I thought that I was getting a bit bored with my fortress and the normal icy settings, so I increased the temperature maximum in the world gen to 150. (I already know what happens if you increase it to 1000... burning grass, burning trees, burning wagon, burning dwarves - oh my!
)
The world generated looked quite promising, since most of it was coloured yellow.
So, I found a neat little spot and was fascinated by a yellow "NO TRADE" exclamation behind every civilization, except the goblins. I thought: "hey, wonderful! A real self-sustaining fortress without diplomats pestering me with their annoying trade talks!" and pressed e for embark.
As usual, I brought my copper nugget, anvil, some live stock, some kittens and the wagon.
Right.
Things looked fine, though the murky pools were empty right away. Dwarves gathered some shrubs, the woodcutter got his wooden training axe, and the production of the pick was well on the way -
until it started to rain.
The effect was quite spectacular. First, the kittens bled to death, then most of the dwarves, then the yak bull assaulted my expedition leader before they melted away as well. I can only assume that they got hit by boiling water and were cooked to death. Or it was acid rain. Very classy, very 31.01ish.
Alright. Do you think that living in such a place would be actually possible? You'd have to bring along at least one pick, of course and start digging immediately, before the rain hits. I guess that any yaks or water buffalos or whatever wagon carriers you got would be in trouble if the caves are too deep down; and the plant gatherers and wood cutters as well. How about 1 pick, 1 anvil, and a bunch of plump helmets? Dig a hole, break down the wagon, gather a few handful of shrubs, rush everything inside and seal the entrance with one of the wagon's logs to keep the cats inside. You'd need a weather forecast if you want to build a little shed for aboveground farming, but even that should theoretically be possible with fast reactions and burrow setups: "it started raining" -> "oh damn, everything to burrow 'inside'!!!"