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[TheCheeseMaker]

I did a test fight with a copy of the save to see how dangerous the demons were.  As of right now, it doesn't matter which demon the dwarves fight, as each of them individually have the ability to wipe out the entire fortress, and there are at least 20 of them.

The chickadee was by far the deadliest, though. With the ankylosaurid, the dwarves at least could fight it for a little bit.  The chickadee attacked once with its deadly dust, and when the dust cleared, everyone was dead.  Even with legendary military dwarves in adamantine, I'm not sure we could kill it. 

I never got a chance to fight the pterosaur, as the chickadee killed everyone before the fight began, but I agree with you, in that it's probably is the weakest of the three.

Can you knock demons unconscious? I've never seen that before, and thought it was impossible.

[Nep Nep]

I believe that cave ins will knock them unconscious, you can then trap them to make good zoo attractions

"STEP RIGHT UP TO SEE A HORRID ABOMINATION THAT SHOULD NOT BE! ONLY 5 DOLLARS!"

[De]

Dust, dust is the worst, followed closely by webs. I would go so far as to say the only way to face such a creature is through an aforementioned stupid dwarf trick. Those aren't my specialty personally. I've never intentionally caused a cave in in my life though I have... well never mind. The sad thing is that chickadees are actually my favorite bird.

[PatrikLundell]

Titans/FBs are stun immune, and I would assume clowns are are well. My normal "fighting" tactics are cage traps (won't work on clowns etc.) and menacing spike traps on repeat (for clowns, titans, and FBs). Those too tough for my green glass spikes are usually cave-in killed. You can also use ballistae and fortifications to achieve safe vermin extermination. All of these hinges on the vermin pathing through your tunnels, of course. I did, however, eliminate two camping clowns using a ballista down at the circus recently.
If you're feeling dorfy you can also use obsidian casting.

And, by the way, if you're building a zoo, you can have them breed (I did get 20 or so born by campers in my tunnels (the non trapped parts), and it's happened to me before as well).

[TheBiggerFish]

PTW!

[DDDragoni]

This is excellent, TheCheeseMaker? Could I get a dwarf, perchance? Any will do. "Dragoni" is fine for the name.

And, by the way, if you're building a zoo, you can have them breed (I did get 20 or so born by campers in my tunnels (the non trapped parts), and it's happened to me before as well).

Demons can breed? Well we're screwed now.

[PatrikLundell]

They breed just fine. I had about a dozen message of "a boy", "a girl", "twins", and "triplets" (looks the same as when e.g. magma crabs give birth). Didn't help them when I engineered a cave-in on them and their parents, though. I guess I got something up towards 50 in one fell crash.

But yes, if they're roaming the fortress and don't circulate (which I guess the invaders don't do) I guess you can get quite a few of them to process. All the more reason to have a smooth industrial process...

Another nasty piece of info: Some of them are sapient, i.e. their remains generate horror, while others are not. However, since they're procedurally generated they match every refuse stockpile that hasn't gone through a "block all", so if you use one sapient refuse stockpile and one regular one they'll normally akk go to the regular one. Dumping or forbidding and leaving the remains where they are are probably the best options.

[TheCheeseMaker]

Chapter 4: 1000 to 1 are Good Odds, Right?

Journal of Asmel, 15 Granite, 1001

Today is the first year anniversary of our arrival here in Axedipped.  I would like to show how far we’ve come since then, but in reality I’m just glad that not everyone here is dead.  It’s been five months since my last journal update.  It’s not that nothing has happened, it’s just that none of it has been important enough to right about.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My

Shortly after the expedition into the lower levels of the fortress, a new group of migrants arrived.  Once again, no one too special showed up.  Of the seven dwarves, four became militia members, two became miners, and the seventh became a thresher/farmer/does whatever other crap we need done kind of dwarf.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

One of the first things we did after the other migrant wave showed up was remove the flooring on the spiral staircase and move it a few levels below the surface.  Now we can access the lower levels without having to pierce the cavern, something we’re definitely not ready for yet.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Kivish got stuck in a tree again, somehow.  Man, I really hate that guy.  He’s obnoxious and annoying and spams me with cancellation announcements and is generally just a pain.  After another few days of interrupting our work, we finally got him down.

