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[Eric Blank]

Three beasts at once would be a nightmare indeed.

Also, love the dedicated beekeeper. I think that dwarf was a citizen in luckystream, as I used that title to keep track of whom was working with the bees; because there can be only one!

[Bralbaard]

Both companions gasp and fall down, dead, at once, in a blink of eye. Quite puzzled by this, Ushat found no wounds from bolts or whatever could kill them on closer examination: most certainly, they died of old age, together. Then he shrugged off and went away, to Dinnerwandered, leaving humans to bury their dead.

It is interesting how age related deaths don't happen immediately when overaged npcs are loaded, but instead happen after you've had a chance to get to know them, and become emotionally attached to them.

[Timeless Bob]

Bug or feature? Hmmmm.

[Tehsapper]

The path to Museum was grand, and it was obvious that there were lots of adventurers, because of all the clutter they had left. The Museum's yard was marked with blood of old battles, adventurers were always known as very aggressive folk.
The group entered the museum and stuck in awe at all exotic things that were hoarded here for all these years. Indeed, there were dragon eggs, reptile eggs, a bookshelf full of ancient books, some beautiful golden crafts, even a masterful adamantine sword, which attracted everyones eyes.

...and they greeted by some annoyed bookkeeper that was counting something before: 'Human hair ring, exceptional, human tooth bracelet, normal...'

'Oh, look, new visitors. Do you have a submission, perhaps?'

'Sub-mission?' - Ushat muttered, his attention all focused on that sword.

'Yeah, the rule of this museum is that you should leave something valuable to their collection' - dedicated beekeeper added.

Ushat thought, and thought and decided to leave 3 eyes of slain beast here. As well as headstalk of that thing. The bookkeeper accepted his submission and wrote: 'Three eyes of forgotten beast, normal, submission of-'

'Hey, what's your name?'

Thankfully, Ushat remembered what "name" means.

'Ushat Parchgear, the Scarlet Silkiness of Perplexing, the Avatar of Kos, the god of War.

'Okay, okay, I got it' - and he scribbled it into his book.

Ushat waited a bit, and then asked the question that was troubling him for a long time:
'Owlwalls. Do you know it?'

'What? Ah, yes, yes, it's located to the east of there. Just go and go and when you arrive to the Edge of World, where the Portentous Domain ends and the Ashen Ocean starts, you'll be here. You won't miss it'

The adventurers wandered a bit in halls of Museum, found some more interesting stuff: adamantine gear, gems, 6 identical corpses of same creature and even some more old books. Then they bade farewell and went onto their last journey.

Well, it was last for glorious mechanic, for now. When the group was crossing the first river on their path, it appeared that he couldn't swim, at all, contrary to beekeeper's adequate skills. Despite Ushat's help, it was too late. His blueish body was cremated, and the duo talked about how great he was, well, mostly it was beekeeper who knew him well.

Then, another trouble happened in the Fields of Brew. A huge pack of dingoes attacked them in their sleep, greatly crippling poor dedicated beekeeper, until Ushat drove them off their meal. As he couldn't move normally now, Ushat carried him on his back to speed up the process of moving.
Strangely, the Grim Hills - which is a rather sinister place - were quite peaceful. Only a pack of harpies attacked them on their way. But as sun was falling into other side of the world, they hurried up to closest settlement, following signs of civilization.

Well, Ushat and his companion were quite surprised, in a bad way, when they saw that inhabitants of that hamlet were actually goblins. What was more strange, they were peaceful and even allowed them to stay in for a night.

'Be careful of traps' - Ushat whispered to poor beekeeper.

And indeed, he was right. Ushat woke up, all tense, because someone was trying to stab him through his steel armor. As he stretched up, the goblin mob became more aggressive and ganged up onto it's victims, ending dedicated beekeeper's life, which enraged Ushat to the point of entering martial trance.
'Traitors! You lying dogs!' - he yelled as he hacked off another goblin head and then went on a murderous rampage, killing everyone who opposed him. And none was able to stop the really pissed off steelclad. Soon the hamlet was cleansed from goblins with unseen brutality. Well, at least the Beekeeper was revenged.

He fled the place, and moved forward to his "home", through the Lacy Jungles.

