In the soon-to-be-mighty fortress of
HammerHold, located in a terrifying wasteland, clouds of cursed soot never stop drifting nearby; transforming any living creature into a feared thrall.
Deads tend to rise too. But not everytime (luckily for me, ravens never do).
I embarked once, crumbled to ruin after like 6 months, because zombie chain reaction... Reclaimed; managed to get three dwarves safely inside the bunker. Luckily, one of them had a pick on him.
Why only 3 ? Mostly because after reclaiming the fortress, every
fucking turkey I embarked with on my first attempt (their eggs are usefull !) turned zombie and is now roaming on the surface. Which means I had ~50 zombies to deal with (turkeys + merchants + ravens + dorfs), in a map where I have no wood for cages, and only three survivors. And the zombie counter was only increasing.
They managed to survive eating plump helmets gathered from a cavern and drinking its water. They watched helplessly the incoming migrants getting converted by the zombie army outside. When merchants came with food and drinks, they would turn thralls too.
Some migrants make it through the zombie horde and increase my fortress strength. But only one or two at a time.
I safely sealed a portion of the first cavern. Which means I have about 20 wood. No more. But painfully, my dwarves trapped the zombie army using clever door forbidding / locking shenanigans.
Three years in. My population is now of 19. I have 80 deaths. I have a necropolis full of engraved slabs to appease the ghosts. I managed to trap all 100 zombies using door tricks. Then I lead them 20 by 20 into cage traps. I then pit the zombies into magma (which took a while to acquire), and repeat, untill the zombie forces are destroyed !
Three years in, and I finally start reclaiming the surface. No zombies nor clouds on sight ! I send recovering expeditions to get the valuables of the outside, and order the construction of a security perimeter. I can finally deconstruct my wagon and get more wood. I start looting the long abandonned caravans.
But then, I see an announcement "Urist McDwarf stops [whatever], interrupted by dwarf thrall". WTH ?? This thrall was in my meeting hall, and killed four before I got him under controll (read "before I closed the doors").
Took me a while to figure that out, but
this dwarf got thralled because he ate a fucking strawberry the elven caravan brought years ago. This strawberry got contaminated by the cursed soot, and a stupid dorf ate it... zombifying him.
I carefully checked all food stockpiles for anay contaminated vegetable after that.
But anyway, my fortress is still standing
strong, and I'm having Fun !
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6230757 times)