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[StubbornAlcoholic]

So I found a Dwarf drained of all blood. Checking my latest migrants, there was one that was a member of about 400 governmental organisations, had loads of doctoring skills and hadn't drunk alcohol for a while despite there being an ample supply of it.

Having thus identified the murderer, I set up a quick execution chamber, appointed a Hammerer and he was dragged there and chained up. The Hammerer proceeded to go berserk and shattered all his limbs, broke his spine and apparently rendered him unable to breathe.

Then she left, his sentence for murder was apparently served (?!) and he was then taken to the hospital. He's now lying there crippled, unbreathing. Somehow no-one has noticed that normal Dwarves have to breathe to live, so the doctors are actually trying to treat him.

1. What shall I do with him now?
2. Why didn't the hammerer actually kill him?
3. Does a retractable bridge drop onto wooden stakes sound like a suitable end to a Vamp?

[Mimidormi]

Dwarves have capital punishment for whoever murders another member of the same race, it is indeed strange that the hammerer stopped. Was the original sentence for murder or assault? Perhaps she tagged him as a goner once she compromised his breathing (that wasn't there in first place, being a vampire and all, but shhht, don't tell her)? I'm not really sure.

Wooden stakes are a nice classic. Consider eternal imprisonment too, or deliver him to a giant sponge.

[Rover963]

Good training for your docs. I say let it go, I doubt he'll be getting up anytime soon. I am having an issue in my fort where the vamp keeps sucking my legendary warriors dry... Every month, 1 less person shows up to training. Why can't they go after the farmers or some shit.

[Trif]

The death sentence is 50 hammer strikes. If the target isn't dead after that, I guess the dwarfs consider the criminal sufficiently punished.

I caught a vampire too. A fisher-dwarf accused the expedition leader, who I knew was innocent of course. So I had my sheriff drag the fisher-dwarf to the dungeon. I had no hammer, so he had to wait to be executed while we forged one. After 50 hammer strikes I knew I was right, because he lived.

[Stargazer]

My current fort is the capital of the dwarven civilization, so it naturally attracted the current queen. Who is a vampire. And whose first and only victim was my Chief Medical Doctor. I locked her up in the throne room after that. :/

I will likely turn it into a pit where I dump enemies and have her fight them one on one in a battle to the death.

But as far as hammerers go, I watched as one of my weaponsmiths was executed for violating an export prohibition order. :/ Died rather quickly with several blows to the head delivered by a steel hammer. I was not happy.

[cam]

A death sentence is 50 hammer blows. If the criminal survives those 50 hammer blows then he is considered to have served his punishment and gets released. Think of it as the criminal being considered to be blessed by Armok.

[Imp]

Alas for your strong one, who would have served you well, if only you'd chosen/known how to use him in a way that risked no one.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Vamps only feed from the sleeping that they are allowed to reach.  You can safely mix vamps and normal dwarves by creating a vampire burrow - include all parts of your fortress and its surroundings that you use, but exclude every place that has beds (and make sure there's enough beds so no dwarf will just collapse where he is when tired enough).  For me that's a dedicated bedroom level and the hospital zone.  If you limit your vampires, then you can use them for all the nice things they can do for you... wouldn't that vamp have made a fine tank in your army?  Think of all the dwarves that wouldn't die while the enemy was trying to kill that unnaturally fast and tough dwarf

[mik]

Isn't that a solution with rapidly diminishing returns, though? I thought vampires start to slow way down at everything they do after not feeding on anybody long enough. Wouldn't you have to still occasionally throw him a sacrifice?

[Imp]

From what I've read, it's more that they slow down because they cannot drink alcohol and start to suffer from that ever-worsening withdrawl.

That's going to happen wether you permit them to feed or not, sadly dwarves dont get enough BAC to matter 

The longest I've kept vampires around has been about 5 years, I tend to walk away from DF after a while playing, then come back and start new forts.  But during that 5 years the two vamps in that game remained functional and they were still within normal dwarf movement speeds - I didn't watch them close enough to note if they appeared to be slower than they'd been to start.

I really dont see how keeping them around for however long they are useful would be 'diminishing returns' though - even if (like your other dwarves, and almost everything else alive on your map) there's only a specific amount of time they are useful for, and then they're not worth keeping after that time, why throw them away while they still have value to gain by keeping them?  It's the vamps you don't see that cost you - the vamps you see and limit no longer cost.... anything but the occasional set of clothes.  Not even the food/drink/bedroom-space that a normal dwarf costs you, until they die for whatever reason. 

[Cassandra]

And you CAN still feed them. Just station them to the bedroom of that annoying noble as a bodyguard to... Protect them from the backlash of their impossible mandate.

[StubbornAlcoholic]

Fortunately/unfortunately he died recently of an infected wound. His death has illuminated the need for soap

Thanks for the tips, next Vamp I get is probably going to be entombed with an office, bed, living comforts and engraved walls. Either that or a burrow-assigned military spot, which is actually an excellent idea.

[AutomataKittay]

Fortunately/unfortunately he died recently of an infected wound. His death has illuminated the need for soap

Thanks for the tips, next Vamp I get is probably going to be entombed with an office, bed, living comforts and engraved walls. Either that or a burrow-assigned military spot, which is actually an excellent idea.

They don't need beds, but a few statues and engraving would be nice for them to look at, though.

I believe they ignores burrows if they need to feed, however I've not had any successs in catching one to test so that's second-handed.

[Imp]

Fortunately/unfortunately he died recently of an infected wound. His death has illuminated the need for soap

Thanks for the tips, next Vamp I get is probably going to be entombed with an office, bed, living comforts and engraved walls. Either that or a burrow-assigned military spot, which is actually an excellent idea.

They don't need beds, but a few statues and engraving would be nice for them to look at, though.

I believe they ignores burrows if they need to feed, however I've not had any successs in catching one to test so that's second-handed.

So long as the vamp's burrow does not include any place where anyone sleeps (or happens to pass out for any reason), you'll have good success.  You can make this burrow tiny, or actually the entire size of the embark minus the sleeping and healing quarters.  It can be continuous or gapped.

Have fun experimenting with it.

[BodyGripper]

Edit:  Whoops

[Garun]

I feel like this is a n00bly question ... but are vampires in vanilla DF? Or are they part of a mod? I hear people talking about them frequently but I have yet to encounter one despite having gone through several forts already. Is it because I haven't really embarked in a highly evil area yet?