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[Lina-Tsu]

I did my best searching for an answer to my question but it came to nothing.

I have this female dwarf.  She is not a vampire, I know what they are and how to deal with them. I know there is something wrong with this dwarf because after suspecting her and noticing her completely unusual behavior I checked her with "cursecheck" tool from DFhack. She is "born in 11, cursed in 75 to be an unknown (deceased)".

She doesn't seem to drink blood, there were no deaths with "blood-drained" victims, there were no pale or faint dwarves, though there were dizzy ones. She worships a deity and there is a thought about dining in her bio! That doesn't look vampire-like.

The problem with this dwarf is that suddenly there are a lot (like dozen!) completely paralysed dwarves if she is around. These poor bastards just stand frozen and die of hunger and thirst if you let them. Others don't mind them standing around and are horrified to see them suddenly dead (so am I). But when this cursed dwarf is not around those paralysed dwarves unfreeze and go around their business as usual.

I'm totally baffled by this issue. She is cursed but she is not a vampire. Or is she? I never knew a vampire could paralyse others, nor did i know them to have a deity!

Because she is dangerous to have around, I gave her a great room with a table and a chair (office and dining) and a great stockpile of food and drink that, as I see it, will last for years (if she actually eats, I'm still unsure) and she's managing work orders and updates stockpile records (telepathically, I presume).

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Well, check their health screen to see what's going on. Has the paralyzing stopped? By that, I mean two things.  Does it stop once someone is paralyzed? Has it stopped once you locked up your "vampire"?  Could it be two unrelated things, a bug and a FB?

[PatrikLundell]

- I believe vampires have a deity, and some vampire identification tips mentions that you can get indications through that, although I'm hazy about the details. Hm, memory says they're always dubious worshippers (ain't too happy about being cursed), but don't take that as gospel.
- Dwarves get dizzy from cave adaptation if entering sunlight, so having dizzy and vomiting dwarves is "normal" after a while.
- Dining thoughts are thought to rule out the thinker being a vampire, although just having drained a victim might result in a great food/drink thought.
- What about drinking? Any thought that it was too long since she had a drink?
- I believe lycanthropy is a curse, but it is displayed in a rather explicit way.
- Have you looked at the thoughts and wounds status of the paralyzed dwarves? Don't think you'll get much out of it, but some dorfs can get paralyzed by fear, for instance, but hardly dozens at a time.
- You might be able to look at the deity (the deity info can be expanded from the relations screen). Its info should state that it cursed someone (with a different name probably) in the year 75, and I think it say what kind of curse (possibly in obscure terms), although that might have been removed recently.

It's nothing I have heard of, although your vampire isolation tactics is probably about the best that can be done until some new info comes along.
How old is your world, i.e. how old is she, and how old does her official info say she is?

[Naryar]

Not a vampire. Come to think of it, I've never seen a thing like that.

Are they paralyzed by a syndrome or paralyzed by the sight of the dwarf ?

This looks like a bug, but one of the greatest bugs ever. Save the game, give it to us, and station her next to goblins to see if they are also paralyzed ?

She could be the ultimate warrior if her paralyze aura also works on goblins.

[Lina-Tsu]

Well, check their health screen to see what's going on. Has the paralyzing stopped? By that, I mean two things.  Does it stop once someone is paralyzed? Has it stopped once you locked up your "vampire"?  Could it be two unrelated things, a bug and a FB?

It's probably not a temporary bug because it's repeatable. But in the sense that is't not normal, it may be a sort of glitch. These dwarves that stand on one spot to death do not display any symptoms on their health screen, they are not scared of anything either - none of them has any thoughts relating to their condition except starving, thirst and lack of sleep. And, yes, locking her up solved the problem. She's blissfully happy, probably, happier than most dwarves because now she's not freaked out by corpses of slain enemies and is not in any conflict. Forgotten beast? I don't know, only if she is a forgotten beast no one heard of the sort before.

- Dwarves get dizzy from cave adaptation if entering sunlight, so having dizzy and vomiting dwarves is "normal" after a while.

Yes, you a right, I think its cave adaptation that makes them dizzy. And, yeah, vomiting. Some heavy micromanagement has to be involved to avoid that, I don't bother.

- What about drinking? Any thought that it was too long since she had a drink?

She is in her luxurious with a pile of magnificent grub and booze. No thoughts about food at all.

- Have you looked at the thoughts and wounds status of the paralyzed dwarves?

They suffer because they starve. Lack of food, drink, sleep.

