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Yes! Nightmares plague us in the dark!

3 (50%)

No! Our existence is the nightmare!

3 (50%)

Total Members Voted: 6

[Otto_K]

Image 1: Dwarves retake the trader entrance


Winter 183: The Wordy Dye

Close the doors! We will fight the enemy at the trader entrance, or the maintenance stairwell. Not the main tower! We are dwarves! We make our last stand at a place of our own choosing, and nowhere else! After clearing the leopard corpses that were blocking the tower doors, and some butchering and tanning of leopard hides via fastdwarf, we refuse the parley and begin the siege in earnest.

The Wordy Dye army scurries inside the trader tunnel. There, they encounter a militia consisting of the Ardent Shields, Flayed Demon and Last Dragon: an assortment of elves, humans, dwarves and goblins of Romekanan. The old command of Shirtless is given to ‘Dog’, a macedwarf.

As the first dwarf-goblins rush inside, Mobmu ‘OneShot’ the dwarf one-shots a goblin, hence his name. This is uncanny, the goblins all have dwarven names, like Zulban Minedomain, or Solon Palaceworth. Strange world. Better at least to see goblins assimilated to enlightened dwarven culture, than dwarves abducted and forced to join the goblin culture. But little does it matter now, since they’re all enemies of the Umbrasouls…

The squads push through the ramp, in a move I call the Corridor Run. That’s a pretty bad name, actually, but I’ll worry about that later.



Image 2: The captain and the treasure hunter

Sensualbowel enters a combat trance! So does Iden ‘Indy’ Wanemined the treasure hunter. Yeah, he seems like an interesting guy, so he gets a nickname and a job title for his troubles. Somehow, everybody’s holding it together. Even though some squad members get tired or get stunned, the dwarves watch each other's back and none of them fall victim to attacks of opportunity.

This is a big siege, and a large portion of the attackers fight to the very end. Goblins make for fierce raiders, I suppose? I was also worried the dwarves might stumble down the ramp by accident. In the end, the dwarves started vomiting under the sun, so I thought that there was a risk they would slip on vomit or something. Still, we survived.

Omud Chapelworker the human died in the battle. Other than that, everybody seems to be alright. ‘Martin’, Salmeuk’s lover, had his foot cut open, and an elf had his toe crushed. The elf and goblin bodies were disposed of in a new atom smasher just below the tower.



Image 3: Resident demons


Winter 183: The Chasm

Dostngosp Dungeonspawn the weregoat Chieftain has come, and the Flayed Demon meet it in battle just outside the tower. Meanwhile, Ome Deadburies the enormous monitor is attacking the local rodent men.

I also explore the second, previously untouched underworld spire for treasure. The miners uncover many balls of fire, but nobody got burnt so far. Then, after multiple pockets of fire, they find a filth brute, a four-legged beast of filth and grime. ‘Davison’ Oldclasp, slayer of the weregoat, kills it.

Then a gray specter comes out, an ashen dung beetle. One bash of Parn’s masterwork silver hammer and it scatters to the ground. The grime monster was tougher and needed to be chipped and shattered. The center of this world seems to be full of filth, grime, ash and decay. As it is above ground, so it is below.

Mifava Woodtaken takes out a huge donkey monster with external ribs. Jennifer miraculously jumps between mysterious fireballs, and none of them hit her. And we’re rewarded for our challenges by unearthing a divine treasure: a set of large booming metal greaves. Human gear, not dwarven? Is this a bad omen? Can’t be. Let’s dig on.

What we find next is a large deep chasm full of water, many tiles deep.



Image 4: Victims of the watery abyss

We draft plans to pump the water out of the chasm. During the pumping, the demon hunters are to withdraw to wait outside the excavation site, but on his way out, Snang ‘Plaguesword’ slips on the stone floor and sinks into the abyss. There’s two tiles of water above him, and he’s a dabbling swimmer. He’s lost to the depths.

When the first layer of the chasm has been emptied, we climb down there and open up a pocket of obsidian. A clear monster, named Feargoaded for its crimes, plunges forth. A winged snail that mutters curses with its mouth, which it also uses for biting. It pulls the spear-elf Eletha Setheakera with it, and they plunge into the watery abyss, trading blows. After a long time, it returns to the water’s surface, and Eletha is nowhere to be seen. Parn takes initiative and quickly bashes its body, which contains its brain. Smart and very effective attack.

