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[Otto_K]

(Image 1: The surface tower)


Bannerblunts: Succession Fort of Rings and Cave Toads (Completed)
Dwarf Fortress Succession

The final year of 125 is over and fort is complete! Edited this post with the latest images.

This is the story of Zulbanunal, aka Bannerblunts, a community fort organized in Blind’s (BlindIrl) discord server. The fort was created with no great ambitions in mind, but it became a prosperous and relatively peaceful fort. The players were able to create great architecture and produce infinite wealth by manufacturing cave toad bone rings for 20 years.

Though it had its fair share of battles against demons of all kinds, an ettin rampaging in the mayor’s waterfall villa, a necromancer baroness reviving an entire goblin siege, and a pet dragon getting loose and melting a whole bunch of dwarves. There's been forgotten beasts killed by gecko demons, forgotten beasts killing each other in a proper battle royale, demons crushed by cave-in traps, and even demons wounded by brave, imprisoned cave toads.

The following messages will contain some of the first yearly summaries, then more years in later messages. I’m not sure if I figured out how the posting and message formatting and stuff on this forum works, but here goes…
Enjoy the story, hopefully!


Edit: Another thing, just wanted to say: feel free to comment, discuss or ask questions about the playthrough! The summaries, images and other discussion was all originally posted in Discord, so there could still be stuff missing from this thread as a result


List of players:

Melody
Otto_K
Salvadaddy
Albreo
GeeFin


(Image 2: The Guildhall floor)

[Otto_K]

Oh, one detail i was missing: This game was started in September, so it's been going for a few months.

Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 100, Melody

No summary was ever written for the first year. This text is by Otto_K.
Melody, founder of this fort and beginner DF player, stepped out after the year to focus on other games for the time being.

In the year 100, The Bolts of Clashing was founded in the fresh outpost of Bannerblunts by the dwarven civilization of Borlonfikod, the Severe Glazes. A small but functional surface fort was built between the rock and the soil layer,  which was later fortified and furnished to better act as a long-term part of the fort.

There was some issues with burrows among other things, and for some reason a very unhappy dwarf, who later died because they just stopped drinking. Stay hydrated, I suppose… I must wonder what happened to that dwarf. I’ve never lost a dwarf to suicide during the first year of a fort.


(Note from the future:)

Looking at Legends, the hidden history is revealed. Poor Edem Fathlilum. She failed to create an artefact in the first year of the outpost, so understandably, she withdrew from society and died of thirst.

Too bad, too. Reading further, she was the only daughter of Rakust Bravedvessel and Moldath Paddlethorns the prophet. Both of her parents were killed some decades prior during the fall of Gildcrystal by the forgotten beast, Guthstak Hagburied the Lustful Cancer of Pus.

You could have stayed in Rapidship. You could have made an artefact. You could have had a whole life. So then, that’s a sad ending for an entire family. Oh well. At least old Moldath and the fall of Gildcrystal has been a somewhat popular topic of statues in Bannerblunts.

(Image: Legends mode)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Otto_K]

Image 1: Kitchen and dining hall in the manufacturing floor

Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 101, OttoK
Posted [13.09.2023] on Discord


I see a nice little fortress up in the highlands. We have coal, iron, platinum, all the good stuff. This should be pretty alright. Ahhh shit, there’s only 4 drinks…

The dwarves were stuck sitting around in a small part of the fort, until one of my succession partners advised me to turn off burrows. There’s some other issues: The bedrooms have been assigned as a public dormitory, and there’s no manager. I set the expedition leader as a manager and got some work orders going.

I built a well with a small water reservoir underneath, and a cool dining hall, and some big wide corridors and ramp stairwells for traversing the fort. The fort should be decently spacious in that regard. I also set up a hospital and a temple, as well as the first squad, and forged iron weapons and armor for them.

I set up a fruit gathering zone that’s producing so well, we haven’t brewed any mushrooms. I breached the cavern layer and cage-trapped the corridor to catch some cave animals. Meat! The fort looks well, and pretty happy too. Though the outpost diplomat walked out on me when my expedition leader was busy, possibly managing work orders, but oh well.

