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[Lozzymandias]

in the summer of 253 i suffer my first artifact theft. Much too late to stop it or learn anything about it. Okay, no biggie. I turn the hall where the artifacts are displayed into a meeting room (more witnesses), finally appoint a captain of the guard, and take precautions.

Soon after, i get a funny feeling. Check the artifact hall. One of the artifacts, a chert ring, is missing but not reported gone, despite a witness around (not a fortress dwarf).... huh.

Its not been long gone though, i immediately check stocks and find it in the hands of one of the marksdwarves. I send his squad to the artifact hall. He drops the ring. Its discovered out of place and i get the announcement. Okidoke, we now have a crime, lets drag him in for questioning.

It seems like the one witness travels along with the marksdwarf and the captain of the guard for questioning... I guess he witnessed the crime but before the announcement there was no crime to witness. he snitches on the marksdwarf then and there. and the marksdwarf fesses up. He also gives me his bosses name, a necromancer guest who's been abusing my hospitality.

So we drag him in for questioning. Like all mob bosses he's tight lipped. Don't care. Convict 'em both. Prison for the marksdwarf and a beating for the necromancer. Some info gained and justice, after a fashion, is served. Really liking this new theft mechanic

Only, when his sentence is up, freshly released marksdwarf immediately goes to steal ring again! Whats worse is that when he drops it, its just put back in its place like a new crime hasn't happened! I can't punish the duo again for the same crime!

I tried just straight up sending the marksdwarf murdering the necromancer, fitting revenge. Apparently he was part of our civilisation so that didn't go too well. Savescummed a bit and now i've got him locked in a temple while i drop a blind cave ogre on him. Hoping i won't have to do the same to the wayward marksdwarf

How do you guys generally end a plot for good?

[TubaDragoness]

I had this happening too. Insider dwarf stole the artifact no less than three times in her attempt to get it to the intelligent undead who wanted it, even as he was serving his prison sentence(s) for each new version of the theft - because as the instigator, his sentences were longer than hers. Do they ever stop trying, or are they corrupted for good?

[Nilsolm]

As far as I can tell, they won't stop until the instigator has suffered an unfortunate accident. And the safest way to do that, without causing a civil war, would be to wait for them to be in cages once they've served their sentence and chuck them into magma.

[Lozzymandias]

Right, so the blind cave ogre solved that plot once and for all... And the marks dwarf is a rehabilitated member of society. Some historic crimes have been interrogated for and more intrigue is being discovered across the fortress. Excellent excellent.

More plots to steal that ring! This time it's a intelligent undead human carpenter! They've both served a custodial service and the insider dwarf, freely released, makes a beeline for the ring and SOMEHOW hands it to the now caged carpenter heading for the stockpile. This man is going straight in the blind cave ogre pit.

A plot was revealed (long after execution) to steal my precious crundle one short sword. I know the instigator (komo something or other) I think he was the intelligent undead commander I saw enter the map. I doubt I'll see him or it again.

Honestly, almost every undead or necromancer that enters my map seems hellbent on theft. I could solve this with a locked door or vault but I'm having so much fun.

[therahedwig]

So, do you think what happened is that the ring got claimed afar by a bunch of different people, or just a single one that's sending half the world to get it?

I've recently opened up my tavern proper, so I am getting a lot of prompts now as well. I am a little sad that only the captain of the guard/sheriff can do the interrogations, unlike basically all other justice tasks, which the other guards can participate in as well. Similarly the translated/untranslated name in the UI for artifacts and last names is really bothersome here, especially if I cannot remember if something was a sheepleather hood.

I have to try the stocks method myself, I am currently kinda lost on whether some of the artifacts have already left the fortress, or are still there.

[Lozzymandias]

So, do you think what happened is that the ring got claimed afar by a bunch of different people, or just a single one that's sending half the world to get it?

That thought had occured to me. Definitely there are different flavours of plot going on here. With the first theft of the ring, the necromancer was specified as the highest member of the plot (that i know of). It would make sense if he reallly was the highest member, undead report to their creator necromancers and necromancers don't necessarily report to anyone else.

The interrogation of the intelligent undead human carpenter suggested a larger plot, he also confessed to spying and he implicated someone else in both the theft and the spying. The counterintelligence report hasn't registered who (the report contains some slight nonsense, saying its unknown but also specifying a particular elf or goblin. I dunno whats happening there, probably a bug about people concealing their identities). Maybe for the first theft of the ring i just botched the interrogation and the necromancer wouldn't reveal his boss, in which case they could be part of the same mega-plot. Unfortunately, that information lives only in the necromancers head (which now hangs from a blind cave ogres mouth.)

Similarly the translated/untranslated name in the UI for artifacts and last names is really bothersome here, especially if I cannot remember if something was a sheepleather hood.

yeah, i haven't yet found a good fix for that. It is a real pain, its just a matter of combing through the L artifacts... Maybe i can add some kind of nickname to the items that shows up in either views that can be used to tie them together... Dunno what utilities have to offer for naming items.

I have to try the stocks method myself, I am currently kinda lost on whether some of the artifacts have already left the fortress, or are still there.

From my experience so far? if you can still find the object in your stocks (i.e, to find MoistenedBurglar, the Adamantine mug, you check goblets->adamantine->shiftview and select *DwarfishforMoistenedBurgler*) then its still in the fortress. If you can't, that visitor has hightailed it out of the fortress by the time the crime was reported. I don't know if stealing it back has been unbugged yet. i heard it was theoretically possible but squads instantly return without announcements. Chances are its probably gone.

