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[NotaPirate]

Worda advice here, you'd best dig a reservoir/cistern funneling water from the river, and then access it with a well. It's the fastest way to get water, or you could search for the second layer of caverns for water, though I wouldn't know how you could go about doing that.

Oh right, I also remember there being a reservoir somewhere in the fort itself. Dash27 had the fort plans uploaded so you could find it from there. I didn't change the fort much anyway.

[Tevish Szat]

The real trick, now that I look it, is going to be getting the pipeworks filled without sacrificing any dwarves, since I can't channel out the water breach from above, what with the surface being covered in siege.  If all else fails, I disable mining on my skilled dwarves and send in a Slave, preferably an ex-fishery-worker or someone else who won't mind a watery grave.  Unfortunatley, on unpausing, I found a fun new Crisis: there are trolls on the central stairs that were cut out, but dwarves lower on the stairs can still see them, causing job cancel spam and basically paralyzing the fort.  I'm not sure  where to start digging a stair bypass in order to not deal with it.

[dash27]

I think both of these are linked up, but you may want to double check.

There is a lever on Z-4 in the "Mayor's Office" that opens a flood gate allowing water from the river down into the reservoir.
There is a level on Z-10 that allows you to drain the reservoir in case of flood.

[Tevish Szat]

13 Granite: I walk out into the halls, and find that everyone -- everyone! is running in terror.  It seems they're scared of the trolls atop the main stairwell, even when I tell them that the creatures simply cannot get to us.  I've attempted to order a stairwell bypass carved, but none of the miners can get there without spooking and forgetting what they were supposed to do.  Even resting seems impossible, and at the moment dwarves collapsing of exhaustion would probably be acceptable if they could manage to reach the food and booze without running up and down the stairs in stark terror.

My only hope is that the trolls become distracted, and wander away from the stairs.  If they do, I should be able to wall up the former stairwell.  I've ordered such walls constructed, but for some reason all of our stone is now inaccessible.  We also have a violent ghost haunting the haunted halls, which is slowing progress even more.


(Unpausing results in countless messages like this.  Most are now cancelling "Eat", "Drink" or "Sleep")

1 Slate: Discovered why we suddenly lost access to every scrap of stone in the fortress: it seems it was all processed into blocks, and every last bar and block was stuffed into bins and hauled to the surface before this insanity began.  Naturally, we can't go and get anything up there at the moment, so I had it all designated forbidden.  If the slaves would all stop spooking and acutally do some work, I might be able to turn this place around, but as it is I'm just hoping we live long enough that some manner of relief arrives.  All the same, I doubt it. a caravan, and its guards, wouldn't come during the siege and if they did they'd be torn apart.



3 Slate: one of my Metal Acolytes went berserk amidst the place on the stairs where many dwarves had gathered to sleep, or simply collapsed from exhaustion.  I've drafted all the remaining soldiers of the fortress into one squad, helmed by the currently invalid Pirate.  Hopefully, the eight healthy and capable members of our militia will be able to tear the maniac down


(Pictured: One Berserk dwarf and at least a dozen sane and able-bodied but tired and thirsty ones.  I feared the worst)


(Select passages from the result)

I try not to think too much about Zasit's last moments, chopped to pieces, cats clinging to him, children punching him, and finally passing from exsanguination while one of our fine soldiers had a vice grip on his tongue.  I think if the goblins could see what was transpiring down in the depths, they would flee from the violence and never return.  Instead, they stand atop the stairs, mocking us.

(It is now the 8th of Slate.  We have 89 citizens, many of which are children or babies.  I'm considering conscripting the entire fortress and finding a route to the surface, but I doubt that would be useful even if it was possible possible.  The job cancellation from fear isn't just annoying, it's downright lethal as dwarves essentially can't transition between floors without spooking.  All the hospital patients are dehydrated, and I couldn't even water them by flooding the fort because nobody can get to any levers without running away from goblins, much less dig the new hospital well that I had started designating before unpausing.)

[NotaPirate]

Is there a way to access the reservoir deep in the fort? It should be away from the trolls, and all you would need to do is to mine. Oh man please don't let me dwarf die after how much I've buffed him.