Note from the future:

A large portion of the darn spacious corridors in the manufacturing floor ended up being a waste of space, as they didn’t really serve any purpose and the important facilities were built elsewhere, mostly in the layers above the manufacturing floor. The giant cave toads found in the first cavern layer, however, proved very useful later on.

Image 2: Waterworks and control room

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Otto_K]

Image 1: Tavern built into the natural waterfall.

Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 102, Salvadaddy
Posted [ 14.09.2023 ] on Discord


I've added a waterfall tavern, a mayor's villa, and a bookkeeper. I also move the barracks towards the top of the fort, right next to the stairs, so they could defend from the goblin snatchers that have been coming.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Image 2: Mayor’s quarters in the waterfall villa.

[Otto_K]

Image 1: The front tower.

Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 103, Albreo
Posted [ 17.09.2023 ] on Discord


I have arrived at this humble village. Through vast mountains and dense forests, all I see is a patch of unattended farmland. I pull a dwarf to ask, "Is this Bannerblunts? Where are your brethren?". He points down below. The complicated chambers and stairways underground were left by the previous three administrators. I heard this place is in need of defense. Time to get to work.

The fort is surprisingly in good shape despite the lack of alcohol and clothes. Although the dwarfs are mindlessly carrying rocks to pile up into a meaningless mound, I immediately tell them to stop. The two exposed stairways had to be closed down for safety reasons, but one of the fisherdwarfs complained to me "This is the path I take to work". Aye, I compromise. At least fish under the roof. I agree to give him a little hut.

The front tower base has begun construction. I have visualized a grand entrance befitting the future king. I abandoned the previous farm plot and situated a new one under the tower for maximum efficiency. We will no longer lack alcohol to feed those useless visitors. Our little rope reed plantation should also suffice to provide us with some coarse braies to wear. Less a hairy naked dwarf ruining my eyes.


Image 2: Fisherman's hut.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Image 3: Guildhalls and artifact vault.

A period of peace. A band of goblins arrived, and they demanded a parley. "Over my dead body", I said. The first row of traps was already complete. You lot are welcome to try. The goblins skipped over the traps like over a trough by the road. Looks like my mechanics need some beating. The mechanisms are not up to standard. Noted. I set up some guild halls to solve the lack of skilled dwarfs. Hopefully, we will have better traps in the near future.

It's Autumn. An accident happened. The annoying outpost liaison came running in, shouting that there was a big bird outside. I sent our squad to take a look. The first layer's ceiling, unbeknownst to me, has collapsed for some time, and a massive roc took the liberty to dive in. A poor dwarf carrying 30 stacks of our fresh vegetables was the victim. "He was cut in half. It's gruesome", the kid who picked up the corpse told me. The roc was put to sleep at the cost of an arm of our axe dwarf. I blessed him with an early retirement.

My term is almost coming to an end, and we are still lacking beds and weapons. In the first cavern layer, a good chunk of marble was found, useful for smelting steel and making statues alike. I hastily set up a steel production line. After inspection, the weapon quality is up to standard, but the armor needs much improvement.

It's the dawn of year 104, the age of legend.


From chat:

Albreo — 15.09.2023
The military doesn't wear boots and our militia commander got injured in the foot. guess I will have to fix that.

Edit: Added some important images that were posted in discord, that I missed previously. See below:


Image 4: Left to right: The roc battle, the goblin battle, and the injuries of Zulban Lekkulet, militia commander.


Albreo — 14.09.2023
The handy work of three people building stairways in 3 different spots is hilarious. Guess I will start with some surface defense. Do we have flux stone here?
Oh, There's some marble.

Salvadaddy — 14.09.2023
Care to add a fourth? 🤣

Albreo — 14.09.2023
Now you said it. Might as well add one to the mountainside but that one entrance on top of the mountain has to go. too close to the edge.

Salvadaddy — 14.09.2023
But it leads to the fishing zone

Albreo — 14.09.2023
Then I will build a cute fishing thatch over it.

