User:Maunder/Cryptlustrous

History of Momuzsuvas (Cryptlustrous)

This is a wonderful map location, excepting the lack of iron which could be bad. I've got two extensive cave systems already, and I haven't ventured that deep. The first cave system begins 6 levels below the valley floor and continues down to level -9. It contains vast quantities of water held on level -10. The next cave system begins already at level -12 and continues down to level -16. It contains an opening to a magma pipe, with the pool of magma reaching level -16. I've checked somewhat and haven't found any connection between these cave systems -- there appears to be a single solid layer between them. I've still not found a single sedimentary layer, so no iron ore yet available. (I need more anvils!)

Without any screw pumps and no "piston" magic, I've got magma industry only 15 levels below the valley floor!

I have just completed two years of game time. We had a large immigrant wave after one year, none at other times. One dwarf starved himself after not being able to make an artifact.

We traded with Elves once, Humans once, and Dwarves twice. Didn't get much from the first dwarf caravan, just food, but in each of the others, we had large collections of gem-encrusted stone crafts, so we bought lots of stuff. Two squads of four dwarves each have been training six months out of the year. We haven't had much trouble with outsiders yet, just nuisance wild animals, including birds stealing crops from our farm.

In part of the first cave system, on level -9, there is a village of eight "reptile men". Out of concern for my wandering legendary weaver gathering webs, I built a few strategic wall segments to keep them and us safely separated (19 tiles all told), until my military is better trained and equipped. They don't seem to move around much, but there's plenty of resources on our side of the walls still.

During the second winter, final construction in preparation for magma industry was completed down on level -15. The first magma smelter began smelting silver and my Weaponsmith finally got excused from farming duty for the first tasks in the magma forge just as spring rolled around. He started making silver spears (the dwarven civilization told us they'll pay 207% for spears next year)!

Saves

• 27 Timber 1054 -- i
• 14 Opal 1054 -- l
• 7 Obsidian 1054 -- m
• 24 Obsidian 1054 -- n. During the goblin ambush.

Roster

A few of the important guys with higher skills.

• Leatherworker - Amalolin (Legendary)
• Tanner - Tekkuduthar (Proficient)
• Butcher - Vudtharolin (Talented) unreliable
• Maruledtol - Bowyer (Talented)

Year 1054

10 Slate

Forgotten Beast, Umil Al Ronik has come!

A gigantic hawk with external ribs and a short trunk. Beware its poisonous sting!

He appeared on level -15, in my second cave system. Fortunately, I'd been careful about where and how I "punctured" the safety of my fortress into each cave system. There were three access points to this cave, but I found a spot to build a single segment of wall that would close them all off from my fortress. I suspended all other queued construction jobs, and one of my masons went down there promptly and built it. Safe! The beast roams the cave system undisturbed, along with a wandering crocodile at the moment. Later, he destroys each of the three doors I had built, but never wandered into the hallways.

16 Slate

21 migrants arrived, bringing a good Animal Trainer, Animal Caretaker, Gem Setter, all-round Fisherdwarf (who's also a good Liar -- I suspect we'll have trouble with that one), Butcher, Soaper, two Mechanics, and a Metalcrafter, Armorsmith, and Weaponsmith. Now we have two High Master Weaponsmiths, but no Blacksmith! I had two spare bedrooms already made, now digging out another bedroom complex.

18 felsite

Elven caravan arrives. they don't seem to want anything in particular, but are willing to pay double for a few richly decorated silk clothing pieces.

21? felsite

A goblin raid appears. Fortunately I was just able to finish a drawbridge on the main entrance. A hastily built 1-block wall closes off the western exit. Where do the goblins go when there is no entrance to the fortress? They mill about the main entrance, where I have a bank of traps. I wait patiently, building more defenses behind the safety of our gate. One by one, the goblins get caught in my cage traps. Finally, only one remains free, I muster my active squads to the entrance area and lower the bridge. It takes a minute before he notices the bridge is open, then moves ahead. I see one bolt fly from the squad, and then the goblin trips another cage trap. We've got them all in cages!

...some events were lost to history here...

• 03 Limestone

An insane mechanic died of thirst. We've been shorthanded on mechanics ever since he was possessed.

