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[comicraider]

Ubbul Kozoth, a.k.a. The Vault of Horrors  a.k.a. Silverypainted II: Tales of Electric Boogaloos.

Having decided Silverypainted was pretty much doomed, I spent some time building Skinnedseals, a fronteir fortress seperated from dwarven territory, surrounded by dark fortresses and sat right on the border with human land.

This fortress I'm setting up now was built to try and bridge the gap between Skinnedseals and the Mountainhome, as well as collect caged prisoners for fun and amusement and eventually capture or kill the Hill Titan, hopefully bringing the Age of the Hill Titan to a close.

Rules are fairly standard, turns last for one in-game year etc., and I have next to nothing to say on how to run the place, pretty much just make sure we have cages on standby at all times, trap attackers if killing them can be avoided, and don't get everyone murdered, beyond that do what you will with your time Plan is to build an arena at some point, but whether that pans out is yet to be seen. I've just finished the first year at the time of writing this.

Turn list:
1) Comicraider
2) Zefermcdwarfpants
3) zazq
4)
5)

Turn Legend: Complete, Current, Waiting.

[comicraider]

Journal of Catten "Comicraider" Tintöhkonos
28th Felsite, 1064

We've arrived.
I wasn't told much at the briefing back in Rampartbridge, the Mountainhome. Just some rambling along the lines of;

"Take some of the pressure off of Skinnedseals."
"Teach "those smug tall bastards" a lesson. I assume the liaison meant the humans."
"Cage. F*cking. EVERYTHING."

I'm going to assume this is a suicide mission, simply because we were pulled from the next expedition to that death trap...sorry, that failed penal colony we call Silverypainted to lead this group.
I'm not that good with maps, but I can read well enough to know we're right on the border we share with our Human neighbours, so I'm expecting nothing short of a short sword to the face. Just this site and Skinnedseals between the human armies and the Mountainhome.
My colleagues make for an interesting bunch, former criminals like myself, all guilty of the same heinous crime: Getting on a moody Noble's bad side by existing in their vicinity. Decent craftsdwarves at least, so here's hoping I won't be sleeping on a stone floor for much longer. The exception to our clever little bunch of misfits is Urdim Kastsazir; big brute of a Dwarf, knows his way around a battleaxe. My money's on him taking us out before the humans or Werebeasts even realise we're here.
I've taken to calling this place Ubbul Kozoth, "The Vault of Horrors". I'm sure the name will be fitting if they decided sending us here was more of a punishment than that mass grave with a tavern.

22nd Hematite, 1064

Summer's been quiet. Somehow despite only being here a month and not even having living arrangements yet, thanks to some moron on the planning committee deciding two picks between three miners was a good idea, we've been sent a pair of migrants; a fisherman and a doctor. At least they'll be of use once Urdim goes off the deep end. He's been sat by the front gate for a week now just playing with the war dogs and swinging his axe randomly. That guy freaks me out.
We also struck platinum and a few different gemstones, which is something I guess.

15th Limestone, 1064

Urdim Edanrith, the liaison from Rampartbridge, has arrived to check out our progress and tell us more about Tun Ownerpainted's one-man civil war against himself over control of his fortress. At least we can trade some of these gems we've cut for some more supplies.
Some more migrants turned up not long after as well, one of them knows his way around a forge. That'll come in handy soon.

1st Timber, 1064

This place is starting to come along nicely. Between me and Ezum Lalsigun, the only capable carpenter and mason respectively, we've made sure we all have somewhere to eat and rest our heads. The last month has been spent building up our defences; while it will take time to build up a decent garisson, in the meantime I've ordered walls and fortifications built up around the entrance to the fortress. A little unorthodox, usually the single front gate will do, but I'm not taking any chances. This should be ready by the end of autumn.

7th Opal, 1064

Finally done. That should hold out against any werebeasts. Now I've just got to figure out where to put all these cage traps I was told to set up, the liaison mentioned something about "putting together a bit of a collection", that morbid old dwarf. I hope to Limar that Hill Titan I hear stories about doesn't come knocking, these walls still won't hold out against it.

15th Obsidian, 1064

Sh*t.

Miners hit a cavern today. Nothing really special for a few days but now a forgotten beast has popped up out of nowhere. Please Limar let those cage traps be ready.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2nd Granite, 1065

Threw a new years' party to lift everyone's spirits, having that...thing down there, what was it's name? Boniti Fayobanithami Fafiresanene or some nonsense like that, is making us nervous. Most of the fortress was sleeping off the wine when it decided to come poking around.

My hubris might have been our downfall. It didn't set off the traps. Walked right on over them. The monster attacked and killed four of us; the farmers Shem istamobok, Tulon Tiristnish and Deler Eddudlolok and ironically our doctor, Ast Asteshzasit. First deaths of the fortress purely because I didn't think to gather any webs and put them onto the traps. I hear it coming this way and the masons are nowhere to be found. I know what I must do. As I write this I'm walling off this part of the fortress before that thing gets through and kills everyone else.
I suppose there's worse ways to go. Could have ended up a werehamster or something and killed everyone else.