[Otto_K]

Image 1: The ettin rampage in the waterfall villa

Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 104, OttoK
Posted [ 27.09.2023 ] on Discord


I constructed numerous bedrooms, as well as expanding the stockpile / workshop area. I replaced some of my old shop-specific work orders with global ones, and dug some zinc for brass, and expanded the dining, temple and guildhall facilities as much as I was able to. As to monster stuff, a giantess was captured, and a forgotten beast rampaged in the walled-off caves, causing a big fire and collapsing some rock.

Tonight on Dwarf Fortress… URIST, YOU BLITHERING IDIOT! How did the ettin get inside the mayor’s villa? HOW DID SHE GET IN? A hole in the roof and an open river-facing wall are the main suspects. The Riders of Steel were deployed, but they were uselessly late. The dwarves at the mayor’s residence had efficiently pummeled the creature to death, thanks to the miner, Kadol Edemcatten, epicly hacking the creature with her iron pick. In the end, the ettin was able to bite her in the head and kill her. Our brave mayor also fought and suffered injuries.

Later, the goblins came. When they did, the cage traps were full of forbidden boar cages (), and the goblins maneuvered past the weapon traps, making their way into the main stairwell and the undersoil road. I sent two squads into the stairwell to wipe them out with great success, but before they arrived, six civilians had been slaughtered.

Our poor mayor, Onol Murderbells. Her right shoulder was mangled beyond recognition in the ettin attack caused by construction failures. Both of her legs got broken, shot with bronze bolts by the goblin invaders. She was left lying, wounded and helpless, in the surface mines. But her bones got better, and she kept going with her duties. She is 91 years old.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Image 2: Hunting down the invading goblins

[Otto_K]

Image 1: Cave toads

Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 105, Sal
Posted [ 01.10.2023 ] on Discord


Projects:

I decided that it was time to dig deeper, when I found a magma pit. A deep, magma pit. Upon further inspection this magma pit spanned from elevation -3 down to elevation -115, where it met the magma sea. Initially I was making a pump stack to slowly drain it so we could reach candy, but I quickly decided against that. However, I already have been workng on a pump stack, and have it going up a fair bit, with resources to make it go a little further. It still isn't nearly big enough to get it up to the fortress, however. Perhaps we can just use minecarts to get the magma we need for forges, now that we don't need to drain the magma pit.

In other news, I decided to dig deeper, and uncovered the 3rd cavern layer, which had nether cap. I've never seen nether cap before, so that was pretty cool. Anyways, it's going to be a long dig, but I'm determined to reach that candy.

Logistics:

I was nonstop getting spammed with job cancellations , due to the fact that there were work orders set up for tons of things. So, I decided to add some if then statements to several work orders, making them trigger less often and thus reducing the number of alerts significantly. Also, we've been making brass for a long time and I didn't want to stop that in case someone else had plans for it, so now we have over 700 brass bars.

Stuff from chat:

Sal: There’s loads of cave toads in the guildhall floor. The toads were getting into fights so I spread out the pasture to be all over the guildhalls, but then they got into more fights so I just deleted the pasture
Albreo: Because you forgot to assign a trainer to the newly born toad. They revert back to the wild.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Image 2: Cave toads

[Otto_K]

I updated the original message with images of the completed fortress. I also added some missing images into Albreo's year 103, so check those out too if you want

Another thing, just wanted to say: feel free to comment or ask questions about the playthrough! The summaries, images and other discussion was all originally posted in Discord, so there could still be stuff missing from this thread as a result

[Otto_K]

Image 1: Magma forging area

Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 106, Albreo
Posted [ 02.10.2023 ] on Discord


Nothing happened much this year. The main agenda is to rush Magmaforges as quickly as possible to forge equipment for war. More than half of the rag-tag military has been dismissed due to undesirable traits and new blood has been introduced into the group. Their skills are not up to standard yet. Do not send them out and keep updating their equipment until everything is green.

