Bay 12 Games Forum

Notes from the Winter of 256:
-----
I think Mayor Zulban said it best.


256-10-01
After years of focusing on the needs of the Deepholds, we now focus on our own. But first, we have to remove some unwanted neighbors. Giant love birds may seem harmless, but everyone hates them.


Speaking of our needs, I've been working with the unhappiest of our citizens to improve the quality of life. For a couple of weeks out of every month, they'll work to improve the bed rooms for everyone. Step one, smooth the stone that's ruining our socks. Here's the fort celebrating that modest success at the end of the month. The aim is great bedrooms for everyone.



256-10-28
At the turn of Winter 256, Mosus Ugoshalath had a macabre mood. Unfortunately... no workshop was good enough for her. Here you can see her practicing to be a Lurk.



256-11-20
No migrants this season either. It's enough to make you think they don't like us anymore...


256-11-23
Finally, the caverns are now host to a fire breathing iguanoDONT. Who immediately set everything on fire, killing several jabberers and the frame rate.



We'll see what spring brings.

-----
OOC notes:
Apologies for the delays, it took a few retries to come up with a way that didn't end up with mass tantrums.
Newcomers to the fort may notice this fort's unusual dedication to An the Whisper of Meditation. I took Splint's advice here.
Dwarves are also now (all) partial to whip vine flour and barley wine.

Finally, the list of the dead.

If no one else grabs it before Sunday 7/14, I'll take another turn and see if I can turn the stress spiral around. If the madness has followed us out of the Deepholds, maybe the only hope is a new generation.

--- Fall 256

256.07.01
Autumn is upon us. We only have a few days to get ready for the next caravan to the Deephold. The pile of goods waiting for the caravan won't be as impressive as last time, but I think we can expect an excellent showing.
Both stills are working at full capacity and the kitchen is always active. I do wish I could convince the farmers to grow more textiles for our fort. Oh, and I need to remind the cheesemakers to have their wares ready.

256.07.02
In one of my weekly inspections of the fort, I noticed that several rooms are basically continually covered in piles of clothes. When I asked the owners why, they shrugged and said they had to either wear the clothes or leave them on the floor.
I've distributed some surplus coffers and cabinets I found in a storeroom, and I've asked our masons to produce more. A tidy fort is a happy fort.

256.07.05
When I asked some of our most obviously stressed dwarves to take it a bit easier, I didn't mean "Sit in the tavern all day"! While they may need a bit more downtime than the rest of us, they can at least do their part. I've asked them to dump all the empty barrels they can find next to the stills. I got a few angry looks, but they need to do their part! I know they're constantly complaining to Zulban about everything anyway. Just in case there is a problem though, I asked some of our more prominent citizens to discretely wear more protection.

256.07.07
Doctor Adilishash apparently doesn't know what discretely means. She's slowly clanking around in her new armor like a mine cart full of rocks.
----
OOC: And then Doren died! I've gotten twitchy with the combat log indicator, trying to see if anything neat happens for screenshots. I wasn't disappointed.
<ahem>
----
From the Office of Zulban Thadatis
---
Your Majesty Queen Iton,
It is with deepest regret that I must inform you that your emissary to Cheesesplatter was struck down in an altercation with another dwarf on the 8th of Limestone. Doren Nomallushon was a strong force for change in your name. She was instrumental in consolidating
Cheesesplatter's food and export industries. Her loss will be deeply felt among her friends and collegues. It appears that she was keeping an official journal of her tasks. I've enclosed it along with her personal effects.
 
My condolences,
Zulban Thadatis, Mayor of Cheesesplatter
-----
The attack


I'm fine, I'll just walk to the hospital...


Feeling a little dizzy, gonna lie down...




-------
Other interesting events.

256.07.15
No caravan or outpost liason.

256.08.15
No migrants.

256.09.09
A werebeaver shows up! It stealth killed a nearby human before announcing.

256.09.10
It gets put down by the militia after it mutilates a few of the free-range humans. I don't feel bad, monsters are why they're here. Only the humans and a baby tiger got bitten, and the humans died.

