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[Immortal-D]

Wow, people read this.  Or are bored.  Maybe both?  Anyways, after the last update I kept playing, because I was really curious about what exactly I was planning to do about the current crisis.  And for the first time since I started, I hard-crashed   On the plus side, my last save is just moments after the siege arrived.  So I didn't lose any progress per say, just time.  I am going to try redesigning the main burrow to exclude the forge area on all sides, which should significantly increase my FPS compared to locking everyone in the dining hall.

However, both TF2 and Slime Rancher received major updates recently, which is cutting into my gaming time.  The plan is to have a super long chapter posted this weekend.  Stay tuned! (assuming the current siege doesn't irrevocably cripple me, which is still a very real possibility).

[Immortal-D]

Anvilmastered!  Updated with all the consistency of a useful Fey Mood.  When I left off, an army of Fiend Spiders has chosen the perfect time to invade; which is to say the moment that I foolishly dug out a massive fortification-hallway in one go.  They chittered their way up the stairs to my forges, where I just barely managed to lock the doors in time.  A week passes while I try to figure out something clever.  I look over the invaders, and notice that like 12 of them are all piled into a single tile next to the door.

*internal monologue*  They really want to get through... hmm.  Could I?  No.. but maybe if I'm fast?  But how fast?  Well I could move the supplies within burrow range.  But what if it does work?  Well I'll figure that out later.


Does this qualify as a Stupid Dwarf Trick?

I move a few rock blocks as far as I dare put them, then order the stairway sealed from the bottom.  ... and it works.  lulz   I've lost a side passage, but regained control of my Fortress by trapping 30-odd Great Fiend Spiders in said passage.  Score one for vertical building! (take that, massive 1-zed Forts).  As my inner self mentioned, I'll have to figure out a more permanent solution at some point.  For now, I'm happy simply getting my Dwarves back to work.  On that note, the greenhous has been completed for a few months now, but I don't think I ever shared it.


Nestled amongst the verdant slopes of Mount Anvilmastered.  I'll figure out the actual name of this place eventually

The greenhouse is, as the name suggests, an entirely green glass structure, enclosing a huge outdoors farming area.  You can also see the green glass floor which makes the roof of my grazing pasture, and a few random Dwarves up on the hills.  My reprieve is short lived as another Fiend Spider ambush appears at the edge of the map.  Although, this does lead me to believe that their full numbers don't arrive all at once.

I wonder if what I'm actually seeing is raids by multiple Spider civs, spread out across the weeks of Winter.  It only seems like one giant raid because I usually never meet them until the very end.  Something to figure out once I have built scouting posts.  With the Forges blocked, the Spiders make a bee-line for the main hallway, fruitlessly scratching and gnawing at the heavy stone doors.


I'm actually getting rather ticked off at this point

There is no way to wall them off from behind, I would almost certainly be ambushed outside.  Maybe I can finally put the volcano to use?  They are perfectly positioned under a corner.  A bit of quick digging to the other side, and I have a magma drop in place just outside the main hallway, separated only by a couple of locked doors.  Now I'm starting to feel like a Dorf.  The Fiend Spiders panic (I assume) as a steady flow of lava appears behind them.


REVENGE!!

There is a leftover wooden wheelbarrow in that hallway, and I think one of the Spiders actually tried its' webbing attack.  The result is that the corridor is quickly filled with noxious smoke and delightful screams, as the spiders melt under their own boiling ichor.


REVENGE!! (again)

Once the lava clears, I send my squads out to patrol.  I kid you not, every other week I receive an ambush announcement, consisting of 2-4 Spiders.  I really have aggravated the entire FS population by settling here.  Despite my best efforts, I still lose a few soldiers and 1 useful crafter.  These things are just too damn strong for normal military engagements.  For the time and resources needed to train a useful Dwarf, I'd be breaking even at a trade of 50-1.  As things stand, my Dwarves are dieing at a nearly even rate to Spiders killed, which is very quickly a losing !FUN! proposition.

