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[Tevish Szat]

This seems like some low-risk ‼Science‼ -- keep an engraved (but unbuilt) memorial slab and you can kill the experiment the instant the restless dead get too Fun.  Easy to restart it too!

To get a steady supply of angry ghosts, you need a steady supply of unhappy dwarves, ideally without your entire fortress entering a tantrum spiral.  You also need to ensure their bodies remain unburied, while not stopping your other dwarves from being buried -- we want to observe specific ghost behavior, not a large stream of ghosts.

Our test dwarves need to have no non-test friends, and be easy to drive berserk controllable fashion.  We could achieve this by turning off stone detailing in all dwarves except test dwarves, training them up on smoothing, and then sending them to a remote part of the fortress with a LOT of engraving to do.  By the time they do their engravings, each one should have enough skill to engrave masterpieces with decent frequency.

Once the engraving is done, burrow the test dwarves to test chambers.  the test burrow can have a communal food stockpile and dining room (NOT designated as a meeting area), but to prevent uncontrolled mass berserk spirals, each dwarf should have a private room (just a bed and a door) to stop friendships/marriages/children from interfering with results.  The best candidates are a) useless and b) angry types, rather than depressive ones.

With bare minimum amenities (only one type of booze, only one type of food with no quality, all furniture of the lowest quality, no value enhancers like smoothed stone, no friends to talk with, ideally no access to cats), the dwarf's nerves should already be frayed.  putting these dwarves in squads to get them "enraged by long patrol duty" could also help have them unhappy to very unhappy, but stable at that level and not tantruming.  If the dwarves are too happy, additional steps involving well-placed refuse stockpiles for miasma generation can be included.  To drive the dwarf insane and kill them, the following procedure seems appropriate.

Reassign the target dwarf to a "death chamber" burrow, consisting of a room with a raised drawbridge, separated by a door from the rest of the fortress, ESPECIALLY the test group.  once the dwarf is in the death chamber, seal the door and designate one of their masterpieces for mining/channeling/floor construction, whatever it takes.  They will "suffer the travesty of art defacement", which is a massive bad thought.  The dwarf will be miserable and get worse as they begin to starve/dehydrate in the death chamber.  If they berserk, you can atom-smash them both removing the body (denying any chance of accidental burial) and speeding up the ghost-creation process.  Otherwise, probably best to let them starve as the bad thoughts accumulate, making them more likely to come back as a nastier ghost.

Once the ghosts start rising, they tend to linger where they died, turning your death chamber into a ghost hotspot.  The dead won't be confined to it, but they should congregate there, hopefully creating the danger room of the damned in the process.  This should also help give future dwarves sent to it even more bad thoughts as they are assaulted by the dead.

[Girlinhat]

Problem: The mood value of masterpiece loss depends on number of masterpieces.  A dwarf with 100 masterpieces who has one defaced will suffer 1/100th the mood loss.

Solution: Breed war dogs, assign the dog to the dwarf, and butcher it, causing a "lost a pet" event instead.

[Tevish Szat]

we are controlling the engraving, we could shut off a particular test dwarf's stone detailing the instant we see "Urist McVictim has engraved a masterpiece"

Mass lost pets seems like another good way to handle it.  Thought you couldn't butcher pets though?  Are assigned war animals different?

[Broseph Stalin]

-Terrifying Brilliance-

Doing this immediately, you have one all the internets, expect them in the mail.

Chirpacted-23 Galena 206

The Ghastly Clothier continues to stand silently but the concept of life after death has intrigued the more adventurous among us. We have determined that deeper study is necessary to understand the nature of ghosts. In order to avoid suspicion from the populous our test subjects have been chosen carefully to have no affiliation with the military and no close relations with the community. Subjects are as follows:

Subject Earmarked #1: Avis Margaritahomo- Mason. Worked extensively on the construction of the apartments, long hours of labor failed to sharpen his skills significantly but made relationships impossible.

Subject Earmarked #2:Fatuo Euaxbarb- Engraver. Busied with trivial farming tasks in the absence of natural stone walls, labors are of no present value and is closely known only by his disturbingly large collection of ferrets.

Subject Earmarked #3: Creaturae Convalspinna- Engraver. Assigned to a nearly endless string of hauling tasks will not be missed.

Subject Earmarked #4:Miles Honuincendo- Engraver. Unremarkable hauler, assassinated the Outpost Liason: an expendable liability.

Subject Earmarked #5:Resperego Claustrancalis- Engraver. Former Mayor of Chirpacted noted for his expensive tastes and hard work ethic, many acquaintances no friends.

Subject Earmarked #6:Districtus Deprocorvox- Peasant. Recent immigrant, no ties to the community.

Subject Earmarked #7: Collis Arcutioomen- Mason. Little value, only one friend. He won't be missed.


