I'm about to have to dig twelve graves.
Arrowfire, prior to this, has been unstoppable. With only a few deaths scattered here and there, the dwarves' master of engineering has lead them to a long, successful life.
Then Kul came along.
"A great feathered leech, it has a square shell and a gaunt appearance. Its BRONZE feathers are long and narrow. Beware its poisonous vapors!"
When it first arrived, I wrote it off as harmless. This was because I thought I had sealed off the first cavern layer, after a stripping operation of a small portion of the caves' woods and plantlife.
There was one small opening, only one, through which my captain of the guard unwittingly passed in a hunt for spiders' webs. Though the beast was too slow to catch up with him, when they first encountered one another the startled terror released its deathly gases.
Thankfully, the captain decided not to try and duke it out against this guy using his wooden axe. Instead, he ran right back the way he came. Before he even got halfway back, however, his body erupted in blisters, inside and out. He was dead moments after the extract began to take effect.
Now knowing the power of this beast, I panicked to try and seal off the breach.
This was not at all effective. By the time the captain died, the beast's bloodthirst went off. It stormed in the same direction my captain had taken... while several dwarves ran out to attempt to recover what of the captain's stuff I had failed to forbid. I naturally made sure ALL was forbidden, yet several of the woodcutters with orders to chop trees continued in the direction of the approaching terror.
The beast stormed up onto the upper entrance level, sliding along towards my hauling dwarves. Fortunately, only one of them got close enough to the beast to be affected by its noxious outburst... but that dwarf died even faster than the captain. I decided to cut my losses and lock the doors leading into the cavern layer, in spite of the two or three dwarves still wandering down there on various tasks. Things started going my way after this; if I could get the beast into the trap hallway it would be caught in a cage thanks to my tamed giant cave spider+cage trap combo.
The beast smashed one of the doors down. My main military force was now active, waiting around the corner should things go south with the spider.
In the time it took Kul to destroy the second door, more woodcutters and haulers started storming down the cage hall, now that the previously locked door was gone. Infuriatingly, one of the bloody workers ran right into the freaking beast before FLEEING INTO THE CAVERNS. If he hadn't appeared, the GCS would have trapped that horrid monster in a cage, and I would have thrown it into magma and have been done with it.
This was not fated to be. After chasing the woodcutter to the northern extreme of the cave level, Kul got bored and, thankfully, started sliding back towards the door. Things started going back my way again, until another wave of workers stormed out of the entrance and repeated the woodcutter's idiotic scheme.
At this point I decided that I would never be able to lure the beast into my traps. With one door missing there was no way to stop the dwarves from entering the caverns... So I sent the military after the beast.
Being clad in full adamantine, and all being at least adept with their respective weapons, the dwarves quickly dispatched the beast... but not nearly quickly enough. It had covered every single one head to toe in its extracts. With a heavy heart, I removed their kill order, and watched them march a few triumphant steps away from the beast before they dropped their weapons, and went straight to the ground.
Such is the present state of affairs in my fort. Ten dwarves are lying in a limbo, waiting to die, covered in fatal juices, in one of the most heavily-trodden areas of my fortress. I wonder if this is the beginning of the end for all of my dwarves
In hindsight I realize that I really should have simply left the bloody caverns alone. My decision to clear them of resources was purely on a whim, with no element of necessity present. I didn't need either the wood, nor the gems, nor the plants I took from that cave. My greed, I see now, was the downfall of the lives of these twelve dwarves, ten of which were vital parts of of the fortress's past and, probably, future.
Also, your input: Is it safe for the bodies to be hauled? I'm going to put them into a dwarven atom smasher, so contamination after disposal isn't too much of a concern, but if the haulers catch anything... all hell will break loose.
Additionally, what in god's name do i do with the equipment? Simply laying it to disuse seems unthinkable, but I don't have any methods for washing it off...
Edit1: Holy shitballs, one of the squad members survived. The lucky/lazy bastard was up in the barracks, probably scrambling for his equipment, whilst my other dwarves were down there being killed.
Two options for this guy: Magma, or leader of the new army?
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6225253 times)