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Author Topic: Catchclasps: Fire and Rotting Flesh (The "Test Everything" Fort)  (Read 16749 times)

Cellmonk

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Catchclasps: Fire and Rotting Flesh (The "Test Everything" Fort)
« on: December 16, 2011, 06:35:23 pm »

The saga of Catchclasps have begun. The Oar of Walls has sent a party of seven dwarves, so called "The Icy Anvil", to the Flimsy Forest on the Abyssal Continent. This place is damned, and any hopes of long term prosperity is marginal for the seven founders. But these are proud dwarves. They will build until the bullet flies to carry them home. What they build will be the stuff of legends. The shadow of a giant tower, stretching to the sky is forming in their dwarven minds. The fire of the deep yearns to rise and cleanse this evil land.

Ok, so after being deeply inspired by Weatherwires, I decided to start my own megafort. While weatherwires was a fort born in stone, this one will be a fort born in fire. now someone gotta make one born in water or air.. but I'll leave that for a later day.

Basically I will dig a cylindrical shaft right down to magma, and fill it in with cast obsidian. This obsidian cylinder will rise up to the the top z level of sky, and down to (hopefully) the SMR.

Right now it is merely in its planning stages. I'll upload images of my sketches and formulate the structure of this thing.


Architecture:

    Cylindrical, gardens and nobles on top entrance at ground level, cavern, HFS level. Current focus is how to fit magma/water cisterns and pump stacks in in a symmetrical manner, and how to make a nice looking entrance. diameter = 41 urists.



I've got several original and researched components to be applied here. I'll add to each a description as I move on to finalizing the thing.
they are organized based on importance.

Tested/testing
-diagonal stops miasma, checkerboard refuse pile.

Primary:
-Efficient multi-z magma casting
-Automated airlock based goods transfer
-Minifort during construction
     a) can't find the post for that tiny unobtrusive fort design. seems like its a good base of operations until the century-fort is completed.
-pump-stacks everywhere!
-lock-down and cleansing sectors with magma

Secondary
-Magma landmines
    a) http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91789.msg2561309#msg2561309
-Fully reusable obsidian cave-in gates (basically, I retool this: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=78399.msg2028060#msg2028060).
    a) might take some optimizing
-Forgotten Beast Capture and storage
-Complex Plumbing (wells EVERYWHERE), possibly an efficient contaminant removal system.
-Optimizing FPS
-Repeating Magma Piston rather than pump stack?
-Extending the bottom of the fort to SMR. magma-sea draining?

Tertiary:

-Supersoldiers!
    a) http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80999.msg2160409;topicseen#msg2160409
    b) http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91093.0
-Mining out entire adamantine veins without peircing hell.
    a) I have some ideas for this, but I'll need to research cave-ins better. Do cave-ins reveal things?

I'll add to this as I go. Any ideas are appreciated. When I am satisfied with my planning, I will begin the fort, and the journal.



Psuedoedit: And I gotta find a suitable name and theme for this dang thing. (currently its kinda the "testing everything I possibly can" fort).


Please tell me if any of my formatting/writing style makes any of this hard to read. English IS my first language, but even us English-As-A-Primary-Language people don't always know how to use English effectively. Especially when writing on too little sleep.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2011, 02:36:02 am by Cellmonk »
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Shmadolf Shmitler

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Re: The Test Everything That Has Anything Remotely To Do With Magma Fort
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2011, 07:27:45 pm »

Neat.
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Cellmonk

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Re: The Test Everything That Has Anything Remotely To Do With Magma Fort
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2011, 08:40:17 pm »

Well, even though I originally planned to do more planning of the darn thing before I jumped into it, I'm going to go ahead and begin the monstrosity. Next post will be the first Journal. Cloths will be modded out, and it will be a relatively shallow (one cavern layer) world. All for FPS, mind you.
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NRDL

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Re: The Test Everything That Has Anything Remotely To Do With Magma Fort
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2011, 09:17:17 pm »

Posting to watch, we really need more pure experiment fort threads. 
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KodKod

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Re: The Test Everything That Has Anything Remotely To Do With Magma Fort
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2011, 09:51:09 pm »

Posting to watch. I look forward to seeing what comes of this madness.
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Loud Whispers

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Re: The Test Everything That Has Anything Remotely To Do With Magma Fort
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2011, 09:53:17 pm »

Good luck to you then.

