Carnagemines has finally lived up to its name. The Great Vampire Fortress has become a bloody mess, after a tantrum spiral took the fort from over 180 beards to just 22.
Those 22 have finally gotten over the horror of watching their entire fort dissolve in chaos and berserkers and bloody fistfights. Two military dwarves remain. The ghosts are beginning to vanish, as the survivors clear up specific corpses. I don't know how many there are left to bury. Of the survivors, two are military dwarves still training around the armor stand in the main entry hall. Seven or eight are lying in the remains of the hospital, tended by the other ten who are all doing triple duty as undertakers, surgeons, and haulers while I put the fort back together. I need to build more coffins, so soon I'll enable masonry on all of them as well.
Two of the original seven remain: Three and Four, our only remaining miner and carpenter, respectively. Four's masterwork spiked balls have fueled the fort's commerce for a decade and a half; Three has pioneered dozens of new projects and has personally excavated hundreds of tons of rock. He will hopefully not die of dehydration in the next few weeks - maybe I should deconstruct his hospital bed so he stops lying around with that silly lower arm wound.
Eventually I'll reclaim everything. The main entrance is completely sealed right now and will remain so even in the face of migrant waves - because someone smashed the levers that control the main drawbridges. That's not surprising; both levers were in the main entryway to the dining hall. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
For fifteen years this fort has stood strong. It shall not fall now. I still have the bloodwell to transform migrants into vampires. Booze stocks are still high enough to last a few years, even once we begin getting migrants through. This tantrum spiral will be remembered as a time when all hell broke loose upon Carnagemines - succeeding only in burning off the dross to purify the ore.
EDIT: A4, a legendary weapon smith and furnace operator, has died of thirst lying on the floor of the hospital. Apparently no one could be bothered to bring her anything to drink. It's not like she could singlehandedly forge a steel axe blade capable of cleaving a demon in two, or anything... right?
*deep sigh*
Armok damn that goblin-sucking elf-slurping kobold-screwing hospital bug.