Hey guys,
Would have loved to have these images up last night, but my internet died on me... The fortress is almost ready to be passed on (any advice on the best way to transfer the file? As in specific file-sharing sites- I've never actually posted files to this forum before...) but I've got a few more days left in my mandate and one sudden emergency to attend to before I lay down the reins of leadership for the time being...
First of all, we got more migrants! And the fortifications began to really come along:
But we also got more Goblins- and lost ANOTHER Dwarf to their attacks:
Humorously though, the Goblin Hammerman who drove his hammer so firmly into the Militia Commander's skull that it got stuck there and he couldn't remove it, proceeded to panic from the loss of his weapon. The rest of the Goblin Siege then ran off the map in a panic- not that there was any more damage they could do, as the rest of my Dwarves and livestock were safely inside the Fortress.
But we survived, and soon we had another Dwarven Caravan and Outpost Liaison:
Bad news came with the caravan though, Crafteddawns- the trading fortress I established before (with a perimeter wall and 20 Dwarves, so I wouldn't really call it *small*) was conquered by the Goblin menace a few months ago!
This is despite it being located so far from the Gobbos that none of them showed up on the "neighbor" screen on Embark...
I dutifully ordered up some more trade goods for next year's caravan with the Outpost Liaison. Hopefully we get a liaison next year despite the loss of Crafteddawns...
And re-appropriated out Magma Kilns to make crafts instead of bricks in the hope of pawning off these essentially free Earthenware trinkets for valuable stuff like metals (and metal items we can melt down for free at our Magma Smelters), wood, and breeding pairs of livestock:
The caravan decided they were going to leave before I could get hardly any trade goods or my Broker to the Trade Depot though (I was rather occupied with building fortifications and expanding the fortress), so I decided to deconstruct the Trade Depot and STEAL everything they had brought to trade with us. I don't feel great about it, but what are they going to do- siege us? That's laughable once you see the strength of our fortifications by the end of my turn...
The fortifications continued to come along, slowly but surely. Unfortunately, I wasted quite a bit of effort building something and then second-guessing its position and deconstructing it after completion instead of just GOING WITH IT. But the end result was still an impressive castle of a fortress...
The Outpost Liaison, meanwhile, offered us an export agreement for next year despite stealing all the Caravan's stuff. Pay careful attention, because THESE are the goods you will be needing to sell to them Doctor McTaalik:
I recommend focusing on the windows, amulets, and figurines by producing (free) stuff at the Magma Glass Furnaces and Magma Kilns. The agriculture-based items (cloth, backpacks, armor if you make it out of leather, and ammunition if you make it out of bone) would also be a perfectly valid set of targets to focus on, though...
And MORE migrants arrived soon after the caravan. Our fortress population is growing slowly but surely, despite the best efforts of the Goblins...
Then a Clothier was possessed. Hmmm, I wonder what he'll make us- an artifact shirt perhaps?
Unfortunately said Clothier insisted on blindly running around without apparent purpose outside of the fortress, instead of going in and claiming a workshop. This didn't bode well for him when a Goblin invasion arrived and insisted on hunting down everything alive they could find...
I survived that siege as well, though, and went back to my ordinary business, including slaughtering some livestock I had gotten (stolen) from the Dwarven Caravan:
I also got some more migrants- which is good. We're one step closer to reaching a critical mass of population where we can exist indefinitely without additional migrants (Dwarves won't marry their own brothers/sisters/cousins, so you need a population above a certain threshold to ensure multiple parallel family lines can exist.)
Then one of our Craftsdwarves withdrew from society in a strange mood...
And constructed Udtomus- a basal table! Nice! We now have a Legendary Mason, as well as an artifact-quality table, which should be perfect for building a Legendary Dining Hall!
I quickly assigned the artifact-quality Basalt Table to the dining hall I had been laying out, and the Dwarves *immediately* threw a party there to celebrate! (I also made the Dining Hall a Meeting Hall, to try and reduce the tendency of my Dwarves to loiter around outside and get killed by the Goblins...)
It wasn't long before the Goblins arrived though- apparently drawn by word of our Legendary Table (I wonder what it'll do when magic comes out for artifacts- maybe allow Dwarves to eat without consuming the food item?)
I proceeded to laugh at them though (this was when I made my previous post). After all- what could they do?! All my Dwarves and livestock were cloistered safely inside the fortress walls, and I raised the main gate shortly after they arrived...
That turned out to be a mistake though... NEVER underestimate the stupidity of your Dwarves!
Apparently, my Dwarves decided that this was the PERFECT time to practice their high-board diving skills OFF THE EDGE OF THE FORTRESS, INTO SOLID GROUND A HALF-DOZEN Z-LEVELS BELOW! Or rather, I ordered the construction of an additional z-level of wall along the top of my existing fortifications, and when my Dwarves caught sight of the Goblins waiting patiently on another hill-top HALFWAY ACROSS THE MAP (since they could find no way into my fortress), most of them decided to panic and jump off the walls AWAY from my fortress rather than back inside it (two or three Dwarves with some existing points in Discipline actually ignored the Goblins, and made it safely back down from the walls after completing their assigned squares of wall...)
Three of the Dwarves are crippled from the jump, with serious spine or limb injuries, and probably won't make it back inside the walls alive (as they are unable to move- they periodically flashed white X-marks, even though you can't see it here). The other three Dwarves, however, miraculously landed with nothing but bruises. I'm currently torn between the need to pull them back inside the walls to try and avoid a tantrum-spiral (the loss of 3 Dwarves might be acceptable to the others- especially if they weren't well-liked; but the loss of 6 Dwarves spells almost certain doom for my fortress of just over 30 Dwarves...), and the risk of losing the rest of the fortress or additional Dwarves if I open the main gates to try and retrieve them...
News on the final result (and the save file- once I figure out how to upload it. I'd appreciate advice in this matter), soon! I've only got a week or two left in my mandate to resolve this crisis!
Regards,
Northstar