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And thus begins our second venture into the realm of dwarven mismanagement!

With much learned from our previous venture, we set out once more to try to conquer the landscape!

This time the land area is much more managable (5x5), the surrounding area is sufficiently populated (Nearby human town and goblin fortress, as well as elves and fellow dwarfs in the area), and a far less unfortunate name (Oaklanterns)

Here's some info on the area and the starting forces I chose:

Two other biomes in the area:


The aquafer is limited to the northern edge of the plot, and since there's no river here, it could be harvested for the sake of a constant water source.

There is a magma pipe in the area, too, so while there's no obsidian layer, we can make our own with the magma.

Lots of Sand and a variety of rock layers, along with plenty of flux, so steel production should be easy to get going.

There's not a boatload of trees, but there should be plenty of coal to be found, so wood can be entirely reserved for beds, bolts, and ballistas


Current posting order:

1. Pojodan
2. Chronos
3. Wahad
4. Dubyamn
5. Bearscholar
6. Necronic
7. ????

*shrug*

Well even though I'm going to be the one going last of us I vote for you starting off at the top of the list. It's a group game and everybody should have a chance to play before we start taking second turns.

Besides you seem to know what you're doing so we'd get off to a good start.

1. Pojodan
2. Chronos
3. Necronic
4. Dubyamn
5. Bearscholar
6. ????

Sound about right for starters, then?

If so, I'll get 'er going, so long as everyone's still interested in this.

Yeah, fine by me - let everyone take a 1st turn before I get another one. Go right ahead, man!

Is anybody else reading this, while not playing? Its immensely entertaining I'd recommend it for the main site.

Journal of Poj Odan, Geologist 2nd Class of the High King

15th Moonstone, 201 (of the new calendar)

Following the disappointment of my last project, I was affraid that my dream of becoming a 1st class was shot down the chasms of hell, but despite my failure to locate iron ore for the last fortress I was assigned to (I blame the idiot miners and the fool that named that unforntunate place), the research I provided of the area was, apperantly, appreciated. So much so that they've asked me to head up a brand new venture, Oaklanterns.

Oaklanterns, I asked? Seems the area I'm going to is known for it's oak trees, but why would one build a lantern out of oak? I suppose it could be worse (much worse)


With the recent livestock shortages, I'm only allowed one wagon, so my initial provisions will be unfortunately small, but I feel I made the most of it:



With my skills in stonework and metalsmithing, I also acquired six others to serve the other tasks of running this operation:
A pair of stout miners who both manned ballista for awhile during the last great goblin seige, which will come in handy when they eventually come bother us.
An armorsmith who's also quite handy with an axe for chopping wood and, perhaps, fending off any early goblin scouts or kobolds.
A mason who's apperantly just as good at building things out of wood as he is with stone, which will mean our beds and barrels won't be falling apart, which is very good.
A farmer that knows his way around a still, and goodness knows we're gonna need a lot of booze for this venture.

I'd be halfway inclined to leave it at that, but the High King insists we have someone that can keep the books up to date and can be a liason for the yearly caravans, as well as any humans or... elves.. that decide to trade with us. He will be on refuse duty.

I leave within the week.




1st Granite, 201

This is the place, but what sort of fortress is built into the side of a hill? There's no mountains anywhere around here! The scout for this mission reported there being signs of a magma pipe in the vicinity, but this is hardly the landscape I'd expect for such a feature. I've sent the diggers to start digging into the side of the nearby hill to see what they can find, and right away they've come upon red sand. The geography of this area astounds me. I'll be taking a long walk around the area to see if I can find the signs the scout had mentioned tomorow.

2nd Granite, 201

Sure enough, the crest of a nearby hill is burned away and rather warm, telling of magma just a few feet below the surface:



Thankfully it's not exposed, else we might have an imp infestation problem. It does allow for much greater ease in designing the layout of the forges, I'll say that for sure.


9th Granite, 201

Marble! After some initial tunneling in the sand to setup some initial defenses (design shown below), an exploratory shaft discovered marble after a layer of slate below the sand. This is good news as the slate will certainly yield iron ore and the marble will be an ideal flux matterial. Hardly two weeks in and already we have the makings for a steel industry!


As you can see here, there's space allocated for a trade depot, the main entrance at the bottom right, which will be closed off in the event of a seige, and a long corridor to the left with placements for ballista behind fortifications.

3rd Slate, 201


Magnetite! Oh, wonderous magnetite! No iron ore comes in such large quanitites as magnetite and we've hit a vein of it directly above the workshop area! What wonders will this place yield next?


14th Felsite, 201

The last two months have been quite back breaking for the lot of us, but the grand lobby and dining area have been dug out, the stores of food have been relocated underground, and the workshop has the first glimmerings of activity with the mason churning out furnature while I've setup a station to produce to produce some crafts of of the abundant marble so we'll have something to show for the caravan when it arrives in a few months.

I sent a miner off to dig a bore hole down from just below the scorched area nearby to see if he could find just how close to the surface the magma pipe comes. Turns out he didn't have to go far.

The pipe itself is close enough to the workshop so that the feeder tube doesn't have to be terribly long, but long enough that the imps that surely inhabit the pipe aren't likely to venture out and hassle my workshop. Bauxite proved impossible to get for this expedition, and I'm reluctant to use any iron that I don't need to. I've read the studies on fire imps quite thuroughly and I'm confident the distance is enough to deter their curiosity.

put me last I have no internet

Necronic said:

put me last I have no internet

Click to expand...

Ow. Posting from a mobile device too, from the looks of it.

how dare you!

Necronic said:

put me last I have no internet

Click to expand...

Sucks D: Hope you get it back soon!

Should have it Feb 7th

17th Malachite, 201

Here are the significant log entries of the last two weeks



Now let me explain.

First off, we have kobolds, and one of the basted creatures snuck so far into the fortress as to steal one of the better amulets I've been working on! Set off a whole flury of chaos as he dashed out the door, and at the same time the woodcutter bumped into another while out chopping wood, so she came screaming inside to find all of us in no better state.

Seems I made the foolish choice to assume we'd be left alone till after the caravans arive, and that's not till next season!

I put the otherwise worthless bookkeeper to work training our dogs. He was rather annoyed and insisted he had no idea how to do such a thing, but I didn't have any of that and despite it all, they did turn out quite capable, even if it took the bloak awhile.

I also set about building some chains so we could tie them up outside the entrance to prevent any more stinking kobolds from sneaking inside.

Wouldn't you know it that while this was going on some blasted monkeys decided to raid us as well! Hopefully two dogs will be enough to keep them from trying that again.

Lastly, I'm sad to say that the one male of the three dogs we brought got crushed by the rock crusher I had been in the process of setting up. I'd read about the benefits of constructing a draw bridge and using it to crush rocks for the sake of preventing clutter, so I attempted to set up a system using the lever and preasure plate system I'd had described to me. During this I failed to block off the area and the newly trained dog, for some reason, decided to have a look while I was testing it.

Not a pretty sight, I'll say that much.

The also creates the problem of there being no male dogs to give the two remaining bitches puppies. With any luck, he did his duty already.

21st Galena, 201

MOTHERLOAD!



Amid digging out the huge magnetite cluster, he miners hit paydirt. Platinum! And the vein just kept going and going!

I cannot begin to describe just how excited I am! I may just stick around after my replacement comes in Spring.

1st Limestone, 201

Autumn has come, bringing my term here to its halfway point. Things certainly have faired a lot better than I expected. The workshop area is coming along nicely, and while I was reluctant to do so, we have such a surplus of iron ore I went ahead and installed some iron bars in the magma tube to prevent any imps from getting through before breeching the obsidian wall from above and getting the magma flowing into the workshop area. I was quite pleased to finally get to make use of it early last week, with which I made a beautiful platinum statue that's now the centerpiece of the lobby.

The other good news is that one of the bitches gave birth to a litter of puppies, at least one of which is a male, so while it'll be awhile before it happens, there'll be plenty of war dogs to keep us safe from theives in the future.

I'll be spending the next few weeks producing as much craftwork as I can so the caravan goes away rich so we get a nice big wave of immigrants before winter sets in, I hope.

7th Limestone, 201

Bauxite!



Of all things, the Platinum gave way to Bauxite. This should sell well to the caravans, given the shortages when we left. Sure wish I'd mined some more before wasing a bar of iron on that likely pointless imp guard.

19th Limestone, 201

The caravan has arrived!

Seems my earlier hunch was incorrect as bauxite had been discovered in quanity somewhere else, making my bauxite all but worthless. A shame, but at least I can not waste any more iron in any future magma projects.

Nearly had a melt down at one point at the Bookkeeper insisted we uproot my Platinum statue and use it for trade! I just about busted his gut right there, but thankfully the trade merchant took one look at it and deemed it far too heavy to fit in the wagon. Whew.

Unfortunately all the other projects prevented me from producing as much trade crafts as I'd have liked, so we didn't walk away with a lot, though the Bookkeeper insisted the traders were pleased, so we should be expecting immigrants within the next few months.

20th Sandstone, 201

To ensure comfortable living for the dwarves to come, I've started a grand housing project that, I imagine, will not be finished before my time is up, but it'll hold at least 50 dwarves in comfort, far enough away from the ruckus of the workshop so that good rest can be had by all!



19th Timber, 201

Aquafer! Thankfully the miner that struck upon the damp earth that he had been channeling through in search of coal realized it before flooding the whole fort with an endless steam of water.

Future overseers of this fortress will have to be adviced of it's location to prevent future flooding.

22nd Timber, 201

Our woodcutter is begining to really grate on my nerves. Every single time she bumps into a kobold she comes screaming back to the fort, demanding protection. What am I supposed to do? We've yet to receive any immigrants and our two remaining wardogs are guarding the entrance for theifs. I cannot afford anything right now and all she can do is get on my case about it. If she wasn't purported to be a skillful armorsmith I'd put -her- on refuge duty.

1st Moonstone, 201

Winter is here, and the air only seems mildly nippy, but that's only a matter for the woodcutter to deal with as our food and booze stores are plenty full.

The miners finally got into digging out some of the housing area, which will be a welcome change from sleeping in the same room as the other fellows.. snoring is just one of the many problems with that arangement.

23rd Opal, 201

With winter chuging along without anything interesting outside of the occational commotion of our guard dogs scaring off yet another foolish kobold, I decided to make use of a small aluminum cluster to produce another statue to sit along side the platinum one in the lobby, flanked by marble statues along the walls. It looks marvelous, esepcially once we get a bloody imigrant that can start smoothing the walls!

What in Armok is taking the imigrants so long to get here?!

1st Granite, 202

Alas, this year has come and gone. As per the law (which I've yet to figure out the reasoning for) I must hand the reins over to my successor. I expect that to become apperant sometime today as it must surely be one of the other six that came here as NO BLOODY MIGRANTS CAME!

One would think with word of platium and iron riches they've be here in waves, but apperantly not! Perhaps the winter was severe enough to warrent waiting till Spring time. We shall see in the coming months, I suppose.

Below is the layout of the main chambers and workshop area in their current state. Mining operations continue on the sedimentary layer above in hopes of striking coal so that steel forging can commence without the need for a large woodcutting operation (which, with all the kobolds that harassed us this year, would require a lot of war dogs to be accomplished safely)

The monkeys never returned, and aside from the migrating herds of muskoxen and horses there's been no other significant happenings in the area.

