Bay 12 Games Forum

You didn't.  So far your kill list is one zombie horse and one zombie human.  We have no bolts, and currently no good way to get more until the tree farm gets going.

I like to make my depots with bridges that can isolate the traders inside, allowing for madness to take care of offended elves, or to let me station my military outside befor fiving a kill order.  Keeps the rotting bodies in one central place, however the bodies end up dead.

Chapter 3 – Chamberdrums, the Third Home

Entry 9 – 9th Granite, 127

Armok has smile upon me this day.  It seems I am headed for Chamberdrums.  Our “caravan” leaves tomorrow, although I very much doubt this is anything resembling the caravans I recall coming to my old fortress.  I doubt any fine works of craftsdwarfship will be going out to the penal colony masquerading as a trade outpost.  Time will tell, though.

Entry 10 – 8 Galena, 128

Five damn months of scraping through these damned mountains! For a hole in the rock, surrounded by damned goblins and apparently the undead!

We started with a fair number of fellow convicts, but ended with only 8 of the bastards.  Two in particular might be willing to help me in my plans.  RoughRogue, an engraver who was drugged and then dumped onto the cart when we left, seems alright, but may be addicted to some weed he keeps babbling on about.  Aseaheru claims he is a medic of some sort, but when I asked if there was anything that could be done to help RoughRogue through his sweats and ravings while looking for his “weed” Aseaheru just kept trying to get Rough to pray to Armok with him.  Odd for a medic.  They do some barbaric stuff, but this just seemed pointless.  Aseaheru swears this is based on the ancient teaching of the cult of Armok the Dwarfish Scientist. All I know is we had five dwarves fall ill on the trip and none of them made it…  Regardless, Rough seem pliant enough to suggestion, and Aseaheru has shown a promising ability to believe in longshots, so I think they can be made to see the bloody light I have in store for our king.
This fortress , despite the hellish location and cursed neighbors, is at least surviving, so the dwarves inside must know a thing or two…

I did some scouting off the first uploaded save. 

We have built our fortress in the midst of an aquifer.  Two of our floors are literally in the one safe spot that could have been found.  Luckily the aquifer is only about 9 z levels.  Don't go building north of the current bedrooms, a few tiles north is waterlogged.  Unfortunately some of our hematite is in said aquifer.  When my turn comes I'll try and dig deeper and put some sort of indicators in for later overseers.  On the plus side this means we have a lot of water that could be used for various purposes.

On a random note, the archers randomly killed the necro shortly after I unpaused the game.  Grim Portent got the fatal blow.

Thanks for the info.  I sort of assumed that at least non-appointed noble would be replaced when the liason notice s/he was missing.  In one fort that's a bummer, because I executed a very annoying duke.  In my other, the baroness died before ever getting promoted.  I may have to add some clarification to the wiki, as I didn't take the "one and done" aspect from it.  Or i had a reading failure.

The Journal of Grimmash

Chapter 2 – Dwarfus Interruptus

Entry 8 – 22nd Moonstone, 127

I’ve been in this cell for at least two months, waiting for my new “home” to be decided.  Most of the recent criminals have been sent to some new backwater called “Chamberdrums” under the guise of founding a new trade depot.  Perhaps, if Armok decides to show me some favor, I’ll be sent there.  The nobles assume the fledgling fortress will fail but I’ve heard talk of how close many of those exiled convicts came to pulling off their various plans.  Letting the prisoners create their own society far from the watchful eyes of the Mountain home sounds like a delightful opportunity to enact my revenge.

It even seems they sent the entire crew that filled this dank jail.  It seems a funny twist of fate that those who helped break my loyalty to the King and caused me such pain could be my new brothers in labor.  There is a certain beauty that those whose actions led to my hammering may also be those who help me deliver retribution.  I can only hope that if I am exiled to Chamberdrums these dwarves share my resentment.

Is there any danger of marksdwarves hitting each other if they miss a target in the trade depot?  I've always built mi kill rooms with only 1 or 2 walls with fortifications.  I've read that ballista friendly fire... Isn't, but i don't know about crossbows.

Another thought: if the ground is really bad for livestock, we could crash the first cave, seal it off and then carve out a wonderful underground pasture and/or tree farm.  My solo fort has found great success with this.  Also makes sieges even more trivial.

That's a pretty nifty embark.  I don;t suppose you could upload a copy of it?

That said, I would encase the waterfall and pool, and make them the centerpiece of your fortress.  Maybe build a dining above the pool, with the entry next to the waterfall.  No cave adaptation, lots of mist, and you get to figure out how to secure it .