One bit of intel I have ascertained after all this time is that Spiders are not fond of protracted sieges.  As I near the end of Winter, I take a chance and remove the walls blocking the back entrance to the Forges.  Thank Armok, the Spiders graciously wait for the hauler to clear out of there before scuttling down the stairs and off the map.  Anvilmastered belongs to me, for another year at least.  I sense that the Dwarves have a bit of urgency about them now; the fortification wall is completed in short order, as is the caldera I had started building nearby.  The first of hopefully many 'putting lava somewhere else because reasons' projects has begun!




As an aside, stuff like this serves as my inspiration

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

To wrap up this chapter, here are the couple of artifacts produced.  A wooden crown named 'The Sensitive Caves', depicting a Dwarf getting destroyed by that Forest Titan.


Anvilmastered protest art?

The other artifact gives me a legendary blacksmith (woot!), and finally acknowledges the fact that I am a monster.  I think this is how the healing process begins.


I will avenge you, I promise

With that, I begin the Spring of Year 262.  Mind you, I arrived in Spring of Year 255, just to give you an idea of how these constant sieges have forced me to accelerate my plans.  Also, Fiend Spiders are supposed to be end game, and I've been dealing with them since my second year.  So I'm actually feeling quite pleased with myself, all points considered.  And with no Orcs in sight (jinx), maybe I can actually accomplish something this year.  Here's to hoping.

[Fleeting Frames]

Is that pet-impassable doors, do the spiders lack [CANOPENDOORS] or what?

It qualifies as trap, anyway.

Is that ichor or snow on top of greenhouse?

And about time for magma trap. Dealing 1:1 with webspammers is pretty decent, though.

I think I already suggested someone using crossbow-spear combo? Or was it axe...No, wait, I said "too many firebreathers here to ditch shields".

[speciesunkn0wn]

Whoot! I get an awesome cloak! And really need to work on my cardio apparently...

[Immortal-D]

I realize that writing a yearly play-by-play for a project such as this is ultimately impractical.  The fact is, I have reached the point where I get bursts of activity followed by many months of building and otherwise getting on with the business of running my Fort.  Although my FPS remains steady at 30-ish, sieges where I must keep a Burrow active drop me to 10.  Simple locked doors seem to have less effect on pathing/FPS.  So I'm taking longer to accomplish the same amount of work, which is mentally exhaustive as well.

I will do my best to put in consistent Dorf time, hopefully with enough content to make a chapter every 2-3.5 weeks.  Volcanoes were not built in a day, as it were.  With all that out of the way, please enjoy Chapter 10 of my first volcano.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anvilmastered!  I am so sick of these ^#$**(*(@#Y!!LSDFN! Fiend Spiders   I know that I have no means of building something to fully destroy them in the ~7 or so months I am allotted (yearly siege lasts 1-3 months).  I must build in pieces, slowly but surely.  To that end, I start filling a magma moat on the sides of my front gate, in an effort to limit their flanking ability.  Every year they catch a few Dorfs out in the open.  Sometimes just peasants, sometimes a skilled crafter.  Regardless, I can't afford any such losses, for the Fiend Spider civs outnumber my Dwarves by a factor of 10, at least.


Is the moat supposed to be leaking?

On a lighter note, I finally got my track system working!  There isn't much to haul at this point, but once I really begin strip-mining, I will have a series of stockpiles 5 zeds apart, each feeding the one above it, with the last one connecting to a massive stockpile pipe that crosses almost 100 tiles and 15 zeds.  I look forward to capturing a few gifs of that once it is fully operational.  This will reduce my hauling time by many months, allowing the Forges to be operated nearly 24/7.


We must push little cart!

