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[Bralbaard]

Ok, we'll skip Iluogo, I'll PM Keldor that his turn is up.

Let the carnage continue! 

[Keldor]

Ok, got the save.  Let's see how many dwarves I can kill keep alive!

[Keldor]

Cog "Keldor" Boltswealters was furious, filled with a seething rage.  Things were simply not going well at Halltraded.  Not that they ever did, of course, but the last year had been particularily aweful.

That year, no fewer than twenty-seven fine dwarves had perished!  Among them friends, and worse, children.  Truely this Armok forsaken place was the closest thing to hell on this side of the mortal barrier!

Faced with such horrors, surrounded by the festering undead fish that walked, not swam, the place, looking to feast upon any creature foolish enough to stray alone, even the bravest human would have run home, crying out in fear.  As for the elves, no doubt they would simply fall to the ground weeping, overcome.  But the dwarves, they alone would be strong enough to face the horrors and not just survive, but prosper.

And Keldor was a dwarf.

The last year had sickened him, and Keldor was not about to allow the foul undead to win.  So when Christes steped down from his leadership of Halltraded, standing before the weary dwarves that still lived, asking one of them to take his place, Keldor, the humble fisherdwarf stood forth.

"Dwarves of Halltraded," he announced, "for too long have we suffered to the denizens of the dread river.  Too many dwarves have been dragged into the depths, to be torn apart and devoured by the foul ravenous undead.  And worse, even our own beds hold no safety, for the fishy menace leaves the river at will to stalk down our children, and drag them back into the fetid waters!  But no more!"

At this, murmering spread through the gathered dwarves, for what could they possibly do in the face of the river?

"I say, NO MORE!  For I have a plan!  After all, what danger are fish out of water?"

Several skeptics raised eyebrows at this.  And why shouldn't they?  Every dwarf could vouch that these foul fish swam across the land just as they did the water.

"Nae, they may still charge and bite, but without the water, they no longer hold any advantage over us!  Without the water, they will feel the crushing blows of our hammers, and be felled by our axes as surely as the tallest oak!  And those that escape will be dried out by the scorching sun, becoming brittle and weak before finally turning to dust.  And without water they shall be, for we shall dam this damned river!"

[Styrre]

Wait, if the river is already damned, why dam it again? *SCNR* 

[Bralbaard]

LOL 

But damming the river , it is almost 50 squares wide, filled with undead, and does not freeze over in winter.
( I as a newbie have no clue on how it could even theoretically be done)

[Keldor]

In order to dam it, I had just envisioned a big row of pumps on a bridge across the river, each pumping upstream.  Then the downstream part of the river should just flow away, allowing the dwarves to build a wall on the riverbed.

I'm not sure exactly how water behaves if you pump water onto a layer of already existant water (waterfall anti-pileing rules come into play, and I don't know if pressure calculations will just teleport the water back into the river or not...), but in worst case, it's a fairly simple matter to just restrict the water to flowing up off the map.

The biggest problem is actually getting the thing done.  I've played the first month, and the dwarves have completed all of... one floor tile.  I'll have to post some archers or something to deal with the two or three carp which keep chasing off the dwarves.  In addition, I need to build components for no less than 47 screw pumps.  I'm hoping I can find some ore so that I don't have to build them out of wood!  I don't think dead trees ever grow back.

[Christes]

(47 pumps)*(10 power/pump) = 470 power.

Err, How are you going to get power?  Hopefully windmills...  But that is a LOT of windmills.

[Jakeypoo]

that's only like, 6 waterwheels, it can be done...

It might be easier to dump Lava into the river though, you have a pipe, right? if so, that's an infinite source of lava (can you make steel yet?) you could just dam the river with obsidian, right? With channeling, you might be able to only need one, possibly two screw pumps, and they *can* pump lava if they're not made from lava safe materials, they'll just... uh... break quickly.

Looking forward to seeing the damn river damed. 

Additional bonus: You don't need to defend a lava-channel from undead, it kills them.

[Christes]

I already built 4 waterwheels, so that's almost enough there.

But ... If he's damming the river, how will the wheels get power?  Short of the perpetual motion exploit, of course.

[Keldor]

Doh!  I hadn't even thought of using lava!

[Keldor]

In the days following Keldor's speech, the atmosphere of Halltraded changed from its usual fearful grimness to something possibly even approaching the cheerfulness of a typical fort.  Old feuds were forgotten, laughter could sometimes be heard from the hall, and Bralbaard was once even caught humming to himself, although he later denied this, as he worked on the numerous preparations for the great undertaking.

Keldor had laid out an elaborate plan for blocking the river, wherein a huge array of pumps would halt the flow of the river long enough for workers to build a wall across the bottom.  It was agreed that this would probably work, although no one was sure quite how the water would react to being pumped back upon itself.  Still, as Christes said, it would be a simple matter to divert the already pumped water away from the river should there be any problem.

