Bay 12 Games Forum

Alright here is the save! Good luck Otto!
https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=17103
The game runs substantially better on this map!
I planned to build a residential quarters on top of the fort, but didn't get around to it. Like Gateheaven feel free to disregard my designs and build how you want. I sort of was just going with the flow and had no plan in mind other than defenses.

I don't think enemies can start invading us until we have 50 dwarves(I set a cap to 30 and planned to accept no more than 30 visitors so we don't ever exceed a pop of 60) so if you feel the military is ready on your turn feel free to start raiding and that'll start the invasion timer early!


We adopted a goblin monster slayer who is an infamous goblin killer, but thats fine with us


Iton got hit by a mood and before I could stop him he grabbed copper to make a metal artifact. I screamed at the top of my lungs because we had a pile of iron sitting right next to the workshop, but thankfully Iton decided to make a stupid artifact!


I had the honors of finishing the drowning chamber


Enemies will have to push through our drowning chamber. It will seal behind them and drown those who are too slow. Those fast enough will have to advance straight into our trap hall.

I did start having the crew work on cutting gems. For some reason a dwarf was trying to cut a sapphire and he somehow turned it into a scepter? He cannot explain his actions and neither can I.


Speaking of our Neblime clone this one is a legendary warrior too!


Despite all my warnings workers insist on taking naps out in the fields outside our fortress! The fools will be the first to die!


With our defenses mostly done it was time to start building military equipment.


Yes, you read it right. I had twenty hives made and installed on top of our fort! Some dwarves were very confused and asked me why I just think they're neat!
I'm in my beekeeping era

Merchants arrived with news: Capital is under siege!

Castle of Luteglen was abandoned which means the vampire that was being held there has been set loose. Gotta keep our eyes peeled.

The merchants took us seriously and freshly milked dwarf mothers before turning it into cheese. Yes, we did buy some.


Hey an artifact


I gave it to Salmeuk and now he has to carry it with him everywhere he goes


I was in the process of installing windows around the surface layer for increased vigilance, but I won't finish before I have to pass on my overseer title. Parts are here though!


Another dwarf napping! The trees are speaking elvish I tell you! You're all gonna die!


When not napping in fields the dwarves like to ponder the vagaries of suicide


Our adopted goblin complained about not getting enough alcohol so we got a tavern keeper. Basically the goblin complained at me and I picked the first dwarf I saw, which was Flint, who at the time was praying to the god of death for sweet release.


Salmeuk is judging other dwarves retelling of his appointment to expedition leader


another problem I leave for my successor: Across the river dingoes are breeding in large numbers and forming their own kingdom. Troglodytes are doing the same.


Human treasure hunters keep coming here. This one is looking for a artifact from Gateheaven


Tonnot went from a veteran on the verge of total insanity to one of the happiest dwarves in the fort. Yay!


If this isn't an necromancer or vampire shave my beard and call me a she-elf



I leave my post satisfied that I have killed many of the surrounding trees and built defenses to butcher our enemies! Let the grudges be fulfilled!
Fortress Tour:

I recommend playing this as you read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOTIIw76qiE&ab_channel=RHINO


Dwarves, Welcome to the Jungles of Romance



I will not lie to you, your chances of survival are slim.
If you are not killed by the humans, cannibalized by the elves, you may find your souls eternally enslaved by the dark power of necromancers

But I swear to you, by holy magma, to do everything in my power to deliver your bodies to eternal rest in this cause we fight!

Our enemies outnumber us in the many thousands and thus we have hidden in this unholy elven jungle to prevent them from fielding large armies against us

This special assignment is for commandos and so we shall also not be able to field a large army, but we will cut and burn this forest down to shape it into a death trap that will live on as legend!

I ask you to do this, not for my own selfish entertainment, but for the good of our entire people!







Inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrRpdJqMC80&ab_channel=Tarriff

Neblime finished us out and Kesperan used his turn for adventure mode! So in order of who most recently played to keep things fair

Maloy(current)
Otto_K
Salmeuk
Neblime
Kesperan

Sound good?

back from my trip across the pacific, ready to play again on this world of mega sieges.

some thoughts / suggestions for the next fortress. dont take these as demands at all, but after my experience with Gateheaven's slowdown I wanted to bring them up.

 -2x2 or less for FPS purposes
 -implicit use of cleanup commands after saves, either by save owner or next player
 -i love the huge sieges, but maybe (slightly) tone them down, say, %80 of what they were?
 -turn off cavern invaders upon arrival . contentious, I know, but they induce the WORST kind of                                           
   unsolveable lag.
 -another desert or mountain embark, because trees also cause lag

these might let us really keep the place rolling, you know?

I like all of these. I actually was thinking of having a low population limit for the upcoming fort, but also proportionally lowering siege numbers so the challenge remains about equal.
Cavern invaders off also sounds smart
If its alright with everyone I would like the new place to have trees, but I'm fine with also chopping the entire forest down after

At this point hours had passed since the start of the battle.