The Possession of Uzolatek

date	event(s)
19 Limestone	The peasant Uzolatek is possessed. Dang it. At least he's just a peasant this time. He gathers some items, but still wants several "skins", a "bone" and a "block". I have no free leather. The humans who are here trading have none either.
24 Limestone	Human traders from Egugil departed.
2 Sandstone	I slaughtered a donkey, and Uzolatek ran and grabbed a bone or something, but the skin is still sitting there in the butchery. The tannery shows no jobs and I can't add one (this seems always to be the case?). Why can't anyone tan this damn skin? I don't even remember if anyone has the skill... The game needs a skills assessment screen. Or Dwarf Therapist needs to run on OS X. I wonder if it does? Edit: Yes, Tekkuduthar is a Proficient Tanner, and the job is enabled for him.
7 Sandstone	A flock of buzzards comes by, a few stealing strawberries from the outdoor farm which is not yet fully covered. A gemsetter Udustuth got bit and bruised up. I sent a squad out on the unfinished roof to scare them off.
16 Sandstone	I convinced butcher Vudtharolin to slaughter a kitten by disabling nearly all his other duties including Hauling, and sure enough the tanner Tekkuduthar came and did his thing with the skin. Peasant Uzolatek came and grabbed the hide right away. Good. He's thirsty now. He still wants another skin, I think. Vudtharolin should butcher a donkey soon, too, but he's hard to convince: I suppose qualities of "quick to tire, very weak, remarkably flimsy, iffy memory, little patience" explains why he's on break a lot! Three buzzards are still flying around the mostly-covered farm, trying to steal strawberries. The squad on the roof is keeping them away, but they're getting hungry. The fortress attracted no migrants this season. Our population remains at 58, including 1 child and 1 baby. We have 6 adult dogs. Two dwarves have died so far.
21 Sandstone	Eventually I gave the butchery job to a Soaper Lolokadag who has no butchery skill whatsoever, because that good-for-nothing Vudtharolin wouldn't do it. The donkey was struck down finally, and its foal stood there next to the butchery for some time. Sorry, girl. How was I to know which donkey you were suckling? Hope you survive. Anyway, the butchery was cluttered, including with some rotting donkey skin from the FIRST donkey I butchered a while back. Why wasn't that tanned? Argh. Now the new skin is sitting there in the shop, there is no queued job at the Tanner's. Will this skin be ignored as well? I have marked another kitten for slaughter because we know the kitten's skin was tanned last time. The Soaper is very slowly slaughtering a buzzard corpse right now (because the shop is cluttered, although I'm trying to clean it up). I realized my food stockpile was full so i quick added some more space to help clear the butcher shop. We still have one buzzard flying around but I don't care if he steals anything -- I just hope he doesn't interrupt the dwarves.
28 Sandstone	Finally the soaper Lolokadag slaughtered the kitten. Still the tanner has not seem interested in the donkey skin. Sigh. I don't see any kitten skin though, just a skull. Dang it. Unskilled butchers.
2 Timber	Vudtharolin decides to grace us with his presence. He butchers yet another kitten, only a skull again, and is now butchering a buzzard (taking a long time too).
6 Timber	We have a buzzard skin now laying next to the donkey skin. The tanner seems uninterested. I'll have to slaughter a cow. He'll like that, right? Cripes. This is taking much too long. I'm really worried about the Moody peasant Uzolatek.
12 Timber	Okay we butchered the cow on 7 Timber, we've got a nice Cow skin sitting in the shop next to the buzzard skin. The tanner is still not interested. The tan shop shows no job. WTF!? I created a small custom refuse pile next to the tannery for "Raw hides", the only thing that looks like skin to me. No one has touched them yet.
16 Timber	Uzolatek has begun a mysterious construction! Sheesh. The problem was, the raw skins were not close enough to the tanner. Adding that skin stockpile might have solved it but I didn't see anyone coming to pick it up. So, I created a Refuse zone about halfway between the two locations, disabled a nearer zone, then set the two skins to be dumped. After each was moved to the refuse zone, I cleared the forbid on each, and sure enough a job appeared at the Tannery, and Tekkuduthar came promptly and did it. Uzolatek grabbed the hide immediately. Whew. Lesson learned: butcher shops must be near tanneries. Don't know exactly how "near"... Oh, and the dwarven traders and liaison have appeared.
19 Timber	Dwarven merchants arrive. Meanwhile Uzolatek completes a cave crocodile bone weapon rack. We traded a huge value to the dwarves; I didn't even bring up half my stockpile of finished goods bins, and we bought everything I could imagine using. We bought all their anvils, wood, dye, seeds, containers, gems, processed food, about half their armor pieces, and anything steel or iron that wasn't encrusted (hoping to melt them down, since we don't seem to have any sedimentary at this location).

Winter

• 16 Moonstone

Dwarven merchants left.

• 21 Moonstone

The leatherworker Amalolin has been taken by a mood, Peculiarly Secretive!. He claimed a Leather shop and collected leather, bone, and gem. And on 23 Moonstone, Amalolin began his mysterious construction. That was easy! And on 28 Moonstone, he's done. It's a buzzard leather low boot! Yay!

• 12 Opal

You have discovered an expansive cavern deep underground! This third cave system begins 24 levels below the valley floor, and goes down to -28 which contains a just pool of water conveniently placed directly next to the magma pipe. Interesting! Am I going to learn how to make obsidian? Yes, I think so! But not quite yet...

The exploratory mining we're doing is trying to find a way past the expansive magma caverns at the base of this magma pipe. I'd really like to find sedimentary rock, but I've pretty much given up hope.

