The SDMB Dwarf Fortress Ongoing Game #2

The Game Room
61

Dinaroozie the Lesser
Soundbridge 2: Return to Soundbridge 2: The second bit

I am starting the season by examining the site for The Chalice. A lot of planning must go into such a construction - it wouldn’t do to flood our fortress (again), after all. I have ordered the construction of thirty floodgates and thirty mechanisms - however planning may progress, it seems likely that this at least will be required.

Well, my opinions regarding our bowyer’s fey mood have been vindicated - a chestnut blowgun has been created, which our artisan has dubbed ‘The Faded Cat’. A lot of resources were wasted on this - I hope at least that the skills gained will prove useful.

The design of The Chalice is coming together! The first phase of the plan is to build a huge walkway that goes from the old water cistern on the fortress’ east wall - this has been disused for some time now, as a water refinement facility was built deep underground. This walkway will go above the fort, to its centre, and then south, above the fort’s main entrance. This walkway, once completed, will provide access for masons to wall off its edges, making it into a water-carrying stone pipe above our fortress. I am confident that this construction is a good idea, and will in no way lead to fortress flooding or other dampness. Construction has already begun on this walkway, though walling off has not yet begun.

Phase two will be the construction of a holding tank outside the main entrance to the fortress - it will be here that the water will flood into when the trap is activated, and needless to say, that water needs to remain in place long enough to drown our enemies, as well as prevented from entering our fortress courtyard. When the trap is not in use, this container will essentially be a partially open walled structure - but the openings will all have floodgates that will slam shut in the event of an invasion. We shall begin by constructing the floodgates and connecting them to a single lever inside the fortress - only once testing of this system is complete shall construction continue.

Good news! The fortress roof is finally complete. While our mechanics work away at the floodgates for The Chalice, our army of masons can take a well-deserved rest before they continue their toil.

Curses! The enemy has arrived once again, prior to the completion of my diabolical defensive system! At least, should we weather this, we will know that our efforts in constructing a defensive system are justified.

Well, one miracle has occurred in this battle already - one of our siege engineers has fired a ballista bolt towards the enemy soldiers. There were no injuries, but nonetheless, this marks a significant upward trend in our artillery units’ effectiveness.

These goblins need to revise their strategy. So far things have gone well - I will not speak too optimistically yet, as their numbers exceed ours to a frightening degree, but one of their units attacked before the others and were cut down in seconds - so far no injuries to our dwarves is apparent. A second and a third unit of goblins accompanied by trolls approaches - our military stands ready.

And almost as quickly as it started, the invasion is over. Some of our more experienced soldiers are becoming somewhat terrifying - one expert axe user called Kubuk Kibgidthur Nothisbab Athel has twenty goblin kills to her name, and after today’s battle reported that she was feeling ‘thirsty’. We did lose one macedwarf in the onslaught, but considering there were roughly fifty goblins and a handful of trolls cut down, I consider this a success.

Some time has passed since my last entry. Work on The Chalice continues at speed, but a slight wrinkle has appeared in the design - it seems that our fortress stands higher than I realised, and this will require extra-high walls to stop The Chalice from Overflowing. I am beginning to wonder if this will be finished by the end of the year - it is mid-autumn already - but I cannot lose faith!

Tragedy has struck. The dwarven caravan from the mountainhomes arrived, but was attacked by a goblin ambush party. Needless to say the goblins have been dispatched, but our army arrived too late to save the lives of the dwarven visitors.

It is with a heavy heart that I report that I am no longer confident of completing The Chalice before the end of my time here as ruler. The construction of the floor has taken longer than I anticipated, and other aspects of the project have fallen behind schedule as a result. I will do my utmost to leave only masonry tasks for my successor, to minimise the chances of the project being completed incorrectly, but failing that I will leave sufficient planning work for the device to be completed should my successor deem it expedient.

Confound it all, won’t some miners get to work around here?

I have weathered what I hope will be the last goblin attack of my year - and a rather pathetic one it was, too. An ambush was sprung on some of our workers - disastrous, one might think - but one (one!) of the hammer lords was standing nearby at the time, and dispatched the entire group of them without them so much as landing a blow. It seems now I can finish what little time I have left here in peace. I shall take this time to write out plans for The Chalice, that my successor can make use of should they decide to go down that path.

