Had sealed off the caverns, which I made a staircase between all three, with a drawbridge, content to watch the beasts do their thangs. Including the forgotten beasts that were busy in a perpetual fight against the nearby wildlife. Two particular offenders was a web-spewing turtle and and massive skinless ape with a taste for blood. Decided to mount up my twenty strong military and route these beasts, as well as anything that annoyed me. Closed the gate behind me too. Then we got a siege, just as the gate slammed closed. I had spent more time making stuff underground and micro-managing my craftdwarves to make a cool crown than I had putting defenses around my fortress, and it showed. The beak dogs were the first to get to us, then the trolls. They rushed straight to the settlement, a troll ripping down the door, and then they swarmed the rooms where dwarves slept and ate. Luckily the duke was rather safe, with his room full of tamed alligators and pair of giant war lions. The miners and woodcutters held out pretty well, and the hunters who were sitting about in the statue garden on the roof began to pick off attackers from a distance. A pack of elephants waltzed into the coming horde of goblins, killing a few before dying. It looked pretty good, the civilians being able to somehow hold their own without the military, but then the goblins got past the front door and the hunters became useless. It became a slaughter. Only two goblins died inside the stronghold, one to a wandering alligator, one to a hunter who stood in a hall shooting away. Underground wasn't going much better either. The skinless ape was an oddly good fighter, pulping arms and legs with punches and dodging most attacks. My artifact-scimitar wielding sword master wasn't doing that good, as a lucky shot to the left upper leg knocked him out in the beginning. Finally, the hammerlord got a good shot in the apes skull, crushing his brains. The military wouldn't be able to get to the civilians, the lever was in the stronghold, which was now the goblin's. We decided to avoid the web spewing turtle. Currently my military, sans a speardwarf, are camped out, eating butchered draltha meat and drinking foraged plump helmet wine. With no access to an anvil, we are trapped here, underground, with a forgotten beast prowling the depths, hunting us, our stronghold filled with goblins and trolls.