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[LMeire]

So I was snooping through my Duke's personal life when I discovered something odd; he has a kill, despite having never joined the military and having basically zero skills. The kill turned out to be a former friend and one of the only other founders still living on the barren, icy wasteland they call home, and not only that but nobody saw him die and his body is still missing over a year after the fact. So how does Duke Kixiobin know that he killed him on his kill list but he not have witnessed the death in order to report him as killed?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In addition to all of that, it looks like Rafeb was introverted, paranoid sort of guy- while Kixiobin is a borderline sociopath. It's kind of obvious in hindsight that these two probably shouldn't have been sent on the same wagon to the same isolated tundra. He keeps complaining about how we don't make enough chopping axes, but I never thought he'd take justice into his own hands! (I didn't even think it was possible.)

Currently Kixiobin is the only member in his circle of "friends" still kicking, while Rafeb is the only one he believes himself to have killed- make of that what you will.

Thoughts?

[Illogical_Blox]

Check reports?

[LMeire]

Useless, unfortunately. He's been missing for over a year, and the embark is regularly hit with "icy wind and snow" storms that makes everything caught in it generate a separate combat report.

[heydude6]

Your Duke might be a vampire. Did you ever find the body?

[LMeire]

Nope, no body. He just vanished one day, and I never noticed 'cause by that time I already had some 160-80 stone-cutting drones to manage.

Though I doubt the duke's a vampire, since he was the founding expedition leader and there isn't any non-frozen blood he could drink to become one. Besides, there's only a couple of dormitories and they're both meeting zones, so if Rafeb was eaten then there would have been a lot of witnesses.

[kamikazi1231]

Caught under a bridge closing?

[LMeire]

Why would that put him in the duke's kill list?

Though that still wouldn't be it as I don't use atom-smashers.

EDIT: I looked them both up in Legends.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Apparently Rafeb managed to bleed to death with nobody around after being mortally wounded by a nobleman who had never touched a weapon with a fully stocked hospital on standby, and then nobody found his body even though I regularly mass-gather the surface for brewable plants- and then Kixiobin knew about it anyway. Plus, now that I think of it, Rafeb's last thoughts don't say anything about being attacked; so it's not as if the duke got a lucky punch in during a tantrum. Damnit Rafeb, why can't you die of something normal like the drink shortages or a training mishap with the polar bears?

[vjmdhzgr]

I would try to get a thorough search of every revealed area to see if a body can be found. You already said that you regularly have people gather every plant on the surface so that's probably covered, but is there anywhere in your fortress where dwarves have any possibility of not entering regularly?

[Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum]

I would try to get a thorough search of every revealed area to see if a body can be found. You already said that you regularly have people gather every plant on the surface so that's probably covered, but is there anywhere in your fortress where dwarves have any possibility of not entering regularly?

I think I have had dwarves dumb bodies and still not notice there was a dead person... So gathering plants is no guarantee that they would notice him.

Maybe he was killed by poisonous gasses after being attacked by the mayor way way before? Because I know I have had adventurers killed by dead cats after dodging off a cliff fighting someone else, as long as there are no other attacks that hit me.

[urmane]

I'm amused that Kixio became a member of the Society of Discovery right after killing Rafeb.  Clearly he has something to hide, probably how he became Duke.

Where is Urist McPoirot when you need him?

[LMeire]

I would try to get a thorough search of every revealed area to see if a body can be found. You already said that you regularly have people gather every plant on the surface so that's probably covered, but is there anywhere in your fortress where dwarves have any possibility of not entering regularly?

I think I have had dwarves dumb bodies and still not notice there was a dead person... So gathering plants is no guarantee that they would notice him.

Maybe he was killed by poisonous gasses after being attacked by the mayor way way before? Because I know I have had adventurers killed by dead cats after dodging off a cliff fighting someone else, as long as there are no other attacks that hit me.