The surface entrance only progressed slightly this year due to half a year being put into Magmaforge. The trade depot was moved to the surface to accommodate wagons and the trap array has been fixed and should be able to handle medium size seige easily. The recommended defense position is to station the military on the stairs one layer below and wait for the enemy to enjoy the traps first.


Image 2: Gremlin

There was one noteworthy incident of a gremlin opening the locked doors in the first cavern. I was horrified as dwarfs ran out to pick up bones in the cave while I knew that there were a bunch of cave dwellers in hiding. Here they are. Batmans. There's already a 100 in here and I have turned off the cave dweller for the time being until I can build another trap corridor to greet them. Do not go out and beware of the gremlin. I have chased one away but it may come back.

By winter, another human army came. While I hastily ordered the military to fetch the newly minted armor, they were scared away by a boar...

Litast The ex-military is currently not doing well and has been at the absolute bottom of the mood for an entire year. She might not live long but if you can build a library fast enough put her in to bask in the mist. She has sacrificed that arm for the fort and can't probably take off the rag clothes, lol. Her arm is on the guild hall pedestal if you ever need to complete her corpse.

To-do list:

Make contact with more Human or Dwarf civ for trade
A library by the waterfall
Upgrade noble room
Save Litast

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 

Image 3: Human army

[Otto_K]

Image 1: The library


Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 107, OttoK
Posted [ 06.10.2023 ] on Discord


Another productive year! ‘Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts’ has to be the dumbest fort name I’ve had, but this is my favorite playthrough so far. Seeing the other players’ ways of doing things taught me a lot about the game. My previous forts were small, and getting better at the game felt like a big challenge. The idea of trying out a succession fort restored my motivation to play, and I’ve learned quite a bit during the run.

That being said, I’m not going to deal with a lot of complicated stuff this year. I want to build. I have no idea what’s going on in the metalsmithing or clothing industries anymore, there’s so many work orders… Pump stack? How does that work?

I succeeded in setting up the library. Manufacturing all the writing materials was another spreadsheet-twirling Dwarf Fortress escapade for sure, but following the Wiki, I was able to do it. I also built new fancy quarters for the duchess. Opposite the new throne room, I built a nice office for the manager. He’s been working from the surface fort’s mess hall for seven years, and he’s the one who keeps this fort running. He’s earned some comfort.


Image 2: Statues. Kadol Keychannel was instrumental to slaying the ettin.


I spent a solid half of our 700 brass bars to make rooms with shiny walls. I commissioned some statues to honor our friends the cave toads, and to commemorate the ettin assault in my previous year of 104. I’m experimenting with ramps instead of staircases, and higher open spaces, because they look cool. Building a visually attractive fort is kinda hard when there’s 3 different builders with their own styles, but I think we’re all doing a good job with it.

The elves gave a tree quota of 37 trees at most, so that's something to keep in mind going forward. Goblins came and were decimated by the traps. I had to lay off one of the legendary metalsmiths because he was missing an arm for some reason? I noticed he was milling about and socializing instead of working, turns out he can’t work. Also the work order for coal seemed to have gone missing so I set up a new one, allowing steel production to continue. I also started minting some more silver bars.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 

Image 3: The all-new duchess quarters, and manager's room and office.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 

Image 4: Progress of the guildhall floor. 

[Otto_K]

Image 1: The king's chambers.


Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 108, Salvadaddy
Posted [ 13.10.2023 ] on Discord


It has been a very interesting year. For starters, the king arrived! This is the first time I've ever seen the entourage myself, so it was pretty exciting. Notably, the king came holding a dwarf bone coffin, which I think is his symbol of office? Idk.

I also got 2 grand guildhall requests, which I fulfilled with a gilded floor. Other than that, the king wanted to dig deeper, so deeper I have dug. I set up a waterpipe from a small lake in cavern 3 that provides water down to the spire, to extinguish magma. Overall it's been going pretty well, as I've uncovered a rusted metal scourge and a singing metal maul, and not a single demon or divine agent. I've also been establishing a small foothold at the top of the spire, in case anything does come out.

