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[GPeter]

Here's a tip:

Build a few tunnels that lead outside from different spots, so when you get migrants, they have multiple paths to go inside, when migrants do come, at least one the entrances must be close to them, at least close enough for them to outrun the undead. Make sure to have all the tunnels funnel into a one way inside the actual fortress, or seal the different tunnels separatedly with doors, should any undead make it inside the tunnel, you can easily lock it down.

[Graysire]

I'll see if I can try that, the biggest issue I've discovered so far is that the eerie soot zombies can open non-forbidden doors, which means any open door needs to be carefully watched, and makes it even more imperative that any tunnel opened to the outside has a door installed very quickly. It'll be difficult, but not impossible, granted number of workers isn't my biggest limitation as compared to farmable land or the ability to make anything metal, all the anvils are outside atm.

[GPeter]

I'll see if I can try that, the biggest issue I've discovered so far is that the eerie soot zombies can open non-forbidden doors, which means any open door needs to be carefully watched, and makes it even more imperative that any tunnel opened to the outside has a door installed very quickly.

Install a door on the start of the tunnel and another one on the end.

all the anvils are outside atm.

There's and old dwarven trick that goes through my family, we call it "Use a cat as bait to lure the enemies away"

[Timeless Bob]

I like to use the old "one way door" trick: The only short entrance to the fort is under a drawbridge set to slam closed if a creature triggers the pressure plate twenty steps further back along the pathway.  The drawbridge being down reveals a trap lined passage into the fortress instead, ending in another drawbridge pressure plate trap that will open to reveal the oubliette.  The oubliette itself is a deep pit which has a small winding passage leading back out to the beginning of the trap passage.  I'll usually have a nice mined out block of dead-fall in a room just after the oubliette, held up by a single support only and triggered by a pressure plate in front of a nice stone statue of a laughing dwarf (for fun, I use the image of whichever Noble is pissing me off the most at the time the room is built.) Should a Megabeast or some sort of other monstrosity come stomping through my trap corridor and somehow avoid the oubliette, the deadfall is set to crush them to paste once they path to the statue to destroy it.  If the deadfall is several Z-levels thick, One only needs to excavate out the bottom-most layer and build another support/pressure plate/statue to set the trap once more.

[Graysire]

7th Malachite – 557

   Even through the walls we can feel the clouds of soot outside, somehow all of us know they’re waitin’ out there. Ever since Feb took that bit of soot around her arm it feels like the soot has been more and more…present, like it’s more aware of us and is seeking a way in, the door has been sealed even tighter after that bit made it inside, but I still worry it can get te us. Well, on a brighter note ye can be happy to hear my axedwarfship has improved a bit, I might even be adequate for this job now. Or at least, I hope so, I’ve been trainin’ since I got here, if half a year couldn’t train me any than I’d be a lost cause.

9th Malachite – 557

   I’ve ordered the construction of some more farm plots, we’re goin’ te be needin’ some new clothin’ soon enough, and I’d rather we prepare for such things sooner rather than later when our clothes are barely rags.

19th Malachite – 557

   Erib has begun mining deeper, bypassing the first cavern in hope of finding a safer alternative deep in the earth, I doubt we shall find much, but I remain hopeful anything would help at this stage. Nish, one of the dwarves who’s been hauling and smoothing, has brought forth an idea to me, a way to help secure the outside, if we can lure the most dangerous of the zombies outside, those covered in that foul soot, into a series of traps, perhaps we may remove them as a threat, so long as their soot does not move to corrupt us when we try te dispose of their bodies.

5th Galena – 557

   Erib has the most amazing luck of any miner I’ve ever seen! We struck some of the most uninhabitable caverns, one filled with magma! She actually dug right next to magma without realizing it, just a bit te the northeast and she’d be standing in it! With the lava there we could start up a magma smelter! With so much of it around most of the nasties inhabiting caverns can’t get to us either. I’ve ordered a hatch built above the stairwell just in case, but if all goes well perhaps things have shifted in our favor.