I'm pleased that the miners were able to finish digging out the sleeping quarters and enough beds where built and installed to host us and a decent sized wave of immigrants... if they ever show up, anyway.

Here you go, Chronos! Have fun! And not the losing sort of fun!

http://cid-d47cf56a42f4e6da.skydrive.li ... egion7.zip

Cool - First update may take a day or two here. Work's gotten somewhat busy...and I work out of the home. But I'm aiming for an update tonight.

EDIT: Also - quick question. What graphics pack do you use? I like the look of it, and I'm considering switching to it. Also - is it one of the full packs, or a partial? (I.e. changes everything, including creatures/monsters, or just mostly items and landscape)

It's the May Green graphics set. I'm not sure what the difference between full and partial is, but I'm guessing full as creatures and monsters have graphical icons as well.

Gotten here: http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/df.htm (download link is below the screenshot)

I'll admit it's gotten me a bit complaicent to where I'm unfamiliar with many of the symbols used in the official game.

I will note that corpses still use the lettering of the original game.

aquifer? WTF man? :waah:

Necronic said:

aquifer? WTF man? :waah:

Click to expand...

Yeah, tell me about it - I"ve purposefully avoided the area he described the aquifer as being in, but I am messing around with the magma. Frankly, I'm far more scared of the aquifer than the lava.

On a side note - I hope to have an update out today. Gotta get some work done first, though.

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]

Necronic said:

aquifer? WTF man? :waah:

Click to expand...

Yeah, tell me about it - I"ve purposefully avoided the area he described the aquifer as being in, but I am messing around with the magma. Frankly, I'm far more scared of the aquifer than the lava.

On a side note - I hope to have an update out today. Gotta get some work done first, though.

Click to expand...

The aquafer is limited to the far north part of the map and only one or two Z-levels, it's really not that much of a problem, esepcially since the dwarfs will stop mining when they come to it's edge. So, basically don't go digging channels on the north part of the map without being sure you're not inadvertantly building a path for the water to flow.

The appeal of this is that it's basically an under-ground water source if you build it out right (Build a floodgate next to the edge of the aquafer, build a room that the floorgate leads into. Build another floodgate on the other side of the room. Link the two floodgates to seperate levels. Channel out from above the edge of the aquafer leading to the first floodgate so that water flows up to it. Open the first floodgate, fill the room, close the floodgate, now you can direct the traped pool of water to wherever you want it, such as to a well)

If you're ultra paranoid, do your major mining opperations down at the lowest Z-level and just avoid the northern 1/3 of the map.

Right, editing this post now with my first update. Come back later.

On a side note, there won't be as many pictures as my previous posting, because A) These pictures are larger and I don't want to post as many, and B) Something consistently screwed up with the screenshots I took - only about 1/2 of them are fine. I'm not sure what caused it, but in the 1st screenshot below you can see some of it on the right side - the graphics just aren't showing up in some of these. Not sure why, but I'll fix it for the next update.

1st Granite, 202 - Early Spring. (2nd year)

Log of Chronos Morullisid, 2nd Expeditionary Leader.

Poj said I needed to keep a log of everything I do as the new leader. I don't know why I got chosen for leader - I'm just the bookkeeper. A job that is far more difficult than it should be when you are lacking AN OFFICE. I mean, what is the point of having a bookkeeper if you've not even going to bother giving them job necessities? Apparently, either Poj has some grudge against me for reasons I cannot fathom, or he's an idiot and thought "Accountant" means "Trash Man", seeing as that's what I've been doing the past year. And why am I even the leader now anyway? Poj said it was some stupid rule that expeditions need to switch out their leaders every year - well, if that's the case, why did I get picked!? Does he really think a "trash accountant" that he apparently hates is an ideal governor? Ugh, I don't even want to think about what's going through his head. Regardless, I'm going to order an office be built soon.

Anyway - I haven't been around most of the fortress - just the areas where Dwarves throw things away - so I'm unaware of most of this place's layout. First thing as new ruler - I AM NO LONGER HAULING ANYTHING I DON'T SPECIFICALLY WANT TO. On a related note, Poj is the new junk-swaggerer.

Second order of business is to have a look over the floor plans of this place to get a feel of [strike:15s5mmqh]thi[/strike:15s5mmqh]-HOLY CRAP

THESE are the new bedrooms I've heard are going to be installed!? It's a tunnel with a bed at the end! How the hell cruel do you have to BE to even think that these count as "bedrooms"!? IT'S A HOLE THE SIZE OF A DWARF with some cushioning stuffed into it! I have other things I have to do at the moment, but before I get out of here I have to fix this. I can't have someone from the Kingdom come by and see this! I'll get thrown in jail for cruel and unusual and unwarranted punishment!

And further - Now that I'm looking around this place, there are rocks everywhere! You can't go more than 5 feet without tripping over another stone! Another point I have in mind is to clean up all these damn rocks.

Well, at least this place should be fairly safe, otherwise. I don't think the designers intended to harm [strike:15s5mmqh]anyon[/strike:15s5mmqh]-WHAT IN HEAVENS NAME

Augh! This entire cavern's been mined out without any thought given to the weight above! A stiff breeze could knock this whole place in on itself! I'm ordering some supports be built to hold up this travesty.

2nd Granite, 202 -

I haven't been to the front door for a while, but apparently we have 2 war dogs acting as our security system. I know this because I've just been informed that not one, but both of them have given birth to a litter of puppies each. I seem to recall Poj muttering to himself about dog sexing or something - I think I now know why, and can finally bring up the topics of dogs around him without fear of an extremely awkward conversation.

5th Granite, 202 -

[strike:15s5mmqh]I've had to be pulled away from my secret project involving the[/strike:15s5mmqh]

I've just been informed while performing another task that an Elven caravan has been sighted! Good! I heard that Poj ordered some crafts (both stone and bone) created months ago, so by now we should have a nice stockpile of trading items to impress the elves with. I hurried to the ledger to detail what needs to be brought up [strike:15s5mmqh]towa[/strike:15s5mmqh] WHAT!?

WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE CRAFTS THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MADE BY NOW!? WHERE'S THE CRAFTSDWARFS SHOP!?

...Uh.

Well, lets see here...no, that's a magma smelter...no, that's another smelter...no, that's another...WHY DO WE HAVE 5 MAGMA FORGES!? WHY DO WE HAVE 3 MAGMA FORGES!? WE HAVE SEVEN DWARVES! WE HAVE ONE QUALIFIED TO SMELT! WE HAVE ONE METALWORKER, IF THAT! WE DO NOT NEED THIS DEGREE OF MANUFACTURE YET!

Gah, forget that room - I'll check the others. Alright - this room has a kennel...I think this is a mechanic's shop...Ummm, I don't even know what these other two are. I'll look up what they are when I'm not busy. It's hard to tell what's what with everything out in...the...open

These "rooms" aren't rooms at all! They're just kind of mashed together in one open space! How is anyone supposed to stay interruption-free around here!? The last thing a mechanic needs is to be bothered by someone trying to cave-train a dog 10 feet away! Screw it - I'll deal with it later. Next room.

...Oh god. This is the worst of all. There's a mountain of dead animal bits scattered all around the northern half of this room. Behind that is a gigantic pile of various furniture bits all haphazardly stacked amongst each other. But, there isn't any crafting shop here - and this is the last of the work rooms! I'll need to ask another dwarf where it is.

...

YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! I just spoke with a passing Dwarf - he said I was in the room that had the CraftDwarfs shop! After some more talking, he took me through a carefully planned path up and around the furniture pile, and finally showed me the "shops" - if you can even call a random conglomeration of objects indistinguishable from the background clutter that - and then scurried back to the other side using the exact same path as before! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! Shops are not meant to be randomly strewn about a cave as though it's another one of these damned rocks - THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A ROOM! A door goes in front, and some walls go on every other side! What if a Dwarf goes insane and just decides to chop everyone up he comes across!? He'll just reach 2 feet over to the left and kill the hapless bastard next to him doing his other work! Before I leave command of this fortress, I am removing each and every one of these shops and giving them their own WALLS AND DOOR.

...Oh! The Elves! I've spent so much time trying to find a camouflaged pile of garbage that is somehow deemed "workspace" from all the other piles of detritus that I almost forgot about them! Well, let's see what's up with the Craftsdwarfs

WHAT! WHO SUSPENDED CONSTRUCTION OF THE CRAFTS!? We needed those! I went through the register - all we have is WOOD, ELVES DO NOT LIKE WOOD. Gah!

I'll write down the rest after I've dealt with the Elves here - in the meantime, I've reordered stonecrafts and bonecrafts so we may hopefully scrape something together by the time the elves leave.

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]Right, editing this post now with my first update. Come back later.

On a side note, there won't be as many pictures as my previous posting, because A) These pictures are larger and I don't want to post as many, and B) Something consistently screwed up with the screenshots I took - only about 1/2 of them are fine. I'm not sure what caused it.

Click to expand...

Only really need pictures for significant events, so no worries. Your writing style more than makes up for any lack of pictures :teeth:

The crafts are IN the bins that are listed under crafts, FYI

And there's a ton of them, just don't trade the bins themselves or the elves will get pissy.


Sorry for the mess, too, I just got done digging out those additional rooms for furnature storage and laying out the workstations better when Spring came along.


Edit: Also, those are five Mage SMELTERS, not forges. They allow you to melt down ore to bricks without the use of charcoal fuel. In other words, once there's a bunch of immigrants you can have 5 dedicated smelters that do nothing but make metal bars without consuming anything by the raw ore itself.

Yeah, yeah - don't worry. Was mostly doing it for the writing.

Forge, smelter, close enough - I know what they do, I just mislabeled them. My point was that without people to run them, they're kind of a waste of time to build - would've been better spent on other things, and then building them when needed.

Also - I remember the thing about the bins now. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the elves have already come and gone - I'm actually midway through summer already. Just catching up with posting.

This post be useless now. Go away.

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]Unfortunately for everyone involved, the elves have already come and gone

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Wait, what? Getting rid of elves is a bad thing? Since when?


Also, when is planning ahead a bad thing? thhp:

Edit: If anyone's curious about the functionality of the 'garbage compactor', which is what the lever and preasure plate de-mah-hikey is there to the left of the workshops, I can explain it in detail.

Basically, it helps improve frame rates by litterally destroying all the excess, useless rock laying around (I set it so only marble is used for crafts and masonry, since it has a higher value than all the other rocks available here, except, of course, for the obsidian around the magma pipe.)

Pojodan said:

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]Unfortunately for everyone involved, the elves have already come and gone

Click to expand...

Wait, what? Getting rid of elves is a bad thing? Since when?


Also, when is planning ahead a bad thing? thhp:

Edit: If anyone's curious about the functionality of the 'garbage compactor', which is what the lever and preasure plate de-mah-hikey is there to the left of the workshops, I can explain it in detail.

Basically, it helps improve frame rates by litterally destroying all the excess, useless rock laying around (I set it so only marble is used for crafts and masonry, since it has a higher value than all the other rocks available here, except, of course, for the obsidian around the magma pipe.)

Click to expand...

Well, yeah - I hate elves too. I just meant in terms of getting stuff out of them.

I have no problem with planning ahead - it's planning too far ahead that I find annoying. What I'm saying is that one or two forges were all that's been needed thus far - anything more is time better spent on other tasks till we actually get more Dwarves using the things.

