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[salajander]

This is new to me. My seach-fu is weak and I can't find anything about this mechanism on the wiki.

A visiting marksdwarf is asking to take one of my artifacts (I presume?) to fulfill his quest.

What are the upsides and downsids here? I know giving away an artifact will make the creator unhappy, but I'm actually not sure which artifact this is or who it belongs to.

[anewaname]

I would create a parallel install of DF, copy over the last save (seasonal for me), and look up the artifact by loading up that fort or by looking in Legends mode. DFHack might provide other options.

[xominxac]

To my knowledge giving it away does nothing yet (other than relinquishing your hold on it) and refusing to give it away makes it so that people will try to steal it from you.

[PatrikLundell]

The artifact should be listed in your artifacts list (which you can't access when pushed up against a wall by a demanding quester, and which doesn't show the English names anyway). Thus, your choice is completely blind unless you have an old legends mode export handy. It's quite possible the artifact was brought to a visitor who died at the embark (which happens a lot due to old age if sieges doesn't kill them).

The artifact is probably not one of yours, as it ought to have some kind of relation to whomever is looking for it. Due to the buggy behavior of questers, not giving up the artifact can be a bloody affair, as questers tend to come in groups, and one of them can leave and try to sneak in to steal it, and if you engage the thief (regardless of whether the thief attacks or try to flee) the fortress erupts in chaos as the other members of the quester group (which I call "infiltrators") scare dorfs at a minimum so they run around fleeing. Infiltrators have 3 behaviors:
1. Continue with their business of socializing, praying, etc. Dorfs still get afraid of them.
2. Run around in panic scared of all the scary dorfs, who, in turn, run around in panic scared of the scary infiltrator.
3. Attack civilians while still claiming to go about their business (i.e. socializing, etc.).
In none of the cases are the infiltrators marked as hostile, so it's a pain locating them. However, stationed militia will detect and engage them. Given that most of them have behavior 1 and 2 most of that is rather one sided, but the ones from group 3 can cause quite a mess.

I've also seen corpses of non military type visitors after such a mess, and I suspect those were visitors who, for whatever unknown reason, decided to get involved on one of the sides.

In my current fortress questers seem to have given up (with me not having released any artifacts), and return to apply to become mercs and monster slayers (I've tagged the members of the larger quester groups using DFHack's gui/rename to keep track of which questers belong to which groups when I have to deal with them as they turn out to infiltrators). I've also seen that the quester group memberships shift around, so returning questers can end up in different groups.

It can also be mentioned that questers (with their associated infiltrators) can just try to steal an artifact without ever having requested it, so you can suddenly be alerted to the detection of a thief and then get cancellation spam as your dorfs run around scared of the infiltrators you might not even be aware of cause a mess in your tavern (and open temples).

[Starver]

It's only fair. The number of games where one wanders into town upon a who-knows-what player-decided purpose then ramp up either individual or site-wide levels of awareness/caution/alert/antipathy so that the environment changes (including DF Adventurer mode itself, in one form or other over the years), it's entirely understandable that NPCs doing increasingly PC-like things are going to make the Player Overlord subject to the same chaos as the location-AIs have long had to somehow manage in the face of, possibly out-of-design, (an/pro)tagonist craziness.

[snow dwarf]

It's only fair. The number of games where one wanders into town upon a who-knows-what player-decided purpose then ramp up either individual or site-wide levels of awareness/caution/alert/antipathy so that the environment changes (including DF Adventurer mode itself, in one form or other over the years), it's entirely understandable that NPCs doing increasingly PC-like things are going to make the Player Overlord subject to the same chaos as the location-AIs have long had to somehow manage in the face of, possibly out-of-design, (an/pro)tagonist craziness.

Haven't thought about it this way. That's interesting.

[salajander]

Ah, fascinating. I said yes this time, but next time maybe I'll say no just to see what !!fun!! happens. Also maybe I should station some guards in my museum.

[snow dwarf]

Ah, fascinating. I said yes this time, but next time maybe I'll say no just to see what !!fun!! happens. Also maybe I should station some guards in my museum.

I find badgers to be very useful in that matter.