256.09.19
Ooh, a macabre mood. Wait... she's already in a depressed (uncontrollable) state. How will this work? As of the end of my turn, nothing had happened.


Fort stats
----
Before:


After:

----
More OOC Notes:
lol... I guess Doren's end is dramatic enough? It solves the "and then I wasn't in charge anymore" problem neatly enough. Over to the next. Fair warning, about a third of the fort's remaining population are unhappy.
I'm going to have to write a script to timeline who died and why.
Link to the save: http://dffd.bay12games.com/download.php?id=14433&f=Cheeseplatter_Winter256.zip
----

Spring 256
----
Spring is upon us, the elven ambush season. I have ordered that some of our innumerable tigers be chained up outside our gates. Hopefully they'll at least give us some notice if invaders approach. Though I don't know how we'd notice one more noisy beast. It'd be like a pebble on the mountain.

256.01.05
And the the elves attack! It makes my skin crawl to see them emerge like ghosts from the trees, beasts in tow. How can they move so silently through such dense undergrowth?
Our militia races to meet them, war animals loping beside them. I remember how their noises terrified me when I first arrived, hopefully it'll at least annoy the elves.


256.01.06
There's no end to them! One of our sharp eyed farmers claims he saw at least a hundred elves from the walls, and maybe half as many beasts. Every time I see our warriors disappear under a pile of elves, my heart sinks and I fear it will be the end.
But every time, they emerge victorious. So far...

256.01.10
The siege lifts! Our warriors have slain them all, down to the last beast.  The warriors themselves are curiously quiet. No celebration, no cheer. It's like they don't care anymore.
I was a bit curious about why there didn't seem to be any truly serious casualties, only cuts and bruises and the dead. One of the soldiers mentioned that it was because the elves won't use metal weapons.
Supposedly, our superior armor won't allow our brave militia to be cut, but nothing prevents them from being beaten like a rug....


I've ordered slabs engraved in honor of our fallen. They died so we might live.


256.01.11
I'm forced to consolidate our military squads after this last battle. This should make it a bit easier to allow the soldiers the downtime they deserve. Hopefully, this will be only attack this season. I also need to seek out volunteers to replace our fallen.

256.02.10
The caverns under our fort contain the strangest beasts. Even the hills are alive down there.


256.02.22
Life has definitely resumed its normal crazy pace. Another artifact!



256.03.01
No migrants this season. The extra hands would have been welcome, but I'm sure we can handle things. Still, tensions continue to escalate and I'm not sure what we'll do if the caravans don't come this year...

256.03.03
I find out what will happen. I'm cornered by a concerned citizen, and what should be a simple disagreement escalates into a fight. It's nothing serious, just a tweaked knee. Still, I'm walking with a crutch now.


256.03.10
I thought last week's fight was the worst of it, but I was wrong. I didn't even see the punch, just heard a pop and woke up in the hospital. It didn't take long for the pain to find me. Supposedly, my spine is broken. It's a gift from the gods that the attack stopped there...
Doctor Adilishash promises that she'll put these notes on my desk, as long as I promise not to exert myself. I must remember to thank Zulban for making the armor mandatory. 


I see our master brewer/broker Lordy in a nearby bed. She was recently in a confrontation as well. Fortunately, nothing serious. Maybe I should be lift barrels for a couple of years too.
Your Majesty, if you're still reading this... I may have pushed too hard for change, too fast.


256.03.11
I hear the new work area is almost complete. I think the only thing left is to set up a section for the clothing makers. Which reminds me, I need to ask the farmers about the textile fields...
<Later>
Speaking of farmers, I had a visit from one of their representatives today in the hospital. He literally asked me to make it stop raining on them! And then just left! I don't even... The rain must have washed their brains right out.
<Even later>
I realized I _could_ actually do something about the rain. One of wonders(?) of Cheesesplatter is the half completed glass roof over 'The Hole'. It's really very fascinating. It's made of very large glass blocks that interlock,
and it's still clear as lake water. It's been years since any work was done on it, but the engineering remains quite sound. I've even seen our militia practicing their drills on it. I'm not sure how they convinced the elephant to get out there, but not even a creak.
I've noticed that that plants under the glass grow just as well as anything topside, and the glass blocks the rain. Maybe if we finished the glass, our farmers would be able to grow their crops unmolested by the hateful rain. I'll check out the work
required when I can get out of this bed. If I ever get out of this bed...

