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[Weremammoth]

As it's nigh release time around these parts I've been delving deep into the stone again with fervor.  My time in The Cyclopean Realm has accrued a fair share of bizarre bug-related antics, unexplored features or a fun combination of the two, but one particular event has been puzzling me for a few weeks.

In the spring of 280 some people fell into a hole.  Quite a large number of people, in fact:  536 by my count.  They're a rather diverse group of humans, elves, dwarves and even a pair of dingo people.  The text in legends reads "...  fell into a deep chasm in the Jungle of Bells."  Well, I guess that can happen to anyone.  My interest was really aroused when I noticed that, of the two dozen or so individuals I checked out, most of them appear to have been dead for a decade prior to their plunge dying in various elf raids or of old age in my retired fort Playgem.  And what a coincidence, I started an adventurer in Playgem during the spring of 280. 

The site history of Playgem itself shows nothing regarding the plunge in question.  The only recorded events are the usual lengthy list of visitors and the reports of a particularly vicious horse that killed over sixty people in late spring.  Damned equines... But the reference to people falling in a hole shows only in the regional history.  Each individual's last action prior to the chasm bit shows them dying in Playgem, however.  I don't DFhack so I have to assume that's where the plunge occurred. 

My question really concerns the 'fell into a deep chasm' bit though .  Does anyone know what that means?  My experience with legends mode is limited, but I don't recall seeing that phrase before.  The hypothesis (free of any actual evidence) I've conjured is that it is related to the tavern of Playgem.  When the RNG gave my new tavern the name of 'The Feral Date', it seemed that I had to do something to add some significance to that title so I dug a 10+ Z level hole in the middle connecting it to the caverns.  I assume that it considered the building part of said caverns, and, following some things I don't understand, when my adventurer was created at the site they "tumbled" into the hole. 

[Shonai_Dweller]

You dug a 10z hole in a tavern, in adventurer, without dfhack? Well, even if that is possible, it still boils down to, 'I modded my game and strange stuff happened'. So, not all that strange at all really.

Very cool that DF has a message for people randomly falling down holes though. That's impressive.

[escondida]

You dug a 10z hole in a tavern, in adventurer, without dfhack?

I could be wrong, but the sequence of events in OP's post seems to be creating a fortress mode tavern with a pit in it, then creating an adventurer at the fort, who popped into existence at the hole.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Ah. I see.
I guess the unfortunate tumble was probably caused by the explosion of visitors and merchants who suddenly converge on fortress taverns after retiring.

[Telgin]

Aren't chasms something from the old 2D versions of DF?  I've never played any of those versions, but I thought they were map features where you could dump things into them and they'd be killed or destroyed completely.  I would have assumed that message was related to someone dying as a result of falling into one of those.

I don't think they they exist now, so it would be pretty strange to see that in legends.  I'd chalk it up to a bug, but maybe there's a legitimate way that can happen now.

[Fleeting Frames]

There is, hm, something similar that causes a message like that, I guess:

Spoiler: "Link to spoilers" (click to show/hide)

Check link url to see what I'm talking about

That shouldn't be possible for OP, though.

[Shonai_Dweller]

There is, hm, something similar that causes a message like that, I guess:

Spoiler: "Link to spoilers" (click to show/hide)

Check link url to see what I'm talking about

That shouldn't be possible for OP, though.

One to add to the post-retirement oddities then. Explosion of visitors, citizen merchants and holes in the floor of taverns might have their z-level depth tragically miscalculated...

Would be interesting to see if you can do it with a temple too.

What does the fortress look like on unretire?

[WillowLuman]

Perhaps some kind of displacement?

[Weremammoth]

Yes, the hole was dug in fort mode.  Sorry if I was a little unclear about that.  I don't use DFhack, and the only changes I've made were to the fortress pop cap, site pop cap and max invaders.  So, it's basically vanilla.

What does the fortress look like on unretire?

My adventurer(who was a moose man) had apparently been elected mayor at some point and was there despite retiring him elsewhere.  I found the other non-merchant dwarves had been placed in solid rock a few Z-levels below ground.  I wanted to mine them out to see what would happen but my adventurer seemed to be stuck in and endless series of meetings and eventually died of dehydration.  I didn't save as I wanted him to live on as mayor for a while(he died in an elven attack later that year anyway).  The troll, goblin and elf corpses from various decade-old sieges still littered the ground but nothing else noteworthy.



Hmm, I didn't know about those 2d chasms.  This fortress had never pierced hell, though.  It was retired due to single-digit fps I think. 

I guess if there's no legitimate reason for it I can just put it down as some kind of mass sacrifice to Armok in my head-canon.  The god of blood requires blood!

[WillowLuman]

  I found the other non-merchant dwarves had been placed in solid rock a few Z-levels below ground

What. Can you get screens? This is really weird o_o