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[jimboo]

It seems the wells are in use after all; I spent some time just following dwarfs and Talanic is now cleaning (self?  Hospital?) with trips to those wells.  We’ll try to leave them accessible until other options are found.  Meaning, until things thaw.  Even the blood in storage is currently frozen.  This has been a hard winter.   

With the caverns and Hammer sealed, I thought to extend our reach to the Depot at least.  Two levers on the surface next to the bridge, the L one opens it.  OK.  Dwarves immediately spilled out all over the (burned to ashes) surface to gather equipment, reload cages, whatever.  Fortunately, only one faedog was in the area.  The existing “all is ours” burrow was extended to cover the Depot area and all dwarves were warrened to it; this should let us extend the walls and have another blocking bridge, putting the Depot within the fortress walls. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It’s unlikely we’ll have a successful caravan this year but there’s always hope and besides, there’s a lot of good stuff in there. 

Dwarves were preferring to “train” rather than keep us alive so all squads were disbanded except the first, the Axes of Armok.  I’m not a big fan of global orders to equip troops and here’s why:

What Dohan is supposed to have:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

What Dohan actually has:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Grimmash actual. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Those global orders are quick and easy and OK if everything is readily available but if it isn’t, dorfs go without as in these cases.  Exact matches are problematic for the same reason.  Dohan was assigned an adamantine round shield that was available and he and Grimmash are pulling guard duty while the walls are extended.  4 resting, 1 diagnosing, 2 caretaking, 2 are hauling wood planks for the new walls.  Wood – ugh.  But it’s the closest thing to where it’s needed so, wood it is.  (What is WITH these dwarves?  Wood?  Really?  The carpenters and such have been busy; this place is full of wooden furniture, wooden constructions, wooden hatches …) 

Pitiful Ipizost, a FB louse.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There is an olivine door now (closed tight) on this hallway, one of several that have Pillars in the middle of walls.  PI_FB, a louse not to be confused with PI_Age (sorry, couldn’t resist    ) has been slowly making his way towards that wall/pillar for the past two weeks.  And: two weeks in, the Other count is down to 680 – the wraiths are slowly working their way through the corpsemen.  As time allows, those temp doors covering for the pillar walls will be replaced with proper blocking walls; doors on ground level won’t be of much use against demons.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Instant Karma, serves me right.  Pi_Age is throwing a tantrum.  Our psychiatrist is cracking up.  Not that he/she doesn’t have reason, it seems.  Just out of the infirmary, perhaps a bit too soon.  Or the stitches ripped, that sometimes happens.  Her bad mood lasted a week.

28th Granite, Early Spring.
6 Drow invaders, all Claivemasters.  Darn, I was really hoping for another week or so to have the new bridge linked up, adding the Depot and one edge of the Forbidden Shrine to our secure area.  They’re at the top of the screen and work is ongoing, perhaps we’ll make it.  Our two soldiers – Dohan and Grimmash – stand guard over the workers with their adamantine battleaxes and shields.  And one boot – wait, look at that, Grimmash has found the other boot and two gauntlets in the area of the Depot.   

29th Granite.
The existing lever next to the Depot that didn’t do anything is being linked to the new marble bridge.  Work is half completed, T shows the lever has its mechanism and a dwarf is working on the bridge itself.  No, wait, that incon isn’t a living dwarf, it’s another ghost.  Zephon Kegeth, ghostly hammerdwarf.  Two idlers (someone is always idling), one is tasked to engrave a slab.  The Drow hung up top of the screen for a day, giving me hope we’d complete the linkage and then bunker up.  And the screens are not helping: u screen shows six invaders.  If you don’t take ‘em out quick, six becomes 20 becomes 50 … and I looked at these “six” and can count 14.  Hmm.  Then, they charged!  I’m watching the bridge, hoping we’ll get the linkage up before they reach us but those Drow are easily distracted: a moleweasel kit is sacrificing his little self by running in front of them and they’re giving chase.  There’s hope for the new bridge.

Pi_Age is down!  Dehydrated to death.  I told her to get back to the hospital bed and have those stitches looked at; set a hospital warren and everything.  Sometimes though, a dwarf just gotta do what a dwarf gotta do.  The corpse and accompanying tame iron animated sword are on the surface right next to the Depot.  On the inside side.  Pi, Pi, whatever were you doing?  Another memorial service is planned. 

[kamikazi1231]

Haha I love the idea that I'm the only one who can really work the stupid portal.  Good thing you're the next overseer. I sealed off dozens of access points. Can't believe I missed that many. I guess it's the diagonals I tend not to see. Also are you sure those are pillars?  I think pillars are I's in this pack.

I'd suggest the longest atom smashing corridor possible for the demons haha.

