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Ahah ! Snaggrips is a pleasant hearing name TBO
So, you are truong to replicate my year ?
You dont HAVE to if its too tough

I don't have remotely any time nor motivation to replay the turn right now.
Lot of effort went into roleplaying this, and just letting the year roll would be weird.

Here is the save at  182-04-02, in case someone wants a 8 months turn.
Otherwize, just reroll the year. I'm okay with it.

If you decide to play on 02/04/182, this is what I have done so far :
- got a were-pig-ghoul
- fixed the Tall Bar mechanisms (I think... might still be WIP)
- got 2 ospreymen ghouls
- wood-work area done
- some QOL fixes

have not done :
- turned our militia ghoulish
- got no troghoulytes
- have not killed Pelese
- got no siege. So morale is probably higher.
- the merchants still love us


SAVE AT APRIL


Whatever happens, I'm okay with ! On a roleplay standpoint, it could all have been some sort of nightmare.
GLHF for the next guys !

After the immense massacre that just happened, Flesh was omnipresent in SmallHands...



The meat piles were just too many.
Our 30 dwarves would not be able to recycle all of the tissues before rot would set in.
I was on a tightly timed schedule.

I had to prioritize who and what I would ressurect.

---

Surprisingly, only 5 dwarves, of lesser importance, fell during the attack.
Id, Onget, Urvad, Astesh and 'Reg' (who actually died of his wounds later in the hospital) were the only casualties.

Well, obviously, I had to reward the warriors of their courage. And so I did :



I brought their bodies back to life !
I am so proud of my past experimentations !
I now know a lot about ressurection, and (thanks to me) the warriors were quickly brought back to a satisfactory life-form.


You do not die so easily in SmallHands...

---

After several days of work, the dwarves finally brought me the bodies of some of the attackers.
I successfully conducted yet another ressurection process :



I placed these beautiful Specimens in the rooms near the Troghoulytes


I did not know it at the time, but these Trolls would be the last ghouls I would produce before SmallHands' inhabitants would banish me...

---

Because you see, according to the dwarves, my activities this year were not that "exemplary"...

I disrupted graves.
I ressurected their fallen ennemies.
I experimented with dead tissues, and dissected body parts.
Some say I enthralled Id, Onget, Urvad, Astesh and 'Reg', whose new lives were (and I quote) : "not quite what they were before"
And it is true that the fortress was filled with Miasma and that bodies parts could be seen in every room.

Indeed.
I must admit I was not very high in the dwarves' hearts...

But I believe that this ...



... was the tipping point after which they really started to openly hate me.

---

My work was about to be complete.
I had made so much progress. I had come up with a variation in the ressurection process that I needed to test.
I was about to make the breakthrough I longed for.
All I needed was access to some extra-freshly-killed dwarves

When I saw the dwarven caravan pilling up in the room near my water-drowning-machine, I just knew the time had come to experiment again !



I closed the access doors to the Depot. I pulled the lever.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
In the merchants' lungs,
the water flew.



But, at my utter disconted, I would not be given the chance to gather the promising bodies.
This was the last straw for the dwarves.

Despite all my great work ! Despite all the progress we made together !
I got banished forthwith of SmallHands...

The militia's forlorn Ghouls drew their weapons.
They had ME, THEIR CREATOR as their target !!!
I was "politely asked to leave".

I ran for the hills.
Never to see this place again.

---

What would happen to me now ? I do not yet know...
I am leaving this wonderful place with a bitter taste in my mouth.

The only testimony of my reign in SmallHands would be the Ghouls Chambers, whose denizen will inhabit forever...



I wish I could have filled the remaining empty rooms. But my presence is no longer allowed here.
If given more time and bodies, I would have made the discovery I anticipated.

If only the dwarves were less obtuse...


...


Time to go now !
Farewell, and praise the Ghouls !

---

OOC :

-> Ahah !!


-> @Recon : you prooved priceless in the battle against the gobos :


-> This is our unit list at the end of the year :
==> We now control 9 citizen Ghouls. And we have 36 ghouls pets, 27 of which are Troghoulytes.
This is a good improvement from the mere 2 we had at the start of the year !


-> None of the drowned merchants could ressurect AT ALL (not even in zombie form)
The outpost liaison I could only get a Zombie, no Ghouls (might be by lack of luck)

-> I deconstructed the Trade Depot to fix some broken merchants.
I assigned it for reconstruction, but the dwarf has to move every single item out of the way first.
At the rate he's going, it could take months to do... The Trade Depot is henceforth not built yet.