[Tehsapper]

Soon he found what he was looking for so long. Finally, he got to see the Ashen Ocean, the great ocean that was surrounding the problematic continent of Portentous Domain. It was named so because ancient humans believed that when the Sun was created by one of their gods, it burnt down all the weed that rose there since the Dark Times. and so the ocean was full of ash for a long time.
Who knows, what's on the other side?

Still, soon he spotted a curious thing, that looked like a strange barn, floating in the water, complete with two long poles and armed with ballistas. It was connected to the ground with ropes, attached to a high bridge. There were dwarves, hauling things to there and from three stockpile buildings on that bridge.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Somehow Stonesense couldn't render those ballistas, so they appear as yellow bars

'Owlwalls?' - he asked one of dwarves in strange outfits.
'Yes, mate, it's the Owlwalls. Are you an immigrant? Ask the Captain for free job' - and he walked away into stockpile house.

Problem is, it wasn't Ushat's home, and he only realized it now. He kicked his helmet in anger, but then calmed down.
'Maybe it can be my new home then?' - he thought

He stepped through floating barn's bridge, unprovoked and completely examinated it. It consisted of several floors, with stockpiles for various things and bedrooms. On the top there was a special floor where a noble dwarf resided.
'Are you the Captain?'
'Aye, and who are you?' - Captain replied, holding a wheel thing.
Ushat scratched his beard, the main thinking organ, and answered:

'I'm Ushat Fasholon, the Bane of goblins, the Scarlet Silkiness of Perplexing, the Avatar of Kos. A dwarven adventurer'
Captain scratched his beard too. He didn't want to lose a free steelclad dwarf, but still, there was a problem:

'Sorry, mate, can't do that. You're not a legal immigrant, we can't count you as a rightful citizen.'

Ushat was quite disappointed by that reply, as that meant that he was a complete homeless dwarf now. He spitted into the damned ocean that attracted him here. Still, begging the captain would be too low, so it seemed that he had to find other, new home.

'What's that thing you've built?'
'It's a ship. I understand your curiosity, as barely any dwarves have ever seen the sea, not even mentioning ships. So, it's basically a huge wagon used for traversing oceans. Of course you need something to eat and drink, so we're filling up the stockpiles'
'And what's your destination?'

The captain laughed, then came closer and whispered into Ushat's ear:
'No. I can't tell you that'

Ushat didn't want to stay there anymore, as it seemed that they were fine on their own, so he gazed upon the endless ocean for some time, recruited two sailors so he wouldn't travel alone all the way and went back to the only place he knew the way to: Dinnerwandered.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Notice how Ushat belongs to different dwarven race, compared to dwarfs from Owlwalls

On that way back, while they were moving near that goblin settlement Ushat massacred, they were confronted by a group of pissed off goblin militia, demanding their heads as justice. Needless to say, they all were slaughtered.
But also they've encountered a really big bandit camp, which consisted of goblins only. Ushat hated goblins with passion, even more now that they've shot his new companions down, and soon their heads were chopped off and taken as trophy.

So, Ushat went back to Dinnerwandered safely, put those heads into the museum for storage and came back to the Tower of Seers, where he stands now, forever gazing onto the greatest city of humans.

[Tehsapper]

Here's the save, I hope this is the right one
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ivjlqtmoah2v23j/museum41.rar

I've also managed build a neat fort, named "The First Anvil". I've written some backstory so if anyone visits it he'll get a better understanding of what is this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The main question of dwarven philosophy was always the nature of First Anvil. Since every dwarf needs an anvil in order to make an anvil, it raises the question of who made the first one, and how he did it. Some said it was a work of strange mood of pre-historic dwarf, some said that it was sent to dwarves from skies by Armok, the God of Blood. Still, there was no answer.

And that was unresolved, until a group of dwarves from Perilous Portals (a dwarven civ that lives near the ever-lasting winter of ice wastelands) was doing some archeology on some old dwarven sites. And they found a really interesting thing: amongst usual bone and stone crafts, copper weaponry, they found a steel anvil. A steel one. Of course it was labeled to be of extraterral origin, since dwarves only researched steel like a thousand years ago, when first real civilizations started to pop out.
Soon it was praised as The First Anvil, made by Armok in his endless pity to poor dwarves. The mysterious artefact attracted all sorts of fanatics, who promptly dug out underground cloisters and carved out a glorifying statue of Armok in the main shrine.