After this harrowing episode, we try to dig deeper in the half-emptied chasm, but we find a snow spirit. Glitterrays, a snow ceratops jumps from the wall and caves in ‘TommyInnit’ Coalaqua the miner’s head. Tira Omobilalo pokes it with a spear. That a spirit made of weak snow could be a miner’s end, this is a sign of bad luck. The mining operation is put on hold for the time being.

[TheFlame52]

I haven't managed to pierce a spire in the new version, so this is interesting reading.

[Maloy]

The center of this world seems to be full of filth, grime, ash and decay. As it is above ground, so it is below.

That line goes hard!

Man we are doing good! Its rare to see so competent a military not die disastrously in dwarf fortress lol

Sorry I havent commented sooner my Museum turn absorbed all my attention because I had so much I needed to get done.


If you got the save ready Otto it is Salmeuk's turn again

[Otto_K]

If you got the save ready Otto it is Salmeuk's turn again

Oh yeah, sorry about taking so damn long. Januarys aren't my strength, and the christmas season turned out to be less relaxing than I had hoped. It was okay still. Also I started worrying too much about what i wanted to do during my turn. I should remember that the job is to just play for some time and pass the save, and shouldn't worry about doing everything just right

Anyways!
Here's the save, finally.

https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=17297

I'll write about what took place, though the description on the file page will say something about it
*Oops, too vague. Edited the file listing message

[kesperan]

Did you get any divine metal that we can melt down? Or was it a useless human sized artifact?

[Otto_K]

Image 1: Atir and the (cursed?) face veil


Interlude: The Mask Part 2

“Likot! LIKOT! No!!”

Likot Hatchetmobs turns and sees the dwarven woman rushing towards him. Atir?

The woman falls on her knees in front of the broken dwarf corpse on the ground. Likot realizes that the dwarf he has killed was the leader of the hillock’s defenders, Likot Figurehalls. Around them, the hillocks is burning. Astesh is shouting orders to retreat: the enemy’s position is too strong. Likot can’t turn away from the dwarf on the ground. How fitting that it was Likot he cut down, his own name. A part of him must have died that day.

“Likot!”

Likot came out of his feverish reverie to the voice of his lover, Atir ‘OttoK’, the Kin of Skulls. The dwarven woman was wearing an artefact face veil to conceal her features. “We should plan our campaign”, she said as she marched into the barracks.

Likot raised an eyebrow, genuinely puzzled. “Atir? Why are you hiding your face, like Thob ‘Maloy III’ of the cursed mask?”

Thob Diamondhour peeked from behind Atir. “Isn’t it obvious? Those damn Ilatir spies are out here, hunting for us, the conspirators! We must wear disguises!” He let out his madman’s giggle.

Likot sighed. “Every spy from here to Godshells will soon know if she’s wearing the Venom of Empires! You can’t use an artefact as a disguise in a dwarven fortress.”

“Shh, the spies will hear you”, Thob rambled, clearly beyond the reach of all reason. “Soon, the day of reckoning must come! When the streets will run red with blood of Ilatir traitors!”

Atir shook her head and placed her sword on the rack. She faced Likot, then started pacing back and forth in the barracks. “I don’t know what we should do next. I thought this war against the Wordy Dye was the right move, that King Crimsonreward’s peace would make us weak… but there’s been so much killing. It has to end.”

“What do you want to do? You’re the overseer”, Likot said. “If anybody knows the way, it’s you, Atir.”

Atir smiled, even through the silk of the Venom of Empires he could feel the warmth of that old confident smile.

“Alright!” she nodded, putting her hands on her hips. “We’ll build up our strength. More supplies, more defenses, more temples and wealth. We’ll rival their economic power. And then we’ll strike. Either they go down, or we do.”

Thob giggled. “We will triumph! We must make a sacrifice that will ensure our victory! Maybe burn a young girl at a pyre?”

“What? No!” Atir bursted. “Go make rye beer or something! Out!”

“Okay, then. I suppose we’re seeing this to the end”, Likot said, as they left the barracks for the cavernous lakeside. They stayed for a while, watching as builders carried stone tiles to the newly carved halls and as boulders fell from the ceiling digsite into the water below.

-   From the book “The True Umbrasouls”, by unknown dwarven author

Image 2: The Upper Longnight above the lake


New Year 184 – The Coming of Mammoth

At the end of 183, a terrifying creature appears: a weremammoth has come! Tipi Valoathe the elven poet was crushed by the brute, as it approached… to the still unsealed hole that leads to the elephant pasture.

