I most make update.
At some point during the chaos of the earlier update, a human caravan arrived. I trade away a modest pile of low-value gems for some wood, then wave them away with irritation. We've got work to do here!
Perusing the current military skills of Wallbones' citizens revealed a lot of dwarves with crossbow experience, with one being an Elite Marksdwarf. I quickly organize a second militia squad under the Elite, and hand everybody a weapon and some bolts. Marksdwarves can safely skip on armor if I use them properly, since they should never be getting hit directly.
A quirk of the "new" equipment system requires that marksdwarf squads receive ammo on a per-squad basis, rather than on a per-dwarf basis. At any rate, the whole group is armed and ready to go after a bit of quick forge work by Gortina and some of her assistants.
Makes sense that Kobar would become attached to a shield that's served him well for quite some time. In this case, "attachment" isn't going to be a problem. But if Kobar had become fond of, say, a wooden training axe, then things might be complicated a bit. From what I understand, dwarves with an equipment attachment are difficult to separate from the gear in question, and get a strong unhappy thought from separating.
Also, consider the new staircase hall next to the walled-off staircase. This corridor is important to my cunning plan.
DeeJay and the other mechanics have begun rigging up an ingenious retracting bridge in the corridor. Beneath the bridge is a shallow trench. Non-flying creatures can't climb out of the trench, so the retracted bridge will safely and controllably bar access to the fort from this corridor.
As our unstoppable injured mason works on final assembly, let me explain the plan in a little more detail. Wallbones' miners will dig an alternate route to the backdoor tunnels. The forgotten beast is still milling about in our cavern layer, so once a path into the fort is open, it will try and get into the fort. Hopefully, I can retract the bridge before the beast gets in and bar its path. Eventually the beast will get bored and wander back out through the backdoor. Overlooking the area will be the cadre of citizen archers, who will pincushion the beast with no fear of retaliation! If I had a mustache, I'd be twirling it.
Quick aside: bridges can be built as retracting or lifting. Retracting bridges will effectively disappear when retracted, and lifting bridges will form a wall when lifted. Lifting bridges can be weaponized to create a "dwarven atom smasher" or a rather unpredictable catapult-like device.
Handful of migrants. No time to make nice rooms for them or evaluate their skills- we've got a monster to kill!
During all this prep, I remember that Night had made a Mandate. In a rare example, his mandate and my plans converge.
I order some copper helms to be built when possible. I'm not bothered by Night's mandate, since I'd need to outfit my melee soldiers with armor and weaponry at some point anyhow.
Yet another distraction during the battle preparations- one of the Lye Makers has gone Fey. "Fey" is the third kind of Strange Mood, and is functionally the same as a Secretive Mood. The dwarf will gather a bunch of stuff, make something (hopefully) awesome and instantly hit legendary in the skill involved.
Archers are in place. It isn't very apparent from this screencap, but this emplacement overlooks the "backdoor" corridor. I just hope I got the angle right for the archers. If I did, that monster's a pincushion waiting to happen!
Oh, the funny-looking structures up from the archers are Fortifcations. Fortifications can be shot through, fluids can pass through them, but creatures can't get through them. Think of them as crenulations or arrow slits.
Polpolion prepares to break into a corridor already compromised by the beast. Hopefully, I can get the timing right on this. It might be tricky, since the beast is already a few levels up scratching on the walled-over staircase.
****. ****! Polpolion got away safely, but I underestimated the beast's speed and the bridge retracted just an instant too late. The monster is now in the fort, and we'll have to take it on in melee to win. Here's hoping that we can do it and that its blood isn't horridly toxic.
Regrettably, the fight isn't very concucive to screencapping, but I'll retell what happened as best I can.
Right after the previous pic, the beast focused its hate on somebody's pet rabbit. The rabbit fled into a nearby community dorm room while I raised the alarm. Kobar's fighter squad rushed to engage the beast and I ordered the civilian marksdwarf squad to double-time it back to the fort.
Kobar, Dante, and three other fighters armed only with bravery were the first to reach the monster. The beast was temporarily focused on tearing apart the bunny, so the fighters got the first blow. Kobar and Dante managed to stay in the whole fight, hacking away with disciplined fury, while their "wrestler" comrades and a few wandering civvies jumped on the beast. Three of the unarmored wrestling dwarves had to be carried off with pretty serious wounds, but Kobar and Dante held the beast at bay, their armor and shields preventing major injuries.
Despite suffering wounds that would have slain a lesser creature several times over and painting half the dorm with its blood, the antlion monster keeps fighting. "Buglike" monsters can withstand incredible injury, feeling no pain, nausea, fear, fatigue, or remorse. The swiftest marksdwarves arrive just in time to finish off the crippled yet still kicking monster, and the kill goes to a random unnamed marksdwarf soldier. I decree that Kobar and Dante are each to be awarded a half-kill on the beast for engaging the monster the whole time.
The beast is dead! And, more amazingly, we had no further fatalities. TrashMan and the Wallbones Medical Corps quickly patch up the injured dwarves with little trouble.
And here he is, the lucky dwarf who landed the killshot: Rith Claspwound. He's even got a pretty good name.
As the dust settles from the fight, I take the marksdwarves off of active duty. They'll serve as the "Fortress Guard" and they keep their crossbows on them even while inactive. Since I can arm and armor "civlian" dwarves, I'm making just that a new priority for the fort.
But for now, we must recover our lost and lay them to rest. Apparently dwarves left unburied long enough rise as ghosts! Fortunately, ghosts don't seem to do much, and I've already set to fixing up the Hall of History and fortifying the back entrance.
Oh yeah, this guy. I wonder what he's making?
Yet another artifact. A figurine counts as a "finished good", so I can't put it on public display in the common area. This artifact will be locked away in the Hall of History soon.
I always like getting artifacts that depict local history. In particular, the main focus of this peice is one of our founding members. If there's enough curiosity, I can puzzle out exactly who is depicted here; item descriptions don't use nicknames.
And here's the description of the silver artifact cage that was made during the previous session. Not mind-blowing, but it'll look nice in the common area.
As we recover the bodies of our fallen and inter them in the Hall of History, the ghosts disappear one by one. And things begin to return to normal (for what it's worth) around Wallbones.
What better way to get extra revenge against the hated beast than to eat it? Because of the way that Dwarf Fortress handles butchery and blood, meat from a forgotten beast with "deadly blood" will be safe to eat. I think. At any rate, if I'm right, we're set on food for a long time.
That's all for now- just a quick session.
