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Author Topic: My first not immediately failed experience in a terrifying biome  (Read 1229 times)

jesternario

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(I think this is the right area for this kind of story. Please tell me if it's not.)

So like any newbie with half a brain, I first looked at the evil/haunted/terrifying biome that always winds up on my map and immediately went "Yeah, I'm going to avoid that area like the plague."

Well, I recently decided to try building there because thus far, safe areas are good for building, but boring. Let's face it, building a successful fortress is fun and all, but we're all here to see what happens when things go bad and then watch in horrified fascination as that bad picks up worse and smacks your dwarves over the head, pounding them into the ground like a nail into a plank.

I am pleased to report that after 5 IMMEDIATELY failed attempts to build a fortress in an evil or worse location, I have successfully begun building in a terrifying location.

I will record my initial experiences here, along with anything else that happens that may be noteworthy on down the road. As soon as I figure out how to take pictures, I'll add a few of those to the post too.

So, I thought I'd start with my initial thoughts

"Okay, I'm not immediately murdered by skeletal eagles. Great. Start digging. and chopping wood. Huh.. purple trees. Is this really all I'm going to get in this area?"

(not even five seconds later)
It has started raining blood

"gyahh... disgusting"

The rain of human-freaking-blood does not let up for five minutes. Curious as to how my dwarves are taking it, I check my expedition leader, who has double duty as both broker and miner. His experiences include "has had a wonderful bath recently." GYAHHH!!! What kind of lunatic do we HAVE running this thing!?

Things are relatively quiet for the next two month, if blood covered, as the rain of blood keeps stopping and restarting in 15 minute real-life intervals. At one point, I learned that regular rain cleans up blood when it stopped raining blood, started raining water, and then it started raining blood WHILE IT WAS RAINING WATER!

Of course, my first real challenge is figuring out how to get the military to work. Some harpies decide my farmer and wood cutter look like tasty appetizers and start chasing them around. I skip the usual playing of Yakkity Sax and try to first figure out how to get the axe man I brought along for this purpose to be apart of the military, and then try to figure out how to get it actually do something other than drink in the preliminary dining room I will later turn into something else (I would normally turn this area into a leather works/butcher/tanner/fishery area later, but I'm not sure it's the best idea yet. It's not an ashen landscape, so I still might). The axeman eventually takes the four harpies out, leaving them four piles of blood and feathers, and the two workers get back to work.

Well that's all I got so far.
Logged
You are never lost as long as you have a trusty and reliable Compass. Mine kept pointing North, so I just removed the red Needle! Problem solved!

Then I proceeded to pick up the rest of the bunnies, the masterfully crafted bronze statue, and its head. The head will be his trophy... But I need money.

GreatWyrmGold

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Re: My first not immediately failed experience in a terrifying biome
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2012, 07:50:17 am »

Good job! You seem to have gotten a nice little area, with only blood rain and some evil creatures hell-bent on destroying all things good and pure. It could be worse--you could have mists that turn everything into superpowered monsters hell-bent on destroying all things good and pure, rain that makes the dwarves' lungs rot out, pervasive magic that raises the dead within hours of their death, again and again and again...
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jesternario

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Re: My first not immediately failed experience in a terrifying biome
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2012, 08:24:09 am »

Good job! You seem to have gotten a nice little area, with only blood rain and some evil creatures hell-bent on destroying all things good and pure. It could be worse--you could have mists that turn everything into superpowered monsters hell-bent on destroying all things good and pure, rain that makes the dwarves' lungs rot out, pervasive magic that raises the dead within hours of their death, again and again and again...

I was extremely lucky in that despite being dead purple terrifying on the map gave me green grass and plenty of trees. Heck, I might be dumb enough to actually try my hand at hunting if I get a crossbowman in one of the migration waves. I'm honestly hoping this goes bottom up or I'll be severely dissappointed in the level of evil in this world :(
Logged
You are never lost as long as you have a trusty and reliable Compass. Mine kept pointing North, so I just removed the red Needle! Problem solved!

Then I proceeded to pick up the rest of the bunnies, the masterfully crafted bronze statue, and its head. The head will be his trophy... But I need money.

GreatWyrmGold

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Re: My first not immediately failed experience in a terrifying biome
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2012, 08:27:40 am »

Don't worry--this level of evil won't impede invaders that much, so they'll still be Fun. If that's not enough, build an aboveground fort with lots of skylights and windows.
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[GreatWyrmGold] gets a little crown. May it forever be his mark of Cain; let no one argue pointless subjects with him lest they receive the same.

jesternario

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Re: My first not immediately failed experience in a terrifying biome
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2012, 09:58:47 pm »

Don't worry--this level of evil won't impede invaders that much, so they'll still be Fun. If that's not enough, build an aboveground fort with lots of skylights and windows.

OOH! I tried that once. took too long. But it's always good to have a project >:)
Logged
You are never lost as long as you have a trusty and reliable Compass. Mine kept pointing North, so I just removed the red Needle! Problem solved!

Then I proceeded to pick up the rest of the bunnies, the masterfully crafted bronze statue, and its head. The head will be his trophy... But I need money.

jesternario

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Re: My first not immediately failed experience in a terrifying biome
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2012, 01:02:25 am »

More of my playing in the terrifying biome. Someone suggested that I create an above ground fortress. I might just do that; it always helps to have a goal.

I'm sort of writing this as it happens this time. so It'll be a bit of a wall of text written in a stream of consciousness.

So, with no monsters at the moment, I've decided to set my militia commander (and only squaddie at the moment) to fish. Don't know what kind of fish he'll catch, but since all I've come across at the moment are a few harpies, I figure that he can do something productive beyond protecting us (Yes, I'm tempting fate here. I want this to be more interesting). Decided to add a butcher shop and tanner to my initial area, any more strange creatures come by that my one-dorf military takes care of, maybe we can use them for meat or something.

Interesting thing of note. There's a demon rat wondering around outside. I can't look at it in any way other than the look command, so I guess it won't be a problem.

To keep my malitia commander from being too bored, I have him savagely murder some hamster folk. let's see them do that stupid dancing now! Also, said militia character seems unhappy. Since I DON'T want the only competent axe-wielder to murder us in a fit of being angry, I need to try to fix that.

Incidentally, that human blood tends to stick to their clothes something fierce. It's rained blood so often, I forget what the ground looks like from all the red. It practically looks like a red sand desert or lava field on the surface (I better shut up in case the programmer reads this. don't want to give him ideas).

And in other news, some migrants finally arrived. Five of them. The two craftsdwarves, I'm putting to their tasks, the other three are joining the angry malitia captain in my military. Time to make the training axes, I guess.

...aaaaannnnd we're outta the booze. ...yeah. Should've kept a closer eye on the stocks

I think I'll stop here for now. This is the lest terrifying evil biome I've ever tried to inhabit! The other ones killed off my dwarves in the first five minutes though, so I guess It's either or. By the way, can anyone tell me how to actually put pictures in a post?
Logged
You are never lost as long as you have a trusty and reliable Compass. Mine kept pointing North, so I just removed the red Needle! Problem solved!

Then I proceeded to pick up the rest of the bunnies, the masterfully crafted bronze statue, and its head. The head will be his trophy... But I need money.