Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Torchwood202]

There's at least 5 dwarven citizen partygoers and a human cook / bard all mingling in my somewhat-cramped tavern. For whatever reason, the only way for my scholars to reach the library is to walk across the tavern.

This is the precise moment when the six witnesses report that they have found one of my greatest scholars dead inside the tavern. No punches were thrown, no combat reports or announcements whatsoever, just that they apparently dropped dead on the spot.

Let it also be known that this is the very first time I've ever incorporated a library and a tavern in my fort. Anyone mind telling me how this happened? Did he literally slip on spilled ale or a stray mug?

[Enemy post]

Was he drained of blood?

[Torchwood202]

I don't think so. It did not say he had been drained and I do not know if I can even check now. Here are his final moments via the Legends screen
(Yes I know the fort name "Tombfrenzy the Slow Heart-Stop of Life is ironically appropriate.):

[anewaname]

He was suffocated, so he probably choked on vomit from being too drunk. Do you have a bartender in that tavern? They keep refilling goblets and this leads to over-drinking.

[Civillain]

Choking on vomit aside, I love your fortress name!

[Torchwood202]

Geez. That does seem like the dwarven away to go... Any 'fixes' for that? I'd rather not have that happen when a diplomat comes over...

But... I'd rather entertain the idea that my scholar was not partying. It's FUNner to believe they were literally walking across the room before they died, or that everyone was distracted by my performer and didn't notice the secret murder occur 5 feet away.

[PatrikLundell]

Others posted as I typed...

Suffocated... This probably means you have a poisoner, a.k.a. tavern keeper, on staff in the tavern. They shove booze down the throat of patrons until they drop unconscious from alcohol poisoning. When the victims recover the poisoner rushes forth to shove another drink down. Alcohol poisoning results in unconsciousness and vomiting, and that damages the lungs, which eventually causes suffocation (it typically takes a number of attempts to compound injury enough to cause death). Also note that "performers" hired by the tavern are just as effective at poisoning guests as tavern keepers are (and tavern keepers are just as ineffective at entertainment as entertainers are, i.e. on par with the average guest).
Unless you want to engage in visitite mining, you may want to remove tavern keepers and performers from tavern duty.

[Torchwood202]

Others posted as I typed...

Suffocated... This probably means you have a poisoner, a.k.a. tavern keeper, on staff in the tavern. They shove booze down the throat of patrons until they drop unconscious from alcohol poisoning. When the victims recover the poisoner rushes forth to shove another drink down. Alcohol poisoning results in unconsciousness and vomiting, and that damages the lungs, which eventually causes suffocation (it typically takes a number of attempts to compound injury enough to cause death). Also note that "performers" hired by the tavern are just as effective at poisoning guests as tavern keepers are (and tavern keepers are just as ineffective at entertainment as entertainers are, i.e. on par with the average guest).
Unless you want to engage in visitite mining, you may want to remove tavern keepers and performers from tavern duty.

That got a good laugh outta me. Are there any downsides to having an unstaffed tavern?

[anewaname]

No downsides. I keep a small booze stockpile in the tavern and have a larger booze stockpile 'g'ive to the tavern stockpile, so the booze is always nearby. I have no mug stockpiles so mugs just end up in piles near the booze. And keep enough floorspace so they can dance, and then they will.

[Torchwood202]

Death by drinking = debatable honorable death.

Might as well give that scholar a wooden casket. Right next to the fisherman who climbed a tree to kill a monkey and utterly refused to come down.

Ye shall not know the embrace of stone in death, ye wimps.

[mikekchar]

If you want to retain a tavern keeper for RP reasons, there are a couple of ways to keep the death toll down.  The first is to limit the number of mugs assigned to the tavern (setable from the locations screen).  This limits the number of simultaneous drinks that can be served, but doesn't stop dwarfs from using mugs when they self serve.  If you set it to 1, then the tavern keeper has to wander back and forth getting the mug.  If they give the mug to a different victim, then the first victim gets a rest.  Unfortunately due to the way dwarfs pick targets, it is likely that they will pick on the same victim each time (because they are always the closest to path to).

This leaves the second method: Give the tavern keeper another high priority job.  I've found that grower is a great one, especially if you stagger plant your crops (set all your fields to fallow and then each day assign a crop).  This means that your grower will always have 2 very high priority jobs (one to plant and another to harvest) per farm tile per month.  Because both planting and harvesting are higher priority than poisoning, then the tavern keeper is always wandering to and from the fields.  The other thing this does is mix up the pathing for the next victim -- after they finish planting/harvesting, they are likely to pick someone else.

In fortresses where I do this, I've never had a single death.  YMMV.

[PatrikLundell]

There are actually two downsides to not have poisoners on staff:
- Your Visitite mining operation basically grinds to a halt. It's been said goblin visitors are particularly vulnerable...
- Your resident (dwarven) vampires become sluggish due to alcohol withdrawal. This can be handled by having at least two vampires, lock them up together, and have all of them serve each other in a very private tavern. More booze can be delivered using safe delivery systems.

[spazyak]

Never have had this personaly happen to me, but I have had a friend try to keep it down by keeping his bartenders busy so they only once in a while servedrinks, he set them up in "shifts" that rotate out using the miltary screen. Most I've ever dealt with was a random bard beating a maceman to death with what was essentualy a stone lute.

[Torchwood202]

I must admit, "visitite" sounds very profitable... Am I able to set a tavern to visitors only? I'd rather not have my citizens get caught in the money vaccum!

Oh, and are there any repercussions to poisoning visitors? Like, on a huge scale?

[spazyak]

I must admit, "visitite" sounds very profitable... Am I able to set a tavern to visitors only? I'd rather not have my citizens get caught in the money vaccum!

Oh, and are there any repercussions to poisoning visitors? Like, on a huge scale?

make the visitite mining site near the enterance to your fort and a resident only one deeper in near the meeting area. If set up correctly you can also use the visitite as a form of defense against invaders.