Cellmonk

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Re: The Test Everything That Has Anything Remotely To Do With Magma Fort
« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2011, 11:56:30 pm »

    The Road goes ever on and on
    Down from the door where it began.
    Now far ahead the Road has gone,
    And I must follow, if I can,
    Pursuing it with eager feet,
    Until it joins some larger way
    Where many paths and errands meet.
    And whither then? I cannot say.

        -Bilbo Baggins, Halfling.

The long trek has ended. But even as the perilous journey ends, and the founding seven burrow into the wretched earth, long years of toil still lay ahead. Who knows what they may bring.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The air is damp. Rotting wood stretches as far as the eye can see. The darkness howls from deep rifts beneath the earth

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Innumerable abominations lie in wait beneath the putrid rapids

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We are surrounded by foul waters slicing stone deep beneath our heels

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This place is an abomination. But the power of dwarves lies not in their flexibility. We will tame this place, or else leave it a black scar seared into the earth. For now we must hide beneath this toxic soil, and scrape against the rock under the protective roots of long dead trees.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We come here weakling in a terrifying land. We shall yet rise from the earth as its master.

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Cellmonk

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Re: The Test Everything That Has Anything Remotely To Do With Magma Fort
« Reply #7 on: December 17, 2011, 12:11:14 am »

Ok, so it seems to have started well. I looked around the surface, and found large deposits of cassiterite and tetrahedrite. If there is no iron, we shall at least have bronze.

The number of undead creatures boggles my mind. This fort is between three terrifying biomes. as a result, it has 2 pages of undead tigerfish, alligators, Hippos, and one undead giant platypus. I made certain the dwarves could hide inside asap. I am glad I brought a steel pick for each of them.

The current fort will merely be a camp. It will upgrade to a deeper cavern layer fort, which the dwarves will operate from when they bring the lava to the surface, and lay down the molten stone which will tower black to the heavens.

This four-by-four map has some fascinating geology. Two rivers, one cutting seven Z-levels in. thats the one with the waterfall, and the numerous rotting Hippos. The water movement is toward the east border of the map, from all the other borders.

We'll see what happens.

If anyone would Like to be dwarfed as one of the starting seven, holler. I'll post their traits later. but they're all miners, and most of them are fighters as well (besides one mason and one carpenter)
« Last Edit: December 17, 2011, 12:14:47 am by Cellmonk »
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Cellmonk

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Re: The Test Everything That Has Anything Remotely To Do With Magma Fort
« Reply #8 on: December 17, 2011, 12:33:01 am »

The Seven Founders:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Top to bottom:

Lokum U, Proficient Carpenter and Miner
Urist G, Proficient Mason and Miner
Ingish R, Proficient Fighter and Miner
Ingish S, Proficient Fighter and Miner (Expedition Leader)
Catten M, Proficient Fighter and Miner
Urvad C, Proficient Fighter and Miner
Avuz O, Proficient Fighter and Miner
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Ravenplucker

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Re: Catchclasps: Fire and Rotting Flesh (The "Test Everything" Fort)
« Reply #9 on: December 17, 2011, 02:59:31 am »

Could I claim Lokum U? He seems like a pretty cool guy.
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raptorfangamer

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Re: Catchclasps: Fire and Rotting Flesh (The "Test Everything" Fort)
« Reply #10 on: December 17, 2011, 09:06:03 am »

Urist G. please?

oh yeah, about the fort, it seems like a pretty ambitious and !!FUN!! project, what is your militia about?
pickfighting (quite dangerous to an early fort taking on count how military works)?
fistfighting?
someotherweaponryfighting?
death eyes?
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Lordraymond

