This is a pretty damn entertaining fort.
Thanks, I'm glad I'm not the only one enjoying it
The massive donations to the last caravan were a great success both in terms of more caravans arriving, and in finally getting migrants to arrive! 4 seasons in a row of 7-9 migrants have the population up to 123. The soldiers can go back on active duty now. You can never train too much for dealing with the undead rinocerous herds.
To try and keep from scaring away the merchants that have finally arrived, the giant ticks had to be pushed back off the bridges. As it so happens, giant ticks are good at pushing dwarves off of bridges. One of the soldiers was lucky and despite falling into the pit onto an upright spear trap, deflected 5 spears with his armor, and was missed by the others. The combat log reports him standing up and saying,
"I have improved my armor. That was not satisfying." Shortly after the dwarven caravan arrived, a second dwarf caravan showed up. A statue was built to block the second caravan from attempting to dock with the first. In previous years, when they both go for the same depot, 1 of them never makes it because the wagons of the first are in the way; the second caravan eventually leaves unhappy.
Unfortunately the second caravan managed to scuttle the entirety of its contents right outside the depot, and the first stayed well into the second month of the next year. The militia commander's elite squad of legendary mace lords were stationed by the depot just in case the merchants went hostile. But in an ironic turn of events, it was the militia commander who threw a tantrum and attacked some nearby mace lords. The stresses of being sent to kill mostly friendly dwarves turned zombie must have finally gotten to him. Now harrowed and unable to function in the fort, the hospital room door was locked behind him as he rested one last time after brawling.
The new commander ended up having to fight the old zombie commander naked, as all her new position's specific assigned artifact gear was in the hospital room, guarded by the old zombie commander. Her upper spine and right shoulder are now inhibited, but she's the next most experienced mace lord; and after having to fight unarmed for her gear, she's earned the position. Future promotions will now wait until the previous commander has been put to rest for good.
Five other dwarves were also found to be in need of urgent retirement and were sent to the newly constructed retirement facility while move orders could still be given. Three were too far gone to obey orders and were isolated in the armory, their bedroom, or wherever else doors could be locked.
48 years after striking the earth, flux stone was finally discovered! Some exploratory mining revealed the marble deposit to be 30 x 20 x 10-Z.
Mining also revealed an aquifer at the very top of the deposit.
Fortifications managed to be carved into the map edge, buying time for the Z-level below to be carved out to drain the aquifer away from the work area and off the map.
The fort's real hero: the designated refuse hauler with no other labors; the one who keeps the miasma at bay; the one who gets rid of skins and hair before they reanimate; the mortician was almost killed. One of the corpses he picked up zombified on his way back to the atom smasher. It was discovered that despite wearing a breastplate and gauntlets, lacking a mail shirt leaves the upper arm completely exposed. An artery opening scratch to the unprotected upper arm caused him to lose grip of his finely-crafted grown willow crutch and fall down, taking many blows before the guards could get there. On the plus side, the injuries left him without function of both his eyes, and he has been given a brand new masterful platinum crutch. His last crutch had just 1 kill. All platinum continues to be forged into crutches.
Reports of dead elephant calves being found keep coming up. I can only imagine that over-crowding / lack of sufficient grazing area is leading to elephant on elephant violence. The combat logs only go back as far as to show the calves skidding across the ground before slamming into an obstacle and dying. The most recent rizen zombie elephant managed to kill 1 farmer and seriously injure 3 others before being put to rest again. Metal armor assigned to all civilians has reduced casualties a lot, but despite only suffering bruises through his masterful bronze helm, the force of being gored in the head tore tendons in the upper spine and opened an artery.
Perhaps once the surface work has completed, and the pit fully operational, the negative population growth can be reversed. Until then, successful trade seems to be the only method of attracting the much needed migrants workers. Additional depots with wagon access control were constructed using 1 adamantine block, 1 platinum bar and 1 gold bar in each. The fort smelted its first steel bar just 50 years after striking the earth on 151-12-17. The spirits of the fort seem to approve of the recent development in steel production, as the fort's smelter, "Urdim Controlledtreaty" started being followed around by a Ghostly Metalcrafter moaning spirit just 5 days later. However encouraging that might be, the spirit was still put to rest, memorialized next to the forges so that steel smelting can continue with fewer interruptions. Upgrading to steel equipment is planned in case increasing exports draws goblin attention in addition to attracting more migrants.
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Topic: Taming the Terror (spoilers) (Read 17193 times)