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Embark upon the cavern layer! Survive the depths!

3 (60%)

Reclaim our destroyed capital after filling it with divine weapons and armor! March with the fury of heaven!

2 (40%)

Other(post a comment with idea)

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 5

[Salmeuk]

Where would us DF players be without game-breaking bugs that require slightly annoying workarounds to be memorized and recorded into a mental solutions catalogue .. each of us carries a slightly different catalogue which is deeply burnt into the recesses of our memory.

[Maloy]

Here is the save. I kind of left us in a pickle, because we've exhausted the cavern of all fish and we aren't growing food fast enough.
https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=17195

Salmeuk
LeftHandofGod
AvolitionBrit
Maloy
Kesperan
Maise_Now
Otto_K


This is the turn order as left over from our previous fort, are we all okay with that?


The World in the year 173



First off, our kingdom has a population of 800 having grown from a population of less than 10 when we started! Big win, and we're arguably an empire by historical definitions because we have absorbed the goblin kingdom and their population. Over half of our population are non-dwarves, which we can take that as we will.

Gateheaven has been hit pretty consistently by sieges, but is untaken. Its population rests at 500 instead of the previous 1000 according to the map. The jungles of Burning posses 500 and have a new dwarven hillocks just south of it. Maloy II holds the dwarven forest retreat right in the middle of enemy elven territory. The other named dwarves, including the rest of us, hold various forts and towns across the map(marked blue)

Going back to non-dwarves- Our king is a human migrant from the Union of Frenzy. The humans who put us through so much hell in the first fort! Many, including our expedition, consider him a traitor and plant from an enemy nation. We've been conquered from the inside more than likely!
Still, though: The Union has not attacked us once since we retired from Gateheaven. Instead they fight a losing war against 4 separate elven kingdoms. The union has lost all of its cities and the dark fortress it owned, but I wouldn't count them out. They're cutting a swath through the northern elven forests.

Secretly, I embarked us with 20 war elephants and the location we picked not just because of the beautiful cavern, but also because what is above us. Above us are goblin lands long conquered by the union and left ripe for re-conquering. A dwarven necromancer tower is nearby for powerful secrets and not far from that is a dwarven kingdom.
Now, before you get upset bearded brethren, consider that those dwarves were nearby and knew that our own kind were being genocided and enslaved and did nothing. They still do nothing to this day! I believe we are obligated to right this wrong soon and take those mountains for ourselves!

I am no longer expedition leader so this is not my choice to make, but I humbly submit this as the one who guided you to this dark garden!

Longnight

First order of business for me was to wall up the edges of that cavern-pasture. It's a perfect spot for our animals and as a courtyard as long as we make sure the big beasts don't get past the wall.


I had the dwarves begin making a bridge to the other side of the lake where we saw a plethora of edible mushrooms! Halfway through construction though everyone just stopped working?


Three weeks passed and no one was willing to pick up a pick or boulder or anything! They just stood around, or laid upon the fungi grass, fished, or chatted. It was insane! Don't these fools know the legends of these caverns? Monsters dragging you into the depths to drown you, spiders crawling upon the wall and killing you in a moment, or many limbed horrors roaring out of the depths to burn entire caverns up?

No, I guess not. No one has lived in a cavern at all in living memory.
Upon confrontations most dwarves said "I don't feel like it. Let someone else do it" It was a constant passing of the chores that was uncharacteristic for dwarves, but I thought of an idea!
I gave dwarves specific jobs and "appointed" them miners, masons, etc. This worked and now we are on the way back to working.


Unfortunately, a lot of time was wasted by the dwarves.


This is a good time to remind you that the most popular dwarven deity inhabits the idea of suicide.

We pick every single plant off the ground, raid the other side of the lake for its plants, and kill the wagon horses. We haven't touched the elephants, and Rimtar willing, we never will.


Elephants are moved to the courtyard and we begin carving an adminstrative/religious/tavern level of our new castle.

I wasn't in a rush for the tavern, but one of our only militia dwarves was throwing actual fits because he didn't have a stool to sit in while he drank his wine.

I have a lot of ideas for the castle:
The floor below it is developing into a residential level
Below that is guild halls and maybe eventually a proper industry sector.

I've also considered paving over the entire lake and building a huge industry center on top of it. Would give us more security at least!