Spoiler: Upper Axedipped (click to show/hide)

The rest of the time spent over the last few months has just been building a new set of rooms in stone.  These look a lot nicer than the old, sand rooms, mostly because I plan to use these rooms for much longer, probably until we kill all the demons (you know, if we kill all the demons).  Also, we expanded the one tile wide spiral staircase to three tiles, so we get less clogged up when multiple people need to change rooms.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, on the first day of the new year, a goblin messenger arrived, declaring that with the death of the last of the great powers of the old world, a new age has begun, one where goblins are the masters of the world.

I want to know why they think that they have the right to declare themselves rulers of the world.  Why not dwarves; why not humans?  Both of us are pretty powerful, right?  The goblins can’t be that much stronger than us.

Spoiler: Well, Maybe. (click to show/hide)

75% of the humans live in one of the two goblin civilizations, too.

The reason I choose to write my entry today is that we have completely abandoned the sand fortress.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The only dwarf that remains is Amoth.  We can’t move her coffin without fear of disturbing the dead, and so she will remain there. Long after the other dwarves have moved on, she will sleep there undisturbed, forvever.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A floor is built our old home for the past year, and we say goodbye with the most fitting and respectful ways we can think of.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Journal of Asmel, 21 Granite, 1001

Something is wrong.  We only noticed this today, but the demons have begun to move.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While before, the demons content with staying in lower axedipped, recently they have begun to surge through the spiral staircase, coming to rest only a few levels below our floor.  Every night, they scream and beat against the ceiling.  It grows louder each day as more demons are added to the horde.  Right now, only a small wooden floor separates us from life and death. 

Good thing we can build indestructible wooden floors.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A fourth type of demon is now visible through the cracks in the floor.  This one is a wraith of flame.  It’s simply a large ball of fire with wings.  A single hit to anywhere but the wings should be enough to kill it, although I would not engage these creatures in a melee.  Between the wraiths of flame and the one eyed brutes, I don’t believe we can take on the demons in straight-up combat anymore.

Journal of Asmel, 28 Granite, 1001

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Todays is the day.  If any more migrants were to come, they would have done so by now.  It only just occurs to me that we were not visited by a caravan in the fall.  I know that the civilized dwarves all died out long ago, but I always felt that, maybe there were others.  I thought there were more.

But it’s now clear to me.  We are alone.  Nobody is going to come help us, and there is no place for us to run.  We are the nineteen dwarves of the Sunken Anvil in Axedipped.  We are the last of our kind.  We are those who are stupid enough to keep fighting when we really should leave.  It’s possible that the demons of the fortress outnumber the dwarves.  There is no more room for error anymore.  Any losses we take marks a devastating blow, both to morale and to our population.

We are to siege a fortress entirely controlled by the most powerful creatures on the planet.  We will not receive reinforcements.  Losing means not only the death of our race, but the invasion of the world.  And we are already are outnumbere by the enemy.

Bring it on, bitches.

OOC:

So that's where we're at.  The game, especially in this new version, has always acted very strange with dead civilizations, but this is one of the best.  Even if it's possible that we will receive migrants later on, I'm going to set the pop cap to 1.  We will not receive any more migrants past the nineteen that are here.  I also do not plan to savescum unless I do something incredibly stupid that leads to the death of the entire fortress.  Just to add some more tension to the fortress.  More Fun.

@Nep Nep: If we could somehow put webs onto cage traps, then we could capture them.  I'm not sure I have the skill with this game to do this, though.

@De: Yep.  Dust sucks, especially in the tight corridors of this fortress that guarantees slamming into an obstacle.  There's pretty much no way to beat these guys in melee, and I'm just happy the rest seem to have fairly tame powers.

@DDDragoni: I'll get you in the next update.  Do you have any preferences at all?  If not, I'm probably going to assign you to the last member of the starting seven, whose a wood burner/brewer.

@PatrikLundell:  I guess that means that we're going to have even more demons to deal with in the future.  That sucks.  In the past, I've dealt with demon waves though the menacing spike traps you talked about.  For a community fortress, though, I want to deal with them in a more exciting way than locking them in a room and slowly poking them to death.  Obsidian casting sounds tempting, but to do that I'd need to cut off their access to the magma sea, which means fighting through a couple demons who stayed behind and are guarding that area.  Hmmmm...

[DDDragoni]

Wow. The only 19 dwarves in the world against a horde of demons, in the ruins of an ancient fort where all three of the world's great monsters died. It's almost poetic.

If you set pop cap to 1, that will prevent you from rebuilding civilization with your dwarves' children. Idk if that was your intent or not but I digress.

The brewer/wood burner is fine.