Yes, the black spot is a minecart.  I screwed up my graphics installing when I was switching between them, trying to decide which I liked   The yearly fiend spider siege arrives super early, almost the first of Limestone (September).  Much to my chagrin, the Dwarven Caravan makes an appearance this year, not more than 2 weeks behind the Spiders.  They lose a few guards, but somehow sneak through the blizzard and arrive at my trade depot.  What kind of game are the Spiders playing here?


Most peculiar indeed

So so very tempted to think I can unlock the doors and meet the Spiders in open combat, assisted by the caravan guards.  But history has taught me well; the few dozen I see here are but a cover for the 100+ waiting in ambush.  Focusing my attention inwards, I decide the time has finally come to reclaim my Cavern.  I assemble the military in the cramped Well Room of the hospital, just above the forgotten beast that has been napping on my pump stack this past year.


Thankfully no fist fights while I await deconstruction of the wall

Since I finally remembered to set my military alert to 'Active', they have developed some impressive skill, and are all too eager to show off.


There is the punching


The tasting


And finally, death

A few months pass, and I am incredibly surprised (yet pleased) to see the caravan pack up and leave safely.  We may not have traded anything, but at least they were able to return, which means a good chance of them coming back next year.  The liaison hangs around until after the Spiders leave, so I get to have the usual exchanges there as well.  Trading at Anvilmastered isn't a lost cause just yet.

With the Spiders gone, I resume work outside, including a renovation of my Wood Furnaces room.  To start, I order the Dwarves to construct a track that will deliver charcoal up to the forges.


Up and over, yet another railway takes shape

I am finally gifted with being able to see the Dwarves' impact on the surrounding landscape; flattened and shaped to my whim, clearly unnatural compared to the mountainside around me.


Bonus shot of the lava moat!

I have but a brief respite.  Good old fashioned Gobbos show up just as the new years turns.  And then a few more... and then some war beasts... nother ambush of a dozen due South...  umm.  Hmm.


Oh dear

I burrow the civilians and position my troops behind the front doors.  A few gobbos get cut up by the traps, but once the Dwarves have sight of our enemy, there is no stopping them, so I order everyone to charge.  I tried recording some gifs, but the game kept recentering every time a new thing was discovered.  Instead, please enjoy this path of carnage that my Dwarves carved through ~2.5 times their number.




SpeciesUnknown displays all of his usual battlefield cunning and tactics.


Yeah! Barf in the face! Didn't expect that, did you?!

Bare in mind, he is like 180 years old at this point.  Nothing that goes into or comes out of that Dwarf is ever a good thing.  The military cleans house, slaying at least 80 goblins, with a half dozen managing to flee.  We even got 3 captives for our trouble, but at the loss of 3 Mace Dwarves   I am seriously running out of peasants at this point.  I actually increased my population cap, but the first migrant wave walked right into a Spider ambush.  Hopefully I can get some more warm bodies to fill out the ranks.  The military is dismissed and the burrow lifted.  The sheer volume of red-background letters does my heart good.


When my enemy is not a spider monster covered in the equivalent of iron plate mail, I actually do quite well for myself

With that, I get back to work on the temples, and with the use of forced burrows, finally encourage my Dwarves to finish walling off the first Cavern.  Not that I really need the trees, but it's nice to have none the less.  Plus I noticed my Well Room is down to 5-6 water depth.  I might actually have to refill it at some point, so securing access to a cavern lake is good peace of mind.  I also have a Tavern in the works (my first ever), might even be presentable for the next chapter.  Life is actually pretty good. If I can get just one or two big migrant waves, I can expand both my military and hauling labor, eventually completing several traps I have in mind to deal with the Spider menace once and for all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And that folks, is how you build a Volcano Fortress when surrounded by unspeakable evil for literally a third of the year; slowly, methodically, with grit and determination and lots of rum.  As an aside, I am having a devil of a time getting Armok Vision to run.  If anybody happens to be running whatever version of AV is bundled with the Masterwork launcher and would like to try loading my save for screenshots, I would be super grateful.  Whenever I switch to first-person camera, I just fall through the world.

