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[Holy carp]

Hi!

Having interrupted a Kobold thief trying to bypass my defenses, I sent the military out to scout the map for more intruders. Having found and exterminated two of his brethren, one of my scouts spotted ... another kobold. A legendary kobold, or so it appears, as his symbol is flashing in bright and dark yellow. His discovery triggered a paused announcement like the ones that are displayed when a megabeast wanders into the map.

The announcement read: "The Kobold Pleembus Shilràrisek has come! A small, squat humanoid with large pointy ears and yellow glowing eyes."

So my question is: Why the announcement? Aside from his flashing attire, there seems to be nothing special about this fellow. He doesn't even carry a weapon! Could he be a demon? There is no hint to this in his description. Is he a member of the kobold nobility? According to the civilizations screen, the kobolds continue to be a disorganized bunch of parasites. Is he a legendary woodworker or farmer? Or a kobold who earned himself a second name by killing a dwarf? If so, I have no memory of the incident.

Do you have any idea why the game announced him so dramatically?

Of course, I've done some research, but apparently the only record of a similar incident is in Russian, a language I don't understand (the google translation of the page is reminiscent of a surrealist pamphlet).
(http://chuck.dfwk.ru/df/res/73181.html)

[twwolfe]

were-kobold would be my first guess.

[Chevaleresse]

He's a werebeast in humanoid form.

[Holy carp]

That makes sense, but I thought were-somethings were announced differently. "Now you know why you fear the night", etc.

[greycat]

You only get the proper were-beast announcements when they are detected in were-beast form.  Since they arrive stealthed, they can sneak around for quite a while before someone notices them.  If they happen to transform back before being noticed, then you spot them in humanoid form, and you get the humanoid announcement.

[Holy carp]

Ok, thanks for your explanations!
I'm still a bit confused about the exact mechanics behind this whole were-thing, though. I dimly remember having had another case of a were-kobold (that is, a kobold who was cursed to become a were-cavy) wandering onto the map, prompting the proper werebeast announcement, wandering about the map, outside my fortress's defenses ... and eventually turning into a not-so-terrifying cavy that instantly darted off the map.
Now, if both our descriptions are correct, I wonder what exactly triggered the different announcements.

...

Now that the mystery seems resolved, I have no qualms about resuming the game. Which is bad news for a certain flashy kobold, as he was spotted by my most legendary Axedwarf, slayer of a thousand one hundred foes, who happens to wield a new ☼adamantine battle axe☼. Poor Pleembus Shilràrisek is going to be ancient history in just a few ticks.

Edit:
8 strikes and a bit of embedded-weapon-twisting later, the kobold is dead. Now to engrave a slab in order to learn more about his life. I like dwarven historiography.

Edit 2:
"Slayer of Brojleemis / Loving father and husband". Not too instructive, sadly.

[YAHG]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You only get the proper were-beast announcements when they are detected in were-beast form.  Since they arrive stealthed, they can sneak around for quite a while before someone notices them.  If they happen to transform back before being noticed, then you spot them in humanoid form, and you get the humanoid announcement.

That does make sense, that's why I was always getting invaded by random humans

Thanks