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[Robsoie]

On my 40.07 fort, i embarked over an aquifer, but it was willingfully as i wanted to make use of it as an easy water source underground

I made a cave in to pierce the aquifer with a few 3x3 layers dropping into it.

I think it worked good, though as usual my miner making the final channel on the surface to drop the whole thing i prepared got unconscious from what i assume is some kind of shockwave, but he recovered quickly.

Here's the aquifer that is now pierced by the accumulated fews layers i dropped on it


Happy that everything went smoothly, i ordered a floor tile leading into the mass piercing the aquifer and ordered a stair down.
The floor was made but the stair wasn't , waiting for a while , still not dug down.


I looked at the list of message the fight reports and noticed the miner fighting, "slammed into obstacle, unconscious, get up", well that was the wind/shockwave of the cave in i guess.
Looking for the miner he was nowhere to be seen, and i then noticed a "horrified" dwarf message.

Zooming in i saw, the miner was drowned in the river


What? why is that miner went to jump in the water and drown for ?
It couldn't be the cave-in shock that threw him there (as seen the distance is too big) because i saw when he moved away after the cave in and his supposed short unconsciousness, so for reason i have no idea the guy must have jumped on his own.

Wouldn't be that bad if the miner was not still in possession of the unique pick of the whole fort.
And no dwarf is ever going to dig that stair without a pick.

No metal or stone available yet on the surface and diggable area, so no metalsmith forge and so no pick forging possible.
Caravans are probably a few months away, so no trading a pick (despite i made several wood craft in prevision)

So my solution was to build a screw pump to drain a bit of the river and get someone to fetch the dwarf corpse and throw it to my corpse stockpile while waiting for slab/coffin
Unfortunately my first attempt failed, i forgot to build some walled corridor to lead the water extracted away from the pump operator i just assigned to the job, so the guy ran away afraid of the water getting around him


The pick was still there, i needed to mount a better rescue operation, and additionally the poor bugger corpse so i could bury him


Migrants came but not a single guy with a pick, so i still had to follow my plan.
So i setup another pump , this time some walling enough to lead the water away a bit
Assigned a few more pump operator to the migrant so i could at least get 2 guys working at the same time, and the pump started


And ... it worked !
The water lowered enough (1/7 water around the corpse+items)  apparently for the dwarves to carry what they had to carry (i had enabled the order to gather outside refuse too, just in case)


No more item in the river bottom, success !


Yes ! the pick was well rescued, along the poor guy corpse.
The mission was completed, i was proud of my dwarves.

Though there was a couple more ponds out there


And when all was well, the digging of the stair (that i changed to up/down one, as i noticed fortunately before the digging that i did a designation mistaked) ...




You must be kidding me, a 2 layer aquifer ?

Oh well looks like the game really hates me .

[samanato]

Not just two layers.  Sandstone is a layer stone that carries an aquifer, so it's likely aquifers all the way down 

[Robsoie]

Oh boy, just my luck.
At least i saved the pick, will be a great tale for the dwarves to tell on their way back to the mountainhomes

[Kumil]

That was a nice story. I didn't know you could dry a river like that. This gives me ideas... And, good luck on that aquifer.

Maybe it's a lesson to buy two picks upon embark.

[Panando]

Fortunately the twin-slit method works extremely well with sandstone aquifers, as you can simply smooth the walls. Unfortunately your initial drop wont be any help because the hole isn't big enough to put a pump in.
For future reference you can discover what lies beneath an aquifer by digging an up/down stairs into it. This will show the tile below the aquifer and let you plan which method to use. If you don't know the layer types by heart, then a simple trick lets you know whether the layer below is aquifer:
Designate up/down stairs in the aquifer layer, and also the layer below the aquifer.
When the miner digs out the aquifer up/down stairs, if the game pauses with "damp stone" warning and cancels the designation below, then it's aquifer. If it doesn't cancel the designation, it is non-aquifer. This works because the moment when the up/down stairs is dug out, it is still totally dry, and at that moment the tile below wont be wetted unless it is intrinsically wet.

[Dunamisdeos]

That was a nice story. I didn't know you could dry a river like that. This gives me ideas... And, good luck on that aquifer.

Maybe it's a lesson to buy two picks upon embark.

This. Always always.

[Chevaleresse]

I always embark with three.

[ImagoDeo]

I usually embark with one. And nothing else.

Just for fun.

[thegoatgod_pan]

I usually embark with one. And nothing else.

Just for fun.

I bring an anvil and a bunch of copper: picks for everyone!

[Robsoie]

Thanks for the advices about aquifer, i'll have to try that double slit method
I'll sure embark with more picks in the future

[Kumil]

In previous versions you would embark with two competent miners because mining skill was crucial for getting ore. Now that mining skill is irrelevant, people embark with just one miner and one pick, adding more FUN when things go unexpected.

[Larix]

The "Play now!" load still includes two picks (and two axes). I generally assign a second miner the moment the party arrives; definitely helps getting the first few rooms dug.

[khearn]

I generally start with two novice miners. Digging out an initial space in the top dirt layer to store the baggage and stash the livestock underground generally gets them both up a level or two. But with just one miner, I feel like I'm always waiting for stuff to get dug out while too many other dwarves sit idle.

Note that if you quickly move your livestock underground and you have any grazers, you also need to dig down to breach the top cavern layer before too long or they'll starve.