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[LadySerpentine]

So, I embarked into a Terrifying biome with thralling weather; this, in itself, isn't the problem. I knew that much when I set out, from previous (failed) efforts to establish a foothold in the region. All in all, I was quite happy with how things were going, even. Sure, I didn't save everyone, but I got four dwarves walled away safely when a cloud got the other three! Considering that I got everything but three barrels of booze, a splint, and a bunch of coal in with them, that's actually a fine start for somewhere like this.

...and then I went to build my forge. It turns out that I accidentally embarked with an anvil that isn't fire-safe, because I forgot to check materials carefully pre-embark.



So, given that, how would you suggest I go about setting up a trade depot without dying? Bear in mind there's a thrall on the surface, besides the haunting mist, and giant insects that can also get thralled if I'm unlucky. (Right now it's giant flies, so they'd even be flight-capable.)

[Fleeting Frames]

Modded or duplicated raws? Non-mood anvils should be only iron and steel (though nickel is ~roughly just as temperature-safe).

Thralled dwarves still retain the original soul, so I suggest you don't use your military but some kind of clever trap. Retrieving the clothes on their backs without any dwarves seeing their corpses might prove tricky, though - my first thought is to use cavein to force them into cage traps, dump the contents, then eliminate the reminder unseen.

Comparatively, giant thrips or etc. aren't so bad; just don't let them near your civilians or they'll rip them limb from limb.

For trade depot, sealed tunnel to map edge (bridges for walls) is my first thought, though there's been ideas of it being potentially linked to disappearing caravans. But you really don't want a thralled caravan waltz into the middle of your fort (or even use fortress pets as disposable guards), because, again, original soul underneath.


Mind, visitors could also be from your civ, and are always naturally trapavoid. See the note on thralled dwarves, though replace clothes with artifacts. (on the other hand, you could set them on fire to dispose of the corpse, then extinguish the artifact with water)

[PatrikLundell]

As mentioned, tin anvils don't exist in vanilla, so something is probably hacked in the raws, which means there's a risk you'll find more oddities or crashes. Even if a forge could produce an artifact anvil, it wouldn't be available as standard embark equipment.

(Mine cart) repeating menacing spikes can kill trap avoiders, although you still get to deal with corpses.
Retracting bridges that drop the victims into a suitable space can contain them, and remove their bodies as well if there's magma in that space. If you use water instead you can obsidianze it with magma and then dig out the bodies and equipment.
Also note that locked doors should be capable of containing thralled dwarves as they don't gain any building destroyer abilities, although raising bridges are better overall (but slower to react) to contain them for piecemeal elimination or mechanical processing. Note that visitors are so trap avoiding that they don't trigger pressure plates set to trigger on residents as well, so take that into consideration if you allow them.
High speed (heavy) mine carts are also supposed to do a good job of killing stuff (again, bodies are left behind).

[anewaname]

You can make an underground quarantine zone for the depot and migrants. From the fort, dig a short tunnel into a room for the Depot. Make the "Inner Gate" in that tunnel and get it linked. From the depot room, add some long tunnels to near the edge of the map, but don't dig ramps up to the surface until you have built and linked an "Outer Gate" in each tunnel.

The Inner Gate should remain closed when any Outer Gates are open. If the caravan gets underground and to the depot safely, close the outer gates and open the inner gate to trade.

Treat migrants the same way, luring them to the depot room using a meeting zone that is only Active while the inner gate is closed and the migrants are incoming.

[PatrikLundell]

I use a setup similar to that described by anewaname in all my fortresses:
- A channeled out, roofed over courtyard (you can dig it out if the world is too hostile to risk channeling/roof building) where I pasture grazers (have to be skipped if dug out, unless you're quick to release cavern spores).
This courtyard is directly adjacent to the trade depot (no walls in between), with a lockable entrance to the fortress itself from the courtyard (I typically just use doors, but would use a drawbridge if there were risks from caravans, such as reanimation of dead caged animals). The courtyard usually has 4 (sometimes just 3) entrance tunnels reaching from the courtyard to reasonably close to the map edge in different cardinal directions. One tunnel is 3 tiles wide (for caravans) while the others are two tiles wide.
Each tunnel has a drawbridge at the outer end and one at the inner, and the two tile tunnels also has doors just before the inner drawbridge (to be locked when a were or Titan arrives, delaying the hostile until the inner drawbridge has been raised. The outer one is raised as well, to contain the hostile).
A "dog box", i.e. single tile building with a drawbridge door and a floor grate floor, sits above each entrance tunnel close to the outer end, to detect sneaking enemies by the guard animal (typically a blasted adopting female cat [as they can't be neutered]). When the surface is too hostile, I plan to place the entrance tunnels at a depth of 2 so dog boxes can be dug at at a depth of 1, without risk of exposure to the construction team.