[Tevish Szat]

Part of the problem is that the hospital entrance is right near the Stairs of Terror, so anyone bringing water from anywhere other than my new well site would have to go past them.  However, I've been formulating something of a plan to at least save the fort from panic-itis

I might be able to save the healthy, adult dwarves by drafting and activating them, as active military shouldn't fear the siege atop the stairs.  After they get some food, drink, and probably sleep (Everyone has at least two down-arrows it seems), I think I can can use stationing and then deactivate dwarves and burrow them to at least put them in the right location to do task a until they get hungry or sleepy or thirsty or wander near the stairs again.  This would include miners to dig my new aqueduct.  If I station some dwarves on duty in the hospital area then deactivate them, they can build and then use the new well, presuming I can secure well-building and hospital-service materials in the correct location, rather than on the surface, covered by goblins.  I can do it, in theory, but I don't know if it can be done fast enough to save Pirate, or any of the other patients for that matter.

If the military tricks work, the fortress will at least survive a little longer.  We have a lot of food and getting us water can be made top priority, but farming and brewing require enough hauling that they'll basically be impossible unless I can convince active duty military to haul.  It'd be a race between the siege getting bored and us running out of those "generous" food stores.

[Kalemyr Skyfire]

Hopefully your plan works.
If not, the fortress will have tons of corpses, and no one to bury them.

[Tevish Szat]

Turn is going slow, possibly because of other distractions.  I'll likely attempt to implement the Global Draft today or tomorrow, but it might take until tuesday.  no later than that, though.

[Tevish Szat]

It's time for me to admit that we are in a state of war.  We have always been at war with the goblins, and that must be respected in our mobilization status.  Indeed, every able-bodied dwarf must pitch in for the war effort.  We will save this fortress, but first we must save Ourselves!

The Infallible Ships contains all of our skilled warriors, while our former tradesmen and acolytes fill the ranks of the Glacial Flags and the Armored Roses.  The Romantic Pages consists of myself and one of my fellow priests (er, managers).  The Portals of Slaughter and The Copper Gloves hold our Slaves.  Lastly, our last skilled miner and the slaves assigned to him form The Cradles of Armor.

All of our squads are now active and have been stationed in the Larder, to partake in our bounteous food and drink.


We may have a problem


Our booze will get our brave citizen/soldiers a drink right now, but it isn't going to last the siege, and there's no way in hell I can take make brewing a military order... or farming, for that matter, but our food stocks are sufficient.  This means that before we can battle goblins, I'll have to rely on the Cradles of Armor battling rock.  After they get good and drunk


17 Slate: Death is part of life in Hauntedhalls.  Pirate, who I believe to be the last former overseer, is among the deceased.  Defiant to the last, he actually managed to crawl from his bed before expiring, but only reached a nearby table.  Kamin has been named as his replacement.  The hospital will soon be a mortuary, and not even the larder, where we make our stand, is entirely free of corpses, as not all loyal soldiers were able to get food or drink in time.

Still, we shall carry on

28 Slate: I hear there are dwarves still alive who don't like my glorious regime,  Let one not forget that before I reigned over this fortress, our damnation seemed certain.  Now, our lives have purpose, and we can see that the Chosen Ones of Hauntedhalls will survive this siege.  WE WILL ENDURE... provided you stop throwing tantrums and obey your glorious commander as he deserves to be obeyed.

The Cradles of Armor are down to two members, but hopefully, they'll be able to dig us a well.  Meanwhile, one of the seasoned military has withdrawn from society.  I didn't know they were allowed to do that.  He went down to the magma forges and started scribbling.  This isn't going to end well.


4 Felsite:  Citizens, rejoice!  Let not the scent of the Miasma alter your minds.  Our fortress is strong, and will remain strong so long as the brave militia continue their fight against our greatest foe -- not Goblins, but Fear!  We must not let ourselves give into fear, for if we do than we are truly lost.  Amidst the 41 blessed dwarves in our fortress, there are some whose hearts still know fear.  These are weak.  To be among the Chosen Ones you must know no fear!  With freedom from fear shall come the bounty of Armok!  With fear comes only death!

6 Felsite: Citizens, rejoice!

Some may see this as a dire tragedy, the last true child of our fortress meeting the final death, dying of thirst when we have booze to spare, and good, muddy water that will curl the hairs of your beard!  But I'll tell you what children are: They're weakness. Any child who can't survive in our Glorious Society does not deserve to be an adult.  They are ruled by passion and by fear, not by the Courage, and above all Unflinching Loyalty that are the virtues of the Chosen Ones!  Fools have said that children are our future -- I DEFY that!  Children are hardly even worthy of being buried amidst the dust!