[speciesunkn0wn]

By Armok's blood stained beard. My dude is a badass! When he dies, whether from getting shanked or old age, can he have his stuff buried with him please? In a coffin made from his favorite material.

And can we see how many kills the military peeps have?

[Immortal-D]

By Armok's blood stained beard. My dude is a badass! When he dies, whether from getting shanked or old age, can he have his stuff buried with him please? In a coffin made from his favorite material.

And can we see how many kills the military peeps have?

Yeah, I especially liked that shot.  Your Dwarf is surrounded by a Beak Dog, Nightmare (evil horse), and Goblin; this 167 year old Dwarf is just swinging for the bleachers at anything that moves, lol.  He gets his shin kicked out from under him, then while lying on the ground, kneecaps the Nightmare that kicked him.  A custom coffin I can do, not sure how to how to include equipment in a burial though.  Here is his kill tally and gear, including the most Conan/Skyrim/D&D awesome cloak ever made.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Keep in mind that he is basically a great-grandfather, and came to Anvilmastered with no military skills aside from being super strong (compared to the average peasant).  So to have become a Mace Lord and earned 7 kills at his age is quite impressive.  Btw, as of those pictures, he has fully recovered from having his ankle shattered by an evil horse monster, and is currently leading a striking demonstration.

[speciesunkn0wn]

By Armok's blood stained beard. My dude is a badass! When he dies, whether from getting shanked or old age, can he have his stuff buried with him please? In a coffin made from his favorite material.

And can we see how many kills the military peeps have?

Yeah, I especially liked that shot.  Your Dwarf is surrounded by a Beak Dog, Nightmare (evil horse), and Goblin; this 167 year old Dwarf is just swinging for the bleachers at anything that moves, lol.  He gets his shin kicked out from under him, then while lying on the ground, kneecaps the Nightmare that kicked him.  A custom coffin I can do, not sure how to how to include equipment in a burial though.  Here is his kill tally and gear, including the most Conan/Skyrim/D&D awesome cloak ever made.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Keep in mind that he is basically a great-grandfather, and came to Anvilmastered with no military skills aside from being super strong (compared to the average peasant).  So to have become a Mace Lord and earned 7 kills at his age is quite impressive.  Btw, as of those pictures, he has fully recovered from having his ankle shattered by an evil horse monster, and is currently leading a striking demonstration.

Make  a tomb, put a chest or two in it. Or alternatively, hand his stuff to his oldest child/grandchild and continue the legacy with Speciesunkn0wn II

[NCommander]

For the river, pipe magma directly under it, it will thaw it and get you water. That was one of two ways to get water in 40d before caverns. It's also possible to use a cave-in; falling ice will become water but that's a fair bit trickier to pull off. You're best off breaching the volcano one Z-level below and using a pump as it will pressurize the magma and make it flow a HELL of a lot faster than letting nature run its course.

[Immortal-D]

For the river, pipe magma directly under it, it will thaw it and get you water. That was one of two ways to get water in 40d before caverns. It's also possible to use a cave-in; falling ice will become water but that's a fair bit trickier to pull off. You're best off breaching the volcano one Z-level below and using a pump as it will pressurize the magma and make it flow a HELL of a lot faster than letting nature run its course.

Funny you should mention, that is exactly what I was planning for my first trap.  I have not attempted a completely horizontal magma breach in quite some time, so that should be interesting, especially since my Miner workforce has become even more indispensable of late; which you can see below-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Just in case anybody missed it, you can click the images to blow them up full sized

Anvilmastered!  A.K.A '8 months of Fiend Spiders, Goblins, and Orcs, followed by a few months of doing something productive'   The military losses I have sustained thus far were necessary to buy me more building time for establishing defenses and infrastructure, but have drained my reserve of peasant labor.  I've received two migrant waves since that last one got eaten, and after filling all the gaps in my military (several times), I now have 41 dedicated peasants in a fortress of 140.  Mind you, the peasants are responsible for all furnace operations (smelting, including charcoal production), a lot of cooking & brewing, butchery & tanning as needed, and most importantly, hauling (raw ores, finished bars/blocks, new furniture) that makes a Fortress go round.  When you break down the amount of labor required for a Fortress of this size, the work of 41 peasants gets used up very very quickly.

