Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[tfaal]

I got an announcement a while ago that a dwarf has been missing for a week. I'm not a complete stranger to this feature, so I know it means that my poor woodburner is dead, but I don't know how or where to find them. I'm not sure if I have a vampire in my fortress, if they fell into the river, if they somehow got past the locked door into the caverns, or got locked underground last time I raided them, or what else could have happened. I don't want a ghost to start haunting me, and I can't even engrave a slab until I know he's dead. And furthermore, if there's a vampire in my fortress, I want to execute it ASAP. How should I start investigating?

[Em3rgency]

You'll be able to engrave a slab once he starts haunting.

As for the possible vampire, because they can usually live very long lives, look for a dwarf with many past forts or a stupidly long kill list and the like.

[GiglameshDespair]

You can spot vampires if you have Dwarf Therapist, where there will a discrepancy between the vampire false name and the name in Dwarf Therapist. Then, you can check for vampirism by locking them in a room. If they get hungry or thristy, they are not a vampire. If they also have been part of a lot of groups or have loads of trophies, that's also suspicious.
If you have a zombie locked away you can use it to frighten your dwarves from behind fortifications. If a non-military dwarf isn't bothered by it at all s/he is a vampire, which are not attacked by the undead.

Once your missing guy rises as a ghost you can engrave a slab to him and stick it in a corner, that'll siort him out.

[laularukyrumo]

You actually CAN engrave a slab as soon as you get the "missing for a week" message. Oftentimes you'll get the "missing for a week" message if the dwarf is dead in such a way that you can't actually retrieve the body, and that is the purpose of slabbing--but you can also slab any dead dwarf and just leave the body to rot, if you can't get to it or can't find it. From what you've mentioned, it's not likely a vampire, because you'd probably find the body and it would probably say "Urist McWoodcutter has been found dead, completely drained of blood!" If you are paranoid about vampires, though, bone jewelry of sentients is a good tipoff. Also, burrow all your dwarves in an area where they can't get to food, or forbid all the food. If one dwarf doesn't get hungry with the others, he's a vampire, feel free to execute him. Or seal him behind a wall with a pick in case of emergency.

[AlmightyOne]

I got an announcement a while ago that a dwarf has been missing for a week. I'm not a complete stranger to this feature, so I know it means that my poor woodburner is dead, but I don't know how or where to find them. I'm not sure if I have a vampire in my fortress, if they fell into the river, if they somehow got past the locked door into the caverns, or got locked underground last time I raided them, or what else could have happened. I don't want a ghost to start haunting me, and I can't even engrave a slab until I know he's dead. And furthermore, if there's a vampire in my fortress, I want to execute it ASAP. How should I start investigating?

One thing I learned over here especially related to missing miners, is go to the stock screen,look at the corpses section and search for the said dwarf's corpse,it should be listed as forbidden and then just zoom into it, It probably will get removed in the updated versions though, it makes missing dwarves so easy.

[i2amroy]

It probably will get removed in the updated versions though, it makes missing dwarves so easy.

This is just a natural extension of the stocks screen, so I highly doubt that it will be removed any time soon. Maybe sometime in the next 10 years when Toady gets around to expanding the missing function but highly unlikely before then.