Did I mention I had every dwarf practice swimming before we embarked? None of them are good, but we at least taught them how to use their beards as flotation devices in case they fall in!


A beautiful cave swallow dives near our settlement. A good omen for our future!


Nice job, Ilral! What is that exactly, though?


Ohhhhh. Neat a mandolin!
I guess the lads really want that tavern to be very nice, eh? I appointed a musician to use it
As a dwarf I respect the need for a tavern, but I am gonna point out that you guys nearly starved to death sitting around by the lake side and now your only concern is getting the tavern running? Come on!


BEAUTIFUL!

To the next overseer: I was considering digging a massive stone field just beneath the lake. Taking up most of our settlement boundaries, and then draining the lake into it to make a fungi field for the elephants. Do whatever you will, but I wanted to let you know that plan in case you have more elephants than pasturable field.



Second problem for the next overseer

uhhhhhhhhh. So, we're almost out of food. We drained the very last fish from the lake and now there are no more. I'm sure that won't have any long term consequences on the environment, but regardless that food source is gone. We've picked every edible fungi on our island and the other and we aren't growing food fast enough.
Peahens are laying eggs, but won't be enough.
Good luck!

[Salmeuk]

ill pick this up today

looks great. the maps are a great resource for context. our burgeoning civilization will grow stronger yet

[Salmeuk]

save here: https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=17197

I started the save file with 40 fps, ended with 34. seems like we have more than a few cavern invaders behind the walls.

elephant pasture:


lake walkway:


played for a number of hours until a crash. lost.. almost a full seasons / two hours worth of progress. so instead of forcing myself to replay those lost hours, I will clean things up and pass on the save to the next fellow. tomorrow. once I'm done crying over the crash haha 

accomplished the following:
flooded pastures, expanded pastures
built a rather ridiculous 4 z level temple room
expanded bedrooms minorly
floored various things
cared for the elephants tenderly
fought very little, actually
listened to the Olm folk through the walls. They've killed three forgotten beasts so far!
built up the food stores

its all great except the military part - the metalworks are slow and very few pieces of equipment have been produced.

Oh, and funnily enough? We received a single migrant on the surface, named from one of the last fortresses 'Sisko'. I attempted to dig a staircase there but ran into trouble at some point - the dwarves refuse to dig any further. I will experiment a bit or pray for a random miner migrant at some point.
 
vod: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2251942972

Game journal below:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Longnight~
 
There are fifty dwarves, and a third that many drinks left in the barrels, and less even of dried fish. The lake is empty, the fungal substrate is picked clean of edibles, and the outlook is grim.

New leadership is needed to avert disaster. Zefon Bridgepulled was given the role, as she had already performed well as manager for the past year.

Zefon was a proficient diagnostician and skilled organizer. Her main goals as leader would be to establish a guild of doctors, raise a squad of competent fighters, and acquire whip wine - a personal taste of hers.

Longnight was situated in the second cavern layer amidst the goblin and tower-cap trees. A large flat space had been walled in to provide pasture for the herd of war elephants.

The eastern portion of the fortress was exposed to a wide sloping chamber that contained many fungal trees. A series of simple rooms had been carved in the middle portion of stone between the pasture and this chamber.

 The base of that wide chamber contained the shallow cavern lake, emptied of fish by the dwarves over the past few seasons.

The fisherdwarves, out of work, were drafted into the military and began their training by exploring the remaining portions of the cavern.

Zefon initiated a project to seal off the cavern lake and claim it for the dwarves. Even emptied of fish the lake was a pleasant natural feature.

After the rest of the cavern was secured, the dwarves scrambled to collect the cavern tubers and plants. Still, this was not enough. A natural passageway led upwards and the scout squad was sent to explore.

Soon after, the upper cavern layer was discovered. Full of food! Glorious fungus food.

The mayor, Atir Razorscars, was brought on as Tavern Keeper. Of course, there were no drinks to serve at the moment, but the title was important.

A second cavern lake was discovered in late Spring, and some dwarves were sent to test the waters for fishes. Sadly, those waters were empty.

Tekkud the peasant went moody, demanding wood, stacked cloth, and cut gems.

The stalagmites were cleared from the elephant pastures. Perhaps further flooding could introduce more space for the fungal grasses to spread.

Unfortunately, Tekkud demanded the specific kind of cloth produced from yarn, and Longnight had no wooly animals from which to make this cloth. Despite his frantic sketches, the dwarves were unable to satisfy his demands.

