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[Gigalith]

It all started when Zas Mebzunther had an idea. Caravans loaded with goods just ripe for the picking headed to far off outposts with only a token guard to protect them. They assumed that the fortress would give them a fair trade for their goods. But, Zas reasoned, a well armed fortress could just take all their goods with impunity. Thus she set out to find other like-minded dwarfs. Then, one day, a party of seven dwarfs, each a trained marksdwarf, set out to build a fortress with the intention of robbing caravans. Nilarak was born.

The first Disaster came seconds after arrival. Ral Abanthol, miner, forgot to pack his pick-axe. The embryonic colony was without a way to dig into the mountain. Some thought they should turn back but Zas insisted that they should stay. And so the dwarfs were forced to build outside.

The second disaster happened shortly afterwards. Zas had brought bolts and a crossbow, thinking that she could hunt. But instead of the groundhogs she was expecting, there were elephants, the most dangerous animal known to dwarfkind, instead. Hunting was out of the question.

And so they toiled on, with only half the colony having any useful skills in the wilderness. But they survived. Tekkud caught lots of turtles, while others made things out of wood. Shell armor and bone bolts were made, waiting for the day when they would be used.

One day in midsummer a young metalsmith appeared. He was quite surprised to find that they had no stone, and that they were planning to rob a caravan, but he decided to stay with them anyway, as there was no habitation for miles.

Fall came, and with it the caravan. The whole colony scrambled to grab their crossbows and bolts. Soon, all eight of them were standing in the trade depot. The traders came, their guard's swords still bloody from the wildlife they killed on the way there. The tension in the air was almost tangible. The dwarfs of Nilarak were about to make history.

Then the 3rd disaster struck.

"You can't do that."
"Why not?"
"It's against the laws of physics."
"Oh."
"Quite"
"Well, uh, have a nice day then."

The dwarfs looked at each other sheepishly and walked away.

-----------

That's the story of my current fortress. At the beginning, I was going for a bandit-style fortress, but because of the pick-axe mishap, I ended up with an outdoor one. Although I haven't (yet) been able to rob a caravan, I learned a few things:

* All members of your original party grumble only mildly at inclement weather. I assume that's why they are you original party rather than Random Jeweler #26
* You can't make wood furnaces out of wood.
* Nor can you sieze the goods of your own nation.  

Also, thinking that I would steal the goods, I made a video of the attempt. The attempt was unsuccessful, but I learned how to use the internal recorder thingy.

So now that the original plan failed, I'm looking for advice on what to do next. I sorta like the challenge of an outside fortress, but an indoor fortress could cause  a "terrible and completely accidental" floodgate merchant drowning. Or there might be something I'm just not thinking of.

Any ideas?

[ February 02, 2007: Message edited by: Gigalith ]

[Gakidou]

Actually, you can rob caravans of your own nation, unless it has changed recently. What you do is have the caravan put their goods down on your depo, then have your dwarves deconstruct the depo. All of the goods get dropped for you to take, and supposedly the dwarves consider it theft. (Dwarves won't go to war with you about it, though; they'll just send less immigrants.)

[Gigalith]

quote:Originally posted by Gakidou:
<STRONG>Actually, you can rob caravans of your own nation, unless it has changed recently. What you do is have the caravan put their goods down on your depo, then have your dwarves deconstruct the depo. All of the goods get dropped for you to take, and supposedly the dwarves consider it theft. (Dwarves won't go to war with you about it, though; they'll just send less immigrants.)</STRONG>

Yay! Nilarak is saved!

[Skyrage]

Heh, that was a really nice read.

Very amusing  

[JT]

Waitaminute, waitaminute... they send less immigrants as a punishment? =)

A much better punishment would be to send a noble and his entourage of forty lackeys. ;-)

[ February 05, 2007: Message edited by: JT ]

[segmose]

And to make a depot you need stone, to get stone you need pick, to get pick you need dwarf trade, to get dwarf trade you need depot, go to top.

ps.
Unless you somehow can get a miner immigrant.

[Ancient Whale]

You can make trade depots out of wood, if I am not mistaken. However, the noble you need to get the Dwarven Liason from whom you can request picks requires things that you must mine for, I think.

[Gigalith]

Immigrant miners carry picks. However, I had no immigration at all this year, plus two dwarfs died, and alas, Zas was one of them. As there's no new dwarfs coming in, the fortress will soon die of entropy unless something changes.

So, the new plan:

* Produce lots of crafts.
* Actually trade with the caravan.
* With the immigrants, build an actual indoor fortress, with a drawbridge and and indoor trading depot.
* Drown the next caravan.
* With the caravan not returning trade information, last year's report will be used and immigrants will actually come at a reasonable rate! Hooray!

[qwip]

please keep us informed of continuing saga...