Oh Lord... I just opened the save file and everything is on fire.
~The world is burning~
Ok, now in character.
I uh... Seem to have wandered into another strange portal and have surfaced in a strange new world. I don't know where I am or how I got here, but there seems to be a large wildfire off to the west. I walk toward a wall that I can see off to the Northeast. Another dwarf runs up to me and asks
"Are you the one?"
"I'm a one."
"No, are you the one that the Mountainhomes sent to take over?"
"Oh. Yeah, sure."
I'd never been the Overseer of a fortress before, so I figured I'd give it a try.
"Then follow me sir!"
She grabbed me by the wrist and practically dragged me along by my face.
"Quickly! We have to put out the fire."
"Yeah. Wait what?"
"The fire sir."
"Oh. It doesn't seem to be dangerous, I mean it's moving away from us."
"Well... "
"I mean... I guess we could set up some pump systems to put out the fire."
"By the time you did that, the fire would burn out."
"Exactly."
"Well then, I guess we'll get you started as the Overseer. What's your name?"
"Ringo McClellan."
"What a weird name. It's not a big surpirse though. I guess there's just some place where they grow Administrators like heads of cabbage and give them weird names."
"Yeah, something like that."
"Anyways, no time for that. Come inside quickly, we've got a lot to do today."
She leads me inside and then runs off to go do some other task. I spend a little time exploring the place and determine that it makes no sense at all. Well that's fine, I'll figure it out. I look at some conveniently available maps. A dwarf in the hallway asks me why I'm narrating all my actions. I wave him on and tell him that I'm the new overseer.
"New Overseer."
He nods and gives me a strange look. Why am I the weird one? This whole place is covered in flames and dwarf blood. These maps are super cryptic. Oh wait, I have them upside down. No, that's still not that much better.
"Snatcher!"
I look around. I don't see anything. Wait a mintute... the maps are moving. What the hell? Ah... Oh Armok my brain! What is this?
"WELCOME NEW OVERSEER."
"Yeah, uh... hi."
"I HAVE BEQUEATHED TO YOU THE POWER OF ALL GREAT DWARVEN OVERSEERS. YOU ARE NOW OMNISCIENT TO THE FULLEST DISCOVERED EXTENTS OF WILLEDABYSS."
"What's Willedabyss?"
"IT IS WHERE YOU ARE NOW."
"Oh."
"IN ADDITION, YOU CAN NOW BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE. YOUR BODY WILL FUNCTION AS IT ALWAYS HAD BUT YOUR MIND WILL STAY IN A SAFE PLACE TO CONTROL THE FORTRESS. ALL DWARVES HERE WILL BE BENT TO YOUR WILL AND YOU WILL HAVE NEAR GOD-LIKE POWERS."
"Seems pretty awesome."
"YOU WILL ALSO HAVE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WELL-BEING OF THE FORTRESS, IF YOU FAIL YOU WILL SUFFER A HORRIBLE DEATH AND THEN BE FORCED TO CONTINUE WORKING AS A GHOST."
"Oh..."
Well that was weird... Whoa... My body's walking away. Well... I guess I'd better get to work on that whole "Snatcher" thing. Doo-de-doo. Oh, I can see it! KILL IT KILL IT! Wait... where'd it go? Hmm... Better see what else I can do. I think I'm going to start building pumps to wash the blood off the fort.
1st Granite: A Genie has been found dead.
15th Granite: It's raining Dwarfblood again.
24th Granite: An Alchemists' Guild dwarf was struck down by nightwings. I've mobilized both squads to put an end to them.
26th Granite: Shoshin Themnolonul, Crafters-Guild peasant throws a tantrum.
27th Granite: Metalsmith is also throwing a tantrum.
((OOC: I worry a tantrum spiral might start happening soon. I intend to try and build some mist generators, a well, a soapery, and some other things to increase morale. All of you were so busy with your necrofantastic This-and-thats that you forgot to take care of your dwarves, and with the loss of that Alchemist peasant we're about to have the first steps of a tantrum spiral. Not saying that you did anything wrong, just that I won't be able to accomplish any nice dwarven things for at least the first half of my turn. One thing I'd like to do though is set up a catapult battery to fend off those pesky nightwings. Also. I'm building a moat with a drawbridge around what appears to be the main bulk of the fort. You're welcome.
Oh yea, I also took two attempts on this, but due to serious mishaps on my first try I started over. Call me whatever you like, over-cautious, coward, enemy to the fun. I particularly think that starting over was the way to go here. I shouldn't lose half of both squads, a former overseer, and a few caverns in one season. I could understand if this happened while we were under attack or something, but it didn't. Also, I don't know exactly why but the dates seem to be out of sync. The announcement board puts the days about a week later than the status board, so that's what the date discrepancies are about. Also, I'm sticking to the more basic dwarven features until I really figure out the new research and archaeology features. Good luck to the next player and I hope you actually know how to do this stuff. I'm playing my character as a semi-oblivious first-time overseer from another dimension anyway, so you can be the guy who comes in to "fix all the broken stuff". We'll have to see how the rest of the year pans out, I may prove to be competent yet! XD ))