[Starver]

Spoiler: If yu hav sum (click to show/hide)

[andrei901]

The artifact should be listed in your artifacts list (which you can't access when pushed up against a wall by a demanding quester, and which doesn't show the English names anyway). Thus, your choice is completely blind unless you have an old legends mode export handy. It's quite possible the artifact was brought to a visitor who died at the embark (which happens a lot due to old age if sieges doesn't kill them).

The artifact is probably not one of yours, as it ought to have some kind of relation to whomever is looking for it. Due to the buggy behavior of questers, not giving up the artifact can be a bloody affair, as questers tend to come in groups, and one of them can leave and try to sneak in to steal it, and if you engage the thief (regardless of whether the thief attacks or try to flee) the fortress erupts in chaos as the other members of the quester group (which I call "infiltrators") scare dorfs at a minimum so they run around fleeing. Infiltrators have 3 behaviors:
1. Continue with their business of socializing, praying, etc. Dorfs still get afraid of them.
2. Run around in panic scared of all the scary dorfs, who, in turn, run around in panic scared of the scary infiltrator.
3. Attack civilians while still claiming to go about their business (i.e. socializing, etc.).
In none of the cases are the infiltrators marked as hostile, so it's a pain locating them. However, stationed militia will detect and engage them. Given that most of them have behavior 1 and 2 most of that is rather one sided, but the ones from group 3 can cause quite a mess.

I've also seen corpses of non military type visitors after such a mess, and I suspect those were visitors who, for whatever unknown reason, decided to get involved on one of the sides.

In my current fortress questers seem to have given up (with me not having released any artifacts), and return to apply to become mercs and monster slayers (I've tagged the members of the larger quester groups using DFHack's gui/rename to keep track of which questers belong to which groups when I have to deal with them as they turn out to infiltrators). I've also seen that the quester group memberships shift around, so returning questers can end up in different groups.

It can also be mentioned that questers (with their associated infiltrators) can just try to steal an artifact without ever having requested it, so you can suddenly be alerted to the detection of a thief and then get cancellation spam as your dorfs run around scared of the infiltrators you might not even be aware of cause a mess in your tavern (and open temples).

I have never seen this "infiltrator" behavior you speak of.

From what I've seen, (I've never said yes), two things happen: (1) the quester walks away dejectedly or (b) the quester walks away and then tries to sneak back in as a regular hostile thief.

I have also never had someone request an artifact that was brought to my fort and dropped, but having a foreign artifact that isn't a book is also fairly rare, in my experience. The few requests I have experienced (across multiple forts) were all artifacts that were made and then dedicated in the name of [ancestor]. My current fort I have been paying close attention, and I have a...particularly prolific historic dwarf male who has children across the world as part of various civilizations. One of my dwarves made an artifact dedicated to his (prolific) grandfather, and since then, one of his uncles from elsewhere in the world, who is marked in legends as "dreams of acquiring power", and is currently wearing 3 (!) artifact items, has send a quester to my fort every other season.

[Saiko Kila]

[...]The artifact is probably not one of yours, as it ought to have some kind of relation to whomever is looking for it. Due to the buggy behavior of questers, not giving up the artifact can be a bloody affair, as questers tend to come in groups, and one of them can leave and try to sneak in to steal it, and if you engage the thief (regardless of whether the thief attacks or try to flee) the fortress erupts in chaos as the other members of the quester group (which I call "infiltrators") scare dorfs at a minimum so they run around fleeing. Infiltrators have 3 behaviors:
1. Continue with their business of socializing, praying, etc. Dorfs still get afraid of them.
2. Run around in panic scared of all the scary dorfs, who, in turn, run around in panic scared of the scary infiltrator.
3. Attack civilians while still claiming to go about their business (i.e. socializing, etc.).
In none of the cases are the infiltrators marked as hostile, so it's a pain locating them. However, stationed militia will detect and engage them. Given that most of them have behavior 1 and 2 most of that is rather one sided, but the ones from group 3 can cause quite a mess.

I've also seen corpses of non military type visitors after such a mess, and I suspect those were visitors who, for whatever unknown reason, decided to get involved on one of the sides.

