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[Spriggans]

I've been willing to play a fort in a certain way for a while.
I've also noticed many players like the artwork of H.P. Lovecraft, so I feel like sharing it.

So, I have some of the main ideas figured out, but maybe you guys could help spicing it up !

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- Main ideas -
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- Playing a fort temple centered around Cthulhu's Myth. The ultimate goal is to awake him ! (whatever that may mean)
  Every dwarf is impersonating a cultist. They will devote their lives (and deaths) to the return of the Great Cthulhu.

- Embark next to the Sea ! And rely only on its products. Cultists eat smelly fish, and drink de-salted water.

- Forgotten beasts are the Great Old Ones. They were born in a time before time. They are wise and must be adored and given shrines. Every Great Old One must be pampered and feared at the same time.

- Like in H.P. Lovecraft tales, bloody sacrifices must be performed. The sacrificed have to be cultists, obviously.
  Build the inside of the temple in a non-euclidian way ! Many corridors leading to nowhere will recall the tentacles of our God.

- "If we do things correctly, insanity will occur !" Everytime a cultist has a strange mood, deconstruct the workshop ! For roleplay, tell that the cultist made a unsettling discovery that drove him crazy.
  Cthulhu's cult is not for the children. Every child must be drowned in the Sea. (OOC, yeah I don't like children).

- Everything you engrave must be in relation with the Cult. Either pictures of giant squids, or cultists dying, or Great Old Ones killing your cultists, or pictures of death, ... Possibilities are limitless !
  Same for every statues you create.
  Dedicate some cultists to creating figurines of squids and trade them away !

- Bonus : Build a replicate of R'lyeh ! When Cthulhu has arrived, leave the city to its master.

- Ridiculously hard Bonus : Write "ph'nglui mglw'nafh cthulhu r'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" using caged creatures !


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- Your help is needed for -
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1/ What can the great Cthulhu be ? Can titans take the form of squids ? A bit of raw editing is ok if it helps. Maybe I could create a new megabeast type.

2/ Is it possible to mod dwarven gods too btw ? I believe you can't.

3/ How to sacrifice beings in a good Lovecraftian fashion ? Can I prevent dwarves from cleaning the blood ? Magma is too Armoky. Cthulhu is different I think.

4/ Do you have other ideas of H.P. Lovecraft creatures I could use and how ?

5/ (Using raw editing) Is there a way to inflict insanity on a creature (if possible non-dwarven) ? Like, I know someone made a reaction that burns dwarves' eyes if they are touched by elf blood; is it possible to do something like it, but leading to insanity ?
If so, I could simulate a "too scary too withstand" locked room ! Wich is a pleasing idea.

6/ Anything else that runs your mind. Remember modding is ok, and insanity is considered normal

[Melting Sky]

I'm not sure if Titan's can take the form of squids. I don't recall ever seeing a sea creature based Titan or
Forgotten Beast although both Titan's and Forgotten Beasts are almost identical in that they are procedurally generated monstrosities that fit well into what would be considered Lovecraftian Horrors. I would highly recommend massively increasing the number of Titans in the world, like quadruple them or more to help ensure some show up. Also make caves visible and see if you can build your fort on a spot with a Titan lair already there or at least an evil ocean.

Titans and Forgotten Beasts cannot be modded in the raws. They are hard coded.

I haven't looked at the raws for the Gods so I'm not sure how much control we have over them, but the Gods do not have a physical presence in the world aside for the great beasts such as FBs and Titans that sometimes end up getting worshiped by some civilizations as Gods.

If you want to sacrifice cultists to the Old Ones then see if you can find a dominant FB in the caverns and build a drop pit over it's stomping grounds. Literally feed the victims directly to the ancient horror.

If you wanted to you could create custom creatures in the raws to serve as the Old Ones. Create a monstrosity that inhabits evil oceans with a population of one. You could design it to be as insane a beast as you like. Give it magma blood, metal or stone flesh, crazy tentacles and claws and make it the size of a building etc.

