So I encountered a very interesting phenomenon (well as far as Dwarf Fortress goes, maybe not that interesting compared to most). I'll start from the top!
So I was just being a young upstart adventurer and decided to snag some buddies with sharp sticks to go goblin killing with me, maybe a little looting. IN the end I managed to conscript a spearman, an axeman, and a maceman. Good enough.
Well we went out and messed up a camp or two, but more interestingly, we were ambushed. Nothing too fancy, just a mob of giant dingoes. Well, they devoured my axeman, no biggy. My spearman threw up all over the place and refused to even clean it up for the next adventurers, but more importantly, the maceman blocked a bite with his arm, and coincidentally got it ripped off.
Sadly the bite took the mace with the rest of the arm. I would've been horrified if it wasn't dwarf fortress. I was sure I just lost my maceman and that I was going to be stuck with the puking wonder spear guy, but I wasn't. The mace man took his shield and with me rendered the massive mob into a bloody mess while the spear man watched.
This guy was great, and survived the amputation no problem. So that was it, I had a one arm shield dude who had no problem dispatching fools with quick whacks and a decent enough stabby dude. Together we conquered some pretty amazing areas, but then we got ambushed again.
No biggy, we had been getting ambushed by sasquaches lately and they were easy enough to kill, but no, this time was different. Before I knew what was happening, the mace gone shield guy (Conu Patterntrampled) was wrestling with an alligator. I just knew it was going to happen, and it did... off went his other arm...
Did he care? No! He began to kick the alligator with all he had despite the heavy bleeding. So I thought that was it, he was going to die from blood loss. Well he lived a great life and killed many foes. But no! That's not how Conu was going to die, no, a lazy death wasn't for this guy. As if fate, we randomly bumped into a bronze colossus and Conu charged the beast, with feet of fury. He danced around the lumbering monster as if he had a chance. The beast could not hit him, and with every miss Conu would retaliate with a humiliating kick upside the head (or rather all over) .. This heroic stump only fell in defeat after a very long and drawn out fight, where to I nearly began to believe he had a chance. Truly a dwarf in another life. Rest in piece Conu the Black Knight.