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Author Topic: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - Appeasing Elves with Artifical Tree Towers  (Read 11039 times)

SQman

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #15 on: December 18, 2021, 05:38:48 pm »

Dang, I gotta catch up and get building, because people are getting impatient. I've been observing this thread, just not closely enough to notice that the last turn has ended. Whoops :P



"So this is the place, huh? Dear, you've told me we were moving to the crown of the kingdom, not some god-forsaken hole marked with two towers, one of which smells like bird shit and souds like some hellish pit." SQman's wife said in a stern, accusing tone. "Could it be... you lied to me?"

The man looked around in horror as gold-paved roads and opulent crystal spires failed to reveal themselves. "N-no honey, that's not it! You... you see, it's actually that... I..." Suddenly a thought appeared in SQman's shaggy head, a thought so outlandish and unnatural that a shudder went down his spine. "I've actually got offered the position of the head architect! I will be the one to build the kingdom's crown!"

"You, a pencil pusher who had never had nothing to do with architecture, was offered a position of a head architect."

"Yes. I-if you excuse me, dear, I need to talk to the person in charge."

---

The previous overseer actually believed I was supposed to take the reins, and that's how I became the de-facto leader of this place. And avoided a serious argument with my wife. Actually, I wouldn't be doing much arguing anyway... Still, seems like I do need to erect a tower of some sort...

---

Well, let's start with what I'm actually qualified to do: assessing the current situation.



The situation with food is good, with the Tower of Fields producing, well, produce. I have ordered the construction of several nest boxes so the peafowl tower can be useful for something more than just making noise and stench.

The immediate problem revealed itself when I looked at the population list - there are 27 of us in the fortress, 5 being bards and other entertainers. There is no militia whatsoever, so if goblins decie to show up, the towers will fall. My first order, other than the nest boxes, was to established a squad, the Tower Defense, composed of two brave dwarves. One of them has an iron spear, I assume he's a mercenary, but the other one is just a woman I pulled out of the crowd. She's kind of scrawny, so maybe it wasn't a great choice after all...



My plan for the third tower involved the use of gems amng other things, and just so it happened that there was no jeweller's workshops at all. Fortunately someone was trying to make dormitories two levels under the bedrooms. That will serve as a spot for gem cutting, and the homeless will receive small but own bedrooms instead.



While I was pondering the next move, an elven caravan has appeared. If only we had something to trade... With the amount of gold cluttering the smelters, we should have no problem making some earring and figurines, just in case we need to buy some metal ingots from the mountainhomes in autumn, and we will have to do that.



As expected, the long-ears had very little of value. We've exchanged a few tattered pieces of apparel, a silver mace, and a few gold bars for a grizzly bear and a couple of wooden items.



Revision: forgive me, gods in the deep, but due to the lack of usable metal AND cloth, we had to buy clothes and armor from the elves. The trader had a cheeky grin on his hairless face, but in the end we had to swallow our pride and admit that wooden armor is better than no armor at all. They had no breastplates for sale, but that problem can be solved by slaughtering one of our horses.



Oh that Mosus. She was so inspired by the announcement of a horse's birthsday that she snuck into one of the new jeweller's workshops, took two handfuls of rough green tourmalines and a large chunk of gabbro, and begun working. I really do wonder what will come out of it.



It's a pretty thing, that much I can say.

More importantly, a group of migrants has appeared. Sixteen people, including some highly skilled in professions that probably won't come useful anytime soon. There was also a macewoman and a swordsman, and two very strong men who will make great soldiers. Now to outfit them...



I've been informed that there are no butcher's shops anywhere. Explains why the horses haven't been slaughtered yet.



The butcher problem has been solved, and now all six of our soldiers are training in their new barracks, wearing their new bone armor.



And with a lot of very basic issues taken care of, I'll explain what I plan my tower to be: it shall be a monument to history and culture, a tower of artifacts, books, exotic beasts, monuments. Monument of monuments? Sure, why not? The Lamentation of Notching and Martyrchance were already put on sublime microcline pedestals on the lowest level which has been designated a museum.



The beautiful sight of glimmering stained glass has inspired Kadol to start working on an artifact. She didn't seem quite like herself, but I liked her enthusiasm. We really should build a leather worker's shop.
She grabbed a bundle of horse skin and a wolf pelt, and started muttering something about bones. I'm glad we have an abundance of horses. I should look into assigning some dwarves to hunting.