-> We have 2 unhappy dwarves :
   - 'FEVERED armorsmith'. A level 19 armor guy. Is stumbling obliviously, and is probably doomed. But I assigned him armorsmithing duties.
   - 'Malfoy'. StressLevel is at 20,500. I assigned him to produce bone bolts. Maybe he can be saved.

I died again, well shit.

-> No, you did not. You are a lvl 18 Farmer. Safe and alive (though you have Fever).

-> I have fixed the Tall Bar's windows and windmills problems

-> The military probably needs a little revamp

-> The GooHive is still filled with corpses. I locked the doors and bridges.

-> Which reminds me, the GooHive is utter garbage for defense against attackers.
At the very least, you should make all of the Hive crushing bridges (not only the end).
We could also add a bridge at the ending side of the Hive (right now, it's just doors, so Trolls can enter the fortress)

-> Praise the Ghouls.


HERE IS THE SAVE :

EDIT : IT LOOKS LIKE THIS IS NO THE CORRECT SAVE.
I'm LOOKING FOR IT.......

Winter... Well...
Winter was harsh...



Our dreaded ennemy, the Goblins, besieged us on a cold Timber morning...
They arrived in large numbers.


Scouts counted roughly 150 foes. Amongst whom were trolls, beak dogs, humans, and goblins.
With our mere 10 competent soldiers, we were vastly outnumbered.

---

Following my predecessors' strategies of war, I ordered the lever of the Tall Bar pulled.
That would allow a warm consumption of the Ennemies' tissues.
While this method would mean I would loose the perfectly potent bodies of the attackers, it seemed to be the safest plan.

Given the threat, It was okay to waste all the fresh material.
I asked a dwarf to get in the Tall Bar, and release the Magma.

---

Sadly, what my predecessors did not account for was the fact that no one was in the Tall Bar right then.
Someone had to walk up the stairs, WHICH WERE NEAR GLASS WINDOWS FOR SOME STUPID REASON !

The dwarves walked the stairs.
They gazed outside and saw the Ennemy...
... And they were too scared to trigger the Magma release and turned back !

I was very, very, annoyed...

---

When someone eventually found the courage to release Death on the besiegers, it was already too late...
The living tissues had found a way into the fortress through an un-protected opening !



And while some of them got killed by our few traps, the majority of them went into the infamous GooHive ...

---

At this point, I had no choice.

The GooHive led straight to the fortress...
The invaders were coming toward us, probably to steal my beloved Forlorn Ghouls !
I HAD to defend my Troghoulytes ! And I had to defend SmallHands !

I ordered all SmallHands' warriors to station in the GooHive and wait for impact.

---

The Trolls were the first wave to strike !
But the warriors were ready...

Chaos unsued :


Suffering only two losses (excluding cats), the dwaves won the battle :


The warriors bodies did not sustain any major injury.
They would be ressurected later if given the chance.

---

The second wave promised more deadly :



A vast force of intelligent goblins, riding Beak Dogs, was approaching.
I ordered the exausted warriors to retreat at the start of the GooHive.


My predecessors told me the Hive had a secret bridge crushing weapon.
I waited for the goblins to approach, and used it to splatter about half of the invaders.

But the rest of them had to be fought one-on-one...

This image does not give the actual chaos justice, but blows were given on both sides :


Look at all these colours !
If our warriors manage victory, I would have many fresh corpses at my disposal !

---

The smoke cleared...
The Surface went silent...

---

We...
We've won ?

We have achieved victory !
But we suffered many losses.

And the Surface is littered with Death :


The corpses cannot be wasted !
I have a loooot of work to do !



OOC :
Thanks for the positive feedbacks !

Final update tomorrow.

After the Necropolis' materials got wasted, I needed to make sure I was not doing things wrong.
I was doubting my abilities to produce usefull undeads. I needed to proove myself I was competent.

Yet, this failure made me realize two things :
- Dwarves are complex beings. Their bodies need to be extra-fresh for proper ghoulification. Timing is of highest importance.
- Lesser beings, not as complex (such as Osprey men, or wereswines) don't need this super quality. They can be raised even years after death, and even with dried living tissues.

During Fall, I would conduct two experiments to confirm these theories.

---

The first experiment would involve freshly killed dwarves.
Namely, Dôbar and Ast, proud citizens, of SmallHands :



Errr, "Children citizens of Smallhands", would be a more accurate term.

I had to assure a clean death.
The water reservoir above the room, and the vital need of air of the children, helped me achieve this.



Just like that, I had acquired two bodies of prime quality !

And when the smoke cleared :



These were Sentient Ghouls !
And they were part of Smallhands' unit list.




The ghoul-lings walked out of the room, playing "make believe", as if nothing happened.
I will keep a close eye on them, especially on the older one, who is 11 yos.
I wonder how he will age...

