Re-installed Ubuntu on a whim to clear out anything I might have screwed up. it actually helped with a few bugs that were happening, so I'm glad I did it! On the other hand, I had to re-install dependencies for Dwarf Fortress, which required looking up some stuff. Still worth it.
Anyways, once I got that figured out, I re-opened my fort and re-started work on making wood-block rooms with single types of wood. First goal is my first dining room, which will be a chestnut block floor. It's coming along nicely. I have no doubt that the elves are cringing by my destruction of the forest. Strangely I have gotten a rather large number of carpenter migrants with great, master, and grand master carpenter skill, so this is going smoothly.
My coffin industry is buzzing along too. It's not for the reason you might think though - no we are not having an unusual amount of deaths. What we are having is an unusual amount of undead who happen to have once been dwarves. A handful of dead dwarves, a crapload of dead undead dwarves. Go figure.
Speaking of worthless corpses, my migrants finally appointed a mayor. We made some rooms specifically for her, and she's been happy. Good for her I guess. She likes spears as well, though I'm still deciding whether or not that's a good thing. We don't have the materials to make many spears, but when they are made they will be useful.
Speaking of weapons, and going full circle to why we don't have that many deaths - it's entirely because I have so many practicing hammerdwarves. Sure, they're mediocre-equipped (copper warhammers plus leather outfits), but they still tear through things like crazy.
Just now I recieved a notification - a vile force of darkness has arrived. Send 4 legendary squads of 2, they're wiped out. Leave the other 4 less than legendary squads to guard the front staircase. Oh no! the dead walk at the same time? There are 4 necromancers on the screen, along with some 70 undead (and plenty of dead to refule)? Heh, I take this as a challenge! Every citizen - get underground!
After the goblins were wiped out - with only a few undead killed:
http://imgur.com/a/kcyha#0And... why we won! 2 soldiers killed, and a handful of citizens. The soldiers that died weren't fully trained yet, and the apparently all of my soldiers abandoned the front gate as soon as some undead came close enough for their taste. Not the BEST defenders yet, so I think I'll have to create a new burrow-alert for them to stay close for the next time this happens. We killed 3/4 of the necromancers though, so in total a success.
My 114 dwarves are going to be very busy cleaning this one up.