And then, some more migrants.



Got to mid-summer. It's pretty obvious that the previous overseers were focused on their towers, forgetting about some vital industries that no fort can exist without, like gems and bones.
The next levels of the tower will not be as gem-intensive, so I'll finish by the end of the in-game year, and that will probably be tomorrow.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2021, 10:14:42 am by SQman »
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SQman

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #16 on: December 20, 2021, 06:18:57 am »

I'm feeling really under the weather today, and I don't think I'll be able to do anything productive. I'm just asking for two more days, that's all.
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Salmeuk

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #17 on: December 20, 2021, 11:35:30 am »

No worries!! Lovely first turn. Sorry if you detected impatience in my previous post; I was merely keeping the 'crowd' updated. Take your time.

Yes, I did ignore useful industries. But it was for the peafowl. Which are useful in the sense you can look at them and wonder what went wrong with evolution.

Best depiction of (an artist's depiction of) a durian tree I could find:


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SQman

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #18 on: December 21, 2021, 04:47:28 pm »

I'm much better now. The headache that lasted the whole goddamn day was likely cause by me getting carried away and playing Darkest Dungeon up until 1 AM, and since I have free Mondays, I only had eight hours of sleep. Damn, is this what getting old is like?



The latest migration wave was nine dwarves strong including an accomplished lumberjack, an expert engraver, and, of all things, a professional vet. At least we can get ourselves a steel axe if I get it confiscated from the woodcutter. He's a good spearman, so hopefuly he won't be needing that axe.




Oh no, the new tower is already being besieged! By a weremammoth to boot! It seems to be ather small for what it is, but let's not underestimate a literal monster. Tower Defense, time to prove your worth!



Quickly guys, the werebeast is already inside! damn, there will be casualties for sure!



Turned out that those people that the mammoth was running into were the Tower Defense. Shows you how much I know. Obsidian swords proved effective enough, but the killing blow was a stab to the heart with a spear. Nobody was bitten, thanks gods for that, and the battle was quite short.



This is the second level of the culture tower. It is a sculpture garden filled with beautiful silver statues. I don't expect there to be many visitors; dwarves these days care little for art. Sad, but not unexpected.



The third level is a zoo full of empty lead cages and one wooden one with a bear in it. To anyone who decides to take over after me: please fill these cages with all manners of exotic animals, either local fauna or those bought from elves.



Egg



Poor Kadol couldn't finish her artifact due to the lack of cloth and went insane. She will need to be put down, unfortunately.




A hit in the head with a pickaxe ended Kadol's short rampage. A pity that, because she was a good leatherworker. She has been put to rest along with her severed head and feet. If we ever have a zombie apocalypse scenario, we don't have to worry about this one.



Anyway, here is the fourth level of the tower, a small library for the inquisitive. The bookcases were made of pure gold because, honestly, we have an abundance of that.



The caravan from the mountainhome! Let's see if we can get some iron and steel!



Turns out that thanks to my endevour with stained glass we have quite a lot of large gems. The traders will like that, in addition to golden crafts.



I love the one figurine with slugs. I'll have it put in the museum instead.



We desperately need cloth, so I had a lot of it ordered for the next year. Also metals, armor and some other things.



Six thousand Urists of profit was not enough for those greedy bastards. There was no trade with the dwarves this year, and I happened to be very excited for all this metal equipment and cloth. Piss off, Kulet, you're missing out on good stuff.



I have no idea who Edzul is, but he or she wants to become a citizen. Why not? We need more hands to work.



Speaking of work, our hunters are already on the case of bringing us delicious turkey. Anybody's got some cranberry sauce?



For some reason an entire warband of elves have entered the fortress. They are peaceful, but what do they want? Maybe they are mercenaries? We could have an elven squad fighting on our side.



Finding yet another node of gold has inspired a certain carpenter to drop what he's been doing and run to the bowyer's workshop and demand cloth. Oh well, he had a good run.

Meanwhile, a group of eight migrants has arrived, all of them pretty much unskilled chumps, with some basic fighting skills.



All the new arrivals were drafted into a new squad. We are in no way able to equip them though.