I believe vampires have a deity

Hers is a goddess of fertility, youth and truth, that's it, nothing else is mentioned.

How old is your world, i.e. how old is she

Her official info is that she is 66. Her unofficial info via DFhack is that she is 64! But I like young worlds, this one is only 72.

Are they paralyzed by a syndrome or paralyzed by the sight of the dwarf ?
This looks like a bug, but one of the greatest bugs ever. Save the game, give it to us, and station her next to goblins to see if they are also paralyzed ?
She could be the ultimate warrior if her paralyze aura also works on goblins.

They sort of stand not moving, that's all. Nothing in their health status says why, they just don't move until the cursed dwarf is gone for a while. Bunch of them were standing around her working area (dyer's shops), a few on the Z-level above near the stairs, a few below. I'm sorry I can't share the save with you because I don't copy those, I'm sort of softcore player ) But the previous time - I simply ditched a few weeks I had two dwarves die on the spot, starved to death when she was around. So the next time a few dwarves were standing frozen and a couple were added (different ones than on the previous game run were caught) before I arranged her personal quarters. They stood for a while and ran off as if nothing was wrong when she was removed. It's really the strangest thing!

This time I chose a spot with certain parameters like a tongue of aquifer, a river, many biomes etc. - as I said, softcore. I like goblins and Trolls and stuff but they don't come to me here. I have horrible werebeasts sometimes and megabeasts, but otherwise it turned out to be quite peaceful. It would be nice to paralyse them but the problem is that when this mysterious cursed dwarfess is in that special mood everyone falls victim. There were a couple of warriors standing around before she was incarcerated.

She also doesn't have any family.

[PatrikLundell]

The age is not out of dwarf range, then...

Well, if your mysterious dwarfess affects enemies as well, you could draft her into a one dwarf squad and upgrade her quarters with training facilities, and then let her stare at the enemies before methodically hacking them to pieces. Another interesting usage is to have her protected well behind fortifications beside an enemy attack tunnel, and have marksdwarves out of effect range on the other side behind fortifications. If she paralyzes range attacks the markswarves could train on the enemy until it's slowly whittled down.

[Quietust]

By any chance are you using modded raws?

I ask because back during 0.34 there were a lot of people who reported some really bizarre "gameplay oddities" while conveniently failing to mention that they were playing Masterwork DF (where those oddities were deliberate features).

[Lina-Tsu]

draft her into a one dwarf squad and upgrade her quarters with training facilities, and then let her stare at the enemies before methodically hacking them to pieces.

That's interesting, but this very location just doesn't provide enough enemies. The only enemy-worth place left there is hell ) If there were targets to practice on, I would try to invent something workable like providing her with a room with a good outside view that is closed with a gate until enemies arrive. Equipped with a crossbow she alone may be a truly horrible thing to siege. Unless some Forgotten Beast with poisonous vapors or something like that comes.

By any chance are you using modded raws?

That's a very reasonable question. But no, I don't. I don't even know how, I only tweak d_init and init according to the instructions in these files.

I'm not pretending I don't suspect this strange cursed creature may be a glitch born from abusing the game. Because I sort of have to use a few features of DFhack, otherwise I get down to 9 FPS at the population of around two hundred and that's really unplayable. My dwarves usually end up owning herds and herds of every kind of creature, it really messes with FPS too, but even a fortress with nearly no animals is so very slow.

All I wanted to know is whether there exists a type of cursed creature besides vampires and were-animals that may do the thing my dwarf does, or is this really a glitch and I shouldn't speak about anything being strange unless I abandon all unsanctioned tweaking and modding )

[PatrikLundell]

Well, you can test your dwarven stare on some less worthy foes, such as blind cave ogres or other cave denizens. You should also get titans/FBs from time to time, although such tests might prove fatal.
By the way, are only dwarves affected, or does she affect your livestock as well?

- Restricting the animals' pathing options (though pet impassable doors) is supposed to help FPS drain (although there was a bug that caused pathing even when doors should block it).
- Also, reducing the max pop can improve the FPS (although less than 80 will effectively disable goblin sieges).
- A pocket map costs less from an FPS point of view.
- A map with a short history and culled historical figures should also help.

[Quietust]

If you really want to find out what's going on, upload a copy of your savefile to DFFD or some other file hosting service and one of us can take a look at it.

[Sutremaine]

By any chance are you using modded raws?

That's a very reasonable question. But no, I don't. I don't even know how, I only tweak d_init and init according to the instructions in these files.

Where did you get your download of DF from?