---

For my second theory, about the futility of freshness for lesser sapien, I had to dig into long forgotten tunnels.

This ...



... was Gold to my eyes.
In the many layers of the caves, I could see the bodies of : Trolls, Blind Cave Ogres, Maneras, Troglodytes, Gorlak, Reachers, and more !
Bringing this pile back to my studying chamber would ensure months of research !

I had to loot the Cavern of its treasures !
I had to take it !

---

Yet, there was one difficulty




Behold : Pelese.
A towering crocodile. A monster. An abomination of Nature. It should not be allowed to live.
It was old, and wounded, and had lurked Smallhands for years, yet it was scary and monstrous.

I ordered the military to kill it.



I enthralled the troops :

"Warriors, do not fear Death ! Any fallen brethren will be brought back amongst his pairs !
Just take care of your head, I can salvage the rest !"

My speech must have motivated them. Pelese stood no chance.



Recon claimed the kill.
With its guardian gone. The Caverns were mine to loot.

---

Some time has passed.
It took several days for the dwarves to recover the biomass and put it in the REZ chamber.
But, as daunting a task, it was worth it.
It was very, VERY worth it.

I mean, just look at all the worth :



For unexplainable reasons, only the Troll, and the Troglodytes were risen.



But this was more than I could have hoped for.
I managed to raise years and years of Pelese's kills.

These Troghoulytes (as I like to call them), are alive thanks to me.
If given the time to think about their new life, they will surely realize this, proove faithful and bind to me.

I did order a large network of rooms dug for the newly born Troghoulytes, and for the other ghouls to come.
There, they would stay, for future interrogation, and study.

It was an easy task to trap the wild Troghoulytes in their room.
I simply caged them and tossed them inside from an opening above :


Wonderful.
There, they would stay, as magnificent witty beings.




Smallhands' ghoul population was increasing.


OOC

1/

Is bringing back the age of myths a bad thing?

No. It's purely cosmetic.

2/

So what are you gonna do with all them undead?

Officially, study them.
Hope they regain senses, and that maybe we could turn them to join SmallHands forces.

For real, we put them in glorified prison cells and leave them there forever.
They act as the official Fortress mascotts !

Ghouls retain their former allegiance. So "wild animals" stay wild
Yet, maybe we could use the throwing Pits to feed the Trolls-forlorn-ghouls invaders ?
Or maybe we could put them in an alternative goo-hive for defense, IDK, your call.


3/ We are at war with the humans The merchants did not show up, and I could not test my drowning machine on them. Pity.

4/ What are the settings for visitors ? None showed up.
Did you previous overseers ever had any ?
Maybe it's because we don't have any public librairie / inn ?

END OF OOC

9 months into the year.
Something unexpected happened that will probably change the way I'll tale my story.
With christmas coming, I might only be able to tale it next Monday.


Don't panic, we endure.
At least I'll have materials for study, I guess.
That Googhive is impossible to defend BTW, and FPS are at 5 ^^'


EDIT : lol

The freshly raised ghoul, whose name was Kol, was put in a nice little room.



He was sealed away from society, as previous logs indicated he was actually cursed to take a swine form every moonlight !
And, as expected :



After some time in quarantine, I interrogated him.
I tried to persuade him to join our forces and contribute to SmallHands' greatness.
He did not comply.

Fine !
May he rot forever in his shiny prison !

---

Now ! I'm starting to grow bored of raising non-useful undeads.
I really need to focus on more interresting races.


I had other plans.
I had to act swiftly.

I needed to acquire a large quantity of sentient tissues for my large scale experiment.

The fortress' necropolis was what I had in mind.
After all, the sheer amount of material buried right there was astonishing.

---

A group of dwarves volunteers helped me in my task.
During a night, I sent them in the Necropolis.
As I instructed them to, they dug the graves, and extracted the partially conservated bodies.




This pile of promising body parts was less fresh than I originaly thought.
But I had to proceed quickly before sunrise !
I believe the residents would not approve that I disturbe their deads like that. But it had to be done for the Greater Good.


The bodies were in place.




If my calculations were correct. I could bring back to this world almost 40 forlorn ghouls.
After that, my fame would be set.



The Necromancer gestured.
Some noise could be heard in the ghoulification chamber.
My success was near.


No ...



No no noooo noooooo !!!

---

....

---

I regained my senses...

As it turned out, the specimen I excavated were not fresh enough.
None of them gave anything remotely satisfying.
All this potential had been wasted by previous overseers. Had they risen the bodies on time...

I destroyed the now wasted materials and called it a night.

I thought about what to do next.
I had some promising ideas...