The mayor was elected too, and that's a bit of a problem because now we have to find them a decent accomodation and office. Dang.



Some cult seems to have gained quite a lot of popularity around these parts, and they asked if they can use a part of the third tower as their temple. Frankly, I ran out of things to do with that building, so I'll let them have it. They worship Damol, a god of thralldom and misery. How quaint.



Speaking of misery, Udib has gone mad or rather melancholic. How about you don't ask for cloth next time, guys?







I have no idea who either of those people are, but someone thought it would be good if I knew that they are important now.



It's mid-winter, I'm getting ready to bail because the manager, the mayor and my wife are starting to catch up that I wasn't even supposed to take reins here, and that dwarf who had went insane has the audacity to die. On top of that, some spinner started speaking in tongues, running to the craftsdwarf's workshop. He took a pile of wild hog bones and a handful of grey crystals, and started working. I'll take the risk and wait with packing, just to see the results.



Soulsstopped the God of Axes, the door made out of wild boar bones. It seems to have an image of a cute monkey man on it. Someone may find a use for it, so I'm not having it displayed in the museum.

And that's about it. Now, before I go, I'll show some more of the tower. Not gonna say a whole lot, just show.



Here you have it, the tower of culture and history. Not too tall, but the girthiest we've got.



Things to do:
-Cloth plants and wool animals. I've somehow found some pig tails growing about and had them scheduled for planting, but that's not nearly enough. Hope that elves bring something.
-Armor - while the militia is of quite decent size, they are equipped with bone and wood armor. Get iron, steel and bronze from dwarves. Gold crafts are ready to be sold, you can thank me for that.
-Clothes - dwarves are walking in tattered apparel. We have leather, but I've only realized that near the end.
-Zoo - it''s not really important, but it would be nice if the cages in the tower were filled.

It was a lot of fun trying to build a decent tower while simultaneously fixing a fort that was never given the love it deserved. I mean, the weremammoth could have wiped out the fort if I only focused on the tower.
Initially I was thinking about making a temple tower (which I have some experience with), but for some reason I decided against it. I think I would have done that if I was to start all over.

Take this, continue the legacy!
« Last Edit: January 25, 2022, 03:17:42 pm by SQman »
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delphonso

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #19 on: December 21, 2021, 06:07:51 pm »

Great job SQman! The weremammoth really should have been much more of a problem. Excellent that it was quickly handled. I think that speardwarf was the one who stopped our artifact from being stolen on my turn.

There seem to be no thread bearing plants on the map. I had the dwarves gather plants a few times in the hopes of finding some jute or hemp. No luck there. Pig tails it must be!

Salmeuk

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #20 on: December 22, 2021, 02:39:47 pm »




The third level is a zoo full of empty lead cages and one wooden one with a bear in it. To anyone who decides to take over after me: please fill these cages with all manners of exotic animals, either local fauna or those bought from elves.

Nice idea - surely the royals will find a wild menagerie to their tastes?



Egg

yes.
Turns out that thanks to my endevour with stained glass we have quite a lot of large gems. The traders will like that, in addition to golden crafts.


so will I! I have a fascination with the art generation in this game, and large gems evoke a certain obsession in me over visualizing the object.

For some reason an entire warband of elves have entered the fortress. They are peaceful, but what do they want? Maybe they are mercenaries? We could have an elven squad fighting on our side.




This is interesting. Perhaps we shall build an elven tower - entirely out of wood. *evil laughter*


Some cult seems to have gained quite a lot of popularity around these parts, and they asked if they can use a part of the third tower as their temple. Frankly, I ran out of things to do with that building, so I'll let them have it. They worship Damol, a god of thralldom and misery. How quaint.


I think 'quaint' does little justice to their filthy, cultish ways. We may regret enshrining a god of misery.


And all that within a year! nice. Alright, as we have no followup on the list as of yet, I will take a second turn just to keep the ball rolling. Plus, this map... is cool. I love terrain like this and I haven't been able to find (in my solo games) a fortress with nearly as compelling a setting. Perhaps later today, tomorrow I will post..
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King Zultan

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #21 on: December 23, 2021, 04:27:08 am »

What happens when there is no more room for new towers, do new ones get built on top of old ones?
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Metruption

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #22 on: December 23, 2021, 06:55:10 am »

/in as player

todo: read the stories
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recon1o6

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #23 on: December 23, 2021, 08:36:37 am »

What happens when there is no more room for new towers, do new ones get built on top of old ones?

