I think I posted this elsewhere, but I'll put this here. It's basically a setup to keep a vampire fed while preventing them from feeding on anyone they shouldn't. I haven't actually tested it, but it should work based on what I've heard about vampires in DF (of course, hearsay != science, so I'll test this in my current fort first chance I get):
Mr Frog's Half-Assed Plan For Vampire Concentration and Weaponization
Structure:
[Vampire Luxury Suite] -+- [Holding Cell 1] -+- {...} -+- [Holding Cell 5] -+- [Main Fortress]
Setup:
- Dorf-restricted levers (or, possibly, burrows) are used to lure dwarves into their rooms.
- The Luxury Suite contains a weapon rack with a barracks designated so that the vamp can train, as well as a backdoor leading directly into the main fortress, which is kept locked until needed.
- The Holding Cells are each kept stocked with one useless, preferably friendless migrant each to be used as cattle, along with supplies to keep the cattle alive and happy for an extended period of time (extra supplies are to be dropped in through the ceiling as needed).
- The doors between the Holding Cells are to be kept locked, to prevent the cattle either from witnessing a feeding (and thus "outing" the vamp) or from making friends with each other.
- The door between the outermost Holding Cell and the fortress proper is to be kept locked to prevent the cattle from escaping.
- The door between Holding Cell 1 and the Luxury Suite is to be kept unlocked so that the vamp may access their snack as needed. It may be best to put a bed in the Luxury Suite and not Holding Cell 1, so that an outside dwarf won't accidentally witness a feeding through Holding Cell 1's supply shaft.
Management:
- Draft the vamp and put them in the Luxury Suite; set them to train at the barracks. As they only need to drink (as it were) and not eat or sleep, they should gain skill much more quickly than the standard dwarf.
- Once the vamp drains the Holding Cell 1 resident, move the vamp into the Luxury Suite and lock the door between it and Holding Cell 1. Afterwards, unlock the door between Cells 1 and 2, move the cattle from into 1, re-lock the door, unlock the door between 2 and 3, move the cattle, re-lock the door, and so on until the cattle have all been moved one room up.
- Finally, unlock the door between the outermost Cell and the fortress proper, move a new (preferably useless and friendless) dwarf into the outermost Cell and lock the door. Your vamp's larders are now restocked.
Deployment:
- To deploy the vamp, move the vamp into the Luxury Suite and the cattle into Cell 1 respectively and lock the doors between them.
- Afterwards, open the Luxury Suite's backdoor and station the vamp wherever there is killing to be done. It may be best to seal off the bedrooms and hospital while the vamp's out, in case they try to peel off for a little snack.
- Once the slaughter is complete, station the vamp back in the Luxury Suite and re-lock the backdoor. Unlock the doors between Cell 1 and the Luxury Suite. Unseal the bedrooms if necessary.
Potential Drawbacks:
- Training at a barracks won't increase a vamp's armor skills; however, a danger room can't be used, as this risks harming the cattle.
- A ridiculous amount of micromanaging is needed, what with the constant assignment of levers and locking and unlocking of doors.
A better strategy may be to use a staircase-shaped arrangement of retracting bridges stacked on top of each other, so that the cattle may simply be dropped down each level as needed:
Legend:
□: Wall
_: Retracting Bridge Floor
.: Solid Ground
+: Door
v: Supply Shaft
.........v...
.......v□___+ ---> Main Fortress
.....v□_____□
...v□_______□
.v□_________□
□...........+Vamp+ --> Main Fortress
A problem with this is that, since there are no solid floors in the holding cells, (I think) food stockpiles cannot be designated; however, looking at the raws, I don't see anything to suggest that dwarven sugar rots, so just chuck in some barreled sugar roasts and it should keep just fine.
Things to Test:
- Can vampires pick locks to get at sleeping victims? If so, this may mean that lever-operated floodgates may be required to keep the vamp out of sensitive areas.
- How will the new historical migrants impact this? Depending on how often vampires need to feed and how often the feedings are fatal, the increased amount of pre-existing relationships may require careful management to avoid a tantrum spiral.