7th Galena – 557

   I’ve decided te test my skills, from what we know there are actually less dangerous monsters in the lava cavern than in the first one we found, all we’ve seen in the lava cavern are a few glimpses of crundle arm, I expect that the combat shall be brief, but I’m hopin’ the experience can be helpful to my learnin’.

13th Galena – 557

   Whoever says thirteen isn’t an unlucky number has a date with my axe, ye hear me? The undead are gatherin’ in the first cavern, we can hear it echoing through the walls, as many as a dozen crundles and somethin’ much larger, cave ogre, maybe trolls, or worse, both. Luckily only the firs cavern, the magma cavern is where they might do some damage, but for now all they can do is scare us with their scratchin’ at the walls.

16th Galena – 557

   I feel like we’ve made a terrible mistake, the undead of the first cavern, their numbers are growing, we can hear near a hundred of them through the walls, slowly moving somewhere. We don’t know where though! Perhaps the soot is gathering them in great numbers? But if so, what is its aim? Has it some plot to use against us? One could go mad just thinkin’ about it…perhaps that’s why Feb won’t speak, traumatized by this whole thing.

(Apologies for the short post, also I think that there is a downward passageway somewhere I forgot about, otherwise I have no idea why so many undead are congregating and moving the same direction)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[GPeter]

See if you cam make some magma-safe pumps, then, fill your reservoir. Once filled, forget it, and flood the cavern so you don't need to worry anymore. Bonus point if you make a trap with magma! Maybe a corridor with a cat in it, attracting the undead inside, then locking them with a bridge and dousing them in the Holy Blood of Armok!

[Graysire]

It'll be an interesting experience since I've never used pumps before, so I might try it, also unfortunately I have no pets of any kind, they've all gone and died, so any luring has to be done with a person.

[GPeter]

Read the wiki about pumps. That's pretty useful!

[Graysire]

18th Galena – 557

   I’m feelin’ more and more competent with my axe, that’s leavin’ me satisfied for now, even moreso with those undead movin’ on, they’re still out there, but they ain’t botherin’ us anymore and so as far as I’m concerned, we beat them. Now there’s a victory to drink to…

22nd Galena – 557

   We’ve done it! The first logs of tunnel tube lie one the ground ready for use, even if we won’t need them for forgin’ I got some ideas for a few cage taps we might be able ta make, if we can lure the soot zombies outside inta them, we can lock them away for good.

26th Galena – 557

   Evil in the depths! Zombies have started enterin’ the second cavern level in force! I’ve ordered everyone ta get above the hatch and then we’ll bar it. The things knew we were there somehow, and even worse found a way ta get there. I suspect it might be Feb’s little soot pet, but I can’t be sure.

27th Galena – 557

   They continued storming the depths and attacked somethin’, they looked like eyes except they were just wanderin’ around with no purpose, until the undead fell upon them and ripped ‘em ta shreds. Then the horde started wanderin’ off again, I’ve ordered a tenuous unbarrin’ of the stairwell, if we’re careful I think we might be able to avoid the horde since they’re headin’ back to the upper levels.

*The rest of the journal is soaked in blood and unreadable*

(Sorry for lack of updates, school/finals been keeping me busy)

[Graysire]

2nd Limestone – 557

*This journal is made of a series of thin stone tablets, the letters are written with bloodstains, the cover says it was written by Feb the Hierophant*

   She was a fool to unbar the deeps. Our militia commander has fallen against the troglodyte that made it into our home before I resealed the hatch. She never saw the how the soot truly lingers here, how it hunts us and wishes to devour our lives.