In my current fortress questers seem to have given up (with me not having released any artifacts), and return to apply to become mercs and monster slayers (I've tagged the members of the larger quester groups using DFHack's gui/rename to keep track of which questers belong to which groups when I have to deal with them as they turn out to infiltrators). I've also seen that the quester group memberships shift around, so returning questers can end up in different groups.

It can also be mentioned that questers (with their associated infiltrators) can just try to steal an artifact without ever having requested it, so you can suddenly be alerted to the detection of a thief and then get cancellation spam as your dorfs run around scared of the infiltrators you might not even be aware of cause a mess in your tavern (and open temples).

I have never seen this "infiltrator" behavior you speak of.

From what I've seen, (I've never said yes), two things happen: (1) the quester walks away dejectedly or (b) the quester walks away and then tries to sneak back in as a regular hostile thief.

I have also never had someone request an artifact that was brought to my fort and dropped, but having a foreign artifact that isn't a book is also fairly rare, in my experience.

I also see only these two types of behaviours, but everyone has different luck and conditions, some of these can be not experienced by other players. For example in early years of my fortress, the main source of artefacts (not books) was external - people bringing tables, floodgates, crossbows, helmets, jewellery and the like. Some of the bringers died (zombie, goblin or quite frequently old age) and dropped artefacts. There is almost always some artefacts on the floor of the tavern, and on the edge of the map, because I never bothered with unforbidding when their owner kicked the bucket, or do not have a proper stockpile.

Similarly my questers always ask for the foreign made artefacts, unlike yours. I was never asked for my own artefacts (which I would deny anyway) as far as I'm aware. They usually are somehow related to the quester it seems, like family heirlooms.

When I agree, the mayor walks to the artefact, followed by the quester, takes it and gives to the quester. When I refuse (rarely), they either go away and off the map or go outside the fortress and then enter sneak mode and try to go to the position of artefact. In sneak mode they are detected eventually, and then run away, like cowardly kobolds, assuming they can outrun my military.

[Bumber]

What happens if you agree, then forbid / lock up the artifact?

[Saiko Kila]

What happens if you agree, then forbid / lock up the artifact?

1. Forbidden items can still be picked up and given by the mayor, so it changes nothing.
2. Locked up items cause both guys to perform another meeting (at official's place) and then the quester goes on with his business (read: goes to the tavern). I suppose if you open the way to the artefact he can enter one of the other modes after some time again, but haven't checked that.

[PatrikLundell]

Infiltrators happen when the quester comes as a member of a group. You get an announcement that says "x.x human hammerman" entering. If you pause and look at the log, you'll see that character and a bunch others immediately following in the list (and I've had 3 cases of vampires hidden away there in my current fortress), and none of those are actually on the the Units screen. Wait a while, and they'll gradually arrive. You may get a bard or whatever announcement during this process, see the bard on the Units list, but some of those announced before still not on the map. Those will enter eventually, and are listed below the bard, i.e. they're listed in announcement order, nor arrival order. Performance troupes work the same, i.e. the troupe is announced and the members enter gradually and get listed in a contiguous block on the Units screen.

A group member exiting and returning as a thief may either flee to fight another day, or attack and claim that nothing will stand in between the quester and the artifact. Infiltrators are activated when you either chase down a thief or gets attacked by him: it happens as soon as fighting starts. If the thief flees unmolested nothing happens.

[Bumber]

Locked up items cause both guys to perform another meeting (at official's place) and then the quester goes on with his business (read: goes to the tavern). I suppose if you open the way to the artefact he can enter one of the other modes after some time again, but haven't checked that.

I think I heard there's a prediction of magma showers along that route. The weather strangely seems to depend on which artifact it turns out they're seeking.

(I suspect cave-in dust and cage traps would be safer for the mayor, though. On the other hand, if the path is interrupted then the mayor can be ordered to pull a lever in an observation booth attend to some other important business.)

Now we just need to know what happens if the quester gets 1.) "misplaced" somewhere or 2.) meets with an "accident". Will they send another in case 1? Will their successor in either case ask again, or will the mayor try to honor the previous agreement?