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[nightwhips]

I've had a very interesting situation of late, and it seems to directly contradict the wiki.

I know of the "I can't slab my old ghosts" issue, and this is not it. I had two ghosts that rose, despite the fact that their bodies were already interred. They then claimed different burial receptacles as tombs, which I hadn't seen before. I was able to switch back and forth between using the "u" menu to look at the ghost, and the stocks menu to zoom to the corpses, which, as I said, were interred in my catacombs.

The solution was to slab them, which was not a major issue, since they were findable on the list for engraving. When the slabs went up, they were put to rest. But I can't figure out why they wouldn't have been resting if their remains were already buried. Any help here? Does the entire body have to be buried or something now?

[gchristopher]

I had that happen recently in 34_05 for a caravan guard that could not be slabbed. The corpse was buried, and the coffin was marked "resting place of xxx." Later, the ghost rose, and the coffin changed into a tomb, something like  "belonging to xxx, Ghostly SpearDwarf" and no subsequent effort could lay the ghost to rest.

It was right before a season save, so I was able to re-load and play with the behavior.

I don't definitively know if it solved the problem, but I noticed that if I had my dwarves bury not just the body, but also the body parts, including teeth, in the coffin, then I didn't observe the ghost rising again. I suspect that the ghost was tied to one of the teeth that was knocked out at the start of the fatal fight, instead of the corpse.

[nightwhips]

Are you sure you coffin changed into a tomb? In my experience, the ghost seemed to choose a different, empty burial receptacle to be his tomb, not the one that had his remains in it.

Interesting that you're able to mess with the behavior a little. I may have some old saves but I hadn't really paid attention to it.

[krenshala]

The only thing I can think of is maybe a body part was sent flying off in an arc, and not interred with the rest of the remains.  The ghost then complained, and a slab 'fixed' things.

[knutor]

I wonder if there is a Necromancer meddling, nearbye.  Got a Tower, neighbor?  Is your cemetary secure?

[nightwhips]

I wonder if there is a Necromancer meddling, nearbye.  Got a Tower, neighbor?  Is your cemetary secure?

No to the latter, but.. also, no to the former.

I'm in a half good, half sinister biome, which will raise things fairly quickly. But these are not zombies, they're definitely just ghosts. I've never dealt with a necro, though, so ... can they raise ghosts? I was under the impression they didn't do that. That would... screw things up a bit.

[kaijyuu]

I think this sort of thing happens if their corpse gets reanimated, killed, and then interred.

The reanimation messes with it somehow.

[nightwhips]

I think this sort of thing happens if their corpse gets reanimated, killed, and then interred.

The reanimation messes with it somehow.

Oho! You're onto something now! I don't remember specifically, but let's just say I went from 50 dorfs back to about 20 in the terrible zombie spiral of 211, so there is a strong chance these guys were zombified and killed again. I'll pay closer attention to that when I start my zombie arena, pitting dwarfs against the worst of the risen dead.

[gchristopher]

Are you sure you coffin changed into a tomb? In my experience, the ghost seemed to choose a different, empty burial receptacle to be his tomb, not the one that had his remains in it.

100% sure, there were only two coffins built at that point and I kept the before and after saves.

[knutor]

If you dont' assign all your population to their own very own Crypt, they will stuff any old zombie, even an ELF zombie, into your coffins, that are set to Burial.  I've had a full cemetary 11x11 filled after a Tower siege.  And my front gate never even opened.  I think parts of the zombies were being catapulted into my fortress or something.  But that 11x11 cemetary filled to the brim, with stuff like Human Corpse, Dwarf Corpse, etc..  Because I them all set to Burial.  Not sure of the ghostly implications of this, but I would imagine, a strong Zombie could push the lid off his coffin, with out much problem.  Thereby, bypassing perimeter defenses, by replaying possum. Playing Fortress mode is a bit strange in Evil biomes, try not to get too frustrated.  Knutor

[nightwhips]

If you dont' assign all your population to their own very own Crypt, they will stuff any old zombie, even an ELF zombie, into your coffins, that are set to Burial.  I've had a full cemetary 11x11 filled after a Tower siege.  And my front gate never even opened.  I think parts of the zombies were being catapulted into my fortress or something.  But that 11x11 cemetary filled to the brim, with stuff like Human Corpse, Dwarf Corpse, etc..  Because I them all set to Burial.  Not sure of the ghostly implications of this, but I would imagine, a strong Zombie could push the lid off his coffin, with out much problem.  Thereby, bypassing perimeter defenses, by replaying possum. Playing Fortress mode is a bit strange in Evil biomes, try not to get too frustrated.  Knutor

This seems really weird. I've had a number of goblins die, and a number of them zombify and redie, and they end up in the refuse heap, not in my crypt. Is there a priority order or something? I usually only have 5-6 coffins available at a time, that is, set to "burial".