I originally posted this story on /r/dwarffortress to try and earn some internet points, but have decided to share it here as well. The fortress didn't get far, seeing as I was and still am horrible at this game (what is a flux stone), but hey, newbie mistakes make for fun times.
Sometimes all it takes is a single misstep to lead a dance to doom.
It was a fine start, a wonderful one if I must say. Near to 80 dwarves, no tantrums, fantastic trade relations, and my first cavern. I'd recently found enough gem veins to pay for my next caravan in my stripmining quest for Coal, and actually managed to figure out the military GUI. Triumphs to me and my noob skills.
In the Summer of the second year, a huge migration wave came. I swear there were 50 or more. This brought the bar over and far past my previous record of 110 total dwarves, and I was in awe. Rather than panicking, I accepted these rowdy travelers into my forces and set them to work. Some of the unemployed I drafted into the military, sending them to clean out a tribe of Amphibian men skulking in the flooded caverns. The operation was a success, with zero injuries to my side and the opposition completely eliminated.
I decided to explore the cavern some more, setting some of my Masons to build walkways to darker parts of the cave and, hopefully, more useful ores. As I did so, however, a copper-feathered Forgotten Beast slouched from the shadows on the far side of the cavern waterways. I watched its movements for a while, then was satisfied when it slunk back into the dark. I forgot all about it. A mistake on my part.
Autumn comes, and the human caravan I've been engaged with is finally leaving after I accidentally boxed them in with my road construction project. I anxiously awaited the dwarven caravan's arrival, due to my needing more plump helmets to supply the sudden population swell until I could make more farms. Finally, the caravan popped in the side of the map. As they approached, however, strange things started happening.
Alright, let me give you an idea of my main entrance: my 3-wide hallway leads about 7 blocks in to the Depot. Approximately 10 blocks away from my entrance is the Refuse stockpile. While I'm watching my Masons continue to build bridges downstairs, I receive an unexpected announcement: "Woodcutter cancels Fell Tree, interrupted by Rotting Cat Corpse". I rush upstairs to see exactly what was happening. About 15 dismembered body parts of the animals I had butchered had become zombies and were starting to lurch at the dwarves I had assigned to building the road. I was not pleased.
I yelled at my Military to get off their asses and go kill the zombie bits. They happily obliged, hacking at them with little problem, and the caravan's bodyguards helped as well. That problem dealt with I deci- Wait. They got back up.
I didn't understand that no matter how many times you kill a zombie, so long as the summoner is still around, you can't win. But no matter how many times I checked the Units menu, no one showed up. I was confused, but what could I do? All my commandable dwarves were out fighting, and no one else was brave enough to run and scout out the potential area where the Necromancer might be hiding. I eventually found her by sheer luck and chased her off, but not without serious psychological damage to my fort. Those trapped outside were hungry and put off. "No biggie, I can salvage this", I thought. As soon as everyone got inside, however, the body parts rose up again, thanks to one of the Necromancer's friends. At nearly the same time, the Forgotten Beast from the caverns had sneakily crawled up the steps into the bedroom level, starting a full-blown slaughter in front of nearly every goddamn dwarf in the fortress.
Well shit.
The caravan seemed to taking care of the zombies, so I mobilized all of my forces to fight the Beast. Oh, fun fact: the zombie fight caused all the weapons to get stuck inside the bodies. So my dwarves were going to have to fight this fucker with their bare hands.
Many days and at least 10 deaths later, one lucky bastard socked the thing square in the face, killing it for good. Its corpse was quickly taken to the butcher's shop and disassembled, to prevent anything like the now-walled outside from happening. The tantrum spiral begins with a single Planter, then another, then another. I give up, deciding to try and activate The Circus to end the fortress utterly.
A bunch of boring shit happened. In the end I never destroyed the place in the way I wanted, but did end up discovering the joys of drawbridges and what they do to those who sleep under them. A Minotaur and a Dragon came to visit from the outside, breaching the fortress and burning half my dwarves alive. I have come to love the noble beasts for their incredible power and clean kills.
The fortress ends with a poison-breathing dinosaur patrolling my hallways and the final dwarf, a child, being eaten alive by his reanimated friends and family.
Thus did Wheeldaggers fall.
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Topic: Wheeldaggers (Read 560 times)