23a:Stone

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Raw stone is left behind about half of the time when your miners dig out walls. Over the course of the game, your miners will produce thousands of stones. Creating small stone stockpiles next to stone-using workshops (such as Mason's workshops) will speed their production, but creating enormous stockpiles to hold every stone you mine can be counterproductive. However, many prefer to do this, because stone lying around everywhere interferes with other stockpiles, and is just plain ugly.

You can also find alternative methods to clear away stone. You can build Mason's workshops in the middle of the stone piles. This clears away the piles more efficiently (though not as fast), while training your masons and producing whatever stone items you need. Or, you can build Catapults near the stone piles, clearing them away and training valuable Siege Operators in the process. Go ahead and be creative in your clearing methods.

There are 17 types of ordinary (gray) stone, and three types of light and dark stone. One (or more?) randomly-selected type of stone will be completely absent from each fortress, with the other types available in variable quantities. Each of the three types of light and dark stone will always be found, in limited quantities.

The types of stone available are:

• Regular Stone (also called Rock or Gray Stone)
  • ∞ Andesite
  • # Basalt
  • ░ Chalk
  • ░ Diorite
  • ` Dolomite
  • . Felsite
  • = Flint
  • = Gneiss
  • █ Granite
  • ∞ Pumice
  • , Rhyolite
  • # Sandstone
  • ` Schist
  • . Shale
  • % Siltstone
  • % Slate
  • | Talc
• Light Stone
  • Limestone
    • Found lining the cave river
    • Required in the production of pig iron and steel
  • Marble
  • Moonstone
• Dark Stone
  • Jet
  • Obsidian
    • Found lining the magma flow, and is left behind when a magma flood dries up
    • Can be made into short swords at a Craftsdwarf's workshop
    • Worth three times as much as regular stone
  • Onyx

Before it is mined, light stone is represented by solid white blocks, and dark stone by solid dark grey blocks. Gray stone is indicated by white or grey blocks with various symbols on them, except for £ and ☼ which indicate ore and gems, respectively.

Objects made from light stone and dark stone (excluding obsidian) have double the value of ordinary rock, and objects made from obsidian are worth three times as much.

Raw stone can be chiseled into blocks at a Mason's workshop, which can be used instead of stone for the construction of just about every building (excluding furniture).