So I was running a pretty successful fort. I'd got military up and running with three squads decked out in full armour. One set of axe dwarves, one set of crossbowers, and one set of mace dwarves.
My fortress was a work of mechanical efficiency. I'd even got both an ashery-->potash / ashery -->charcoal system going on with an endless supply of logs provided by trade.
I'd minted silver coins. I'd successfully bred a massive colony of peacocks and peahens who were providing 100s of eggs. Farms and food systems all good. I'd set up guard posts and patrols. I'd managed to seal off most of the map with a massive wall so that I essentially controlled anyone's route into the fortress.
I was sitting pretty.
It just so happened that a pack of coyotes had emerged and I thought I'd give my military a bit of a killing exercise, stretch the legs a bit. So they all abandoned their posts to go and kill a bit of canine. As it turned out this may have been quite fortuitous.
Just as my soldiers had set off up the mountain after these coyotes I received a startling message.
A DRAGON. A massive firebreathing dragon attacked my fortress front on. I mean it emerged on the map right next to entrance.
I'd set up two war jaguars at the outer most wall as a first line of defence. The Dragon just blasted these poor creatures out of the way. Instant kebab both of them.
I hurridly went about triggering my alarms pulling the lever to pull up my bridges to ensure the safety of most of my population.
I called back the soliders from their hunt. What followed was brutal. Luckily most of my chaps had shields on them, but it still took out 9 or 10 of them before they brought it down.
The scene in my front yard was carnage. Ash and smoke and dead bodies absolutely everywhere. It was like a scene after the apocalypse.
Nevermind, I lost some of my top men but they died heroes and now it's okay, it's fine, I can relax. So I released the bridges and was just about to get back to business as usual when ...
The GOBLINS attacked. And they didn't just attack, this was a full-scale invasion. Maybe 30 goblins in all. I retracted the bridges again. My beleaguered forces where caught in the eye of a storm and it was virtually a massacre.
Luckily, a couple of my marksmen were on the inside of my fort and I'd set up an overhead fortification for sniping opportunities. They were able to take out a few of the goblins.
Strangely, the goblins decided to give up and left. They'd taken some losses too and maybe they figured there was no way in and no point standing there taking bolts.
All-in-all the damage was not too bad. Out of 136, 100 survived and of the 36 who died about 27 were military (3 left!) and the others just caught gathering wood or whatever.
Still, this was VERY dramatic when it all happened.
I can't recall a time when the goblins had ever picked such a bad time to attack, right slap bang in the aftermath of a dragon attack.
If you have any similar stories, do share them.