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[NTJedi]

Two concerns for two possible spy visitors and not sure how to confirm if they are spies:
  First claims to be a legendary dwarf mercenary, but she spends all her time praying in the temple and has killed 7 dwarves during the last 100 years.  She has emerald eyes yet all the other dwarves in my fort I've viewed have rust eyes... so maybe emerald eyes are normal for legendary dwarves.  It's also suspicious all her kills are dwarves.
  Second claims to be an enchantress axedwarf yet she never even reached my fort... she's camping outside in a pond.  At first I thought she fell into the water so I raced to help her. I dug channels and stairways for her to climb out, but she just sits in the water. The water is slowly raising back to depth of 7... so I believe she will drown herself soon.  I dug channels and stairways for her to climb out, but she just sits in the water.  Her description only says she is tall, jutting chin and extremely skinny with arcane knowledge.
 FIRST QUESTION: Besides using legends... any other ways to verify if they're spies?

SECOND QUESTION: Is there a way to force them to reveal they are spies or do we just quietly kill them with traps?


                   * I wish we could assign a dwarf as a detective to handle all the mystery investigation of migrants and visitors.

[Fleeting Frames]

First one, well, they may have picked up many gods in their travels, and now need to satisfy all those needs.

Second one is normal bugged visitor behaviour. You can engineer it by placing 6/7 ponds in the direct path to your fort; I've had them eventually leave but some have had them stay in ponds for years (depends on pond design; I'd suggest going for small).

That doesn't mean they aren't spies, though.

[NTJedi]

First one, well, they may have picked up many gods in their travels, and now need to satisfy all those needs.

Second one is normal bugged visitor behaviour. You can engineer it by placing 6/7 ponds in the direct path to your fort; I've had them eventually leave but some have had them stay in ponds for years (depends on pond design; I'd suggest going for small).

That doesn't mean they aren't spies, though.

Thanks, but that information doesn't answer the two questions.

[PatrikLundell]

I'm not aware of any in game means to reveal spies. I've heard others describe visitors claiming to be one thing but not acting as it, but have not seen that myself.

If I understand it correctly, dorfs were supposed to have highly variable traits, but for some reason some tend to the same throughout the civ. The different eye color probably just means she's from a different source civ (as in: she may be from e.g. a human civ, but her ancestors came from a dwarven civ different from yours). I've heard nothing to indicate physical traits can be used to determine anything when it comes to affiliation or role. As mentioned, visitors/petitioners more or less invariably seem to have a life's worth of pent up prayer need, so if you have dedicated temples open to them they tend to go on a prayer bender for half a year or a year before going on to do what they were actually in the fortress to do (such as visit, perform, petition).
Thus, I see nothing particularly suspicious about her. It may well be that her kill count is only of hist figs, not counting others, and it's not unusual for dorfs to be members of goblin civs (or dwarven civs to be at war with human/elven civs with dwarven members, and she could have been on either side of such conflicts).

The other visitor is, as mentioned, subject to a known bug. The ones I've had don't drown, but just sit there. I've dislodged them with DFHack's teleport, and if I just teleport them a short distance they return down into the pool, but if teleported sufficiently far away towards the entrance they actually proceed. There is no reason to assume there's any correlation between this bug and spies (and the bug was there before spies were introduced).

Apart from Legends Mode, it's possible to get some indications using DFHack scripts (which you'd have to write yourself: my script is a mixture of stuff for my use, which may not be of interest to others, and it only covers some aspects of being a spy, not the whole picture [it indicates multiple identities, but that is not necessarily of interest]). It can also be noted that you may not care about most of the spies, as they're likely to be from civs you have no intent to go to war with anyway.

[NTJedi]

I've had two visitors destroying my archery targets as soon as they arrive.  Would these actions be typical for spies??   

[Fleeting Frames]

Are your visitors perhaps buildingdestroyers or tantruming?

[NTJedi]

Are your visitors perhaps buildingdestroyers or tantruming?

The two visitors are enchantress axedwarves. The one who I allowed to join has zero on stress... the second visitor has not even asked to join... just visits the tavern then heads to my barracks zone and destroys archery targets, it's about to happen again as the visitor is standing inside the barracks zone. 

[Fleeting Frames]

Huh, and it is always only archery targets, never other buildings, even statues you build directly next to them as they're wrecking stuff?

Interesting.

[PatrikLundell]

Sabotage isn't in yet, as far as I know, so tantruming would be the obvious explanation. Dwarves are normally not building destroying creatures. If they were axeogres it would be a different matter...

[NTJedi]

Huh, and it is always only archery targets, never other buildings, even statues you build directly next to them as they're wrecking stuff?

Interesting.

Yes, always only the archery targets.  They walk past all the structures in the tavern including two doors, past a dozen war dogs, past the armor stand and weapon stand in the barracks and destroy the archery targets.

Sabotage isn't in yet, as far as I know, so tantruming would be the obvious explanation.

I've experienced many tantrums and never seen one focus on only the archery targets.

[Fleeting Frames]

Do they have any ranged skills? Maybe dwarves attack archery targets, these two want to train archery, and enchantress axedwarves possess cabability for building destroying attack.

What if you build the archery targets elsewhere?

What if you don't designate them as range?

[NTJedi]

Do they have any ranged skills? Maybe dwarves attack archery targets, these two want to train archery, and enchantress axedwarves possess cabability for building destroying attack.

What if you build the archery targets elsewhere?

What if you don't designate them as range?

One Enchantress AxeDwarf visitor destroyed an archery target upon arrival and then petitioned to join then rented a room and has behaved civilized since this time, but she never explores the caverns unlike the other mercenaries. 

The second Enchantress AxeDwarf visitor has destroyed archery targets then spends time in the tavern(which has no drinks) then gets a beating by the sheriff and keeps repeating this pattern.  She is back upstairs gazing at the archery targets which are not even finished being built. 

=============================================
1. Do they have any ranged skills? Maybe dwarves attack archery targets, these two want to train archery, and enchantress axedwarves possess cabability for building destroying attack.
             I'm thinking this must be the reason... the one who joined does have Marksdwarf level3, but not any ranged equipment.  Unfortunately it's the AxeDwarf who hasn't joined which is destroying the archery targets.  If 'forceequip' within DFHack worked for weapons I could give her the archery equipment which I believe would stop her from attacking it.

2. What if you build the archery targets elsewhere?
             I moved the archery targets and even built more of them, but she is destroying them before they're even built.

3. What if you don't designate them as range?
             Unfortunately she is destroying them before they are built.

[PatrikLundell]

As far as I know, mercs don't particularly explore caverns. Monster hunters are supposed to do so (the ones I've tried have mostly spent their time eating, drinking, praying, reading, sleeping, and socializing. Out of 3 hired, only one made a brief visit in a cavern over a half year period, after which I tired of collecting cavern critters from my traps (as I kept the entrance open so they could go there), and kicked them out).