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Author Topic: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down  (Read 2743 times)

zehive

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A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« on: November 05, 2012, 11:24:46 pm »

I had a fortress running very well, it was only two years old and I had one single swordsdorf that I brought along, and I wasn't anywhere near a necromancer tower. Well, somehow despite the fact that this was a bustling fortress he managed to get into my internal refuse stockpile without being spotted or running into any traps or anything. Then, after raising a horde of animal skeletons they began overwhelming the passerbys who were immediately raised as more undead who then began to double their numbers, and despite all the ensuing chaos and me drafting the entire fortress to kill them, they were immediately raised as soon as they died.

I never, ever spotted the dude.

How the hell am I supposed to avoid this?

arzzult

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2012, 11:34:22 pm »

Watch animals and/or guards posted at entrances, traps, etc.
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I just realized two things. 1. For the Win and F___ the World have the same initials. 2. They have the same meaning in Dwarf Fortress.

Drazinononda

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2012, 12:27:32 am »

A trick I've learned is to channel out a corner of a room (i.e. a single tile that is only accessible through a diagonal) and place my garbage dump next to it in the room. Example:

XXXXXXXX
XHXXXXXX
XXZOOOO
XXOOOOO
XXOOOOO

Where the H is a channeled tile, the X are walls, the O are floors and the Z is where the garbage dump zone goes.

The dwarves will stand in tile where the garbage dump is, but since there's a vertical drop nearby they will toss the refuse into the channeled tile. And since that space is connected only along a diagonal, miasma is contained. That way you can put the refuse pile inside your fort, where the necromancer has to walk literally right up to it to get line of sight.

If you don't want to mess with cross-z-level stuff like that, or if you want it even more secure, what you can do is put the garbage zone in the top subterranean layer, channel above it (or dig a ramp up, whichever) so that the tile becomes "Above Ground" and floor over it, blocking line of sight again. If you have a one- or two-tile wide, three-tile long entryway to that space you can chain up an animal in that space and block it off with a door, so that even if the necro makes it past everyone else in the fort without getting caught, he'll get caught when he tries to climb over your War Goose or whatever to get to the garbage dump.
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Children you rescue shouldn't behave like rabid beasts.  I guess your regular companions shouldn't act like rabid beasts either.
I think that's a little more impossible than I'm likely to have time for.

misko27

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2012, 12:38:59 am »

Should always have guard animals posted out front. Chain them up and Bingo! Permenant protection. Eternal vigil. Even better if the animals are war bears (Or dogs, but you need more of them to be lethal), since they could dispatch him all on their own.
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The Age of Man is over. It is the Fire's turn now

zehive

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2012, 12:44:33 am »

Hm. Just never had something quite like this happen. The area of the fortress the refuse stockpile was in was very heavily trafficked and I had people building doors just outside when suddenly I'm seeing cancellation messages because of corpses crawling their way out.

misko27

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2012, 12:51:00 am »

Hm. Just never had something quite like this happen. The area of the fortress the refuse stockpile was in was very heavily trafficked and I had people building doors just outside when suddenly I'm seeing cancellation messages because of corpses crawling their way out.
Necromancers are like ninjas, They are hidden in plain sight` dancing around like a ballerina until they stop suddenly and Smite you with awesome.
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The Age of Man is over. It is the Fire's turn now

zehive

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2012, 01:57:21 am »

I'm beginning to suspect Unitologists were part of this, but I shall improve my anti-necromancer defenses more. I guess I'll be a little bit more hasty with stone falls and bring a couple dogs with me when I embark.

Dibuk

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2012, 07:09:33 am »

I thought Necros were [TRAPAVOID].
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AutomataKittay

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2012, 07:22:22 am »

I thought Necros were [TRAPAVOID].

Nope, they're ambushers. They does tend to come with a lot of help that'll clog up the traps.
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omg_scout

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #9 on: November 06, 2012, 09:32:20 am »

You can pass next to a necro in a 4 tiles wide corridor and still do not see him . Plan accordingly.

I always go for "ncero traps" - dead animal somewhere on the ground, surrounded byt some walls and cage traps (preferably multiple).
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I am Leo

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #10 on: November 06, 2012, 09:50:47 am »

You say you're nowhere near a tower, can ambushing goblins be necromancers?
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AutomataKittay

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #11 on: November 06, 2012, 10:03:22 am »

You say you're nowhere near a tower, can ambushing goblins be necromancers?
Not likely, since immortals don't get fear of death to point that they goes necro. I think, in theory, it could be possible for human or dwarf members of goblin civ to go necro and come back ( I've seen some dwarves come back to their old home after becoming necromancer in legends mode, but it's pretty rare. Or I've mis-read the dates :D ) as squad leader for invasion and ambushes. But, that's too unlikely to be noticed in normal game, and most likely not implemented yet.
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Kamamura

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2012, 10:28:35 am »

There never was a more convincing argument to go vegetarian than this.

The morale of the story - don't eat bunnies and fluffies, because if you do, they will come back from their graves as terrible monsters and bite yer arse!
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The entire content consists of senseless murder, a pile of faceless naked women and zero regard for human life in general, all in the service of the protagonist's base impulses. It is clearly a cry for help from a neglected, self absorbed and disempowered juvenile badly in need of affectionate guidance. What a sad, sad display.

Sutremaine

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Re: A single necromancer just brought my fortress crashing down
« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2012, 06:42:45 pm »

Maybe have the access to your refuse stockpile as a bunch of parallel 1-wide corridors with a couple of animals chained and pastured in each. The pastured animals can go chase the necromancer, and the chained ones can stay behind just in case another necro tries sneaking in while the hounds are released.
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I am trying to make chickens lay bees as eggs. So far it only produces a single "Tame Small Creature" when a hen lays bees.
Honestly at the time, I didn't see what could go wrong with crowding 80 military Dwarves into a small room with a necromancer for the purpose of making bacon.