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[Quicunque]

My 5th-year fortress Besmarulab, "Pulleysquirts", was attacked by a werellama. The accursed beast was discovered by my patrolling militia, "Reputed Windy Bells", and was quickly surrounded by the squad. Thinking the threat was safely contained, I did not send my civilians to the indoor alert burrows (a foolish decision). As soon as the first civilian spotted the mutant llama, a crowd of dorfs rushed the beast, and were promptly bitten. Some (5) were torn to shreds. The Windy Bells just laughed at the civilian incompetence before sending the llama to the afterlife.

When a werebeast bites a dwarf and tears the muscle or fat, does the lycanthropy thereby spread without any corresponding message in the combat log? Or must I see some message about "spreading the vile curse" or some such?

[KittyTac]

Without any message, yes.

[Quicunque]

Thanks for the quick reply, Kitty. Sadly, eleven civilians were bitten and survived (unlike their 5 companions mentioned earlier). Looks like I have to quarantine them for a few days next month.

[Quicunque]

On the 17th of Malachite in the year 255, 8 of the 11 citizens bitten 4 weeks prior transformed into werellamas. I had dug out 11 cells and assigned the bitten to their respective burrows, but only 2 had reached their cells and been locked in. 7 of the bitten were still immobile in the hospital. 1 was attending a training demonstration in the barracks of the Windy Bells. Finally, 1 was still in the tavern, listening to poetry. The doors to the barracks, the tavern, and the hospital were locked on the 16th. On that fateful night of the 17th, 7 children were playing make-believe in the hospital (why were children allowed in the hospital?). Fortunately, the dwarf in the tavern and the other in the barracks were not afflicted with lycanthropy, so a fortress ending episode of FUN did not occur there. But the hospital was a horrendous bloodbath. And somehow, 1 werellama escaped the hospital to spread terror throughout the fortress. 4 adults were killed, one bitten and survived (only 1!). All 7 children were slaughtered. 4 werellamas survived to transform back into dwarves. What a nightmare!

Now I know why I fear the night.

[PatrikLundell]

Since weres are building destroyers, locking them in into rooms with a depth of 2 tiles or more is likely to only delay them as they have to destroy the door first.

[Quicunque]

That must be how the beast escaped the hospital, Patrik. I did not realize werebeasts were building destroyers. I guess I will need to quarantine the bitten some other way. Maybe under a floor hatch.

In the end, much FUN was had. There was some sort of error in the combat logs; I got several messages of "nothing new to report" there and a reset of the announcement log. That meant that I missed the fact that several others were bitten & infected. On the 15th of Galena, werebeasts transformed all over Besmarulab, leading to so much death & destruction that I abandoned the fortress.

Time to strike the earth anew!

[PatrikLundell]

Ah yes, DF is the school of hard knocks...

Given that you have a month before weres turn, you can simply tear down the door and set up a wall. If they didn't turn you can just tear down the wall again (you can even have the subjects just declared to be safe tear down the wall). If you have repeated incidents you may want to use drawbridges instead, but it's a fair bit of work to set that up.

[Leonidas]

I had dug out 11 cells and assigned the bitten to their respective burrows, but only 2 had reached their cells and been locked in.

That's a terrific story.

In locking away the infected, it sounds like you assigned the civilians to a burrow, in the burrow screen. Next time, try putting the infected into a squad, and scheduling the squad to defend the burrow. That will do a better job of geographically confining them to those squares.