[De]

Wow. The only 19 dwarves in the world against a horde of demons, in the ruins of an ancient fort where all three of the world's great monsters died. It's almost poetic.

If you set pop cap to 1, that will prevent you from rebuilding civilization with your dwarves' children. Idk if that was your intent or not but I digress.

The brewer/wood burner is fine.

I know. You can almost imagine this scenario being something a hero would visit in a fantasy novel about something else, the fortress of Axedipped where the last dwarves in the world stand vigil over the Underworld.

How do you get the population numbers? I've tried messing around with Legends Finder but every time I try "exporting" legends it crashes not just the game but my whole computer so I must be doing it wrong.

[Foton]

I think marriages and children should be encouraged, because it is the only way to increase dwarven population.

[TheBiggerFish]

I think marriages and children should be encouraged, because it is the only way to increase dwarven population.

Which said means we need to leave pop cap up...

[TheCheeseMaker]

Chapter 5: Two Down, Eighteen to Go

Journal of Asmel, 20 Slate, 1001

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Erib has asked us all to call her Dragoni.  She originially was a wood burner a year ago when we were making steel, but recently she’s worked more as a brewer.  When we get our metal industry up and running again, she’ll probably work on a combination of her two skills.  Now I am the last member of the starting seven to not change my name. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The demons have stopped their migration to Upper Axedipped.  Whether all the demons are directly below our new floor, or there are more hiding deeper in the fortress remains to be seen.  What we do know is this: we may never have another chance to trap this many at once.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We created a way to attempt to trap the demons.  A small stairway is constructed, running parallel to the spiral staircase.  At the top, a door is placed and a wall is partially constructed.  This way if the demons breach the hallway, the door will slow them down while we work to complete the wall.

Near the bottom, another door is placed for good measure.  A single tile will be dug.  A rock block, placed directly next to the tile to be dug, will then be used to create a wall, which will create a floor on the tile above it and should trap every single demon banging on our gates.

The plan carries a lot of risk, though.  If the dwarf who builds the wall is not fast enough, he or she will face the wrath of nearly every monster in Axedipped.  Luckily, I know the dwarf who would be perfect for this scenario.

Events of 25 Slate, 1001

Kivish grumbled.  He never liked Asmel, and it was clear that she didn’t like him.  They disagreed on almost every point. 

Asmel said they should stay in Axedipped and protect the world from the demons.  Kivish pointed out that most of the world was made up of goblins or goblin-allied humans who would be completely fine with a demon invasion.  In fact, only the nineteen dwarves that lived in the fortress and a tiny human hamlet showed any civilized behavior at all.  Their best chance of survival would be to run to a remote location, build a fortress without contact with the surface, and hide underground for the remainder of their lives.  They couldn’t risk everything for a few humans who never really helped them.

Asmel said that they needed to focus on real skills that would lead to the survival of the fort, like mining and weaponsmithing.  Kivish disagreed.  Even though they were few in numbers, lye was still instrumental in producing important dwarven commodities, like soap.

Regardless of what Kivish wanted, Asmel was the expedition leader, the manager, and the bookkeeper.  Without her, the dwarves would be completely aimless and lost.  Because every dwarf agreed with what the expedition leader had to say, Kivish was forced to go along with it as well.  That’s why when Asmel proposed her plan to ensnare the demons, Kivish didn’t even bother protesting it.

He protested a little when Asmel asked for volunteers to be the dwarf to build the wall, then immediately thanked him for volunteering, even though Kivish had done no such thing.  PsychoAngel gave him a look, and whatever thoughts he had of refusing vanished.  Everyday, Kivish thought that dwarf was growing closer and closer to reflecting her namesake.

Kivish walked down the staircase.  The other miners had done a marvelous job carving them out of the rock.  He took the time to marvel at everything they had accomplished since his arrival at Axedipped.  In just a few short months, the dwarves had identified their enemy, built a new fortress directly above the conquered ruins of the old one, and formulated a plan to defeat their foes.

Perhaps the plan would work.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Kivish began to dig.  One of the other miners had been nice enough to lend him the a pick.  After a couple good swipes, he had broken through.  He then immediately began to take the rock block and work on building the wall.  Nothing else mattered.  If he could not build the wall in time, he would die, no question about that.

Spoiler: So Close, Yet So Far (click to show/hide)

It was a noble effort.  If the dwarf had just a few more seconds, it’s possible he would have made it.  But as he was nearing completion, a one eyed brute appeared and kicked him in the leg.  Kivish gasped, clutching his leg, then dropped to the floor in pain.