I know you're thinking 'surely there must be some marginal labor you can offset?'.  Here's the breakdown;

Military: 30
Children: 25
Farming: 5
Mining: 8
Crafting-
Leather: 2
Clothing: 3
Metal: 7
Stone: 5
Glass: 1
Gems: 2

Each of these professions is barred from construction and most hauling.  Out of desperation, I recently enabled Construction & Mechanics on my Miners, and they all but single handedly built phase 1 of the current river project over the course of this year.



I offer 6 internet points to the first person who figures out what I'm doing here

I have decided that drastic action is needed.  All smelting jobs are cancelled, all refuse collection is suspended, every single item outside the Fortress is forbidden (except logs), and I have forbidden every stray ore I can find.  I really hope this will force my peasants to focus on the numerous dumping and furniture jobs.  The results of this experiment will have to wait, because a Human Diplomat has arrived!  I had given up hope of ever seeing them again.  we have the usual exchange of news, and he departs.  No more than a day later, I am ever so pleased to welcome the first Human Caravan to grace Anvilmastered in more than 5 years.  Of course after so long, they have forgotten my trade requests, which I suppose is understandable.  I once again ask that they bring me reindeer, and offer them a gift of ~12k urists worth of broken equipment and tattered clothing.  I may yet get the homemade cheese I have sought for so long.


They could have so easily moved like 5 tiles to go around the massive trail of goblin & monster corpses, but no

The caravan departs, but the Liasion and his 2 bodyguards stick around, just in time for Spider season.  Anticipating them to arrive as early as possible, I usher everyone inside and close the gate, five days before Month 7.  Assorted junk goes flying, along with 1 unfortunate War Boar who bounces off the side of the mountain.


oooiiiiinnnkkkk!

Sure enough, day 3 announces an ambush, uncovered by a brave scout piglet.


R.I.P. scout pig

Normally it wouldn't be anything to write about, but this particular siege is downright bizarre.


Many of these things are not like the others

By the time the last ambushes are announced, I am looking at ~15 elite, named Great Fiend Spiders, and ~130 Human slave soldiers, completely unarmed an unarmored.  Ok, brief diversion for story time.  I once oversaw an ambitious Beach Fortress.  In the middle of year 2, I was visited by a Titan made of coral.  I had just over 100 Dwarves and only a fledgling military.  The Titan found its' way inside, and I thought the Fort was doomed as every Dwarf punched & kicked for all they were worth.  Imagine my surprise when the Titan's skull is finally shattered, leaving a mere 3 Dwarves alive.

The point of the story is, I will not underestimate the lethality of a concentrated mass of unarmed foes.  Unlike the Goblins before, these Humans do not stream in a nice line, but arrive in dangerously large, zerg-like formations.  Although their attacks will only glance off my Dwarves' armor, enough hits will transfer enough force to eventually shred muscle and crack bone.

The lava dropper I had planned for my entrance is still just a slow leak, but it is all I've got right now.  I open the gate; half a dozen Humans run inside and are cut down by the now-antiquated weapon traps.


These weapon traps are so old, they've actually become blunt.  Brutal

I need to be careful here; once an invader reaches a door, that door is captured, and unable to lock until the siege is lifted.  Roughly 40 Humand and 10 spiders are now spilling onto the top of my pasture from the surrounding cliffs, as the first drops of lava pool above them.


