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[A_Curious_Cat]

So… I’ve got a problem.

Specifically a giant.

I successfully got everyone inside and closed the drawbridge.  After killing one unlucky visiting human, the giant had been chilling by a tree.

Is he going to be chilling there indefinitely?  I currently don’t have a military (I just started smelting tetrahedrite for copper, so I don’t have any armor or weapons yet).  I’ve also got a humannswordsman that I had to give an artifact crown to, but I can’t let him out because she’s so slow and the giant so near to the entrance that the giant would make it inside before she’s outside.

Any advice?

Edit:  scratch that.  The giant was killed by a visiting human hammerman.

Unfortunately, a visiting mercenary just turned into a werebeaver…

Currently forging battle axes, helms, shields, and gauntlets.  More items to come when I get more tetrahedrite smelted…

Edit2:

He just transformed back into a dwarf.  Any ideas what I should do with him?  Do you think I can get him inside, have him petition, and send him away before he transforms again?

[Mobbstar]

He just transformed back into a dwarf.  Any ideas what I should do with him?  Do you think I can get him inside, have him petition, and send him away before he transforms again?

De-beasted werebeasts typically flee the area as soon as a fortress member comes into sight.

[A_Curious_Cat]

He just transformed back into a dwarf.  Any ideas what I should do with him?  Do you think I can get him inside, have him petition, and send him away before he transforms again?

De-beasted werebeasts typically flee the area as soon as a fortress member comes into sight.

I opened the gate.  He visited a temple and is now in my tavern.

Any way to get rid of him?  It’s currently the twelfth of obsidian.  According to the wiki, he should transform again on the 28th…

Edit:

He transformed again, bit two people, then transformed back.  He’s not fleeing, and people are only attacking him while he’s transformed.

It’s currently the 5th of Granite.  Next transformation will be on the 25th.

Suggestions?

[PatrikLundell]

The only "cure" for lycanthropy is death.

There's a difference between werebeast attacks, where werebeasts enter attack, and then flee after turning back to what they were originally, and werebeast visitors which arrive in their normal form and typically transform in the middle of your tavern.
Visitors typically stay for several months before leaving... The longer they stay the greater the risk of them making friends is, which means the risk of loyalty cascades increases over time when you've had enough of the slaughter and decide to kill the bugger, although you can usually kill it while in were form, at the cost of some of your dorfs being killed or bitten (which is essentially the same as killed, unless you want to play a mixed or lycanthropy only fortress [and probably see it end in a blood bath]).

[A_Curious_Cat]

It seems like I shouldn’t have taken Mobbstar’s advice…

It also seems that the advice I received in an earlier thread, about turtling during the early years, wasn’t correct either and I actually need to get a military squad set up in the first two years.  I’m thinking I may have to abandon this fortress.  The original werebeaver and the two that were bitten are all visitors, so there isn’t any easy way to get rid of them (I also don’t want to start a tantrum spiral or loyalty cascade).  This sucks as this fort is the furthest I’ve progressed so far.  I’ve even had four hillocks spring up and align themselves with me, and I recently became a barony (I’m, also, preparing a 1x2 room with a lever and upright spear for two dwarves that became a baron, and a count, of other sites and decided that they could somehow issue mandates for my fort).

[Thisfox]

Lock the werebeavers into rooms. I'm surprised more people don't do this.

It doesn't have to be very elaborate, for example, make a small universal temple down a long corridor with plenty of doors. When the visitor goes to pray, lock the door. Get someone to wall the door over. And thus: They are trapped forevers. Make another small universal temple, repeat the maneuver. In this way, you can have a whole lot of werebeast dorfs locked up in successive rooms, and you can even use them later for things. They don't need food or water. If they're a citizen it's even easier, you can just militarise them and get them to go to their isolation room.

I have often locked a visiting were in a wellroom, or even a tavern, and walled them in, then later built a drawbridge-style exit, unwalled them while they were placid, and released them along their drawbridge exit onto a goblin siege. The carnage is beautiful. Somewhat hard to clean up, but not impossible.

[A_Curious_Cat]

Lock the werebeavers into rooms. I'm surprised more people don't do this.

It doesn't have to be very elaborate, for example, make a small universal temple down a long corridor with plenty of doors. When the visitor goes to pray, lock the door. Get someone to wall the door over. And thus: They are trapped forevers. Make another small universal temple, repeat the maneuver. In this way, you can have a whole lot of werebeast dorfs locked up in successive rooms, and you can even use them later for things. They don't need food or water. If they're a citizen it's even easier, you can just militarise them and get them to go to their isolation room.

I have often locked a visiting were in a wellroom, or even a tavern, and walled them in, then later built a drawbridge-style exit, unwalled them while they were placid, and released them along their drawbridge exit onto a goblin siege. The carnage is beautiful. Somewhat hard to clean up, but not impossible.

