As far as I can tell, the moto of Haunted fortresses goes something like “Magma is always appropriate”.
Day #67
Or somethin’. Why keep track? I gots me much more important work to be doin’ than sittin’ around like some crybaby elfling, watchin’ the damn calendar all the bloody time. I’m only writin’ this silliness because Kragun the Fisherdwarf says I should. Don’ know why I listen to 'im.
Day #94
Huh. Gunnar the Farmer just told me the calender might have somethin’ to do with when crops grow and such. Fine. ‘E can watch the damn calendar. We live and work in a bleedin’ mine, by Ogash’s beard — why do we care when snow falls or the sun rises or some such crap?
Day #97
Akula the Metalsmith’s Wife got stuck in the kitchen. Actually, I was trying to get ‘er to learn the brewmaster’s trade. Yokun the Mechanic was showin’ small little skill at it. We been sufferin’ from weak-ass pints since Ilgurn’s Day. It makes the beard shudder and itch to recall!
Anyway she got stuck. The Metalsmith’s Wife. Bloody peasant, never did learn a trade. Funny that Akula never mentioned anythin’, though. Maybe 'e enjoyed the quiet.
So, she’s dead. And with no meals or ale to show for it! Apparently gettin’ stuck in the kitchen makes it hard to find water, and 'er lunkhead husband didn’t bring’er any. Funny that no one noticed 'er corpse pinned there under some cabinet or other.
Not until a vast, stinkin’ miasma seeped into every workshop and most of the grimy holes in the rock we call our quarters.
Albrethil the Carpenter says ‘e thought ‘e heard the kids yammerin’ about somethin’, but who pays attention to them? Always underfoot, knockin’ over the wine barrels. Bah, who needs 'em?
But apparently somethin’ about watchin’ your mom decay into goo traumatized the little bratlings.
As for the rest of us, we’re not sure we’ll ever be gettin’ the damned stink out of the still! But, as long as we get our maple wine and ale … the dwarfs can just pinch their bleedin’ noses!
Day #98
We decided it probably best to haul that corpse out of the kitchen, now that the fetid cloud of stinking death is gone. Mostly. Except in Akula’s room, which was closest to the kitchin. Serves the dullard right, leavin’ his wife to die and rot.
What? Am I supposed to watch over some blubberin’ wench when I gots rock to dig?
We tossed 'er corpse into a hastily dug patch of dirt, by the south wall.
The dogs are eyeing the pieces of bone jutting from her rotted flesh.
Meh, better than feedin’ 'em ourselves, I say!
That Dubious Quality link Cap posted is a big help, except it doesn’t tell me why my carpenter says he needs logs to build a wooden bucket even though I have a whole room full.
So, thanks to this thread I started getting into DF. It was slow going at first, and it seems like there is always something new to learn, figure out, or Wiki. I had my first really out there experience though.
It seems one of my carpenters was female. How can you tell with dwarfs? She was awoken from her sleep by having a baby. A baby!? I didn’t know they could do that! She grabbed the baby and paraded it through the fortress, including a stop at a food store. I presume it was to get the baby started on alcohol right away. Then it happened…
“A fey mood has overcome Carpenter Mom”
“Carpenter Mom has taken over a workshop”
Oh oh…
She retrieved some wood and a rough cut gem. Then she just stood there. It seems she wanted leather. The fort has no leather. I consulted Wiki. It said to slaughter an animal and the hide would be automatically tanned as long as a dwarf had tanning turned on. I was hoping to get a breeding stock of horses built up, but I regretfully marked one for slaughter. A butcher dutifully slit its throat. Where’s the hide? Where’s the leather? Another trip to consult Wiki informed me that I also need a tannery. I had one, right? Nope. That’s a leather crafting workshop. No wonder I never got anything from there.
I ordered the hasty contruction of a tannery. Carpenter Mom was losing patience. Where the hell is the contruction crew? Finally the tannery is built. With regret I order the slaughter of a foal, as I had to save my breeding pair of horses. It’s slaughtered. Where’s the tanner?! Someone better pick up that hide!
“Carpenter Mom goes insane”
“Insane Carpenter Mom goes berserk”
“Insane Carpenter Mom kills baby dwarf”
Holy shit! I’m not sure if that was funny or just disturbing. She then runs down the hallway attacking people.