In the caravan case, you should be able to close the inner entrance drawbridge before any thralled caravan members have a chance to reach the courtyard, assuming you're on the lookout for thralling, but anewaname's precautions with blocking the actual fortress entrance wouldn't be a bad move.

[LadySerpentine]

Duplicated raws, yes. I'm doing this as practice for a potential Dawnthunders turn, hence the rather... Extreme... conditions and the inclusion of that; I wanted to be properly prepared, and part of that is this sort of nonsense. (I decided that the version where I duplicated them in such a way that my tools immediately turned into magma on embark was a bit too much, though. This, I can probably manage; no picks, no axes, and all caravans having a high chance of spontaneous combustion, not so much.)

I decided to open up for a large migrant wave halfway through making my proper entrance, which is going to incorporate the most recent recommendations now that it's a bit less urgent. (Not, I admit, a totally altruistic plan. Having eight dwarven thralls on the surface was a horrifying prospect and I took a chance while the current population of one such horror was away from the entrance). I briefly spiked to eleven residents, but I delayed resealing the entrance to get the pets in too.

Four dwarves were struck down immediately, and two more were gravely wounded, when it showed up just as the last animal entered the fortress. The fortress's planter, acting more bravely than expected from a civilian who'd just seen her home turned into an abattoir, leapt into the fray, taking serious injuries before finally getting in one decisive - and frankly quite impressive - blow.



I initially meant to starve her in a locked room, but a quarantine breach revealed her to be seemingly peaceful, and others happy to let her be. A quick check also confirmed her as a member of my site and the parent civilization, so since this doesn't appear to have caused a loyalty cascade - possibly due to the incident where this thrall and the other two who got caught fought to the death - she's been integrated back into the fort.

Unfortunately, while stable, the two injured dwarves mentioned above died to a lack of water; an emergency well was completed just too late to save them. This left the total at five dwarves... Which was somehow still an improvement on before. Says something about the state of this place, that does.

The caravan showed up soon after that, so I let them in too. They made it inside without incident, and I was soon in possession of a shiny new nickel anvil. Although it's a mixed blessing - the fortress was slain by a berserk donkey, of all things, after the merchants refused to leave in any of the brief windows where they could safely do so.

Still. This should be reclaimable. Thanks for the help; I might make a thread on the story board, if it works out.

[PatrikLundell]

Note that it IS possible to rescue hospitalized dorfs even in the absence of water: When they start to get thirsty, remove the hospital zone (it might be sufficient to just deactivate it, but I wouldn't gamble) and deconstruct any racks in use. The dorfs should crawl, roll, etc. to the booze stockpile and drink. Once they've all done so, the hospital can be recreated and further treatment can be applied. 3-4 sessions or so, a completely hospitalized dorf returned to work (still injured, but slowly healing) after drinking in an embark that didn't have any water at all.
Note that dorfs with serious hand/arm injuries somehow grab goblets (by whatever name) to drink only to stare at the barrel. To get those to drink you'll have to forbid all goblets in the fortress and order the one the bugger has grabbed to be dumped (and unforbidden, of course), so someone can snatch it from the victim.

[Fleeting Frames]

It's enough to forbid the drink and goblet both they've chosen to drink (no dumping necessary, have an unarmed dwarf on my 4303 embark). They'll cancel current drink job, then start up a new one without goblet.

[delphonso]

I wish this happened at Dawnthunder.

[mikekchar]

If they have no arms, though, you are out of luck... (ask me how I know ;-) ).

[Fleeting Frames]

I ask you how you know. Tuftedstockades' Sarvesh, such as seen here, lived for a while even after getting to the point of being unable to validate work orders - though I personally solved the "Cancels store owned item" by making them sleep in a dormitory rather than having any rooms to their name. Though apparently that's no obstacle to relationships.