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Re: Catchclasps: Fire and Rotting Flesh (The "Test Everything" Fort)
« Reply #11 on: December 17, 2011, 10:52:41 am »

WHY ARE ALL THE DWARVES CHICKS

I'll wait for the first migrant wave to claim
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Cellmonk

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Re: Catchclasps: Fire and Rotting Flesh (The "Test Everything" Fort)
« Reply #12 on: December 17, 2011, 04:28:15 pm »

We felt that our hovel needed some cozying. We needed beds. So we all grabbed our copper axes and began to chop at the dry stumps of ancient trees.

We had disturbed the peace of this vile surface. Ingish R gave a yelp as a gigantic mass of fur came forth from the mud. It was a platypus, a strange creature as any, made stranger by its damned nature. We startled, but not for long.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ingish S, the leader of this expedition, gave a war whoop. "We must fight this vile land! Bring light to the darkness! WE ARE THE ANGELIC LANTERNS!"

So we dropped our useless axes and bore our fists upon the foe.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It disappeared in a puff of waterlogged fur. This is a land of Ghosts, it seems, not of real, tangible, Fightable threats. We must remain united, and when we can, hidden.

This creature would have made short work of an individual dwarf. we must be more careful.


We finished cutting, and Lokum U crafted fine beds from the logs left atop the hill. We had them in time for the night.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


Urist G. please?

oh yeah, about the fort, it seems like a pretty ambitious and !!FUN!! project, what is your militia about?
pickfighting (quite dangerous to an early fort taking on count how military works)?
fistfighting?
someotherweaponryfighting?
death eyes?
Could I claim Lokum U? He seems like a pretty cool guy.

The first night has passed. we have decided to have our first meeting. We spoke of dreams.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


Urist G. please?

oh yeah, about the fort, it seems like a pretty ambitious and !!FUN!! project, what is your militia about?
pickfighting (quite dangerous to an early fort taking on count how military works)?
fistfighting?
someotherweaponryfighting?
death eyes?
Could I claim Lokum U? He seems like a pretty cool guy.

Everyone's night was troubled. But throughout the discussion, the two males of the group sat by one another, and occasionally whispered gravely to the other's ear. Finally they came forth.

Lokum U gathered himself before the small band. Finally he spoke.

"I had a dream last night. a terrible, terrible,  beautiful dream. I dreamt of a forest ablaze, of giant beams of twisted wood holding aloft a stone ceiling, of roots twisting through obsidian like tendrils of steel through space. I dreamt of a dark figure standing above a glassy pillar amidst a dead forest. It spoke to me.

'You are the root, Lokum. you are the root. And amidst this blackness, you are the beam. You are the raven, Lokum. Rise. Fly. tear down the fowls of the sky and pluck the feathers from their wings.'

I think this means something, as my heart pumped magma when I heard it. This is why I have chosen to adopt the name he spoke to me when the stars died above, and the land froze below. Henceforth, call me Ravenplucker."


He stepped back. he seemed to have grown tall and menacing. His dark hair swept over his face. he turned to Urist.

"My friend also had this dream. let him tell us what name he was given."

Urist gave a chuckle. then he spoke:

"your words are eloquent, Ravenplucker. I feel we shall be friends. But I must change my name first."

He cleared his throat and sighed. A great weariness came over him. he talked in a harsher, more gravely tone. Spoke he:

"When I was brought above the great tower in the sky, and when I watched the rivers die and seas dry, the shadow turned to me and closed around my eyes. It spoke into my ear.

'Stone and Ores of bone, you alone shall bend the will of rock. My child, you have a name which shall define you. You have claws and teeth beneath the surface. the claws of a bird. the teeth of a wolf. You shall have the name 'Raptorfang'.

This among many other things it told me. I think it wise I take that name, and give it unto my children to carry in hard times."


The groups was silent. Every dwarf here had that same dream that night. But only these two had been spoken to by the dark spirit above the great pillar.