Spoiler: Tevish Szat's private journal, 6 Felsite (click to show/hide)

Word reached me today that the last child of the Fortress, Dakost Uthmikiteb, has died of thirst in the once-grand dining hall.  There are a few infants left, some doomed without parents, some who might live through this if their mothers can continue to care for them throughout the siege.  It's no surprise: for several days she had refused to take food and drink despite reaching, unlike her peers, one of the places in the Fortress where one could reach the stores without walking the central stairs.  Just ran about, babbling inanely.  Still, this is a tragedy.  Dakost may have been weak and frail, but before she went mad she was a good girl.  I remember when I started organizing the militia, she was there in the caverns, and started playing with a bit of fungiwood like it was a sword.  Anything but oblivious to the doom settling over the Fortress, but full of childish determination to see it through.  Yet, somewhere along the line, she broke and now shall never laugh, nor smile, nor walk in the light of day that we, in our terror, cannot now face again.

I'd have a memorial made for her, but only a constant state of military readiness keeps us alive.  Supposedly, we have booze somewhere, and it looks like it will be enough to tend to the dwarves who survive here for some time... but still, people complain of thirst, and I eye the one small well of muddy water that used to fuel our mist generator.

The Cradles of Armor... all two of them... have so far failed me, succumbing to fear when I ask them to stand watch over the rock face that shall be part of the new aqueduct.  If I could only convince them to grab their picks and get there, I feel that we might have a chance.

At least, Hauntedhalls will have a chance.  It's already too late for Dakost, and countless others who were just as deserving of life.

So, active military get our food just fine, but seem to have some trouble getting to the booze, even though at least a few barrels were plainly accessible.  Some dwarves don't like to activate, and may well die from the Panic yet, despite everyone being in squads that are active and have no burrow restrictions.  Others are happily sitting on "Soldier" or "Soldier <no activity>" and will at least try to care for themselves.

If the siege wanders off soon, or my pick-armed miner-enabled squad gets their act together, activates, grabs their picks, and then goes where I want them to, we could even last a long time by digging and filling a cistern.  In short, I've solved most of the immediate problems, but of our 40 current citizens, we'll be lucky to preserve 13 that don't die to hunger, thirst, or unhappiness.  And I'm still not actually sure that we're going to live through my turn at all.

[Tevish Szat]

(Double Post)

[shali8]

hey all, im newly registered to the forums but ive been reading them for awhile. I was wondering if I could get a turn and in the mean time be dwarfed preferably as a miner or soldier

[Tevish Szat]

9 Felsite: Citizens, Rejoice!  I hear that there are some of you who still believe in the sightings of 'goblins' on the surface, but I tell you that this is not true -- there is no such thing as the surface and there never was.  Remind yourself of this fact, and repeat it to the infants.  There is no surface.  There can be no Surface.  Beyond the Fortress there is only darkness.

Now please stop throwing tantrums about the 'Surface', or being frightened by obvious hallucinations.

(Military dwarves seem to still scare if their tasks are eat, drink, or pickup equipment.  This is a problem.  Tantrums are regular, but seem short lived, though I'm not sure how many dwarves have been sent to rest/die thanks to tantrum-based injuries.  Or the ghosts, which I can't bury thanks the the mass-panic of any civilian activity and can't memorialize for the same reason, and also because we have no stone accessible to the fortress: it's all blocks on the surface.

I'm really worried about the fact I can do basically nothing to combat the bad thoughts generated by death and miasma... I don't think active military admire anything.  When the Long Patrol Duty thoughts start to kick in, we may get wiped out by an epidemic of insanity)

16 Felsite: Citizens, Rejoice! 

One among you who was not Chosen has revealed himself!  He is a heretic and a traitor, a beliver in the surface and a danger to our glorious fortress of Hauntedhalls.  Kill him!

16 Felsite: Citizens, Rejoice!  Each and every one of you has done your duty today.  You must remain ever strong and ever vigilant.  There are still those among us who are not the Chosen Ones.  They shall be purged from our numbers -- purged, I say!

Spoiler: Tevish Szat's private journal, 16 Felsite (click to show/hide)

What's another rotting corpse among many?  Sure, he was our last skilled miner, but that's neither here nor there.  We'll dig out this fortress with our beards if we have to.

