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Roll back to before Taupe's disastrous turn

Keep going and see what happens

Let it die

[Monitor Lisard]

Writing stuff on phone equals having problems with format. Also, don't worry, Blackwood isn't as OP as he probably looks. Two alternate endings were left just for fun and for readers choice, unless you want to believe that the elf gave the Prosecutor visions or something. He is is a vampire-like creature and an elven sorcerer, after all.

About the "accident"... I'm not really sure. Was going more for a hired assassin or a mind-controlled troll/ruthurer here. Sith-style force push sounds cool, though.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing".

[Splint]

@ Mr Frog - "Snowball" is a bit of an understatement.

[pisskop]

. . . Holisitic Spawn!  From the gates we heard their unholy wails,  guttural noises; and the entire military musters to defend the fortress and the caravan.

  The caravan guards kept the critters at bay long enough for us to swarm over the spawn, macedwarves smashing at feet and teeth while the spearmen aimed for the brain and the marksdwarves provided rather ineffective cover fire.  It wasn't that the marksdwarves missed so much as they couldn't cause damage to such a monster.

Spoiler: Fight01 (click to show/hide)

Array

  The fight went well, everything considered.  We lost a few unnamed recruits.  From the shadows emerged more and more spawn, likely theives who also took part in the fight.  Clouds of mist spored over the ground, and into our arena.  We have indeed confirmed that the arena will be periodically covered by mist.
  When the main fight was over we had more spawn teeth than we knew what to do with, but we still had even more spawn to struggle against.  I'd wager that the spawn are good experience for a massed unit of dwarves, because I can't recall them falling unconcious.

Spoiler: Fight02 (click to show/hide)

  As winter fell upon us we began to clean up the surface and continue our arena.

[pisskop]

. . . Also you can see I set up a ton of golden nest boxes and pastured all the egg lays of the fort into the room.  We have a female cave croc trained, and I'm contemplating letting her in there.  probs will.

[pisskop]

So guiz.  those bashees are just too weak.  They came on giant bats and with with auxillery trolls.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[pisskop]

Also

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

defanging the spawn seems pretty valid in in-of-itself

[pisskop]

Arena is a-go-go

[Mr Frog]

Writing stuff on phone equals having problems with format. Also, don't worry, Blackwood isn't as OP as he probably looks. Two alternate endings were left just for fun and for readers choice, unless you want to believe that the elf gave the Prosecutor visions or something. He is is a vampire-like creature and an elven sorcerer, after all.

About the "accident"... I'm not really sure. Was going more for a hired assassin or a mind-controlled troll/ruthurer here. Sith-style force push sounds cool, though.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing".

Kinda disappointed that it was just alternate endings, tbh; I found the whole "wait, wasn't he against this!? What did Blackwood do to him!?" angle really disturbing in a surreal sort of way. Like, I thought Blackwood had tampered with his brain while he was out or something (since that's within the range of powers vampires classically tend to have) and I just find the whole idea of having your mind tampered with without you even knowing absolutely-horrifying.

Spoiler: Non-Fortress Wankery (click to show/hide)

Also, if Blackwood is actually some kind of ancient vampire, I'd imagine he'd have some kind of rivalry of sorts with the Royal Archivist, as they'd both be vying for the role of "Really Really Old Thing That Manipulates Shit From Behind The Scenes" and the Archivist does not like sharing. I'd imagine there'd be a bit of tension there, since they can't really do anything about each other -- the Archivist can't eliminate Blackwood indirectly since he's probably good at hiding and getting zombies to recognise and attack vampires is an absolute nightmare even for an experienced necro, and a direct confrontation would be disastrous for Blackwood since he's still undead and so is probably extremely vulnerable to the Archivist's necromancy. Ohhhh, I love this.

One small bitch, though: Blackwood probably shouldn't wear special armor. Drawing attention to oneself seems like suicide for a vampire.

@Pisskop

The banshees are supposed to be pretty weak in direct combat. Their main function is to force you to keep the fort both combat-ready and open at all times, since if a large ambush party turns up and your fort is closed they'll very likely to be able to get off at least one wave of screams before you notice them. Ditto if a huge siege turns up and you lack the personnel to combat them; you can't just shut them out because they'll just cripple your workforce and leave you to perish in a hail of Urist cancels Give Water: Unconscious and Urist cancels Give Food: No food available.