All was well, the monastery flourished, thanks to rich amount of gold, iron and flux found there, and that attracted something greedy and evil. It attracted nobles.

Soon after the religious boom the king himself moved there and so did his court. They demanded gold and marble housings, gems and proper food. Soon all common, "plebeian" dwarves were enslaved to nobles, some pushed to the Upper Level, where they were working non-stop to appeal to noble whims, some were pushed aboveground to cut wood and hunt game. And they all cursed the damned rich-folk, since they didn't allow them to descend into the City itself, where the Anvil and main shrine were located.

But only after the king ordered to build a huge, mountains-high marble entrance building, that would show the wealth and might of The First Anvil, only when the adamantine started being extracted, the gods and Armok decided that they have had enough.

On that day, the dwarves from aboveground settlement found out that someone activated defensive mechanisms, as one poor sod who tried to deliver lumber into the city didn't return. Worst of all, none who tried to come in and check what happened returned, and horrifying screams told others not to follow their example. Something consumed both the nobles and common dwarves from Upper Level. The First Anvil was abandoned.

Still, sometimes adventures come here in searches of fabled treasures of First Anvil, only to never return.

Some related OOC stuff:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

don't even attempt to visit it as a starter. In a parallel world, my demigod in steel and proficient armor user was ripped apart by the first trap he stepped into. Still, it helps if you think a bit and not run in like a goblin invader

And some fun things:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Legend viewer revealed some really interesting facts about dwarven civilization of Clasp of Waters: first of all, there are some elven members in it, even though they never conquered any elven civs. There is an ancient elf (first of it's kind) that has never been a part of any elven civ, yet she was in that dwarven civ since the birth. I think I've found her in capital, she was the "mayor" of that city. Probably because they started to worship dwarven gods?

And there is a really amusing one: the god Sarek of that civ recently received the worship of alligator Balancedspoiled, born in 251 and still living somehow. It is most likely a bug, as I didn't found any "Balancedspoiled" in legends, and the Legendviewer can't load the page dedicated to it. And I can't open that XML file that "weights" 1,2 GBs to manually check that.

Thanks everyone for such great community game, especially thanks to Braalbard, who managed all this. Have fun!

[Bralbaard]

Great turn!

Notice how Ushat belongs to different dwarven race, compared to dwarfs from Owlwalls

In fact the dwarves of Owlwalls belong to a completely messed up and cursed race. I thought it was a good idea to pick "the pale ship" as my civilization, since I was planning this boat thing, but it seems that this civ has issues..
They likely went extinct in game because I only got two small migrant waves in both the embark and reclaim I used at this site. What was slightly more disturbing is that these migrant waves consisted of "friendly" units that didn't actually join my fortress, but lingered on the edges of the map. Usually only the traders are affected by this bug, but all migrants were in this case, so building the site took ages.

-----------------------

Anyhow, Pie Maker is up next..
He has a surviving character from his previous turn who was near invincible (a thrall). Obviously however we have some issues with unretiring characters as explained here and here. On top of that we've had this incident at the adventurers home during Tehsappers turn and are currently clueless on which of our previous adventurers are even alive at this point:

He spotted a working inn, which looked all fine, quiet and peaceful... at first. As he opened the door, he saw a very interesting picture:

There was a big fight, and by fight I mean all kinds of zombies: animated hands, arms and even skin were piling up onto all other, non-dead creatures here. There also was an evil-looking figure in adamantine gear, which smelled foul, and some strange guy standing right under a big sign that said "Vampire Hunter". They all tried to rip each other's throats, so Ushat's intuition told him that it's better to just close the door and let them sort it off by themselves.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

OOC: seriously, I've found THAT one house where all adventurers resided purely by chance

Pie maker, being near-invincible, obviously has the best cards, but things are likely to be incredibly messy in there.

I will try to update the other posts and maps as soon as possible.

