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[BodyGripper]

After several months without playing, I recently resumed my game.  Usually when I do that I get bored with my old game and start a fresh one, but I still have some big ideas for Wordmachine.

It's built on a 1x6 map, with a volcano at the far south and a river at the far north, and a mountain between them (The volcano is sort of in the mountian, but not the highest point).  It's been reclaimed once or twice.  At the base of the mountain is a tavern, the Old Treasury.  Since this seems to be where most of the invasions happen, I have built my first successful magma chute there.  It works so well, my pastures have never recovered from the first test!

Higher up inside the mountain, near the top, there's a temple to The Aquamarine Walls, the god of mountains, which overlooks the volcano to the south.  But even higher, above the top of the mountain, is the temple to Ertal, the god of wealth and (in my imagination) official deity of my fortress.  This gold, marble, and green glass structure also contains our Trade Depot.  The inconvenience of hauling every trade good to the top of the mountain is nothing compared to the luxury.

Down around the volcano, I've built my metal and glass industries, as well as most of my construction and mechanical work.  Unfortunately, the magma level has gone down slightly since the game started, and my original magma forges no longer function.  Luckily I eventually found a channeled out area where I still have enough to get some work done.

Down in the caverns, I've locked away all the worshipers of Merseth, the god of gambling.  There are also some non-believers that got stuck down there with them.  Probably 20 or 30 people overall.  I'm still not sure if I want to make a permanent settlement down there, but I do want some of that colorful wood!

Back when I reclaimed, I wound up with lots of old merchants and other characters marked "Hostile", in what I assume is a common bug or feature.  I've mostly just tolerated them, since they never seem to act on their hostility.  Since my military is becoming quite formidable, and I haven't had any real conflict in a while, I've started slaughtering the hostiles, one Z-level at a time.  Hopefully no current guests get swept away in the tide.

[Libash_Thunderhead]

We are mountainhome now.
It is quite boring to have a glazer king and a peasant queen.

[rhavviepoodle]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yay, it's a hallway of death and somehow it worked. This will be my first time exploring HFS, so wish me luck...

[overseer05-15]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yay, it's a hallway of death and somehow it worked. This will be my first time exploring HFS, so wish me luck...

To Armok I commend your soul save

[Libash_Thunderhead]

This is what happens when you collapse a castle 100 z levels above the ground.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I should have left the king and the quee alive, to attract more migrants.

[PlagueGiver]

Well, my dwarves were massacred by a horde of goblins, so now 4 children are running the fort, living alone, playing around the corpses of their parents and the corpses of goblins. And, the fortress attracts no goblins. Welp, captain sinks with his ship I guess.   

[TD1]

Bet you'd like some "dirty migrants" right about now, huh? 

[PlagueGiver]

The irony strikes you at the worst of times 
Now I have three ghostly papermakers who have risen and are killing off the kids. Damn papermakers. Always knew they were trouble...

My settlement has crumbled to an end. ADVENTURE TIME!

[imperium3]

Work on the defences of Sunnymines continues. Currently we are raising the curtain wall to 2Z high, as well as continuing to fill the moat with menacing spikes (making that many takes a long-ass time, even with only one spike per tile).

We got attacked by a wereskink recently, which exposed a few issues with our defences. Firstly, our extremely amateurish militia never showed up - they ignored the station order, carried on with their jobs and then all went to sleep. That's probably a situation that won't improve for a long time, as I don't see the point in having dedicated soldiers before I have weapons and armour for them to use (ATM they are just miners using their picks). Secondly, nobody bothered to pull the lever that closed the drawbridge, despite it being in the meeting hall full of idle dwarves. Only when I set it to high priority did anyone actually pull the thing, and that was in the nick of time.

Fortunately casualties were light: one pig and one cat killed, and a planter victimised (he fell into the moat which probably saved his life). So far as I can tell, he wasn't bitten, but I've walled him up by himself for a while just to be certain.

