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[Dogman]

I like the palisade design. You should upload the map to markavian's site so we can see it in its roots. Hope it will last more than just a few years...

I think I could devise a way to upload the map without giving away any spoilers. I'll see about doing so.

And as for how long it will last, let's just say that The Hill could be wiped out by a goblin siege and still persist.

i would like a dwarf

Name:Marigi Jones
Profession:Miner
Gender:Male

Backround:was a miner in the olden days of mountain tumbling(a sport in which you dig to send a mountain crashing down the more floors that cave in the hiher you score.

I'll put you on the list, but getting a migrant miner anytime soon won't be certain. Domas is still available if you prefer not to wait.

[Haven]

(Hm... If I may throw in some character development with my suggestion here...)

Haven paced around for a while, turning thoughts over in his head to match the glittering rock he turned over in his hands... Such a sheen, and so light... Only perhaps the fable of Adamantine itself could hope to outdo such a rich ore. Pity there was so little of it here... But maybe. He'd come across it at first while collecting rock for the wall outside. But this was far too valuable to be put to use in a wall, everyone there knew that much. They'd suggested he make a craft out of it, but... He couldn't help but feel yet unworthy for such an honor... But if there really was more...


He went off with a start, climbing up through and across the halls until he managed to find Mistem among the several other unfamiliar faces around. It took him a moment to recognise the dwarf, but once he did, he wasted little time fretting. "Athellal... Ah, Mistem? Overseer? Anyhow, look, listen. This ore, it's just.. Amazing. Light like nothing else, polished to put steel to shame! The matter at hand is... Well, I don't think I'm ready to do this proper justice, you see. When the time is right, perhaps, and I've had some time to get my hands used to the feel of stone once again..."

He took a careful breath. That had been the simple part. The next was something he saw, more or less, as a flight of fancy more than anything serious, but still. He'd made up his mind to say it. "If... If we are to stay here in this place... Would it be plausible to find.. More of this? If the stone was right for it in that place, there could be more clusters scattered around here somewhere. Just to imagine... More of this wonderful rock. A single stone working of it, in the crassest, could buy us food and drink for well of a year, but imagine more of it! Fine arts, whole doors and tables and a mighty throne! We would put the legend of Tongsrenown to rest yet, to be paved over with the tales of our own greatness! Surely we would be even the envy of the mountainhomes!"

[Cepheid]

And as for how long it will last, let's just say that The Hill could be wiped out by a goblin siege and still persist.

It may survive for a lot longer than we suspect.  It seems the more remote and dangerous the location, the higher survivability rate of the dwarves there.  I have no idea why, but that is just the way it seems.

[Dogman]

Here's the map, edited to prevent spoilers. http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-3192-tongsrenown

Haven: Lucky 'you' haven't gotten around to using the raw aluminum ore for crafts yet, still busy building the palisade. I'll work your suggestions into the story.

Cepheid: Well it's technically not even past the first year since I started on the map. We've yet to encounter a kobold thief, let alone a pack of wolves (I've modded the raws to make wolves and other pack animals travel in groups of 12) or a goblin ambush. Once those start rolling in we'll see how survivable The Hill is. But things have been set up in a way that I'll never get a "your fortress has crumbled to its end" message. Short of complete and total cataclysmic apocalypse.

[Cepheid]

Still, the fact stands that dwarven fortresses, however small or large, seem to thrive in the worst possible situations, whereas situations that are 'safer' might have a harmless fox chase a bunch of dwarves into the path of an opening drawbridge, or into a room that has a ceiling that is about to be collapsed.

I mean, I once had a dwarf chase a fire imp into a magma pipe on a peaceful little map.  Not his best choice in life.  The rest nearly died of dehydration because a group of raccoons kept spawning near the river and I could not get my miners in to channel water over to the fort.

And my current fort that is in a terrifying area seems to be thriving, even after an elf invasion within the first year.

[Haven]

Still, the fact stands that dwarven fortresses, however small or large, seem to thrive in the worst possible situations, whereas situations that are 'safer' might have a harmless fox chase a bunch of dwarves into the path of an opening drawbridge, or into a room that has a ceiling that is about to be collapsed.

Heh... Nanofort in a haunted, aquifered forest. It went badly at first, lost my miner to my first breech attempt, and the second one was devoured while resting by a rogue werewolf. So the caravan comes with enough food to survive, and a pick, which goes to my clerk, who digs out the second attempt alone while my stoneworker holds off literally instaspawn werewolves with a couple war dogs. It works, and then I get immigrants for repopulation.

This topic needs it's own thread I think, Cepheid.

[Cepheid]

Yeah.  Better get back on topic.

Here's the map, edited to prevent spoilers. http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-3192-tongsrenown

Awe.  I wanna know what is inside the ruins!  I bet a dragon invaded.  But alas, we will have to wait and see.

As for The Hill, any plans for trapping it?  Or are you going to rely on locking everyone in and hope that whatever attack wanders away?

...let alone a pack of wolves (I've modded the raws to make wolves and other pack animals travel in groups of 12) or a goblin ambush...

Wow.  Packs of 12 wolves.  Starting to think that offering myself for the military was a horrible mistake.  Only time will tell.

[Dogman]

As for The Hill, any plans for trapping it?  Or are you going to rely on locking everyone in and hope that whatever attack wanders away?

I'll think of something once the palisade wall is built. Apart from bone crossbows and stone-fall traps, there's noting to make effective traps out of. I could make some water based traps but I think that's beyond the scope of our little settlement under The Hill for now. A proper Dwarven atom-smasher is pretty high on the list of defensive mechanisms but I don't want to be cheap about it. Any suggestions?

Wow.  Packs of 12 wolves.  Starting to think that offering myself for the military was a horrible mistake.  Only time will tell.

Well that's just the average size. Hehe, made a lot of little changes here and there. For example, dragons in this world have damblock 50 and are size 60, and a lot of animals have the [ TRAINABLE ] tag added. Pack sizes have been increased, as I've already mentioned.

I'll have more updates to the story tomorrow. Until then, your Dwarves are safe from the zerg-wolves

[Haven]

Hm... A big square retracting bridge over a pit filled with spikes. Simple, effective, and scope-worthy, if you imagine it as move of a collapsable camo pit.

Is it a quiet sort of hill?

[darksaiyan]

Haven's idea seems good enough for me, but to spice things up, make it just one Z level deep and add cage traps to it. Either that, or you can make pressure plates all over the place linked to spikes coming out of the floor. I hope you have enough wood for that though.

[Cepheid]

Yeah, I vote for Haven's idea as well.  Sounds better than anything I can come up with.  Darksaiyan's idea for cage traps could also be of use, especially if the attackers are wolves, or something else we can butcher for food.

[Dogman]

Retractable bridge of pitting doom it is then

Haven's idea seems good enough for me, but to spice things up, make it just one Z level deep and add cage traps to it. Either that, or you can make pressure plates all over the place linked to spikes coming out of the floor. I hope you have enough wood for that though.

We don't have any wood or any way of getting wood short of trading at this point. We don't have an axe and no way to forge one. But using pressure plates in some way sounds interesting. I've never used them before so I'm sure it will cause lots of fun mayhem and Dwarven misery when things go bad.

[darksaiyan]

Watch out not to trap your own dwarves . Are you gonna update now?

[Dogman]

Watch out not to trap your own dwarves . Are you gonna update now?

Yes, updates incoming. I have to sleep and eat sometime you know
______________________

From the journal of Mistem Athellal:
10th of Obisdian

During a break from building the palisade Haven approached me with a lump of that native aluminum ore Domas dug out. He seemed quite smitten with it and expressed some concern over his ability to properly do the ore justice. I don’t want this to sound like I doubt his abilities but I’ll have to agree with his assessment. He’s a stonemason, and as such he’s used to working with larger object. He seemed very excited about the possibility of solid aluminum doors and furniture.

He also asked about finding more of it. Now that may be tricky. Aluminum is a very rare ore that I’ve only heard of in stories of great wealth and fortresses before now. While I applaud his efforts as a miner, Domas only managed to save 2 chunks large enough to be usable from the cluster we found.

Although, it occurs to me, back in the month of Timber, when we investigated the ruins, I seem to recall seeing a very fine glint in a rock wall next to the brook. It could just be some quartzite, but it had that unmistakable quality to it. If Domas ever gets the time I think I’ll have him go investigate the rock closer; if anyone can identify stone, it will be him. Not to say that the rest of us Dwarves at The Hill don’t know stone from silt, but it’s just that Domas has been digging through it since we arrived.

Penned onto the margin of the page is a small, crude map of what appears to be a section of brook flanked by a rocky hill on the east side, and a portion of wall to the south. There are several markings overlapping the slope of the hill to the east.


Still, what are we going to do for trade goods? Haven could practice on the raw stone Domas as been mining out, but without proper bins to store all of those trinkets in it will create an awful mess. But I digress, that isn’t what I should be worrying about right now.


18th of Obsidian



Haven and I finished raising the eastern section of the palisade wall today. It looks sturdy enough to keep out unwanted guests easily, but what good is a wall when you have non-existent front gates? While we were building the eastern wall Haven and I talked again. Not much, mind you, in between laying stones for the wall and running to and fro The Hill for more stone, but he managed to hack out some ideas about our gate problem. His solution was rather ingenious, I’d say. He suggested that we build a retractable bridge over a pit, and disguise it as any other patch of solid ground. When intruders bash at our gates they’ll find the ground disappear from under them! The mechanics of it I can work with, and it sounds effective for dealing with troublesome guests.

But what to do with them once they are in the pit? To have them just milling about down there won’t do much good for our peace of mind. I could possibly rig some simple stone-fall traps I had learned about in my youth. They won’t be very effective and will require frequent reloading, but it’s all we’ve got for now.

[Haven]

Heh... Just realized, you must not have an axe... I was going to suggest a wonderful spike-repeater until I noticed the wall bing built around the trees instead of through them.

As for storage of the trade trinkets, I always just leave em in the workshops and build new ones once the older ones are filled. It feels right when the alternative is a huge space with about twoscore rings placed carefuly in a pattern.