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[Methadone]

So I have a rather strange situation at my current fortress and was looking for advice on how best to deal with it: Outside my walls a battle has been raging for nearly a year between a humanoid lizard demon/deity and a busted up goblin skeleton. While they're far enough away that the constant lethal dust explosions aren't an immediate threat, it has still caused me some problems.

Some background: The Demon arrived with human merchants as their diplomat. At the same time, I received a house call from some necromancers. As it was my first encounter with the undead, it took me some time/wiki reading before I got a handle on the whole situation. Eventually two of the necros walked into my saw-bladed entrance and the third was outed and ran for it. Unfortunately, a handful of there minions were now in combat with the Demon, who had bumped into them on his way to the fortress. The demon has a boiling dust attack, and that's about it apparently. Said attack, while liable to melt any of my dwarves in the area (I had a front row seat for the following dwarven caravan's guards attempt to break up the scuffle - not pretty)doesn't seem to harm the skeleton. Originally there were three or four undead body parts fighting the demon, but they were somehow killed (I suspect by being slammed into things enough or were hanging out it one of the surrounding pools when the winter freeze set in).

This whole situation is a pain in the behind for a couple reasons: firstly, thanks to the demon's presence, my baroness won't meet with the dwarven liaison, meaning the county I so richly deserve is off the table, not to mention trade negotiations. Secondly, I find myself constantly having to forbid any items in the area when outside refuse hauling is necessary - which it is when necromancers are in town; gotta atom smash those bones. Third, dwarves have a very punk-rock mentality when it comes to restricted areas, and I'd prefer not to lose any of my boys/new migrants crossing the map to boiling dust.

Some possible solutions:
-Wait for one of them to die, since it apparently is possible, although the demon has only a broken pinky and toe at this point and the skeleton will just not go down. Crossing my fingers for a freeze is another possibility.
-Suicide squad: Possible, although I am skeptical this would work, as the merchant guards didn't even get a hit in before a dust blast took them out. It would require lucky timing and spare dwarves which I don't have (40 of my ~100 are full-time military who I'd be loath to waste, the rest are working pretty constantly)
-Channel out a big square around the battle field, and let the epic battle (if you can call a demon breathing dust at a skeleton who keeps bruising him epic) go on for eternity

Thoughts?

[Raikaria]

Clearly Option 3, and make it an underground arena for your dorfs to watch.

That or a sacrificial pit for Amok.

[I am Leo]

Build experimental minecart artillery and see if you can range in on them.

[mscantrell]

Dig a pit under them and cave-in them into it.

[Numeroid]

Mother of Armok that's amazing. I say just let the battle rage until there's a victor and then lock them in a room made of candy and filled with magma as their prize.

[Flying Fortress]

Mother of Armok that's amazing. I say just let the battle rage until there's a victor and then lock them in a room made of candy and filled with magma as their prize.

Good idea, except for one detail, both demons and undead are immune to magma to the best of my knowledge.  So you would just have a (by that point) super skilled !!Skeleton/Deadly dust demon!! locked in a room waiting to break out.  That does sound like !!Fun!! though. 
I would collapse the area around them, then use them for archer training, minecart weapon testing, or just flood the room and let it freeze.

[Rendking]

well you could build a danger room but unlike your dwarf training room this would be their worst nightmare with metal spears and sharp spikes just use your imagination and then once you have everything set up drop them into the pit for some "Fun". 

[GoombaGeek]

Drop them in a pit and make fortifications so Dwarves can see.

Actually, fortifications are permeable and windows are destroyable, so put windows behind fortifications for maximum safety.

[Numeroid]

Mother of Armok that's amazing. I say just let the battle rage until there's a victor and then lock them in a room made of candy and filled with magma as their prize.

Good idea, except for one detail, both demons and undead are immune to magma to the best of my knowledge.  So you would just have a (by that point) super skilled !!Skeleton/Deadly dust demon!! locked in a room waiting to break out.  That does sound like !!Fun!! though. 
I would collapse the area around them, then use them for archer training, minecart weapon testing, or just flood the room and let it freeze.

That's what I was going for. Perhaps on the level above you could have glass floors over the room so it's a magma demon/zombie zoo.

[Di]

You could always send in squad of marksdwarves.
But I'm extremely averted to the idea of letting such a fine overtrained specimen to fall a victim of garbage collection tool.

[Methadone]

Thanks everyone

I realized immediately after posting that I hadn't even bothered to send in marksdwarves. Sometimes the obvious solution just doesn't come to mind in this game. I have a third-tier squad that I wouldn't totally miss should something go wrong, but the suggestions regarding cave-ins have piqued my interest, so I'm torn. Also I suppose I could set up a couple catapults and let them go nuts hucking rocks in hopes they actually hit something.

On a side note, if the situation is resolved and the demon diplomat does make his way into my fort afterwords, should I be concerned about dust contamination? Looking at his profile doesn't mention anything about it, and while he's certainly immune could he still spread his own stuff around? Because that would color my decision.

Also, If I do decide to trap him, can a demon go insane? Or will I have a friendly deity as long as I maintain healthy relations with his lackeys? If I wanted to make him an enemy would seizing a few caravans do the trick? So many questions!

Thanks again; I'll likely get on it once I complete this research paper. I know DF takes priority, but I figure it's nice to throw the professor a bone every once in a while.

[Imp]

I remember either a caravan guard or a liaison (and I think it was the liaison - I usually control caravan pathing so there's just no traps near them) passing out on a cage trap and instantly going insane.  Was many games ago and not certain my memory's accurate, but I remember feeling bitterly disappointed, it was enemy archer ambush or something and that liaison getting caught before getting killed was the only way to save him in time; it happened but it didn't save him at all...

The dust can be seen as an item coating your liaison, if you want to check for it or not.  Often contaminents just sit there.  Sometimes they 'fall off' and become contagious puddles, like when the unit decides to wash or paths through water, or simply gets rained on.

DFhack allows you to remove stuff like that, either from the entire map, or from just individual squares, so you have choices through that if you wanted some.

[misko27]

while DFhack is a option, so is tossing prisoners in there until either the demon or the skeleton dies. SOMEONE has to get lucky EVENTUALLY.

[Imp]

while DFhack is a option, so is tossing prisoners in there until either the demon or the skeleton dies. SOMEONE has to get lucky EVENTUALLY.

I've had liaisons decide to leave unhappy because I kept my leader to busy to meet with them for around a half a year.  I have no idea if 'time's up' can happen while a liaison is distracted by fighting, but I don't see why not.

[laularukyrumo]

I'm gonna say "dig out a giant 20x20x4 or so z-level pit, support it with a single lever-linked support pillar, send suicide squads out to mine the whole thing FROM BELOW, then drop the dumbass into the ground."

Does the demon fly? If not, that'll solve the problem for good, just build walls and floors and he'll be down there for eternity. You can also hook up a second cave-in built of constructed walls above him, then drop it on his head, if you need him dead.

If he flies? Well, pump water into the giant pit and wait until it freezes. Or flood the pit, then pump magma up. FLESH TO STONE, BITCH!