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[King Zultan]

Looks like it's time to start mass producing ghouls, to keep our population from dwindling further.

[Laterigrade]

the poetry is tainted with the racism you'd expect from a goblin

this is just perfect; I’d sig it if I had any more space

great post! horrible tragedy! smallhands!

[recon1o6]

Wait...my megaproject worked? There was a siege straight after my turn. Funny, I never seemed to get sieged yet everyone else does

Also recon...how do I complete the Tall Bar? I am confounded by trying to figure it out myself.

Yup, its elf lover proof ;3 now while I could in the tradition of succession forts refuse to explain or write incoherent and oxymoronic instructions, I want to see this thing shine. I put the instructions back a few pages but in any event a more thorough explaination is due

I'll make a diagram when i get back from dinner, since there's a couple of what Dwarf!Recon would call "sobriety infused oversights" and I call mistakes i made while rushing production.


Edit- controls

The central lever in the tavern opens the access floodgate that leads to the roof. You might want to widen this in case of buzzard attack unless you fancy more cases like Mayor Avuz dodging onto the floor 7 Z levels down. Off=open On=closed

The Magma release lever opens all the floodgates on the roof to pour onto our enemies when ON. Keep it off when refilling. Try to refrain from using it when roof access is off

Magma refill lever controls the floodgate next to the pump outflow. Shut this off when you have finished filling the mug. Now I took down a square from the wall on the opposite side because i used the incorrect material (gold bar instead of granite) and you seen that it leaked magma as a result





When filling the Mugma the Release must be off, the refill on, and the pump stack nogood flooded himself with needs to be manned en masse by dwarves. There is a magma channel 2 levels below the trading floor that shows it. Assuming the axels havent burned down, then the Tall Bar pumps will work automatically

There is a way to pump the magma in nogood's stack using the water reactor but for the life of me I can't remember where or how. Currently the reactor is on but the power isn't flowing.

[Salmeuk]

I will now confess I d/led the save when it was first posted to get a look at this magma contraption.

My experience was exactly the same. I too though the magma killed the coincidentally times siege, and sent dwarves to 'mop up'. Their little beards go off like little firecrackers when they step on the red stuff, my god!

That save is a trap card lol

[delphonso]

That save is a trap card lol

This does make me feel a lot better.

I'll try my best, recon...though most of those floodgates are missing for me - presumably melted/not installed.


I grabbed this screenshot sometime during my last session - but didn't work it in at all. Pretty neat, I think.

[recon1o6]

have you flipped the magma release lever back to its original position? those floodgates are made of green glass and shouldn't melt

edit: ah...I may have made a small mistake during construction. So when building a floodgate, you need to make them out of magma proof material (I got that part right) which is fine if its just going to stay closed.
If it is going to open, then it needs to have magma proof mechanisms...which i didnt install. Consequently some of the floodgates are either destroyed or displaced

The pump stack also destroyed due to the fire and magma leak removing its floating part so that will need rebuilding, same with the power connections



According to the wiki, when closed floodgates function as walls. That's why I could fill the magma safely. The reason it blew up when the magma was released was because when they open, if the mechanisms aren't magma proof, they melt and destroy the floodgate.

Also, the reason some gates are still there? that's a known bug XD free floating floodgates happen if on constructed walls



TLDR: make some new floodgates and install magma proof mechanisms to replace the ones I didn't make magma proof and thus got destroyed when magma was released

[Spriggans]

Wait, we lost a quarter of our populace, yet still have 44 living ?
That means we had 60 dwarves ! Someone tweaked the pop_cap maybe :/
(EDIT : hoo POP_CAP is 50, but STRICT_POP_CAP is 60... Stupid me.)

Anyway ! Don't despair Del ! Dying here in SmallHands is natural. It has happened before, it will happen again.

[recon1o6]

Wait, we lost a quarter of our populace, yet still have 44 living ?
That means we had 60 dwarves ! Someone tweaked the pop_cap maybe :/
(EDIT : hoo POP_CAP is 50, but STRICT_POP_CAP is 60... Stupid me.)

Anyway ! Don't despair Del ! Dying here in SmallHands is natural. It has happened before, it will happen again.

We've been up past the limit for some time, I would have reduced it but no sieges and needing the dwarfpower meant that I had next to no deaths. I had no immigrants either.

[delphonso]

Composition: The Truth
This is a talc-bound codex.
The written portion consists of a 20 page essay entitled, Composition: The Truth, authored by Olon Onulolun. It concerns the unfinished journal authored by Elpho Ustuthdeleth. The writing is as vicious as can be. Overall the prose is amateurish at best. 

Excerpt:

To err is dwarven, to reuse an old cliché. These words may have been some comfort to Elpho, in these early days of 176, as she seems to have taken the burden of overseership quite hard. We find a few revisions of the following text in Elpho's journal:

Is a world without pain possible? Then don’t ask the impossible.

A charming quote originally put to pigtail by Momuz Aurelius in the time before time. This author feels a flood of sympathy, though, reading the following etched out in the margins:

Why don't I feel pain? Why don't I feel anything?

The journal of one “auze” Dodokimsal, simply known around Smallhands as “the broker”, accounts for a surplus of slabs commissioned and engraved in the late Spring and early Summer of 176. Other contemporaries recounted seeing “ghosts” or poltergeists. Those readers who have never sampled the fortress life, poltergeist activity is a well-known and documented phenomenon. Some scholars suggest that it is the result of the dwarven commitment to the success of a fort being broken, more esoteric philosophers believe poltergeists are punishments for bad overseeing.

Elpho was a well-practiced philosopher, and I would suggest that she was familiar with such schools of thought. Her journal, however, contains the melancholic yet optimistic lines:

It's early dawn, my love, open your eyes and arise
Gently imbibing and playing the ushirir;
For those who are here will not tarry long,
And those who are gone will not return.