   After Clearbristles fell, I thought our time here at an end, I thought that with our protector vanquished the soot would sweep over us like a tsunami and crush us under its heel. But turning inward, I had a dream, my last dream. It showed Clearbristles, twisted into humanoid form sitting upon an equine throne. She spoke to me, reminding me of my faith, and how she became a martyr for us, and in doing so she ascended and is now truly a god. While it has been a long time in coming, Her temple will surely be done soon and with it we shall be empowered.

   I have had no dreams since that one, and my voice is not worthy of echoing in these hallowed chambers until Her temple is complete. My companions, Mosus and Erib both finally understand our calling and who we must worship, though I speak no words, they understand our task. The others will do as they’re told, they do not understand our greater purpose, but as WE were the ones to save them from the soot-stained deeps, not their militia commander, they will obey, out of gratitude…or fear.

[Graysire]

6th Limestone – 557

   Even as the soot’s minions are forced to leave, for they no longer have a passage to us, the soot rages above, were we on the surface surely none of us would be beyond its reach, but here in the fortress Clearbristles gifted us, we are unbowed. With Clearbristles’ power I was able to capture some of the soot, drawing it away from its cloud. I have neutralized this small amount, and now through it I can sense the presence of the soot. I see how it seeks to invade us, its army in the depths awaiting any opening, its empowered minions upon the surface awaiting an unbarred door. Knowledge is power.

7th Limestone – 557

   I am called to arms once more, the militia commander betrays us again by rising under the soot’s thrall, though she is now rather thoroughly dismembered, losing her hands, a foot, and her teeth, she may still rise again, and I must be vigilant, and train for the day that we must fight the soot in open battle. If she rises before her coffin is complete I shall strike her down until nothing remains.

16th Limestone – 557

   I applaud the merchants for braving the soot to find our fortress, I equally applaud the outpost liaison for coming, but if they do not deal with the soot’s primary agents, the zombies so thoroughly corrupted that the soot itself clings to them, if they are not dealt with then trading will be all for naught. I pray Clearbristles protects them against the soot.

   They are already fleeing a cloud of soot! It is chasing them, seeing the value in adding the caravan guards to its retinue, they must flee quickly until Clearbristles manages to disperse the cloud.

18th Limestone – 557

   The outpost liaison, uncaring and unfeeling watches it unfold from the mountainside, I suppose here to do nothing but report the state of our outpost, with little regard for the merchants who try to trade with us. The favored of soot attacked the merchants, slaying one and a guard, the other two fled and ran straight into the soot cloud. All according to the soot’s plan, its minions now fight amidst its sheltering form to determine which shall be the newest guardian to prevent us from leaving our home.

25th Limestone – 557

   After her betrayal the others are reluctant to give her a proper coffin, preferring to give her a slab like all the other that have fallen upon this soil. So it shall be. I have ordered the corpses to be dumped into her former bedroom as a temporary measure to get rid of this horrid miasma before it worsens.

27th Limestone – 557

   The fools of the mountainhomes believe themselves invulnerable, the liaison was no different, he never saw the soot creeping up behind him, but now he is fully in its thrall, he has left unhappy that there is no sport to hunt here, he returns to the mountainhomes to kill and conquer.

   Additionally, we can once more hear the army of the dead in the upper cavern, discouraged by the barring of the hatch they return to their original hunting grounds. If we seal the northern chamber of the second cavern we may be able to prevent the army from returning, and thus secure the access to the second cavern that our fallen militia desired, but it must be done with care, ensuring that the army has fully abandoned the deep places.

3rd Sandstone – 557

   The last piece of the altar has been put in place, it is time to begin the construction of the pillars and erect our statues to Clearbristles, it is time for the temple to be complete, so that all may bow to Her glory and know that She is the path that soot cannot harm.


(There are currently 181 visible undead on the map, most of which are in a massive pile in the first cavern, also I am keeping in mind the trap suggestions, and I'm building mechanisms to prepare for it, it's just taking me a lot of time as I've only got 6 dwarves, and no effective lures, so careful planning is needed...alongside distracting myself trying to get them to clear the temple faster and move those corpses)