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[muwahahaha]

Hey all, just wondering if any of you had any funny stories of how you've lost dwarves (or any creature you've civved).

I'll start shall I?

Well, I'd just finished the fortification level of my defense tower and was happily looking at the handiwork when I scroll over and notice, to my horror, that there was a HUGE overhang sticking out DIRECTLY in the LoS of the fortifications, knowing this would render the tower moot as a defense tool I quickly designate the part connecting it to the rest of the mountain to be channelled. BAAAAD idea.

The overhang completely collapses, falling THROUGH the ground and DESTROYING my only bridge across the chasm, inconveniently placed directly below the overhang, the two miners both came away unscathed, albeit unconscious, however, my carpenter, mason, metalsmith and stonecrafter were ALL in the immediate vicinty i.e ON the bridge, consequently they all had a fun trip to the centre of the earth, this combined with the fact my farmer had fallen in only about a week ago meant that I was left with two unconscious miners on the surface. I quickly

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

savescummed

Later on, in the new and improved fort, I was building some levers for my extrmely comprehensive and over the top defense system and, being unaware what would happen, build a few floors out into the chasm. All good so far, then I build a one square bridge on the end of it. Alright still. Finally I built ANOTHER constructed floor on the other side of the bridge. Uh oh, wrong plan. The floor fell off straight away producing a large and quite odd wave of dust (how can there be dust from a floor falling off a bridge into a chasm?). The mason (one of my original six since the farmer took a plunge) was knocked backwards into the OPPOSITE wall and fell in. Not realising what happened since I wasn't looking at the time, I redesignated the same floor to be built AGAIN, this time by a peasant, again, as you may guess, the floor fell of, repeating last times results. Unfortunately, this dust wave happened to catch two other dwarves (not important ones mind) and knocked one into the chasm and the other into a wall. In addition, the same wave somehow managed to reach over the bridge ABOVE it 2 z levels and knocked a brewer off, killing him and a few cats I had caged there.

[ChairmanPoo]

 The idea was to build an artificial chasm (AKA: dig a very deep channel around the fortress down to the lowest level) and have the fortress go up to the sky. When enemies came, Iīd simply withdraw the bridge, and let them shake their fists at me (and while I was on it, catapult rocks at them). Now, I had already dug a deep channel, and I set the bridge like this
WddW
+bb+ where the + are floors, and the b bridge points. the lever to trigger the                 
  bb 
was on the left floor. when my expert mason went to try it, the bridge smashed him against the door, and at the same time sealed in my broker, and my military into the tower-turned-mausoleum (did I mention that I hadnīt moved in my farmer or any food stocks yet?).

At the same time, two werewolves savaged my stranded-out miners, while the security force stared from the windows of their deathtrap helplessly.
  bb

[Cthulhu]

Let's see, I had my only cook in a relatively early fortress stand directly under a bridge as it went down.  I also had a happy-go-lucky Guard charge at the goblin menace, only to be killed by the bridge as it went up.  There was also a wrestler who went that way, and an elf.  I also decided to test out my new Execution Device(Eight or nine Z-level pit), by taking two dwarves who loved each other and tossing them in.  When the trapdoor opened, the female dwarf jumped out of the way, escaping, and the male plummeted down and was instantly killed.  I began trying to decide how to kill his girlfriend, when I suddenly realized that she was the same dwarf who was punished for failing a metalcrafting mandate(She was a peasant).  I felt bad for her when that happened, so I didn't have the heart to kill her.

Oh, I was also testing a ballista I had set up at the end of my entrance hall.  I wanted to see if the bolt would pass through fortifications, so I waited until the firing line was completely clear, and then launched the bolt.  It deviated to the north when it flew out and hit a cook.  Somehow he managed to survive, but bled to death before I could see his injuries.

[Demonic Gophers]

I'm currently building a fort with slightly modified humans, and making most of it as an above-ground city built out of stone.  To get building material, I dig quarry pits down to the bottom layer, with a 3x3 channel at the surface.  I figure I might as well get double use out of them and make pit traps, as well.  To make sure that a collapse would actually punch through to the bottom, I linked a support in the middle of my first pit to a lever, and built a floor on top of it.

Everything was clear when I ordered the lever pulled, but I didn't think to restrict traffic through the area.  When someone got around to setting off the test, my highly skilled starting mason happened to be crossing the top of the pit.


Oops.


I can't wait for invaders to step on one of my pressure plates.