[StarWars1981]

An unfortunate accident last night with a grate (unfinished???) and a deconstructed floor claimed the life of the fort's only woodworker (17 dwarves, from 2 migrant waves - zombie siege has had us locked up for a year now), leaving apparently two others with injuries. A later unexplained fall into a breach in the caverns that was neglected due to its position beneath the central stairwell (oops?) cost the trader/records keeper/manager/Expedition Leader his life, and caused serious injuries to a militia commander (Legendary Miner, too). Being locked inside on short notice, unfortunately leaving all creatures outside except the dogs, and a lack of pig tail seeds (could've sworn I had some ...) means we have no cloth for bandages, or thread for sutures, so ahhh ... dead dwarves coming up? The zombies are not leaving, we've missed the Dwarf caravan by now, and I doubt the other civs know of our pitiful existence yet. So several dwarves are basically doomed to rest. However, we have a well and a plump helmet farm, and are nearly ready to move the entire fortress down into the lower reaches, beneath Cavern 2, above our magma furnaces, where we will build a new future, away from the blasted surface world, though a small contingent will remain in the initial fortress areas, managing a small farm and the jewelry shops, to pay for things we need. Like everything metal but copper ... dangit. And gold, lead, and silver I suppose, but still ... I guess I'll have some super-heavy maces and warhammers sometime.

And there's magma pockets blocking everything I want to build in this blasted fort, and it's spread 40zs apart, so if I need anything, I go up, and if I want to build, I go down, and it takes forever. Soon it will end though, as I burrow workers in the right spots! And they'll never see the sunlight again, except the traders, whose unfortunate business it is to bother with the surface world.

[Fleeting Frames]

@Starwars: Hm. You know, you can probably gather pig tails from the caverns, provided you can safely manage to do so. Possibly by cave-in, if it is filled with undead?

[pikachu17]

5 dwaves still lived. they were all hammerdwarves, and they were mad as hell. their opponents: 9(count 'em, 9)... giant... zombie... badgers. That's right, their opponents were giant, undead, AND badgers, and there was 9 of them. I would have liked to have just avoided them, but inside the fort there was not enough food, and my dwarves were starving, so I had to let them out to eat. One of the dwarves decided that grabbing a random corpse piece and taking it inside was a good idea. considering it took him right to the badgers, it wasn't a very good idea. I could have just left him to his fate, but I'd rather lose 5 through war, than 1 through  my own refusal to help. I sent the other 4 dwarves at the badgers yelling "CHARGE!!!"(okay, I didn't actually, but I though about doing so.). I thought all 5 would die, but in an astounding turn of events, the 5 ripped apart the 9 giant zombie badgers. By "ripped apart", I mean actually ripped apart. they hit them so hard with the copper warhammers, that their HEADS got knocked off! I'm pretty sure 'Sigun of the Isle' got enraged while fighting the giant zombie badgers. I was astonished by their victory. since I thought they could handle themselves, I let them scavenge and take supplies inside the fort. when  'Amost of the wild' canceled collection on acount of 2 giant zombie kangaroos, so I sent all 5 after them. The kangaroos somehow slaughtered most of them. I managed to realize their power in time to sound the retreat. only Sigun got away. I got him inside, and locked the door. I didn't let him out, until three migrants arrived. I let them inside the fort, and locked the door behind them(yeah, I know, but I didn't have a mechanic yet.). I was having them engrave some slabs to get rid of some troublesome ghosts, when suddenly, unbeknownst to me, they ran out the un-locked door(I don't know how it got unlocked. could one of the ghosts do that?).  A sudden horde of raven corpses took out Sigun and two of the immigrants, but I managed to get Sakzulsumun(one of the two immigrants), a mason-mechanic, back inside. I passed some time by having him make some cage traps, when the godsent message arrived. "a caravan has arrived". the caravan went up to the fort, and took out all the nasty zombies hording there. I was thus able to recieve some immigrants:Edzul, a armorer; 'speedy 7' one of the starting 7 of a different fort; an outsider adventurer, and Litast, who had no useful skills. I attempted trade, but for some reason no one would go the trade depot to trade. A guard marksfwarf named 'Tulon Egenkubuk' took out three zombie ravens with a steel crossbow. before I knew it, the caravan left. as it was leaving, a horde of 4 giant magpie zombies attacked the caravan, scattering it. then they attempted revenge for their raven cousins by attacking Tulon. He fought valiently, by bashing the birds with his steel crossbow, but it was was not enough. they knocked him down, and though his cloak, robe, and leather armor provided some protection, they were soon ripped to shreds. Remembering the help Tulon gave us by dispersing the zombies, I sent all 5 of my people against them. the only one who got their in time was Litast who I had pinned as 'Useless Litast' for his lack of skills as soon as he got here. Litast proved his usefulness by fighting the magpies until better skilled fighters could arrive, but alas, though his actions did save Tulon, the soldiers did not get there in time to save Litast. Today, my dwarves toast the sacrifice of Litast! May we honor his memory!
Whoa, I had no idea that was going to be that long of a story till I wrote it.

