Hi all. First post after a year of lurking and playing. Recent events were too epic not to share.
My fortress, BootNotched, almost succumbed to invaders. Usually I build a tight perimeter with walls and gates, and an airlock for the depot, but I was lax. I got distracted with temporarily diverting the river into the first cavern so I could build my meeting hall and grand dining room around the natural waterfall. That project was successful, and the comforting waterfall surely saved the day.
Soon after that project was done, I moved the gate guards drown to the hall to train in the mist and stop their grumbling, but I failed to close the inner gate immediately. The fortress was suddenly hit with several squads of ambushers, lashers and bowmen, who killed almost everyone. The raiders left with a few children in cages, with a handful of mortally wounded dwarves left behind. My legendary mason was in the main hallway and a sworddwarf was in the hospital.
Despite the danger, migrants arrived! I immediately set them to building coffins, hauling corpses up to the daylight, and patching defenses. Unfortunately the last step was not completed in time because another ambush breached the walls and rampaged again. When the goblins retreated, I had one living dwarf, Avuz the soaper. I set her labors to refuse hauling, burial and furniture hauling, and she diligently hauled rotting corpses, installed coffins, and buried the dead. She took breaks in the misty dining hall, which surely kept her sane in this difficult time.
While she labored, an outpost liaison showed up, and elevated the fortress to a barony. Since Avuz was the only inhabitant, she nominated herself to be the baroness. She kept working, and had buried almost everyone when more migrants began arriving.
Two migrant waves later, the population is near sixty, I have two full squads training and cage traps in front of the inner gate. I'm enjoying the challenge of dealing with all migrants to repopulate after the disaster.