Also I wondered why my dwarves were never idle. I never checked for dump zones.

[Meph]

Atomsmashing demons might be a bit... impossible. Depending on the demons. Some of them will destroy the bridge instead.

And why are we having drow invaders? Deep drow? Or were they so upset that their caravan died?

[jimboo]

The FPS started up this morning at 14, quickly dropped to 13.  I’m surprised it even plays.  More so that SoundSense is on although that is a mixed thing; constant battles mean constant C screen spam and so many sounds that it rather quickly becomes just white noise.  With the occasional scream of a dying corpseman – they are down to 600.  Will the wraiths come for us when they’re finished with their current playmates?  At this rate, we’ll know in another six seasons. 

5th Slate, mid-Spring.
I was just about to pull the plug on the Link a New Bridge project: Shomad Udib, miner is certainly taking her sweet time.  A dabbling mechanic with only 150 experience points, this is taking awhile.  The brave Weasels of the Mole Clan have proved themselves worthy of song: five have sacrificed themselves to lead Drow invaders off the map.  Only one remains and she is waiting, watching.  Grimmash seems eager to demonstrate the worth of his +adamantine battle axe but I question his skills; he’s competent enough for combat (axedwarf and fighter) but only dabbles with shield and dodging and this claivemaster is fully armored in bloodsteel plate and waving a bloodsteel whip.  Grimmash is stationed so as to be out of line-of-sight while Shomad tries to figure out which side goes up when installing a mechanism.   The labor shortage is chronic; somebody finally got around to mining that one wall tile on level 90 so as to block that open (?) tile covered with a wooden pillar by making it part of a wall when I noticed the closest building material was a fungi log 8 steps away.  That gray boulder lying right where I thought it would be when the single wall tile was mined?  It isn’t diorite, it’s titanite.  It’s not easy to tell things apart when everything is basically black or dark gray.  But I’m not wasting ore to save 8 steps and hey, we’ve discovered a source of titanium for later.

I guess it's the diagonals I tend not to see. Also are you sure those are pillars?

Yeah.
This usually bites me when configuring for fluid flow (water pumps and such); if a pillar won’t stop flowing water, odds are it isn’t of much use against a flying wraith, either.  In this tileset, pillars look like the standard I-beams when in the middle of a wall, at a terminus they are fully outlined squares.  Someone(s) did a real impressive job of mining that spire:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The construction on the left is a complete obsidian wall because it is adjacent to the map edge.  Up top, that wall has obsidian pillars at the ends.  Each is a valid pathway and will remain so until another block is built next to them and completes the wall.

I'd suggest the longest atom smashing corridor possible for the demons haha

A bridge of any material which lowers onto a demon will deconstruct.  But keep those cards and letters comin’; jimboo’s Grand Plan to deal with the underworld must still be a work in progress.  The Aussie checkerboard has been done and so far, I’ve yet to come up with anything better than hellfire turrets and White Witch Hunters.  From the way things are going, I’m guessing that would take … 20 years?   

[Meph]

Armoks Hammer #2?

I would let the demons and undeads do their thing and concentrate all labor on making gold. Making silver and converting it, minting coins. Anything that allows us to get more dwarves.

If you do 6 months just making gold and summoning dwarves, then 6 months of anti-demon stuff, it will be more efficient than making 12 months anti-demon stuff with only 17 dwarves.

[kamikazi1231]

I'm pretty sure that those block pillars do block movement.  They are just constructed walls.  They should attach to the cave walls on each side. Otherwise that sort of construction wouldn't be used to make caverns safe. When you build a wall in a one wide space or at the end of a series of walls it just makes it look like that and calls it pillar.  I think it's just something to make it look a bit cooler and smoother for ending walls.

http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/7605/confused-by-icons-while-trying-to-build-walls

At least I've never seen something get past a block pillar.  I use them all the time to block used magma/water tubes so magma creatures can't swim up my forges from a volcano.

[jimboo]

6th Slate, mid-Spring.

