I've never breached the HFS before. Just never really felt like ending my fortresses in their prime.
Crystalaxe, my current fort, has been going for two years. For some reason (I don't remember if I tinkered with worldgen or not) the map was only 38 Z-levels deep. So I decided, what the hell. I'm going to go for it.
I missed the first cavern entirely, dug into and around the second, reached the third, and set up a danger room. I forged 9 swords, 6 crossbows, and threw the latest migrant wave into the danger room.
Because of logistical errors and an elven ambush, it was another half year before I breached, although I trained up 10 legendary axedwarves in the meantime. When I did finally breach, I was greeted with the usual plethora of messages. I check out the demons, and they looked easy enough. Most of them were made out of salt, snow, or fire.
The odd thing is, they spawned in a large square mass... underneath a different adamantine tube. I sent a miner to dig that one out, while my military waited. And waited. In a cramped little cavern, maybe 3x5, above the top of the tube. While the demons just flapped around and did nothing.
Eventually, a single demon flew up. One of the fire ones. My military was waiting, and it got out one gout of flame before a dozen swords and axes smashed it into nonexistance.
The one gout of flame, however, killed my fortress.
Within 30 seconds, 15 dwarves had bled out. In that tiny, cramped space, most of the military had been melted. The survivors were missing fat, and most of them almost bled out too. Cue tantrum spiral with legandary soldiers...
So far, deaths have been low, but with so many tantruming, I expect they'll pick up a lot. I'm also paying for not sealing off the caverns, as I am continually being harassed by local wildlife. I've lost a half dozen dwarves to them. Several of my military attacked other military. Fortunately, the one that went berserk took a bolt to the stomach and went down easily. In the meantime, the humans are wondering what in Armok's name is going on, I'm desparately hoarding adamantine, and the fortress in general is in shambles. Crops rotting on the fields. Tantrums everywhere. Buildings being destroyed. I threw in fresh recruits with the old and put everyone in the Danger room (killing a baby and a dog in the process) in one last hope of striking back against hell itself. Unfortunately, my (legendary) miner sug through the wall of an adamantine tube and just stood there for the inevitable magma bath.
I'm hoping there will be a few survivors. I'm also surprised I don't have any ghosts yet- nobody's been buried since HFS was opened. I'm considering an abandon/reclaim, but I don't know... I want to see who makes it through.
Did I mention that my civ's symbol is "Two dark pink haunts"?
Thank you, Dwarf Fortress, for reminding me what both fun and !!Fun!! are, and for mixing the two so delightfully. Whoops, got to get back- last weaponsmith just went berserk.