Insert dramatic theme music here

I lock the doors and immediately see the Spiders start moving erratically, enraged that their Human slaves have stopped attacking.  I can work with this.  Kindof gaming the system a bit, but if I can lock & unlock the doors in bursts, I can whittle away at their numbers, eventually allowing my Dwarves to focus fire on the Fiend Spiders without being mobbed by 10 Wrestlers each.

Of course, because I am attempting to counter an invasion without sacrificing any Dwarven lives, guess who also shows up early this year?


Really?  You had to come now?  I mean... really?

Yup, that figures.  I have at most, 3 days before the Caravan is in sight of the zerg army.  I have no idea how long it will take before the lava flow even reaches the front yard, and with this many Humans remaining, the Spider Commanders mixed in with them will surely end me.  I'm thinking this must be revenge for the Stupid Dwarf Trick I pulled earlier; when the Fiend Spiders took over the back tunnel of my forges, so I simply bricked the tunnel shut until the season had passed and they were forced to leave.

Once again, I have a wholly inadequate amount of time to think of something extraordinarily clever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few bonus pics I didn't use;

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Immortal-D]

You know the old saying about if something is stupid but it works?  That's basically where I'm at now in dealing with this siege.  I'm also at 5-8 FPS due to the single greatest simultaneous concentration of miasma, smoke & flames, invaders, and body parts that I have ever encountered.  Point is, this few months of siege may very well take until the end of the week to play out.  If I survive, it will make one heck of a story at my future Tavern.

[speciesunkn0wn]

...I AM THE MAYOR? What am I mandating? Is it useful?

Well...free stuff from the caravan?

[Fleeting Frames]

Glorious magma! Bye, snow outside!

...part of me wishes for boots of magma. Snow is annoying, though beautiful.

*looks at the distance between spiders and depot*

That would be all but invisible in vanilla. As it is, I don't think the trades will happen this year.

...

You'll never get anything done outside if you hide from  siege each season. Thankfully, they're just gobbos.


That labour list...Do you really need five dwarves to do nothing but produce clothing items? I don't think you're using all of gem, glass and stone for trading, either.    

I'd still want to have all of them, of course, but I imagine some of them sit idle most of the time. Idlers: 11 is not high, but its something.

You can probably optimize away bar hauling. Did you know magma workshops and furnace edge tiles can overlap a stair or ramp when building? ....Oh, you already cancelled all smelting jobs.

Though...Only five actual spiders in the siege?

That seems low and relatively safe, if there's safe with "shoots webs".

...Okay, 15 is more than that. But still, it is indeed odd.

And yeah, it seems force transfer ignores armor, making bare-handed attacks ten times deadlier.



...Hello reindeers. Hope you enjoy being burned to death. Though, hm...It seems every opening to the great hall also has doors. You could let set the siege inside, and then raise the entrance bridge to prevent access to the depot.

(Though weren't spiders buildingdestroyers?)

[Immortal-D]

...I AM THE MAYOR? What am I mandating? Is it useful?

Well...free stuff from the caravan?

This Fortress has the most mayoral changes I have ever encountered.  Like, there's 3 or 4 Dorfs jockeying for position (plus you now), and each one lasts at most 2 years, lol.  Rather annoying when I have to keep finding the old room of the new Mayor and unassigning so he stays in the mayor's suite.

You'll never get anything done outside if you hide from  siege each season. Thankfully, they're just gobbos.

If the siege were standard enemies, I would charge out there.  But Fiend Spiders don't play fair, and I just don't have the numbers to take them in a straight fight.  So I hide and use stupid Dwarf tricks until I can build a permanent solution.

That labour list...Do you really need five dwarves to do nothing but produce clothing items? I don't think you're using all of gem, glass and stone for trading, either.

It's only 3; Weaver, Clothier, backup.  They were all naturally talented migrants, seemed a shame to waste them.

I'd still want to have all of them, of course, but I imagine some of them sit idle most of the time. Idlers: 11 is not high, but its something.

The idlers in that shot are due to the burrow.  Normally I have 2 at most, and that's just when the Miners are getting drunk before their next job.

