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[FoiledFencer]

A forgotten beast managed to get into my underground obsidian farm. It wasn't being used, so the damage was only a few toppled workshops, but due to the proximity to my main industrial area I sent in a squad to deal with it. The kill went rather smoothly with only 4 dwarves and some wardogs going in.

Then 3 of the dwarves and two of the dogs began to profusely vomit. They were rotting away ludicrously fast, spreading miasma all around them. Feet, hands, mouths, eyelids - all decaying after being sprayed with some foul, putrid slime from the dawn of time. Fearing a spreading infection (I suspect it of being airborne as the extract was described as "vapours") I sealed the obsidian farm and the workshops, trapping an unlucky thresher and an uninfected swordsdwarf in the process.

The swordsdwarf was evacuated, but the farmer is trapped in there as the infected soldiers immediatly ran for the locked doors and have been lying around ever since in pools of their own vomit and miasma. I imagine they are creeping out the workers who are just beyond the doors with their moaning and beating. Another symptome appears to be drowsiness.

My question is twofold, O wise overseers:
1) Is there a way to clean extracts off surfaces without any threat of spreading? I tried opening to floodgates briefly, but that seemed only to spread it around and I worry that manually cleaning it will infect the workers.
2) Do any of you have ideas for cleaning the extract off the rotting dwarves? I'm happy with the security as it looks now, but I feel it is unjust leaving them to die horribly like that. Besides, I want to recover the (I assume, unavoidable) corpses for my Crypt of Heroes. But not at the potential cost of the entire fortress succumbing to Sleep-rot.

[zephyr_hound]

You need to get them wet. What about stationing them somewhere and having civilians tip buckets of water over them from above via pond designation? If they can't walk and you can't get to a place to tip water on them... I guess flood the area, but that will probably spread it all over. You may just have to quarantine the place, wall it up and let them die.

Magma will sterilize anything it touches, that's the last resort.

[FoiledFencer]

Thanks - that seemed to do the trick. I can't believe I didn't think of that after I opened the floodgates. I've flooded some of the magma channel and had them wade through it. It doesn't look like there is any extract left on them - I guess they are ready to evacuate for intensive medical attention. The farm and service ducts are filled with contaminants, miasma, blood, grime and vomit now so I think I'll just wall the whole thing up.

[Chessrook44]

Related question: How do you get extract out of water?  Specifically the water found in a cavern connected to the map edge?

[BunnyBob77]

Aww...  you should have used the dwarvenly way for cleaning up contaminants.  Namely, a flaming plump helmet man!  The newest in dwarven science!  Just set it on fire and let it clean!  Buy yours today for only 1000 dorfbucks!  Buy now and receive a free pig tail fiber sock menacing with spikes!  Shop smart, shop uristmart!  (We are not responsible for any widespread chaos and or job cancellations that may occur because of this)

[FoiledFencer]

Well, the evacuees are in the hospital. Blind, mewling wrecks with massive scarring all over their bodies and with dozens of surgical removals of rotten tissue ahead of them. Perhaps they would have suffered less by being walled in. Ah. No use second-guessing it.

Aww...  you should have used the dwarvenly way for cleaning up contaminants.  Namely, a flaming plump helmet man!  The newest in dwarven science!  Just set it on fire and let it clean!  Buy yours today for only 1000 dorfbucks!  Buy now and receive a free pig tail fiber sock menacing with spikes!  Shop smart, shop uristmart!  (We are not responsible for any widespread chaos and or job cancellations that may occur because of this)

By the stone! How did we ever make do without! 

[evileeyore]

Thanks - that seemed to do the trick. I can't believe I didn't think of that after I opened the floodgates. I've flooded some of the magma channel and had them wade through it. It doesn't look like there is any extract left on them - I guess they are ready to evacuate for intensive medical attention. The farm and service ducts are filled with contaminants, miasma, blood, grime and vomit now so I think I'll just wall the whole thing up.

I'd imagine continual flushing with water thats dumps off the map edge or into a water destroyer (atom smahser, magma, aquifer(?)) should eventually clean it all up.


Honestly, I haven't had to deal with those hazards yet, I've managed to keep those conflicts safely contained away from my fort (and then I just dfcleanmap).

[Jelle]

What I did in that situation, was make an enclosed area, seal all dwarves covered in the stuff in, and pump water inside till about 4/7. The room will be messy but the dwarves should become clean.

The only thing that might be a problem in your case though is that I ordered those dwarves to move there so no one would have to touch or even stand near them. So if you don't want to open that door it's going to require some creativity.

But if the dwarves start to decompose wouldn't the extracts disappear? They're dead anyway, might just wait for them to become a partial skeleton then move them into a coffin.

P.S. None of my cleaned dwarves lived, all three were treated by a dabblin surgeon who spent about half a year removing rotten tissue, until they decided to up and leave and die after a few moments of consciousnes.

[Necro910]

I love dwarf fortress's plague simulation.

Especially the part where you have to decide whether to magma.

[FoiledFencer]

What I did in that situation, was make an enclosed area, seal all dwarves covered in the stuff in, and pump water inside till about 4/7. The room will be messy but the dwarves should become clean.

The only thing that might be a problem in your case though is that I ordered those dwarves to move there so no one would have to touch or even stand near them. So if you don't want to open that door it's going to require some creativity.

But if the dwarves start to decompose wouldn't the extracts disappear? They're dead anyway, might just wait for them to become a partial skeleton then move them into a coffin.

P.S. None of my cleaned dwarves lived, all three were treated by a dabblin surgeon who spent about half a year removing rotten tissue, until they decided to up and leave and die after a few moments of consciousnes.

I managed to get them out after dunking them in the cooling reservoir of the obsidian farm. They are eyeless and with massive scarring all over their bodies, but alive. And they insist on helping to train up the new recruits in spite of this. That's dedication.
The only loss from the infection was a war dog whose paws rotted off.

I'm quite fond of the fortress, but I think a massive, unstoppable plague would have been a fitting end to a maxed population centre like mine. It would've been !!fun!!.