User:Squirrelloid/Avalrigoth

Avalrigoth (Lovecraft) settled by Nist (of Fear)

Starting Build

2x Wrestler/Axedwarf
Armorsmith/Cook
Metalsmith/Brewer
Weaponsmith/Leader
Weaponsmith/Grower
Mason/Building Designer

I know, blasphemy, no mechanic! More seriously, i'm expecting GCS's and a crapton of other wildlife, so I want to have valuable mood skills while retaining survivability, and anything else comes secondary. And the skill of my 'mechanic' won't be especially relevant towards these goals...

Gear:
2x battle axes
2x copper picks
alcohol/seeds/food
assortment of mood items (thread/cloth/gems/leather)
30x bituminous coal
33x tower cap logs
6x kimberlite
4x tin cages
2x cats
6x war dogs

5x5 embark site is pretty epic, featuring a magma pipe, bottomless pit, underground river, ~6 chasm tiles, HFS, aquifer, brook, sand, and flux. Its 'only' savage, so no skeletal wildlife, but its the Dwarf Heaven map, so lots of GCS fun.

The war dogs are mostly there to serve as distractions. And the cats are mostly there to discover GCS's before they ambush my dwarves!

Epic Embark

Dwarf Companion verified starting creature list:
3x fire imps
6x frogman
5x giant bat
6x giant cave spider
6x giant rat
1x gremlin
5x lizardman
53x naked mole dog
5x olmman
36x ratman
4x snakeman
33x troglodyte

And my wagon started on a thin ridge between the (open) magma pipe and the bottomless pit.

The magma is to the right, a few z-levels below.

Visual Fortress image of the landscape. The red arrow is approximately where i started.

For reference later on, my poor cat discovered a GCS just beyond the magma pipe near where the chasm starts. My starting fortress is going in towards the front at the level of the stream (and away from the chasm for safety reasons!) Ultimately, i want my main entrance to be facing down the valley, and this will be a side entrance with a military unit stationed at it.

Year 201

From the journal of Shem Asmelshigos, expedition leader

First order of business was to delve the start of something that will pass as a fortress, and get away from the dangerous surroundings (chasm, pit, open magma pipe). After some surveying, I decided that the logical place to delve our initial shelter was unlikely to be the location of the main entrance, but that just meant I wouldn't have to worry about future arrangements while planning for immediate needs.

So I handed picks to our military escorts and said 'go dig at the base of the hill, away from the chasm'. They looked at me kind of strangely, shifting their axes from one hand to the other. 'Look, you can help out, and hopefully we won't become spider food, or you can stand there with your axe and be totally useless. Now get to work!'

Not too long after one of the cats got ambushed by a Giant Cave Spider. My fears were well founded, and we doubled our pace unloading the wagon to get us away from it.

Fortunately, by mid spring we'd unloaded everything, had the food underground (although it was where the depot was going to go), storage facilities being delved, and workshops set up outside. We'd also removed most of the slopes near us to keep creatures from accessing us easily from above.

As summer rolled around focus shifted to cooking the food, establishing a farm, and delving more space to work and sleep in. Also, getting most of the supplies indoors rather than sitting outside. Stone furniture was made for eating, and so i could keep this damned journal without sitting on the rock floor. Some cage traps were placed.

Then Autumn came, and shortly we got the announcement that a caravan was here. We had some goods for them, and hopefully their words would bring back some eager immigrants to help fill out the duty roster. Also, another cat since both of ours were now dead.

The damn fool of a Liason arrived right next to the chasm, and proceeded to dance his fool way to the entrance. Lucky for him the GCS was up behind the hill to the right of the entrance (while looking out), so we made a ramp in an area we could conveniently close off with a door and protect with some cage traps. On the above map, I tracked the progress of the Liason for you, marked the GB that gave him fits and sent him running back and forth a bit up there, and marked the GCS's positional change over the year (he's approximately at the end of the first dashed arrow head from the solid arrow marking where he started while the liason is running around). There's also some scattered giant rats and troglodytes that I imagine he didn't like the look of.

When he finally got himself to the gate I told him next time to arrive with the caravan, who showed up right in front of the entrance. He told me to secure the area better, and I laughed at him.

