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[vogonpoet]

tldr: Questions:
1. Can previously 'killed' undead guys on your map rise again? If so, how to stop them?
2. How to defend against undead guys with starting 7 dwarves a few months into embark?
3. Are undead goblins/humans building destroyers?

The too long bit you no longer need to read:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I never really mucked around with aquifers, and decided it was time to sort that out.

So I have a cute test embark with some forests and streams, maybe 10 stone and some logs on the wagon. Just as I finished walling off my first aquifer layer as it drains into the second, I get a necro siege.

I had been totally focused on pumping and cooking, and had carefully arranged my proto-fortress to have zero defense - I was going to wall and moat off the surface depot (not yet even built) at some point, but heh, fun with pump stacks. My farms and workshops were either on the surface of just off the same central aquifer penetrating staircase, all my dwarves were outside gathering wood, and I didn't even have a single door to my name.

The siege turned out to be just a human lasher/goblin double zombie combo. Never fought any zombies before, so I just drafted my 7 dwarves, and attacked. Zero fatalities, 5 dwarves heavily injured. Pa, call that a win. The two healthy guys (somewhat luckily my broker-carpenter-leader and my 3-points-of-medic-skillz doctor dude) made some beds and buckets, dragged everyone into our newly designated hospital, and then the first dwarven caravan arrived (embarked in previously fortressed region, so not starting at normal time of year?)

So, quickly built a TDepot, chatted to the diplo man, and sold some corkscrews for thread/food/booze etc. Then got my healthy dwarves killed by... actually, I think the same necro siege? Do undead rise again after being killed the first time? I actually save scummed the embark, hoping it would happen again so I can improve my zombie performance, but how? I guess get everything underground, learn how burrows work, getting enough logs to penetrate the aquifer, and then wall off the surface, is probably the best bet?

If normal undead aren't building destroyers, I might try and ramp down into the soil layers, and build a tiny moat/drawbridge protected tower for my caravan entrance. If undead are building destroyers, I guess I just wall myself off for a while, and hope my 7 can penetrate the aquifer and develop some stone based defenses.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Normal undead won't destroy buildings.
In a regular biome, the dead will only rise again if a necromancer raises them. Just shut the door and ignore them. They'll go away eventually. Juicy visitors might make them stay for quite a while though.

My last bunch of zombies hung out from Winter 1050 (year 1!) to the start of Spring 1052.

[PatrikLundell]

Invaders leave either after one season or one year unless driven off before that as far as I know, so one year and a season is an odd case.

You prevent critters from being raised by destroying their heads (though there is no way of ordering dorfs to do that on corpses). In addition to heads, severed parts with the ability to grasp can be raised. Note that heads can be raised ("grasping" by bite?), and the bad news is that any parts of heads can be raised. Head hair and head skin are almost completely invulnerable, so a single head hair can kill your fortress by the dorfs dying of dehydration while fighting it.

As Shonai_Dweller said: Have a door and lock it. Note that you may get trouble with keeping grazers alive, so you may need to emergency dig for the caverns to get spores released.

Critters that were building destroyers in life remain so in death. Your fortress would be in danger if protected by a door and one of the undead was a kobold (not a building destroyer, but a lock picker), but I've never seen a necro siege bring a kobold, nor trolls or ogres.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Well, yeah I was expecting them to leave after a year. They arrived in winter and made a beeline for the edge of the map just as winter ended the following year (after the seasonal autosave to indicate the start of Spring). I put it down to rounding or something and try not to think about it.

The living axedwarf who came with them is more worrying He became a histfig just to lead the zombie attack on us according to Legends. He's linked only to the dark tower and isn't a necromancer.

He's come back twice now leading a bunch of living (beardless) dwarves to besiege us momentarily (hello-goodbye siege).

Will be finishing up with this fortress soon so will send an adventurer to see what's going on. Gotta kill our vampire monarch too before he comes to feast on my precious fortress.

[PatrikLundell]

As far as I've seen, it's fairly common for necro sieges to have living "handlers" who are not necros themselves (apprentices?). It shouldn't be possible, as far as I know, but apparently nobody told them...(It is, of course completely impossible for my knowledge to be incorrect )

Isn't it easier to eliminate the monarch as it steps through the prepared royal entrance to the fortress?

[Shonai_Dweller]

As far as I've seen, it's fairly common for necro sieges to have living "handlers" who are not necros themselves (apprentices?). It shouldn't be possible, as far as I know, but apparently nobody told them...(It is, of course completely impossible for my knowledge to be incorrect )

Isn't it easier to eliminate the monarch as it steps through the prepared royal entrance to the fortress?

Yeah, I've heard people mention them before. Never heard of them coming back with living friends to siege you once a season afterwards though.

My fortress dorfs are good law-abiding citizens. An assassin needs to come from the outside. #RP

[PatrikLundell]

I haven't paid much attention to handlers, but the living tend to leave early, so at least necros have a tendency to return (not the stealthed ones, as they usually end up in a cage, through).

But everyone knows dorfs are forgetful with a poor attention to detail, so it's not impossible for unfortunate accidents to happen. In addition to that, I've heard the overseer is a ruthless bugger who won't shy away from instigating some wet works

[Shonai_Dweller]

I haven't paid much attention to handlers, but the living tend to leave early, so at least necros have a tendency to return (not the stealthed ones, as they usually end up in a cage, through).

But everyone knows dorfs are forgetful with a poor attention to detail, so it's not impossible for unfortunate accidents to happen. In addition to that, I've heard the overseer is a ruthless bugger who won't shy away from instigating some wet works

Ha. As an adventurer I travelled over to the dark tower to see how everyone was getting on. As I strolled in, all the zombies in the room suddenly turned on their living axedwarf siege leader and tore him apart.

Guess Adventurer is working just fine...
  

[Mostali]

For initial defense, there's the impenetrable drain design:

Dig stairs down three, then over two, then stairs up one, and again over two, then stairs down.  Cover both stairs at the top of the drain with hatch covers and there's no force in DF that can get through them when you lock them both.

If you don't have space downward because of the aquifer, build a similar design out of wood above the surface.