A few more kicks and Kivish was reduced to a pile of broken bones, flesh, and blood.  With the guardian out of the way and the wall incomplete, the demons swarmed through the new stairway.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The dwarves above had heard the screams, and had already prepared for this worst-case-scenario situation.  Immediately after Kivish was attacked, they rushed to the wall to complete it.  Much like the floor nearby, the wall was indestructible.  Without a way in, the demons stopped their charge and waited, and watched. There was no rush; they had all the time in the world.  When another mistake was made, the demons would know, and they would not let the dwarves forget it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A total of twenty dwarves had called Axedipped their home in the past year and a half.  They are the last line of defense between security and destruction for the world.  And they have lost another.  Eighteen remain.

OOC:

Based on popular demand, the pop cap will not be changed to 1.  I have modified the raws a bit hopefully to allow for goblin sieges even with our low population, so we’ll see if that works out or not.  Also, about two hours after making my no savescum rule, I was already thinking about breaking it, before deciding not to.  I’m just going to have to be more careful in the future.

@De:  I don’t know, I’ve never used legends finder before.  I always just use the straight vanilla legends mode.  When you do that, all you need to do is press ‘p’ and it will add the information to the df root folder.  Then just look for the name of the save you exported followed by ‘world sites and populations’.

[TheCheeseMaker]

Chapter 6: The Prologue is Finally Over

Events of 26 Slate, 1001

Eighteen dwarves gathered in the dining room.  Despite its relatively small size, the room could easily hold the entire population of the fortress.  Asmel stood on one of the tower-cap tables.  Before she spoke, she looked at the others.  Some seemed to be handling Kivish’s death well, mainly those who didn’t know him well.  Those who had arrived to the fortress with Kivish, however, seemed much more distraught.

Asmel herself hadn’t felt much when Amoth died.  She figured that the military commander died bravely, defending the fortress from the outside fortress.  With Kivish, though, it was different.  She didn’t even like the lye maker, yet she still felt like the fortress had suffered a great loss. Because we have, she thought, with Kivish’s death, the dwarven population has now been reduced by over five percent.  We’re running out of dwarves.

The expedition leader then turned to the others.  “Listen to me. I made a mistake,” she announced. “I tried to do too much too quickly.  Kivish never should have been placed in that situation.”  For a second, she briefly considered stepping down as expedition leader, then decided against it.  “We have time.  We have all the time in the world.  The demons below are not going anywhere.”

Someone threw a rock mug at her, which was especially strange because dwarves don’t even drink alcohol from mugs.  There was no reason to bring the mug into the dining hall in the first place.  Kivish dodged the object, then looked for its source.  Deciding she couldn’t find it, she moved on.

“I’m sorry,” she continued, “We were too busy focused down there when we aren’t even prepared to survive up here.  I can’t fix my mistakes, but I can make sure something like that won’t happen again.  That’s why we’re going to get this fortress up and running before we even think about the demons again.”

Asmel wanted to continue, but for a second she thought she would cry.  Not wanting anyone else to see her like that, she stepped off the table and left.  The other dwarves waited in the dining hall for a few minutes, then they left too to resume their duties.

Journal of Asmel, 3 Felsite 1001

We have begun to work on the other aspects of the fortress that we’ve missed so far.  Progress is slow, because of a lost pick and our general lack of knowledge about key aspects of fortress design, like stone detailing.  No one in the fortress is even a novice at it, so we’re learning as we go along.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We can’t recover Kivish’s body, since it resides in demon controlled Lower Axedipped.  For now we engrave a slab for him, in order to put his soul to rest.  I’m sad that he died, but his description, lover of chestnut wood, reminds me of why I hated him.

Getting stuck in trees, loving wood, having a pet animal that he loves more than people, always disagreeing with the dwarves, who does that remind you of?

Journal of Asmel, 19 Galena 1001

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As of today, the dwarves in PsychoAngel’s squad have gained enough skill to be considered spearmasters.  They continuously spar and train all day.  It’s good that they’re all so strong since, well…

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The demons taken residence in the failed trap from a few months ago.  A single mistake in our digging, a single wrong removal of a wall, and they will swarm the fortress.  We will need strong military dwarves.

Journal of Asmel, 26 Galena, 1001

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The bedrooms have been finished.  Everyone, except PychoAngel and me, has their own bedroom, complete with a door, bed, cabinet, and coffer.  The entire area has been smoothed, too.  Work continues on the metalworks, among other locations.

