[IronBeer]

Update! So, picking up from where we left the last session, we had a surplus of migrants, and a deficit of wood for beds. Fortunately, I have a cunning plan to get more wood. Since the surface is pretty much scoured of anything useful...

Somewhere below our fort, there will be at least one "cavern" layer, loaded with underground fungus-shrubs and fungus-trees. And a load of nasty creatures, so we'll need to prepare for potential combat. First priority is to locate the nearest cavern layer, then to make some weapons and armor.


Of course, it's never quite that simple, is it? Oh yay, MORE migrants, and our housing situation is already strained. Actually, it's not that dire, but each dwarf having their own room really helps smooth out shocks to happiness.


In preparation for our push into the deep, I order the newly-christened head smith Gortina to produce a set of basic iron gear for our first two military recruits, Dante and Kobar. As requested, these two will get to be axedwarves.


Every military needs a barracks to sleep and train in, and an old depleted quarry area is in just the right spot. I slap down some of the few beds I have left, and mark the area as a barracks. Barracks also function as a flophouse for homeless dwarves, and the transient currently hogging one of the beds is one of the new arrivals without a proper room. I built the barracks first because I wanted Dante and Kobar to get a little practice with their gear before trying to chop up some wildlife, but at first they didn't want to do their training-type things. After closer examination, I headdesked upon remembering that I had forgotten to assign the barracks as an available training area. I mark the area, and Wallbones' army of two gets right to training.


Success! Underground caverns are an interesting thing- they repersent a lot of exposed rock, so I'll generally get a massive influx of potential gems and minerals. There's often an underground water source like a subterranean lake or river, but not this time apparently. Also, and the biggest reason why I need an army, the entirety of the cavern is *not* revealed once the miners punch through. Once I'm ready to actually go into the cavern, Kobar and Dante will recon the area near my chosen entry point.



Of friggin course. Unsurprisingly I don't have anything to trade away, but I do have a cunning plan. And my plan is a bit better than simply tossing a grenade at a car (holla NGTM-1R and HLP-XCOM).


Select the primary craftsdwarf's workshop...


...go into the workshop profile and dial up the minimum skill level. Looking over the skills of my dwarves, I noticed that redsniper and Apollo are very skilled stonecrafters, so I pretty much restrict this workshop just to them. Stonecrafting is basically free money, since just about all forts will produce a lot of extra stone, and having skilled crafters just multiplies the potential profits. Oh, and they work faster too, so I can crank out a run of stone trinkets for these latest traders.


A wave of kobold thieves makes the mistake of sneaking into the fort. There were three in total; the first and third escape the fort with their lives and none of our stuff, but the second kobold... well, he had some trouble.


Specifically, one of Wallbones' pet dogs. All alone, with no support, the dog ripped apart the invader! Who's a good boy? Huh? YOU ARE! :3


But it wasn't without cost- the dog, Meng Dishgears, got hurt really badly in the fight. If everything in Dwarf Fortress worked properly, an injured animal would need an Animal Caretaker dwarf to patch them back up. Such as things are though, animals can self-heal impressively well. Meng will be limping and pretty messed up for a while, but he should eventually be fine.

Oh, the wound system. For those who don't know- Dwarf Fortress actually uses a surprisingly gritty wound system. Rather than a simple stack of hitpoints, injuries to limbs, bones, and internal organs are tracked seperately, and death occurs from typically fatal injuries: bleeding out, corporal annihilation in some form, decapitation, or otherwise destruction of the brain. A body part in brown has taken minor damage (which can still include bleeding), yellow generally indicates a "break" or some loss of function, cyan indicates functional failure without integrity failure, red indicates a "mangled" part with loss of structural and functional integrity. Parts in dark grey have been severed. Also, not every single part of a creature is listed at first; an uninjured creature usually has just major body parts listed.


Just about to break into the cavern layer now. You can see the stairs, indicated by "<" for upward stairs, near the center of the screen. I wait on breaking in while I move Dante and Kobar into position on our side of the tunnel. Right after the miners break through, I'll plop some sturdy doors into the opening to keep undersirable elements out.

During all this, I trade away the small pile of stonecrafts that redsniper and Apollo cranked out. In exchange, we bartered for a big pile of wood from the Humans' wagons, a few bars of metal, and some surface booze.


Seriously people, cut this **** out. Ah well, at least it's not a massive wave of useless peasants, like in most of the previous versions.