256.03.23
The last festival before the summer caravan should arrive and I think everyone is on edge. I've managed to convince the doctor I'm not an invalid, so I spend my time limping around the tavern, trying to put on a brave face for my fellow dwarves. If the caravan doesn't show up...

256.03.26
For some, the past is a comfort. For others, it's just an open wound.


----
<OOC Notes>
I eventually gave up on trying to do cleanup of bodies/items outside . Once I had lava in place for a corpse disposal pit, I just autodumped the bodies next to it, burrowed the corpse disposal squad, and let them work. The items remain forbidden. The engraving of slabs is ongoing.
End result should be all the trauma of actually disposing of the bodies, far less of the dwarf years of effort walking across the whole map at 25fps.
Speaking of FPS: The slaughter of animals continues. I re-purposed the lava corpse pit as a normal pit, and threw all the birds I could in.  FPS continues to improve (very very slowly) and we're up to 27fps (from 23) on the surface.

I was debating on taking a turn myself, if only to make an attempt at sorting the militia, but good lord. The place looks like it needs judicious use of a disposal pit.
I suppose I'll go next if my dwarf is still alive come the next turn though, or at least give it a try. Seems reasonably organized.
Seems.

Unfortunately... military can always use help though!

I'm curious if the frequency of rain has an impact on dwarves thoughts - if the bad thought gets reapplied when the rain stops and starts again? I recall having a fisherdwarf going nuts with stress in a rainy area.
I'm guessing Cheesesplatter is in a frequent rain area?

By the way - if you need to reduce stress from a particular dwarf, I've found that jailing them works quite well.

Rain: Afaik, getting rained on leads to negative thoughts, the system chooses from the available thoughts to form memories, memories are mulled on to modify traits like stress propensity. The more bad thoughts you have, the more likely they are to make up the memories. Whether they actually have to get hit by water to get the negative thought and whether that thought stacks may require science.

Jail: This seems to depend on the dwarf. Some are deeply opposed to being imprisoned and/or being falsely accused. It's also possible to chain someone up w/o going through the justice system.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=161795.msg7287486#msg7287486

< The following is written on a number of dirty rags jammed in a wine bottle >
Queen Iton,
Per your request, I've travelled to Cheesesplatter to urge them to continue the production of the foodstuffs our Deephold has come to depend on. I intended to arrive with the caravan, but left it once I learned I would make much better time by travelling through the wilds with other hardy souls.  After no few troubles, I arrived on the 24th of Limestone. Your Majesty, I must admit the situation here is dire. I have attempted to do what you might think best and apply some order to the shape of things. Still, I know you appreciate the context to a tale, so allow me to lay out the pieces.
Your servant,
Doren Staffended

-- Arrival
I could smell Cheesesplatter hours before I could see it. The pungent smell of too many animals entirely too close together choked all of us as we hacked our way through the dense underbrush. As we got closer, I feared we had arrived in the middle of a terrible siege. The sound of shrieks and roars grew louder with each step, and the smell was knocking the smaller flies out of the air. Spotting a break in the tree line, we crept up to the last line of bushes and peeked out. It seems obvious now that not much can be seen from under a bush, but we were quite ready to plant ourselves there until it was safe. The northern gate was open, and humans wandered freely in and out. This was, in our estimation, "Not Great, But Not The Worst". It wasn't until we saw a dwarf wander out that we worked up the nerve to approach. As we neared the walls, I noticed that the grass around the walls was packed with what looked like old branches and rags. As we approached the gate, we were met by a dwarf and a human. The standard greetings took several attempts, as we were constantly drowned out by whatever was making the noise inside the walls. When prodded for an explanation, the dwarf assured us there was no danger, that it was only "Feeding Time". Our host also advised us not to trip on the way into the fort: "You'll stab yourself to death".  Those sticks I had noticed? The bones from many battles. Your Majesty, this is where I got my first indication of true trouble. On top of the largest piles of bones were piles of dwarven armor, and bones still inside! How awful must the environment be if they can't even entomb their dead? I've bundled my own rendition of the scene around the walls.