Also - I'm still editing that other post in another tab. Hang on.

EDIT: Actually - screw it. We've had enough posts since then that I'm just going to make it a new post.

I'm obsessed with having an excess of metal laying around, what can I say?

Be sure to put the 'Woodcutter' to work making armor as soon as things get going. Having high quality armor is a good thing.

15th Granite, 202.

We're still struggling to get some crafts together to sell to these elves - fortunately, they're annoyingly patient as they wait in our trade depot.

One of the cats had kittens the other day - I might grab one as a pet for myself here. They're pretty cute.

I've recently discovered another design flaw with this fortress:

There's a storeroom directly below the horribly-placed workshops I mentioned earlier. The storeroom has several entrances on the level it's located on, all closed off with doors to stop the inevitable miasma from decaying vermin. However - there are stairways leading directly into the work area that have no such barriers on them. So apparently these Dwarves have been working in their piles of junk, and not only do they have to deal with the abysmal condition of their workshops, but they also have to deal with the frequent wall of decay barging its way upstairs every so often. These are not ideal working conditions.

22 Granite, 202.

I've laid out a new floor plan to switch the shops over to. It's a pretty simple system - I call it my USE WALLS AND DOORS plan. While the miners were digging, I found a surprise waiting for me:

Magnetite and Platinum! This is great...we'll be able to make even more of this stuff ONCE WE GET THROUGH WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE. Although I do appreciate the generosity of this mountain...this means that the whole area I designated as workshop space is going to need hand-built walls. Arg. Normally I'd just scrap the plans and build elsewhere - in this case, the left area looks promising - but directly underneath that is the "sleeping" area - it should be called the "stuffing" area. Everyone's going to have enough sleeping problems as is - I"m not going to add to it with workshops clanging away overhead.

7th Slate, 202. (Mid-Spring)

I've ordered a few things build over the past couple of weeks, but I've been constantly stymied by an apparent lack of nearby, useable stone. Every time I've ordered anything to be made, I've either had the choice of one of our few metal bars, one of our small stock of wood, or a much further away source of marble. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, but we have plenty of otherwise USELESS stones around here! Why the workers aren't using them is beyond

...

You have got to be kidding me. NEARLY EVERY STONE IS RESTRICTED FROM GENERAL USE!?

I can understand limiting certain stone types to prevent their misuse - such as bauxite, which is the only heat-resistant stone we have access to - but all of them!? It's ridiculous! I've cleared the ban from all but a few important stones - now we should get some work done.

9th Slate, 202.

Well, I've finally answered my previous question as to whether Poj was stupid or just didn't like me:

Annoyingly, to explain the above I have to reveal part of my secret project - I'm planning on doing some more tunneling involving magma. Due to the previous concerns involving Imps and other nasties coming from the lava, I ordered another set of iron bars to block off anything but the magma from coming through the tunnel. Poj decided that the best way to install said bars was to place himself on the other side of them and then install them - thus trapping himself in the tunnel. Lucky for him I noticed in time - I had no indicator that he was gone. I was specifically looking around for him to find out why he hadn't performed a task for some time. I ordered him to - oh, I dunno, FREE HIMSELF, which he promptly did.

First thing he did upon opening up the grate?

Ugh. It's a wonder we got this far.

10th Slate, 202.

FINALLY! We've got some migrants. After they stopped dribbling into the fortress, we tallied 30 Dwarves total, so far. Maybe the smelters - having been good for nothing but using space thus far - will finally see some more action. I've designated a few of them to work on their metallurgy skills in preparation - I hope to have a nice stock of iron soon, for my project.

12th Felsite, 202. (Late Spring)

Not much has happened over the past month. Another worker got themselves stuck in an extraordinarily stupid manner akin to Poj's earlier incident. If we get a chemist, I'm going to order some tests on the surrounding stone - I'm curious to see if the amount of lead is any higher than usual.

Zulban - one of the masons - Apparently made a masterpiece recently. Annoyingly, I can't find it - I ran over to where Zul was, but I can't tell what this masterpiece is from the location. One of the supports? Those are the only stone working jobs near the spot in question.

19th Felsite, 202.

Great. One of the migrants just became possessed or something. He started muttering to himself and then threw everyone out of the MECHANIC SHOP THAT WAS JUST FINISHED BUILDING. He ran out, grabbed three pieces of stone, but stopped. He's muttering that he needs more stone.

...

I am at a loss for words. We're buried up to our necks in stone, and this guy decides that none of them are right!? I can only watch and wait, as he slowly goes insane.

There is, however, one good thing to come out of this situation - IT PROVES MY POINT ABOUT DOORS AND WALLS! Luckily, he took over the only shop that, to date, has such amenities. If he decides that he'd rather paint with our blood or some other such nonsense, we'll just lock him inside. Not exactly a difficult situation.


15th Hematite, 202. (Early Summer)

Annoyingly little has transpired since my previous writing. Other than my project, nothing of particular note has occurred.

- I noticed that our alchohol supply has nearly depleted. I started our brewery to compensate for this.

- I watched a kitten chase down and kill a bluejay. At least it didn't drag it back as a present or something.

- That migrant is still there. I'm amazed he hasn't died from starvation or dehydration yet. Or, y'know, gone crazy yet.

21st Hematite, 202.

Well, I was coming down here to write about the human caravan that arrived at our trade depot, but just as I was about to leave GOBLINS

I'm no trained swordsdwarf...or, for that matter anything weapon-related. So I ducked inside and watched the rest.

One of the goblins ran up and engaged one of the dogs. The dog took a few hits, but then it ripped out its throat or...something. I didn't really see. That scared the rest off, just as one of the human caravan guards came around the corner and opened up on them himself. He slaughtered one of the goblins a bit further out, and then chased off after the others.

Well, it's a bit banged up, and it may have physically-induced Cirrhosis, but I think she's fine for now.

And now, because the rest of my pictures are unusable, I have to play some more.

Hey, you're running the place like a prison, so I just made an example of it, then decided to liven things up with a party! Yeeehaw!

Hmmm... I'm gonna bet the strange mood fellow is wanting some sort of cut gem.

Edit: Also, goblins ambushes already? I didn't see a single goblin during my year. That's gonna make tree gathering (and finding coal veins for steel production) all the more troublesome.

Pojodan said:

Hey, you're running the place like a prison, so I just made an example of it, then decided to liven things up with a party! Yeeehaw!

Hmmm... I'm gonna bet the strange mood fellow is wanting some sort of cut gem.

Click to expand...

I'll have to check again, but I think he was muttering about more stone. If he DOES want a gem cut - I can do that. Question is whether or not I'll get it done in time - he's been possessed for an unusually long time now.

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]

Pojodan said:

Hey, you're running the place like a prison, so I just made an example of it, then decided to liven things up with a party! Yeeehaw!

Hmmm... I'm gonna bet the strange mood fellow is wanting some sort of cut gem.

Click to expand...

I'll have to check again, but I think he was muttering about more stone. If he DOES want a gem cut - I can do that. Question is whether or not I'll get it done in time - he's been possessed for an unusually long time now.

Click to expand...

Note that he might be wanting more stone but he may also want something else, too, and you just glanced when it was displaying 'stone'. Keep the info screen up and see if it switches after a couple seconds.

Pojodan said:

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]

Pojodan said:

Hey, you're running the place like a prison, so I just made an example of it, then decided to liven things up with a party! Yeeehaw!

Hmmm... I'm gonna bet the strange mood fellow is wanting some sort of cut gem.

Click to expand...

I'll have to check again, but I think he was muttering about more stone. If he DOES want a gem cut - I can do that. Question is whether or not I'll get it done in time - he's been possessed for an unusually long time now.

Click to expand...

Note that he might be wanting more stone but he may also want something else, too, and you just glanced when it was displaying 'stone'. Keep the info screen up and see if it switches after a couple seconds.

Click to expand...

...Crap. I actually already knew that, but I completely forgot about it. Massa-frassa...

Put me up for sixth place, but beware, I will most likely royally fuck up. Even without a King.

Also, how can you see what day/month it is? I have yet to find out.

Hit z - that brings up a general status menu. In the upper left corner, it lists the date.

Wahad said:

Put me up for sixth place, but beware, I will most likely royally fuck up. Even without a King.

Also, how can you see what day/month it is? I have yet to find out.

Click to expand...

No worries :teeth:

Basically the only requirement each player has is to end their turn with at least something for the next person to work with that has a chance of getting through another year, so if you end up with 2 dwarfs left, but there's 100 traps lining the entrance, then just make a good story of it and keep the ball rolling.

Alright - I just finished up my turn. But - SO MUCH CRAP HAS HAPPENED that it's going to take a while to get everything written down.

Lemme just say - it's one helluva mess. But at least I got 1 and a half of my main goals done.

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]Alright - I just finished up my turn. But - SO MUCH CRAP HAS HAPPENED that it's going to take a while to get everything written down.

Lemme just say - it's one helluva mess. But at least I got 1 and a half of my main goals done.

Click to expand...

I hope one of those was keeping everyone alive

22nd Hematite, 202.

Right. I've consulted with a few of the other Dwarves over our current situation. Turns out I forgot two very important things.

1 - The possessed Dwarf isn't missing stone. Every time I came by to see what he wanted, I assumed he wanted stone even though we have piles upon piles of the stuff. However, my lack of patience as of recent has become evident in this situation - as it turns out, after I would nod and quickly get out of there before he decided to play the drums with my skull, he would continue rattling off what he wanted. He wants cloth - we don't have any. The human merchants with us at the moment, though, surely have some. Which brings up my 2nd mistake:

2 - Stock records are kept, with bins taking priority. Turns out, I've had 4 bins stuffed full of crafts this entire time - including when the Elves swung by earlier. I'm going to be kicking myself in the side for quite some time after that blunder.

In light of these things, I ordered the bins brought up to the trade depot to be traded for cloth to fill both the crazed dwarfs demands and our own lack of cloth.

Unfortunately, not two seconds after I ordered this, the migrant went berserk. Fortunately, I was right outside the door, and managed to flip the lock shut just as he pounded his body against the door. Unfortunately, we didn't think to bring a shrink along, so he's just going to have to rot inside till we figure out what to do with him. If we don't figure out something quick, he might just do that - rot. At least stone doesn't trap smell particularly well.

...Oh, also, now that I think of it, SEE WHY DOORS ARE GOOD!? Sheesh.

27th Hematite, 202.

My project has been sitting for an uncomfortably long time without any progress, even though I ordered the digging roughly a month or two ago. It's come time to investigate why nothing

...You know, I should really expect this sort of stupid, minor, crippling problem by now. I swear - if I devise something that, by all appearances, should be working properly but does not for some strange reason I'm going to at least leave a note on it with the words "Hey! Guess what? This doesn't work!" on it. I've opened up the stupid door so work can begin.

20th Malachite, 202. (Mid-Summer)

Alright. I've decided to start another "project" - the first one, which I will detail shortly (When I've time, and I no longer fear for the secrecy of the project), is designed for the well-being and defenses of this fortress. My new project, however, is guaranteed to leave a lasting impression on the fortress by sheer ingenuity - and uniqueness. It's not nearly as imperative a project as the original, however, so I"ll feel free to leave a preliminary sketch of the work to come:

[strike:2lath3fm]Should anyone amidst us be spying on my writings, it'll be evident by the look of confusion on their face should I pass by them.[/strike:2lath3fm]

22nd Malchite, 202.

