Bay 12 Games Forum

And yet, one that could have been so easily avoided. How long has he been wandering around?

Is there any way to automatically raise objects from one z-level to another?

I'm not sure how hot it would have to be to get rid of contaminants, or if it's possible to remove them without burning dwarves as well, but could one place burning items or magma either right next to or directly above/below the tiles that would be dirty? (The magma would of course be only above/below.) I remember hearing that heat travels through floors and such, to the point that materials will melt if they are sitting on a floor above magma for too long.

The water might be a problem. Dwarves will travel through 3/7 with no problem, but will not touch 4/7 or more under any circumstances, in my experience. I'm not sure how he could have gotten into the pool in the first place, but it's possible that a little more water flowed in afterwards and the new water is stopping him from getting back out, while the fact that he's still in only 3/7 is keeping him from thinking he's drowning and swimming out himself. Convoluted, but possible I think.

Or maybe This thing

How did you do that? I guess the regeneration thing might be doable, but did you just leave the whole mutation thing out?

A bit of an old one this. Not particularly relevant to elements of the new versions, but kind of funny.

The curious incident of the demon in the wartime

On the fifteenth of Felsite of the year 10, a second vile force of darkness arrives. I quickly order the dwarves to stay in the fortress (luckily, all were already inside due to the large amount of labor necessary in hauling spare clothing to the trading depot to offload onto the elves) and lock all doors to the inside. I take a look at the invaders, noting that this time they had brought trolls and ogres, so I might need the second bridge I'd built as an extra precaution over the back door. I take a moment to order the levers that control these bridges pulled, and then return to my searching.
Along with about sixty assorted goblin lashers and hammer men, I see something called Snun Tospasuspsast, master. Curious, I view the creature.

An enormous eyeless lizard twisted into humanoid form. It has a bloated body. It's crimson scales are blocky and overlapping. Beware its poisonous sting! He is of average size.

I ignore the obvious contradiction inherent to the description, being used by now to artifacts which are engraved with images of themselves. I take a moment and look up the tileset on the wiki.

I return to dwarf fortress, hoping that, even if I don't survive, I can at least lose in a spectacular way.
Realising that this might not be the best attitude to have, I take a break for a few moments to pull myself together, ready to hold out for even more Fun in the future rather than settle for what little is available now. I'm not sure at this point exactly what demons can do, it being my personal policy that I not look up the details of creatures until after I've survived them or they've killed me. I assume for the moment that they are immune to traps and building destroyers, correctly as I saw later. At the moment, assuming it cannot fly due to a lack of wings, it has three potential entrance points: the front and back doors, and a door leading into a channeled out section beneath my front door. The last of these should not be a problem unless the demon either jumps off the cliff on the side of the channeled out side or is somehow knocked in. Just in case, I set a bridge to be built just inside the door. I unpause the game, spend a minute or so ordering my miners about, then check back on the surface to see what has happened. I notice that the front door has been broken by one of the trolls, though the bridge behind it is raised and intact, and that the demon is slowly advancing on the fortress. I also note, with some alarm, that the bridge in front of my back door isn't closed. I check the levers I had assigned pulled just in case, and both had indeed been pulled. I order the backdoor-bridge lever to be pulled again just in case. After a dwarf pulls it I wait a few moments, and still nothing happens. Deciding that there's no time to waste, I order the dismantling of the bridge and the construction of a new one a few tiles below it. I assign six dwarfs the mechanics, masonry and building design labors and turn off all the others to speed up time. I wait, my breath coming a little shorter and faster with every passing step, until the bridge is built and I order it linked to the lever that I had thought matched the old bridge. As I wait for this to take effect, I feverishly pound at the keyboard, ordering all three squads of military dwarves to the door, pulling all nonmilitary and nonmason/architect/mechanic dwarves deeper in the fortress. To save a little time I order some cheesemakers and waxworkers to carry doors down ahead of the bridge, hoping that if they didn't manage to construct the doors in time they could at least delay the demon a little in their death. At last the mechanic finishes his job, and I order the lever pulled. And the bridge retracts. At this point, all my hysteria drains away, replaced with a sort of cold acceptance that I've lost. I notice, uncaringly, that I had forgotten to release the cheesemakers and waxworkers from the burrow, as indicated by the numerous 'Urist McExpendable cancels construct Door' announcements crossing the bottom of the screen. I release the military from their task, deciding to allow them some last happy moments of freedom before the end.
I wait a few moments.
It occurs to me to wonder why the demon hasn't attacked yet.
I search the map. It doesn't appear to be on ground level. Wondering if it could indeed fly, I check to see if it was already slaughtering my dwarves, having flown in through a hole I'd made earlier in the roof to prevent cave adaptation. There are no reports of fighting, but I check the mountain anyway. Apart from a few stray trolls, a squad of goblins that seemed lost and a few stray yaks (tame) that had somehow avoided slaughter, there was nothing. Thoroughly confused, I checked the front door of my fortress. It was still closed tight. Finally, wondering if it had fled for some reason, I search through the units screen. I find it, and press c.

It was sitting at the bottom of a murky pool.

I wait for a few moments. It doesn't seem to be moving. I pause, set orders for my dwarves to build a new bridge, then return to the demon and resume play.

It sits there for about five minutes.

Not quite sure what to make of this, I decide to risk sending my military to attack a squad of goblin lashers that were wandering around their caged leader. They kill them without trouble and return to the fortress. I check up on the construction of the bridge, note that it is finished, and connect a lever to it. As the mechanic is at work, I see the last squad of goblins come in through the back door and run straight into my weapon traps. None of them is especially injured, and I am almost insulted when I check the reports to see how easily they dodged or blocked the best weapons I could forge. I lock the door leading into the fortress (not interrupting my mechanic, since the door is on the other side of the bridge I am working on) and the goblins turn around and walk right back through the weapon traps, taking a bit more damage. Ignoring them for the moment, I check the demon again, and see it still sitting at the bottom of the pool.
I decide that the best thing to do is to try and build a floor over the pond, trapping the demon inside. I'm still not sure what that would mean for the siege, but I could then spend a few years training up my military to finally kill it, or else digging down to the caverns so I can gather some spider webs and cage it. I release all my masons from the burrow, order my military to stand around the pond looking menacing, and order the masons to construct floors over the pond. I look for the last goblin squad, just in case they are still a danger, and see that they have fled the map and that the siege tag was gone. Disappointed, I note that the demon has also managed to pull itself away from the bottom of the pool and escape. I sadly cancel my military and mason's orders, and remove my citizens from the burrow.

So do creatures air-drown immediately upon being beached, or do they actually need to run out of breath first? If it's the second it shouldn't be too hard to make sure that a 7/7 chunk of water falls often enough to keep them happy.