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[lobstercow42]

Some context. I was doing pretty well and felt pretty confident when an undead siege arrived around my 4th year. I had walls all around and the fortress pretty much sealed off (a bit lame but I hate trying to fight the zombies). So after they sat in the corner of the map for a year or so I got a bit lazy and started letting my dwarves back out into the courtyard (still surrounded by a wall). Needless to say FUN! ensued. A wild skunk got close to the horde and brought them over the fortress where it managed to find an up ramp next to my wall that I did not know was there. The slaughter was swift and brutal, but I managed to get one of the og 7, a legendary miner, away and buried in his own little hovel. I raided the caverns for food and he is officially self-sufficient, even happy w/ all the goodthoughts from drinking booze. He even has a troll buddy who smashed all the workshops and then turned non-hostile. Sooo....

My question: If I wait long enough will more migrants start to show up or am I doomed? I would prefer to keep the fortress going/don't want to have to clean it up with reclaim.
If Tulon Lolorlular can't be saved I wanna send him off in an extra dwarfy manner so I am open for suggestions!

[TheBiggerFish]

You will get migrants, yes, but they may die.

Hermit fortress is a thing though.

And BE CAREFUL OF THE TROLL.

[Innocent Dave]

Until the undead leave, any migrants arriving on the surface will be having a hard time.  You may be able to make a new entrance away from the horde and hope caravans and migrants show up on that side of the map.

Of course, if ALL of the undead are now in your courtyard, which presumably has limited exits, you may be able to tunnel to the surface, quickly block / excavate / whatever the remaining ways out, and then just build a new main entrance, either ignoring or disposing of the zombies at your leisure.

Just be aware that more of them will show at some point.  Also, I have a feeling even a friendly troll will still destroy buildings for fun, and may require walling into a small room once you get an economy going again.

[PatrikLundell]

No migrants will arrive while a siege is ongoing, but siegers will leave after one season or one year (probably random which they chose). Of course, if the undead are unable to find a path to the map edge they'll remain until a path is opened or they are eliminated (hard to do with a single dorf, but not impossible).
Note that visitors are currently too stupid to keep away during sieges.

Since you've raided a caravan I'd expect the undead to have left, however, since caravans won't show up either if a siege is on.

So, will you get migrants: In principle yes. Migrants are kept away by dwarf loss in your fortress (they don't want to move to a death trap), so that may keep you from attracting migrants for a while. Also, migrants are attracted by caravan reports of wealth (or possibly the trade liaison handles that report) and, I think, caravan profits.
Thus, I'd set my hermit to produce stuff to be sold off and stop raiding caravans (at least dwarven ones). One way to quickly "export" wealth is to convert stolen goods to "locally produced" goods either by melting and reforging, or by encrusting with gems.

I'd also consider putting a roof on the courtyard once you've gotten some migrants.

Finally, I second TheBiggerFish's troll warning.

[lobstercow42]

thanks for the input guys! So far I have just had the last dwarf digging tunnels and engraving all the walls and floors (should increase fortress value?). It's been a season since the siege arrived so it's looking like I will have to wait a whole year. Was thinking about trying to divert the river to sweep away the invaders but I'm guessing zombies don't drown.

As for the troll it is interesting. he came up from the caverns and smashed all the workshops and the floor hatch which was supposed to stop cavern creatures (didn't think they could attack up). After smashing the floor hatch he has stayed on the up/down staircase tile since. My dwarf isn't scared of him even though he is listed as wild animal, and the dwarf still uses the stairwell without problem. Tried making some buildings to see if he would move but haven't had any luck so far. As a precaution I built all my future workshops behind a long row of stone traps.

Also I haven't had an undead siege in a while, but there doesn't seem to be a necromancer with them as none of my slain dwarves have been resurrected and all of the undead are currently huddled around the only "invader" on the list, a living goblin maceman. Is this unusual?

[TheBiggerFish]

Is the goblin maceman also your necromancer?
Or are they attacking him?

[PatrikLundell]

One or a small number of living non necromancer "handlers" is what I normally see on black tower sieges. In a few cases a necromancer shows up stealthed and either flees when detected or gets caught in a cage trap. I've yet to see any necromancer actually raise anything, though (I haven't given my captives any opportunity, of course).

[lobstercow42]

Its actually looking like he might be my necromancer. Didn't think any of my dead dwarves got resurected but just noticed my master bookbinder at the bottom of the list. It is hard to see his symbol among the 50 undead with him. Also under his health page it says he is distracted, might have to do with why he isn't moving? full health otherwise and not fighting the zombies around him. Looking at the combat logs though it seems some of the undead were fighting each other. Few logs in a row going.
"The dwarf swordsdwarf corpse charges at the goblin maceman corpse"

Update: just found the combat log for the non-undead goblin and his only combat reports are him fighting a stray duck and running into one of the corpses then standing up

[ClorrProdigal]

Could he be a vampire that the zombies have decided to ignore?

[FallacyofUrist]

...
welp.

[lobstercow42]

Sorry for the absence! Out of town for a couple days.

So in the end I couldn't figure out who/if there was a necromancer as I didn't want to risk my last dwarf. After a year they left and within a season I got a migrant wave. After another year I had about 30 dwarves and a goblin siege. Somehow during the siege a weremouse got into my fort (can visitors be were-creatures?). This led to an outbreak of rodenthropy within the fort and a surprisingly violent tantrum spiral (didn't think mice were that vicious!).

As for the mystery troll! He stayed on his perch on top of the stairs until a visiting goblin axeman smote him. This was also interesting as I thought I was supposed to be at war with the goblins. A second troll did try to break into my fort but was promptly killed in the middle of an angry brawl of were-mice, war dogs, and dwarves. Thanks for all the help/recommendations everyone! I really enjoyed getting a good story out of this fort

[PatrikLundell]

- Visitors have been reported to turn were, yes.
- Mice usually aren't that violent, but weremice are different.
- You were at war with one goblin civ at the time. There usually are more than one civ of each race in a world, though, so the visitor probably came from a different one.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

What was the goblin's name? It could have been from a human civilization .

[azeroth2b]

To answer the other question -- yes, visitors can be were-beasts. 

I discovered this as a visiting elf turned into a were-something-or-other in the planes beneath my wall.  I sent my marksmen squad after him... which promptly ran out of bolts.  So I released my brawlers after him and the whole thing turned into a keystone-cops-esque chase as both the bolt-less archers and brawlers spent just under one full in-game month chasing the elf back and forth across the map until the elf finally ran back into the slower, tired, winded dwarves who couldn't keep up.

Who knew naked elves could be so fast?

Did I mention the elf was naked the whole time? Of course he was, were-beasts don't wear clothes, right?

[lobstercow42]

Don't have the fort anymore so I don't know the name of the goblin sorry!

What else was interesting was that this was the third were-mouse I had encountered with this fort, the first two falling victim to my traps and archers. I would have to assume there was a human civilization with lots of were-mice in it