Bay 12 Games Forum

I have a strange problem. I lost my militia commander in a raid of a goblin fortress, where she got captured, so I tried to send the rest of her squad to rescue her.

When the squad eventually returned, only one of the spearmasters actually returned (empty-handed). The rest of them is still marked as travelling. I made a copy of the work, retired the fortress and looked up where they are. Apparently, they settled in a human hamlet literally on the other side of the world (way to the goblin fortress: four days south to north, way to the hamlet: nine days travel from east to west).

Nothing in their mission report mentions this. I would expect them to at least be removed from the squad when they settle elsewhere. I tried to send the remaining squad member on the rescue mission again, hoping the others would return once he returns, but again he returned alone. He didn't even rescue the militia commanderf (even though he managed to slip in and out of the goblin fortress undetected).

So what did happen here? I read about similar cases, where the whole party did not return because of some war dog that stayed behind, but in these cases, no one returned and they did not settle elsewhere. How do I get my elite squad back, and how do I rescue my militia commander?

A few weeks ago, human merchants arrived at the dwarven metropolis Idbal. There was the usual message that the merchants arrived, and no message that their wagons bypassed the site, since the trade depot is accessible.

However, no wagons arrived. The traders with pack animals walked to the trade depot and started unloading... but never finished unloading. All of the traders and pack animals arrived at the depot some days ago, but I still can't trade. My guess is that they are waiting for the wagons.

Is this a (known) bug? How can I fix it?

Happening right now. The Mountainhomes Volalrërith, "Whitechaos" is experiencing enormous amounts of cave-ins. The reason? A forest fire.

Just beneath the surface are indoor pastures with sheep. Directly one layer down: more sheep and kangaroos. Next: Giant Tiger pens. Then: A spacious corridor, the main entrance to the fortress. The next three levels belong to my central hall, with masterwork statues and everything. Next: Graves. Next: mausoleums for nobles and legendary warriors and other professions. All those collapsing surface falls all the way down, taking livestock, dwarves, masterworks with it, while spraying yellow sand everywhere.

The biggest lost may be the natural floor, because it can't be replaced, constructed floors cannot be engraved. But my defense is weakened as well: Almost all of the wooden cages in the traps overground burned down, my roof has holes in it.

The cause for all this: Cobim Ruluebbak Tul Luto, an ancient dragon, older than time (which makes her at least 432 years old). She appeared on the map, lit a small fire on the edge and walked right into one of my cage traps. I thought it was my lucky day, I finally caught a live dragon (the only previous dragon that attacked one of my fortresses (in DF2012) was only about hundred years old and unceremoniously stabbed to death by two human caravan guards (they didn't even take a scratch or a blister). Only that the small fire turned out to be a lot worse than I thought.

Right now the fire is moving towards the dragon, who is IN A WOODEN CAGE. Since dragons are fireproof, I suppose there will be a dragon outside of my base in the near future, and most of my cage traps are uncharched, so I would have to let her come into my entrance hall, where I have a few more traps.

So remeber: Only you can prevent forest fires. Unless a dragon comes around.

So after four years of playing dwarf fortress, I finally got a dwarf with a macabre mood. He demands "things... certain things". The first thing he took was a skull, so no surprises here. The wiki says "certain things" includes skulls and vermin remains. I have other skulls in my stockpiles, and one outside stockpile has different vermin remains, such as honey bee remains, large roach remains, blue jay remains and green tree frog remains. Those apparently do not satisfy his needs. What else could he want? Bones, shell, hooves and teeth are available, too.

Since the 0.40-version last year, history in the whole world changes while playing. Though I have never found any account about whether or not new secrets (about life and death) are revealed, werebeast/vampire curses are placed Village/fortress founding (other than reclaiming) are founded or tombs (i.e. pyramids) are built during play. So, for example if I start a world in year 2, will I get Necromancers, werebeasts and vampires eventually?

I currently have a succession game with a friend running, and said friend uses a texture pack. I rather like to play without any texture packs or different tilesets, which should be no problem, but when I received the savegame from him, I found out that a lot of tiles are permuted (e.g. instead of "Ö" there is "ÿ" for wheelbarrows). Large pots are replaced with something else, as are most of the rough wall tiles.
I have searched around the web and the wiki, but have not found a simple instruction how to reset these changes back to the default. So how do I do it?

So... a month ago or so, my best (and only) gem cutter got possessed and claimed a jeweler's workshop. He took one rough sapphire and begun a mysterious construction. And he keeps muttering Irolmeng, but he does not finish his project. When I looked into the 't'-menu of the workshop, the saphire he acquired is gone. I have no idea why, but I suppose this is the reason for not finishing the mood.
What happened?
Update: now he went berserk. What the? he had everything he needed, he even started and I have not deconstructed the workshop.