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[Zombiearcher]

HI all, not sure if this is the place to post this but this has happened to me about three times in my current game. In the middle of a busy hallway a dwarf just suffocates and drops dead. Do I have tu put in some kind of central air system or am I missing something??

[NecroRebel]

You don't need any ventilation. Dwarves can breath even if they've been in a hermetically-sealed steel chamber a hundred levels underground that completely submerged in magma that is, itself, in a hermetically-sealed steel chamber that is completely submerged in water for a decade.

No, the cause of your dwarves suffocating is more sinister. There's 2 possibilities. The first, and less likely of the two, is that your suffocated dwarves were injured in such a way that their lungs no longer functioned, such as by having their lungs destroyed or their spines severed. This is unlikely because you'd probably notice such a thing occurring, and it's usually quick, too.

More likely is that you killed a forgotten beast, titan, or other randomly-generated creature that had deadly dust, deadly blood, noxious secretions, or possibly other special properties. These things cause syndromes to those affected by them, and these syndromes can include shutting down of organs, including lungs, can occur some time after contact with the substance that causes them, and the substance that causes them can continue to exist and cause syndromes indefinitely after their creation. You should set up a dwarf bath, get DFHack and run DFCleanMap or otherwise find the beast's blood or extract and remove it (magma is the best way), and clear your fort of deadly substances.

[Zombiearcher]

Thanks, I have an ettin, giant and cyclops in cages. Must be one of them, bastards!

I'll have to find an interesting and inventive way to kill them for this.

[NecroRebel]

Ettins, giants, and cyclopses don't cause syndromes. They aren't randomly-generated creatures, nor do they have syndromes associated with them at all. It's something else. Have you breached the caverns? A Forgotten Beast might have fought something down there that isn't your dwarves and left blood or extract around.

[Zombiearcher]

I have breached them, but I haven't seen a forgotten creature yet, must be that then.

[Oliolli]

If anything even remotely civilized lives down there, one of them may have killed the FB, resulting in a bloodspill, which, in turn, may result in suffocation. You wont hear of a FB before it becomes visible, and if killed before it, you wont hear about it.

[Saiko Kila]

Thanks, I have an ettin, giant and cyclops in cages. Must be one of them, bastards!

I'll have to find an interesting and inventive way to kill them for this.

Put them in arena (one at a time) together with two squads of goblins and trolls. That way you'll free all cages. Then let your soldiers finish them off. As for suffocating, you may want to go to "z" screen and to health, maybe there will be some hints, like "partially paralyzed" or "trouble breathing".

[nanomage]

visually check the part of caverns you revealed for any traces of forgotten beast extracts - they'd appear as coloured ~ waves on the surface. Check the corpses of suffocated dwarves for the traces of extracts. Blood, pus, vomit - this is all harmless stuff, the only thing that is dangerous is forgotten beast/or titan extract/dust.
If you have found any traces, forbid contaminated items and restrict access to contaminated areas.

[Deus Machina]

Also, if the dwarves have been wandering the caves or one snuck in, giant cave spiders are venomous, which produces paralysis. Eventually, a dwarf's lungs get paralyzed, which means he doesn't breath.

[Naryar]

First, check for a dead forgotten beast.

Might have been a random blow from an animal (happens when you stack dwarves and animals in small rooms) that damaged both lungs, and that dwarf then died of breath impairing.

[Sphalerite]

If you haven't seen any forgotten beasts yet, then this is far more likely to have been caused by Justice.  You missed a production mandate, or violated an export mandate, and one of your dwarves was chosen for punishment.  You don't have a well, so the unlucky dwarf got a beating instead, and died from it.  Check your Justice screen to see if there have been any punishments.

[Zombiearcher]

First off thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Turns out it was justice and the beatings.