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[Quietust]

Yep - when underground Magma is exposed to the sky, it becomes Lava. The same also happens to the Magma Flow tiles, becoming Lava Flows.

In fact, if you allow the Lava to flow into a subterranean area, it will become Magma again.

[Lord Dakoth]

Second image is broken or something.

Other than that, I'm really liking this, especially the massive magma trap.

[Quietust]

Indeed - the URL is "http://img690.imageshack.us/content_round.php?page=done&l=img690/5356/sciencer.jpg&via=mupload" and should be changed to "http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5356/sciencer.jpg".

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[KenboCalrissian]

Interesting... I distinctly recall making that mistake, then correcting it with an edit.  Maybe I made the same mistake twice?  Imageshack recently overhauled their website, throwing me off, so that's probably what happened.  Sorry!

[KenboCalrissian]

8th Granite, 209, Early Spring
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Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Zon' we're not done with this.  I'm really upset that you sacrificed one of my miners for some... some stupid experiment!  I don't even know what you intended to do with that channel anyway."

"Asob, we're dwarves!  All great dwarven constructions are built on a few skeletons.  It's like... no construction is considered 'dwarfy' until an accident claims a life.  It's Armok's will."

"So, you think that dropping one of my miners into the magma vent was an acceptable loss for your magma trap."

"Of course!"

"Even though your science had absolutely nothing to do with the tower in question."

"Absolutely."

Asob looked up into the sky.  "What if a dwarf were to be killed by a giant eagle while working on your tower?"

"Even better!  Why do you ask?"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Mörul âstmeng's left upper leg, right upper arm, and left upper arm lay beside his headless corpse on the tower.  His head is laying on the grass below the tower, dropped unceremoniously by the giant eagle.  Unib's suggestion to name your enemy comes to mind.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Ack!  Get off the tower, everyone inside!!  Get the marksdwarves over here, right away!  And get some champions here, too!  We need to shoot this thing down!  I want the hide of Sasaremen, Frightenstrong, at my feet!"

Archibold is first to the scene, followed closely by Grendus and Tirin.  Perfect.

"Right, you three should be more than a match for that thing!  Tirin, move in and shoot!  Archibold, Grendus, prepare to retaliate when this thing comes at you!  I can't have it holding up production any more than it already has."

"Better leave this one to me, boyos!  My kill count hasn't risen in two seasons, and that makes me angry!"  Archibold takes point.

((DFMA)) ((Movie)) The warriors move in and engage Frightenstrong, the murdering giant eagle.  The results are... disappointing.

"What in blazes is that thing doing?!"

"It's backing off, Zon.  Giant eagles are smart; it doesn't want to be in range of our crossbows."

"Damn and blast!  No enemy of The Crypt of Crowns gets away!  Men, get off the tower and go shoot it from the mountainside!  Ugh, if only we had some bait..."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And there they were.  The caravan from Elenúaye arrives, and they're headed straight for the Frightenstrong.

"Oh, no... no, no, no, no!"  Asob started shouting.  "Elves!  TURNAROUNDTURNAROUNDTURNAROUNDTURNAROUND!!!"

Sadly, the elves head towards our fort at an angle, closely dodging the attention of the giant eagle.  That's two disappointments in a row!  Make that three if you count the Obsidian Lane not being finished in time to give them a proper greeting.  Hmm... I'm getting closer to a good name for it!

Archibold is first on the scene again.  The eagle flies just over his head, circling, waiting to attack.  Archibold stares up at it, sneering.

"C'mon, you lousy notch on my flail with wings.  You made me come out under the big burning ball in the sky twice today.  You're not getting away this time..."

Soon, Barduk the marksdwarf approaches his station near the eagle.

"Wow... it's... bigger than I thought.  Makes for an easier target, then!"

Barduk opens fire, but Frightenstrong flies out of range.

"Oops... I missed.  Sorry, Archibold!"

Archibold threw his -Steel helm- to the ground in disgust.  "Damn you, Frightenstrong!  Know this, you winged hellion: No one gets away from Archibold.  So help me, the next time you show your face around here, I'm grounding you permanantly!"

"That was kinda weak, Arch."

"Yeah?  Well, so's your shooting, Barduk!"

"Oh!  Well!  That was such a good comeback!  I'm going to have to share it with my husband, Tirin!  He'll find it sooooo funny!  And I'm sure you'll want to share it with your lover, too!  Oh, wait-- you don't have one!"

I rush out to the hillside to stop the bickering.  "Stop it, both of you!  It's gone, but it's still nearby.  We need to continue construction after we get poor Mörul's body off of the tower.  I want you to stand by in case it returns."

