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Author Topic: What is a Scuttling Zombie?  (Read 1532 times)

dirkdragonslayer

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What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« on: June 20, 2016, 05:18:34 pm »

I had four kobolds die to a forgotten beast, and I buried their bodies at the lowest point in my reclaimed fortress, near where the Magma Smelters were. months later a ghost appeared for one of the dead, which I found strange, so I checked the coffins, and two of the coffins had been emptied, and their skeletons became creatures called "Scuttling Zombies", which are described as tentacle monsters wearing their skeletons as armor. A novice hunter went down and slew them, but I have some questions.

Is treachery afoot in my tribe, are one of the kobolds a necromancer or something? Does this happen often? How are they created? Because the corpse is no longer theirs, but a monster with their name, do their friends get spooked by the corpse of the Scuttling Zombie?

Edit: It might be necromancer related. There is an elf dancer who has a book called "The Tree: The Truth" which is a autobiography about how he created the first necromancer tower of the world on year 1. It is poorly written, but contains the secrets to life and death. I have not seen him ever go near my burial room, but I will silence him just in case. The book will be locked up, and hopefully whoever hauls it does not read it. Later I will teach my Kobolds the magic of death, but I will wait until I set up the breeding hut.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2016, 06:01:05 pm by dirkdragonslayer »
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"Games come and go, and we all get tired of some games after time, but Dwarf Fortress seems to grab me by the leg every couple months and drags me back with it's bloody, ASCII claw. I think this game has given me Stockholm syndrome, but I love it so, and it's simplistic style yet extremely complex mechanics are like fine art, like a beautifully crafted ☼Cave Spider Silk Sock☼" - Dirk 3/31/2014
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cerevox

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2016, 07:02:10 pm »

Its not a necromancer. Its a deep one cult. They can create scuttling zombies, so the necromancer you found wasn't the problem. You have cultist kobolds.

Edit: Or maybe not. The deep ones have scuttling crab zombies, not sure if these are the same things.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2016, 07:03:48 pm by cerevox »
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dirkdragonslayer

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2016, 08:27:01 pm »

Its not a necromancer. Its a deep one cult. They can create scuttling zombies, so the necromancer you found wasn't the problem. You have cultist kobolds.

Edit: Or maybe not. The deep ones have scuttling crab zombies, not sure if these are the same things.
Thank you, is there any way to deduce the culprit? I have only 13 'bolds and the civ is dead as always so it's not going up until I make a breeding warren, so I rather stop the problem while it's small.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2016, 08:32:15 pm by dirkdragonslayer »
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"Games come and go, and we all get tired of some games after time, but Dwarf Fortress seems to grab me by the leg every couple months and drags me back with it's bloody, ASCII claw. I think this game has given me Stockholm syndrome, but I love it so, and it's simplistic style yet extremely complex mechanics are like fine art, like a beautifully crafted ☼Cave Spider Silk Sock☼" - Dirk 3/31/2014
TAIL SHOOOOES!

cerevox

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2016, 08:42:09 pm »

Unsure. The actual description of the cult is...

Quote
An encounter with these subterranean fish monsters - or the Elder God they worship - may trigger the development of a hidden cult leader, who will sow trouble in your fortress - spreading smelly fish slime, animating the dead as zombie crabs and octopuses, and summoning fish to attack your fort.  The effects will grow steadily more intense over time.  If you do not find the cultleader and kill them within three years, you may find yourself under siege from within...

The only encounter i have had in my forts resulted in the elder god wandering through my fort and one-hit slapping a few citizens into paste before he left. The zombie crab sounds like what you saw with your corpses, which is why I suspect a cult. As for how to catch the cult leader, dunno. Look for someone doing fishy things or with an unnatural love of carp?
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IndigoFenix

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2016, 12:00:50 am »

PTW.

I've never actually seen the cults in practice or received feedback on them.  Important question: is this in Reborn or the old Masterwork?

Anyway, the cultleader will be at the center of most of the weirdness they cause, but will never be the target of it.  If you see someone drop fishy slime, or transform into a Deep One, they are NOT the cultleader, but the cultleader is nearby.  Also, the cultleader should be friendly with the zombies they produce.

dirkdragonslayer

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2016, 12:13:32 am »

PTW.

I've never actually seen the cults in practice or received feedback on them.  Important question: is this in Reborn or the old Masterwork?

