A Grim Bloody Fable

...with an unhappy bloody end.

[kishmond]

Late Winter 1084

I finished this a while ago, but I haven’t taken the time to write about it. There are two of my fourth generation now born. Eve Thompson married her nephew Ned 3 RThompson and they have 2 kids: Kimara and Jezebel 4 E-RThompson. That brings the final total to 150 dwarves. I’m going to retire the fort now and see what, if anything, they’ll do afterwards.

It’s been a fun experiment, even if by fortress standards it was pretty boring. Most of its 34-year lifespan was spent semi-afk just sealed up behind the wall waiting for kids to grow up and get married. But now I know they’ll marry their uncle or aunt or first cousin but not parent or sibling. Pictured is the final fort layout. Pretty much the same as ever except now the apartment tower is 6 stories high.

[kishmond]

This is an artifact dog bone leggings...

called ‘Throwerbalance the Unswerving Ankles’. It is highly sought after by shot put professionals everywhere.

[kishmond]

Update, Late Autumn 1081

The grandkids are growing up! Last year the first of the third generation grew to adulthood, and this year we had our first marriage. 10-year-old Ned RThompson (daughter of Rachel Human and Hercules Thompson) married his father’s sister, 13-year-old Eve Thompson. I want to drag this fort on until some fourth generation dwarves start appearing, so after 30 years we’re almost there!

Very soon after, Ned gained three new siblings at once.

I have never even seen twins, much less triplets before. They aren’t identical; it’s 2 girls and 1 boy. I have 125 dwarves now. Pretty soon I’ll hit the pop cap because the babies are increasing exponentially...

[kishmond]

48 hours to support the groundbreaking #InfinityBattlescape and pave the way for the future of epic #space games! http://thndr.me/Sh98Ef

[kishmond]

Bunker Building, and Ticks

What if something really nasty shows up one day and manages to kill my 6 uber-champions? Or just flies over their heads? The building containing my dining hall and food storage already has an indestructible artifact for a front door and mountains of food and drink, plus a farm. Theoretically dwarves could be locked in there and survive indefinitely. But there’s still the threat of unhappiness and tantrums from clothes decaying and sleeping on the floor. So I moved my clothes storage, made a small dormitory, and moved my dog and deer population underneath my food building. With that and the addition of expensive silver statues to admire, I don’t see any obstacles to my 90 dwarves being locked in a small building forever.

While I was working on that a giant tick FB showed up in the caverns. It didn’t seem dangerous, but the description did mention deadly blood. After killing it I moved my military to the swimming training chamber for decontamination, but one was already starting to develop symptoms. Dizziness and oozing pus everywhere is just about as mild as it gets, though.

[kishmond]

A gremlin snuck in from the caverns. My militia leader was the first to arrive. She slapped it with the flat of her axe and his head exploded.

[kishmond]

I’ve always known it was difficult to find matching couples in my fort, but I didn’t realize until I counted just how unbalanced things are. There are 33 males to 49 females in Beecrazy the Awe-inspiring Fish.

And now that my population is over 80, that opens the gate to a whole slew of new invasion opportunities...

[kishmond]

Acmot Leto Sedast

A enormous, hairy, fire-breathing slug! It can also fly! Finally, a true challenge for my military!

They meet in the cavern’s antechamber and the fight opens with a trio of fireballs. They’re all blocked by wooden shields.

When the smoke clears the beast is already dead. Wait, what?

One of my more experienced soldiers scratched its brain and killed it. With her fingernails. I guess it sucks not having bones.

[kishmond]

What happens when you leave a forgotten beast to run amok in the caverns for 15 years.

It’s not just this corner. The whole cavern looks like this. We found the skeleton of the FB lying in a huge pool of its own blood.

[kishmond]

Hailedorb the Library of Holes

Is pair of rounded adamantine greaves worth 1.2 million dwarfbucks. You bet it’s going to my commander. She is now wearing over a quarter of the fortress’s wealth at 2.2 million bucks.

[kishmond]

Some helpful notes

Even if they can swim, you can’t order dwarfs to cross deep water.

Handwear and footwear are crafted in pairs.

[kishmond]

I sent my now fully metal-armored military of 6 multi-legendary champions down to explore the third cavern layer. There was nothing there. Good old Urvad the tongueless outpost liaison went berserk and had to be put down. He had been around so long that he actually was friends with some dwarfs. But we found his head and gave the bits a proper burial. In addition, two cyclopes came in succession and were killed embarrassingly quick. The second was knocked unconscious with one mace blow by my least experienced soldier. He is a:

Legendary Macedwarf

Legendary Shield User

Expert Armor User

Legendary Discipline

Legendary Observer

Legendary Fighter

Accomplished Wrestler

Proficient Biter

Professional Striker

Adept Kicker

Professional Dodger

Professional Misc. Object User

He is also ‘basically unbreakable, unbelievably strong, amazingly agile and indefatigable. He has unbreakable focus, a stunning feel for spatial relationships, a great kinesthetic sense, and a lot of willpower.’ If you remember, this is the same guy I dropped down a pit as punishment for making an artifact splint.

My militia commander (dark blue) is now wearing 1/6th of the fortress’s wealth.

[kishmond]

An overview of the peninsula, Summer 1077.

[kishmond]

New Years 1077

The apartment building is finished enough to house everyone now, with rooms to spare. There were two more recent 2nd gen marriages.

Stats: a Village of 65

Adults: 32

Children: 26

Babies: 7

Thompson kids: 26

Human kids: 17

Grandkids (both families share grandkids): 19

[kishmond]

A heck of a mystery

4 children and a dog have drowned several levels under the ocean near the northern edge of the map. This is far away from anything. Another child stands on the beach, depressed now she saw her cousins die. The ice did just melt, could they have been going to try to haul something out on the ice? But children don’t do hauling.

Oh well. They weren’t very old, so they can be replaced.

Upd8: There are more kids walking along the beach, right at the edge of the water. This is seriously really weird.

[kishmond]

I made a combination drowning/swimming training chamber. It took no time at all for my military to get up to adequate swimming. I was reluctant to send them off onto the narrow path above my moat before, now I don’t have to worry.

I also killed off all but 2 of my useless deer population by dropping them into the corpse pit. My FPS improved from 20 to 35.

[kishmond]

Giantess attack

I was pretty excited. I have 6 champions that haven’t seen any action in years. I lowered the drawbridge.

The giantess stepped on a weapon trap and bled to death.