Also, it turned out I had a misdiagnosis problem, only one of the supposedly infected dwarves actually was, and killed three of the others when he changed. The surviving other, one Vutok, managed to kill him without becoming infected himself, and is now my militia commander.
The bite has to tear the skin, a bite that only bruises but doesn't break skin will do nothing. It was perhaps, for the best, that the infected one died.
Read it all. You, sir, are now my idol in matters of Dwarf Fortress. Ptw. Incredible.
Thank you in kind good sir!
@Loud Whispers
What is your FPS for this fortress?
Solid 3 whole FPS
The Baron got into a fistfight with none other than his old friend Uvash. Muthkat is probably one of the few Dwarves who could get away with doing that and not wind up killed by Uvash. I was worried for a moment that Muthkat was going to go over the edge, and I was going to have to deal with a legendary warlord, but thankfully this fight pushed him in the right direction (he is now unhappy, as opposed to miserable). Uvash is ecstatic after talking to a friend. Muthkat enjoyed starting a fist fight recently.
Ah, friendship.
Eagle chicks hatched, guaranteeing their survival for at least another generation; I was getting worried, eagle breeding is harder than it would seem.
Also some shrew fiends may be foiling my plans; these are the devils whose syndromes cause every tissue layer and organ to blister uncontrollably, and they will not take any bacon bait into the trapped corridor. It is to be expected that a shrew fiend is shrewd.
I also just realized I have DF hack, so I can check the wildlife populations. It is illuminating.
Plants are all innumerable, no surprise there. The rest of my region's notable animal populations are:
Eagles: 144 (they're not extinct!)
Ravens: 8810 (that explains everything)
Crundles: 1252 (shit ton of crundles)
Demon 141: Innumerable
Demon 166: Innumerable
Demon 167: Innumerable
Demon 197: Innumerable
Demon 429: Innumerable
Demon 455: Innumerable
Demon 588: Innumerable
Demon 683: Innumerable
Demon 770: Innumerable
Demon 791: Innumerable
Demon 816: Innumerable
Demon 881: Innumerable
Demon 905: Innumerable
Demon 937: Innumerable
Interestingly, although these demon kinds are listed as innumerable, there are many more demon kinds listed as only having populations of 10/20/30/40/50.
Giant raven: 120 (Dear Armok no)
There are several thousand fishes, largely owing to a lack of fishing in the caverns and river, but mussel populations are for some reason also innumerable.
Has anyone mentioned that you've adopted a rather mournful, nostalgic tone? I mean, I half-wanted to slam back a bottle of (dwarven) rum and pine for the good ol' days...
His writing has both improved and gotten sadder. It's a stylistic thing, at least for me.
I cannot help but feel the same way I felt when I realized the living world was never going to come back to Silentthunders, and that the only things my Dwarves would see forever was the dead. A defining moment, the instant when a Fortress enters a new era. And then I see the pieces of armour, the hammer called bearchar just lying in the slade... Remnants of legendary Dwarves who I saw spend their lives defending a fledgling outpost that grew to be an Atlantean Metropolis. And then the bodies of these heroes are sealed away in their tombs and a solitary slab lay down in the Memorial Broke detailing who they were and what they died for, I realize just how unbelievable their lives were, and how they must seem like myths to the youngest Dwarven children, born long after Silentthunders ceased to have contact with the outside world. In many respects much of this feels mythical even to me, to just think that all of this has happened here and all the things the little Urists have gone through. And then the weapons and armour of the old are passed down to the young, the Fort keeps on moving on and an unprecedented peace falls upon the land. Less than half of the 173 Dwarves in Silentthunders right now were not born in Silentthunders, and as the oldest die that number will continue to fall, until all that remains of the elders are the walls and works they made, and the dead of the foes they killed.
The next generation should get to enjoy unprecedented industry, free from most of the endless struggles that plagued their elders. But as time goes on, it feels more and more like the Fort of the past is just as much a foreign place as any other place than here.
It should be interesting to see where the Fort will go now. Eventually nostalgia will lie with the last of the elders, the future fast approaches and the past will be nevermore. We build the Colosseum, then we fight in it.