I had an awesome fort spot going from a brook to the top of a volcano that had two peaks, a part full of lava and another not. I planned to make a bridge from the lava peak to the non-lava peak then pump water down the non-lava peak into a semi artificial waterfall and stream.
Anyway my previous fort died to sneaky zombies, so I had everything set. Eventually zombies did come... twice in big numbers. But before that I was low on food and booze, and pissed off my homeland caravan and they left. When the first zombie wave came I put up the bridge, but a lot of my dwarves were still running around like crazy. I think now it may of been the zombie that was near the wall on the mountain side of the little outdoor area around the Trade Depot.
Anyway eventually the shortage of food made a bunch of people die. Eventually my 4 man militia, all legendary by then, took on the hoards after my 35 dwarfs dwindled to 16 or so (I will get to that soon). We grew just enough food and I found some fish to live off of we had stored away. As well now owner-less pets could be eaten.
We just had to wait for a caravan to arrive... none ever did... never, for the year and a half it took my fort to fall.
When the first attack was warded off, it was with the help of several goblin ambushes, and we had all our axe lords still alive. Meanwhile in the fort a few more when crazy and we came down to about 10 people, two kids, my militia, and four food producers to feed everyone by working around the clock to keep everyone alive.
Then a full out siege of zombies happened, with more than before. One of our dwarves got stuck out as I tried to lure some over the bridge... he killed A LOT of zombies and ran off before dying. I gave him strict orders to stay put under the noble rooms we had planned on the non-lava peak of the mountain. We had earlier dug out a water resvior area for the waterfall there, and by accident you could get in diagonally. I knew of it, and thought it would be safe. Eventually I think he made a dash for the brook while I was working on tunneling to him to save him.
He got an honorary nickname.
At the second siege of zombies we had lost another axe lord to some accident, i forget what though, but we had then two axe lords left. we eventually during the wait lost another kid and two more food guys, but I didn't care, less mouths to feed and only really one food guy was doing most of the work.
The end was tough, I named the two after their deeds "Savior" and "Last" at the very end. Savior died couragously and by saving the fort in some daring way that I forget, and killed 30 zombies according to his record, with the 4 goblins in his time as well.
At the very end, just a woodcutter, a kid with a broken leg (an accident somehow), and "Last". Last killed a shit ton of zombies, but in the end when I let many zombies fully breech the base, the kid already was dead, and the woodcutter was just the last thing for Last.
Last stayed in the fort after a while, after he killed all those zombies... and ended the siege. In all, he killed 3 dwarfs in his time (mostly crazed ones), a capybra, 1 legendary zombie, and 62 zombies of various species. I even gave him the job title: "Zombie Slayer".
But Last, as the Last dwarf of Mazework, wouldn't settle for his fate. After a half week to a week, he left... and flet into the Trampled Swamp, being the sole member now of The Lances of Slipping.
Oh, Last, where are you now? I never got my magma forges that were safely on the volcano top fired up, and so your militia was never armed... embark gear... yet you still were blessed. Or was your fate a curse?
Bronze cap, mail, chain legs, backpack, [boots and gauntlets maybe too?] waterskin and bronze battle axe... this was your gear, and with it, you survived. How dwarfy? That the Militia survived that long with sub-par gear...
I only ask this one question now: If I find him in the Trampled Swamp, can I recruit him? That would be epic.
Also we reclaimed Mazework and all the frickin' ghosts knocked off someone's leg and scared a HORSE to death because I didn't get working on a nice tomb ASAP, I started making a new living area above the old one. I stole some beds from there and am going to just seal that place off to not deal with it, and attach to where the stair cases lead up to the old mountain peak and finish up the already dug out noble rooms and magma forges all ready to go. I don't want to spend an entire year cleaning up the mess from the fort that fell a few months ago.
Oh also I embarked with my 'battle group' set up, so no skills AT ALL other than military skills and I only took two picks in case I had to dig. Took food and drink too. I was expecting to need to kill something because apparently when I visited it in adventure mode the ghosts can kill you. I didn't know if it was an update and my new dwarves would be seen as "outsiders".
So many face palms with this fort, but much epicness. After I deal with all these ghosts I shall get to work on finishing the epic vision I had for the mountain. Hopefully this one won't spiral out of control and all common sense of people running around after two years again.
Man I love changing the pop cap to really low, migrant waves give me mre people JUST when I make enough living space, move the rocks, smooth it out, make furniture, then place it.