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[DS]

A handful of other have withered away in their chains. Most of the fallen are merchants or guards, though one stands out amongst the others: Led Tattooedfence, chief blacksmith. Led was personally responsible for the dozens of steel grates, doors, and statues that adorn the fortress. His metalwork was matched by none, and yet the dwarves of Weatherwires saw fit to let him die of dehydration in a forgotten corner of the fortress. Led was 138.

[DS]

As another several dwarves pass away, the process of reclaiming the lowest mines has begun. By draining water onto the magma sea immediately surrounding the adamantine vein, I can create an obsidian caisson and obtain as much of the metal as can be safely mined out.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[shadowclasper]

Man, this feels like Children of Men DF version >>

[Malarauko]

Great project. Great writing.

[DS]

Another goblin siege has wiped through the fort. The goblins stood idly at the base of the bridge and in the fort's main entrance hall (which used to be trapped), probably quite confused. I imagine the leaders of each squad putting forth theories about where the entire civilization has disappeared to - they could not know for sure, since no goblin has ever penetrated as deep as the dome and lived to tell of it.

While their overseers stood by and argued, the trolls entirely demolished the axles and gear assemblies that transferred power from the windmill power plant at the mountain's peak to the water and magma pump stacks in the deep. About 1/3 of the windmills have also been destroyed, along with many of the doors that sealed the pumping areas and a handful of the pumps themselves. A few trolls made it as far as the magma pumps that, decades ago, filled the dome. For a moment, perhaps, the furry, horned beasts stared into the vast abyss beyond the ruins of the pumps, dimly lit with a red glow from the sea of magma far below, and a glimmer of comprehension of what the dwarves had accomplished flashed briefly through their primitive minds before they turned and retreated to the surface.

[DS]

Until this point, two of the original seven dwarves still lived in the fortress. These individuals have lived through multiple tantrum spirals and countless sieges. Now, only one remains.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This year, 207, marks the death of Logem Buriedboard, chief cook and brewer of Weatherwires, at the incredible age of 165. Born in the year 42, in the midst of the dwarves' relocation into the mountains from the ancient fortresses, Logem was already 84 when she came to the fortress. Thereafter, she produced innumerable masterful roasts, and ensured a steady supply of alcohol for all. Now that she is dead, the fort is down both a brewer and a cook, permanently.

[DS]

Something strange, tragic, and yet wholly within the realm of what I've come to expect, has happened.

Domas 'Murdershot' Tanineth, queen has suffocated.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

By zooming to the location of the queen's cleaning job cancellation, I can deduce, fairly easily, what happened.

Domas Tickcities, on a whim, decided to do some cleaning. She entered her son's bedroom and climbed the stair on the north wall. The stair was originally built in order to access the few layers of the pump stack when it was being built and serviced. It's a fairly standard pump stack, with an adjacent access stairwell that allows access to the pumps via two doors at every z-level - except for a few z-levels, next to the prince's quarters, which share a common wall with the pump stack. At some point, some blood got all over this part of the stack (probably while mining it out), including the tile the door is built upon - it was this tile the queen wanted to clean. There has been blood here for a while - why the queen took it upon herself, at this time, to clean it up is beyond me.

So, the queen opened the door, but before she could wipe off the blood, a sudden rush of water from the 7/7 tile beyond swept through the door and knocked her backwards, off of the stairwell. She fell 2 z-levels, landed on her head, snapped her upper spine, and suffocated.

I've already written a blurb about Domas 'Murdershot' Tickcities previously in the thread, and not a lot remains to be said. She and Logem were the last of the first seven dwarves, the founders of the fortress, and now both have died, by chance, within two weeks of each other. The doom of Weatherwires is rapidly approaching.

[DS]

The queen's body has been placed in her tomb, atop the spire at the north end of the dome, the highest point in the carven city. The top has been flooded with water, as with the tops of many other buildings in the dome, but since the magma never reached this high, it remains a muddy mess. The small peak is overgrown with cave fungi, untouched by woodcutter or herbalist, untrampled by any feet save those who have come to inter the dead and their belongings.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The tomb is shared by three coffins, each a mood-created artifact. The queen's body is entombed in Failedhushed the Music of Balding.

