We embarked to Vesselrays about 6 years ago, and we finally have a reliable source of clean water near the fort proper. The murky pools on the surface were enough to survive this far, but it's nice to have clean water again. Just needed to pump it 110 floors up from the 2nd cavern layer, since we got a muddy first cavern with no water to be found. I hear those are rare, but this is my 3rd one in about 12 forts, across 6 different worlds.
This fort hit the mineral jackpot. Iron, Silver, Lignite and Coal visible from the surface, before we even started digging. Once we got a few levels down, we found more gold than we could figure out what to do with, Sphalerite, Tetrahedrite, and a little bit of platinum. Not to mention the Marble Layer. We set up a metal industry before the first caravan even arrived, and by year 2 we were trading gem-encrusted electrum and gold baubles for anything useful a given caravan had on it, while we started to kit out the military in full suits of steel.
All that was secondary to the main conceit of this fortress though -- The dwarves of Vesselrays, settles in the wooden swamp to establish the first vegan mountainhome to be seen in The Continents of Fortune!
Dumping the migrants non-vegan clothes has been rather obnoxious, but I have to say the challenge has been quite a bit easier than I was thinking it would be*. We've lost 6 dwarves to failed strange moods, Thek knew what they were signing up for when they came here, they can't expect us to butcher some poor animal just because they got inspired and want their pyrite hatch cover or whatever to menace with spikes of bone.
About a year into the pump stack project, A performer in our tavern, through conversations with some rivals, was made queen! I'm not sure who her opposition was, but, thankfully we had enough electrum, gold, brass, and platinum furniture to set her up with royal rooms without much issue... She keeps asking for satues and figures, which, is fine by us -- the smiths and metalcrafters would be making those anyway.
About a year after she was made queen, we were promoted to a barony. This was around the same time as the pump stack being finished, and us finally having clean water that isn't half a day's travel into the depths.
Other things of note: We got attacked by a giant who was carrying TWO artifact battle axes. Luckily, it couldn't make good use of them and died to 6 axedwarves surrounding him, tearing fat and chopping bits off until almost everyone involved was passed out exhausted, at which point someone finally landed a lethal wound and the giant bled out.
We got one goblin "siege" so far... if you could even call it that. it was one group of about 10 goblins. We closed the drawbridge and made sure the military was assembled and had their newly-finished steel armour on for it jsut in case, but, the goblins only managed to wound some poor wild alligator. Not a single injury among the dwarves. That poor alligator didn't make it, but neither did the goblins.
In the first cavern layer -- the layer of mud and rock, that we sealed off because there was nothing of value to make it worth the potential dangers of keeping it open -- a gigantic 3-eyed fire-breathing chicken with a square shell and green feathers has been roaming around, immolating anything that crosses it's path[[Including my framerate, so much fire]]. We could probably kill it, but, it hardly seems worth the danger of opening the cavern, and exposing ourselves to not only this chicken best but the giant cave spiders and the like lurking in the dark corners... or at least, there WERE giant cave spiders, they may just be half-melted pools of chitin and silk by now. Poor things.
* I've done vegan and vegetarian forts before, I remember it being more difficult, but, the only things I haven't been able to make really have been backpacks and quivers. Backpacks are mildly annoying to do without, but brass flasks keep the soldiers hydrated at least, so military still don't break station all that often honestly. And who needs quivers and crossbows when you have 30 well-trained dwarves in full suits of *steel* armour, shields, and weapons, and a roof over your head to keep flying beasties in axe range?
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6188464 times)