[pisskop]

So umm, highlights of my reign include a baby falling into the volcano and finding adamantine, Splint dying, goblins ambushing, 2 or 3 holistic ambushes waves and 1 holistic siege.  And I completed my tomb and I have a hero's name!

[Mr Frog]

So umm, highlights of my reign include a baby falling into the volcano and finding adamantine, Splint dying, goblins ambushing, 2 or 3 holistic ambushes waves and 1 holistic siege.  And I completed my tomb and I have a hero's name!

How the fuck did you manage to lose a baby in the volcano

This is going in the quotes bank just for that first clause.

[Monitor Lisard]

@Mr Frog:

Being an elven outcast among highly-chauvinistic dwarves, he would've been suspicious even without armor. He's in a slightly more difficult position than the Archivist, because, unlike her, he cannot enjoy free movement in the mountainhome or acceptance of the local population elsewhere. However, he utilises the same tactic of hiding behind a well-known public figure, one of the duces, for example. I don't know if His Gaudiness knows full truth about the Archivist, but His Exellence does know who he is employing. In fact, he wanted to make use of Blackwood's special talents in spite of him being a vampire and such. And yes, he is good at hiding.

If Blackwood being able to alter one's thoughts wasn't too OP, that would be the easiest thing he could do. Grab the Prosecutor (vampire fists do pack quite a punch), half-drown him to a point of unconciousness and then conduct a dark rite to change his memories. Sweet.

[Mr Frog]

@Mr Frog:

Being an elven outcast among highly-chauvinistic dwarves, he would've been suspicious even without armor. He's in a slightly more difficult position than the Archivist, because, unlike her, he cannot enjoy free movement in the mountainhome or acceptance of the local population elsewhere. However, he utilises the same tactic of hiding behind a well-known public figure, one of the duces, for example. I don't know if His Gaudiness knows full truth about the Archivist, but His Exellence does know who he is employing. In fact, he wanted to make use of Blackwood's special talents in spite of him being a vampire and such. And yes, he is good at hiding.

If Blackwood being able to alter one's thoughts wasn't too OP, that would be the easiest thing he could do. Grab the Prosecutor (vampire fist do pack quite a punch), half-drown him to a point of unconciousness and then conduct a dark rite to change his memories. Sweet.

Spoiler: More Non-Fortress Wank (click to show/hide)

Vampire mind-control is typically very very limited in stories anyways. It varies, but direct prolonged eye-contact is generally a must throughout the act, they usually can't be wearing any sort of eye coverings (which would also make the Archivist a thorn in his side, because she wears extremely thick lenses), and even then it's possible to resist the control with enough willpower. A complex mind-fuckery like what Blackwood did would be pretty much require the victim to be unconscious and unresisting throughout. Jarring the victim (physically or emotionally) also tends to end the effect, I think, although there may be permanent damage done in this case.

My main concern with the armor is that they make him too recognisable. He could probably easily blend in as an elvish slave or freeloader but the armor gives him too much of an instantly-recognisable, conspicuous look -- it'd be hard to keep a low profile. Although, something that occurs to me is that he could still easily pretend to be an ordinary elvish hobo and only put on the armor when it's time to get dirty, thus being able to keep to himself while the authourities waste time chasing a "black knight" that doesn't exist.

As another detail, I'd think that the armor would be fairly-light (although he'd still be completely-covered by dark cloth and stuff), as he'd probably need to move stealthily.

I think the royal family is aware on some level of what the Archivist is -- they may not know the full extent of her powers, but they do know that she's immortal and has been the family's personal advisor since before the kingdom's formation, and has simply been quietly rewriting the Archives every 80 or so years to say that she'd taken up the position a few decades ago after her (nonexistent) predecessor died or retired. Knowbody knows enough about her to question it since she rarely appears in public, and the few that do know better than to broadcast their suspicion.

[pisskop]

Winter

  The winter was heralded in by a second banshee siege.  This time they brought along their beak dogs and trolls, but fared little better.  We fought them out of our entrance hall, shoving them back to their swamps and capturing 2 beak dogs.  I have chained one up for practice.