So it would enter the pasture, maul a bunch of precious elephants, and then get killed by the squads as it reverts to a simple goblin. How could I save the elephants, and maybe even preserve this rare and very powerful werecreature?

I decided to accomplish both goals by cheating with DFHack. First, I teleported the weremammoth to the other side of the map, saving the elephants. When it reverted to a goblin, I used the makeown command on it. I made it a militia captain and sent it to exile in a walled-off room, with a nice lakeside view though. She even grabbed some clothes and a masterwork steel axe. Now we have a wererhino and a weremammoth for whatever nefarious purposes they could be used.

Soon, peace and quiet is restored, and the building of Upper Longnight can begin in earnest: a new and glorious extension of the fortress, with new homes and places of worship for the dwarves. I was shocked to see that some dwarves were sleeping in 1x1 ""bedrooms"" in a glorified dormitory, and put a stop to that. The central sanctum is venerated for several temple complexes, both common and dedicated temples.

A set of new temples was constructed and dedicated to the foreign faiths, such as to the human goddess of travelers, Vanod Wanderwalks the North Stranger of Guilds, or the dwarven wealth goddess the North Pearls, or the elven force called Inale. A temple was dedicated to some gross deity called Engo Droolbile the Hag of Mountains, maybe that’ll please the goblins.

These new temples will surely bring peace and enlightenment to the land. The Standard of Control does not rule by intolerance of the customs of its subjects.



Image 3: Uzu Girlishbristles the Mammoth

 
In the late winter, Okosh the giantess approaches the fortress. Sensualbowel’s squad faces it, and the captain takes the kill. I also release the forgotten feathered chinchilla from behind the garden wall, Nomar Submergesprayed. It rushes in, killing a baby elephant and chasing a human around.

The blinder of Cyclopes, Mechie, shows up out of nowhere and starts wrestling the creature. She punches it all over, dodging its attacks. It charges, she dodges and gets knocked down a couple of times. Then the master armorer comes swinging the spear. Mechie kicks the chinchilla in the eye, punches its neck and breaks its leg, until it’s no more.

I finally manage to close the hole in the elephant pasture’s ceiling, after ‘Green Machine’ removes a hundred pieces of torn elven clothes from the breach. I start producing lavish meals en masse, using ostrich eggs, plump helmets and other foods we have in abundance. Turning four stacks of foodstuffs into 1 stack of meals has to help with performance? I ban the production of plump helmet wine and produce tons of human beers instead. We have so much barley and rye… The plump helmet fields have been left unplanted, as we have too much already.

Thefin Veilclapped the visiting goblin is swimming for his life in 6-deep water for months, he’s gotten a lot better at swimming since he fell into the lakeside underground aqueduct thing. Many caged ostriches were trained and freed into the expanded pasture. Later, the most poorly trained ones were butchered.

[Otto_K]

Image 1: Salmeuk after the fight


Spring 184 – Cryptrush has Fallen

I’m trying to put together a sort of squad of misfits, I give the command to Casot Necaruxen. She seems an interesting goblin, so I heal her broken toe and finger with full-heal. She’s a perfectly humanized goblin, who likes helping others, even though she thinks altruism is big dumb. She also dislikes those who want to lord over others. Her personality is an interesting mix of angry, miserable and kind of wholesome.

But putting this squad together is not going well. I recruit Ngilsho Shovelcries, but I think she died of old age. Teme Trustbrother, a new recruit, is a wildcard, a total coward who still longs for the thrill of combat to break the monotony of her life. Well, she got action when she’s ambushed by the elven warband outside, she has no chance against 130 elves despite fighting pretty well.

Salmeuk is the next line of defence as the elves choose to attack via the trader entrance. He’s unarmed but crashes through elven ranks, mostly untouched save wooden arrows that cut his body. In a martial trance, he punches bones to pieces and gouges an elf’s upper lip apart. Somehow, he holds out until the reinforcements come. Overexerted, he stumbles down the ramp, then gets back up and starts punching more elves and wrestling bobcats. He’s totally wrecked but hangs around until the siege is over and then he walks to collapse in a hospital bed. What a madman.

Once again, as soon as we ward off the elves, the Wordy Dye are back to siege the fort! I don’t dare take another 100+ human/goblin siege head-on, so I send the enemy on a merry chase through the caverns. First, they fight the forgotten beast Ethgath Aksuslurac Karze, the Insensitive, on the paved stone fields. Then, they cautiously sneak into the caverns, alone or in groups of two or three. They’re easily picked apart. Now the cavern is full of miasma, though.