Throughout the winter we have been making some construction changes for general improvements and in light of what we've learned. The underground farm is walled in and operating, and we've built an exit with a short drawbridge to access the farm more quickly.

We built a dyer's shop next to the weaver shops in order to dye thread rather than cloth, and it's now working full tilt.

We've idled both aboveground farms for now -- we have a TON of food. We'll try to process it into meals and refined products. The aboveground farms are now fully covered, but not yet securely connected to the fortress interior. We channeled just outside the farm walls, to keep enemies a step back, and are building fortifications now. We're going to build a guard area on the farm roof.

There is a new fortress entrance a bit higher on the hill. Outside the entrance is a corpse and body parts refuse pile. A 1x3 drawbridge lies along the hallway inside, which makes a convenient DAS for eliminating beaks, hair, cartilage, and the like. The large room at the end of the hallway contains a Butcher's shop, a large food stockpile, and (soon) a Farmer's shop.

• 26 Opal

Uzolatek has given birth to a girl! Congratulations!

• 7 Obsidian

I finally arranged for the mayor to talk to the liaison. He offered a Barony!

I agreed and went to select.. but saw no way to evaluate the options (and had no good candidates other than the mayor, who I guess cannot recommend himself) and so I canceled the selection. Now what happens? No trade agreement?. I didn't like that outcome, so I killed the game and loaded my previous save, so I can see what happens when I make the mayor a Baron. Interestingly, when choosing who to recommend, all my assigned nobles were listed with their titles (lowercase) except the Mayor, who was listed as his profession (capitalized)!

• 14 Obsidian

Snatcher! Protect the children! Saw this guy before he got in the keep. He beat a hasty retreat, and I hit all the levers to close up the place, and put everyone on Siege alert (keeping them indoors). Everyone made it in safely, though there were a couple I was worried might get thrown by the bridges.

• 15 Obsidian

Snatcher! Protect the children! A goblin master thief was in my fort. She immediately beat a hasty retreat towards the front entrance, passing at least a dozen dwarves. I immediately called up the training squad to kill her. Before they could catch her, the Carpenter met her near the entrance and beat her a couple times with his fists(!), stunning her, then she stabbed him pretty good, before backing into a stone trap which got lucky and smashed her skull in. Whew. The Carpenter proceeds to pass out repeatedly while trying to get to the hospital. Injuries are not fatal, though.

• 16 Obsidian

Snatcher! Protect the children! This guy was caught in a cage.

• 18 Obsidian

An ambush! Curse them! Quite a few crossbow goblins. Eek. So these guys milled around my front gate, a couple ventured into the gauntlet and got hit with rocks and were knocked off the pathway and had to walk around again.

• 24 Obsidian

Five goblins remain hanging at my front gate, a hammerman and four crossbowmen. If only the five would try walking through my gauntlet we might catch them all. The gauntlet to enter currently has 9 cages (all still empty), 3 weapon and 17 stone fall traps still active. Meanwhile, out front are still caged: 2 crossbowmen, a pikeman, a spearman, 4 hammermen, and the third thief we saw.

• 25 Obsidian

While waiting to resolve the goblin situation, I'm striving to keep the dwarves busy inside. I built another small farm plot, and excavating new areas. Two dwarves are injured, the Carpenter and the Bowyer. The carpenter has the worst of it, with a smashed left hand and right elbow. On the upside, at least the medical dwarf is getting some practice! We just began planning for an obsidian factory... :)

Year 1055

• 5 Granite

One of the goblins walked off the map a while back; I've no idea why. Just now, one of the crossbowmen tried to run the gauntlet and was caged. There are now just two remaining, a crossbowman and a hammerman. We try to keep the dwarves busy inside. No worries about food.

• 12 Granite

Kabcerol Planter has given birth to a boy! Congratulations. An elk bird somehow entered the keep and I sent a squad to catch him. It ended messily in the front hall. Now why aren't the parts butcherable? No one is taking them to the butcher's shop nearby. Argh!

• 14 Granite

The crossbowman goblin remaining walked by the weapon trap again and was showered with bolts, injuring him, and causing him to drop his crossbow. He then entered the gauntlet and was hit with several rocks, knocking him off the ledge. Then he fled the scene.

• 17 Granite

Some migrants have arrived. I've no choice now but engage the remaining hammerman goblin because the migrants are toast without distraction. Maybe I can get lucky with drawbridge openings?

• 19 Granite

Domaskulet Gemcutter has given birth to a boy! The a-squad (the Golden Barbs) are giving that hammerman goblin a beating in the front hall after we lowered the drawbridge, and so far no serious injuries on our part. Excellent. The first migrants are walking the gauntlet now and have to walk past the fighting, as the drawbridge is up again. Oh crap! I hit the lever to open the drawbridge (why keep it closed anymore, the goblin is on his last legs and already inside..), and one of the migrants was crushed! A child, too. His brother is now very sad, as are his two parents. Argh!