The fortress of Angerwalled was being dug deep in the forest ground, while up above a sizable chunk of the forest had been cleared and walled off. The wall was four layers thick at the base and two Z-levels high and the only way into the fortress would be a retractable bridge over a 12 Z-level deep floodable pit. My builders were almost finished adding fortifications to the top of the wall - there were literally only four fortifications left awaiting construction - when a fire-breathing mastodon hill titan appeared.
All of the non-military dwarfs were sent underground, while three squads of mediocre militia were locked outside of the wall to deal with the titan. The monster didn't waste any time and before the dwarf warriors had a chance to move in, they were engulfed in a wall of fire and smoke. None came out of the blaze alive, except of course the titan.
Angerwalled was built in a dense forest and for the next few months everything outside of the fortress' stone walls was burned to a crisp, while the titan ran around terrorizing the local wildlife. Just when I thought I might be able to sit this one out, the titan walked to the part of the wall with the missing fortifications and simply climbed over it!
Immediately all dwarfs were drafted into the militia to try and kill this thing that was now breaking down the doors to the stairwell, but it was no use. The titan slowly worked its way inside and down the main stairwell, systematically destroying doors and floor hatches along the way, and any dwarfs brave enough to get close to it were instantly fried.
Rampaging through the fortress, it killed well over 60 dwarfs. While all this was happening, a group of some ten migrants appeared, totally oblivious to what was going on underground. They, too, were immediately drafted into the military. Although I had little hope that they would be able to turn the tide, I was determined to see this game through to the bitter end. Technically, it would only require one lucky hit for the titan to fall. One *very* lucky hit. But then an opportunity arose.
Inside the fortress, the last wounded were laying in the hospital, waiting for doctors that would never come. The titan, thorough as it was, entered the hospital and burned them all alive. Quickly, I locked the hospital door and ordered the fresh migrants to wall it in. And it worked! With the door walled off, the titan went to sleep.
The damage it had done was massive. What with most of its victims being burned to a crisp, there were few actual remains to recover. Engraving the memorial slabs took almost a full year, with ghosts haunting the fortress and pestering the dwarfs the whole time. But in time, Angerwalled got back on its feet and its population was slowly restored. Meanwhile, the titan was still sleeping in its prison and I was unsure if I would ever let it out again.
A couple of years after the incident, a werelizard appeared near my front gate. Now, this being DF 44_07 and the last version of DF I played was 34_11, I had no experience with were-anythings. The werelizard murdered a war dog, then transformed back into its elf form and quickly ran off the map. Okay, that isn't so bad, I thought.
Not much longer after that, another werelizard showed up. My militia quickly took it down, but before it died it managed to wound three peasants, who went to the hospital for treatment. Inexperienced as I was, I didn't check the combat logs for bites. Oh how I learned!
The next lunar cycle I was focused on another part of the fort when the messages popped up, followed by lots of combat log entries. Needless to say, three werelizards were rampaging through the fortress and it took a lot of work to put them down. And of course, there were several new dwarfs in the hospital with bite marks. But worst of all, one of the werelizards had managed to bite the visiting outpost liaison!
Now, with all the dwarfs that were bitten lying in the hospital, I might've been able to contain the situation. But the outpost liaison refused to go to the hospital, choosing instead to aimlessly wander around the fortress. This turned out to be a disaster. To make a long story a little bit shorter, the next lunar cycle I ended up with many more dwarfs bitten and the one after that was just a complete massacre.
Thinking that I might as well self destruct the fortress altogether, I ordered my remaining dwarfs to deconstruct the wall in front of the hospital door to release the titan. At least it'd be interesting to see who would win.
As soon as I opened the door, the titan ran out of its prison and started killing, forcing the werelizards to turn and fight back. As before, the fire and smoke obscured everything and the combat logs were too many to get any clear idea of what was going on. But when the battle died down and the smoke cleared, what I found was... unexpected...
There were dead werelizards everywhere. What's more, the titan was dead! Only three dwarfs were left standing, one of which was wounded and had a werelizard bite. So what killed the titan? Was it a valiant dwarf or a werelizard that delivered the final blow? Skipping to the end of its 50+ page long combat log, I found that the answer was neither. Apparently, the titan was felled by the boiling blood of a war dog it killed. How exactly, I'll never know. But hey, I'll take it, and I'll consider it a glorious victory! It's going to be a difficult one to engrave though.
Now, there was still the problem of the dwarf with the werelizard bite. The other two dwarfs were untrained and would never be able to kill a werelizard without being bitten themselves. So I re-activated the old hospital where the titan had been imprisoned. The wounded dwarf, nicknamed Wendy, was put in a hospital bed and then quickly walled in, just like the titan before it.
For three years after all that, there were no new migrants, no traders and no outpost liaisons. The two remaining dwarfs spent all of their time burying corpses, engraving memorial slabs and cleaning up the fortress. It was a strange time, with only two remaining dwarfs in a fully fuctioning fortress built for two hundred. There was plenty of food and drink, and with the front gate closed and the bridge retracted, they were relatively safe. They'd just go about their business and every month they'd hear the screams of Wendy the werelizard from behind the granite wall.
In time, a new outpost lisaison arrived along with some traders, and shortly after they left a new group of migrants showed up and Angerwall was growing again. For nine years I left Wendy walled in. I absolutely did not want to risk another werelizard explosion until I had several squads of well-trained militia in full iron gear. Nine years of Wendy screaming in the walls. When I finally opened the hospital door, she never stood a chance. In the hall where she died now stands an olivine statue of a werelizard that is withering away.
That was the story of Angerwalled. Sadly, after 22 years and many more fascinating tales the fortress keeps crashing. I still have the save file - even though I've since moved on to a new fortress - but each time I load it, DF crashes within seconds, without producing an error log. Such a shame, because if anything, Angerwalled had an amazing history.
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Topic: How "Angerwalled" Unexpectedly Lived Up To Its Name (Read 831 times)