Shortly after the breaking of the siege, before all the militia even got back inside, a holisitic ambush took place, and we smote that as well; with 2 casualties.

Spoiler: smite (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Toothes (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Splint (click to show/hide)

  during the fighting, Splint was stricken down, and we are left without a leader for our army.  I have taken over in the interim.

  With all of the blood and guts flying around, I have finally finished the preperations for the Cistern.  I have modified a mining shaft to hold water, and hooked a door up by lever to contain the water.  If the water gets out, it will flood downwards!

Spoiler: cistern (click to show/hide)

  Luckily, most of the fort is well above the water line I have created, and it even drains into molten rock, so expect nothing more than a huge movement of water and steam.

I have ordered the master engraver to engrave my quarters, alone and without help.  This will take longer, but ensure it is done right.

Spoiler: Engraver (click to show/hide)

  He's so good the walls actually look alive with children when painted red

In obsidian, a goblin Siege appeared!  The goblins have decided to join our neighbors in securing our destruction!  We will brush aside the single squad of pikemen and secure my place as a hero, as I now have 4 noteable kills.

Spoiler: Goblin (click to show/hide)

  They were interrupting my preperations in the arena.  The arena was functionally complete, but I wanted it spiced up as much as possible.  I've added a statue down there, a hol3 for corpse removal, 4 weapon traps with 1 iron maul in them apiece, and then some blinders for the hauling dwarves who kept shying away from the arenas inhabitants.

Spoiler: Arena (click to show/hide)

  Anyone who operates the arena should keep in mind that the top designation zone is for creatures, the bottom for refuse.

  Well, to get back from fun to war, the surviving goblins fled north, passing high fives to a newly arrived force of Holistic spawn.  This new siege, the third wave of attack, required we only regroup and wait, as we are all already topside and prepared for the fighting.

Spoiler: High Five (click to show/hide)

They were put down like those before them, at the cost of a few more lives.  The militiary is in poor spirits; although adding the 'patrol' fix might help a lot.  I haven't used it. >.<

Spoiler: End (click to show/hide)

  I recruited Splint's second-in-command to take over for him, ensured my tomb was sufficiently laid out, and retired to my room across from my Son's too war wary to tend to the needs of the fort for the time being.

Spoiler: Hero Pisskop (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Pisskop's tomb (click to show/hide)

  I, Pisskop Speakerguild the Apex of Tragedy, have even gone as far as to kill a holistic spawn with my crossbow.  With my steel pick, I will smite those who would dodge justice!  . . . just not as the supreme overseer of logistical operations any longer.


  The map layout, without downloads.
The Fort Download.

[Splint]

Wow. I'm calling bullshit on that death. What the fuck killed me? Bleedout? head damage?


EDIT: Why is it the minute I leave the soldiers under anyone else's care they start dying?

[pisskop]

Soo.  I dont have anything 'ongoing' for the next player; so much as 'little touches'.

I have set up a hospital, have several refuse points, set refuse cartiledge and 'other' to be dumped in the hole in the arena, and have moved the masonry to the bottm of the second cavern.  There is iron somewhere around that level, look for the tunnels and excavations I've done in the lower right.

I've set up hotkeys for my own convenience, and there is a room that used to be a hospital 2 zlevels above hotkey F6 that is now functionless.  We need more dorms, and I only added maybe 12 beds to that; but we do have a topside dorm with 15 or so beds.

Ive set melting down of imported goods to the top left smelter, and havent' designated the goblinite to be melted yet.

We have a cistern and several wells, so keep an eye out for spooky substances and what dwarves go where.  We have a functioning jail, but had no use for it because the mayor is the only one to issue demands and thus far his demands have been easy to fill.

We despairatly need iron armor, so please review the military rooster and equipment for that.

The seeting mist will come from the volcano caldera and will smother the crater, so call the dwarves inside if need be.  I've set 'Topside Restriction' burrow to do this.

I saw a GCs in the second caverns, as well as a cave dragon.  They'd be of use caught alive.

Keep an eye on the birds using the farm nest boxes.  Whether or not you want baby birds.


pedit: We need more soap.