We got lucky.  Shomad finally got her act together and the new bridge is linked and raised, just barely before the Drow claivemaster reached it.  Why are the Drow invading?  I have no idea.  This screenshot is posted as perhaps the silliest-looking thing I’ve ever done in DF:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Everybody cut me a bit of slack because we’re working with at most two able-bodied dwarves and under some time pressure but still … have you ever been building something and your dorfs just keep suspending construction because there’s something in the way?  A pet, a broken bolt, whatever.  With time and labor you can move/dump stuff but we had neither so, I kept adjusting the blueprints for the new wall, using the closest building materials.  One tile had A LOT of stuff on it and so I wiggled the wall, then a moleweasel just wouldn’t move, then a sapling chose *just that moment* to become a tree, then a rusty iron breastplate must have been just big enough, then … you get the idea.  Tin, smooth logs, rough logs, wagon logs and one block of realgar because those were the closest materials.  That wall gave us half of what was needed to enclose the Depot again.  Perhaps just as important, it blocked line of sight from the Drow coming in from the North so Grimmash didn’t go rushing off to count coup.  The marble bridge is now complete and raised and – it was a matter of game minutes at most, we cut it that close.  The Drow claivemaster is 15 steps from being inside with us and she was coming fast.  The Axes of Armok squad is standing down and that gives us two more labor dwarves to seal the remaining pathways to Hell.  Maybe jimboo’s Wiggle Wall will be my legacy to this fortress.
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.
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From our previous episode,
[cut to scene outside the Cathedral door.  jimboo and a young female dwarf are standing together in the dimly lit hallway.  The little dwarf is grinning.  jimboo is looking dazed and confused.]

 “Oh no, I don’t.  I have my own plan for myself and even if it works, it will take at least three more months.  You see, only the High Priest knows how the Portal works – or is supposed to work – and he’s secluded in a spiritual retreat until the next season.  You’re it, Overseer.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m tasked to make soap for the hospital.”
And with that, she turned and walked away.

jimboo reached down and picked up a rubble rock the size of his fist, fully intending to throw it just as hard as he could at the back of her head.  But that wouldn’t have been polite so, he dropped it. 

And then had no idea what to do next.  He turned slowly, looking around at the rough walls, the rubble-strewn floors, and that was pretty much all he could see.  This place was very dark.  And very messy.  Wherever this was, he certainly wasn’t in BannerHeart any more.  He stood there for several moments, letting that sink in.  He walked down the vacant corridor until he came to a shrine; it was nothing fancy but there were tallow candles on the blood-stained altar, evidence of recent use.  jimboo sank to his knees and prayed to Armok.  He prayed that he would wake up, in his own bed and next to his sleeping wife.  jimboo had never prayed so hard in his life but it came naturally in this place.  But nothing else came.  There was no inspiration, no hope and there was no waking up from this dream, if dream it was.  jimboo rose and continued down the corridor, not even knowing what he was looking for.  But it was called a Portal.   
       

[jimboo]

Standing down the one squad should give us two more free labor dwarves, right?  No, it didn’t.  What the … ?  Two more haulers and I haven’t got this figured out yet.  They keep switching off between hauling sawdust and used clothing to FG stockpiles #11 and 22.  I’ve been watching them for two game days and if this keeps up, what else can be done except to forbid all clothing at least until those caverns are completely sealed?

Resting dwarves:
Urist: a miner, Portal-ed in last fall.  Ability to stand lost, shin fractured.  Happy.
Shomad: a miner, resting, no Health issues (?!)  Content and an exceptional dwarf overall.
McMeph: swordsdwarf, fractured thigh and motor nerve damage.  Content.  He left several piles of his Unknown Material blood next to the Depot from previous adventures. 
Stormbuilder Ber: seargent. Quite content and again, no Health issues. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Three of the dwarves are resting in the “let’s put everything here” level 93, all of which is zoned for Meeting and a small part of which is also zoned for Hospital.  Shomad is off by herself in a bed on another level.  All dwarves have assigned bedrooms and there are several spare bedrooms unoccupied.  I don’t know why Shomad is resting, perhaps she broke a fingernail while installing that mechanism but at least she got the bridge up and working in time.  Now, we have zero idlers.  Zero.  Four resting, two asleep, two drinking, four storing items, one making water from booze and one making slabs so we can put the two ghosts to rest before they trip the outer bridge levers and Kamikazi, who remains tame and transforming.  Dohan and Grimmash refused to stop “soldiering,” whatever that means, until I disbanded their squad entirely.  They started hauling.  (Note: the squad had been assigned to Train in two different barracks and I hadn’t noticed.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The good news: we now have secure access to the Depot which contains two trade licenses and two crates of gold bars.  But there’s nobody idle to work them into coins!  One dwarf will engrave the new slabs when they are ready but until then, we have four hauling dwarves in the labor pool.  There is much to be done but no one to do it!  One is hauling a caged kangaroo to an animal stockpile; when the outer gate was first opened, several dwarves went out to gather and reload cages, didn’t seem like there was much I could do about it at the time.  Now that the marble gate is closed, that dwarf should free up soon.  Two are now hauling used clothing to a Finished Goods stockpile.  I was getting quite frustrated with the whole “I’m gonna haul forever” thing and so tried everything I could think of.  Vacated the position of manager, affected nothing.  Cancelled every job outstanding, same.  Finally, I went and ordered the deconstruction of every single workshop and then rescinded the order and – for whatever reason – we now have two idle dwarves.  Two more are on break so, #1 is sealing off the remaining paths to the lower levels and then #2, gold coins.  At least I’m pretty sure now where everything is.  It’s not like workshops here are in any kind of logical arrangement.     We still have two resting dwarves without health issues and I don’t understand that but, one thing at a time.