Hey now! Not long after that migrant wave, one of the new dwarves, a clothier, gets a big idea. I quickly have a space excavated, and one of the non-mooded clothiers build the appropriate workshop.


Unlike Wallbones' previous mood, this guy doesn't get right to gathering. Instead, he's sitting in the shop, showing people these odd sketches, presumably of things he needs. A clothier naturally would want some cloth for his artifact, and I could've sworn we had some...


...yep. "Oh crap" mode engaged. Apparently silk made from Giant Cave Spiders isn't good enough for this prima donna, nooooo. Apparently this joker needs *plant fiber* cloth. Grump. I've had this happen way too many times, and I don't think I'll be able to get any plant fiber cloth before this guy goes nuts. Oh yeah, the risk of a mooded dwarf- if they can't finish their artifact for whatever reason, they'll go insane. One possible insanity is the Berserk state, which is just what it sounds like. Berserk is BAD; even an out-of-shape, unarmed dwarf can overpower and kill armed fighters. To mitigate that risk, I build most workshops into their own little cubbyholes that I can lock down if the worst comes to pass. I quietly order a door placed in the entry to the shop.


Hmm. Maybe I can salvage this guy's project after all. A dwarven caravan means the potential for some Pig Tail cloth. Pig Tail is one of the dwarves' underground plants, which can be brewed into ale, or spun into thread and cloth. I also wouldn't have enough time to grow any of my own. Here's hoping that caravan can get here soon.


There's a naked mole dog in the fort! Everybody run for your lives! Soon after the caravan's appearance, some animals managed to get into the fort; Dante and Kobar kill a few wimpy subterranean critters, but a few get through, and apparently a vulture managed to bumble into the farming area. Kobar's been making a much bigger mess than Dante thus far- Kobar was the first dwarf through into the caverns, and earned the first kill of Wallbones' army.


After securing the lower "backdoor" and remembering to lock the doors, I order traps built in that corridor: weapon traps with automated giant axeblades, and a number of stonefall traps to squash unwanted creatures. I then get Dante and Kobar to kill off the vulture in the fort. The vulture is no threat on its own, but it disrupts the workflow by causing the civilans to run away. Current killcount: Kobar 4, Dante 1, Scourge 1, doggy Meng 1, and redsniper 1/2.


Whoops. Time to lock Mr. Alathlinar in with his failed project. Berserk dwarves can't knock down buildings like doors (thank Armok!) so I'm just going to keep that area locked down until he dies of thirst or starvation. Cruel, but a better move than risking several lives to stop a superdwarvenly strong and tough berserker.


Seeing as that poor SOB is pretty much a dead dwarf walking, I order the first coffins built. I also located a good spot for Wallbones' Hall of History, the combined burial area and artifact vault. I'll show that off in a later post.


The caravan arrived right after Mr. Alathlinar lost his ****, so they (naturally) won't be helpful in saving him. I sell off our stock of remaining trinkets, but I notice something on one of the crafts while trading. Crafts can take many forms, in this case, the form of an actual historical figure or deity. There are a lot of deities in any world history, and a metric ****-ton of living historical figures. Craftsdwarves often craft goods that express their personal preferences (or in some cases, grudges!), so perhaps this figurine and others like it tell us something about Trash, hm?


Congratulations to DeeJay for birthing a lovely girl.


One of the unnamed newbie crafters just had a child too!


...and in quick succession, Wallbones' bookkeeper just had a child as well! Did I miss a monstrous party a few months ago or something? Dwarven babies grow into children at 2 years of age, at which they can't be assigned any work per se, but they will help pick crops, and can still have Moods. At... 10 years old (I think) children grow into full-fledged dwarven adults.


I'll end this on a cliffhanger. What will become of the insane crafter? Will Wallbones' greatest threat come from within?

Spoiler:

He's going to die; in fact, he's already critically dehydrated. And.... probably not.

[deathfun]

deathfun- Suturer/wound dresser

This is surprisingly accurate of how I play games. If I have the ability to run across the map to save someone, I'll stab that teammate with the syringe and get him up on his feet

I am now starting to see how this game functions on a visual level, kinda. Nifty
And ha to the berserker not being able to bust down some flimsy door. You'd think he'd go all "I'M THE JUGGERNAUT *****" and pow his way right through that ****

[watsisname]

Oh yeah, ****'s getting good now.

Do the deities ever make physical appearances, or are they mainly just there for lore?  Deity of darkness sounds kind of cool.