[Fleeting Frames]

Or so hard-fought. Clinging to life by the barest dwarves, that sure sounds exciting.

[pikachu17]

Or so hard-fought. Clinging to life by the barest dwarves, that sure sounds exciting.

Thanks for the compliment.
This was my third reclaim of this evil biomed fort. Turns out underground creatures can turn into zombies, which I had no idea. One particularly angry troglodyte zombie got up at least 3 times, which I've counted from kills by the dwarves, but that's only from dwarves. I'm pretty sure he was killed twice by dogs. If you're wondering how I got the retreat, we ran out of alcohol. this world had no dwarves other than the ones I made, as the dwarven civ had died, possibly from beak wolves, honey badger men, goblins, or tigermen.

[StarWars1981]

My fortress sort of crumbled a bit.
So, the zombies returned. The livestock was quickly herded inside, the fort locked, and though the dwarves bemoaned the lack of alcohol, the fortress would live. Back to the forges, need to order some more copper equipment, as that's all the fort had. "Urist McLegendaryMiner/MilitiaCommander cancels XYZ: Interrupted by elven Maceman corpse". Crap, what? At the fortress heart, one level below the surface, there are cancelled jobs. No zombies in sight, but that's cause they were coming down the staircase. One of the doors, presumably missed or unlocked because of my blasted sticky, broken keyboard was left wide open, and they took control of it. This was a zombie siege, the necromancer was here, and they were already inside the doors. A Legendary miner with a copper pick fought - and his puny weapon bounced off of everything it hit. Oops. Needed something ... better. He died when 20 zombies mobbed him, before he even got close to his objective - the necromancer herself, a Dwarf. Dang traitor. I'm gonna have to adventure and raid that tower, probably with an axedwarf or some such. Preferably with steel equipment that I will manufacture in my next fort, presuming of course I can acquire any. Perhaps bringing 3 steel anvils would allow me to exploit enough steel out to make a set. Anyways, I'll have to join these necromancers and slowly kill this traitorous dwarf. Maybe there's a way to kidnap her and lock her somewhere in a retired fortress ... hmmm. Could be useful, having a captured pet necromancer, especially if I've destroyed the rest of the necros in the tower. Although that's a fun way of getting excitement, given that you have to be secure long before you can get a good metalworking industry up, even if you don't have to break a 9-z aquifer and a cavern layer first ... to find only tetrahedrite, native gold, and galena. Lead, silver, gold, and copper with a chance of a little bit more silver. Yaaaay.

Well, fort died, I abandoned because the militia failed to get the necromancer, crushing my forlorn hope that perhaps all the zombies would die if she did. But don't spoil it, please - I'm looking forwards to a repeat performance, given I can find a fortress site in the area meeting my criteria. These being multiple available metals in both layers (shallow/deep), no aquifer this time, and flux stone. Steel, here we come, and then we'll depopulate the tower remotely. And if nothing else, I become a demigod Axedwarf of Armok from HFS (which I nearly breached in the fortress, I was trying to get down there. Might need to go down and carry all that ore to my other fortress, now there's an idea.) and pack along several dwarves and a masterwork set of armor from the new fortress and take'em out the hard way, bringing that slab on back for my own twisted uses ... mwahahahahahaaaaa and all that.

I have plans.