Quick edit: OK, a new perspective on all that “but nothing’s getting done!” rant above;  I forgot the FPS is running so slow.  Naturally it takes quite a while for anything to get done.  Or changed. 

[Arcvasti]

I'd seriously recommend destroying all the finished goods stockpiles. Especially since sawdust piles count as tools a FG stockpile is basically a huge waste of time. Actually, if you're having so much trouble with that, I might even disable hauling on everyone. I'd also deconstruct the hospital beds the uninjured dwarves are resting on so they can get back to work. That usually works when uninjured or mildly injured dwarves rest and do nothing else. My 2 cents on making everyone work faster.

[Meph]

I second the deleting of stockpiles. Its the only way to stop hauling.

With the trade licence and gold crates (we need a storage workshop to unpack them), we can start making a lot of gold coins.

[kamikazi1231]

That's great the trade licenses survived the inferno.  Now you can get some serious coinage.

[TalonisWolf]

...

70.  Drop Zone Ground Zero.  Some of the floor is still standing but from the miasma and ichor, there were casualties.  Up top is the marble mine and a planned excavation of galena (?).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

...

 This is a little late, but:

 Galena is the ore of silver and lead, so someone was probably planning on making some hammers for a anti-zombie squad or something of that nature.

 I'm thinking the marble was intended to be used as flux, if it's that and not the Galena you're confused about.

 Hope this helps?

 

[Grimmash]

See?!? The poor bastards have become so traumatized they just wander to the hospital, stare blankly until they realize nothing is wrong, then get a drink, then absently shuffle along, pick up a random item, drop it, and go back to the hospital!

I'm not the crazy one!

[jimboo]

FG stockpiles: agreed, they’re serving no useful purpose since we are making nothing new and removing them should just leave things where they are.  I’m going to place a couple of cabinets/coffers within the Hospital zone, then that’s it for furniture hauling.  Hopefully.  The dwarves are all dressed in clothing that starting to show some wear but there is a tailor and we should be good for several seasons.  Almost everything showing in the stocks screen is forbidden; tabbing for breakdown shows much of it is outside the walls and inaccessible for now.  We’ll be running low on both thread and cloth fairly soon.  Crutches and splints don’t seem to be doing the job for our injured and we have no plaster casts but loads of gypsum.  Compounding the problem (no pun intended), our best bone setter has all of 15 experience points so McMeph and Urist might be laid up for quite awhile.  Quarry Bush GROWDUR is 4000 so we’re definitely Harder Farming – maybe we should start small plots of wheat and berries while it’s still spring.  Maybe some more trees; seeds we have plenty of. 

Galena is the ore of silver and lead, so someone was probably planning on making some hammers for a anti-zombie squad or something of that nature.

Nice catch – I thought silver had been removed as mixed ore a couple of versions back, guess I was mis-remembering from the old tetrahedrite.  We might end up making hammers but the layers suggest there’s iron ore, somewhere and if we find it then the silver might be better used taking our chances gambling at Morul’s for more gold.  If we get sieged in, it’s just our 16 for the long haul plus as many as can be portal-ed in.  17, when Kamikazi gets his act together.

There are a couple of Hell-ish pathways remaining but I’m feeling more confident we can block them all before the wraiths run out of corpsemen.  I should spend some time doing a full inventory and layout of this place.  Long term problems are obvious, short term and urgent problems seem to be under control so I’ll focus on the medium term To Do list.  There does need to be some rearranging of workshops: carpentry was clearly the focus earlier (again, WTF?) and there are many carpenter and woodworking shops on the surface – befitting a wooden fort, I suppose.  But the few smelters and forges aren’t close or even on the same level as the stockpiled ores and bars and that’s been a few hauling jobs, for certain – and without wheelbarrows.  Since we’re so short-handed, hauling jobs have to be minimized.  There’s not much can be done about hauling water for the injured, though, and surface water obviously freezes solid to -1z.  There are 70 animals; don’t the pastured ones also require water?  This place has a lot of pigs.  And wood – plenty, for the moment.  We can’t yet build a Blast Smelter and logs are an inefficient source of coke but for the moment it’s all we have.  It’s unlikely we’ll come across veins of coal with all these igneous layers but there might be some close to the surface in all that sand and clay.  What we really need is a Bloody Gem or a magmaling.   

[Meph]

What do you have against carpenters? ^^

I say: Build merchants, sell most stuff we have for coins, make more dwarves. Its the only chance. The two crates of gold bars are already enough for two more dwarves.