Also, is it possible to grow trees and other planty things underground like in Minecraft?  I'm kind of doubting it since that seems like too easy of a solution to your shortage of wood and stuff.  Freaking malevolent deserts.

[Apollo]

Wtf how am I a mother?

[deathfun]

Wtf how am I a mother?

Well, when a man dwarf loves a woman dwarf...

[FireSpawn]

Oh, I'm a glass maker? That 'blows' 

[Apollo]

Wtf how am I a mother?

Well, when a man dwarf loves a woman dwarf...

But I'm a man! That **** don't make sense!

IronBeer, did you flip my gender?

[CommanderDJ]

Yeah, and wasn't I married to Trash, who was a female? How did I give birth? o_O

[IronBeer]

But I'm a man! That **** don't make sense!
IronBeer, did you flip my gender?

Technically, *I* didn't flip your gender, but I wanted you to be a useful dwarf in the settlement. So, more directly, you are Fem-pollo, or something along those lines. I can adjust your nick in my next session.

Yeah, and wasn't I married to Trash, who was a female? How did I give birth? o_O

Trash is in fact, TrashMan. Derp. No weirdness going on here- it just didn't cross my mind to check that amidst the multiple things I was juggling at the time.

[TrashMan]

I have been womanized!

Oh well.... since I'm a doctor and all, can I try to heal the poor, brave dog?

[Gortef]

Now Kobar and Dante. Don't you dare to break that gear I made you.

[SpardaSon21]

Why don't you tell that to the monsters in the caverns?

[Patriot]

I forget what kind of dwarf i am, and what is happening with me anyways?

[Gortef]

Why don't you tell that to the monsters in the caverns?

Those magnificent examples of craft(wo)manship can dig themselves into any kind of unwanted material (and protect the user from it aswell), but only if handled properly.

[FireSpawn]

[IronBeer]

I have been womanized!

Oh well.... since I'm a doctor and all, can I try to heal the poor, brave dog?

Lemme clarify: you were always male. Somehow at embark I got it in my head that your dwarf was female.  The naming has since been rectified.

Doctors only patch up other dwarves. The main profession that *should* deal with wounded pets is Animal Caretaker, but that isn't currently working, so animals can simply self-heal at the moment. Perhaps later when the fort has a lot of dead weight, I can arrange some treachery handle some minor accidents so you and deathfun can hone your skills. At present, there's usually a small trickle of citizens heading to the infirmary because of the sludge outside- the sludge apparently causes very minor bleeding in addition to violent nausea. If nothing else, you get to train your Diagnosis skills.

I forget what kind of dwarf i am, and what is happening with me anyways?

First off, you're still alive and well. You were one of the starting seven, an armorsmith/stonemason. Several very skilled smiths have moved into the fortress, so I'm afraid the only smithing you'll be doing is training, and not for a while. That said, you've been very busy turning out stone furniture as part of my ongoing efforts to actually make Wallbones a nice place to live.

It may not be terribly obvious, but I've got a lot of things to juggle. That last session was actually quite short, and things were happening fast. As such, I'm primarily going to comment on individual dwarves as they affect the fort's running and my current goals. However, if anybody's curious as to how they're doing, just ask- I can easily make time to check up on specific citizens.

[deathfun]

I can arrange some treachery handle some minor accidents so you and deathfun can hone your skills

*Insert maniacal laugh here*

[TrashMan]

 

[Colonol Dekker]

Have i done anything useful in this?

[IronBeer]

Took a while, but I finally managed to sit down for another session. A lot happened, and quickly, so I'll just dive right in.


Besmar Alathlimar, Clothier, has died of thirst.

Once again, tragic, but necessary. Since death in the fort is not a matter of "if", but rather "when and how", I've already scooped out an area to serve as a graveyard and deep vault. I call it the "hall of history". (I'm trying literal highlighting of points of interest in screencaps. In the absence of dissent, I'mma keep doing this from now on.)



Not much at the moment, but then again, not a lot of history has happened yet. I've installed a couple of coffins already, they're indicated by ASCII zeroes.



Rest now, unfortunate soul.



Expansion to the farming/storage area. Need some safe space to grow wild subsurface plants and wood. Similar to Minecraft, you can indeed grow some plants underground. There are a few differences, though. Plants are divided into surface and subterranean types- where each grows should be obvious, and the distinction goes for trees and "trees" as well. The other difference is that "wild" subsurface plants will start growing on any exposed soil once a cavern layer is opened up. That's where the wierd splashes of color on the sand have been coming from.