Please: you make a dwarven tower that goes downwards underground instead. Hollow out that cavern!
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delphonso

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #24 on: December 23, 2021, 09:08:56 am »

What happens when there is no more room for new towers, do new ones get built on top of old ones?

Hmm...a tower of towers, you say...Urdim urdim shall rise!

Salmeuk

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #25 on: December 24, 2021, 06:12:12 pm »

What happens when there is no more room for new towers, do new ones get built on top of old ones?

considering how freakin large the embark is, this is unlikely as, assuming all constructed towers are 5 x 5 in dimensions, you can figure we have about 289 or so tower locations before it is impossible to satisfy "The Six-Tile Rule".

even accounting for the notion most people want to build on the coolest parts of the map first, there are like 10 very genuinely prominent places you might throw down a tower.

/in as player

todo: read the stories

added to list. going to post my turn after this.

What happens when there is no more room for new towers, do new ones get built on top of old ones?

Please: you make a dwarven tower that goes downwards underground instead. Hollow out that cavern!

Perhaps I should have run this game with humans instead, it would have been more fitting. Dwarves, indeed, would likely not busy themselves in the construction of fragile, thin-walled buildings, but instead the sort of fantastical city-in-the-pit, surrounding a central chasm and scattered with staircases and exposed walkways.

What happens when there is no more room for new towers, do new ones get built on top of old ones?

Hmm...a tower of towers, you say...Urdim urdim shall rise!

These towers, these towers, these damn towers! At first, they were apart, but we ran out of space and the voice at our backs ordered us to build higher, higher, layer after layer, until the towers grew together like saplings planted close together, and became the one and only Tower. And evil thing, to be sure, but now, years later, we only know how to build up, and up, and nothing will stop our maddened work. We haven't seen daylight or felt a breeze in years, not since the air grew thin and we were told to stop putting in windows, "so that the essence of aether by which we all breathe would not be lost in the darkened void beyond the stone." It takes days to navigate the winding maze of ladders and staircases that bring us to the very top of this doomed construction. As we ascend we must wear long coats and fur gloves, so as to not freeze. This would be the tallest tower every constructed, a tower to those dark gods that we pray. . .
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Salmeuk

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Re: Fikuk Urdim, "The Field of Towers" - impress the royals, now with peacocks
« Reply #26 on: December 26, 2021, 02:52:59 am »

Year 3: The Golden Spiral

To go upwards is to honor the gods.  This tower, the brainchild of our mechanic Kadol (who is a fervent worshiper of Damol, god of thralldom and misery. . .but lets leave that aside for the moment), will serve as a conduit of heavenly power, sapping energy directly from the Gods above. Or something like that - he was of course quite drunk when he proposed the idea.

Importantly, it must be grounded - so he said. And so we laid the foundations at the bottom of one of the nearby forested pits. This, of course, would only add to the difficulty in reaching the clouds above. Specifically adding about 24 z levels. So be it.

Also planned was to flood this pit and create an artificial lake. Rather ambitious, I know, but work begun regardless and quickly at that, thanks to the efforts by previous managers who left quite the hoard of booze and cooked meals. The tower of farms was out of the way, and our dwarves moaned about the long trips through boulder-filled hallways. However, thanks to this tower we had that hoard of food. So it would stay. And be appreciated regardless of location.

---



 Our tavern was packed to the brim with strangelings, elves and humans, occasionally livestock, cats, children and likely ghosts. And everyone is dancing, or singing, or carrying strange rhythms about their body like jesters and fools.

---

Sometimes autodig gets the best of you, unexpectedly:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

---

Our fortress boasts a crack team of legendary gem cutters:



As well as a proficient squad of engineer-types. Surely we could have some fun with skills like this:



Wait, wait, what exactly is a 'holy rogue'? It's not a custom nickname or title, it's from the game itself. Here, it looks like this dwarf is a titled member of one of the cults of this world!



I haven't had time to research this but I wonder how much power this grants? Or what exactly it means that they are also a part of this fortress?