We have no knowledge of the mechanism of spectral phenomena but the violent death of the clothier gives us reason to believe emotional state may be a factor. The Seven chosen subjects have been informed that they were chosen for a special engraving job, they are to smooth the old iron mines so that they may eventually become a barracks. What they do not realize is that this is only step one, In step two they will be assigned to confined spaces and forced to subsist on scarce and poor quality rations as heavy handed miners wantonly destroy the fruits of all their labors. When the ordeal drives them to madness they'll be abandoned there to waste away in the lonesome darkness .

[Broseph Stalin]

Problem: The mood value of masterpiece loss depends on number of masterpieces.  A dwarf with 100 masterpieces who has one defaced will suffer 1/100th the mood loss.

Solution: Breed war dogs, assign the dog to the dwarf, and butcher it, causing a "lost a pet" event instead.

I selected subject 2 for exactly that reason, but you have to remember these are garbage dwarves. The only worthwile things they'll have ever done will be the engravings I'm going to destroy.

[Girlinhat]

War/Hunting animals count as pets, and may be butchered.  Toady specifically allowed this "just in case you're starving and have 50 spare dogs".  For controlled, timed mood drop, I always use this method.

[Broseph Stalin]

5 Sandstone 206

Destroying the masterpieces of the subjects became problematic. Their skills built far too slowly so a more expedient approach was ultimately taken. Each of the subjects was assigned a loyal, loving, furry companion and given the time to see them as a beloved family member. These animals were then ripped away from them, slaughtered and turned into food for the fortress. The shock coupled with their sudden imprisonment in the caverns drove them to despair very quickly. Through the viewing, feeding port they are already beginning to throw tantrums from depression and impotent rage.

[DwarvenScience]

I had an above-ground fort once, waves of migrants were left starving at the gates with inevitable results.. A murderous ghost appeared and loitered around the dormitory for a while, then proceeded to tear my beekeepers leg off (it was quite impressive, blood EVERYWHERE).

Also murderous ghosts can occasionally scare dwarves to death, which results in a less interesting insta-kill.

[Kromgar]

5 Sandstone 206

Destroying the masterpieces of the subjects became problematic. Their skills built far too slowly so a more expedient approach was ultimately taken. Each of the subjects was assigned a loyal, loving, furry companion and given the time to see them as a beloved family member. These animals were then ripped away from them, slaughtered and turned into food for the fortress. The shock coupled with their sudden imprisonment in the caverns drove them to despair very quickly. Through the viewing, feeding port they are already beginning to throw tantrums from depression and impotent rage.

You should throw in some animals for them to fight in their tantrums. I would choose maybe Cows... Yaks... Giant War Eagles(My favorite)

[Broseph Stalin]

You should throw in some animals for them to fight in their tantrums. I would choose maybe Cows... Yaks... Giant War Eagles(My favorite)

I thought about that but if the animals kill them before they go insane the ghosts will be the boring kind.

[Sphalerite]

Destroying the masterpieces of the subjects became problematic. Their skills built far too slowly so a more expedient approach was ultimately taken. Each of the subjects was assigned a loyal, loving, furry companion and given the time to see them as a beloved family member. These animals were then ripped away from them, slaughtered and turned into food for the fortress. The shock coupled with their sudden imprisonment in the caverns drove them to despair very quickly. Through the viewing, feeding port they are already beginning to throw tantrums from depression and impotent rage.

How are you managing to slaughter pets?  Arranging for pets to have unfortunate accidents is easily done, but it's impossible to butcher the bodies of tame animals, and you can't designate pets for slaughtering.

[Broseph Stalin]

How are you managing to slaughter pets?  Arranging for pets to have unfortunate accidents is easily done, but it's impossible to butcher the bodies of tame animals, and you can't designate pets for slaughtering.

You can butcher war animals, I assign them all five or six and then designate them to be butchered.

[Urist Da Vinci]

...
How are you managing to slaughter pets?  Arranging for pets to have unfortunate accidents is easily done, but it's impossible to butcher the bodies of tame animals, and you can't designate pets for slaughtering.

You can pasture pets - on a spike trap or a hatch.

[Broseph Stalin]

2 Timber 206


A pet belonging to Mechanic Ars Tractovipers was accidentally slaughtered, Ars was significantly less resilient than the subjects and bit his long time girlfriend in the hand. The Fortress Guard began punching him until he collapsed and stomped on his skull for a short time after. He went insane in the hospital and began jabbering until he suffocated from the head injury. There must be a way to replicate this with the other subjects.

[Kromgar]

2 Timber 206


A pet belonging to Mechanic Ars Tractovipers was accidentally slaughtered, Ars was significantly less resilient than the subjects and bit his long time girlfriend in the hand. The Fortress Guard began punching him until he collapsed and stomped on his skull for a short time after. He went insane in the hospital and began jabbering until he suffocated from the head injury. There must be a way to replicate this with the other subjects.

So your experiment hit a hitch you made an accidental ghost in the wrong area? Hmmm... this could change the test. Make sure he does not rise. We must have a controlled haunting. As children can see ghosts this could go horridly wrong. Also make sure your Doctor/Psychiatrist has not died either we cannot handle such a happening.