Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Moogie]

Uhhhhh... o_0

I didn't see what happened... All I know is that one of my Marksdwarves, who was set to be unarmed-brawling in the Barracks to raise her Shield skills, and who happens to be the mother of the baby in question, is in bed resting an injured leg. Outside, in my artificial enclosed balcony, from which the marksdwarves can shoot at Archery dummies, there are blood spatters on the ground. The only dangerous animals currently on the map are some foxes way, waaaaaay to the south, and a minimum of ten tiles away to the north, and through the fortified walls of the balcony, is a pond.

In the pond, is the body of a little baby.

Now riddle me this. There are no enemies around. No announcements beforehand. She would have had no reason to be on the balcony, or even near the pond for that matter. She must have been holding the baby at the time she was injured. There's blood on the balcony, no blood outside or around the pond, and she's injured. For that baby to get to the pond, it would have to have been thrown THROUGH the fortifications...

Now what the f!$% just happened...?! :O

Edit: New clue, though it doesn't help much... outside, a little to the south, a Ranger is in 'Hunt' mode. He's pretty much within shooting distance, but he has no bolts left for his crossbow, and there are no animal remains to be seen in the vicinity, and nobody hauling any animal remains. I paused the game immediately after the baby drowning announcement, although this may have taken some time - I don't know how long it takes for babies to drown. >.>

[ May 09, 2008: Message edited by: Moogie ]

[Kagus]

Dwarven babies are inherently suicidal.  Why do you think their mothers are always holding onto them like that?

[Moogie]

I guess being born in the middle of a barracks to a sweaty, overworked dwarveswoman is just too depressing a life to be brought into.

[Moogie]

The baby's mother just bled to death in the barracks when I wasn't looking. Her leg injury was only yellow!

Her log says she recently sustained major injuries, and was rescued. It also says she suffered the tragedy of her baby dying.

This is getting weird. What the heck killed these two?

WTF!! More Marksdwarves are being injured in the same place. There's a bunch of goblins to the southwest, but I've been keeping an eye on them because they killed a hunter recently. But a soldier is standing in the balcony, stunned, bleeding, and there's blood all along the northern balcony wall, and there's absolutely nothing there that could hurt anyone!

[ May 09, 2008: Message edited by: Moogie ]

[goudegamer]

May we have pictures?

[Fooster]

Dwarf babies are suicidal, yea, but your average dwarf recruits' babies usually have no chance at all.  I had a female dwarf soldier who was a baby MACHINE.  Of course, two of her four kids were dead.  Carrying them into battle as babes can get confusing I understand.  I like to think she would reach for her shield and accidentally strap a baby onto her forearm instead to block those hammer blows.  Little baby legs flying off willy-nilly oh nos!

But yeah injuries will result in dropped babies, but I do not know the variation in drop distance.  It very well could be through a fortification.  If I can have a axe dwarf chop a head off at the base of a cliff and have the head land 6 z-lvls up, then a 2 tile dropped baby distance seems ok to me.

[Dwarfler]

Check to see if anyone is in trouble with the law.  Hit "z" and then go to the Justice screen.  I had something like this happen to me recently where I couldn't figure out why dwarves were spontaneously dying, and it was because some noble slipped in a mandate against exporting rope reed items when I wasn't looking, and I sold a bunch at the depot.  So, several dwarves were in trouble and the uber-legendary Sheriff was walking around calmly beating them to death.

Which actually brings me to a question of my own (not to threadjack, but): I decided I would name a new sheriff who had crap stats and no fighting skills so his beatings wouldn't be quite so lethal.  But apparently old habits die hard, and the old sheriff wants to keep beating guys.  I've got him locked away on a remote corner of the map, and for RP reasons I thought it would be fun to let him live out his life in exile from the rest of society (he's wanted for four murders, but he's one of my original dwarves and a hoopy frood besides).  Unfortunately I can't get him to cancel the "Beat Criminal" task that he's fixated on right now, which spoils my idea of having him be self-sufficient and provide his own food/drink.  He's not the sheriff anymore, and he's not in the royal or fortress guard, and he doesn't have access to the rest of the fort, but he just stands there in the square next to the forbidden door, waiting for a chance to escape and mete out some vigilante justice, psychodwarf-style.

Any ideas?

[Brent Not Broken]

quote:Originally posted by Fooster:
<STRONG>Dwarf babies are suicidal, yea, but your average dwarf recruits' babies usually have no chance at all.  I had a female dwarf soldier who was a baby MACHINE.  Of course, two of her four kids were dead.  Carrying them into battle as babes can get confusing I understand.  I like to think she would reach for her shield and accidentally strap a baby onto her forearm instead to block those hammer blows.  Little baby legs flying off willy-nilly oh nos!</STRONG>

This is the reason I quit drafting peasant migrants (who come to the fort because they're married to a non-peasant) and started drafting the ones with useless or redundant skills instead. They're less likely to be married (compared to peasants, who I believe are 100% likely to be married), so the female soldiers aren't perpetually in a family way.

[Moogie]

I didn't have any criminals at the time this was all going on.

Here is the bloodstained balcony in question.

   

The Pond of Infanticide can be seen to the north. The barracks is the room to the west. To the east, the z-level drops down, overlooking my fort's main entranceway. The walls of the balcony are all fortifications.

(The ground directly beneath the balcony is solid earth, just in case that's a bit confusing. Only the very edge of it is supported by walls constructed next to the entrance.)

[ May 09, 2008: Message edited by: Moogie ]

[Mephansteras]

There aren't any goblin archers ABOVE that area on a cliff, are there?

[Areyar]

have you checked the victims for crossbow bolts sticking in them?

Maybe the dwarves are walking in front of the targets, while another is practicing on them.

[Moogie]

It's possible a goblin or two were firing from above, but that would mean they were firing through the roof tiles, which are made of rock. Do constructed floor tiles let projectiles through them?

Since more and more goblins have started appearing on the map, though, I'm going to admit I may never find the original culprit, or discover how they managed to sling a baby into the pond when there's absolutely no access to that balcony from the outside. Tricksy sods.

[Derakon]

Do you get messaged when a GCS unstealths? Maybe that's what's going on.

[Deon]

But I see a door there.
Th baby could go outside by itself, why not?

[Moogie]

The door does not grant access to the land, there's a gap. The baby was too small to walk on its own (at least, I've never seen babies walking, only children).

All moot points now anyway, goblins invaded, everyone tantrumed, goodbye 50+ hours of work. Again.