62

(eyes the Chalice with apprehension)

I just got finished un-flooding this muck-hole of a fortress. I just know we’re going to be half underwater again by the time that thing’s completed.

63

Dinaroozie the Lesser
The Chalice: Epilogue

Well, the year is over, and as I sadly predicted, The Chalice remains unfinished. Looking back over the year, virtually everything of note that happened this year was about this project (or its interruption by goblin invasions), so I think it’s suitable that the majority of the artwork pertains to that.

The main entrance before construction began
Here we see Soundbridges more or less as it was passed over to me, as the world sees it (although at least some of those dead goblins out the front are new). This space marks the planned location of The Chalice - as yet, merely potential.

The Chalice walkway
Here we see the walkway, constructed with an eye to add walls, to move water from the disused reservoir to The Chalice. Note that we can see the newly completed fortress roof in the background.

The Chalice ground floor, current state
This is the ground floor of The Chalice, as it was at the end of my year. Note that all entrances have floodgates, which are controlled via a single lever - this alone took a single mechanic almost as long as the rest of the construction took the army of masons. The lever that controls these is on the fortress roof, marked with a blue statue. In the top left and right corners, you can see stairs going down - these go to the as-yet-unmined tunnels that will allow the water to drain out. Also in the corners, but less so, are stairways up - these lead to the first floor of The Chalice, and it is down these stairs that water will flood onto our hapless victims!

The Chalice first floor, current state
Here we see the the lower level where the water will lie in wait. Construction here is almost complete - however, eight floodgates are needed to the immediate left and right of both staircases, to hold the water in while the trap is not in use. Note that to the north, on the fortress roof, we can see a dark blue lever with a dark blue statue near it - this is already connected to the floodgates downstairs - and immediately to its right, we see a light blue switch. The light blue switch is not yet connected to anything, but ultimately would be ideal to connect to these eight floodgates that are yet to be positioned.

The Chalice second floor, current state
Finally, we come to the least complete part of the construction. We see the completed pipe and the pump positioned to bring water to the trap, but the wall (and its accompanying scaffold) is only just started - this wall must encircle The entire Chalice to keep it from flooding if it is connected to an automatic pump. The small platforms you see here are the covers to the stairwells that let the water through - without that covering the water would simply run through.

And so there you have it - the better part of a year’s worth of dwarven toil and ingenuity, so close to being brought to fruition. To make The Chalice function, a number of tasks remain - I present these as merely suggestions, as I am open to the possibility of the next leader, whomever he or she may be, having their own plans.

  1. The uppermost containing wall must be finished. I would recommend making the scaffold all the way around first, then building the wall.

  2. The floodgates on the first floor must be fitted and connected to a switch - let’s call that Switch B (Switch A controls the ones on the ground floor, and it’s hooked up already).

  3. The escape channels must be dug beneath, to allow water to flow out when the victims have finished drowning. These are all marked out - all that’s needed is for a leader to have more success than I did getting the miners to do some work.

  4. The escape channels must be plugged with adequate floodgates (two, placed appropriately, should do it) and they should be hooked up to a third switch which, for the sake of consistency, I’ll call Switch C.

  5. This last bit isn’t necessary, but it will save us a lot of time - the pump at the north-east end of the pipe must somehow be connected to a windmill. It will take a good deal of effort from our pump operators to finish the job manually. Make sure the Switch B floodgates are closed before the pumps are engaged.

If these tasks are completed, the trap should theoretically operate as follows. At rest, Switch A should be open and Switch B closed. Switch C should probably be closed too. When a goblin invasion approaches, wait until the plurality of the enemies have entered the drowning chamber, then pull Switch A - this will close the floodgates, trapping them inside! If Switch C is open it should be closed at this point too. At this point, it might be appropriate to pause a moment to reflect on the fate of the goblins trapped inside, but don’t wait too long in case any escape. Then, opening Switch B will cause the full weight of two floors of water to come crashing down upon the hapless goblins*! Once a suitable amount of drowning has occurred, close switch B to stop the flow of water (should any remain) and open Switch C, to drain the water into the underground caverns. Once that has happened, Switch B being opened will allow access to the area once again, to dispose of corpses to whatever extent is deemed necessary. Hoorah!

The Chalice

*It may or may not be advisable to relocate the trade depot to inside the flooding chamber, depending on elven diplomatic relations.