In other news, an artifact got stolen! I scheduled 2 interrogations (I set up a DM earlier in the year) but I don't think they've been interrogated yet. I set up a small dungeon, in case that was the issue, but it didn't seem to be. Sadly I have no clue who could've stolen it; the 2 people I'm interrogating I chose because they weren't dwarfs, and thus weren't originally from here


Image 2: We must dig deeper!


From chat:

Sal: Also, that was an interesting contraption you made to fill minecarts with magma. Never seen anything like it

Albreo: I designed it myself since everyone else style is just overcomplicated with multi-z, track, and such. It is pretty safe to operate and can fill a lot of minecarts at the same time.


For context:

The method in question consists of dumping a whole lot of minecarts on top of a grate, pumping magma with a screw pump onto the tile, and then hauling the minecarts by hand into the magmaforge area. Protect the pump operator with some walls and make sure nobody wanders into the grate room while magma is being pumped into it. Thanks to this method, the pump stack wasn't necessary, and nobody bothered to complete building it.

[Otto_K]

Year 108 - More stuff from chat:

Otto_K — 10.10.2023
Is Litast the scholar okay, i'm worried now

Salvadaddy — 10.10.2023
Oh, I may have banished him because he kept trying to pick fights. And I didn’t want him to pick a fight with the wrong person and get killed
Well, not banished; transferred him to one of our holdings
OH WAIT
He had kids
And they went with him, which is why the population went back down to 200
But don’t worry, I’ll start accepting in bards, since they make good miners. And trust me, we will need a lot of miners for our king’s ambitions

Albreo — 11.10.2023
It's her... but both of her arms are ruined so she can't punch anyone even if she wants to. Guess I will bring her back next time.

Salvadaddy — 11.10.2023
I was worried she’d kick someone. But dang, I didn’t realize people liked her

Albreo — 11.10.2023
Well, I should give her a nickname, so, you will notice. And if you have anyone particularly fond of, you can give them a name as well.

Salvadaddy — 11.10.2023
I should just pick a dwarf at random to give a villa lol



Albreo — 13.10.2023
You have a dungeon master but then you forget a captain of the guard. So, whoever it is can't be interrogated.
The sock is missing. It was taken out of the map. I now declare a crusade for the missing sock. Whoever has it in their possession will be getting war.

Salvadaddy — 13.10.2023
Ohhhhhhh I was wondering if that was the issue; I always forget which one is which
But yes, go to war over the sock! It’s what I would do

[Otto_K]

Image 1: The jail.


Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 109, Albreo
Posted [ 16.10.2023 ] on Discord


The fort is coming along nicely. There's no major event throughout the year.

The surface construction progressed a lot this year with more plans to situate a big castle on the side of the mountain. I also built a new jail for potential evildoers. Any occupant will be amazed by the rich of our fort with gold chains around their necks. The bar doors can be lowered with leavers for eternal imprisonment. All of the accumulated goblins in cages have been dumped into the volcano on z-7.

I have produced more brass for you to play with. Currently, the melting power is a bit too short, so, I plan to build 6 more smelters. If you want to try the process of magma hauling feel free to test it out.

I have made contact with a few more potential trade partners, precisely 2 dwarf civs and 2 human civs. Expect a few tributes of trinkets seasonally. The earring was separated from the pile so the ring and cut bone could be traded safely once again. We have plenty of bolts of clothes and they can be traded with elves if needed.

The military is now split into 4 squads the first two are the serious combatants. The other two are a recreational/reserve (including the king) and a guard squad. I have started to send them out to gain experience. It's safe to beat some goblin and elf settlements nearby. The human is a bit tough to chew for the moment.

The sock missing since last year is yet to be found. The lead is cold. The interrogation of two suspects yielded nothing. It has to be one of us that succumbs to the vile word. Secure your precious dearly!!



Image 2: Roth Gomath, the Domain of Legends. The world is the same as ever.


One more thing: Monom Istbarreg, the king, produced an artefact! Dodokrungak, the Alliance of Dwelling. A chain of pure gemstone, with dragons and cockatiels encrusted on it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Image 3: The king's artifact.