After the siege, a decision is made. This dogged back-and-forth battle can’t continue. We must take initiative. And so, captain ‘Dog’ gathers his Ardent Shields. They march out with one elephant and embark toward the enemy capital, the seat of Ilatir: Cryptrush.

Later that day, we hear the news: Cryptrush has fallen. CRYPTRUSH HAS FALLEN! The populace has surrendered, and the Ardent Shields put the remaining administrators to the sword. Then, they established a new government, the Artifact of Soul, of the Standard of Control.



Image 2: Cryptrush occupied


Turns out that after King Kogsak was killed in our initial assault, the next overseer’s attack led to the next king, Monom Konosotung (Brassshocks) being slain by ‘Capaldi’. The new king, Asmel Relicprincess, ruled the last few years until he was executed by ‘McGann’ Swordgrowth of the occupying force. Still, it turns out that even if Kogsak’s dynasty is now ended, Asmel’s line continues.

The new queen of Ilatir is Onol Standardcrystals. She has now moved to Cryptrush and joined the Artifact of Soul. The Shields earned their fame and epithets for this one, for sure. An interesting one is Olon Spunwhipped, a lesbian dwarf who’s now calling herself the Defender of Women.

Back home, the surveyors insist that we take another look at the gem spire under the forgehalls. Parn, the bane of Feargoaded and forgotten beast hunter, takes out a huge feathered tarantula with a spiral shell. After that, the miners do some exploratory poking in the obisidian floor.

Deep under a still bubbling magma vent, we find a truly vast chasm of dark water, about 5 tiles deep. At the bottom, we sensed an otherworldly glint. It can’t be anything else: there’s a large vein of adamantine at the bottom of the chasm.

Well, good luck reaching it! Uncovering it is enough satisfaction for me at the moment, I’ll let the next player figure out how to acquire it. I expect some Dumb Ways to Die. If nobody drowns, I’ll be surprised.



Image 3: PRAISE THE MINERS



Save of year 184

https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=17297

[kesperan]

Why is Salmeuk naked and wrasslin with elves? Hope he doesn't catch an infection in any of those many wounds...

[Salmeuk]

gonna pick this up. amazing how LONG this NIGHT has been. the elves really make things interesting don't they?

Why is Salmeuk naked and wrasslin with elves? Hope he doesn't catch an infection in any of those many wounds...

its performance art / live-action poetry ... you wouldn't understand. now hand me some of that paralyzing forgotten beast extract so I can forget the painn

[Maloy]

Otto achieving legendary status!

One day the lands will be filled with dwarven song! From the eastern coasts to the mountains to the jungles and all the way to Gateheaven!

[Maloy]

How's it been going out there Salmeuk?

[Otto_K]

Here's some thoughts after my turn:

It occured to me that we've destroyed the environment, now we're building a dark tower in the middle, with deep industrial tunnels underneath. Did we build Isengard?

Speaking of dark sorceries... My best guess is that the werebeasts will be mostly useless in fort mode, but i don't know much about that. But we also have the necromancer scrolls. If we could set up a resurrection chamber and create some intelligent undead warriors, that could be epic

Looking forward to seeing if the adamantine can be acquired and at what cost. Also if we send more squads to conquer sites, and lower our population by sending useless bards away, we could maybe get more migrants from previous forts? Including skilled fighters like OttoK Kivishsazir, Kesperan Steelcrown and others. So sending dwarves away doesn't necessarily make us any weaker in the long run

[TheFlame52]

Intelligent undead, especially soldiers, have their own host of problems. I've built reanimation chambers before and I mostly just resurrect the victims of accidents rather than going out of my way to create undead.

Do undead still get stuck "over-exerted" from sparring, causing them to rest forever?

[kesperan]

Do undead still get stuck "over-exerted" from sparring, causing them to rest forever?

I haven't encountered that bug, they just tend to lose focus over time because they can't fulfil their needs, particularly praying at temples - they can sit there for days praying, but it doesn't fulfil their need. The alcohol one is bypassed to an extent by taverns; I don't have much experience of taverns in Steam DF but in 0.47 having tavern keepers just seemed to cause bar fights and dwarves drinking themselves to death, so I rarely bother.

[Salmeuk]

hey! gonna have time to play and post soon enough. expect an update by end of week :> fort looks amazing btw, very nice designs since my last playthrough. its awesome how a majority of the fort overlooks that cavern lake, very scenic yup.

and yeah. my plan is to poke around at the spire and see what kinda demons we unearth. and survive the elf attacks as well.