Great, just great - The merchants left a few days ago, but we still haven't unloaded everything from the depot. This is due primarily to a lack of storage space that I've been trying to remedy. Unfortunately, we've a bigger issue relating to this:

A pack of roving monkeys has set up shop outside our fortress - one even got by our wardogs stationed out front, and is bouncing back and forth between the stairwell leading to our sleeping area and the dogs out front. The monkeys made off with a sock - which I think may have belonged to one of the goblin thieves we've periodically "dealt" with - and some STEEL ARMOR WE JUST TRADED FOR! GAH! I know we're technically capable of creating our own, but the caravan didn't have a huge selection of goods on it this time around - I figured we might be able to save some work with it. I don't even have a friggin' door installed on my office yet due to setbacks like this!

Unfortunately, a military has not been high on my list of priorities - an admitted fault with my leadership. To try and remedy this - and, also, get rid of the MONKEYS - I assigned the thus-far vacant sheriff position to one of the new migrants, and told him to grab the nearest axe and get to work. He sliced the monkey indoors to ribbons (Literally, I might add - they were just rather thick ribbons), walked outside, induced some form of trance upon himself, and proceeded to eviscerate every remaining primate.

It would seem I chose well in regards to our new Sheriff.



On a related note, I feel it is time to finally remove my original project from my head, and place it upon these pages. We're far enough into it now that a saboteur would have little hope of disrupting the project now. First, a preface:

Everyone's heard of the whispers of the place. It's a legend that has been around for many years now - The Corrupted Fortress, The Conflagrant Tomb, The Trumpeting Hell. Even now, few like to mention it by name, out of fear of the terrible rumors and jinxing its supposed to induce.

"Boat Murdered"

However, what few Dwarves realize is that History 203 is a worthwhile elective. After receiving a B- in it more than 12 years ago, I can safely say that its reputation, while perhaps well deserved due to HOW INCREDIBLY LUDICROUS THEIR SITUATION BECAME, it was no mystical power, no demonic influence, not even an evil presence. It was a group of Dwarves with a terrifyingly effective defensive arrangement that crippled themselves due to inconsistent leadership.

[strike:2lath3fm](Heh - If I ever run across that "Shootnut" jackass from college again, I can rub his face in this. I never knew someone with the same nickname could be such a condescending moron - "HISTORY IS NOT A WORTHWHILE ENDEAVOR!" Pfft, right. I wonder what he went on to do. Ahh well.)[/strike:2lath3fm]

Anyway - to save the ghost story for another time: Boat Murdered pulled off one of the most ingenious defensive mechanisms I've ever heard of - they devised a system of tunnels, all connected to various levers and channels, that would pour magma out into the field in front of their defenses. This would obliterate both the attacking force and the landscape surrounding it, lending credence to the rumors about the place due to the large, charred field barely covering the bones of its past victims.

Well, in essence, I'm replicating this system - but with a few adjustments that are unique from the original setup, to my knowledge. The defense plan has 3 major components:

1 - The Flooder. Devised to be the same as the original Boat Murdered system, it essentially involves channeling magma to a remote controlled door, ready to open when the time is right. Nothing particularly new here.
2 - The Moat. So far as I'm aware, Boat Murdered did not have this arrangement. Essentially, I've created a drawbridge, which will extend over a small moat of magma. There's another channel leading to the moat, able to fill it up whenever it may need it. In contrast to the Flood tunnel, the Moat tunnel is underneath the surface of the ground - this is to prevent magma from spilling out over the top, and potentially leaking into our base. Remember - a magma leak is never a good thing.
3 - The Gate. Directly in front of the opening carved into the mountain, I'm going to lay another drawbridge on the ground. This one, however, won't extend over anything - its sole purpose is to act as a huge gate blocking any potential invaders from making their way into our fortress. Just pull a lever - Boom! Instant wall where our entrance used to be. Nothing's getting through that.

Of course, all this is well and good, but I still need to finalize the remaining holes in the plan - such as how to raise the magma up to ground level. I've already settled on a pumping system, but I've yet to finally design the power delivery system to them. I'll work on that after I get the positioning of the pumps and remaining tunnels down.

Man - if I knew how friggin' fun mechanics would be, I'd have gone to school for that engineering degree instead! Screw this associates in accounting.

Boatmurdered, eh?

The real chalanage here is that one of the main reasons Boatmurdered worked was due to the 2D version have a RIVER of magma that was limitless, all on the same level as the entrance of the fort. Here we have a magma PIPE, which, while refilling itself constantly, has a finite supply, and the deeper you start your pumping operation, the more magma you have to use.

Trouble will be getting enough pumps and enough power to those pumps to siphon the majority of the contents of the pipe to the surface.

Bravo to you if you manage to get such a system rigged up in a year's time and that the next players figure out how to use it!

22nd Galena, 202. (Late Summer)

The crazed Dwarf finally died off - we never did find a way to fix his condition. This is phenomenally annoying - it leaves me as the only mechanic on the job with any experience. I'll need to appoint another soon to lighten the load and have any chance at getting this done by the end of the year.

On a related note, I've set up a system to help make magma-resistant mechanisms:

I've made a mechanics shop, and within the same room I've created a stockpile that is to be used ONLY FOR BAUXITE STORAGE. I bloody know better, but if any other mechanics want to try and start making mechanisms out of some of the other rock around here, orders are to lock the door behind them and not let them out till they've made some bauxite mechanisms.

16th Limestone, 202. (Early Autumn)

Dwarven merchants have arrived. I've learned from last time - we have plenty of crafts and whatnot to trade to them.

At roughly the same time, another Dwarf became possessed. It was one of our threshers - he ran to our craftdwarfs shop and threw everyone else out. In stark contrast to the previous Dwarf, though, he almost immediately found everything he wanted and set off to work.

1st Sandstone, 202. (Mid-Autumn)

The thresher finished - he made an oaken bracelet. Nice - but I'll have to deal with it later. Still working on both projects, and I don't have time to start looking at jewelry.

11th Timber, 202. (Late Autumn)

Well, a few things of note. The 2nd project proceeds well.

...which reminds me. A thief got to some iron greaves I recently trade for. This was due to an odd situation involving the rebuilding of the bridge I do not wish to recount. Long story short, the end result was that at the time the merchants wanted to leave, they were unable to because the bridge was out. I wasn't sure if they would take offense at not being able to leave immediately, so we quickly dug a hole in the side of the hill for them to leave. Afterwards, I ordered the hole sealed up with a wall - but while the masons took their time at yet another party, the thief got in through the hole, bypassing the dogs.

We also received a wave of migrants - sheesh, finally. Our population is now almost 40 Dwarves - good.

2nd Moonstone, 202. (Early Winter)

Work on the defense project has been progressing, but my side project has been going along as well. It's time for stage 2:









Right. Now that that's done, it's time for stage 3. Which is pretty much a repeat of stage 2.

3rd Moonstone, 202.

I've just been informed of a goblin ambush outside - if it's just an ambush there shouldn't be too many HOLY SHIT THATS A LOT OF GOBLINS

I've seen sieges smaller than this! Wait WE DON'T HAVE A MILITARY SHIT SHIT SHIT

I've drafted every civilian into service to try and combat the threat.

5th Moonstone, 202.

Well, that tears it. The defense system, despite being nearly completed, has been repeatedly delayed due to minor goblin incursions. Were it not for that, it would have been completed long before these bastards set upon us. We lost every dog we had, barring 2 puppies, every civilian I drafted into the military has fallen in the attack, and in the ensuing chaos I attempted to close the blast door as a last-ditch attempt to save us from them and managed to kill off our best miner in the process when he got caught up in the mechanics of the bridge! We're now down 9 people. 2 more are injured, and trying to heal in their beds. One of them - the dwarf who was attempting to create the very last windmill needed for the pumping system - has been repeatedly throwing tantrums. In fact, he managed to work his way up to the moat and destroy the drawbridge that HE HIMSELF created. This is a colossal setback - that bridge took a while to get built. We must have another one built before the system is operational, or we'll be cut off till we fix it.

14th Opal, 202. (Mid-Winter)

Finally. We're ready to start the system. I've ordered the last wall of stone dug out to start filling the channels with the necessary magma.

Annoyingly, another dwarf has been taken by a mood. A jeweler this time around.

We've been so busy with finally finishing the defense system - and my other, final project - that we haven't had time to clean the various body parts strewn about our entrance. God - there's blood and chunks everywhere. I'm barely able to tell what's what anymore.


8th Obsidian, 202. (Late Winter)

Finally. Everything is in place. I've built a control room in the area behind our front door and our main stairwell. I've left notes upon each one describing their function, but should those somehow be destroyed in the periodic chaos surrounding this place, I'll notate their function here as well:

- Upper left controls the Moat Bridge.
- Upper right controls the Flood System.
- Lower left controls the Blast Door.
- Lower right controls the Moat Filler.

Hopefully these won't be abused by any random idiot coming by. If worst should come to worst, at least the blast door should be able to block any magma from entering the rest of our fortress.

20th Obsidian, 202.

I've started filling the moat. Asides from a burning dog corpse down in the pit, everything seems to be going according to plan. I'll soon be testing the flood system.

1st Granite, 203. (Early Spring)

Well, it's finally come to pass. I've gotten the flood system working - even now, magma pours across the plains directly outside our entrance. As my last order, I'm ordering the gate controlling it to be shut. The other project I was working on - which, sadly, will not be completed unless the next ruler likes the idea of an indoor forest as much as I do - has created a large hole on the surface. I ordered a floor to be created over it, but I've been unable to see it completed in my time. Well, at least we now have a below-ground forest, if not necessarily an indoor forest.

I must now leave the office - and, potentially, be placed back in the accounting position. I'd much prefer it if I'd be able to continue the mechanical studies I've since hit upon, however - I think I'm starting to get fairly good at it.

Right, and here's my turn. Man, that took a while.

http://cid-8e0a41c91ee21217.skydrive.li ... 20turn.rar

Having trouble running your save. Keeps on saying it can't find cat_mouth. You change around anything with the game or are we running pure vannilla dwarf fortress?

...Crap. I'm pretty sure this is a version thing - I'm running what Pojo is running (Link: http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/df.htm). This is the first time I've tried it, however.

I should mention that this version auto-saves at the beginning of every season; The .rar I gave didn't include any of these backups. This link, however, has literally everything in the folder - See if this helps, but I was sure I included everything needed...

http://cid-8e0a41c91ee21217.skydrive.li ... c/save.rar

:bush:


Good lord! It's like a zerg rush in the middle of teching. A miner died? Ouch. He was cross trained in seige operating. Of course, if we can magma nuke every seige that comes then I suppose ballistas are moot.


Hmm, looks like my version comes with the cat_mouth mod that fixes a problem with 40d that causes cats to fail carrying corpses since they don't have any hands.

Just do a search for 'dwarf fortress cat mouth mod' and that should fix it without needing to use the same graphical set if you don't like it.

I'll try and find the mod after work. Might take a little doing since I'm using a Mac for my primary computer.

Bearscholar should probably be prepared to take over and give me a bit of time to work on it.

Once I get some more practice... I might want to hop into this bloodline game with you guys (or maybe jump into the next one).

