Bay 12 Games Forum

I've had this fort running for a few years in-game and I've never even seen humans or elves, let alone goblins. I've sometimes seen library visitors start to approach the fort, then turn tail and run back to the edge of the map before choosing a new path, but the only thing in the area I'd consider even remotely hostile is clouds of mosquitoes, which can be easily pathed around and never go anywhere near the trade depot. The only combat reports I can find are from my hunters.

Is it possible that the caravan made it all the way to my depot, suddenly noticed some mosquitoes half a mile away, and fled? I really can't think of anything else on the map that could've scared them off.

Discovered that I forgot to set up leathermaking in my new fort when the fort's first mood, a possessed child, started sulking in a workshop demanding leather. Got the industry set up ASAP, then slaughtered a baby donkey by mistake and got no skin. Eventually I got the kid her materials, and in return she produced a sand pear wood mug adorned with images of iguanas in dog leather.

In other news, the newly-minted military will have some bone bolts to train with in the near future.

I'm at a point with my new fortress where I have enough dwarfpower to cover most tasks with a handful of folks left over, and the idea of having idle dwarves so early on bothers me, so I've started a massive public works project to smooth all the stone in the fort. Anybody whose skills don't match current fortress requirements gets stoneworking labors turned on and gets sent to work beautifying the dormitory wing until we get more workshops set up.

Very cool idea for a thread. I'll add on the tale of four necromancers from my newly-generated world.

Early in the world's history, a human woman named Asa Whisperwater abandons her husband and fourteen children to become an apprentice to the dwarven necromancer Egul Skinnytoothed, moving into his spiffy new tower to the south, Icedoomed. She writes many books and rejects many apprentices because she prefers to work alone (save for Egul, evidently).

Egul Skinnytoothed learned the secrets of necromancy a few decades prior from an elf named Thili Beacharm, and the apparent impetus was Egul losing twelve different footraces in his hometown and fleeing from two different dragons in combat. Evidently he took all that failure a bit hard and decided he'd have all the time in the world to improve, or to summon minions to do the hard work for him. Nowadays he mostly just writes books.

Thili Beacharm, as far as I can tell, is the original necromancer. The very first one. There aren't many necromancers in this world, and Thili is the only one who isn't listed as having learned the secrets from a fellow mortal. I can't actually find a listing of when he became a necromancer, but he starts churning out books around Year 6, so he apparently took the leap before the world was even a decade old. Thili resides in his own tower, Spikeflea, on a different landmass to the west.

The fourth necromancer of note is a human man named Ubo Whisperwater. He's the eldest (and only surviving) child of Asa, suggesting that perhaps an inclination to necromancy runs in the family. Interestingly, he does not end up brought into necromancy by either his mother Asa or her mentor Egul - maybe he resents his mother's abandonment, or maybe she preferred to work alone. Instead, he somehow finds himself on the western landmass and becomes an apprentice of Thili, taking up residence in Spikeflea. Along the way he briefly becomes a bard and writes a few poems, which I'm sure were excellent practice for the apparent necromancy endgame of just writing a million books and showing them to your friends for all eternity.

Dear Urist McCarpenter,

I know starting a new fortress is exhausting work, and I know you're very tired after hauling everything in from the wagon, but if you could stay awake for five minutes and place the bed you just made, you could have a much better rest than if you just step out of your workshop and plop down in the dirt. I'm not saying you have to, but if you spend the next five years dwelling on how uncomfortable you were sleeping on the ground, I'm not going to be pleased.

That's what I'm thinking, yeah. As far as I can tell the game doesn't necessarily need to be on a computer, since it has no installation process.

Presumably any member of a civ is eligible for migration, native or otherwise. However there are generally so many civ members that your odds of getting a specific one are pretty low. I've never personally seen it happen, but I don't see why it wouldn't be possible.