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[The Hadad]

So to make things interesting, I've been trying to start a fort in an evil biome. For my most recent attempt, a site with Haunted forest to the west, Haunted hills to the east, and Untamed Wilds mountain to the south. Almost immediately upon unpausing, it starts raining abhorrent muck, which seems to make dwarves dizzy, but that's it. I dug out an entrance hallway, a stockpile area, a few trees, set up a trade depot--things seem to be going OK. Even the presence of the undead giant louse wasn't too terrible since everyone was underground already.

Then all of a sudden, infernal dust husks out of friggin' nowhere.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The above image actually shows every announcement since starting the embark. As you can see, there was no indication that there was any infernal dust anywhere, so what's the deal with these husks? I look at their inventories and see yup, completely covered in both abhorrent muck and infernal dust. Is it in the dirt? No, dirt's normal. Is it those cyan patches on the ground? Nope, that's ice. Where is this stuff coming from?

I kept the game going to see if I could find out how this was happening, and a few seconds later, I noticed the zombie louse had changed:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now, I remember checking the louse before, and while it had been rolling around in the muck, I was pretty sure it hadn't touched any dust or messed with the husks. Yet there it is, more dust! And pus. Apparently the abhorrent muck also causes creatures to secrete pus from their bodies.

A thought occurs to me--is the muck causing the infernal dust to appear, somehow? Curious, I look at my four remaining dwarves: the miners started digging before the rain started, so they're fine. The brewer had actually managed to wash the muck off before the louse cadaver appeared, so the only dust he was in any danger of getting into contact with was the dust on the enthralled dogs in the process of mauling him. The expedition leader was covered in the muck (but had no dust), so I moved the game forward frame by frame to see what would happen to him.

About fifteen to twenty frames later, this is his condition:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

From this I could only come to one conclusion: when the abhorrent muck dries, it becomes infernal dust. The fact that one of the cat-husks had dust but no muck also seemed to indicate this phenomenon.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And that's what got me to register. Hi everybody.

[flabort]

A... Syndrome covering that causes another syndrome covering? And the second one is huskifying? 
Cool. See if you can weaponize it.

[Dr_Nocturne]

A... Syndrome covering that causes another syndrome covering? And the second one is huskifying? 
Cool. See if you can weaponize it.

Why would you want to weaponize it?! It seems to be a foolish idea since it would bring them back stronger...

[flabort]

  Why not? Your argument is probably along the same lines as Oppenheimer's was, and these are DWARVES. They weaponize everything so much more than we humans do.

[Mr Space Cat]

I've had a similar case with husks, though in my case everything on the surface just got flat morphed into husks, no rain, no dust notifications, nothing. Just everything that happened to be outside on the surface at the moment decided to become gloomy dust husks. All future attempted embarks in the biome were instantly huskified the moment the embark loaded, as well. I lost the first fort to the husk swarm, which was a shame, it could've been the ultimate zombie survival test.

It was probably a glitch with my presetting all evil weather to 0 types in world gen.

[The Hadad]

I haven't done anything to the evil weather parameter, so either this case was a freak accident, or embark sites with multiple evil biomes cause the effects to compound each other. Either case is pretty nefarious and befitting, though.

A... Syndrome covering that causes another syndrome covering? And the second one is huskifying? 
Cool. See if you can weaponize it.

I have no idea how you would do that even if you wanted to. I mean, it starts as rain covering half the embark site, meaning attempting to safely control where it goes and who it touches is highly impractical if not outright impossible. How do you catch every raindrop that falls out of the sky?

[varnish]

Well no wonder this dwarf civilization is doing so well!

Blasphemy!

The fortress that picture is from actually has had an interesting start.

In the first minute or so, all but one of the founders were slaughtered by zombie goats, (isn't that always the way?) but he managed to dig down to safety,  and bring an axe with him. That's all you need to survive. By the time more migrants had arrived, he had set up farms, workshops, and bedrooms, and had a good store of food and booze, all in the caverns.

The migrants came in two groups. An older childless couple, and a younger couple with a four year old daughter. The younger couple were torn to shreds by the former dwarfs, but the older pair and the kid made it down.

So now it's just the four of them, clinging to survival in the caverns. I like to think that the older couple have chosen to foster the kid; they've both already made friends with her. She's going to make it ok, I think.

[Eric Blank]

Having just embarked, I am confronted with a dilemma; the dwarf I gave spear skill loves battle axes, and the dwarf I assigned axe skill loves spears. What the hell?

[Orange Wizard]

Having just embarked, I am confronted with a dilemma; the dwarf I gave spear skill loves battle axes, and the dwarf I assigned axe skill loves spears. What the hell?

They'll fall in love with each other's weapons. It will be weird when they spar...

[Eric Blank]

Well, at least they're sparring.

Both my original miners died due to a poorly-planned channeling designation that resulted in their deaths. Beyond that, all goes well...

[0cu]

I found out about DFHack rev3 and enabled the military training tweak and 8 of my speardwarves became masters finally after years of training.

[Dawnofdarkness]

My current fort has run into a bit of a problem. It is an all above ground fort with granite walls and wooden structures it is built on the banks of a major river and holds the entire north east section of the map. My problem is this, as I was playing yesterday right before I got off a goblin ambush came. Now if this was a normal fort of mine it would be fine. the problem is that I have only a population of 19 dwarfs none of who have any gear for combat. The only defense i have is a prototype spear golem (I am using the masterwork mod) in front of my bridge. Normally I would just pull the bridge up but the lever to control it is still being made.

Overall i have no defenses and only one golem to fight off the ambush. I am only in the summer of my second year with basically no wealth. Anyone got any ideas on how i can save this fort as this is my most successful above ground forts yet.

[MrSparky]

Get all dwarves inside buildings. Lock doors. Build walls behind doors to be extra safe. Wait for the gobbos to leave.

[rawrcakes]

Beyond all logical explanations, Organcrafts still stands.

The first fall brought, for the first time in my experience, a kobold ambush. My militia dwindled to 4 quickly, but thanks to the caravan guards, managed to beat off the bow-armed kobolds. A goblin siege arrived the summer or fall after, crushing one of my militia squads and also killing my military commander, who was one of the starting seven. The mourning families of fallen dwarves started tantruming, but calmed down eventually without any adverse effects.

To prevent death by the realistically escalating goblin attacks, I had a corridor filled with spikes readied. During the next siege, fifteen goblins, two militiamen and three soldiers died to the spikes. However, no tantrumst his time.

The crypts are getting filled. Of the 58 coffins, 39 are filled so far.

[MrSparky]

It's the spring of our second year and Weakenedchannel is doing too well for it's own good. Just after carving and smoothing out half of the 80 bedrooms we got a migrant wave of 23, bringing our population up to 41. We do not have enough food or drink. The main dining room is still being dug out and a hospital and barracks are next on the list. A woodcutter had a mood and made a native gold earring worth 72k. She's now an L1 engraver.

We were attacked by a were-gila monster. Did I mention the lack of hospitals and military? It injured some tame yaks and killed the wardogs we brought with us but that bought enough time that he changed back to a goblin before injuring any dwarves. Thankfully were-curses aren't transmitted to animals.