Until then... keep the updates coming... this stuff is gold

Yar, what's the status Dub?

I've talked with Bear Scholar - he may or may not be ready soon here; we'll have to see. In the meantime, I'm curious as to Dub's status as well - wish I had known about the cat thing before we started...

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]I've talked with Bear Scholar - he may or may not be ready soon here; we'll have to see. In the meantime, I'm curious as to Dub's status as well - wish I had known about the cat thing before we started...

Click to expand...

I wasn't aware that the May Green version included the cat_mouth fix or that it made save games incompatable with anyone not running the fix. :?

Anyone willing to stop up and take 3rd spot so we can keep this ball rolling? (Unless Dub's already underway, then forget I said anything!)

Yeah I'm going to need to use my Sister's computer to run my turn or else use my mom's neither of which is likely to happen before friday.

I could. If Dubyamn is willing to give up his spot.

Wahad said:

I could. If Dubyamn is willing to give up his spot.

Click to expand...

Go for it.

Go on ahead. I'm currently in negotiations so next time should go fine.

Alright. I'll get cracking tonight, but it will probably only be finished tomorrow.

If you go that quickly I'l chip in a few bucks to get you an internet.

*shrug* I have an afternoon full of free time tomorrow, it shouldn't be that hard to finish it then.

Status report on the dwarven fortress of Kinudil, year 203 [to be EDITED before submission]

by Ezum 'Wahad' Mogshumducim

1st of Granite

As per Fortress Succession Law, our previous leader Chronos Morullisid has stepped down from his rule of Oakenthrones. A good thing, too - the fortress needed a capable leader after the goblin ambush which murdered all of our war dogs plus some unfortunate recruits. (They were low in experience, for we had no actual military at the time of the ambush). By order of the King, I have been appointed as his successor. I was most qualified for the job, as I was previously keeping record of our treasure hoard. [strike:90c2516z]Most qualified, my carp-mauled beard. Dad must've brought in a good word. Is he nuts?! I've never been in charge of a fortress this size! What am I supposed to do?[/strike:90c2516z]

I have, however, left Chronos in charge of trading, as I unfortunately have no skill in appraisal of foreign goods and do not particularly care for it. Now, onto business.



The included sketch is a top view of the area that has direct access to the outside world. Four levers, one of which is somehow unfortunately unlinked (this concerns the lower-right lever) provide the power to raise or lower our defenses as we see fit: clockwise, starting lower-left, the levers link to the blastdoor, the bridge and the magma-flooding system. The Trade Depot is accessible (provided the blastdoor is up) and also well-protected from thieves. I would have preferred if we had dogs to chain near there, just in case, but with the recent slaughter of the war dogs we can not afford that. In fact, just today a few puppies matured, making them trainable - I'll have to promote someone somewhere to make sure they are trained ASAP. Our defenses are low enough as is. [strike:90c2516z]Cursed goblins - where do they come from anyway? Intelligence hasn't spotted a fortress in miles.[/strike:90c2516z]

Speaking of which, our current military only consists of two wrestlers. I have recruited a woodcutter, a gemsetter and a thresher. The woodcutter had an axe so he will be an axedwarf, while the gemsetter and thresher will have to take up a warhammer. However, seeing as how we have preciously little armor, I have ordered plate mail to be made for them all. The sooner the better. Iron will have to suffice for now, we can make steel armor and weapons once they are properly fitted. Besides, with the abundance of magnetite ore in this mountain, we can afford to waste some - and we can always trade it with the humans or the mountainhomes.

There is also a giant pit outside. Chronos has unfortunately neglected to tell me what it's for - I'll have to talk to him about that. However, judging from it's size and the intentional let-through of light, it seems to be a secure area for growing trees so we might have access to wood in case the goblins return. I'm not quite sure, though. [strike:90c2516z]Nutter. What the hell is he planning with that thing? Hasn't he taken into account the magma-flooding system might spill over and ruin his fancy little garden? Or even with the floor up, the material might give way to the intense heat. Eesh.[/strike:90c2516z]

Chronos did tell me that our estimated value is roughly a hundred-seventy-six-thousand nine-hundred twenty seven ingots. This might attract some immigrants, which will be quite valuable for our defenses. The question remains, though, when they will come.

16th of Granite

Armok's beard!

Some elves came along, but that's not important.



Good grief! The leftover magma from the flood-system flooded the bridge! It completely spilled over the moat the bridge crosses and submerged the bridge while it was flowing! Now we're cut off from the outside world! To make things worse, we don't have access to a water-source now either!

Ah, lovely, lovely chaos. How I adore thee

Wait - how the hell did the lever get unlinked? I continued playing in my file, but it was still linked.

As for the underground forest - I wanted to leave something lasting, since I figured SOMETHING might go wrong with the magma system eventually. But, more importantly, trees could grow in the underground forest, and above ground crops can be grown there, leading to a wider variety of stuff to grow (And more food in general, if we run out of seeds for something else).

As for the flooding of magma in there, I was trying to get the floor up before I finished my turn to prevent flooding down there. Walls, floors, and a few other things (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index. ... _materials) will NOT melt in magma, no matter what material they're made of.

As for water - your best bet is to channel into some of the aquifer (In a safe spot) and just designate it as a drinking source - that's what I did in my current game. Also, I made a mistake in my design of the blast door - I didn't make THAT out of magma-safe materials, and bridges are not immune like walls and floors. I found that the hard way after I upgraded the size of the flood system.

Also - how the hell did the magma overflow? WHERE did the magma overflow from? I thought I made the moat system unable to overfill? (By tunneling underground and not having the tunnel dug out at ground level)

Looks like, to me, that the pumps that brought the magma up to the upper level got turned on, but the outlet doors that dump it out onto the battlefield where closed, so the 'magma preasure' got pushed down into the magma moat, causing it to overflow up and onto the bridge.

Pojodan said:

Looks like, to me, that the pumps that brought the magma up to the upper level got turned on, but the outlet doors that dump it out onto the battlefield where closed, so the 'magma preasure' got pushed down into the magma moat, causing it to overflow up and onto the bridge.

Click to expand...

But...HOW, though? According to the wiki - http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index. ... d_to_water - magma doesn't transmit pressure like water does.

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]

Pojodan said:

Looks like, to me, that the pumps that brought the magma up to the upper level got turned on, but the outlet doors that dump it out onto the battlefield where closed, so the 'magma preasure' got pushed down into the magma moat, causing it to overflow up and onto the bridge.

Click to expand...

But...HOW, though? According to the wiki - http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index. ... d_to_water - magma doesn't transmit pressure like water does.

Click to expand...

Not by itself, no, but if you have a magma pump pushing magma into a Z-level and the magma gets through a hole into the Z-level below, if the space in the lower Z-level fills up, the magma will flow UP to the Z-level the pump is located at if it finds a hole to flow up through, which is what appears to have happened here, I'll hafta load up the save and take a look.

Aha. Okay, that explains it.

What I'm still wondering is how the lever controlling the flow to the moat is unlinked, though? it's still linked in my save, and I know I used bauxite (or iron) for anything directly touching the magma.

Let me explain.

When I opened the save, there was still some magma left out on the field.

Because I didn't know what levers controlled what, I opened up the floodsystem briefly to find out. Same with bridge and blast doors. The final lever, however, gave me no visible effect - therefore, I assumed it was unlinked.

What is it linked to in your save?

Anyway, because I'd briefly opened the floodsystem, the magma out on the field got 'reinforced', so to speak, and flowed out into the moat that's crossed by the bridge, and because apparently it was so much, it swallowed the bridge as well.

As I speak, though, most of the flow has been evaporated. Soon enough we'll have contact with the outside world again.

I built a door in the tunnel leading to the moat - it SHOULD be connected to that:



On a side note - yeah, my current game's under siege by goblins.

Ooooooh.

I just didn't see that one, then.

Status report on the dwarven fortress of Kinudil, year 203 continued [to be EDITED before submission]

by Ezum 'Wahad' Mogshumducim

2nd of Slate

Due to increasing need for water, I have ordered the construction of a channel throughout the mines by sealing off side-corridors and digging up a cavern. Once that will be completed, the aquifer shall be punctured so that we can get that water with a well.



Also, the armor I have ordered for the military is done now. Our military now consists of two fully-armored wrestlers, two fully-armored hammerdwarfs, and one fully-armored axedwarf. Each one also has been assigned a war dog.

The magma, however, is still not gone - we are helpless until it does dissolve. [strike:28ty3p3s]All because some dwarves are not taking any booze. More like elves, if you ask me. Can't even drink some fine booze? Tch.[/strike:28ty3p3s]

15th of Slate

The magma continues to dissolve, and while the bridge is uncovered, many still deem it unsafe to cross it. [strike:28ty3p3s]Pussies. A bit of heat never killed anyone.[/strike:28ty3p3s] This does pose a problem as there are still people in need of water. The elves also deemed it unsafe, and have left without even seeing the trade depot.

17th of Slate

The walls to block off the mines still haven't been constructed, and I found out why - our mason has been beaten to unconsciousness for apparent disorderly conduct against the sherriff. This raises another problem - if we do not get up the water source soon, he will die of thirst.
I have promoted someone else to work on the masonry required for the walls.

1st of Felsite

Woe! A farmer died of thirst today. I have ordered the digging of a collective tomb-hall and some coffins.

5th of Felsite

A jeweler died of starvation today. This is quite odd, as our food stockpiles are quite stacked. He also was not possessed by a strange mood which did not allow him to eat. [strike:28ty3p3s]Oh well, nothing to do about it I suppose.[/strike:28ty3p3s]

9th of Felsite

Some migrants have arrived! I couldn't quite get a list of the arrivals yet as they keep far, far away from the hot bridge.

Also, terrible news: a wrestler died of thirst - he must have been wounded during sparring. This is quite distressing, as it weakens our defenses greatly - he was the most experienced of the lot.

13th of Felsite

Curses! The second wrestler died of thirst.

15th of Felsite

Finally, a bright spot among the dark days of the past two weeks. The channel has been succesfully constructed and the aquifer has been punctured: the water is flowing to the well as I write this.



We might have been unable to save our farmer and two wrestlers, but we might just maybe save our unconscious mason.

21st of Felsite

Alas! We were too late. The mason died of thirst today.

Also, while our bridge is as good as new, still nobody dares to cross it. Even the migrants keep lounging about in the wilderness. This is quite a problem in case we wind up with another goblin ambush.



((Dear god, this was terrible. I hate the fact the migrants keep far away from the fortress - it cripples it more than I would like, especially with the dead wrestlers and mason. Ugh. Oh well, more in a few hours.))

I'd suggest building a backdoor, as it were, just a short section of tunnel, enough for a locking door, then stairs up to the plateu above so you can get out (and migrants can get it) when the front door is magma flooded.

Pojodan said:

I'd suggest building a backdoor, as it were, just a short section of tunnel, enough for a locking door, then stairs up to the plateu above so you can get out (and migrants can get it) when the front door is magma flooded.

Click to expand...

And this way, teenage dwarves can sneak out to see their teenage friends you don't like.

Silver Jelly said:

Pojodan said:

I'd suggest building a backdoor, as it were, just a short section of tunnel, enough for a locking door, then stairs up to the plateu above so you can get out (and migrants can get it) when the front door is magma flooded.

