After fighting and killing both demon masters in this world, I have discovered that punching and blunt weapons do far more damage to demons than edged. Good to know for the future.
Thanks for that. Haven't fought a demon yet in 40.xx. Will have to try it.
----------------------------------
>
>
>
Back at a hillock, cretin forestbeard the windy cosmos of stars the macedwarf, steps outside a mound a few hours before dawn and sees a motionless "*" asterisk standing beyond the edge of the hillock. Naturally one wants to meet this *. Turns out to be Vilela the starved woman
Ñ. Macedwarf inspects her as they stand in the snowy field. She's weak, but not skinny. This is vaguely and perhaps mistakenly a relief. Skinny night trolls always seem to be freakishly fast, while the muscular ones feel manageable in regard to their speed when you happen to be unarmored. She approaches and once adjacent, but non-directional or committed to any attack, macedwarf opts to first swing quick attack and then dodge away. The remainder of the combat is the usual repetition of quick attack + dodge away until a decent head shot appears and she is brained.
Unarmored night troll fights are only going to lead to an eventual death once a fast one appears, so it seems time to do what should have been done as the macedwarf's first action once he was created: when inquiring about troubles, only seek out beasts who have killed. Often players who play dwarf or elf leave them armor made at their old fortress, but if you're like me and the height of your fortress play has been following the walkthroughs where you dig out small poorly formed rooms and perhaps begin random farming, but never go beyond that, pre-made armor is not an option. So the first practical step is to seek out beasts who have kills to their names as this will mean the possibility of armor found at their lairs/shrines. In this case, the only two choices with kills are dragons. Fire is a gamble, but only if active and only if the creature (titan) won't give in to pain.
Perhaps there is still a morale issue with 40.xx dragons as they still don't initiate attacks. I vaguely remember them always being glass cannons as they can feel pain, so these two are brained quickly. Only in the first encounter was there the chance of being set on fire as the first dragon breathed once.
The haul is only a pair of bismuth bronze greaves from the second encounter.