[SHAD0Wdump]

Lately,I started a fort and as soon as I got out of the 'story' screen right after selecting my gear,to my horror,a giant eagle was literally on top of my expedition leader.
I drafted everyone and mobbed the freakin thing,in the end my miner got a yellow wound to his hand and my expedition leader(who was one of two woodcutters with combat training)had his entire right arm torn off.
So he just was left there lying by the wagon unconscious.Surprisingly he was not bleeding whatsoever.

Then after tunneling into the side of the mountain to get started,I found out one of my guys(Kib)has a bad attitude problem.She goes whining to my unconscious expedition leader,after a while of standing there she finally catches the leader awake and what happens?She throws a tantrum and overturns the whole freakin' wagon!
Apparently Kib finds the expodition leader a annoying person and gets a bad thought from talking to her.Later the expedition leader finally dies from dehydration and Kib(who somehow finds her a friend,despite hating her guts)Throws another tantrum,this time overthrowing a table.

Four tantrums later and a somewhat established fort later,I decide Kib is too much trouble.It just so happens a group of three harpies have arrived.I gear her up with freshly made iron equipment,and a axe and send her at the harpies in hopes that maybe by a fluke she will kill them,or the other way around.Win win right?

She kills one harpy clips the wings of another and then dies to the now grounded harpy.The third gets itself ribbonized by my copper disk trap at the entrance.
The one that killed her is now named and hangs outside the fort.I need wood but since I'm playing a 2x2 and she is looming over the only patch,I'm screwed.I abandon the fort.
I couldn't get my trade depot up and couldn't mine out a new shaft housing a depot because my miner is oh so seriously wounded by his hand,he has the only pick and I can't make another because I need the wood for charcoal...

I guess I could have just waited for him to heal,but I've got better things to do.

EDIT:Apparently I gave Kib a sex change operation before sending her at the harpies too.

[Jakeypoo]

I lost an entire fort (~40 dwarves) to a single fire imp.
a single *dead* fire imp.

It was my first fortress in .39, and I didn't realize that fire imps were butcher-able now.
Imagine my surprise when my butcher's shop lit on fire. I was confused, looking around, I spotted a pile of xXfire imp bonesXx and, figuring the spontaneously-igniting bones were the cause, forbid them. Alright I figured, the flames should die out and the smoke dissipate eventually now, right?
wrong.
I missed the single unit of xXFire Imp FatXx that one of my diligent peasants quickly hauled to the food stockpile 3 squares away, the booze lit. many dwarves were burned, tantrums were thrown.

[Boatmurderer]

Exploding booze is awesome. My worst dwarfpocalypse happened just recently: I started in a terrifying desert biome with a stream running through the middle. The wagon was right next to the stream, and the stream was CHOCK FULL of skeletal carp and zombie sturgeon.

I can hear people groaning already. They know where this is headed.

All of those fish leaped out of the stream and made a beeline for my group. Nobody was armed, and the wagon was still in one piece. I figured I could either have everyone run off and get kiled one-by-one or I can recruit everyone and see how they do.

Almost everyone died horribly right off the bat. The one that didn't die immediately was a miner who eventually chased a wounded zombie sturgeon back into the water, even though he can't swim.

Not a high death toll - only seven - but man, what a quick end!

[Jing]

I once had a hunter who had run out of bolts.  He started to punch things.  Which worked well, until he punched the wrong elk, which angered it.  The elk went crazygonuts and killed the hunter.

[Duke 2.0]

 I set all civ's available to the creation of a new settlement. This leads to more openness when it comes to choosing different playstyles(Aboveground fort? You NEED U's!). It can also cause some problems.

 So I started a Nano fortress, hopeing to create a dwarven bunker at 100+ fps and endless critters. For more of a challenge, I decided to try "Play Now!"

 What I got was a buncha kobolds with two barrels of meat. When I decided "Okay, I'll just make a kobold camp. No pro-" Then I saw there were no picks. Or axes. Heck, they were only wearing tunics and loincloths. When I tried to re-assign them, I found that they were considered animals.

 Butcherable animals. So I set everybody in a squad except for the butcher, andset them to take on the hordes of animals. The injured got treated the same as the hunted animals.

 Summary: I just had a kobold butcher my entire fortress population. A Wolf finished off the kobold camp, which really did look like a kobold camp. Bones everywhere(I set a bunch of small stockpiles), plants trampled, and a few workshops to provide the basics of food. And Flies. I have never seen so many flies before.

[Boatmurderer]

Man, they sound almost as useless as Elves, except they can butcher animals.