Click to expand...

And this way, teenage dwarves can sneak out to see their teenage friends you don't like.

Click to expand...

XD

Holy crap, the fortress has really taken off since I stopped being leader. I guess it is me...

Status report on the dwarven fortress of Kinudil, year 203 continued [to be EDITED before submission]

by Ezum 'Wahad' Mogshumducim

27th of Felsite

I have ordered a tunnel to be made to the outside world for emergency purposes. I included a bauxite door at the end - in case the magma flood goes that far.



When it was completed, I could tally the new migrants.

1 stoneworker
1 thresher
1 mason
4 peasants
1 trapper
1 fish cleaner
1 hunter
1 child

and a few assorted animals.

This brings our population up to 37. I have also drafted the fish cleaner, hunter, trapper, and one peasant into the military, which now consists of 2 hammerdwarves, two axedwarves, two wrestlers, one marksdwarf and a handful of wardogs.

Also, the construction to the roof of the forest-cavern has been resumed. [strike:qy94761r]I still think it's a silly project, but if the roof is not constructed the mines might overflow with magma from the flooding system. Why couldn't he have made it somewhere else?! Keep those sieges in mind, you dolt![/strike:qy94761r]

4th of Hematite

Summer has begun by a thief stealing a sock from the trading depot. Most likely he has snuck through the emergency corridor - I have put a donkey on a chain at its end so we do not have any more of those rotten thieves - next time they might steal something valuable.

6th of Hematite

My day began quite nastily by some malorous odor penetrating my nose as I woke up. It seems that more dwarves have died than I anticipated. I have suspended construction of the forest-cavern-roof and ordered more coffins built - this is hardly an ideal situation.

7th of Hematite

The possessed jeweler, after lounging about in the dining room for ages, went insane and got stricken by melancholy. Collateral damage, though it puts us without a jeweler for the time being.

Furthermore I have ordered the construction an archery range for target practice, plus bone bolts for said target practice.

13th of Hematite

The humans arrived! Unfortunately, the bridge was too narrow for their big wagons. The one-man caravans, however, made it through. Chronos is meeting with them for trade.

19th of Hematite

The trade agreement has finished - we got booze and food, plus some bolts, in exchange for the gnomeblight barrel plus some goblin armor. Not a bad deal, if I say so myself.

The human guild emissary has received our request for bolts, booze, food, and ropes. In exchange, he wanted:



22nd of Hematite

AMBUSH!



1st of Malachite

The magma-flood was unbearably slow and still has not reached the goblins outside of the blastdoors. However, a human guard who was taking a stroll outside the trade depot initiated combat with the goblins and got killed, unfortunately.


Furthermore, a miner initiated a party. Apparently he was so emboldened by the magma-flooding system [strike:qy94761r]or drunk[/strike:qy94761r] he shouted: "Hah! Those goblins got nothing on our fine dwarven death-traps! Free booze for everyone with a beard!" [strike:qy94761r]Idiots.[/strike:qy94761r]

3rd of Malachite

The magma-flooding system did absolutely nothing. The goblins were unfortunately smart enough not to cross the bridge so they were trapped. As a result, they stayed far, far away from the lava. In a glimpse of tactical brilliance, I positioned the military in the emergency corridor, then taunted the goblins into entering it. A satisfactory massacre was the result. The only friendly casualties were a cat or two and the human guards unfortunate enough to be outside at the moment.

5th of Malachite

I can't believe it! Another ambush!

8th of Malachite

While goblins were chasing a stray cat, a human ended up ambushing the creature.

The big problem, however, was that he left the goblins alone. I have no idea as to his reasoning. This could potentially be a declaration of war. We should prepare.

12th of Malachite



I can't believe it! More goblins! I opted for the same approach as with the very first ambush, however that only led to the death of a hammerdwarf, his war dog and a peasant.

Armok must be very angry at our doings.

26th of Malachite

The human merchants went away, but were unfortunately killed by the goblins waiting outside. Apparently satisfied with the spilled blood, the ambush parties left.



I noticed my aquifer puncture plan isn't working as I had hoped it would - I should expand the corridor above it and construct another well.

My main concern, however, is the slaughtering of the merchants. War is all too often sparked by a misunderstanding, and the heap of bodies outside our fortress could very easily lead to such a misunderstanding. Accursed goblins. Human siege-parties might be a very probable danger now.

Yeah - If I had enough time, the other thing I would've tried was getting a 2nd tunnel - feeding off the magma in the moat - to flood the entrance from the left side in addition to the right. I wanted to focus on getting at least one working, though - and I was barely able to do that with the constant goblin interruptions.

The main problem with the magma flood system is this: It feeds off only the first Z-level of the magma pipe.

If a series of pumps could be stacked like so:

To reach down to 4-5 Z-levels of the magma pipe, then that magma would probably flood the whole valley in front of the fortress

Status report on the dwarven fortress of Kinudil, year 203 continued [to be EDITED before submission]

by Ezum 'Wahad' Mogshumducim

5th of Galena

Unfortunately, the melancholy-stricken jeweler died. It puts us without a jeweler for the time being, and our population at 34. To remedy possible further thirst-invoked deaths, I have constructed a new well above the punctured aquifer, which has a sufficient water source. It will do quite nicely in the event of sieges.

4th of Limestone

Autumn has come, and with it I have ordered the construction of the cavern-roof to be resumed. Furthermore, I have ordered the digging of a new tunnel for the magma-flooding system, to have a more speedy flood and a faster resolve of ambushes and sieges. It will be two meters wide instead of the one of the current tunnel.

10th of Limestone

Wonderful news! Our craftsdwarf gave birth to a little healthy baby-boy!


13th of Limestone
The dwarven caravan arrived, as well as the liaison. They have started unloading their goods and will be meeting with Chronos and myself soon.

20th of Limestone
The new floodtunnel was almost completed. The floodgates were installed and linked to the lever so that the miner could get out before the flood. Or, that was the plan anyway. The magma was unfortunately too fast for him, but, being a true dwarf, he swam through the flowing magma to reach the exit.


23rd of Limestone
We got some steel bars, bolts, and seeds in exchange for some goblin weaponry and a craftsbin from the caravan.

I requested food, drink, seeds, bolts, barrels and ropes from the hamlet liaison.

In return, he asked for the following:


11th of Sandstone

The magma-swimming miner trudged forth, but unfortunately didn't make it. I had to close gates to prevent flooding of the fortress, and he drowned.

22nd of Sandstone

Our furnace operator suddenly began acting strangely. He muttered something while walking to the craftsdwarves' workshop, where he started sketching things. A quarry, cut gems and a forest.


I have no idea what he wants, but I've promoted a peasant to jeweler and had him cut some gems after constructing a workshop.

5th of Timber

A pack of monkeys came and stole some goblin clothing from the corpses outside. To teach them a lesson, I sent the military out for practice combat, but the rotten thieves were gone afore the dwarves could get any blow in.

8th of Timber

The secretive operator created a maple bracelet. It's quite crafty, if I say so myself. Splendid quality. It will make a good addition to our hoard.

It commemorates the striking down of the ambush-goblins we had in summer. By...a human. That's kind of a shame. [strike:2d4qs1y7]It should have been a dwarf[/strike:2d4qs1y7] But I suppose you can't go against the inspiration of the gods.

Also, in walking through the fortress, my nose detected malorous odors everywhere - in the barracks, the dining room, the farm area, everywhere! To remedy it, I have ordered all refuse outside in stockpiles.

Magma swimming, the new dwarven olympic sport :teeth:

So, that's both of the legendary miners dead now? Cripes :sadness:


Oh well... pretty quick learning curve for newbies on that, just gotta save excavating any ore veins till they stop destroying every other stone they dig out.

Pojodan said:

Magma swimming, the new dwarven olympic sport :teeth:

So, that's both of the legendary miners dead now? Cripes :sadness:


Oh well... pretty quick learning curve for newbies on that, just gotta save excavating any ore veins till they stop destroying every other stone they dig out.

Click to expand...

Nah, we still have one left if I'm right.

Ok, my internets is officially on now! Hopefully I can jump in soon. Just let me know when.

Necronic said:

Ok, my internets is officially on now! Hopefully I can jump in soon. Just let me know when.

Click to expand...

You can take it up after Wahad, who's finished soon, I hope.

((Sorry about that, homework was more than expected so I was busy yesterday.))

Status report on the dwarven fortress of Kinudil, year 203 continued [to be EDITED before submission]

by Ezum 'Wahad' Mogshumducim

8th of Moonstone

Now that winter has come, one of our wrestlers has passed the test of champions! All shall fall before his might! [strike:13bjjbpi]Or, you know, melt to death in our lava deathtrap.[/strike:13bjjbpi]



As indicated by the above picture, I have ordered the removal of the excess hill sticking out in front of the floodgates, so as to increase the efficiency of the flood.

8th of Obsidian

Spurred on by the now-revered champion, another dwarf has passed the test of champions. Our military is starting to become a force to be rockend with now.

Furthermore, because of the excess platinum we have lying around, I ordered some barrels to be made. Our food needs storing and we also need more booze.

19th Obsidian

Yet another wrestler has become a champion! Soon enough the mountainhomes will buzz with their efforts of how they smacked goblins around as if they were rags, or how they strangled trolls with their bare hands! [strike:13bjjbpi]Or, perhaps, how they fared in the war against humans[/strike:13bjjbpi]

30th of Obsidian.

My rule has come to an end. I wish my successor good luck, and I feel I must warn him of the possibility of human raiding parties this year, should they take the loss of their caravan wrongly. Below I have listed a list of our population and general wealth. And with that, I step down from my throne, and go back to my treasure-counting.

Did I read that as you're making barrels out of platinum? :bush:

Pojodan said:

Did I read that as you're making barrels out of platinum? :bush:

Click to expand...

And this is why these bloodline games look like so much fun :lol:

Pojodan said:

Did I read that as you're making barrels out of platinum? :bush:

Click to expand...

I don't know if you read it that way.

If you read it like that, then you read it correctly.

Here's the savegame:

https://cid-38189b57cc881249.skydrive.l ... egion7.zip

Woah....ummm too soon. Can you push me back one more spot. Sorry, I just moved and there is a lot of stuff going on. By this weekend I should be able to do a turn, but probably not this week.

"Hey Urst McMason, crack open a keg o' brew!"
"I canna do it, Urst McCarpenter, she's the most valueable item in the fortress!"


Yes, our lanterns are made of wood and our kegs are made of platinum.

Necronic said:

Woah....ummm too soon. Can you push me back one more spot. Sorry, I just moved and there is a lot of stuff going on. By this weekend I should be able to do a turn, but probably not this week.

Click to expand...

Dubyamn? Bearscholar? Who wants to go next?

I'm all over it. This turn is mine

Pojodan said:

"Hey Urst McMason, crack open a keg o' brew!"
"I canna do it, Urst McCarpenter, she's the most valueable item in the fortress!"


Yes, our lanterns are made of wood and our kegs are made of platinum.

Click to expand...

We just had SO FREAKING MUCH of the stuff lying around, plus the brewer needed empty barrels, plus we were running out of wood. The decision was easily made.

Wahad said:

Pojodan said:

"Hey Urst McMason, crack open a keg o' brew!"
"I canna do it, Urst McCarpenter, she's the most valueable item in the fortress!"