And managed to badger a list of the (known?!) dead from Mayor.


-- While waiting for the caravan
Months have passed. I assumed I'd meet the caravan here and send back my report to Your Majesty. But the caravan never arrived. I've spent my time poking around, trying to better understand what is happening here. In my free moments, I've taken to wandering around and opening doors. This has lead to any number of surprises, some mundane, others terrible. An example of the latter:

My guide chases off a feral dog that was bothering the dead. These dwarves died of dehydration. No one I questioned can seem to remember what they were doing in there. Or why the door was locked from the outside. Or how come no one answered the days of banging as the dwarves... Well, best not to think on it too much.


-- I assume authority (as manager)
I could wait no longer, I had to take action! On the 17th of Timber, I cornered Mayor Zulban and demand he let me take responsibility for the fort. He was curiously calm about this? It seems this fort has the unusual custom of changing management on a yearly basis, and no one else was particularly interested at the time.

--- A note on Zulban and Edzul
Zulban is the stereotypical mayor. Friendly, optimistic, not too bright. Still, if you can put up with his endless efforts to 'align synergies and optimize competencies', he's not too bad.
Edzul is the (former) manager... that poor old girl. She puttered around her office in a iron helm and ratty vest, compulsively arranging the furniture, constantly suggesting the brewers make "A few more drinks". I suggested she take a break when I took over. When Zulban suggested a 'hand off period of shared responsibilty to acclimate me to the role', she punched him in the face. I'm not sure if it was the stress, or just Zulban. Probably Zulban.

-- Reorganizing labors and military
After a brief meeting with the local organizers, I've asked the most talented dwarves to take true ownership of their roles. Most agreed, as long as 'they were out of the rain'.

--- A note on "rain":
Imagine the ominous feel of the first few pebbles from a cave-in. Then make them cold and wet and able to penetrate any clothing you have on. Then make them endless. If your conscience will allow it, give them a hostile, malign intelligence and wings like a fly. They may move in ANY direction at LUDICROUS speeds, the better to strike you in the eye between blinks or to choke you when breathing! They swarm in the low places of the land, creating 'puddles' that turn ordinary dirt into a boot-eating slurry. Everyone I have questioned here has a story of the time they were trapped outside with the rain, and few were better for it.

--- Not everyone was pleased
Your Majesty, we have thousands of urists of drinks and food, all waiting for the caravan.  I wish I could say all your citizens were pleased to continue this endless production on the foodstuffs the Deephold desires. But not everyone was happy to learn that food and drink production would resume, especially given the existing stores.


Unfortunately, we were unable to reason with the dwarf, and in the end, only the most drastic measures stopped his rants about 'food can have more than four ingredients'.


Others were even less subtle that they consider their debts to the Deephold paid:



----
Some OOC notes:
It's been a while since I've done any creative writing, so please bear with me. I'm trying for one update a season.
Content is written from the perspective of an autumn 255 migrant, Doren Nomallushon.
Hopefully, no one is too attached to the animals. We have over three hundred, and the fps (on my computer) is struggling. They're going to find "a new home on the farm" very soon.

Hopefully no one minds if I bump this thread. Fingers crossed for death by dragon.

It looks like it's Imic's turn?

Year 6: Immortal-D (5/5 - 5/19)
Year 7: The_Saladman (5/19 - 6/2)
Year 8: SQman (6/2 - 6/16)
Year 9: Imic (6/16 - 6/30)
Year 10: Japa? (6/30 - 7/14)

Speaking of next player!
Add me.