---

Fikuk Urdim is wealthy, and will continue to be so:



This land is rich.

---

Our carpenter, already legendary, got a strange look - and made this!



That is the most tetrahedronal tetrahedron I have EVER seen, man. keep it up.. and pass me whatever you are smoking

---

This is one of our gods, I thought you should know:



This 'silver statue to a god of depravity" is something we must not talk about.

---

Our siege engineer went fey. how rare! We convinced the siege operator to build up a workshop.

Aaaaand then he just went and claimed a craftsdwarfs shop instead, the ass. Producing this:



Kind of a joke at this point, dude. Please make something useful or get out lol

---



Ufalo has come! Mongoose made of ash, so not a huge threat.. and Ufalo has promptly left the party and hidden in the dark parts of the cavern.  See ya every few weeks until a cave croc kills you, or whatever...

---




Our king has arrived. Or more like, announced his title after scoping out the place while disguised as an old man. Which is honestly pretty backhanded and not very cool, king. We weren't ready for you.

also what kind of name is Salveballs. . . .

Work begun on the previously dug rooms, surrounding the natural formed walls with gold, and checkerboarded golden tiles contrast with the engraved gabbro to produce a room of absolutely royal quality. Here is a .gif the engraving process, complete with the new king checking out his room:



And no, I don't know why demons are such a popular image here. something something historical actors being oversampled. I will say there are a few cool engravings, as always, including a giant wolf fight. Oh, and the door is our newly crafted Soulsstopped the God of Axes.

The king still lacks a tomb. I will ( with your permission) retrofit the previously allocated sarcophagus layer of the tower built by SQman into a tomb fit for our king. That seems only fair - I wouldn't know who else to place in this tower.
 
---

More gold porn:



---

I didn't go into detail about the water feature previously mentioned. In order to create this, a much, MUCH larger project would need to be undertaken, that is, a gigantic pump stack. Windmill powered as I wanted to keep it exploit free, for better or worse... We would need quite a bit of power as the stack was tall. This would consume our mechanics and architects, and so they were removed from hauling labor. A number of other dwarves were thrown back into the hauler caste, at least for now.

The windmill mechanisms would go on the olivine bridge, built between the farm tower and the peacock tower at some point in the past two years, and the windmills themselves sit above on a platform of obsidian blocks. This would all be quite exposed and vulnerable to attack, should say a dragon or flier arrive. So be it.

---




One day, on the surface bridge, a collapse occurred, with one dwarf minorly injured. Such is the danger of foundation-less construction.

---

The golden spiral grows day by day, block by block:



---

The pump stack has had multiple setbacks, the cause of which has yet to be determined. We would plan out a days worth of work, and then low and behold return to find all the plans ruined at night. Something was preventing out progress.

Erib, one of the visiting bards, decided to join up with us permanently. We have an elf working for us! Feels good to watch them get dirty, for once.

---

A second mongoose beast was sighted below:



Whats up with these mongooses, huh? This one was also lost to the fog of war, and doesn't seem at all attracted to our well setup - which remains exposed.

---

Spring has arrived, and look at this:



short by FIVE power. meh. I will continue into this second year in the attempt to wrap up this pump stack. Ideally, future towers would take advantage of this water supply!

So here we are. The golden spiral, which is most likely some strange totem to a dark god, grows ever higher  . . . the mongooses writhe below, ignorant of the busy colony above . . . and the dwarves themselves seems ablaze with power, perhaps due to the aura of the volcano, or the religiosity with which they approach dancing.

Fikuk Urdim grows taller!
« Last Edit: December 26, 2021, 03:05:02 am by Salmeuk »
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SQman

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The Hoary sounds like an old-timey euphemism for the devil. We need a nice and big temple to that guy.

Also, what is a pumpstack if not a tower of pump and water?
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recon1o6

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The Hoary sounds like an old-timey euphemism for the devil. We need a nice and big temple to that guy.

Also, what is a pumpstack if not a tower of pump and water?

A tower of pumps and MAGMA
like the one i built in smallhands
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Mobbstar

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Sign me up!  This looks like a splendid load of fun (and !Fun! given the many failed moods) and I have two potential ideas for towers already.

Those deities and their cults sure deserve some towers of their own, in one sense or another.

Gild the spire, Fikuk Urdim!
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