The defenders had spread out in multiple directions to pursue Tumam as well as to engage his undead coming from the north and so when Tumam raised Fell Zombies the defenders were cut off from one another and surrounded from all sides.
The fell Zombies were in devastated bodies, but this was balanced somewhat by the fact that their new powers and intelligence gave them overwhelming strength and agility.

Another downside as the battle continued though were that the fell zombies were filled with such hate and rage that they rarely killed dwarves quickly. They'd grab a dwarf by his limbs and pull each one out of its socket slowly to cause most agony. This slowing down usually gave other dwarves opportunities to kill the zombies.

Finally, at this point having hours passed every single defender was exhausted and one could see them haphazardly swinging their weapons or fists as exhaustion neared.

Tumam had never fought so hard in his life and he imagined this was a worse battle than the siege that originally destroyed his tower. At this point there was no dirt to stand on, but only the broken bones of countless dead bodies with a layer of blood and viscera beneath that. Every one was coated in gore.

Swing, swing, swing and the crunching of bones and squelching of brains as his morningstar struck out again and again. He fought the urge to swing wildly and desperately as he sought to preserve enough of the enemy bodies to raise as zombies, but even then after so many hours of combat most of the defenders had some broken bones somewhere or another. Many of them were useless after death even with his careful killing.

His fell zombie trick would not work on the dead defenders. He had already raised one by mistake and had to kill it quickly after it was able to jam a fist through Tumam's breastplate.


A child might ask "How many punches to the face does it take before someone's face explodes?" and one would normally consider this ridiculous, but here in this field this question was explored many times as repeated blows caused parts of the defenders to entirely break or bend out of place.

Finally, the laughing goblin spearwoman lost her weapon. She'd die very soon without an ability to defend herself.

Tumam was distracted watching her take that hit and didn't notice as the crowd of dwarves around him took advantage.

Another rain of countless blows like earlier flew at him. Again Tumam dodged like no other day in his life, but without a shield he was significantly more vulnerable and he was hit many times over. His spine was damaged as well as his arm causing him to drop the morningstar and fall to the ground unable to stand.

This was a deathknell as he was surrounded and had no way to defend himself now. Tumam knew there was no way out, and so summoned all his powers and rage and let loose one final burst of necrotic power raising more fell zombies as well as reanimating every severed body part from the smallest hand to the largest severed head to fight. This included everything inside the main building were the exhausted defenders were huddled trying to keep safe.

Tumam rolled out of the way of one dwarf's stomping foot and would've fallen off the edge of the hill, but his flapping wings saved him. Despite his earlier fears his wing was in good enough condition to carry him and so the bird lifted off and up to gain height advantage on his hated foes.

Utter carnage had ensued. The main building had become a charnel house as weakened defenders could not hold back the mob of fell zombies and were being massacred.
Outside the tide shifted to Tumam: Defenders were collapsing in exhaustion to be killed by the undead and the only defenders surviving were those who were close enough to others to form some united defense. Small islands of life in this sea of bones.
Despite being only made of bones the fell zombies who had been reanimated a second time had evolved further. More muscular might be how some described them: Bones thickened and grew into plate-like forms as necrotic energy seemed to form a sinewy like flowing muscle shape around their forms. They looked nothing like their original skeletons now.

Tumam's rage would not allow him to stay out of the fight. He flew in and would kick and bite his opponents. He tore out and stomped in several throats dooming these people.


His rage blinded him though and a macedwarf struck his unprotected head. Tumam fell to the ground unconscious. Concussive knockouts typically only last less than a minute, but Tumam did not have that long.

Within seconds he was swarmed and the defenders stomped and smashed his head. One dwarf stabbed him in chest over and over, but it was the repeated blows to his head that caused it to be smashed into a bloody pulp.

The first necromancer had finally fallen.

The defenders cheered for the salvation of the world and vengeance against a hated foe, but the tide of death continued.

The last defenders of dwarf and goblin kind fought heroically in one of the greatest battles of Adelaathira's history, but despite saving the world they could not stop what was left of Tumam's army and as the dawn came and the sun rose almost every single one died.


The last defenders outside the main building, for all inside were dead now, bought time for a few dwarves to run including the dwarf who had killed Tumam herself!



Dwarven civilization has ended, but despite his best efforts and maximum power Tumam was not able to destroy the entire species. Heroes of the greatest legend were made in the last battle as the death toll reached several hundred at bare minimum with some reports saying over a thousand deaths total.






















OOC:

Dang that's a lot of bodies, pretty amazing that you managed to survive that whole ordeal.

I was waiting until this post to respond to that lol

Man I am so thankful this battle is just over including writing it. Actually playing this battle took multiple irl weeks as each movement took minutes. Anytime I rose an undead the game would freeze for about ten minutes.