(Though weren't spiders buildingdestroyers?)

Nope, a sturdy stone door is enough to deter them, thankfully.  If they could smash doors like Ogres, this story would have ended after the first siege, lol.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anvilmastered!  You try updating consistently when sieges last more than half a year and drop your fps into the single digits   When we last left off, I was about to do something incredibly clever in order to save the Dwarven caravan.

....

Any minute now....

Wait a tick.  The War Boar!! Of course.  I unlock the front doors, and set my drawbridge to open/close at ~20 second intervals.


Blink and you'll miss it




Bwahahah

Each time the drawbridge snaps shut, I order the military to advance.  With the enemy now having even numbers and collision-related injuries, the Dwarves easily cut down their foes.



Aw yeah, look at all that beautiful blue text

Commander SpeciesUnkn0wn remains incredibly agile for a Dwarf his age.  He carves a path through the Human soldiers, and even kneecaps a couple of Fiend Spiders along the way.



I like how he falls over every time.  This great-grandfather of a Dorf, just swinging as hard as he can at anything that moves

Things are going well, right up until I receive a message about a vile force of darkness.  I don't even bother checking, I know exactly where the Goblins are attacking.



Sigh

The Caravan's guards manage to route the Goblin force, but immediately turn tail themselves, of course.  Well, at least now I'm not in a hurry.  Probably for the best too; every few seconds I receive an ambush announcement, which means 8-10 more slave soldiers, plus a couple of spiders.  My unit count tops 300 now   Even subtracting out a few dozen critters, I'm still facing at least 280 invaders.  There are so many, they are actually starting to overwhelm my bridge trick.


Charging the front gate

Overview of their rear guard

... I might be in trouble here

As bolts start flying, a few brave Dorfs make the first push into the physical cloud of death that is front lines.


Sweet jeebus but that is a lot of body parts

The lava flow continues to encroach, just as I start to realize that I'm overdue for a bridge closing.  Naturally, a miner at the top of the volcano has picked up the Pull Lever job.  The Human soldiers are starting to group up now, emboldened by finally having their Spider masters alongside them.  The Dwarves fight hard, but the pawns are actually managing to remove their armor a piece at a time.  The lever is finally pulled, and the enemy's advance has stalled due to the lava finally reaching them.  The Dwarves put an end to the stragglers, but not without loss.


Nnnooooo!

The last invaders inside the Fortress have fallen, and that seems to be all the enemy is willing to take.  In the face of Dwarven bravery (and a not-inconsiderate amount of lava), they finally retreat.


The day is ours

The Baron's tomb is repurposed, the original statues removed in favor of something more fitting.






Anvilmastered endures, but half my melee fighters lay dead or crippled   I fear that even the projects I am working on now will not be sufficient.  I need something grander.  The spiders, despite their size, are able to nimbly skirt across any trap-trigger I might build.  I need to beat them at their own game.  I need webbing, and that means digging deep.  Auto-save alerts me to the fact that it's only the start of month 10, so I have a bit more time than usual.  I hope it's enough; there is a very real possibility that if I can't save a migrant wave in the next couple of years, they might stop coming.  As Winter turns to Spring, I begin Year 9 of my first volcano.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Woo!  Just a glorified siege report I know, but I had fun with this one   You may have noticed a lack of lava moat.  An obsidian boulder got lodged in the floodgate at some point; I had to use a Fortress-wide bucket brigade to plug the lava flow.  Then dig an up-ramp to drop the boulder and reconnect the floodgate.  The moat is slowly filling again, and I even started moving lava towards the river.  The Miners are now all focused on finding the other cavern layers, in the hopes of capturing a GCS.  If I can get my own source of webbing, the Spider's days are numbered.  And if I can't... well, I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

[speciesunkn0wn]

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Does Speciesunkn0wn have any kids in the fort? If he does, hand his stuff over to that person/save it until the kid is old enough to use it.