"You have been struck down." - Dwarf Fortress Adventure stories

[sunrise089]

How do elephants not starve to death in the wild? Does the game not model them until you come within sight?

Does the magical door as the fortress entrance mean you're totally safe from ground-level attack?

[NobleHelium]

Why do the dwarves refuse to bury Ichabod? Can't you command them to?

What's the status of the cat population now that Ichabod is dead? I take it Bigger recovered from depression?

[Jkaen]

Who is currently assigned as the trader btw?

[mostly_harmless]

How do elephants not starve to death in the wild? Does the game not model them until you come within sight?

I think they are not modelled in detail until they enter your game map. And herds of animals enter your map and then leave enventually. I guess the elephants make it our of the map before they starve to death.
I once captured two elephants and assigned each of them huge pastures, within half a year or so they lost all their weight and starved to death. There are a couple more animals that currently suffer from that bug. Rhinos and giraffes I think.

Does the magical door as the fortress entrance mean you're totally safe from ground-level attack?

No, quite.
A door can be assigned to be closed. That will prevent animals and some attackers from passing inside. Stronger enemies with the BuildingDestroyer Tag are able to knock down doors and enter. I think artefact doors are an exception to that.
So if the enemies come, we will have to make sure we close the door.

Although. I'd rather rely on a system of traps and soldiers for protection than a legendary wooden door. :D

Why do the dwarves refuse to bury Ichabod? Can't you command them to?

Nope. It normally works like this. You order up a coffin from the mason, then place that coffin somewhere (inside) and make it available for burial. I normally make sure pets do not get buried in coffins. by default this option is on, though. You can switch the default to off in the init_d file. Your haulers will then collect a random body and related body parts and put them into the placed coffin. If you want to avoid the randomness you can make the coffin a tomb (room) and assign it to a specific dwarf. This can be done for living dwarves as well. For example, higher nobles will demand a high quality tomb.
The headstone (slab) is not really necessary, but a nice touch. You order the mason to create a rock slab and then a dwarf with the Stone-Detailing labour can be ordered to engrave the slab in the name of Urist McDiedrecently.
The slab can be very useful, if your dead dwarf's corpse is unavailable for burial (magma death, drown in the sea, etc.). Since corpses that remain unburied tend to raise as ghosts and haunt the fortress with various degrees of unpleasantness (I had a ghost clobber a living dwarf to death once!), it is a good idea to bury them soon. That will put them to rest. An engraved slab can be used to remember the dwarf also putting his spirit to rest.
The problem with Ichabod is, that the moment she has gone berserk, she became an enemy. For example I could not check her stats and feelings and stuff. And while you can engrave slabs with the names of dwarves, pets, goblins and even forgotten beasts, apparently you cannot not put them in proper coffins.

And besides, you don't "command" your dwarves around. They don't like that. You drop hints and make suggestions. :D

What's the status of the cat population now that Ichabod is dead? I take it Bigger recovered from depression?

I was able to slaughter the four cats that became attached to Ichabod, but there are couple more, being pets to some dwarves. I keep a sharp lookout on any kittens.

Who is currently assigned as the trader btw?

Uberfish is. He is the main administrator in the fortress, holding the position of expedition leader, broker (trader), manager and bookkeeper. Since he is so vital to the management of the fortress he got a free pass on any hauling jobs.

mh

[Jkaen]

Are not Gustaran or Jkaen better traders (leaving bookkeeping, manager and leader to uberfish)?

[uberfish]

Oh we have a proper castle wall now. And dead cats. Nice.

(I think we have to bump up the population cap before we can get proper invasions - should we do this?)

[mostly_harmless]

I think I accidentally played with invasions off.

mh

[mostly_harmless]

Sorry for the delay, real life issues cutting down game time this week. Will try to finish it in the next couple of days.
Who is next? Any takers?

mh

[mostly_harmless]

Continuing to play.

Improving the fortifications and making the entrance more respectable.

HidingKneel got possessed and needs some "...rough...color...". Which after a long pause for thought probably mean uncut gems (=check wiki).

And she makes a elaborate sceptre:

Worth a stunning 52800coins!!!! That's a lot! In fact it accounts for more than a quarter of the overall created wealth in the fortress.
Unfortunately again, it was a possession, so no skill was gained.

-
Harmless, tired overseer in command

[mostly_harmless]

Late summer and a human trade caravan has just arrived.
Also this has arrived in the cavern:

Don't fear. It cannot fly and there is no walkable path to the fortress from the cavern, yet.

A perfect time to hand over the responsibility to the next overseer.

There is no active squad. But I have forged some bronze axes. I also finished 10 bronze helmets but they don't show up in any of the stocks. Weird.

The fortress looks more like a fortress now. I have not finished any of the corner-towers. Also the entrance tower could do with a few more stories. But we have a water filled moat now.


Drinks are currently produced. I forgot to create new barrels, that's why there is so little drink.
I played with a dwarf cap of 25+10babies.

Clothes begins to slightly wear down. So plans for a cloth industry should be made.

Feel free to trade with the humans, although we don't really need anything from them. But there should be plenty of crafts around (don't sell he artefact sceptre) and cut gems as well.

Also the dwarves refuse to butcher the caged elephant. not sure why that is.

Here the dwarf list with the skills.

Here is the save file.

Good luck to the next overseer.
Sorry I had to rush this second half but real life got in the way.

mh