The fortress was expanded along the design setup established by the previous overseer. This included widening the pasture room, adding bedrooms and hallways, and working towards sealing the cavern lake.

It was in mid-Summer when Tekkud went ballistic, having failed his mood. He attacked the military squad who happened to be sparring nearby, and the mayor herself struck down Tekkud with a shield strike to the neck.

Sisko Diamonbeaches was a legendary weaponsmith who recently heard about a newly established fortress to the east of the war-torn elf country. He arrived at the location, alone, only to discover …nothing.  A small stream and some boulders.

The dwarves petitioned for a farmers guild.

In early Autumn, the giant humanoid Nunore the Umbral attacked. Nunore was composed of amber and sprayed deadly dust as it undulated.

As our military was just begining to train, the beast will be avoided, and the doors locked.

We heard fighting from behind the locked doors. Cavern dwellers perhaps?

It went on for some time, then, quiet. Someone had claimed victory.

A circuitous pathway was built around the cavern lake. The central pillar was hollowed out and a shrine constructed inside, which is yet to be dedicated.

A series of screw pumps were installed to bring the lake water up 4 z-levels to the elephant's pasture.

It was in late Winter of 174 when the elephant pastures were flooded anew.

Alath died when digging a pool for the elephants. He slipped into the trench and was unable to swim.

Onol died in a similar manner, surrounded by multiple ramps that would have saved his life.

The elephants were too tall to drown and just stared at the dwarves as they dug the new pond.

[Otto_K]

Alath died when digging a pool for the elephants. He slipped into the trench and was unable to swim.

Onol died in a similar manner, surrounded by multiple ramps that would have saved his life.

The elephants were too tall to drown and just stared at the dwarves as they dug the new pond.

Ah, the dumb ways to die... Still, zoo management in DF is always fun

Nice that you respected the lake! It must be preserved as a place of power

Still, though: The Union has not attacked us once since we retired from Gateheaven. Instead they fight a losing war against 4 separate elven kingdoms. The union has lost all of its cities and the dark fortress it owned, but I wouldn't count them out. They're cutting a swath through the northern elven forests.

Secretly, I embarked us with 20 war elephants and the location we picked not just because of the beautiful cavern, but also because what is above us. Above us are goblin lands long conquered by the union and left ripe for re-conquering. A dwarven necromancer tower is nearby for powerful secrets and not far from that is a dwarven kingdom.

Now, before you get upset bearded brethren, consider that those dwarves were nearby and knew that our own kind were being genocided and enslaved and did nothing. They still do nothing to this day! I believe we are obligated to right this wrong soon and take those mountains for ourselves!

I am no longer expedition leader so this is not my choice to make, but I humbly submit this as the one who guided you to this dark garden!

Delightful! I support the idea of waging war on the dwarf civs. We shouldn't let our dwarves' lust for vengeance be satisfied simply by the fact that our initial enemies have been devastated. More grudges! And who better to start a new destructive and pointless war than a bunch of cave-dwelling extremists?

[Maloy]

That's rough losing progress.

I've never had a crash happen with this save yet, other than when we try to embark in funny places like this one, but once on it I have been fine.

Next up is LefthandofGod I will message
I will officially start saying for everybody SAVE OFTEN


Thankfully steam version now includes a "save and continue playing" button lol


@Otto also its neat fighting enemies that get martial trances lol Also we don't even really have any mountains to call home! Or more than two ruined hillocks! So we need to take theirs!

[Salmeuk]

the crash happened late in spring. so i too recommend saving often.

this cavern is amazing btw. it was naturally split in the middle with an east-west wall, so when the Olms invaded we only needed a single wall across a passageway to seal off the entire lake.

Do note, that there remains three off-map entrances into the lake portion of the fortress. Two can be walled off easily, located on the eastern edge of the map, while the entrance located on the southern edge includes a wide submerged portion that may prove difficult to seal completely.

poor 'Sisko' on the surface was surviving off of harvested shrubs and riverwater. So it would be prudent to somehow reach topside, if it is at all possible. 

[Maloy]

Still haven't heard from Lefthand
I'll message Avolition

Can't blame anyone with long turn lists it can be two months before you get your turn so it is hard to check in regularly

[AvolitionBrit]

I will pick this up tomorrow!