Anyway, we traded with the caravan, and they departed, and I listened to the liason because i had nothing better to do at the moment. After he left, I set about fortifying the entrance a bit more, and got the miners started on some exploratory digging.

Work continued on through winter, finally achieving the diagrams i've provided above. (Not that you can tell very well, but the aerial diagram with the Liason and GCS paths also depicts the fortress at the same time period.) There's also another 3 floors identically shaped to the workshop level between it and the Depot with storage space and a barracks, and some sleeping quarters going in above the Depot... eventually. Alright, so i'm what passes for a carpenter at the moment, and I haven't had the time to make more beds. Someone wants the stocks recorded faithfully, so piss off.

Approximately end-of-year summary data, as I'm sure one of the big muckity-mucks back in the mountainhome will care some day. Assuming we live that long.

Year 202

Spring brought migrants, elves, and rhesus macaques. Oh joy.

The elves brought little of interest, but i traded for some berries - the brewer says he can make something tasty from them. Bah.

Rhesus macaques were handily dispatched by the military upon dropping their picks, which provided meat and leather. Mmmm... monkey.

And 18 hungry mouths to feed arrived on my doorstep. I counted them as they went in. The armorsmith is quite welcome, as is a second planter and a miner. But a soap maker? *Two* bowyers? A Woodcrafter? I tell my initial military escort they can drop their picks, and look over the newcomers.

Full list: 2x bowyer (one is making bone arrows -> bonecrafter, one is becoming my mechanic)
1x miner
1x stonecrafter (handed him a pick)
1x woodcrafter (handed him a pick)
1x glassmaker
1x leatherworker
1x craftsdwarf (weaver*/glassmaker*/woodcrafter)
1x armorsmith
1x farmer (tanner*/miller/herbalist)
1x thresher (hi, you're the new carpenter)
1x butcher
1x grower (dabbled in gem setting)
1x soap maker (dabbled in clothier)
1x hunter (drafted as wrestler)
3x peasants (all drafted)

*: skill i care about

My military escort is ordered to do some stone detailing - it'll keep them busy and make them stronger. They're still grumbling, but they accept that until the draftees train themselves up to something resembling respectable they won't get any good sparring practice in.

I order my new miners to start some exploratory digging. We're going to need a lot of tin and copper for what i have planned, and i pray to Armok that this land has tin... somewhere.

Summer brings the humies, who at least carry good metal with them. Their diplomat is as stupid as our liason though, announcing his presence from the same location next to the chasm. I swear the moment someone becomes involved in politics they lose their brains - wonder what that means for me?

In midsummer we discover goblins sneaking about our fortress. The military is quickly mobilized and the goblins are dealt with. Ah, our first iron shipment. I start planning a method for harnessing the power of the magma for some forging and smelting.

The mechanic and mason are working full-out to eliminate all this waste rock in our storage and work areas, and I hope they finish soon, i keep tripping over the stuff. Also, need to see about more wood for the carpenter - apparently our need for bins is ravenous...

The brewer just outran a giant spider today. Tried to figure out what the problem was and discovered there was a monarch butterfly corpse in a spider web... When i say collect refuse from outside I mean the rotting goblin parts scattered about our courtyard, you morons! Even more fortunately, however, was the GCS ran itself into our cage traps. Ok, I suppose I can forgive the brewer this time. And now the liasons might not kill themselves getting to the fortress. But no more foolishness running all over the map to dump rotting vermin in the moat!

And for the height of strangeness, the mason named the gremlin later the same day. Ezum Stakudumar "machinesmoothed". The name doesn't even make any sense. I think he's going a little funny in the head...maybe i should have him make something other than endless blocks of stone...

And the mason designed a true architectural wonder - a real seal against everything but caravans and the occasional lucky gobbos. Never thought of using drawbridges for anything when there weren't no need of a bridge. He may be touched in the head, but he comes through when he needs to. Now I can keep those lollygagging slackers working near the fortress rather than taking a pleasure stroll to 'dump some dead vermin' - yeah, your poor excuses aren't going to work with me buckos.