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[KeepDigging]

Hi everyone! New to Dwarf Fortress and the forum but have known of the game’s existence for years. I started playing since the Steam release and I’m very glad I did! However, I’ve run into a situation of sorts and would appreciate any input.

Here's some context: Now my volcano fortress is 20 years old in the year 170 (4th restart). I started in a reclusive manner, with nothing open to outsiders, training my military and building up defenses. The military which by now consist of around 30 dwarfs, all legendary and in steel, most have named their weapons and shield. The population is around 210 (capped) with most being very happy (++ in the left smiley).  I’ve captured a Hydra and a Roc (which have been trained and serve as a last resort in my kill box/tunnel), dug out 7 levels of diamond-encrusted obsidian walls in the bottom cave, slain some emerging monsters and acquired numerous high value gems and around 8 divine pieces (gifts from the gods). Haven’t found the rare metal though and the circus remains untouched. These and all the created artifacts are behind vertical bars in several locations. By now I’ve created around 4mil in wealth. After every deal the human and dwarf caravans leave ecstatic.

Around the year 163 things were going very well but I thought I could handle some FUN, so I decided to raze a Goblin fort which was successful. Soon afterwards I started receiving parlay requests and the subsequent small sieges. Around this time the king moved in.

I built a legendary inn with 12 separate bedrooms open to visitors. This inn and the hospital are the only places open to visitors. It took about a year before the first visitor came and I finally started to receive more news from the outside world.

After a year or more visitors came, and the 12 inn rooms are always rented out. Not a single brawl either but the framerate took a nosedive.  There’s no tavernkeeper, just one bard (the liquor pile is in a separate room with a mist generator separating them).

As I do with most visitors, I use open cases to interview every single one but didn’t read the outcomes of the review guessing if they were up to something they’ll spill the beans, confess, and get thrown in the dungeon.

Now the situation, I get either a message to protect the children from thieves or a Goblin siege and chaos erupts in the tavern! One of the guests decked out in bronze gear starts a murder spree with others (around 3 to 4) doing the same.

Being the save scummer that I am I do a reload but the exact same thing happens, right after the goblin thieves arrive. I reload again and preemptively convict one of them for an old case. He gets thrown in prison, but his buddies still start the spree. Again, a reload. By know I know the drill and take a deeper dive into these villains, one of them being a diplomat. He is not with a caravan and does not speak with the mayor, he just seems to hang out until he doesn’t… The others are barons and baronesses.

I decided to let things run out. The military kill the offenders in the tavern in front of everyone, no dead citizens. No one seems upset, and no crimes have been committed. They’re bodies are atom smashed and after a lot of blood and vomit cleaning things were back to normal.

Shortly afterwards new visitors arrive, amongst them again a diplomat with barons and baronesses all in bronze or copper gear. I interview them again and see one of them is a dabbling schemer using multiple aliases, so he gets thrown in jail and I lock the door.

Now this has been going on for 6 years and it keeps repeating. By now I’ve split up the schedule (training and defending the public areas 5/5) so at any given moment the public areas are defended by 5 members of 2 different squads and these situations are dealt with quickly.

I'm not sure if this is a coincidence, but it seems that these diplomats and barons are somehow connected to the goblins. Strangely, the game reports their deaths as those of ordinary farmers or beekeepers, rather than diplomats or nobles.

This doesn’t seem like a loyalty cascade because after the killing of the guests everything returns to normal. The most annoying part of this is that sometimes when this happens someone becomes a noble with requirements. I’ve got around 12 nobles now! I know I can look in legends mode, but I really don’t want to read other things I shouldn’t be knowing.

Hope you can shed some light as to what’s happening and what I can expect the consequences will be. Loving this game!

[Bumber]

Had a similar experience, but with a proper loyalty cascade.

Monarch arrived with entourage. Elf siege occurs later. As soon as they're revealed, some visiting dwarf nobles start fighting with my war dogs, which triggers the cascade for my civilians. It doesn't end after the original combatants die.

I save scummed multiple times, but it's inevitable.

[Eschar]

As for reporting the deaths as ordinary citizens, that's how every noble death gets reported, because they lose the nobility position when they die. (This leads to the amusing experience of visiting a tomb in adventure mode and being attacked by the undead mummy of allegedly just some farmer within.