Came out west leaving all that ruin behind. Num ends up site scouting through The Reputed Forests.
(click thumbnail to expand)
As usual he is searching for a site with 3 natural walls, with hopefully the 4th requiring maybe just one or two tiles of wall and door. Tracing a path above a river, he finds an enclosure that is about 4 z-levels from water.
(click thumbnail to expand)
A nice Castle in The Sky house set into a cliff sort of look, but this location is riddled with lag.
Heading away from the river's lag, Num finds what he's looking for.
After making a pile of 50 highwood logs, he begins constructing a structure designed to obstruct easy pathing by staggering alternating wall tile/floor tile in a diagonal pattern:
(click thumbnail to expand)
1st z-level entry is a diagonal line of 3 doors leading NE. 2nd z-lvl entry has a hatch cover, then a line of 2 doors leading to the structure's center. Floor grate marks where a perpetual campfire is set. While site incursion normally excludes entry once the structure is closed off, the alternating wall/floor pattern allows for making the most of dodge positioning. General movement is all bishop-diagonal goodness.
During construction, the site is invaded by cave swallow ranged and melee units equipped with nice cavern level 2 and 3 wood items.
Num manages to avoid killing any of them during the build. A cave swallow bowwoman does gain entry through a roofless tile, but weaving through the alternating wall/floor pattern blocks her vision cone and leads to the line of 3 doors which allows Num to exit the structure. At that point, I realize alternating wall/door is the best defense for Adventure Mode, though the character would be restricted to stand ground/stand ground defense versus those who can open doors. If there's enough space, you could drop in a few campfires to further control pathing.
Once the structure is complete, there's another attack. At first it seems the cave swallow maceman and the cave swallow blowgunner cannot gain entry using the floor hatch. Num enters talk with the blowgunner and this leads him inside. Sliding behind a wooden pillar, Num loses him and exits westward via the line of 3 doors.
There he fast travels to reset their positions. He doesn't want to have to kill anyone if there's another way, which he soon discovers.
Their positions reset, Num enters the structure, begins talking with the cave swallow maceman and has him join for adventure.
Num repeats this process and recruits the cave swallow bowwoman twice as initially she remained hostile.
(click thumbnail to expand)
His luck runs out with the blowgunner who joins, but then reverts to hostility.
Num's not all too sure what he should do now. Should he keep them on? This will most assuredly lead to their deaths. Or should he take them west to fortress Frillystandards and leave them in cavern level one?