I feel like I'm becoming jaded to the madness and suffering in this Fortress.  Moreover, I know I'm telling a comforting lie when I call the surface a heresy -- it's plain for anyone to see that the aboveground world is still there, but at the same time I find myself starting to believe what I say, actually feeling angered when someone mentions 'up there' rather than simply playing my role in trying to force them to forget it.

How long down in the depths will it take before the notion catches on, and if we survive this siege and outsiders come again, how will we react to them?  With each time calling the people to celebrate some new atrocity, I wonder.

So, still troubleshooting keeping anyone alive.  It's not going too well.  I should update more frequently though, and I for one am not giving up until the last dwarf falls.

I'll dwarf Shali once I have a better idea of who's going to live.

[Scruffy]

Can I have a turn?
Insanity and tantrums? Sounds like my kind of thing (Though usually they only happen AFTER my turn, not before)

[Tevish Szat]

1 Hematite: Citizens Rejoice!  It is now summer, and our fortress is free! Hauntedhalls shall rise from its ashes!  We are the Chosen Ones, who have survived the Times of Troubles and emerged into the light of a glorious new dawn!  Our projects may now move ahead as scheduled, since the malaise of fear has passed.  Hauntedhalls shall be granted water by our grand aqueduct, and its tombs shall be expanded to accommodate we few, proud dwarves!

7 Hematite: Citizens Rejoice!

I don't know how he did it, nor how long this project will take, but for the glory of Hauntedhalls, the construction of our first artifact since the Times of Troubles have begun!
(I really don't know how he did it: I haven't reconnected with the Surface, where all the stuff he needed was)

13 Hematite: Citizens Rejoice!  Behold the work of a true MASTER!


8 Malachite: Citizens Rejoice!  Your glorious overseer is trying his hand at brewing, a task that is too little done in our grand fortress.  Drink of the bounty that I produce, and be nourished!
(Our population is 27: though we have drink on our stores list, dwarves go for the muddy water in the old mist generator, and the new aqueduct is not being dug fast enough.  I've assigned myself to brewing since my dwarf is one of a few who's not periodically tantruming.  Dwarves are still dying of thirst, but I *think* they're wounded in the hospital.  I've activated mining on a lot of dwarves, but I think our last pick might be trapped in half a cistern.  I've ordered a few new ones forged, though.)

2 Galena: Citizens Rejoice!  Words of our glory have reached the outside world.  Pilgrims have come to our glorious home, to bask in the Glory and join the ranks of the Chosen Ones!  Welcome Them!

25 Galena: Citizens Rejoice!  A goblin ambush arrived and has been crushed by our military!  We will Persevere!

5 Limestone: Citizens Rejoice!  One of our Chosen Ones, Slave to Armok, has been struck with Divine Inspiration!

12 Limestone: Citizens Rejoice!  Behold the artistry of our great dwarves, carved from the flesh of fearsome beasts!  We truly are CHOSEN!

(In other news, the Aqueduct program may have claimed a dwarf who wasn't smart enough to dig his way out of the walls when he got thirsty, but it's actually getting dug out.  Looking at my design, I'm a little worried about pressure, since it's filling from above.  Also, I've rebuilt the outer defenses, including a new bridge-gate made if Bauxite and a Bauxite lever in the commons to control it with good response time.  Hopefully, we should not again suffer the panic plague... but just in case, the next overseer might want to dig a dry moat under the bridge so you can't get next to it when it's closed.  I say next overseer, because it's hard enough to get dwarves digging right now, and access to water is vital. as is my tomb.  It's now autumn, and without the goblins kicking the framerate, I'm breezing through the year.)

12 Limestone, Early Autumn
Population: 28
Drink: 436
Aqueduct/Well: In Progress
Tomb for Szat the Overseer: Designed; Gold Sarcophagous Forged.

[Tevish Szat]

I'm continuing under the assumption that one of pressurized water won't flow up a constructed well, and/or a constructed wall will allow diagonal flow to depressurize.  I'll be both building the well first, and creating a diagonal at the cistern-fill level.  I think I may have figured out how to not sacrifice any dwarves to set the water flowing, too.

I've also taken note of the caverns -- they're porous in the extreme: I'm not even sure I've found all the Forgotten Beast Entry Points to order them walled off.