[Otto_K]

Image 1: Edzul Fortresswalls being escorted by one of the children to her execution


Zulbanunal, Bannerblunts
Year 110, OttoK
Posted [ 24.10.2023 ] on Discord

The Massacre of Bannerblunts!!!   

The year started with some action as 70 goblins came to siege the fortress. My frames are taking a pretty big hit… And guess who's back, Edzul Fortresswalls, the esteemed baroness of Fencedblunts, necromancer.

I was digging a space for a new trap corridor near the surface - a project that was soon abandoned - since I just don't like siegers coming so damn close to the main stairwell. But I might have created the worst-case scenario through my own actions. The current traps have served us well against the living, but what about the undead...?

Getting arrogant due to our gate defences, I expanded the burrow to continue digging work. This encouraged the baroness to haul her ass to the front gate, as she wanted to leave during the siege. She must have seen or heard the goblins dying in the spiked ball traps upstairs, as she rushed up the stairs to spawn goblin corpses and faded ghouls. They kept dying in the traps, but slowly, with the power of sheer fuck-you energy, the dead pushed through the defenses and engaged the two military squads.

The baroness was now running outside the gate and mass resurrecting everything, and the military dwarves were fighting in the trap corridor. I resorted to desperate measures and chose to have her killed to end the fight. Not so easy, as she was cage-trapped as soon as she was flagged hostile. I had to TURN OFF THE BURROW to get some kid to haul her into a makeshift pasture, where the warriors cut her down. At this point, many dwarves had stumbled outside and joined the grand melee.

Eventually all the goblin body parts were pacified. The baroness was one of our civ’s nobles, and any diplomatic pushback shouldn’t affect us. Oh well, siege over, with only 4 dead and ehhh… 16 wounded. Now to deal with other matters, like trade. I traded with elves and humans. Dwarves arrived with three caravans and an army of traders, but glitched when two wagons died (??). They all stopped trading, and weren’t leaving either. Destroying the trade depot let them leave, with some free loot from the depot and the dead wagon left behind.



Image 2: Edzul Fortresswalls resurrecting goblins. Fighting through the undead in the trap corridor to reach her 

 
I followed the instructions left to me, and the dwarves hauled some magma and constructed a new row of magma smelters. I built a larger hospital to prepare for future accidental bloodbaths. I also decided to tear down many of the old workshop areas, and build new ones, as well as new spacious stockpile rooms, which I enjoy. My favorite new rooms are the hospital and the new brewery / kitchen room.

Meanwhile: I’m an idiot and allowed another artefact to be stolen. Babinkeng, cave toad leather leggings. Taken by Pobe Otezin the human.

[Otto_K]

Image: the fort's kitchen 


So, that’s the first 10 years. I’ve enjoyed doing this write-up! Picking which images to show, and all that. I know the quality isn’t on the same level as the best narrative-driven fort reports. The story is in the form of yearly summaries, and they were written mostly just to be concise and informative.

Discord even has a word limit for messages! And I personally found that I liked to cut my reports at 5-ish paragraphs, or else they seem too meandering. So yeah, that’s the deal. But I think many of the pictures also tell the story very well as the texts. I also tried to include parts of the discussion in the chat during the years, to shed a bit more light into the events.

Anyways. This isn’t some horrifying terrifying evil fort- it’s a pretty chill fort. Still, there was some action. Goblins breached the fortress multiple times. A roc invaded the undersoil road through the collapsed roof. An ettin snuck into the mayor’s villa through a hole in the roof. (Is this a pattern?) And of course, the necromancer incident.

The next 10 years are mostly ones of stability, but also there’s intensifying spire mining shenanigans, as well as the fierce bravery of Humorcrewed the giant cave toad, and some more gratuitous violence besides that. So, story continues…

Again, feel free to comment if you want!

Edit: Edited all the messages so far to include the date of when each year summary was originally posted in discord. Just to be thorough, and document the timeline of the playthrough.