[Kanil]

When the trapdoor opened, the female dwarf jumped out of the way, escaping, and the male plummeted down and was instantly killed.  I began trying to decide how to kill his girlfriend, when I suddenly realized that she was the same dwarf who was punished for failing a metalcrafting mandate(She was a peasant).  I felt bad for her when that happened, so I didn't have the heart to kill her.

You mean the dwarf leaping away from certain death wasn't awesome enough to spare her? She had to be beaten too for you to feel pity?

[Areyar]

murder.

just had a swordsdwarf kill his wife and his superior officer....
they are noted as kills on his rep and he even enjoyed in the slaughter. sick bastard. both suffocated in the hospital. took away his pig-sticker and deactivated the crowded barracks/sleepinghall/diningroom.

[Jamini]

On a recent embark in an evil forest (not haunted, evil. Werewolves, phantom spiders, and lots of goblins) I decided for once to have my woodcutter actually start out with some miltary experiance (axe skill, wrestling) and some armor.

Things go well for the first few seasons. Early in the first spring the woodcutter eliminated a lone werewolf without injury, so when in midsummer I get attacked a second time I don't think twice about activating him and sending him to remove a second one.

The damn thing broke his right hand.

The story does not end there, however, oh no. A few more months pass while the other six wait for the woodcutter to recover. Everyone enjoys helping others and I got a well with many spare buckets set up early in the aquifer while my miner is eating up my time with warm/damp stone warnings.

Things go fine untill just after the dwarven caravan comes past. The woodcutter hadn't quite recovered yet, so he was still resting in his bed when the cries of warnings from the cook came in as she ran down the long entranceway. Instead he was sleeping away.

Now, about my fort in that first year. I hadn't made any real bedrooms or a barracks yet. Indeed, my beds were lining the entranceway while the miner set up the workshop area. So, spotting my unconsious woodcutter in his bed, the werewolf decides to have the unmoving dwarf for dinner, over the much faster prey.

Quickly I assemble the fortress, drafting everyone and setting them to defend their unconsious friend. The cook, being closest, quickly begins wrestling the beast away, giving the sleeping woodcutter a few precious seconds before his chest was ripped open by savage claws. By this time, half of my fortress is only seconds away, their calls beating through the hallways as the now named werewolf turns to finish my poor woodcutter.

*CRUNCH*, the first thing I notice in the next combat frame, to my shock and horrer, is that my woodcutter's right leg was mangled in two places. *SNAP!* as my miner/leader and the rest of the crew show up, most of them recoil in horror as the woodcutters left leg flies off in a bloody arc, gore splattering their faces as they watch the helpless wounded axeman scream in his sleep.

With a shout and a yell the five remaining dwarves rally and charge, bodily hauling the werewolf down and ripping it limb from limb. A few bare seconds later the fight is over, and I am forced to deal with the results.

---
So yeah, don't build your beds in the entranceway of your fort. Effectivly I've lost two dwarves from that one werewolf, one to death, and another permanently disabled in my barracks. He's became the first dwarf in my fortress with a nickname "Gimpy", as well as starting a new trend of nicknaming any dwarves who end up requiring extended bed rest. (including Halfhand Bolttarget(had his hand broken by a fire imp, and managed to get himself shot in the leg by a goblin in an ambush less than half a year later) and Boltgut (A migrant furnace operator who somehow managed to survive over seven crossbow shots at him, three of which hit and gave him a mangled body, broken spleen, a broken upper right leg, and a mangled lower right leg. )

[muwahahaha]

murder.

just had a swordsdwarf kill his wife and his superior officer....
they are noted as kills on his rep and he even enjoyed in the slaughter. sick bastard. both suffocated in the hospital. took away his pig-sticker and deactivated the crowded barracks/sleepinghall/diningroom.

As far as I know, any creature with the [liKES_FIGHTING] tag will get 'took joy in slaughter recently' after every kill they make, even if it's their family.

Also, I just lost a woodcutter in a relatively annoying way, I was cutting the remainders of that overhang described earlier off, carefully this time however. When I suddenly get the 'a section of the cavern has collapsed!' message. I zoom to it and see that a SINGLE square fell off due to it being in a corner and the two adjacent squares were channeled off, it sent the two miners and my only two woodworkers who were nearby flying around the place, and this woodcutter happened to be incredibly unlucky as he went flying backwards and into... my single stonefall trap that I had just built. He was angled perfectly so that he stopped directly on the trap, getting crushed by a huge slate boulder.

 He suffocated a few seconds later, and was given the traditional burial (coffin built on constructed floors built on a SINGLE support, a ceremony is given and then a lever is pulled, dropping the coffin into the blackness below.