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[Don Blake]

So, DF 0.28.181.40d after a recent streak of incidents *two ambushes, several attempted abductions, and a dragon attack, all overlapping each other* I find myself with some goblins, some elves *working for the Goblins, I believe,* and an untamable dragon *in addition to slaughtering most of the Elvish merchants who were there at the time, and who I may or may not now be at war with, he munched on a champion who was sleeping in my outdoor barracks*.  I'm wondering how best to deal with them.

Two basic options spring to mind.  The Arena, which I've been meaning to construct.  As you'd imagine, this would consist of an area where I would release my prisoners to battle each other to the death.  Mostly this would involve my goblin/elf prisoners fighting the Dragon, I suppose, and then my soldiers battling the survivor *I use the singular as I imagine it would be the Dragon, but you never know*.

Or... I could keep the dragon in his cage to adorn my Dungeon Master's quarters, and imprison the Goblins in the Windowless Rooms I've been considering.  Essentially, each goblin would occupy a one by one square within the confines of my fortress, completely surrounded and cut from the rest of the world.  Forever.  This holds some appeal for me, as I like to think my fortress can draw power and wealth from their torment.  What do you all think?

*please note, I, as of yet, have no magma, and am lousy with pumps*

[Mr Frog]

Windowless rooms. Put a dull glass spike in each one. Stab whenever you get bored. Repeat.

[Don Blake]

Another option that just occured to me- I tend to spoil my dungeon master, he has an Opulent Throne Room, Grand Bedroom, Dining Room and Mausoleum, and his Grand Mausoleum contains a golden sarcophagus.  Meanwhile, my baron and baroness consort get to sleep in the dirt until they go mad.  Bwaha!

But anyways, a combination of arena and windowless rooms- have all the cages placed in my dungeon master's bedroom.  Upon his death, move them into his tomb, seal it up, and release them via lever.  They get to fight to the death,and the survivors get to stand guard in his tomb for all eternity while the losers move on to serve him in the next life.

[Mr Frog]

Are the barons going in too?

[Don Blake]

Are the barons going in too?

Maybe.  But that assumes they last that long without doing something that prompts my executing them.

[CppThis]

If you just need them dead and don't care about doing it in style, I would suggest just digging a pit about 10 z-levels deep and throwing them down it via a Pit activity zone.  Just be sure that if you have a door or something down there to collect the stuff you don't toss any building-destroyers on the off chance they survive.

Alternatively, dig a shallower pit with spike traps at the bottom, and throw them down that.  A repeater isn't really necessary--just occasionally have a dorf pull a lever.

[HAMMERMILL]

The problem with an arena is that captured seigers are hellbent on retreating like any seige survivor. They will only fight if cornered so you gotta make your arena more of a 3x3 hole in the floor then something like a stadium. I line one wall of the arena with fortifications connected to a small room so I can shoot the victorious captives to peices with a squad of marksdwarves.

A 1x1 cell might not be good. You might as well put them into a cage and assign the cage as a zoo so your off duty dwarves can gloat at the prisoners. An open room causes them to endlessly use the pathfinding code to get out and that causes lag.

[Satarus]

You can make a drowning chamber with no pumps.  Just channel out an area with flood gates at either end (fortifications in front of the floodgates if you want them to be immune to BUILDINGDESTROYER critters.  Connect 1 end to a river and have the other end leave the map via fortifications carved into the map edge.

To use it, build your cages in the chamber and hook them all to a lever.  Have one lever control the river side floodgates.  Have another lever to control the floodgates for the drain.  It's also a good idea to roof over it.  Creatures who can swim (or learn to) won't drown unless there is a roof over top them.  So roof over it and have a set of stairs (with lockable hatches on top) as the only way out.

There you go.  Your first drowning trap.  Just remember to test it on a puppy or something.  You'd hate to stick goblins in, release them and then find the thing doesn't work. 

[pushy]

and an untamable dragon *in addition to slaughtering most of the Elvish merchants who were there at the time, and who I may or may not now be at war with, he munched on a champion who was sleeping in my outdoor barracks*.  I'm wondering how best to deal with them.

Methinks you've been reading things and slightly misunderstood them. It doesn't matter whether or not the dragon has killed a dwarf, it can still be tamed (though supposedly something may trigger it to rampage after it's been tamed)...with what I'm going to suggest, it's best to just not bother with that, though...

Two basic options spring to mind.  The Arena, which I've been meaning to construct.  As you'd imagine, this would consist of an area where I would release my prisoners to battle each other to the death.  Mostly this would involve my goblin/elf prisoners fighting the Dragon, I suppose, and then my soldiers battling the survivor *I use the singular as I imagine it would be the Dragon, but you never know*.

It will be the dragon, as it'll be the only thing that'll fight - I've often released a mass of goblins with a titan or hydra or whatever I happened to have caught, and the goblins all rush to the edges of the arena while the megabeast runs around killing them all. As for what happens after that, place a line of cage traps around the entrance to the arena - when you 'let the winner go free' it'll wander right into a cage trap and you can place it right back in the arena to kill some more goblins No need to have your soldiers kill it, when it can lay waste to wave after wave of foolish goblin POWs.

[Hyndis]

Target practice.

If you can get crossbows working, use crossbows on them. Otherwise strip them of their weapons while they're in a cage and then open the cages while your military is there waiting.