Environmental damage can count towards a murder, huh? Well I haven't been attacked by anything too serious since the "friendly" were-tortoise/forest giant started tearing down doors and beating people up. There's a storm of "icy wind and snow" that inflicts bruising on contact, but it stops having an effect once somebody's already covered with it and he- being a founding member- was probably already thoroughly coated before I got the dorms set up. I've had a stream of forgotten beasts in the caverns, but I sealed up the only entrance before the second migrant wave. I suppose he could have fallen down the quarry somehow, but that's failed to even kill the weaselmen I keep catching. The only other thing that might cause damage is not closing the hatch to the "thief warmer" fast enough and suffocating in the smoke, but I doubt that'd register as bleeding damage.

I'm amused that Kixio became a member of the Society of Discovery right after killing Rafeb.  Clearly he has something to hide, probably how he became Duke.

Where is Urist McPoirot when you need him?

Oh no, he killed Rafeb like a year before I found out about it. I made a copy of the save and abandoned that to look in legends mode, all the refugees and livestock from the "destroyed" fortress named themselves the Society of Discovery- it hasn't actually happened in the original timeline where I didn't abandon.

Also I made him duke because he was the expedition leader, and I made him expedition leader because he was always the last settler to start tantrumming during a drink shortage and he had reasonable preferences like beds and gloves. (Plus Sailfin Molly, which as it turns out is one of the fish available in the Fisher's Guild.) He's just always in a good mood and doesn't get too upset when his demands aren't met.

[LMeire]

I'm an idiot for not suspecting it sooner. It was me all along!

Among the other usual junk I forgot to strip off of prisoners, I found a cobalt pick next to the inside of the door to the Thief Warmer. And since I'm pretty sure invaders don't typically arm themselves with digging tools, it was probably Rafeb that went in there to turn it on. (I found a few bodies in the mines so his the only one still unaccounted for.) And then he got stuck in the smoke and couldn't path out before bleeding to death while on fire, the duke took the fall for whatever reason but since I've blocked off the door nobody can get in there to identify the pool of grease that remains of Rafeb. Whoops!

Though now I can't help but imagine Duke Kixiobin being confronted by Rafeb about how he can remain so calm and continue to gain weight while everyone else is panicking about having enough to live.

---

"Where is it, Ad? Where's your secret supply?"

"I don't know what you're talking about friend."

"Don't play dumb with me man! You used to be the only one I could trust! I thought you trusted me!"

"I do trust you, Rafeb. In fact I trust you with so much I'm giving you an extra special mission to go light up the chimney-stack. And should you find anything- interesting- while you're up there, well I can't imagine there'd be more than enough for two very close friends, you understand?"

"... Thank you, Ad. I- I'm sorry I-"

"Nothing to worry about friend, just remember to close the door carefully so you don't- spoil the surprise. Oh, and you'll need a concrete excuse to go to such an out of the way location without arising any suspicions; here, I've filed a request for the pyre to be lit at midnight tonight so the caravans can find us through the blizzards, don't be late!"

"Oh I won't, you clever scoundrel, you."

"You would know one, traitor. Have a nice day."

---

"Ah yes, you're the hauler, I trust? Jonu is in sore need of a proper offering shrine, so I was hoping you could take this masterful wooden hourglass up to the great stone spire, there. Great, be sure to have it done at least two hours before midnight, so the priests can rehearse the ceremony before it's time. Fantastic."

[Illogical_Blox]

Firstly: You let a dwarf die to activate a trap? 
Secondly: You didn't use the manager screen to ensure a useless dwarf to do that?!

[LMeire]

I didn't realize that he would die at the time, I just wanted to make a cheap way to dispose of caged invaders without wasting precious weapon metals or letting them run home to talk about my defenses. Totally slipped my mind that the smoke would interrupt the worker's pathing out when the artifact caught fire.

Also, while I generally try to keep everyone happy, Rafeb was pretty useless anyway. Founder or not his attitude alone makes it miracle that he survived and stayed as long as he did despite the fort being set to "moderate emigration". Realistically, he should have been constantly upset, which would lead to tantrums, which would lead to injuries, which would lead to dying of thirst in the hospital because it's apparently reasonable to wait for water we don't have instead of heading to the drink-storage for vodka or cider. The community can't afford to host people that unstable; that's why such a relaxed guy like Kixiobin is the Duke, in the vain hope that he'll set an example for the others to follow.