5th Granite, 1065

That thing's dead now - had it not spilled so much dwarven blood I'd lament that we lost what could have been a decent trophy for the Mountainhomes - but right now King Asmel will have to sulk.  Our mechanic, Catten Lokumlerom was walled off alongside me and managed a mutual kill with the beast in it's weakened state. Our broker lost his right hand too. I've dismantled the wall and ordered burial chambers built, and the corpse disposed off. I'll be giving Urdim and his new student a piece of my mind - I didn't have them weapons and a training area set up to ignore danger.
In ways this was my own fault. I know it comes with the job but I think I'll be stepping down as expedition leader following this little spectacle, dealing with deaths was never my strong suit. My successor shall be elected later year.

24th Slate, 1065

A little more excitement comes our way. Not only has a werebuffalo just appeared nearby, but one of our miners has been possessed. Fun times.
Damned beast tore one of our goslings to shreds, but not before we slammed the gates shut and boxed him off inside the walls. Within a few hours he'd turned back into a human and wandered into a cage trap. Lovely. Now just to deal with the possessed Miner.

28th Felsite, 1065

We settled here a year today, seems fitting that now's the time I step down. There's still a few problems here and there, namely the un-webbed cage traps and the possessed miner, but things are starting to come together. I wish my successor luck, this wasn't the easiest job I've had. One note - the lever inside the underground fortress controls all five gates, the idea was to box attackers in until they eventually walk into the traps or starve.

Here's a view of the above-ground fortifications:

1st level:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2nd level:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Zefermcdwarfpants]

A forgotten beast AND a werebuffalo, wow, that's a little on the harsh side. I will probably focus on mining out rooms and stuff if you haven't done that yet

[comicraider]

At least the beast's dead. Werebuffalo is caged in one of the lower levels, I have plans for him 

I need to figure out how to put webs onto cage traps though, the little incident with the forgotten beast opened my eyes.

[Zefermcdwarfpants]

Save?

[comicraider]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/20y64qam20czoqz/Vault%20of%20Horrors.rar?dl=0

There ye go. I think I mined out a load of rooms during my year that just need smoothing and furnishing, can't remember. Anyhow, up to you what gets done now

[comicraider]

Update: I was looking through Legends on my backup copy of the save, looks like Skinnedseals was hit by another human siege while this fortress was running.

Not sure how many humans attacked but at least two of them were killed by my Skinnedseals' garisson (legendary swordsdwarves eh ), and the rest either retreated or were caged. No dwarven casualties and a few murdered cats, but given that I was in the midst of a minor catsplosion that actually helped a little.

Completely unrelated, at the same time one of the other dwarves there, Libash Walledheal, died of old age. Didn't know that was possible, but given that it's Dwarf Fortress he's probably a friggin' folk hero for that very reason.

[Zefermcdwarfpants]

Update: I was looking through Legends on my backup copy of the save, looks like Skinnedseals was hit by another human siege while this fortress was running.

Not sure how many humans attacked but at least two of them were killed by my Skinnedseals' garisson (legendary swordsdwarves eh ), and the rest either retreated or were caged. No dwarven casualties and a few murdered cats, but given that I was in the midst of a minor catsplosion that actually helped a little.

Completely unrelated, at the same time one of the other dwarves there, Libash Walledheal, died of old age. Didn't know that was possible, but given that it's Dwarf Fortress he's probably a friggin' folk hero for that very reason.

instead of dying horribly?

[comicraider]

That's right, he lived to the ripe old age of 169.

In fact, I've been looking into his family tree, and it seems like his bloodline all have molten steel flowing through their veins. He has a daughter and uncle that lived as Skinnedseals with him, his late wife killed a vampire and died defending another fortress from humans, a son that became a travelling mercenary and survived the last werebeast outbreak at Silverypainted unscathed, a great-aunt and great-uncle who both survived separate attacks from a forgotten beast and a cyclops as children respectively (said cyclops also having killed another relative some years prior), and at the moment I'm looking into his grandfather, who became lord of his own fortress/town/thing, murdered a citizen and became obsessed with his own mortality, then was murdered by a giant jaguar.

I might share his lineage's collective fables on another thread once I've mapped out his family tree (for some reason the LNP programs won't work with this world so I have to do it the hard way.)

[comicraider]

Damnit.

I was about to say that this fort's gonna be non-canon because I got bored and started an adventure mode game up on my original Entar save and succeeded in killing the Hill Titan (he's on another landmass, took a LOT of swimming) but the game crashed and undid everything, so nothing's changed still canon

[comicraider]

Decided to learn a little more about metals in this game, found out chalk can be used with iron to make steel...this place has iron and chalk coming out of the woodwork. I'm thinking dig deeper and get a sh!tload of magma smelters and forges going, then have this place supply steel for the whole empire?