Yes, our lanterns are made of wood and our kegs are made of platinum.

Click to expand...

We just had SO FREAKING MUCH of the stuff lying around, plus the brewer needed empty barrels, plus we were running out of wood. The decision was easily made.

Click to expand...

To this, I request the next player make a point of adorning the platinum beer kegs with as much excess crap as possible, preferably expensive gems, GCS silk patterns, gold studs, the whole works.

Or he can pave some of the halls with platinum floors.

HOW I MINE FOR FISH?!!

Anubinomicon said:

HOW I MINE FOR FISH?!!

Click to expand...

With the power of love.

Yeah. Those carps sure could use some dwarven lovin'.

And by lovin' I mean spare body parts.

Perhaps some goblin chum?

Dubyamn said:

I'm all over it. This turn is mine

Click to expand...

How's it comin, Dub? Been a few days.

He had some troubles with my uploaded save, apparently. I emailed it to him today.

Dub? Status?

*before I get started let me say that I'm sorry it took so long. Playing Dwarf Fortress is normally like riding a stallion. It's tempermental and the learning curve is crazy but iwhen you learn right it's a hell of a site to see. Playing Dwarf fortress on the virtual machine on a mac is like riding a buttered 3 legged nag. Everything is slipery and even if I do it as well as possible it'll look terrible while being slow as hell.*

Diary of Dubyamn

Entry 1.

After several years of unsuccessfully asking for an assignment as a leader of a dwarven coloney I was overjoyed that my skills and ambitons were being noticed.

Unfortunately one look at the fortress of Oaklanterns and I think that somebody back home is having a good laugh because I don't find this joke very funny.


First off everything is on fire. Probably from the useless boondoggle of the defensive system. We all grew up on the stories of Boatmurdered but why would anybody attempt the madness of remaking the volcano defense?



Of course it spread to our underground forest doubt that'll stop till the entire area is ash.



Then we have the Farm which is suppose might be enough for a small community but soon consumption will far exceed production.



Of course it would be good if we had a full well. But we don't since our well source is nothing but a small trickle that evaporates before it even gets to the well.

I've of course designated the area for a proper farmland but a month later the digging hasn't even begun.



He has of course been partying the whole time. I've handed a pick to the butcher... who has since proven himself just as unreliable. by shirking his duty to party alongside the other lazy bastards.

I've of course started the industry proper. Huge portions of the land outside have been designated for clear cutting and the craftdwarves and masons will start producing as many goods as they possibly can.

I've also started my own project to hopefully counteract the problems with the lava



Hopefully one day this will be marked as the beginning of the end of forest fires and magma spills.

If I had enough time, I would've gladly gotten a raised aqueduct (Magmaduct?) for the magma system - gotten it to flow to a central spot far more easily. But I screwed that over...

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]If I had enough time, I would've gladly gotten a raised aqueduct (Magmaduct?) for the magma system - gotten it to flow to a central spot far more easily. But I screwed that over...

Click to expand...

Where there is a megaproject that doesn't impress, there is an even larger megaproject to the built ontop of it.

Now the question is if Oaklanterns can survive long enough for such megaproject-atop-megaproject to come to fruition.


And good luck Dub.. I can only guess just how slow that setup runs :bush:

How we doin? It's been 5 days.

Sorry I missed my turn again folks, been too busy these days. Probably wont see me on the forum either. Anyways, have fun with DF. Kill a megabeast for me.

Hrm... it's been 8 days.. I don't want this to die off. Bear? Necronic? Either of you want to take your turn?

sorry, just don't have time for this stuff anymore. Maybe another time....was fun while it lasted.

I can jump in if needs be. Question though, so far everyone's been using graphical tilesets, would it still work if I don't use one?

I think its well dead

I wouldn't mind resurrecting it for one last hurrah, though I have no access to the last save.

Sorry about my par tin the death of the great fortress I just couldn't finish my turn because it was so painful to play. I'm sending the last save to bhamv and hopefully will find some redemption in the act.

Ow - things deteriorated that bad, eh?

I can't load up the save, it says "Missing reaction definition" then crashes to desktop. I suspect it's because I'm not using the tileset you guys are using, so if someone could tell me which tileset it is, and where I can get it, then I might be able to get it working.

Good luck!

Chronos[Ha-G said:

]Ow - things deteriorated that bad, eh?

Click to expand...

Yeah the game would chug and chug and then my GF would want to use her computer and the whole screen would have troubles due to the game. The screaming and the fact that the game wasn't fun was what killed it.

It's not every day a dwarf is plucked out of obscurity and asked to lead a fortress. I, however, was given exactly such an opportunity. A rather trustworthy looking fellow knocked on my door one morning, stuffed a map and a set of instructions in my hands, and then scurried off. The instructions were titled "Oaklanterns Leadership Transferring Thingy," and the map was a set of directions to the place. Apparently all I have to do is show up, present myself as their new leader, and the countless dwarves there will heed my every command.

A real fortress! One I can call my own! I could hardly wait!

After several long weeks of hard travel, I finally arrived at my destination. As I rounded the corner and the first sight of the majestic fortress came into view, I couldn't help but be struck by the impressive sight of a disastrous magma spill.



I grabbed the nearest dwarf and asked him what was going on. He first replied by questioning my ancestral heritage, including a lengthy aside regarding inappropriate relations between my mother and a one-humped camel, then mumbled something about an anti-siege device. The magma flood was, without a doubt, a highly effective defensive mechanism, and it was actually blocking my entrance into the fortress. It took me many minutes of deep thought before I thought of the strategy of walking around it.

Before I could reach the main gates, however, I nearly fell into a huge pit just outside the front entrance to the fortress.



Not sure what it's for, but it appeared the stone floor over it was, to put it charitably, half finished. Never one to suffer quitters, I immediately demanded to see the masons of the fortress. Another dwarf (or possibly the same one from earlier), made an obscene gesture at me and shuffled off. I made a mental note to throw the insubordinant fellow into the dungeon at the first opportunity, then set off to explore my new domain and find those damned masons.

Trade depot, good. Stairs, good. Wait... stairs everywhere. Which way am I supposed to go? Who designed this fortress, Dedalus?



Finally finding my way to what appeared to be the manufacturing center of the fortress, I found myself facing a stockpile of metal bars, filled to the brim, along with five magma smelters, all of them so full of clutter they were on the verge of falling into the inferno below. I made another mental note, to dig out more storage space at the earliest opportunity.

Navigating the labyrinthine stairs further, I arrive at the living area, where I finally locate the mason. Well, what's left of him, anyway.



Apparently he'd been a bit of a naughty boy not too long ago, and smashed up a few pieces of furniture, which resulted in the most reasonable punishment of a mangled left shin. That'll learn him. Problem is, now that pit outside was going to remain uncovered for a while.

I also noticed a jeweler in a remarkably fey mood, full of creative energies, but having nowhere to use them. I ordered another jeweler to build him a workshop as soon as possible. The second jeweler commented on the carnal actions he would like me to perform on his private parts, but grudgingly slouched off to do my bidding.

A rising sense of foreboding swelled in my guts, and I decided to examine the military preparedness of the fortress. No point building up piles of wealth if some light fingered kobold with delusions of grandeur was just going to filch it all. Most unsettlingly, I found that this fortress only had three full-time martial dwarves, two of whom were bed-ridden with crippling injuries.

At this point, I had a bad feeling about this.

Completion of the jeweler's workshop took longer than expected, the jewelers kept nitpicking about the location. Either a rock jutting out of the ground was exactly two inches too high, or the breeze was strong enough to throw them off their gemcutting, or it wasn't close enough to the food stockpile, just in case they got the munchies. In the end I "motivated" them by pointing out there was still some lava left outside, and that third degree burns would probably affect their gemcutting to an even greater extent. With much grumbling and feigned hardship, they finally got the workshop built, at which point the fey mood jeweler claimed it and hunkered down to work.

While he got down to business, I sat down beside the injured mason's sickbed, to ask him a few questions. The first thing I managed to find out was that the mason's actually a woman. In my defense, it was actually hard to tell, since she was covered in blood, plus masonry's not exactly a feminine discipline in the first place. Plus with everyone growing beards and all.

Anyway, the masoness told me all the trouble started when she got involved with the wrong crowd, particularly her new boyfriend, who taught her many new and exciting things, forbidden pleasures she'd been afraid to make hers.



Tsk tsk tsk. Young people these days.

I told her she should get her act together, dump that loser and turn herself into a productive member of dwarfdom. She then, rather brusquely, listed several of my orifices she'd like to insert her chisel. Unfortunately, at that point I received word that the jeweler had completed his task and was asking me to inspect his handiwork. It's a pity, because I thought I was on the verge of getting through to that poor girl.

The jeweler had managed to make an armor stand out of a single rough stone of Red grossular. In fact, he'd managed to encrust it with Red grossular and craft an image of mountains onto it, all with the same stone. To be honest, it wasn't a very large armor stand. I immediately ordered it set up in the barracks. Perhaps it would inspire our troops to greater heights, though at this point I would settle for it inspiring them to greater health.



Since our fighters were in no state to be relied upon, and the magma flooder would probably burn us all to death before it actually singed any goblin hide, I decided to reinforce our defenses with traps. My predecessor had ensured that the fortress was reasonably well stocked with mechanisms, though most of them were of laughable quality. Still, better than nothing. As I could find no full time mechanics among our numbers, so I asked a miller to try his hand at building the trap. Rather refreshingly, he immediately set off to work, scavenging whatever weapons he could get his hands on and attaching them to the mechanism in front of the drawbridge at the gate. While I watched, with great satisfaction, his industry, I noticed a disquieting phenomenon. The magma in the moat underneath the drawbridge appeared to be rising. In fact, it was overflowing, out of the moat and over onto the bridge itself.

Dashing frantically through the fortress, I found the cause of the problem. A screw pump was still drawing magma from the source, the magma pipe, and forcing it into a narrow pipe connected to the moat. The moat and the pipe were both filled, but the pump was still working. With nowhere else to go, the magma breached the sides of the moat and flowed outwards.

It is worth noting at this point that the miller, who'd been so polite and industrious, decided it would be a good idea to take a nap on the drawbridge. Perhaps the heat made him drowsy.



I'd noticed a room with four levers on my way into the fortress, it's likely one of them will shut down the pump. But which one? After several seconds of frantic searching, I discovered a note pasted to the wall with what appeared to be snot. "Lower right controls the Moat Filler." I put my hand on the lever, but it's too late. A snore interrupted by scream of agony and a loud hissing sound, coupled with the odor of well done muskox steak, told me my miller had perished in the heat. I pull the lever and an emergency door shuts, halting the flow of magma.

At this point, the Elven caravan from Odesareve arrived, and, being Elves, they nimbly picked their way across the magma and unloaded their goods at the depot. However, our broker, Chronos, refused to trade with them. He wouldn't even go near the depot. He kept saying something about being stuck in a meeting, but COME ON!! The Elves don't even send liasons! You expect me to believe that?!?!?



I bellow into the fortress tunnels, "Anyone who's not a lazy bum, come to the trade depot!" A thresher arrives and trades some of the narrow crap we'd captured in the last goblin ambush for some beer and plants. Since he was the only one to show any initiative, I asked the thresher to complete the weapon trap.

