Back to work on the fortress. I was putting together the power core. These things aren't designed to be assembled outside of clean rooms, but it'll work long enough to make it through the next few days. Hopefully that's all that'll be needed.
Found the lever room! They're all labeled, and I don't dare actually flip any of them...
Human diplomat showed up. And hey, there's the caravan.
Woah.
But what... what is on the PICTURE of the coin?
Mandates to make nickel and bronze items. I think we can handle that.
Ok, after in-game months of carefully tracing the plumbing, I found the floodgates I need to open to refill the laggy portion of the water system. Now I just need to find the lever that works these gates.
Note that the chamber that will be flooded appears to be an actual traffic path.
Ok, so the room that controls refilling the lower water supply is also the only natural access to
the artifact stockpile. And that room says which lever in the lever room will work.
...
YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO RESTORE FRAME RATE TO THE FORTRESS, NOT DESTROY IT!
In the time it took a dwarf to walk away and walk back, the entire lower sections filled and overfilled the wells. This is going to take months to clear away. The good news is that this will eventually drain into the fountain drains near there, rather than spreading to the whole fortress.
I'm going to start working on a fortress-wide drainage system so future floods will hopefully be merely localized. And I know exactly where to dump the waste.
The lag didn't turn out so bad. I't back to a nearly-normal 21 FPS, and when I get the sewers running I'll be able to drain most of the water out of the fortress altogether.
What?
He starved... in a food stockpile?
Early Autumn. I intend to complete this year tonight. I think they're starting to shift the emplacement rods already.
A vile force of darkness has arrived. They're attacking from several directions. I'll lock down the fortress as far as I can figure out how. They arrived only moments after the trade caravan and slaughtered them.
AND WHY IS THE DUCHESS GOING TO COLLECT ITEMS?!!? I can't find the item she's going to get, I've forbidden everything on the surface, and she's still walking RIGHT into the siege.
It doesn't help that goblins spawn on the map and drop a bunch of crap that dwarves immediately purchase and decide to go grab. I'm going to keep trying to forbid everything on the surface for now.
I've forbidden every loose item on the surface and she's still taking her baby into a warzone. I've dispatched the champions to hopefully save her, and maybe she'll spot the goblins and run away.
In the midst of the siege, Iluogo died of thirst in the middle of the training room with plentiful access to fresh water. What is this?
At least the duchess survived. And half the goblins have already routed. There's a few more squads left; the champions should be able to handle it.
Well, the siege has been cleared out to the last goblin. That particular fellow was standing next to the maze cube and, as far as I could tell, for a way to climb it.
FPS is down to 17 for some reason. Occasionally up to 20 now and then.
A peasant has entered a strange mood! So far, so good. But a THIRD random dwarf has starved IN THE FOOD STOCKPILE.
Oh hey, a dwarf went stark raving mad in the food stockpile. So that' the next one to starve to death in there.
The peasant has started construction!
Magnificent.
The sewer drain has been installed, time to finally get rid of some of this water.
Well, some migrants arrived. A farmer, a stoneworker, and two rangers who I've thrown into the marksman squad.
The water is... slllloooowwww. It's not going to end up being useful for me, but the next players will hopefully have a much drier fortress.
Made it to winter. Almost done. And FPS is 24!
I've got a few more key sewer systems set up. I would encourage future players to continue the system so that we can survive floods safely.
A while back I figured out what this FELMOOD system is, and I must say I'm impressed. I haven't needed it yet, but I've been careful to preserve it.
Closing in on the end of the year... and when I can press the button. Here's hoping this wraps up well.
Late winter. only thing to report is there's been a couple births. And the frame rate is up to 25 at times!
Alright, that's a wrap. I think I've managed to undo any damage I've caused, and to upgrade the fortress with a passive means to prevent flooding. Not one of the great old ones, but enough to keep the eternal fortress running for annother year. Now for the easy part.
The runner saved the file to the tiny plastic device. The Center was convenient in that it contained a working computer, of course, but that was not what made it so key to the operation. The elders had said that the mauling of the world was itself the result of a greater evil: the failure to maintain the eternal chain. Only the Center contained the tool needed to undo the great mistake.
The runner clutched a crutch scraped together from the detritus that remained in the heart of the technological tomb. The reactor core was fully operational, the coolant tanks were almost full. The only thing needed was the file. The completed turn.
The runner installed the tiny plastic device in the ponderous machine that occupied much of the Center's deepest tunnels. Miles of supercolider pipeline had already reached superconducting temperatures, and the extreme voltage needed for proper operation were ready. Before the fall, this place had been the most carefully kept secret on the planet.
The file loaded quickly -- compressed into a minuscule packet. There was a problem, of course.
The safety locks that had kept the runner alive also shut down the final activation sequence of the Center itself. The machine is too delicate, to sensitive, to be used except in the best of conditions...
The runner looks to the racks and racks of servers and computer systems that occupy most of the open space of the Center. They may be of use one last time. The runner hobbles over to the rack closest to the door. It just needs to buy some time. Yes. Some time.
Later...
The Runner turns adjusts the last few settings. The system was never meant to be used this way, never meant to be controlled by one person. The security system must be disengaged first, which will immediately release the pressure on the vault door. At that point, the runner needs to cross more-or-less the entire length of the Center's primary workspace and engage the Center's core functionality by hand.
There's nothing else to do, but begin.
The runner turns two keys, disengaging the locks with a series of ringing mechanical clangs. The runner grips the crutch and sprints across the tiled floor. The last bolt slams home, and the system awakens fully, cheerfully singing in a synthetic voice "All Clear. Return to normal operations status," as the brilliant florescent lights flash on in strobes.
The howlers immediately dig clawed hands under the immense steel door. In terrifying unison, forty of them heft the tons of steel as though it were a raising curtain. As their spines splinter from the dynamic pressure, dozens, no, hundreds more are already streaming under he blast door, screeching unearthly words.
The runner's crutch skitters on the linoleum. Thirty feet. Twenty feet. Stars swim before the runner's eyes. This is more exertion than anyone as rad-burned, as hungry and thirsty, as sleep-deprived and blood-drained as the runner should be asked to undertake. The howlers are faster, are stronger...
But the enter key is in reach. The runner's hand is swinging down to contact it. Too soon, too soon, the first of the swarm is there, malformed hand crushing the runner, others right behind. As the runner is pulled bodily into the air, the booted heel kicks down, strikes the dusty, long-forgotten keyboard, and the process begins.
The preset target date flashes twice, and the counter declares, barely visible on the yellowed LCD screen: 867.
The time machine roars to life, casting back a signal to the target time date: 2/24/2017. Before the catastrophe struck, when there was still time to right the monumental wrongs. Before the scarring of the Earth and the birth of the howlers. 867, the elapsed time since the sun last shone on a living world.
867 days in the past, the file traveled, uploading directly to he DFFD, ready for the next player, the key to averting the dark world to come.The save
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Topic: The Eternal Halls - An Endless Succession Game (Read 203948 times)