Journal of Asmel, 6 Limestone, 1001

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Catten, one of the wrestlers from the second squad, has killed a snake.  Congratulations on killing something twenty times smaller than you.  We should congratulate Lambsinsects next on killing Kivish next.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In actually important news, our forges have been completed.  Already, De, Tilat, and Dragoni have begun arming the other four dwarves in the military.  We have found tetrahedrite, which means everyone gets copper armor and weapons.  Hooray!

Journal of Asmel, 26 Limestone, 1001

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After some deliberation, I have decided to take away the spears from PsychoAngel’s squad.  I know they’re all better at using the spears, but those kind of weapons are nearly useless against demons.  Axes and swords are our best bet.

Events of 4 Sandstone, 1001

PsychoAngel, Iton, and Atir gathered near the bottom of the spiral staircase.  For a few moments, they waited.  A miner soon came by broke through the wall around them.  The three dwarves poured out into the cavern layer.  Quickly, the civilians resealed the wall behind them.  While the rest of the fortress worked on created a safe entrance to it, the squad would explore the uppermost cavern layer.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The three dwarves cautiously walked around the surrounding area.  It was unlikely that anything more threatening than a troglodyte lived in the caves, but then again, in Axedipped titans within a few months of arrival at a fortress and demons escape Hell for no reason at all.  The three were on their highest guard.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, until Iton decided to take a nap in the middle of the incredibly hostile wilderness, surrounded by deadly monsters with only a few scant pieces of armor for protection.  PsychoAngel and Atir thought they should at least get back to the fortress to sleep, where they would have a few scant pieces of armor and a small wooden floor to protect them from the horrifying monsters of the deep.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The cavern itself was very wide, which was good, but it also had steep changes in elevation, making it impossible to see more than a few meters in front of you.  Regardless, the dwarves explored the caverns and then made their way to the newly formed access tunnel without incident.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We're going to replace the wall with a set of two drawbridges for safe, easy access to the tunnels, but a wall will have to do for now.

Journal of Asmel, 27 Timber, 1001

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The noble rooms are completed, and by noble, I mean PsychoAngel and myself, of course.  We have so few dwarves that nearly half the fortress counts as a ‘noble’ in some way, even Degel, our broker, who has absolutely no job because we were never visited by the humans, meaning that we will never actually trade with anyone.

Journal of Asmel, 8 Obsidian 1001

Work on most of the civilian aspects of the fortress are completed.  Right now, we’re working on building a hospital and a prison.  I realize that these are rarely, if ever, going to be used, but for the time being, I want to make this fortress as normal as possible, and if that means making a hospital when our primary enemy is much more likely to murder everyone rather than just wound them, so be it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

All we need are those finishing pieces of furniture.  If we do it quickly, we might be able to finish before the year is over.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Or the only two dwarves we need can go on break right now, instead.  That’s cool too.  It’s not like you haven’t done anything besides haul for the past few months and we only need you to actually do your jobs right now, and you decide to do absolutely nothing..

Oh, wait.

Journal of Asmel, 1 Granite 1002

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We have been here for two years now.  We’ve hit some rough patches, but overall we have been relatively safe.  You know, relatively considering we’re surrounded by demons.

It’s time to do something about that, though.  For the last two years, we’ve mostly focused on civilian matters.  There were military parts, of course, but our main goal was survival.  That stops now.

We have a few finishing touches to put on the hospital and a few other areas, but once that’s done, our attention will turn to the creatures below.  After two years of waiting, we're done with our preparation.  Now it's time to fight the war.

[De]

That's life man, sometimes you just need a break.

Hahaha! I hate when dwarves do that too. In Parallel Fortress I had a doctor who would go on break literally the second her patients made it to the hospital. My dwarf suffered a massive head injury, that's probably not a spoiler at this point, and was moved to the hospital. The doc decided to go haul a bunch of stone instead of seeing to her. I disabled all the doctors other jobs and so she went on break, of course. I fired her an appointed someone with no diagnosis skill at all in her place. It was still a better set up.

Getting back to the fantasy novel aspects of this situation. I can't help imagining what it would be like to live in a wold knowing extreme cosmic dangers threatened from every side and that you were the last of your kind in such a hostile world.... But then I remember about the great void of space, meteors, global warming, the giant earthquake building up under Yosemite (I think it's Yosemite), and realize you'd probably just learn to ignore it.