Edit: Actually I think I remember reading an account of somebody who had found a lobster based forgotten beast so sea creatures might be possible.

[Mister McNope]

As a DF and Lovecraft fan I have to say this idea is great, but also very hard; I could see some modding being used to make a Cthulhu-like squidshy flying Titan/Megabeast god-ish thing that created/cursed some civ to become fishmen things like the one in Shadow Over Innsmouth, maybe some world gen luck to get ultra high mountains in glaciers like the ones in At the Mountains of Madness, there are several things that could be done to make a fort with a history/lore comparable even to Boatmurdered.

[King Kitteh]

You can't mod titans or forgotten beats, but you can mod in demons. Modded demons don't count in the world gen parameters for limiting demons, so you can set that to zero and have a completely custom set of demons.

Mod in Cthulhu and pretend that you are awaking him. I'm not sure if you can set for there only to be one though :/

[Chevaleresse]

Does [UNIQUE_DEMON] function in user-created raws?

Then again that would lead to other issues.

[King Kitteh]

I think it should, I don't see what problems it would make. Except possibly a Deity prematurely releasing Cthulhu.

I don't think it's required though, a regular demon should be good enough.

[Chevaleresse]

A [UNIQUE_DEMON] won't show up in fort mode ever, afaik, unless demon diplomats are a thing again.

[Zuglarkun]

Last I remember there are some pretty good mods incorporating H.P. Lovecraft's creations floating around in the modding forums, you might want to look up their raws for reference.

In my opinion, no H.P. Lovecraft X Dwarf Fortress scenario is complete without a reference to the Color out of space (modded syndrome that turns flesh to dust over time, slows the infected, transforms the countryside to white dust). Perhaps something referring to the Dunwich Horror (invisible stealth FB like creature, legendary climber)?

[Spriggans]

Ok, I think I will mod in some new creatures (hear megabeasts). I will probably remove dragons, hydras and vanillas beasts, and add in Cthulhu. Maybe some other beasts.
Then I will gen a new world, and wait for Cthulhu to "attack" me. Wich will mean he has awoken.

In my opinion, no H.P. Lovecraft X Dwarf Fortress scenario is complete without a reference to the Color out of space (modded syndrome that turns flesh to dust over time, slows the infected, transforms the countryside to white dust).

YES ! Defenitely using that idea somehow !
Maybe one of the modded-beasts will create that syndrome non-stop. I will then put that beast in a pit near my farms an let the syndrome spread xD


For point 5/ :
So none of you know if I can make a syndrome to turn someone crazy ? I could always use a syndrome to zombify creatures, but I'm really looking for madness if possible.
If not, maybe there is a DFHACK command to edit one's sanity ?

[King Kitteh]

What exactly do you mean by Crazy?

If you wanted insane, I'm not quite sure. But you could make them go mad with rage.

Simply make a syndrome that adds the [CRAZED] tag. This is essentially the same as a dwarf going berserk from stress or mood cancel.

Note that crazed dwarves don't attack other crazed dwarves.

[Spriggans]

Yes, by crazy I mean "Melancholy," "Stark Raving Mad," "Berserk", or "Catatonic".
Catatonic and melancholic being the preferred ones, but I don't think I can decide which one occurs.

I think I could use your idea with the CRAZED tag.
Or I could use something like :

Spoiler: Syndrome (click to show/hide)

[SYNDROME]
      [CE_FEEL_EMOTION:EMOTION:ALIENATION:PROB:100]

to make the syndromed dwarf gain stress, leading to insanity. I might have to Science it a little though.

[CulixCupric]

boatmurdered?

[Carpecanum]

Innsmouth  dwarves would make a tavern then kill visitors.  Strange case of Charles Dexter ward would have lots of pits to dump things into. 

[IndigoFenix]

I have two mods that could work for this.  One is the hidden cultleader which is based on Innsmouth, and covertly turns your dwarves into Deep Ones over a few years.  The other is the Bloodgod who you have to lock up and make regular sacrifices to or your entire fort will go insane.  Both can be adjusted as needed.

[TheHossofMoss]

Me likey!