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[Farmerbob]

SolPyre owns the save now, I believe I lost a total of around a dozen dwarves.  4 or so to Skeletal Yeti during cleanup and immigration waves, and 8 or so to having their feet fall off due to forgotten beast goo.

[SolPyre]

Journal of Scrubbedcreams
23rd Hematite 1068

I am the new Overseer of Scrubbedcreams.

There is much to do and little time. Outside the walls invading elves and their war animals trudge through a snow storm. Far out on the glacier refugees are arriving. The refugees came here seeking sanctuary from the endless bloodshed, they will not find it.
I stand in the barracks and call. All the dwarves of Scrubbedcreams hear me and come. When they arrive I place some of them in squads and forbid the rest to leave the lower levels. They whisper among themselves, ask each other what or who I am. They do not recognize me but they obey. I send the squads to gather equipment and dismiss the rest.

2nd Malachite

The archers I have placed atop the eastern wall report that the refugees yet live, having so far out run the elves. One valiant ranger among them stands his ground firing bolts at the mounted elves who approach, so far he has not drawn the attention of the large squads.
The army of Scrubbedcreams gathers in the entrance hall. Soon I will order the bridge lowered and the battle will begin.
 
A squad of rhinos approaches the ranger. But he looses bolt after bolt into them and though he is gored the rhinos and nearby elves scatter. Some turning tail and fleeing Scrubbedcreams and some chasing the other refugees who are less fearsome. Three dwarves have already fallen and many of the livestock they brought with them.

5th Malachite

The fighters have gathered and the bridge is lowered, those outside who are fast enough may survive if they can reach the fort entrance.

11th Malachite

The the battle was short and vicious. As soon a the bridge was lowered all the elves rushed towards it. A few of the refugees slipped inside and then the entrance hall was choked with elves, more and more cramming into that tight space.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Reluctantly I ordered the entrance sealed once more lest too great a host be let through. In the close quarters of the entrance hall battle was joined and all was chaos. It quickly became clear that the invaders were doomed. Without the advantages of mobility and overwhelming numbers they were no match for the superior equipment of the dwarves of Scrubbedcream. Of special interest in the battle were the deeds of Conan Cilobil, a former Overseer, who chased down an elven captain who had broken through the battle lines and fled into the areas where enemy bodies are piled. In that grisly setting Conan faced the elf in single combat and after a long struggle clove the pointy-eared head in two!
All the elves that were trapped in the entrance hall are now slain and we suffered no losses.

Of the refugees three are still stuck outside the walls, including the ranger, three are safe behind the walls and the rest are dead. I can feel the newly dead in my mind urging me to lower the bridge once more and send forth the army to wreak havoc and vengeance upon their killers. Their voices are strong with still fresh pain, fear and anger. I resist them. I dare not do as they bid, too many of the fighters are injured and unknown ambushes may be hidden under the thick snow.

I now set several of the archers to dwarf the walls and begin the long process of making training schedules and ordering uniform pieces.

[Sutremaine]

How skilled is the military now?

[SolPyre]

How skilled is the military now?

not at all really but in the fight the elves were at a disatvantange compared to the usual situation of lots of elves ambushing a few dwarves from all directions
btw the militia now has 45 dwarves in it

[SolPyre]

Journal of Scrubbedcreams
22nd Malachite 1068

There are dwarves deep in this fort becoming dizzy and falling unconscious for no reason I can find.

26th Malachite

It is time to open the bridge once more, most of the military have healed from their minor wounds. Outside the three refugees still live.

6th Galena

The invading elves have left, though there may be more waiting in ambush. As soon as the first of them died to the traps in the entrance hall the rest turned and began to leave. Two of the three refugees are now inside. The third, the ranger, is dead. When his bolts were spent the war animals of the elves lost their fear of him and chased him down.

In the caverns a gurgling roar was been heard. Soon after the dwarves heard the bleating cries of the unfortunate livestock in those caverns.


After much searching I have found the source of the sickness that is making the dwarves dizzy and causing them to faint. It is a pile of Forgotten Beast frozen extract in the cleaning trough.

[OOC] How do I get rid of this stuff?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Sutremaine]

Idle dwarves should clean, although going by the state of the trench everyone's busy. Have a couple of clothed dwarves switch to nothing but cleaning.

[Conan]

Or you can floor over the place and then refill it with water. That might work.

Also, keep me on the military full-time, the last original founder must survive!

Another thing is all those squads of recruits which I set to train. At this rate we'll have a huge, well-armed and -armored army.

Oh god I'm just imagining the fun of forty plus dwarves charging a 7-squad siege of elves. Its like something you'd see in the OTA, except this time for real, not spawned.

[Farmerbob]

Or you can floor over the place and then refill it with water. That might work.

Also, keep me on the military full-time, the last original founder must survive!

Another thing is all those squads of recruits which I set to train. At this rate we'll have a huge, well-armed and -armored army.

