What kind of fortress is this?
You're a fisherdwarf, remember? Most of your time was spent in the great outdoors. In fact, you were made fun of it non-stop for it. This is probably why you took up the mining job in the first place.
Glance around for a shield. Then proceed down into the depths.
Most of the stuff here is just wafers of adamantine, bars of coke, barrels of booze and food, and assorted minor crafts that the dwarves couldn't haul out before the lower levels were sealed off.
You spot a wooden buckler sitting atop a pile of training weapons. Better than nothing. You grab an abandoned carving knife as well.
You tuck your pick into a loop on your belt and strap the buckler over your opposite forearm, and make for the far door. Just in time, too; you can hear scratching and clawing on the other end of the door from which you came. You just hope that big one's moved on.
Opening the door leads into another hallway, parallel to the main one, and the stench of carnage quickly fills your nostrils, forcing you to gag. Dwarves lie here by the dozen, cut open and cut apart in so many different ways; the walls and floors and even the ceiling above are splattered with voluminous amounts of blood. You wield your pick and move forward.
To the left, one creature, no bigger than a dog, sits hunched over a corpse, shredding it apart with long, scythe-like claws. It resembles a skinny and emaciated human, with dull grey skin and an elongated skull. Its ribcage sits outside its torso. It doesn't seem to notice you.
A door sits opposite you from the hallway, several feet away. Darkness claims the path to the right, back towards the adamantine vein, and that creature blocks the left (which you presume would lead back to the main level of the fort.)