This is, unfortunately, a blatant forgery of Olun Khayyam's* 160th quatrain. All surrounding evidence suggests Elpho spent much of the time mourning the recently dead and wallowing in self pity. Of note, the wandering babbler Quasar drops off from all journals in Smallhands at this time.




Excerpt:

An out-of-character statement remains undisturbed in the middle of this journal. I am unsure what to think of it, but I present it here in the hopes that any other scholars will pay attention to it.

I feel no fear. I crushed a fleshball. It could not resist, and I felt nothing extinguishing its life.

-=-=-=-=-
OOC
*Omar Khayyam is an amazing poet, unfortunately mostly unknown in the West. If you like drinking, lounging outside, beautiful ladies, and drinking - you'll enjoy the Rubaiyat. Big recommend.

Interestingly, I am having some sort of sympathetic lack of motivation with Elpho. I spent the last couple months cleaning up - slaughtering our out of control animal population, putting ghosts to rest, selling off some tat, and memorializing any potential spookers. Sadly everyone was already interred - which means they can't be zombified (right? I am remembering that correctly, right?)

This is the guild representative for the Humans. I think she has a neat name and title.

TLDR: make some new floodgates and install magma proof mechanisms to replace the ones I didn't make magma proof and thus got destroyed when magma was released

I took screenshots to come here and tell you this - thanks for the research and explanation - I'll try to install a few more floodgates, if I can - though...would the magma pumps still work if the holding chamber isn't installed - as in, would it just pour magma out anyway?

[recon1o6]

There's 4 parts to the tall bar's magma system and they are in need of repair or replacement. The stack itself should be safe to repair given no dwarf is adding magma into the access channel through nogood's stack.

The release floodgates- all the holes around the copper walls should have a green glass floodgate and a replacement magma proof mechanism. These need to be linked to the RELEASE lever

The pump stack- that little wall you see around the corner of the topmost pump as you can see, leaked magma when I forgot to replace the bit of wall highlighted in my diagram earlier.
Only the top few stacks are deconstructed currently, build them up again shouldn't be too hard, I don't think you will need any replacement parts but some of them are blocking floodgate repairs currently.
This stack is automated by the windmills. When built correctly, the FILL lever controls the floodgate next to the access. That needs to be closed before you can rain the magma or you'll just get trickles rather than a flood.

Windmills and gear assemblies- There are 4 windmills situated on top of 4 gear assemblies. The two windmill assemblies are linked by axles to a broken GA and those connect to a GA next to the top pump stack (Also deconstructed). There should already be access from an up/down stair further along the platform. See if you can grab some nethercap in case of any more leaks so the damn thing doesn't need to be repaired every time.

Magma access- this long channel is currently MANUALLY operated by a team of dwarves when the refill is required. It took a fair amount of pumping to get this to work since nogood's pump stack in the SW needs constant use in order to get it through the channel to the Bar pump stack without evaporating OR locating that lever that transferred power from the reactor to the Nogood pumps

[delphonso]

-=-=-=-=-
OOC:
Unfortunately just about nothing happened in the last two seasons, so there's not much to report in or out of character. I accidentally left the game running for most of Autumn... Myself and Elpho will hopefully be more inspired on my next turn. I was quite busy before this turn and will be after it - so I think the timing just ended up being bad.

I had a relatively productive turn, even if I killed a lot of citizens. No new dwarves arrived, but I sent a small fortune in broken clothes to the mountainhomes so hopefully that'll encourage some arrivals come Spring. A small siege arrived and shattered themselves on our weapon traps before wandering off again. I didn't fix the pump-stack, but did hook up all the floodgates to the release lever and add an additional level to the top(as I think the amount of magma could be a bit more...impressive). Everyone's mood is fine considering how many died and how everyone doesn't feel anything anymore. Animal populations have been greatly reduced. A bunch of junk lying around was dumped or sold off. There's a little miasma around from slaughtered puppies - should be basically cleared up by now. I think I dumped all of it.

I basically did nothing -shrug- sozzzzzzzzzz

Here's the save.

[Laterigrade]

I really enjoyed your writing and style, del! Thanks for making these for us!

On a sidenote, what, in the name of Armok’s hairy legs, is a fleshball?

[Laterigrade]

I really enjoyed your writing and style, del! Thanks for making these for us!

On a sidenote, what, in the name of Armok’s hairy legs, is a fleshball?

well, that’s less awful than I had thought, at least
but the image of Elpho just grabbing it and kicking it and punching, killing it for no other reason than that it’s there, is deliciously horrible

[delphonso]

I really enjoyed your writing and style, del! Thanks for making these for us!

On a sidenote, what, in the name of Armok’s hairy legs, is a fleshball?

Cheers - if things cool off a bit, I might either come back and write an update or contribute to other people's turns with a few journal entries.

Forgot to mention: StrikaAmaru, that's you bud.

[Spriggans]

Nice ! I just loaded the save real quick, because I was wondering about something...

And yes, turns out, this something is possible :



Further research is required to know if aging will change the ghoul's "profession"
Experimentation on children in the name of Science IS acceptable.


EDIT : Experimentations using gm-editor to change the birth-date has shown that the ghoul-kid will never become adult.
I used a test dwarven child, changed his birth-date, waited a few days. He did become a peasant as casual.
I did the same for the ghoul-child. He did not become a ghoul-peasant.

Looks like ghoul-children are cursed to play Make-believe for the rest of Time...

Spoiler: This might be because of this Flag... (click to show/hide)

I will now seek if there is a way to force ghoul-children to perform some useful work.
If I find anything of interrest, I'll update. But I really believe children are just as useless as ghouls as they are normally