Tekkud the tax collector, claiming traumatization from the loss of our brewer (whom he didn't even know even as a passing acquaintance), demands trifle pewter items.  Whatever.  Have your worthless trinkets, Tekkud.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's been almost a month, and Frightenstrong hasn't come back.  I figure it's time to let the marksdwarves off the wall.  It might be hard to drag Archibold down...

Also, by the end of the month we only had one kobold thief appear, and it was quickly beaten down.  No ambushes or sieges yet.  Asob... I really wish you wouldn't mess with whatever's down in those mines.

We're finally ready to cut open the sides of the magma pipe to fill the expansions.  Asob and her miners get right on that.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Asob... err... decides to take a nap directly adjacent to the magma vent.  Um... what?  Reckless, much?  Say hello to the fire imps and your dead miner, while you're in there.  Just hurry up... I'm trying to get the area walled off!

Oh, wait... upon further inspection, I find she's stuck.  I order the walls next to her dug out so that she can escape when she awakes.  Well, at least she safely got away before a fire imp noticed her... one came pretty close, too, so she's extremely lucky.  Most likely, she was saved by the rapidly depleting depth of the pipe as it drains into the expansion chamber - not having enough magma to swim up to reach her, the imp left her alone, and she was safe.  I'm just glad she doesn't roll around in her sleep!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

At least the expansion chambers are filling up quickly.  I can't wait to see how the magma trap works when the tower is complete!  But there's still a lot of work to do.  So far, the work has been straightforward because everything is built off of a straight line of floors.  The level above will be a bit more complicated and involve a lot of walls.

[Grendus]

I pity dwarves when flying combat AI is finished. Toady has mentioned that dragons, at least, will eventually do crazy things like attack from above with firebreath and carry enemies off to their death. Can you imagine a giant eagle who intentionally preys on the dwarves by simply carrying them off to her nest? Even with the randomness they're a pain to take on. It's a shame you can't train the current giant eagles and eaglets to hunt the wild one down. Or at least, not without modding the raws.

[KenboCalrissian]

Mmm, war giant eagles... *glee!*

The best I could do is cage a bunch of eagles near the tower and release them if Frightenstrong comes back, but even then I don't know that it would work.  I didn't think tame animals, aside from wardogs, were aggressive against wild animals, especially their own kind.  Anybody have any input on this?

[Lord Dakoth]

That's a question for QuantumSawdust. As I understand, he has hundreds of years' experience with tame giant eagles from Flarechannels.

[KenboCalrissian]

23rd Slate, 209, Mid-Spring
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Tholtig Bowelwall expressed his extreme hatred for rhesus macaques today by strangling three of them to death, one right after the other.  Impressive!  I'm tempted to enlist him into the military, but we'd be giving up a legendary engraver and professional furnace operator to do that.  Ah, well.  Several macaques got away with garbage strewn about outside... there hasn't been time or need to clean up outdoors.

The magma trap appears to be very near completion.  I'm not sure if it will need an additional level above where the magma is meant to spill out... I doubt it.  I suppose we'll find out once we run the first test!

"Help!"  I hear Led Dastotdomas, cheese maker, call out, "There's a fire imp loose in the halls!"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

What??  But... I thought I took every precaution to avoid this sort of thing!  How did it get in?!

The fire imp chases Led all the way up onto the magma tower, where several dwarves are already hard at work.  ((Movie)) Once cornered, she turns and wrestles the fire imp to death with her bare hands.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That's one strong cheese maker!  I'm only glad the fire imp didn't cause more trouble, like setting any of the wooden vertical axles on fire.

I think I've found the vulnerability... there's a stairway right next to the first magma pump we used to power the forges, which is also adjacent to a wooden vertical axle.  It's more of a surprise that this didn't happen sooner, really!  I immediately order up several iron hatch covers to block off similar vulnerabilities throughout this section of the fort.

"Zon!"  I hear the voice of King Minkot the Cowardly.  He's rubbing his hands together gleefully, as if his mother bought him a new (+olivine puzzle box+).

"Yes, King.  What is it."

"Put on your game face, Zon.  It's time."

"Time for what?"

"Look, over the hills!"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[elizar]

Yayyyyyy!

Another Consort to please!

[Quietust]

And my dwarf has also finally arrived. Hopefully Nish is a male Philosopher...

[Lord Dakoth]

Excellent! Don't forget to update the thread title to say (Score: 2)

[The Architect]

I didn't see a consort. Did you get one?

[KenboCalrissian]

11th Felsite, 209, Late Spring
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One wrestler, one macedwarf, six peasants, one butcher, one blacksmith, one potashmaker-- I mean mason, one hunter-- I mean mason, one herbalist, one metalsmith, one fisher, one bonecarver, one armorsmith, two stoneworkers, one animal tamer, and two children.  These all came along with the latest count, consort, and... a philosopher!

Lolor Ekastathel, the Count, waltzes right into the dining room and stands on a table.