This is a light yellow diamond coffin. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is encrusted with earthenware and encircled with bands of reindeer leather. This object is adorned with hanging rings of reindeer leather and menaces with spikes of reindeer leather.
On the item is an image of The Roasted Dot the adamantine chest in light yellow diamond.
On the item is an image of mountains in light yellow diamond. On the item is an image of The Fair Dagger the spore tree cup in fungiwood. On the item is an image of a dimple cup in alpaca wool.
On the item is an image of goblins and dwarves in iron. The goblins are fighting with the dwarves. The artwork relates to the attack on the Diamond Cloisters at Weatherwires by The Scorpion of Recreations in the late winter of 171 during Dusmudkök, "The Scalded Assaults."

From the vantage point at the southern tip of the citadel peak, the coffin overlooks all of the dome.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The other two coffins are assigned to the two surviving members of the Murdershot dynasty. Cog Archwayward, being older than her brother, has risen to the rank of queen of the Merchant of Echoing at the age of 73.

The year is 207. In less than two decades, Weatherwires will be celebrating its centennial, if it has not yet been claimed by its inevitable fate.

[Mapleguy555]

You can always use Runesmith to lower their ages, although in most terms that would be cheating

[DS]

I had set my game to pause and recenter in the event that this ever happened. Unlike the movie, it didn't happen in the midst of a heated, pointless battle, but considering the dwarven punishments of the previous year, and the untimely death of Domas Tickcities, perhaps it happened at just the right time after all:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A child of two recruited dwarves, a merchant and her guard (now a legendary woodcrafter thanks a mood), Zasit Portalwines is the first child to be born in the fortress in precisely 50 years.

I cannot know for sure just yet if the curse has been lifted for all dwarves, native and mercantile, or if it is only the new visitors who can conceive. In any case, the birth of young Zasit is an event of importance, that will be recognized as such by anyone who has been keeping up with this thread.

[Madventurer]

Awesome! I've been reading this thread for... month? Close from the start. It has been sad and fun, but now it appears that the top part is coming!

[darkflagrance]

You should give the child a meaningful nickname!

Also, make sure that the child counts as a proper member of your fortress rather than a captive merchant. Hopefully it will be as these things turn out for invaders, whose children count as locals of your map instead of belonging to their parents.

[DS]

Since children can't be appointed to noble positions or enlisted in the military (these are the only lists the newcomers don't appear on), I can't be sure until Zasit reaches adulthood. And I have indeed bestowed the infant with the profession name 'curse-breaker,' and as usual with any child born in the fort, he and his parents have been given the same nickname, that of the father's surname: Quakedented.

[DS]

I retract my previous statement - on the description page of every 'native' dwarf, they are listed as a member of both the Merchant of Echoing and the Diamond Cloisters, while the merchants and their guards are listed as only members of the Merchant of Echoing. Zasit is listed as a member of both the civilization and the local government, so he is definitely a full fledged member of the fortress.

[DS]

Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While channeling away the thin sheet of obsidian within the caisson, so that water could rush in to solidify the next layer of magma and allow me to claim more adamantine, I accidentally designated a tile to be dug without first checking the layer below to be sure that I wasn't digging into a dangerously fun area.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ushat Bridgedcanyons, a miner who was originally a fortress guard, the moment he breaches into the mysterious hollow.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1 z-level below, for reference. I should have been more careful... alas.

The year is 208. In a mere 17 years, the fortress would be celebrating its centennial, become a truly legendary 100-year fortress. Instead, the greed of the new queen, Cog 'Murdershot' Archwayward, in the face of lifting tragedy and the victory of hope, has unleashed a nameless evil beneath the earth upon the last remnants of her civilization.

Amidst the bountiful food stockpiles, her spirits high, Bomrek Spikeswound, the first mother Weatherwires has known for almost half a century, takes a long drink of dwarven beer from an exceptionally crafted obsidian pot. Her two infant children, Zasit and Mebzuth, a boy and a girl, burble happily in her arms. Meanwhile...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)