If not, it can be imported although that's probably not much help to the current dwarf.

You sure about that? As far as I know, only cut gems can be imported, and crystal glass requires rough gems.

1) Find a town and ask about their surroundings a few times. It might take a dozen tries, but they usually mention your fortress. If they don't, you might be too far away. If you remember anything about the vicinity of your fortress(in the south-west of the world, perhaps), you can try to find a town(or mountain hall or retreat) closer to that vicinity and ask about surroundings again. A player-made fortress is apparently a very interesting thing because people from pretty far away will still mention it in their surroundings.

2) The scattering is because the locations of the items has not been saved to the computer, rather than some programmed chaos-making by the game itself. With this in mind, locked doors will not have any effect on the location of the items, and I'm not even sure locked doors stay locked when you explore fortresses in adventure mode.
If you want to find items in adventure mode, put them in the Trade Depot before abandoning. Items inside buildings will not scatter.

3)Yes. Dwarf-made body-wear only fits dwarves.

I seen a camel lock the joints of a ratman, so there you go.

My most recent anticlimactic moment involves one of my most beloved dwarves. The Sheriff, who was a Champion Axedwarf and had fifty-two sentient beings on his kill list, in addition to a dozens of wildlife critters, including elephants and gorillas. I even gave her the professional title of "Bad-Ass". This girl could wipe out armies by herself. Or so I thought.

A few goblin snatchers and kobold thieves had prompet me to set up squad stations by the land end of the bridge which is the only way into my fortress and rotate my six military champions on duty to stand at these spots. Note that these locations are somewhat far away from the fortress proper and just out of bowshot from the edge of the map.

So I have the Sheriff stationed by the bridge and another champion further north(to catch stragglers and enemies discovered by wildlife) when a vile force of darkness arrives. It was not a terrifying sight. No historical goblins, no elite marksmen, I don't even think there was a single weaponmaster in the army. The squad closest to the bridge consisted of several marksmen, but I thought that would be no deal. So I send Bad-Ass to prove her name and the first bolt shot at her pierces her heart. Effin' typical. To make matters worse, the other champion has a damaged brain, so while he did get his Wrestling skill to Legendary, he was still only a Skilled Spearman. He did not encounter the marksmen, and managed to gore four goblins before being dogpiled and slowly taken apart.

Ah well, life goes on. Bad-Ass gets a platinum sarcophagus, but the army marches onward to the fortress gates. I activate my entire army, including a dozen skilled marksdwarves which are positioned in advantageous positions above and around the entrance. These have routed formidable armies with flashing goblins in the past, and all the melee dwarves did was mop up the rout. So I'm not worried... except for that Royal Guard and a random marksdwarf running out towards the approaching force of darkness. Damnit.

The marksdwarf manages to shoot down a couple of goblins before falling under the hail of enemy fire(miraculously he survives, but badly injured). The Royal Guard, however, is an entirely different story. Royal and Fortress Guards in this fortress progressed in skill far quicker than I anticipated, and many gained elite status in wrestling before I could draft them into the army proper. Since then, many had reached legendary status. Still not content to give the Guards much privileges and being short on steel(no flux on the map), I outfitted them with leather armor and leather bucklers. No weapons.

And so it was that this guard, armored in leather and wielding only a leather buckler, charged out to meet the wall of flying barbed iron, dodged and blocked every single bolt and proceeded to bash the melee goblins into wobbly, bloody masses of flesh while under steady arrowfire.

He routed the entire army. I think his left hand got scratched.

Damn Royal Guards.