Anyway, the cultleader will be at the center of most of the weirdness they cause, but will never be the target of it.  If you see someone drop fishy slime, or transform into a Deep One, they are NOT the cultleader, but the cultleader is nearby.  Also, the cultleader should be friendly with the zombies they produce.
This is in reborn, newest version. Dwarves can deal with fish cults by placing a ward that makes cultist go hostile. Luckily I believe they work similar to a vampire, because I caught the guy red handed creating zombies and he was given the prefix Cult Leader. I also assume the poison called "Eldritch Dreams" can turn people into Cult Leaders, as the cave fish men have spears coated with it, and it was also dripping off the Elder God that shuffled past my hole in the wall. These cult-spawned zombies are treated as the original corpse and it's own creature, causing odd reactions. The corpse will be hauled to the person's coffin, just to be returned to the refuse stockpile because it is an animal. I destroyed all free coffins and the zombies were butchered like animals, but when I added the coffins back, a few workers become obsessed with putting the products in the coffins and then into stockpiles. I had a kobold die of dehydration because she was carrying some "Scuttling Zombie Fat(7)" back and forth repeatedly.

Edit: The game labeled him Cult Leader, not me, I named him "Fish Sympathizer" and locked him in his bedroom to starve. I do not know what revealed him, I think it was him turning Crundle corpses into zombies which fought the nearby tribe of cavefish men.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2016, 12:22:22 am by dirkdragonslayer »
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"Games come and go, and we all get tired of some games after time, but Dwarf Fortress seems to grab me by the leg every couple months and drags me back with it's bloody, ASCII claw. I think this game has given me Stockholm syndrome, but I love it so, and it's simplistic style yet extremely complex mechanics are like fine art, like a beautifully crafted ☼Cave Spider Silk Sock☼" - Dirk 3/31/2014
TAIL SHOOOOES!

Fairin

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #6 on: June 21, 2016, 09:12:36 am »

in one of my forts i never experienced weirdness, had a dwarf get called a cult leader, he was in my military, nothing happened after several years -.- dont think he had time to do shinanigans
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IndigoFenix

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2016, 09:32:03 am »

Hmm... They aren't supposed to be labled.  Going to have to fix that...

dirkdragonslayer

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2016, 11:57:21 am »

Hmm... They aren't supposed to be labled.  Going to have to fix that...
Is it also possible to add methods of detections to all the races? I heard the dwarves have a ward that causes them to go hostile, but other races do not have any way of detection. The only way I prevented this tragedy is because of this glitch. And is there any way to prevent the hauling glitch? They keep putting the scuttling zombies back into their respective tombs, then to the refuse pile and back to the tomb, and then they were taken to be butchered, and I had a kobold die of dehydration carrying "Scuttling Zombie Fat(7)" from the food stockpile to the grave and back.
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"Games come and go, and we all get tired of some games after time, but Dwarf Fortress seems to grab me by the leg every couple months and drags me back with it's bloody, ASCII claw. I think this game has given me Stockholm syndrome, but I love it so, and it's simplistic style yet extremely complex mechanics are like fine art, like a beautifully crafted ☼Cave Spider Silk Sock☼" - Dirk 3/31/2014
TAIL SHOOOOES!

dirkdragonslayer

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #9 on: June 21, 2016, 01:43:50 pm »

What is the mechanic behind how cultleaders are made? I lost all but 5 kobolds, and I have decided to arm and armor them up to take one last fight to our competing tribe of fishmen, who killed many a gatherer. One of the blowgunners just became a cultleader, which is odd that hostile NPCs can be part of the fishman cult. Also elder gods wander through the caverns frequently, but for being all powerful monstrosities, they sure are afraid of the cavefishmen who worship them.
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"Games come and go, and we all get tired of some games after time, but Dwarf Fortress seems to grab me by the leg every couple months and drags me back with it's bloody, ASCII claw. I think this game has given me Stockholm syndrome, but I love it so, and it's simplistic style yet extremely complex mechanics are like fine art, like a beautifully crafted ☼Cave Spider Silk Sock☼" - Dirk 3/31/2014
TAIL SHOOOOES!

cerevox

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #10 on: June 21, 2016, 10:23:06 pm »

For a while, dwarves were labeled with their hidden titles, like you could see vamps and such by their title. It was a DF bug although iirc its fixed in the current version.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=9194
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IndigoFenix

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Re: What is a Scuttling Zombie?
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2016, 04:39:29 am »

Cultleader generation is a bit complicated and I'm not really sure how well it works in the current version, but basically whenever anyone encounters a Deep One or an Elder God there is a small chance of any sapient creature in the fort becoming a cultleader, provided you don't have one already, while also preventing anyone who didn't become a cultleader from becoming one for several months.  (You shouldn't be dealing with more than one at a time, hopefully.)

I'm adjusting the zombies a bit so they dissolve into slime when killed, this should prevent the hauling issue.