Chronos, apparently realizing that I'd seen through his "stuck in a meeting" charade, decided he'd help out with the traps. He'd been hiding underground too long though, and'd become cave adapted. On a trip out to retrieve a particularly far away halberd, he was nauseated by the sun and left a trail of vomit all the way across the plains. Serves him right, the lazy bastard.

Summer rolled in, bringing in with it a wave of immigrants. We now numbered fifty two, enough for a mayor, and Chronos was eventually elected after a long and dirty campaign. His main opponent, Poj Odan, was neck and neck with Chronos in the polling up until the last day before the election, when Chronos simultaneously denounced negative smear tactics while accusing Poj Odan of conducting an inappropriate relationship with a mountain goat named Louise. Poj Odan immediately circulated an angry response, claiming that the relationship was purely platonic, and that actually "her name was Denise." The damage had been done, however, and voters deserted Poj Odan in droves.

Chronos's first act as mayor was to mandate the construction of platinum goods. A set of platinum goblets was immediately crafted, to satisfy his demand.

The immigrants also included a mason, who immediately got to work covering up the huge hole in front of the fortress. I also asked him to build a set of walls on either side of the front drawbridge, which would funnel any enemy attackers into a narrow corridor, where their numbers would count for nothing. This corridor was then filled with traps, constructed with serrated discs crafted from all this iron we had lying around.



The advantage to this design was that we could extend outwards the walls and rows of traps as the fortress grew and attracted stronger foes.

While digging around in the stone underneath the fortress, one of the miners accidentally breached the aquifer. This resulted in the flooding of the mineshaft, but no matter, I built a well over the shaft.



One of the immigrants withdrew from society and claimed a craftdwarf's workshop, eventually creating a bauxite earring. I had no idea why he would do such a thing, since dwarves have no time for baubles like earrings, but he insisted it might come in handy some day. I suggested we could trade it for something useful when the next caravan arrives, and he immediately suggested I perform certain unspeakable acts upon the dead body of my mother.



Additionally, Chronos mandated that we build three more anvils. No idea why, perhaps he felt the three forges we had were not enough, and we needed three more.

A human trade caravan arrived not long afterwards, and soon after the merchants arrived at the depot they immediately tried to sell us some obviously oversized armor. Dishonest merchants being one of my pet peeves, I announced we were going to confiscate all their alcohol and metal bars. The merchants were, to put it mildly, slightly miffed by this decision, though they accepted they could do little to stop us. They also suggested I had some canine ancestry. Before they left, they hinted that the seizure of their property would result in hostile relations. I replied by confiscating their food, too.

To the lesser of minds among us, this would seem like folly. Why, they ask, would I choose to voluntarily antagonize the humans? The answer is simple: humans are stupid. They don't recognize a weapon trap until they're standing on it, and the dwarven mechanism is inserting spears into their torsos with surgical precision. A human siege would provide us with weapons and armors for smelting, captured goods for trade, and bones for crafting. Indeed, I judged it to be within our best interests to provoke a human attack.

I suppose the knowledge that it would probably be my successor, not me, who would have to deal with any human siege helped somewhat.

While this exchange was going on, Chronos was meeting downstairs with the human liaison, who was completely oblivious to the highway robbery taking place at the depot. We asked for more booze.

Another wave of immigrants arrived, and I noticed we didn't have enough beds. I immediately ordered our carpenters to build more, which was when I noticed we didn't have enough wood. That's when I ordered our woodcutters to cut more down, which was when they ran across the wild muskox our ranger had been chasing. The muskox, apparently not happy with all these dwarves disturbing its grazing, decided to gore the ranger. Our mason, apparently taking pity on the disabled ranger, went out and started dragging him back to safety, until he decided that instead of helping his injured comrade he'd rather be drinking. So he abandoned the ranger in the middle of nowhere and got hammered. I tried ordering him to finish his job first, but he mumbled something drunkenly and then passed out. I decided to spare the mason's life because there were still some walls and floors that needed building.

Thus far I'd encountered many instances of insubordination, so I decided to remind everyone that I was in charge. I nailed the "Oaklanterns Leadership Transferring Thingy" to the front door, so that everyone would have a chance to read it and realize that they had to listen to me. As soon as I'd driven in the last nail, a passing dwarf mumbled something about going to the outhouse and ripped the paper from the door, taking it with him to the john.

Autumn came, and with it a swarm of rhesus macaques. Two fell victim to the cage traps, and I decided to start a zoo with our new prisoners. Our now-recovered ranger did an admirable job of cleaning up the remaining primates, and the carcasses were happily butchered for meat and hides.

The caravan from the mountainhomes arrived, and we traded away more narrow goblin crap for booze and metal bars. I requested more alcohol from the liaison.

The original food stockpile was filling up, so I ordered it to be expanded. The excess stone was thrown into the magma.



The ranger's successful hunting trips were starting to create an excess of tallow, so I pondered making some soap. Then I wondered what we were going to use the soap for. After all, when was the last time you saw a dwarf take a bath?

Another wave of migrants arrived, taking our total population to 67. I estimated another group of migrants, two at most, would bring us above the magic number of 80, the population that starts attracting sieges. I resolved to redouble my trap-making efforts, but I had trouble convincing the mason, who was obsessed with building the floor over that massive pit, to build more walls. Seriously, he'd been at that floor for a year already, does he never get bored?

A quick survey of the military forces showed that practically every dwarf had some form of spine or brain injury, making them useless as melee fighters. This was disconcerting, though not really surprising. I immediately ordered the crafting of crossbows, in the hope that these guys would at least prove capable of shooting things. I also designated a shooting range near the barracks, along with a channel behind the target, to catch and recycle missed bolts.



The problem though, as mentioned previously, was that the mason was obsessed with building the outdoor floor. He refused to abandon his love affair with the floor for even a moment, leaving the archery target unbuilt for now.

A craftdwarf decided it would be a good idea to make a legendary alder scepter. This seemed to be an odd decision, since we don't actually have a king here yet. (Though the optimist in me would never rule it out!) When I suggested we could send the scepter along with the next dwarven caravan as an offering to the mountainhomes, the craftdwarf immediately waved the scepter in a threatening manner while shouting obscenities, and then cradled the artifact to his chest while muttering, "Precious... yes, precious..."



The remainder of the season passed uneventfully.

(I'll finish the rest of the year tomorrow, or another day, but so far it looks like the rest of my turn's going to pass, without anything exciting. Unless, of course, I happen to accidentally pull that lever that causes magma to flood the fortress.....)

Question: Am I definitely going to be the last one? Or is there probably going to be someone after me?

And if I am the last one, would you guys like me to finish my turn normally, or should I use this final winter to kill everyone off as spectacularly as possible? We do, after all, have plenty of magma.

I just have a question...

You seem to have a file that has disregarded all of my doings, as I was pretty sure I had a tunnel next to the bridge outside, a jeweler's shop, a well and a handful of champions. Did you take Chronos' save or something?

My save was sent to me by Dubyamn. I did notice it seemed to be an earlier save, for example the hill that'd been dug out of the magma's path was back, but since it was the one I got, I went with it.

Crap sorry Wahad. This must have been the one that you took over for me. I thought I had replaced it with your file.

Fuck sorry I'm messing this up so bad.

Hah, that explains it.

No worries, then.

I vote for nuke from orbit, bhamv. Maybe we can start up a new one after.

Well, I wouldn't mind playing my turn again with an updated save, but my posts will be less funny. I've used up all my jokes. Plus some other people's jokes too. The election joke was stolen from Dave Barry.

Unless we can grow the population of Dwarf fortress players, I suggest we actually kill this one off soon - we're more likely to draw more people in with NEW fortresses and write-ups and whatnot. I know that at least a few people were watching/reading due to the humor involved - if this game stalls and we just stick to it, we're less likely to get more people interested.

Plus, it'll give everyone who's already had a turn another one - and I'm certainly not complaining about another crack at one. We could do a new one every month or two!

Okay, I'll kill this fortress off soon then. Been a bit too busy for DF lately, but watch this space for updates!

I'm game for a new fortress.. was kinda hoping a new version would come out recently, but it looks like progress is rather slow on it.

Flames... flowing flames... consuming all and vanishing into darkness... flowing flames...

I woke from my agitated dreams with a start, and suddenly I saw what I must do. Armok had given me a new mandate. The Blood God demanded a sacrifice... must be blood... must be flesh.

The flowing flames would come from the endless source of magma we had at our disposal. It was now time to bring the curtains down on Oaklanterns, decisively and permanently.

First, the doors in the fortress were removed. There must be no obstacles to the magma. A channel was dug to the farm level. After all that was completed, all that was left to do was to forbid dwarves from going outside, and let the juice flow.

The first victim of the scalding lava was a stray dog, chained to the entrance of the fortress, ever-vigilant until the very end. One of its puppies followed soon afterwards. I'd heard rumors that in faraway, exotic lands, roast dog is considered a delicacy. Perhaps there would be an opportunity to trade the remains of the former canines with them in the future.

Or not.



The flowing magma also ignited the foliage outside the fortress, creating a massive forest fire. Pity no goblins or humans decided to call on us right then, the potential for comedy would have been delicious.



The magma cascaded down the stairs to the dining halls and statue garden, where a party was in full swing. Dwarves, never to give up an opportunity for gaiety, even in the face of nature's volcanic fury, even as smoke poured down from the charred corpses of heartless fire, decided not to get out of the way.



With fairly predictable results.



To accelerate the process, I ordered two additional pathways for the magma to be dug right into the food stockpiles. The detonating alcohol barrels were greeted with greater sadness than the sight of fellow dwarves consumed by flames.

Chronos was the first to throw a tantrum, after being forced to watch his lover die in a fire. Several others also started tantruming, and many pieces of furniture were smashed.

Chronos also mandated that we should now not export hatch covers. Perhaps he felt a few hatches could help with the magma.

The devastation caused by the flowing magma gradually slowed, however, as the supply of magma from the magma pipe grew thinner. This was understandable, as the fortress had, unfortunately, not been designed with magma armageddon in mind. To accelerate the process, I told everyone to join the army and then stand in front of the crawling inferno.

Even in times of disaster, military discipline does not abandon dwarfkind. Just kidding. No one listened to my orders at all, and they ran around like headless chickens.

Tantruming dwarves started turning on one another, and several were struck down in the chaos. I'm pretty sure I saw Poj Odan take a bite out of Chronos before he himself was hurled down three flights of steps, cracking his skull open.

With all dwarves forbidden from going out (and the front entrance blocked by magma, anyway) hunger and thirst begin to take their toll. Several dwarves succumb to starvation and dehydration. The ones that avoided the magma, hunger, thirst and the fists of fury of their fellow dwarves go insane one by one, stricken by melancholy or going berserk.

A year passes quickly. Spring's arrival sees us with only twenty dwarves remaining, with no miners and only the mayor among the remaining nobles. The surviving dwarves are either on the verge of devouring one another, or already chewing on their fellows' bones.

Satisfied with a job well done, I leave this fortress behind, locking the front gates as I depart. The sounds of feral dwarves, rendered bestial by a year of torment, echo through the dark miasma-filled halls. Perhaps one day some brave adventurer will venture here, to investigate what happened to that legend of dwarven fortresses, Oaklanterns.



Sorry it took so long for me to finish my turn guys. I had fun, and I'd love to be part of the next one. In fact, I read about an awesome site from the Bay12 forums which I think we can use.