Digging out a bigger and better hospital. This position fits better with my overall defensive strategy, and the room will get to be made of good, sturdy stone.



Food is getting a little tight, though not critically so. I direct the chefs to start cooking up some Quarry Bush leaves. Quarry bushes are a type of underground plant that grows from Rock Nuts. Unlike the dwarven staple of Plump Helmets, the bushes cannot be eaten raw, nor can they be brewed. They can however have their leaves isolated, and said leaves can be used in cooking. No detailed descriptions are available, so use your imagination for its appearance.



Babies!



Kobar has earned the right to truly be called an Axedwarf. Military dwarves can use any weapon they (or I) please, but their "class" is dictated by their highest weapon proficiency. Newly-inducted fighters count as Recruits until they hit "adequate" in a weapon skill, which actually isn't too high. Still- a start.



Mo' dwarves, mo' problems.



Indeed "more" problems. Population of 80 is an important milestone- Wallbones is now eligible to come under siege from goblins, ancient beasts, and other such nasties. Time to really prioritize a comprehensive defensive plan. For the moment "lock the doors and wait for the siege to go away" will work fine, but more ..active countermeasures will be necessary at some point.



Moar babies... mayhaps I should consider having the brewers mix contraceptives into the boozahol?



Definitely thinking about it...



Nothing exceptional here, just assigning more living space to be dug out.



So, just prior to this image, I got an announcement that somebody's pet duckling had bled to death, but I couldn't find any combat reports indicating violence. So I zoomed to the location of the announcement and saw something that will permanently change the way Wallbones deals with our contaminated surroundings.


Simply put, we won't whenever possible. I thought there was something fishy about the steady trickle of dwarves going to the hospital. Turns out the sludge isn't just incredibly stinky, but also mildly flesh-eating. This poor SOB is a new arrival, and the duckling that died was his pet. Sucks to be him, I'm not risking any lives to recover his ducky. This guy actually wound up at Yellow on all body parts before making it back inside.

Whole lotta going on outside, if I say so.



The true invasion is from within! The tide of babies continues unabated!



Well, arming up a militia might be tough with no forgeabe metals. Fortunately, I do have a solution.



I spotted some exposed tetrahedrite deposits on the surface. The mineral is an ore for copper, with a chance of producing silver. Copper is the least-valuable of all forgeable metals, but at least it's some metal Gortina can put between our soldiers and danger.

* IronBeer starts looking up ethanol-soluble contraceptive mixtures...

Metal's metal. Galena isn't very good stuff- it's primarily an ore of lead, with a chance of producing silver. It isn't totally useless though. Silver can be used for ****ty edged weapons, or deceptively good blunt weapons. Since the fort apparently lacks iron ores, I'll need to use whatver I can find.



What do you mean "Dwarf-google" isn't a thing? I need to do something to stem this unending tide of babies! (not really, but this seemed a good recurring axe to grind.)



Oh, ****. That is all. "Deadly blood" is one of the last things I want to see- combat is necessarily very bloody, and I've heard a lot of horror stories about militas that chop up a beast like this only to find that the blood causes rapid tissue necrosis... What's worse, most of these stories include fighters accidentally spreading the blood all over the fort and infecting a BIG fraction of the fort.



To make matters worse, I had *just* launched a subsurface wood grab op. I cancel the op, forbid all the chopped wood, and try to herd all my dwarves back into the fort.



Hah! The beast is foiled by our mighty doors!



...until it decides to smash them. Perhaps it'll be satisfied with a *little* wanton destruction? /sheepish



Oh no.

Locking the doors caused all the dwarves to ignore any collectible resources in the caverns. Once that restriction was lifted, some dwarves immediately ran down to get some stuff.

Like Apollo, carrying her youngest child. Apparently getting some cave spider silk was a critical need.



Apollo's pretty quick on her feet, even with a baby, so she manages to elude the beast for quite some time. Of course, some good-for-nothing elves show up right in the midst of our chaos.



'Apollo' Akrulnon, Craftsdwarf, has been struck down.
Iden Zinatir, Baby, has been struck down.

You had to know this was coming.



Predictably, it's not a pretty scene. Apollo is still technically "missing", but I know for a fact she's dead. I reviewed the combat log, and ...well, she's definitely dead.