“Would-Be Tanner’s job is interrupted.”
The hide was on its way to the tannery when she flipped out. Argh! She makes it halfway up a hallway and then I really don’t know what happened. It ended with Psycho Bitch’s corpse in the middle of a major hallway with blood splattered on the floor and a wall. I don’t know if she suicided or if she was killed. The baby’s corpse was in the middle of the carpenter’s workshop. All I could say is someone better clean up this mess!
The bloodstains were cleaned, but everyone seemed content to walk around the corpses. Another carpenter even started using the workshop, standing on the baby’s corpse. Miasma set in. Wiki? Merlin’s shriveled left nut! I need a graveyard?! I went to consult the blue prints, but remembered I had none. I looked at the map. The north side of the fortress was housing. The middle was industry. East is the farms and river. West and outside seems disrespectful. South it is. There’s just one catch. South is where I was conducting my secret experiment with water, channels, and drawbridges.
The graveyard had to go on the far side of the bridge experiment. The bridge wasn’t done. Apparently it was a part time project or something. The dwarfs couldn’t get across without the bridge finished. I did have a lever to close a floodgate and turn off the water, but earlier I had discovered that you need water to build a bridge. Would turning off the water hose my bridge construction? I didn’t want to risk it.
Miasma. Big, purple, stinking clouds of it. I put doors on workshop, but there was nothing I could do about the corpse in the hallway. Finally I had to risk FUBARing the bridge. I turned off the water. Graveyard digging commenced. Bridge construction continued. One small disaster averted.
As soon as the graveyard was finished, dwarfs began hauling the fetid corpses, what was left of them anyway, for burial. The story of the Psycho Carpenter Mom should have ended there, but no, it didn’t.
“Injured Peasant Dwarf has commited suicide”
This was probably unrelated. She had been trampled by an elephant during road construction. Although she was happy about being rescued, she apparently couldn’t come to grips with her injuries. Another dwarf began hauling her to the cemetary. As they go past a farmer…
“Farmer Dwarf throws a tantrum!”
“Farmer Dwarf breaks stuff”
What?! I look at her thoughts.
“Farmer Dwarf has been depressed lately. Farmer Dwarf has lost her mother lately. Farmer Dwarf has lost a sibling lately. Farmer Dwarf has watched her mother decay. Farmer Dwarf feels better having thrown something. Etc., etc.”
She is Psycho Carpenter Mom’s daughter as well! She lost her baby sister and mom and then got to watch mom rot in the hallway. No wonder she wigged out a little. She seems to have settled down again though after breaking up some stuff. I don’t know what happens next as right then about 25 freeload… errr… immigrants descended on my fortress like a swarm of locusts. They brought nobles, the first for the fortress. I couldn’t handle the thought and had to save for the night.
Sorry for the length of the story. I have a few questions though for anyone who has read this far. First, when the injured dwarf mentioned above was trampled, construction of a section of road got suspended. That was about two and a half seasons ago. The dwarfs seem to have no desire to continue. They have build two sections of road on the other side of it though. How do I either get them to continue or destroy the road so I can start over? It’s a rough stone road if that matters.
Second, the elephants. There are no other animals on my map except elephants. This was supposed to be a “calm” map, but I have these lousy pachyderms. My hunter has been convalescing for a year after one ill-advised hunt. They haven’t came near the fortress yet, but they like to chase my road crew, gatherers, and wood choppers. They’ve also killed several caravan members. What can I do about them?
Okay, I’ve looked and can’t find…where did the name “Boatmurdered” come from?
At the start of the game a completely random name usually consisting of two words is assigned to your fortress, Boatmurdered just happened to be the name they got stuck with.
So I downloaded a new tileset to clean things up a little.
I’m a bit confused.
I’ve dug to the cave river. Now what? I started digging out a room near the fortress entrance, but I don’t know what I’m going to actually do with the room, I’m just digging to dig.
I’ve discovered silver - now what?
How do I stop having so many idlers? I’ve ordered some workshops to be built, but construction sort of stopped halfway through, and now I have 4 idlers no matter what…
Joe