Oh god I'm just imagining the fun of forty plus dwarves charging a 7-squad siege of elves. Its like something you'd see in the OTA, except this time for real, not spawned.

I dismembered your military setup Conan, it was crippling the fort.  I left you in the military and gave another dwarf your official responsibilities since you wanted to be a fighter.

As for the frozen beast extract in the trough, that's where it got stuck for me too.  What I would suggest: FIRST, put a floor over three of the four tiles leading down into the trough, then make a second entry into the room, build a second trough, fill that second trough a watch it for goo as well.  Also, turn on the mist generator if you are seeing dwarves die to beast goo, you might need it.  There's a lever a couple Z levels above the Depot right next to the water cistern with two floodgates to flood the pumps with water and start some misting.

[SolPyre]

The Journal of Scrubbedcreams
17th Galena 1068

The recovery of the bodies outside has been badly hindered by the constant attacks of skeletal yeti or, as the Dwarves of Scrubbedcreams call them, sketi. I have read through this journal and it seems these sketi have been a problem from the beginning.
One of the dwarves recovering bodies is now a body himself. Something must be done.

21st Galena

A soldier who was lying on the ground in the barracks has just died from thirst. He was still able to walk though he was injured but he would not get up and the dwarves refused to give him water. Perhaps he had lost the will to live. I tried to bring him water myself, but my hands passed through the bucket just as they pass through everything but this book and the ink i use to write in it.

I have found a solution to the problem of the sketi. The sketi are not multiple undead creatures wandering across the glacier. They are single spirit which inhabits a yeti skeleton until it is destroyed and then finds and animates a new skeleton somewhere out on the glacier. It is an Ubal Ushil and dwarven weapons are useless against such as it. It will have to put to rest just as any other haunt would be, by burying and memorializing it.

19th Limestone

Preparations to bury the Ubal Ushil continue out on the ice. In the caverns the dwarves are still reporting strange and disquieting noises.


I am enlisting more miners and forging more picks. Even though that will slow the ongoing war production it is a necessary step, for there are too few miners here for a fort of this size and it is slowing my projects. Besides the digging of a resting place for the Ubal Ushil I wish to mine many exposed ore veins and open up a space for tree farming next to the existing farms of more usual crops. I would prefer to open and tame the caverns for wood but the soldiers are still too inexperienced and ill equipped to face such a challenge.

5th Sandstone

Eight migrants have come.

3rd Timber

After long labor and several failures the Ubal Ushil has been put to rest. It lies now deep in the ice that is its domain, and over it ice is piled in great blocks trapping its sketti body. Over it too a memorial slab has been placed and many runes binding the Ubal Ushil to its sketti body and to this, its eternal tomb.
These are the designs of The Ubal Ushil's Tomb should any that come after me need to know of them. The Tomb is east of the unfilled moat and its memorial slab chamber is accessible from that moat. The tunnels below the memorial slab chamber are filled with ice. On the lowest level the Ubal Ushil is trapped along with the two doors that were used to lure it thither.
               
[Ground level]    [-1]          [-2]            [-3]
This final victory over the Ubal Ushil and the sketi it animated does not come without cost. Ever during The Tomb's construction the Ubal Ushil chased and battled the workers and guards as if it knew for what purpose they labored. One soldier it slew, strangling him to death even as his comrades hacked its desiccated body into pieces. Many injuries it also inflicted, biting off toes and scaring faces. Every time the Ubal Ushil's current body was destroyed it would inhabit and animate another and now the glacier is strewn with its many carcasses.

[Farmerbob]

Wait, what?  Explain the Ubal Ishil thing again?  Is this some some sort of mod?

[peregarrett]

I guess Ubal Ishil is just one of former names acquired by sketi after killing some dwarves.
And the thing with animating other skeletons is the roleplaying of population cap of similar animals. You kill or cage sketi, you get another one near map borders. Now it's locked under ice, but neither killed nor caged. Nice thing =)

SolPyre, you could make a bridged entrance there, for adventures who'd like to explore it in hopes of getting treasure, he he...

[SolPyre]

Wait, what?  Explain the Ubal Ishil thing again?  Is this some some sort of mod?

Nope not a mod, its an exploit. Kinda hard to explain... There's this sort of mantatory number of yetis on a map at a time (sketi count as yeti for this number)... For example you kill a sketi and because the mandatory number of yetis is one the game insantly spawns a new sketi and if you kill that one the game instantly spawns another one, so killing them is useless. But if you wall off a sketi somewhere out of the way, in this case under ice, it cant bother you and no new sketi will spawn because the mandatory number of yeti is filled. The problem is the walling off you have to do it by cavein (or at least thats the only way i could think of to do it), because even though creatures are supposed to lose their biulding destroyer 2 tag when they are undead these sketi didnt for some reason.
The whole thing with Ubal Ushil was just so i could explain what i was doing in character as the Overseer. The filling in of the tunnels and the memorial slab are just for aestetic purposes in the narative, they are not nessesary. Ubal Ushil means spirit of ice according to fortress naming thing in the embark menus. Origanally i wanted to call it a Genius Loci (look it up if you are curious, means spirit of place in latin) but i figured df probably shouldnt have latin in it.

