Arrowfire has just seen its first major attack since its founding. As a human caravan was about halfway to the fort's entrance, a vile force of darkness arrived. Fortunately, I had completed a massive for expansion just a few months earlier, and the defenses held flawlessly as the Goblin squads milled around outside the walls on the way to the hall of death. The human caravan itself was, in fact, not too badly injured; I counted only one dead pack animal and perhaps a merchant. All the guards, however died. Most of the merchants had the good fortune of being brave enough not to run away from the entrance as they were chased by goblins, but one was not so lucky, and his pack animal was beheaded.
I now have six or seven goblin prisoners, one of which is a master! Huzzah!
I intend to throw him into my death room from a low level, so as not to kill him directly... I wish to keep him locked up down there and wait to see what I might be able to pit down there with him. I captured a helmet snake a while ago, perhaps I'll throw that down there with him and see what happens.
But this was not considered a 'major' attack for no reason. Moments before the goblins flurried onto the surface, a forgotten beast in the form of a shelled, fire-breathing worm showed up. Naturally, I sent my mostly adamantine squad to wait at the door for it to arrive... but as they were smashing it down, all six of those who had assembled in front of the doors went back to the stockpiles, presumably to put their fucking socks away. As a result the beast smashed through the door unopposed and made mince out of my guard-wolf that I had stolen from the elves.
Things went downhill from here. Because of the rather lackluster ordering system, I was unable to rally the troops at the top of the stairs which led down to the cavern, for they disobeyed by station order. Thusly, several dwarves went down solo to try and take on the beast. Now even though I had clad most of them in adamantine, the dwarves were still quite prone to being bitten to shreds. And that's what happened... Most dwarves dodged it for a while, and slashed gaping holes in its shell, but still the beast inevitably grabbed one of their limbs and shook it off like an accessory.
After munching on four dwarves in this way, a duo finally arrives while the worm assails a crippled dwarf. They manage to stab it in the body... which gored its brain apart. All in all, six or seven dwarves died today, which doubles the fortress's body count after 5 years. Two dwarves managed to escape the beast with their lives, but they are both missing legs, and therefore will not be returning to service.
I sure hope I can get some more military dwarves somehow... I'm currently still over the cap with 124 dwarves, but I don't see much any other way to acquire dwarves worth their combat weight.