It was my first fortress that i managed run in a semi-functonal fashion. The dwarves were content, the militia had 10 people of mismatched armor and weapons, but then again, i had only experienced 1 small goblin siege, and wasn't to worried. My only problem was that i had found no metals, and was completely dependent on importin weapons, and foodstuff and brew stuff, which we paid for with stone crafts, and believe me, we had a lot of stonecrafts.
When we struck a cave, i decided to move my farm plots underground(for safety i though) and cleared the cavern of the throglodytes and the troll we found there, without a single bruise. We discovered water(i wasn't able to get a well up and running, but the dwarfs didn't seem to mind that much and just walked to the water hole we found in the caverns.) and the dwarfes vere content, although a bit poor, but our legendary engraver kept them entertained with countless engravings of himself killing a dingowoman 100 years prior(about 60% of the engravings were about that incident).
I felt really safe, and had about 130 dwarves, which i though was quite amble, we hunted in the caverns for food and got water, farmed in the caverns and imported food and some weapons. Then the first annoyance struck, the horrible cave spider, which killed 8 dwarfs in the caves until i realized it, and then fled before my militia got there. After that, the caves were quiet, and my hunters killed most of the dangerous beasts in their hunting trips, including cave spiders.
Mining under the cave, we stumbled upon a rock that would free us from the labour intensive work of crafting stone goods. A gleaming yellowish metal, easily workable and quite valuable, we had struck gold!
The metalsmith eagerly started working on the gold, haven been un-employed mostly due to the lack of metal for a good while. We made everything out of gold, a golden throne for the mayor, and a golder sarchophagus for our legendary engraver, complete with gold statues, a golden door and also a throne for his mausoleum, which made him quite happy. Coin minting was also started, minting 17000 gold coins to spend next time the merchants would arrive, and started crafting gold crafts. The drawbridge guarding the entrance would help keep any goblins away anyway, with the militia and traps. The mausoleum was also trapped and the coin vault.
But the inexperienced dwarves had discounted the horrors that could strike at them from underground. A forgotten horror, shambling on mettallic 4 legs and spewing sticky spiderous webs was seen approaching the stairway leading from the caves and to the settlement, and the heroic militia went downstairs immidieately, hoping to dispatch the beast right outside the stairway, and clear the area for the inevitable corpse hauling(those unfortunate enough to be on the farms and gathering water). For the next ten seconds, a fierce if a bit one-sided battle took place, as the militia, stuck in spider webs spewed by the abomination, got torn to shreds faster than i could have imagined. The beast immidieately went up the stairs, and into our living quarters, a collection of 30 2x2 rooms in which most of the dwarves lived, and carnage began. Immidieately sealing the doors from our 1st utility area and the living quarters, we were also cut off from our gold mines, food and water supply and living quarters. The 50 dwarves that were in the living area(renovators, people living there and looters that got there before i closed it) were completely at the beasts mercy.
When the population had dropped to about 60, i realized casualties had mostly stopped. Brave dwarves had been able to get hits on the beast, breaking various body parts, including all of it legs, immobilizing it. It could still strike and spew spider webs though, and the dwarves hiding in various rooms were dying of dehydration and insanity.
I drafted a 30 man militia and tried to kill the beast, but since it was in a 1 tile wide corrider, and spewed web that task proved impossible, and although only a few of the militia men died from the beast, most were stuck in it's webs until they went insane or died from dehydration. It was about the same time dwarfs on the upper floors decided to throw tantrums, one of them managing to destroy the drawbridge just in the nick of time to open up the way for a goblin siege.
The goblins were led by a fearsome and heroic goblin axemaster(who gallantly struck down infants and children with his own hands, and one mumbling lunatic) and ran amok among the upper levels, when things quieted down, i had 5 dwarfs letft listed as non-dead. Three of them turned out to be missing, and one was the mayor, who decided that after a day's hard work, he should go and grab one beer. He stood up from his golden throne and went upstairs. The goblins were still inside the fortress though, but i guess they got awestruck at the golden mausoleum because they were content with staying there. So he drank his beer quite comfortably and then decided to start walking around the premises. He was eventually killed by one of the trolls the goblins had brought with them, who apperantly had a longer attention span than the goblins, and i had one dwarf remaining.
That lone survivors story is a bit gruesome, he had both of his legs broken and was unconcious, and was beeing carried to the hospital when the carrier was attacked and killed by a berzerk dwarf, who then promtly committed suicide by running into the money vault and activating all the traps. The goblins were upstairs but content in the mausoleum, the forgotten beast was broken but breathing downstairs in the apartments.
No one could help him, heal him or nurse him, and he was completely immobilized, but he felt quite fine, since he was the mayor now, things were going to be run by him. He had the greatest office/bedroom/dining room in the fortress, a golden throne and 17.000 coins all for himself, with tons of beer and food to keep him alive for years, or at least, until the next caravan came. With his money he would be able to settle himself quite well off in a sane, safe town. So he was happy. I like to think that it was some strange mental affliction that caused him to die from thirst there on the floor, alone and abandoned, his boody broken but with an ecstatic smile on his face.