I guess Ubal Ishil is just one of former names acquired by sketi after killing some dwarves.
And the thing with animating other skeletons is the roleplaying of population cap of similar animals. You kill or cage sketi, you get another one near map borders. Now it's locked under ice, but neither killed nor caged. Nice thing =)

SolPyre, you could make a bridged entrance there, for adventures who'd like to explore it in hopes of getting treasure, he he...

You got it right! (execpt for the Ubal Ushil part, i just called it that. the sketti doesnt have a name) But the tomb isnt much to see. theres just this memorial slab (with no name on it) in the place I caved in and then some tunnels that twist around to go under the cavein. Past the cave in is the sketi and the two constructed doors i used to make it come down there. I guess i could make it fancier... put gems and gold down there and figure out a way to give adventurers access without setting the sketi free. The thing is ive used a ton of time to make the tomb work because the first few tries either killed the sketti or the sketi destroyed stuff (With its annoying BD2 tag it shouldnt have) and broke the set up. I really just want to be done with it now and move on to other goals for my turn.

[Farmerbob]

Ah ok I understand now, I thought Toady had _already_ modded in possesion based on what you were saying.  I've heard rumors that dwarven ghosts can possess dwarves but I'd never seen it.  Yeti ghosts and yeti zombies was just weird.

If you want to hold in building destroyers, you can just build constructed walls, destroyers cannot destroy them.  So you can use forbidden doors and corners and more doors, to keep them busy while dwarves build walls to hold them in.

[ignatzami]

SolPyre, my hat is off to you for the capturing of the Sketi. You shall be remembered in song, or at least a drinking game or two.

[SolPyre]

Journal of Scrubbedcream
11th Timber 1068

Merchants have come bearing wares from the south, out of war ravaged lands and hidden mountain homes. The merchants seem nervous as they push through the gathering snow storm, the guards have their hands on their weapons and the traders clump together in tight packs. Trudging ahead of the rest, this year's Outpost Liaison is the first to reach the gate of Scrubbedcream and from the threshold she looks up and spots me standing on the wall above.
"Hail Scrubbedcream, is anyone still alive in there or are you a phantom?", her tone and face are cheerful in contrast to the others in her company.
"Hail travelers. Scrubbedcream yet lives, but I might ask you the same question. Is anyone still alive out there?"
"Oh I dare say some are! Heh heh but if you dont lead us to somewhere warm soon there will be fewer!"
I lead them down past the ice levels into solid stone and watch while they begin to unpack. The Outpost Liaison Approaches me and lowers her hood revealing her balding scalp.
"I am Asen Thobatis your liaison from the Mountainhomes, or at least what is left of them." She holds out her hand to shake and looks me up and down. I don't take it.
"You don't seem unsettled by my presence."
"I have seen many strange things in my travels. A cloudy glowing Overseer is not so alarming anymore." She lowers her hand.
I say nothing.
"Well then, if you dont feel talkative please direct me to the mayor of Scrubbedcream."
"That would be Conan Cilobil, he is up in the barracks, but he will not want to talk to you." She smiles and walks a way.

10th Moonstone

Trade with the merchants has gone well so far. We have bought all their metal, meat and leather giving mostly crafts and used clothing in exchange. I stood nearby and watched as Kulet Thosbutzasit brokered the deals. Kulet is also the bookkeeper and manager of Scrubbedcream. One figurine caught my eye.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If I remember correctly the death of this founder was never recorded in this journal.

In the lowest levels of Scrubbedcreams I am directing the construction of an aqueduct leading to the adamantine vein. With water from this duct we can cool the magma surrounding the adamantine into obsidian and mine out the adamantine.

I went to check on Asen the Liaison and found her leaning against a wall in the barracks watching Conan spar.
"You were right about him not wanting to talk," She says without turning to look at me. "He will give in eventually though, I have dealt with this kind of thing before. I just have to follow him everywhere until he decides to talk." She grins ", We liaisons call it diplomacy by stalking."
"I came to tell you that the merchants will be leaving soon. You should go with them."
"Nope, I don't leave until I talk with the mayor, that's my job." Now she turns away from watching Conan and faces me, "What are you exactly, if you don't mind me asking? You arent like any ghost or anything else ive ever heard of."
"I am an Ubalnadak Geshud not a ghost."
"A Defender-Spirit of Fortress huh? I've never heard of that. You sure you aren't the ghost of a long dead Former Overseer?"
"I am not a ghost, to be a ghost I would have to be dead. To be dead I would have to have been alive once, I have never been alive."
"Sounds like you're dead to me... but have it your way." Asen turns back to look at Conan, he is trying to leave while she is distracted. "Oops, there he goes," She hurries after him.

 [OOC] AAAGG MAGMA! This update was a bit long anyway...