[PatrikLundell]

Based on looking at legends info, it looks like every villain and their cat claim the artifacts made in your fortress more or less immediately when they're created, and that the same villains plot to steal the same items over and over again, so you could have both.

I also saw a case of a criminal who made a career out of stealing the same item over and over again. Each time it was handed over to whoever contracted the thief, and there apparently were no qualms about stealing the item from the one they'd just handed it over to. Managed to steal the same item about 80 time, with a slight bit of faithlessness with other artifacts in between.

[muldrake]

Based on looking at legends info, it looks like every villain and their cat claim the artifacts made in your fortress more or less immediately when they're created, and that the same villains plot to steal the same items over and over again, so you could have both.

They sound like the Beagle Boys.

[mounf]

From my experience so far? if you can still find the object in your stocks (i.e, to find MoistenedBurglar, the Adamantine mug, you check goblets->adamantine->shiftview and select *DwarfishforMoistenedBurgler*) then its still in the fortress. If you can't, that visitor has hightailed it out of the fortress by the time the crime was reported. I don't know if stealing it back has been unbugged yet. i heard it was theoretically possible but squads instantly return without announcements. Chances are its probably gone.

Ah, that may explain my missing artifact animal trap. Interrogating recent guests after the notification revealed that it was stolen by one of my Militia Captains, who immediately confessed.  One beating for the captain and a 250 day sentence for the instigator and still no sign of it. I noticed we had a recent visitor, "Asno Saxostozu, holy stranger", who only seems to have hung around for a few days. Can plots be multi part? - ie. visitor 1 instigates theft of article, article handed to visitor 2 who innocently leaves?

Shame if artifact retrieval doesn't work, it would be nice to send a squad to retrieve this and persuade the mastermind to not continue to try to destabilize my fort.

[Lozzymandias]

From my experience so far? if you can still find the object in your stocks (i.e, to find MoistenedBurglar, the Adamantine mug, you check goblets->adamantine->shiftview and select *DwarfishforMoistenedBurgler*) then its still in the fortress. If you can't, that visitor has hightailed it out of the fortress by the time the crime was reported. I don't know if stealing it back has been unbugged yet. i heard it was theoretically possible but squads instantly return without announcements. Chances are its probably gone.

Ah, that may explain my missing artifact animal trap. Interrogating recent guests after the notification revealed that it was stolen by one of my Militia Captains, who immediately confessed.  One beating for the captain and a 250 day sentence for the instigator and still no sign of it. I noticed we had a recent visitor, "Asno Saxostozu, holy stranger", who only seems to have hung around for a few days. Can plots be multi part? - ie. visitor 1 instigates theft of article, article handed to visitor 2 who innocently leaves?

Shame if artifact retrieval doesn't work, it would be nice to send a squad to retrieve this and persuade the mastermind to not continue to try to destabilize my fort.

Maybe they can be multipart! I've had a few plots where the instigator implicated a third party, and since we know that plot chains can be infinitely long, i see no reason they shouldn't involve a third person hand-off. I don't know if you tried interrogating the instigator, (especially after the thief implicates the investigator) its not guaranteed to turn up anything but it can. i had found that if by the time the captain of the guard got off his ass to do some investigation, the handover from insider dwarf to investigator had already happened, then you won't automatically sieze the artifact off the instigator (in which case it will still be in his inventory after his sentence is complete and you have to do something fiddly to get it back), but it should still be in stocks if thats the case.

All is not lost! you may yet discover who the ultimate plotter was, and if they visit your fortress for more theft then they can go in the forgotten beast pit

[PatrikLundell]

As far as I've seen from the structures, a master can order a crime from another individual, explicitly or optionally with a third party. However, before the plot is set up, the master has to recruit the actor at least in some way. It can also me noted that it seems the third party is called "messenger", which might mean the job is to pick up the loot.

As far as I understand the artifact acquisitions that currently fail are the ones where the artifact is carried around, so it ought to be possible to recover stolen artifacts that have been stored (and you'd need DFHacking or Legends info to determine that this has happened). Note that this is speculation without any empirical support.

[Shizmoo]

what about it says "implicates someone" or someone who isnt at my fort on justice screen

[PatrikLundell]

It means that someone was involved either as a messenger or as the one giving the orders. Dorf currently don't lie about this (lies are very tricky to handle: you need a good memory, and DF has trouble with keeping that in check), so either they refuse to name their accomplices, or they tell the truth when indicating someone. That someone may be using a false identity (about the only lie DF can handle somewhat competently), though...

[therahedwig]

Ok, some interesting observations after looking at my own legends:

- Named equipment that my military got attached to doesn't get claimed until these items are officially stored on the site.
- Artifacts can be claimed from afar, but they can also be claimed from an infiltration mission (aka, they visited your tavern). In the cases I've had, both of these lead to the figure plotting and succeeding to get the artifact. In one case, an intelligent undead, it was offered to his necromancer master, in the other case, another intelligent undead, it was kept (though, this may be because that guy died before leaving the map). In fact, looking more closely, it's the claimed-during-an-infiltration-mission that leads to most theft, even though from afar does result in plots, I haven't seen them carried out in the six years my fort took.
- Noone cared about my artifact floodgates, or my other artifact furniture, really.
- Elves, while they may participate in plots, generally don't seem to care about artifacts all that much. I wonder why...

[Lozzymandias]

See in my world, The Fresh Boar (an elven civilisation) was the biggest antagonist seeking my artifacts (including a willow scepter. C'mon dudes, you hate wooden things), to the point of sending questers, agents (with plots) and even ambushes (i don't know if the ambushes are related, they only started after i denied the first quests.