"Ah, Severedcoils!  What a quaint county you have here!  Well, fear not, laborers!  I, Lolor, have come to bring you wealth and prosperity!  See the fine dwarves I have brought with me!  I have brought along just enough to make this place a Duchy!  See?  Already, I bring you wealth!"

Grendus bangs her (Copper war hammer) once on Arbostsarvesh, the adamantine buckler.  "We've been doing a pretty good job of that ourselves."

Lolor jumps down from the green glass table, completely ignoring the rising concerns of the dwarves around him.  He looked around the room, scoffing at the engravings all over.

"Egads, how atrocious!  'The Influential Charity?'  A masterfully designed image relating to the ascension of the dwarf Zon Castleweakened the Skinny Morals to leadership of The Crypt of Crowns in the early spring of 201?  Who calls this 'masterfully designed??"  What kind of a name is 'Castleweakened for a leader, anyway?"

Tholtig Gúradil sulked.  "Hey, that's my masterfully designed image of Zon Castleweakened the Skinny Morals the dwarf and dwarves..."

My eye started to twitch, as Lolor Saveringed (as if that's a better name for a leader) paraded through the halls, nitpicking at everything in his way.

"Egads!  What's this watery mess doing next to the stairwell?  I refuse to walk through so much mud and filth every time I use the stairs!"

"That's our mist generator," I say boldly, arms crossed and beard thoroughly ruffled.  "It keeps us happy through the goblin sieges."

"Mist be damned!  I demand this wreck be shut down, and the stairs mopped, and-- dear Kovest, you're all covered in blood and vomit!  Have you dwarves been working outside?!"

"Here, Lolor, you must be weary from your journey!"  Let me escort you to your room.  It's right downstairs... we'll take the other stairway, if we absolutely must avoid the mud."

"Oh, we absolutely must do something about your clothing!  What's a woman such as yourself doing in XX-cave spider silk trousers-XX??  Have you no shame?  Is that giant bat blood spatter??"

"You bet your noble ass it is... but come!  Your lovely quarters await!  It's fortunate that one such as yourself should be so obsessed with cleanliness - ((DFMA)) ((Movie)) your room is the only one with a functioning shower!"

I reset the trap and head back inside-- only to find a witness has followed me with the duke!!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Ack!  Um... Imush!  You didn't see anything, did you?"

"...Ha, ha, real funny!  Is that another crack at me missing both eyes??"

"Oh... Um, sorry!  What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I had a question to ask of Lolor, so I followed.  I was hoping he brought some spare eyeballs with him.  I fell asleep for a bit, though to be honest it's kind of hard to tell when I'm awake and when I'm unconscious - it's dark either way.  Then I woke up here!  Where is 'here,' anyway?"

"Oh!  Uhh... you're... in the magma forges!  Goodness, Imush, be careful where you step!  You might fall into a smelter and get burned by magma!"

Imush raised an eyeless eyebrow.  "Wait a minute... the forges have a very particular scent about them.  Like magma, and burning rock, and dwarf sweat.  Here it just smells... dusty, and musty, and faintly of a groundhog bone... cabinet?  What room is this, anyway?"

I was frantically searching my mind for a better lie, and then-- "Oh!  You can't tell whether you're awake or asleep?"

"Uh huh."

"Then, clearly, you're dreaming!  No such room exists in the fort!"

"I'm dreaming?  But my dreams usually make a lot less sense than this."

"The prickle berries said they think your hoary marmot turned midnight blue.  You'd better bake some aluminum grass.  Here, swallow this giant eagle, and then you can encrust finished goods with donkey tallow."

"Ah, yes, I'm definitely dreaming," nodded Imush.  I'll just be on my way then.  I wonder where I can find Lolor...

Imush wandered out of the room.  Phew!!  That was a close one...

As I'm walking out the snaking passageway to the duke's deathtrap, I pass the new philosopher.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Oh, hi.  You must be--"

"Yes, yes, of course.  One moment, you forgot to reset your lever."

A chill runs through my beard.  "I... I did?  How did you know?"

"I'm Quietust, the philosopher!  I know!  And one must never leave their levers unpulled.  Excuse me!"

"Um... do you know what that lever does?"

"I assume it must be something completely unimportant and inconsequential, otherwise you wouldn't have forgotten to pull it again!  A moment, please."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Quietust rushes on to go and pull the lever again to close the trap.  I could have sworn I had already done that... Regardless, I hate to be rude, but I'm of no mind to meet anyone right now, so I sneak off while she's busy.

[Quietust]

And my dwarf has also finally arrived. Hopefully Nish is a male Philosopher...

...and it would appear not. Oh well, it's better than nothing. Also oddly appropriate that the Philosopher would be the one to reset the lever, being "Wise" and all (and undoubtedly wise to the whole situation, but wisely playing dumb)...