I’ve already got three temples (one of which is unaligned).  How do I get these visitors (and only these visitors into a temple?  Also, will they enter a temple if it’s just a shrine?  I’d like to set up a small shrine with a bridge…

[anewaname]

You should always have a squad ready for emergency situations. Four of your starting craftdwarfs armed with training axes and shields is enough for non-giant wildlife, then metal weapons and full armor coverage as soon as possible and replace the dwarfs with migrants. Bone armor is underrated... it will not stop metal weapons effectively, but it will stop bites from were-folk, alligators, crundles, etc.

Like ThisFox, I give infected dwarfs a Cask of Amontillado burial. You can always let them out later when you have a better solution.

If you do not want to axe-murder the visitor, use the alert to move your civilians away from the visitor, then seal the room. After that, you can take the time to build a second exit from the room to gently release them from your fort once they are "Ready To Leave".

[Thisfox]

I’ve already got three temples (one of which is unaligned).  How do I get these visitors (and only these visitors) into a temple?  Also, will they enter a temple if it’s just a shrine?  I’d like to set up a small shrine with a bridge…

Make the temples you currently have "citizen-only", and the shrine you make down the long corridor "open for everyone". Your dorfs might visit it, although they are less likely to if it's not as magnificent as your main temples district, and further away from the action. You have to wait and watch until the dorf you want is between two doors alone, then pause and lock the doors. Or you could do it with the only "visitors-friendly"-tavern, or similar, it doesn't have to be a temple. You can then move the shrine to a new useful location to trap the next one, if you trapped them in the shrine instead of the corridor. The idea isn't to get them to the shrine, it's to get them to an abandoned bit of corridor with no one else, and then lock them between some doors. It takes a bit of observing, and waiting, and observing, to get it right. It also helps to have this available and ready to go before the emergency.

Doors are always a good idea, just look at your fort currently and choose a place away from the action and seperated by a few doors, anywhere will really do. I always have beds, hospitals, even food behind doors, and often a bit of corridor. And floor hatches in staircases, same difference.

Spoiler: (edit) (click to show/hide)

There are two types of werebeasts arriving at your fort. Some are normal visitors who happen to be werebeasts but are not currently changed. They are the nasty shock you seem to have experienced. The second, more common sort, are the ones who arrive whilst they are changed, and attack when first seen on the map. Obviously, that sort will not attend the temple. Animals penned around the entrances to your fort are best for that sort, and a hospital with some deep quarantine stations that you can lock up in case your own folk are infected)

[coalboat]

The typical werebeasts are invaders. They flee away when they turn back.

The mercenary in your fort is a visitor. He became a werebeast after he was bitten. In this case, he probably will only leave when he has stayed for enough time and wants to leave, just like other visitors.

[A_Curious_Cat]

You should always have a squad ready for emergency situations. Four of your starting craftdwarfs armed with training axes and shields is enough for non-giant wildlife, then metal weapons and full armor coverage as soon as possible and replace the dwarfs with migrants. Bone armor is underrated... it will not stop metal weapons effectively, but it will stop bites from were-folk, alligators, crundles, etc.

Like ThisFox, I give infected dwarfs a Cask of Amontillado burial. You can always let them out later when you have a better solution.

If you do not want to axe-murder the visitor, use the alert to move your civilians away from the visitor, then seal the room. After that, you can take the time to build a second exit from the room to gently release them from your fort once they are "Ready To Leave".

I’ve noticed that torso and foot armor can’t be made from bone.  How effective is leather armor against werecreature bites?

…I might need to figure out how to set up a bone industry (maybe a poultry industry as well…).

Edit:

Also, do visitors obey civilian alerts?

[coalboat]

I think visitors won't obey civilian alert. Bone is very abundant. Slaughter some livestock, hunt a few wild animals, and you'll get many bones.

[A_Curious_Cat]

So… for my next fort:

1.  Airlock between “welcoming center” and Trade Depot area(not included in civilian alert burrow).

2.   Raising-bridge-controlled accessway between airlock and barracks.

3.  Raising-bridge-controlled accessway (possibly another airlock) between airlock and “special guest” shrine (also not included in the civilian alert burrow).


Sequence when “special guest” arrives (assuming all passageways are open except to “special guest” shrine):

1.  Activate civilian alert and get everyone inside.

2.  Close inner bridge of main airlock and bridge to barracks, and open bridge (or airlock) to “special guest” shrine.

3.  Wait for “special guest” to visit “special guest” shrine.

4.  Lock them in.

Anything else?

[coalboat]

I would add a 2-week-quarantine and a nucleic acid amplification test.

[PatrikLundell]

Visitors do not obey civilian alerts or traffic control, nor do they trigger traps, so they're rather hard to control. Luring them towards zones, as suggested by Thisfox, and capture them along the way is about the only way to lock them up. Traffic control CAN be used to keep residents out of those corridors if you've got a longer alternative route (and you may want to have one anyway, so you can evacuate those in that zone while still having the trouble maker locked up).

This also leads to the suggestion to have multiple entrances to your fortress. This allows you to lock nasties up in one entrance corridor while opening the others to the now comparatively risk free surface. This is my standard method to deal with Titans, for instance. They can then either be killed after you engineer a cave-in on top of them, or let them out to get killed when you're invaded the next time.