Bay 12 Games Forum

1st slate
Today started out most wonderfull, alas it didn't last long. I had just finished some complex calculations, and was busy reading some scientific articles when I was most rudely interupted. Out of nowhere, Dumat Pagepartnered the clothier stormed into my office. He was screaming like an idiot and completely naked except for a piece of ornamented clothing that barely covered his manly parts. With a fieverish look in his eyes, he told me he had come to show me his "muscle of laboring" and reached for his underwear. I had him removed from my office at once. I can't wait till the cell blocks are finished.

8th of granite:
The entire fortress smells like rotting fish. Piles of rotting trout and raw turtles are everywhere, The heaps of decomposing flesh may offer a plausible explanation for the stories about the undead fish that are supposed to haunt this fortress, the smell is horrible, and could easily kill a dwarf with a lesser constitution. The dwarves happily toss freshly caught fish onto these piles, but nobody seems to process them further.  -Fascinating but highly puzzling behaviour....
After investigating as to why, I am told that the only fishery is in the flooded section of the fortress, and out of order. Also, the military who are on training duty are milling about on the first floor, doing nothing. They can't even tell me where their barracks are, nor can anybody else. What's more: the grand dining rooms off the fortress are not designated as such, and dwarves are complaining about a lack of chairs and tables. Fascinating... This place truly lives up to the stories told about it in the mountainhomes. On the upside, I have read some interesting scientific reports by "the engineering guild" a group who worked under the command of last years ruler. It includes a wonderfull report about the causes of an exploding trade caravan, and another one about a huge flood, that also took place last year. The engineering guild seems to be glad to help me in setting up some experiments. I do not yet fill them in on all the details.

11th of granite:
An elven trade caravan arrives.
As mentioned before, the dwarven mind is still an unsolved puzzle to scientists. The elven mind, though, is a far greater mystery. Scienctists have long debated about what the heck is wrong with these creatures. The question has always remained unanswered. Cerol, our trader mannages to somehow offend them by offering an item that has apparently been crafted using wood. Half the stuff the elves are carrying is made out of wood, which by any scientific test, is not different from what we are offering. The elves seem to have an even lower opinion of scientific explanation and facts than my fellow dwarves, and explain my very reasonable response as a grave insult. The elven trader starts to cry and runs of to see the elven diplomat who is discussing politics with the baron right now. oh dear.   

16th of granite
The engineering guild, who are busy on some preparations for some experiments I have planned near the west tower, report that they have spotted a large group of marksgoblins that revealed themselves by ambushing some skeletal deer. The goblins are now moving towards the fortress. I order all the dwarves to go inside.

18th of granite
Robin, who has apparently ignored the orders to stay inside, is ambushed by another group of goblins on the south side of the fortress, he is immediately shot in the head by a marksgoblin, but is stil alive. A nearby hunter, Thob Taxinked, tries to rescue the former leader, but he too, is shot in the head, the injury proves immediately fatal for him. Robin tries to escape, but weakened, he can not outrun the goblins and is torn to pieces.

The goblin squad storms the trade depot gates, where the assembled military is waiting, the goblins do not stand a chance against the trained military.

The elven diplomat picks this exact moment to walk out of the trade depot gate, screaming several insults at members of the dwarven race. He decides to cross the damn, fleeing towards the elven forests that lie downstream of Halltraded. While doing so he promptly runs into the other goblin squad who are just crossing the damn from the other side, and is hit by a barrage of missiles.

Absolutely pincushioned he keeps crawling on and even makes it almost across the damn, before bleeding to death. This gives the dwarves off Halltraded an idea, the elven traders are still inside the fortress, even though they are preparing to leave (because of the "Insult"). The military retreats to positions deeper in the fortress while the trade depot gates are left wide open. The goblins enter trought the gates, but just before they arrive, the elven traders decide to leave through the back door of the fortress, leaving the front door wide open. The military quickly rushes in to kill the goblins, and a quick victory is achieved. All dwarves are cheering and yelling and all eyes go towards Bim Nuttabey the North healer of Charm, leader of the halltraded military, known for singlehandedly killing 32 goblins, Beancities the skeletal carp, and 48 other undead horrors. By tradition he will give one of his famous victory speeches. The shock is great, when Bim suddenly collapses, clutching his chest. All nearby dwarves rush to his aid, but their fearsome captain has taken a goblin arrow in his heart, and can not be saved. Halltraded will mourn his passing, and the passing of its former leader Robin.