Ravenplucker and Raptorfang stood silent, as if entranced by the cold winds above.






« Last Edit: December 17, 2011, 04:48:13 pm by Cellmonk »
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Cellmonk

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Re: Catchclasps: Fire and Rotting Flesh (The "Test Everything" Fort)
« Reply #13 on: December 17, 2011, 06:39:00 pm »

It is summer. The first of Hematite has come to pass. Soon we shall go to the surface again, to claim as much wood as possible.

In the month of Felsite, we decided to close the tiny microcline doors which act as our main gate. We best carve out more space uninterrupted by the undead.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

With the gates closed, we took stock. Only 40 booze left. 30 or so edible items to spare. immediately we dug out a space to slaughter our two sullen beasts. This evil place provided them no food worthy of the proud race of horses, and the howls of the undead left the lovers of open space terrified. May their spirits rest. The Cave Crocodiles we brought (breeding pair) seem to be comfortable, though.

Because we had decided to remain indoors for the time being, we took this as a chance to test a method of scentless composting. The checkerboard method is to be tested.
Fearful of the shortage of booze, we dug out a nook in the dirt to grow underground mushrooms. we planted both plump helmets and sweet pods. hopefully, those will grow and be Distilled before the event horizon of sobriety engulfs us.

After horses had been slaughtered, we tanned their hides and tried to store their meat. Alas! no barrels, and only wood on the vile surface. luckily, Avuz wisely took up the challenge of hollowing out some boulders for storage use. She may become our craftsdwarf, with her ingenuity.

Here is the fort so far, as well as something which has been troubling the dreams of this company:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The flat space at the top of the hill would easily fit the the pillar of their dreams, the dwarves agree, and the veiw around is the same as that in their dream. However, the dwarves have argued over exactly how it was placed in the dream, and how far from the horrendous rift it was. Ravenplucker and Raptorfang haven't voiced their opinions yet, but seem interested in the discussion. Many of the company wonder what Ravenplucker and Raptorfang think.

EDIT: If anyone has any trouble with the images loading, please let me know. I use img.ie, but I've never used it for anything before, so errors can occur.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2011, 10:45:23 pm by Cellmonk »
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Cellmonk

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Re: Catchclasps: Fire and Rotting Flesh (The "Test Everything" Fort)
« Reply #14 on: December 18, 2011, 12:17:21 am »

HARVEST! And we still had at least 30 drinks left when the helmets popped out of the earth. We quickly gathered them up and stuffed them into the rock pots Avuz had fashioned. We'll need to make more to store what we distill from our fine food.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


While many of the dwarves were busy distilling and reseeding (each helmet produced a good five seeds), some got around to carving out a nesting area for the two crocs. the male is already producing spores, but the female has a few more months to go before she enters her first heat.

I set up some more rooms for workshops as well. Here's the fort on the first of malachite (mid-summer):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Since growth needs fuel, and carpenters need wood, we began digging out a storage/wood-industry section. This is a simple, makeshift setup. Someday dwarves will be locked into their workshops completely undisturbed, producing goods and getting food and materials through an airlock. But this will do until production stabilizes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Plus we'll need a place to put the wood we haul after our little excursion, planned for fall.

A creature howled in the night. Its was the scream of a tiger, damned for immortality. Wretched bonobos cried out as well. The doors are well sealed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)



We received MIGRANTS! Not one of us founders understand why they chose to come to such an accursed place. Perhaps they had our same dream. Perhaps it is fate that brought them here.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We expected a vile creature to jump out and snag a couple of the weary immigrants, so we all grabbed our axes and guarded the open gate, and urged them to come quickly.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As they passed us, each one thanked us, and told us of a giant tiger they had encountered a few miles away. It took their mule, but spared a small fowl. We shall soon become comrades in our struggle.

Here are the Migrants:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

May we rise as one.

« Last Edit: December 18, 2011, 12:23:05 am by Cellmonk »
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