UGH! Still most epic thing I have ever done in adventure mode. Still brainstorming how exactly I am gonna finish off the dwarves. I see why no one else has really done a story like this where they try to reach fairy tales.

Also the list of kills above isn't anywhere near a comprehensive list.
I screenshot weapons that I could see and their kill count, but many dwarves and goblins were killing using their feet, fists, or teeth. Or clothing items, or pieces of armor.
My legendary zombies aren't listed either, but legends is now coated with entries of legendary zombies.

Check to see that both dwarf fortress and dfhack are set to the adventure mode update

Maybe it won’t let you play it if you’re not on the exact same version

Oh! I can pop in and kill the siege real quick and repost the save if you want Kesperan?

It's tedious and time consuming, but I know a safe way to kill enough of them to make them leave

It seemed difficult to imagine how the situation could become worse for Tumam until he heard his living opponents roar and begin to charge.

Despite having quite a few wraiths and zombies lodged into the doorway continuing to fight many dwarves bashed their way through and suddenly Tumam's forces were surrounded on all sides and he was now vulnerable to attack again. His only saving grace climbed up the slope from the north:

Nearly a quarter of his initial invading force had been side tracked chasing down a fleeing dwarf. Zombies aren't smart enough to perceive where the most lethal part to attack is so they were relentlessly beating the man this whole time until only just now killing him. These zombies attempted to join the rest of the horde and so now the dwarves who had broken through his forces were also surrounded themselves.

The white stork man was injured and couldn't hold a shield. He doubted he could fly either, but had no time to test it. He swung his morningstar endlessly and dodged constantly.

Swords, hammers, and axes rang throughout the night brutalizing his forces. The living died horribly as wraiths used improvised weapons or a dwarf who had been punched in the head for the 20th time finally had his skull cave in. The sheer bloody ruin that was many dwarves bodies was remarkable to see! How could these stout folk still fight so viciously when half of their face was torn off? Tumam continued to pick off enemies as he was able, but within short order the defenders had successfully routed and wiped out his horde in the doorway leaving only the ones that had just joined to aid Tumam remaining.

Now there plan was apparent: Recognizing that their own people were passing out from exhaustion, the defenders had decided to charge to push up the line of battle and protect the exhausted. Through the doorway Tumam could see many passed out dwarves and goblins resting from the battle.

Between that and being outnumbered the defenders had entirely countered his main advantages in combat.

Combat was so intense and so fast that Tumam also had no chance to escape. Any attempt to run or to see if he could fly would be ample time for several enemies to reach and grab him. All he could do was reanimate as many corpses as he could to keep the pressure on, but there were still over 100 defenders left living!













and then...Tumam was surrounded.
Before he knew it there were only a few zombies left and there were many dwarves between him and them. The mad goblin spearwoman still danced and laughed as she killed as many other legendary warriors continued around her. There were almost no usable corpses left.

Was it over? "No, no no no no. Not when I'm so close! Not here! Not now!" Cried Tumam
Tumam summoned the full capacity of his necrotic powers, now fully returned to him, and unleahsed a great pillar of the dark power upon the area.

Great power seized the mangled and broken corpses of the slain undead and it filled them like never before. They glowed with light and began to rise en masse. Some of the undead began laughing or screaming, a skill they never had before, and coated with new power they began to immediately destroy the defenders.

A dark mist filled the area cutting visibility to near zero. Fell Zombies




Now the tide turned. The horde had not only been restored, but even though their bodies were near useless they were filled with supernatural strength that overcame armor and mortal speed.

Tumam's final desperate gamble paid off in that Fell Zombies, Cold Hunters and other forms of sapient and super-powered undead kept the soul of the original inhabitant usually. Technically, if Tumam raised a dead defender as a fell zombie the newly formed undead would likely join the defenders and try to kill Tumam!
This is where the gamble came in: Most of the horde that was here as he arrived were actually his old army of skeletons from the dark pits. They had sat down there for generations. Over that time the attachment the souls had to those bodies disappeared entirely. There was no soul to reconnect to this army.

Instead, lacking an original soul, the spell attached the wraith identity as the new soul of the corpse. The new Fell Zombies remembered the defenders and having been killed by them, and so despite no longer needing to murder all living beings on sight, they still possessed intense hatred of those who had killed them.


OOC:
When someone dies you see their body and it says something like "Urist mcpoophead's corpse"
Many of these corpses had no name just "Goblin Skeleton" or something so I surmised that they didn't have an ID in the game anymore, or soul for an in-game use, that meant the game would use their zombie status from earlier for their new status as intelligent undead.
Basically still my zombie horde, but super powered now.

Two real life minutes passed between every tick of this battle if you're wondering why it took so long. Added to the fact that there were over 150 defenders at the start causing this to be my biggest battle on this world ever

Sure!

What we could do first actually is retire it and let Kesperan take a turn through adventure mode?

then I embark the new fort after that.
Would be nice to have some vengeance dealt out, because it doesn't feel like we're retiring on a win, per say.