There was a cougar running around the the property of Bootlashes, my fortress. It's the first relatively-dangerous thing I've had (I was told it could mess up war dogs and unarmed civilians pretty well), so I've been sending newbie hunters after it for the laughs (not saving, though -- I can't really afford to have anyone dead right now, and I'd rather they die of some freak accident or something seeking them out themselves to kill them). Neither have any sort of armor, only one has a weapon, and their combat experience is just killing some cute little groundhogs.
First one was a planter/woodcutter type, so he was dragging his axe around when he started to chase down the cougar. 'Kooks' Knighturns could not make the first strike, however, and the cougar instead swiped at his right leg, breaking it, before Kooks stunned it with a quick hit. After the creature recovered, it leapt upon the hapless woodcutter...just to have its right front leg completely cut off. As my friend said when I told him this, a leg for a leg. The cougar passed out from the shock and pain, and Kooks finished him off where he was.
I had to leave before I could see just how he intended to get home with a broken leg and a dead cougar, though, which was a bit disappointing.
In what was meant to be the other alternate timeline (more on that in the end), I sent 'Jason' Esteemroughness to go after it instead (I had originally tried to send both of them, but Jace backed out while I wasn't paying attention and instead worked on making rock mechanics for my puny stone traps). A note on him is that he is a farmer-type, a mere novice at fighting, and completely unarmed. He's previously run into a wolf pack and singled out one to fight barehanded, and only had a tiny scratch on his leg as a result. That was one wolf, with the whole pack scattered. This is something that broke the leg of someone who had a weapon. What follows is something of a blow-by-blow, with my own
very serious interpretation of the injuries.
Jason gets the first strike this time, hurting the left front leg rather badly and stunning the cougar, then proceeds to jump it, probably to kick it to death or something. The cougar, while, stunned, managed to stun him with a sudden nip at a hand, which managed to cut up his second finger a bit. Maybe you shouldn't
leap on a prone cougar and make yourself prone, Jaceface. Then again, it was his middle finger*, so maybe he was just telling it where to stick its claws and it backfired.
*I think the thumb counts as a finger here, actually, so it'd be the index finger. I like this way better and I forgot to get screenshots of the injured finger so I will insist it was the middle finger.They lie there like idiots for a bit before Jace recovers and hits it a few times, but finally decides that maybe fighting a giant cat on the ground is a bad idea, and gets up and backs off. Kitty Cat recovers as he does so, but Jason is a badass farmer and just smacks it in the head and gives it a mild concussion, leaving it sick to its stomach. Of note is that Jason's finger apparently stopped bleeding in the middle of the fight. Sweet.
From here on out, Jason just pummels the thing, knocking it out after some time with a direct strike on the head and continuing to totally wreck its limp form.
These were the injuries before it finally expired (the second screenshot is older, but the brain, nose, liver, and stomach didn't sustain more damage). He takes it home and then proceeds to hunt down a groundhog because I forgot to turn off the hunting labor before he ran away again.
tl;dr -- In an alternate timeline, a cougar broke an armed lumberjack's leg and merely lost one of his own before dying. In the now-real timeline, an unarmed farmer-wrestler punched it until it died messily and only had a bloody
index middle finger as a result (from flipping it off, no doubt).
With that done, I'm finally getting to work on making armor. You know, in case I want to hunt cougars or something. They're all being made out of wood, bone, or leather, though -- I haven't found ore yet for metal (I found a cluster of something, but I have no clue what to do with it to get whatever that cluster contains). The supply wagon the intro mentioned is still a few months away from arriving (and I suspect I may have to trade for said supplies), and no migrants want to come into such a dumpy, unimportant place. This is my first fortress ever, and it's been a crash course of trying to figure out just what the heck I should do. Still pretty fun, and not the losing kind of fun. Yet. I want to get ambushed or something -- I know who'll be leading my military then.
I dunno. All this is small fries compared to what else happens in other games, but it's awesome for a newbie like me.