****! NO!!

A no-name animal trainer decided to take this particular moment to fetch ...something from the cavern. I don't even know what she went after, but she did manage to stall the beast for a while as well.

Rakust Gebarber, Animal Trainer, was struck down.



Right when I saw the beast break the doors, I ordered my masons to wall over the main staircase. Solid constructions like walls and floors cannot be broken by monsters, thus serving as an impenetrable barrier. In the case of this wall, I almost had to consign TrashMan to death as well. Right when I started the construction, he charged down the stairs to fetch a stone, of all things! This happened right when Rakust was trying to evade the beast.

I waited for TrashMan to complete his task only because he's the sole general doctor in the fort. Armok help me, I truly did wall in poor Rakust and condemned her to death. As with all unpleasant descisions, For the Greater Good.



Geez! Can a guy catch a break? No harm, no trouble. These idiots just run off when discovered. Good riddance; they're lucky I don't decide to get vindictive and sic Kobar and Dante on them. At least the Elven caravan lets us top off on wood. Can't ever get enough.



Ah, the master list of dead and missing. This isn't everybody- Apollo's the only figure of import not on here.


[
GO AWAY! Snatchers are Goblin thieves who try to kidnap children and raise them as their own. Sometimes it's possible to see non-Goblin troops or even squad or siege leaders among a Goblin siege. None of Wallbones' children will do any such thing on my watch! ...the three spotted thieves bolt and run when discovered. No gobbo blood is shed yet.



Well, at some point, NGTM-1R got elected to be the Mayor of Wallbones. How 'bout that? His appointment makes him the first officical Noble in the fort. Nobles require nicer housing then their "common" peers and get to make Mandates. Mandates can be "make (x) amount of (y)" or "you can't export (y)". Night proves to be reasonable by mandating the production of some bolts, which the fort'll need eventually anyhow.



Migrants. Nothing more, nothing less. Seems like a lot of this game is organizing living and sleeping quarters.



Hey, another mood! Let's hope this guy can actually get what he needs. Possession is special- the possessed dwarf will still produce an artifact, but won't get any job experience for doing so. Still- potential artifact.



This guy proves to be into smithing of some sort, and I definitely sighed in relief a bit when he actually got to work. In the meantime, I start the development of a secured surface plant farming area. This involves flooring over an outside area, which will still count as "outside" and "light" even though there's a roof now.



Suddenly out of ****ing nowhere, WEREWARTHOG! He must have been sneaking, because he simply appeared at the work site! ****!



That's Patriot, currently getting shredded by the werewarthog.

'Patriot' Dorenlogem, Fortifier, has been slain.

And the carnage only continues as the werewarthog jumps another stonemason!



The militia, which now includes some civilian recruits, arrives just in time to save the other mason. Our uninvited guest takes the shape of a goblin! That's new for me.



And our army can't get to him as he slips off of the map edge. Goddamnit! Everybody's mad about Patriot's death, but the other mason desperately needs medical help.



Right in the middle of this, our busy smith finishes his creation, a silver cage. Busy at the moment, so I'll post a detailed description of the artifact later.



The werewarthog's second victim, Domas Saziruz, is in pretty rough shape. Luckily, he's a tough sum***** (really- he's got the "very tough" trait. Might've saved his life), and TrashMan started working right away. Domas endures surgery, suturing, wound cleaning, dressing application, casts, splints, and winds up needing a crutch while his injuries heal, but he survives. All the while, his faithful pet goose stays by his side.

Another thing in this image I'd like to touch on is the other highlighted area. Dekker and his lovely ladydwarf siege engineer assistant built four mighty ballistas for use in fortress defense. These hallways are organized such that ballista crews will be safe from invader activity and can still fire back.



I'm not quite done with the defensive design, but when all is said and done, an invading army will be forced to walk up through this hallway while getting hammered with titanic ballista bolts. WIP at the moment. My focus is currently on the "backdoor" defenses- the assortment of basic traps barely hurt the invading Forgotten Beast, who is still chilling in Wallbones' "backyard".



Gotta stop for now, but we've got our work cut out for us. We will mourn Patriot and Apollo someday, but for now, we must find some way to kill the invading beast without contaminating the fortress. Scourge (who is Apollo's spouse, to remind you) hasn't handled the recent turn of events well, but we're simply not in a position to challenge the beast. Dante and Kobar, even as our two strongest soldiers, likely stand little chance, and our other soldiers lack even weapons! This is now, but I have a plan for later.

Until next time.