***

"It's a well known scientific phenomenon that magma will never flow upward, it is simply too viscous,"  explained Christes.  Discussions were underway concerning the building of a great underground magma forge, which would be not only safe from fire imps and their ilk, due to allowing the lava used to flow a distance from the main vent, but which would boast an impressive production capacity several times that of the old forge.  "Thus, we won't have to worry about the lower levels being flooded with magma, provided that access to the magma reservoir is limited to strictly from above."

"That's all very nice," objected Bralbaard, "but what use is a forge without any metal?  Ye know as well as me that the only metal we're found in this place were a couple bars worth of aluminum!"

"I'm certain that there are some nice metal deposits around here somewhere," Ushat jumped to her husband's defense, "it's just a matter of digging a few exploratory tunnels until we hit some."

"Hmph.  I hope ye don't think I'll be the one to dig tunnels all over the place te find it," snorted Bralbaard.

"Of course not!  You will be updating our stockpiles.  I notice that we still do not have a count for how many bars we got off the merchants," snapped Keldor.

"BAH!"  Bralbaard stormed off.

Keldor sighed.  "Anyhow, how are we going to breech the lava tube in order to fill the reservoir without anyone getting incinerated?  Not that I'd mind so much if Bralbaard-"

"Keldor!"  Reprimanded Ushat.

"Erm, yes.  But how will we manage it?"

"Quite simple, really," explained Christes, "Remember how I said that lava never flows upward?  Well, it just so happens that the lava tube exhibits a large amount of stratification, wherein layers of magma do not fully overlap each other..."

[Keldor]

Eventually, however, it became clear that in order to complete the dam in a timely fashion, some of the pumps would have to be made out of wood.  This was rather unfortunate, since no dwarf really thought that the dead trees in the area were likely to regrow, and thus it was imperative that wood be used sparingly, a massive pump construction project being no one's idea of sparingly.

Still, a section of forest was designated for logging, and Olin, the carpenter, took up her axe to begin, thankfully unnoticed by the small heard of undead deer that was passing by.

Meanwhile, the construction of the pumping platform across the river had ran into some problems.



"It's no good," said Tosid, "I simply can't get close enough to work without those accursed carp seeing me."

"I told you this would never work," muttered Bralbaard.

Keldor ignored him.  "You said there were only two or three of them.  Perhaps if a couple of us took some crossbows and stood guard we could handle them?  Bralbaard, how many crossbows and bolts do we have in stock?"

"Dunno," said Bralbaard.

"Well, you're the record keeper!  Go find out.  And if we don't have any, place a work order for some.  Five crossbows and ten quarrels of bolts should be enough."

[Christes]

Wait did Christes marry Ushat now?

Second, the lava idea is fraught with all sorts of peril as well, so you don't have to worry.

[Keldor]

Wait did Christes marry Ushat now?

Erm... I doubt it.  I just misinterpreted what you had said.

Anyway, moving along with the story...

A stirring had run throughout the fortress.  Elven traders had arrived!  The meeting hall was filled with the chatter of dwarves, some placing bets on how many pieces the dread fish would rip the elves into, others speculating on what types of booze the elves brought with them.

"Bralbaard!  Shouldn't ye be heading up to the trade depot?  The elves aren't going to just give away their goods ye know."

"Pah, they don't need to.  We just need to wait, and before long, their goods will be free for the takin'.  Unless ye think they'll make it to the depot and away again?"

"Well," Ushat didn't really think that the elves would survive either, but she continued, "don't ye think ye should head on up, just in case?"

"Oh very well.  But if there be no elves to trade with, ye owe me a drink!"

Bralbaard stood up, still grumbling, and left the hall.

***

"Bralbaard!  There ye are!"  Keldor hailed down the hallway, "How went the trading?"

"Ah, I think ye'll be pleased," Bralbaard responded, a touch of smugness in his tone.

"Oh?  How is that?  Did ye get us some fine drinks?"

"Well, no."

"Perhaps we got somethin' to add to our larder then?  Or else somethin' to brew into drink?"

"No an' no."

"Surely ye didn't just get a bunch of empty barrels, then.  I know that wood be scarce around here, but still-"

"Nope!"  Bralbaard grinned.  "But if ye come this way, I'll show you."

"Hmph.  This better be good then."  Keldor followed as Bralbaard led the way toward the south entrance.



Keldor stood before the cage, eying the creature within nervously.  Whatever he had expected, this was not it.

"I dunno, Bralbaard.  Are you sure its safe?"

"The elves say it's perfectly tame."

"And you trusted them?!  They're elves, for Armok's sake!"

Within the cage, the giant eagle calmly watched the two dwarves argue.



"Well, I didn't just take them at their word!  They showed me how to feed it, like this-" Bralbaard held a berry through the bars, which the eagle gently plucked out of his hand.

"It eats berries?!"  Keldor exclaimed.

"That's what the elves been feedin' it.  Looks like it likes 'em to me."

Keldor shook his head in disbelief.  "Well, I suppose ye can keep it.  But if it causes any problems, I'm holding ye responsible!"

[Christes]

Ok, that is really awesome.  I didn't even know they sold giant eagles.