[Tehsapper]

What was slightly more disturbing is that these migrant waves consisted of "friendly" units that didn't actually join my fortress, but lingered on the edges of the map. Usually only the traders are affected by this bug, but all migrants were in this case, so building the site took ages.

Well, I recall only one animal trainer appearing in such way, which disturbed me as well. And I got the usual dose of traders as well.

On top of that we've had this incident at the adventurers home during Tehsappers turn and are currently clueless on which of our previous adventurers are even alive at this point:

As soon as I realized that this is indeed the famous adventurers home, I went back and fast-travelled, so no one would get hurt much, as people have their own plans and so on. I think only someone's companions (human maceman?) got injured in that battle, as everyone else have too high fighter skill to be hit frequently.

[Pie Maker]

Ah, so my turn has finally arrived! I'll get at it as soon as I can, though I think I'm going to start a new adventurer rather than unretire Mr.Swifttoast.

Edit:

Spoiler: A bit of fun information regarding The Galley of Safety (click to show/hide)

Legends Viewer reveals that The Pale Ship is not actually extinct-it still has over 4000 dwarves. However, the Galley of Safety, on the other hand, is completely extinct of dwarves-its population is made up of just 5 bat men and few livestock (To be precise: 42 Sheep, 41 Dogs, 40 Guineafowls, 12 Cats, 9 Blue Peafowls, 5 Bat Men, 2 Horses, 2 Reindeers, 2 Geese, 2 Yaks, 2 Chickens, 2 Goats, 1 Wagon Outcast). In fact, its current queen and her consort are bat people-the last dwarven ruler died in 800! From then to 969, the post of monarch was taken over by a series of elves and one kobold somewhere in between. From 970 to 978, the monarchs were all cave fish men. Following the killing of the last cave fish man king by an elf of The Armored Evil (a goblin civilisation, which incidentally, had been ruled by a single goblin from 7-811 before he was excecuted by being burned alive) the Galley of Safety remained without a monarch until 1027, when a bat man took over. This bat man ruled until 1039, at which point he died of old age. This brings us to the current queen: Minkot Workappeared, who is still alive to this day, residing in Vesselappears, a hamlet originally founded by The Oar of Hailing in 71 which was destroyed by The Comedic Coasts of Pricing in 511 and was left that way until 1026, whereupon it was reclaimed by The Oceanic Arches, a group made up of all that remains of The Galley of Safety. As for how animal people ended up as monarchs, my guess is that they were once sewer-dwellers.

Further examination of the legends reveals that, although Owlwalls was founded by The Pale Ship, it was reclaimed a year after abandonment by The Oar of Hailing, a completely extinct civilisation whose last recorded activity in worldgen was getting defeated by The Armored Evil back in 644. Later entries start propping up after 1051, at which point we adventurers started affecting the world.

[Bralbaard]

Further examination of the legends reveals that, although Owlwalls was founded by The Pale Ship, it was reclaimed a year after abandonment by The Oar of Hailing, a completely extinct civilisation whose last recorded activity in worldgen was getting defeated by The Armored Evil back in 644. Later entries start propping up after 1051, at which point we adventurers started affecting the world.

Hmm. I'm sure I ran into those problems in the initial embark, come to think of it, I abandoned out of frustration with the lack of migrants, and because I ran out of wood. I then reclaimed, apparently with another civ, (and a lot of freshly bought wood) but I don't know if the second fortress ran for long enough to notice problems with migrants. Can you actually reclaim using a dead civilisation, it seems like I did, but ...

[Timeless Bob]

The scattered ancestors of myth and memory, "The Pale Ship" makes one last stand against those who have usurped their lands, but alas! Twas not enough and "The Pale Ship" became once more but a story for children.

[Eric Blank]

This is... a really depressing world. Interesting, but about as cheery as a gloomy day in hell.

[Timeless Bob]

Yeah, tragedy becomes a little too much when unleavened by a little comedy

[Niyazov]

I salute the stout dwarves of Owlwalls in their tragic, doomed efforts to confront the invincible armada of death boats from the Land of Amethysts that was foretold by the dwarves of Plankstirred.

[Bralbaard]

Here's the position of Tehsapper's new fortress, The first Anvil, on the map: