Sorry in advance for the grammatical/spelling mistakes
I just started a new fortress that looked like it would starve to death. With giant eagles, zombie goats (wtf I know), wait … wtf? … when did..how did I get 13 dwarfs…An immigration wave??? It’s my first season…is that possible? … … … any ways knowledge that there is an underground river with tunnels 3 z-levels deep (and 14 to go) and no river in site (already out of booze, and no plants that can grow outside) and my fishing supplies limited and dwarfs starting to starve. I assigned a single dwarf of my original 7 to make a cross bow and some arrows and then sent one dwarf hunting. With zombies afoot and other dangers I thought he would surly die (but dwarfs were starting to starve any ways). By the time I realized the dwarf did not pick up his initial equipment it was too late, he was all the way across the map (using a skill I can’t interrupt). I felt sad as the poor hungry dwarf ran around chasing and trying to wrestle a horse only to fail, return to the fort only to find no ale and half to drink out a of a dingy pond. Thankfully he decided to pick up his ammo and xbow. He proceeded to run after horses again, for some reason refusing to fire unless he was with in 2 squares of his target. I found it funny after not being able to kill a horse using a full quiver of bolts the hunter did run down the horse and wrestle it to death. Finally food for my 13 dwarfs. I butcher the horse and feed my fortress, I assume that this is temporary as no river = no farm, and the pools about do not seem to be large enough to support flooding a farming room, and thus no booze (which seems cruel) (though I may have to take that chance of attempting to flood a small room, failing and losing my only source of water:/). At any rate that lone hunter has saved my fortress. He has gone from peasant to hunter in a short amount of time, my three butcher shops can barley keep up with his output and he is doing well given he only has wood xbow and bone bolts. Wait…o no… peasant was interrupted by a zombie goat, darn I knew this would happen…few the goats seem to of moved away from the fortress, wait where is my hunter, the sole provider of food for my fortress? DOH he is out hunting with marauding zombie goats, U, C o there he is hunting a horse …good... A $$%& the herd of zombie goats found him and is in site, please do not die, a lemming rush into a herd of undead goats is not the way a dwarf should go. Well let’s see what this hunter has hmnnn, 45 horse bone bolts and about 5 goats cannot cancel the hunt and activating him probably will not help, he is too close to the enemy to really run (they goats look to be heading towards him). I un-pause the game and the hunter is near the goats and starts unloading bolts ata high rate. My jaw dropped I have never seen a dwarf with so much hatred for something to unload so many bolts so quickly he seemed to of unloaded all 45 bolts with 2 seconds (are xbows actually machine guns?) I laughed my but off watching my hunter shoot bolts at such an insane rate killing one or two goats and seriously injuring the rest, I was concerned that the hunter would attempt to melee the rest but he walked back to the fort, picked up another stack of 40 or so bone bolts and went back to hunting horses…emptying his quiver again he has killed the remaining goats. (which my peasants are content to bring to the fortress and store them near the slaughter house (apparently one of them wants to try undead meat ). With the horse population exhausted my hunter is content with killing ground hogs. Though I am concerned. he killed all the zombies, the zombie goats were not bothering my dwarfs too much and were not that menacing, hopefully something far worse (which I imagine will) will spawn (zombie carp in my two small water ponds? Zombie elephants?). And with this hunter the sole source of food my dwarf’s things look grim, till I get the farm set up at least. If nothing else dwarfs with no booze worries me, and I foresee and inevitable collapse of dwarven society.
For the record my hunter now has a dog now but he is so effective the dog never helps him and my hunter did take out the giant eagle. Though I am worried what will happen to my fort once the ground hogs have been harvested for food…well there is plenty of prepared food lying around with only about 25 dwarfs at 2 food a season I could probably last 2-4 seasons with what is left on the map/stocks…let us hope something butcher able spawn before then. Thanks to my hunter two I was able to trade two leather for one pig tail thread (how leather is less valuable than pig tail thread…) and was able to weave it and create a well and my dwarfs are feeling better and drink faster.
Options: hope wild game holds up until I hit the river
Option2: drain my only two sources of water and risk not mudding enough soil to support a large enough farm.
Option3: slaughter my cows/ muskoxs that came with my caravan
Option4: slaughter my cats/dogs and anything else
Option5: look for more large game; construct an elaborate system of walls, stairs, channels and other things to create a wild life breeding pen/program (does not seem that viable) given my terrain.
update:
I finally decide to take the risk to drain my only two water supplies to build my farm and hope for the best, so I mined out the room, build a flood gate, built lever forgot to build an extra mechanism, no problem plenty of stone and board dwarfs around twitchy for lack of alcohol. The mechanism is complete and then I notice that an ironic message. So and so has canceled drink: well has dried up. My only two sources of water had evaporated moments before I was able to flood my farm. I can just picture the conversation my dwarfs had
Dwarf A: “ok boys, we have been what has seems like *twitch* forever *twitch* without *gulp* alcohol *a dwarf in the back snaps and runs off* we are going to risk draining our only two water sources to build a farm as I for one would rather dehydrate to death than live a life without booze.”
Dwarfs “hmnn, what? Ale? quick do whatever he says”;
Some time latter
Dwarf B to dwarf a. “Sir we have completed the tunnel, mined out the farming room, built the flood gate, made the lever”
Dwarf A “finally!!! We can will grow plump helmets and will have ale PRAISE THE MINNING GODS”
Dwarf b “there is a slight problem”
Dwarf A “… … …”
Dwarf b “the water…its evaporated we cannot longer flood the room”
*angry dwarf mob carriers the dwarf b away*
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Topic: Funny but sad/disturbing moments in Dwarf fortress (Read 210690 times)