 

1st Granite:
I... I made it to Halltraded. The journey has been...demanding.  I will however not allow emotions to take over from reason and logic, and will thus keep my description of the journey short and stick to the facts: I am the living, scientific proof that a dwarf, when properly motivated, can outrun a skeletal sturgeon, if properly motivated. The absence of my two lab assistents, who started out on this journey with me, is scientific proof that a dwarf may need some help in slowing down the undead to have a fair chance of escaping. Nobody said that being a lab assistant is a good job.

2nd Granite:
I have come to the conclusion that it will be much easier to set up my experiments if I am in a position of power. By bribing the right dwarves I have achieved just that, they have agreed to make me leader for a year. My knowledge of dwarven psychology has been most usefull, it only took a moderate quantity of booze.

4th Granite:
I have found out that the position of leader for this fortress is mostly symbolical. There is no justice system whatsoever, and no way to properly enforce my demands. Scientific experimentation requires a controlled environment, and I have decided to create just that. I have ordered the dwarves to dig out cell blocks, and appartments for a captain of the guard. The hammerer, Kivish Scrapedmachine, has been exstatic ever since he heard the news.
Do not misunderstand me, the complete anarchy of Halltraded is a fascinating subject worth studying, but it will take time to finish the cellblocks, and appoint a sherrif. I will thus have plenty of time to study the current chaos. I have ordered Urist to make a list of dwarves that have outstanding punishments:


Apparently Urist has been a bit to thorough, he even listed all the dead dwarves. The mental state of the inhabitants of this fortress is truly fascinating...

suggestion: generate a world... Post the exported image/map of it... We all vote on start and end squares, then you start and abandon fortresses on them to mark the start and finish lines... You could leave us some basic gear...

And we could just use play now humans.
We'd all have a level playing field in terms of starting gear and no over land trek just to get to the starting line.
Wagon to wagon!

I like this suggestion, for the finish line we may not need a fortress, we could pick another landmark like a volcano, and make up a quest involving that landmark, for example: The player has to take a golden ring from the start site all the way to this specific volcano, and has to trow it in, LOTR style.
One advantage of not having a finish fortress would be that a start now player would always start at the right site.

The caravan used to build the start site could be empty or could carry specific items we want the player to have. objects that can't be added to the caravan like clothes a human could wear could be added before the save is uploaded by a human adventurer. (otherwise you'll have to start naked, which can be nasty depending on temperature and on how far the nearest human settlement is) this adventurer could also drop the golden ring, or other quest items. I would however not give the player a full set of armor at the start of the game, it would be fun if the player has to gather some items himself to increase his chances of survival.

First, I'm still having great fun with the mod, I just found out it actually has real magic weapons, very cool.

About the bug reported above:I had the exact same thing happen: an elven trade caravan, with a liason +river trolls, and steel items.

Also , another bug:
In adventure mode I walked up to an avari village (walked there, did not use travel) when getting close, I got a message "The glumprong wagon has been scuttled"  Upon visiting the temple I found the wreckage of the wagon, several levels below the entrance of the temple, ( all that remained was a large pile of trade goods) I've never before seen a trade wagon in adventure mode, maybe they are supposed to spawn, but it seems somewhat buggy to me. The place inside the temple where I found the trade goods was too small to hold a wagon, probably explaining why it got destroyed, also the wagon appears to be a human trade wagon , as my human adventurer can wear the armor found within, and all the stuff appears to be engraved with pictures of human warriors and leaders.

Also Avari that are wounded will attempt to fly and will occasionally lose consiousness, causing them to fall and take dammage. the same town had some priest commiting suicide by this method. This may be hard to fix though.

Ah, good to hear ,

Try and post something soon, it doesn't have to be the whole story at once, but a small teaser would be nice 

The ghost of Bralbaard haunts Halltraded:

"updates, updates... I need updates! that, and a good drink.."