User:Calite

A creature fond of contributing to communities, writing, and silliness. He is chaotic good.

Please take a look at my Gloss Guide, which provides a quick overview of the major concepts of Dwarf Fortress.

Forts

I guess I'll follow the trend of immortalizing my fortresses for once, maybe I learn something from it.

Zarethgeshud

Technical

DF 34.10, Dwarf Therapist, Bisasam's 20x20 ASCII tileset, no mods or raw file changes.

Init settings changed to make priority ABOVE_NORMAL, GFPS 20, Fluids shown as numbers. Changed keybindings to make spacebar work like escape does (IE how it used to).

125 Year World Gen (But the fort starts in 127 because of two embarks that I instantly abandoned), large world, slightly more than average civs, all other settings default.

Fortress Activity

Year 1

The aptly named Zarethgeshud, or Desert Fortress, is situated deep in the desert, with no vegetation of any sort nor any bodies of water. This outpost was founded by 7 dwarves whose only real skills were in archery. Clearly life in the mountain homes was not exciting enough for these intrepid survivalists. Within a season farms had been established and hunting had proven a good source of meat, as strange Giant creatures and creature men seemed to enjoy the desert. The only problem that has so far faced Zarethgeshud is the lack of wood, preventing brewing any more than a certain amount of alcohol or storing food efficiently. Nonetheless 8 migrants had arrived by Mid-Summer and progress looks like it will be steady. By Mid-Winter the alcohol situation had come to a head due to poor micromanagement of the few barrels the fortress had. Two people died of thirst, one went berserk (and was quickly killed luckily. The caravan is approaching only now, hopefully we can buy enough drink from them to get everyone to calm down. Armok save us.

Year 2

It's about mid summer now, halfway through our second year. After trading with the dwarves and caravans we're a bit lighter on crafts and a little bit heavier on much needed wood. There still isn't enough wood to fit all of our needs, but there's enough to keep from running out of booze. Speaking of the unthinkable, we have seen a total of 11 deaths to date. The details have gotten blurry as no one was particularly interested in recording them, but a few died from running out of booze (we have yet to find a source of water), while others died after taking bad injuries from a cave-in. The doctor, an amateur but the best we had, tried his best but most died of dehydration before he got them back on their feet. Only one of the original 7 rangers survived, it's really amazing he has kept it together thus far. The new expedition leader (the old one having died) is our broker and legendary engraver. He was already really good at communicating, and I think the others have really started to look up to him. Progress on the fortress itself is slow and steady, we just finished the tower that will serve as our defenses for now. There are about 24 rooms finished (not all having beds yet) and engraved with some high quality images made by the aforementioned legendary engraver. Our main export will probably be rock and bone crafts until we somehow have enough wood or magma to start making glass. We're about to get everyone together and reassign jobs, since the deaths have really left us with a mix bag. (AKA Dwarf Therapist time again)

The end of our second year was good times for the fortress. Besides one archer dieing of unknown reasons while hunting and another poor guy going insane from because he was fey, there were no incidents. Zarethgeshud's strength is now 37 adults and 7 children, all born in the last few months as an apparent sign of our success. We now have sufficient barrels and bins for sorting our resources, thanks to trading many well made crafts. In fact we have so much food that we are making meals out of it all just to save space. The overall layout of the fortress, planned from the very beginning, is starting to take shape and the buffer zone for our deeper digging is being built now. Hopefully we can safely access a cavern.

Years 3 & 4, The Great Disaster, and the Epic of Logem Akrelunib

I got a bit tired of discussing the more mundane, so I didn't post anything for most of year 3 as it went smoothly. That changed suddenly.

The fortress was at 130 dwarves before the following account occurred.

The end of Year 3 saw the beginning of what was almost the end. In Winter a siege arrived. For reasons I will explain later, be aware that Logem Akrelunib was born at roughly the same time the siege arrived. I deemed our military nowhere near fit for a full on confrontation, so I raised the bridges and locked us in. However, we soon ran our of both brew and wood to make more barrels for new brew, due to lax wood management. As the first dwarves began to die of thirst, it was decided the situation was dire enough and the trap-lining for the caverns was completed enough to open up access to the caverns for the typical dwarf. The defenses for the caverns consisted of a bridge, raised by a lever in the military's barracks, a room filled with cages and stone fall traps, and another bridge closed by a lever next to it (this was eventually to be part of a more complex system). In the caverns the dwarves sent to fetch water and cut trees met troglodytes. This was relatively easily handled by the military, but not before some casualties. Combined with further casualties from thirst, it is likely that this was the last straw before the all out tantrum spiral. Most of mid year 4 was spent handling the tantrum spirals by sending the military (which eventually consisted of whoever was not doing important work due to casualties and going insane) to kill berserkers and mass producing alcohol and coffins, as well as making sure there was always someone tending the hospital. At one point the chief medical dwarf went berserk and killed the dwarf he had just be operating on. With careful management and the luck of about 20 migrants arriving, the spiral came to a noticeable slow. For reasons I will explain shortly, be aware that Logem Akrelunib's father and brother had both died by this point and that she was a 1 year old child. At this point, when all was silent except for the siege locked outside, the forgotten beast Usa Shaftdeeps the Veil of Hating appeared in the caverns. Concerned but not too worried, I attempted to raise the bridge that locks out the entirety of the caverns. To my mild dismay I discovered this had been destroyed. I then decided to close the lower bridge, and to my great dismay discovered it had also been destroyed. An effort to raise a wall in the trap room was made, but it did not complete in time. As this forgotten beast shot webs at all of the dwarves (at this point every civilian had been thrown into the military, save for children including Logem Akrelunib), it proved to not be nearly as dangerous as originally anticipated. It did manage to kill and injury about 10 dwarves in the skirmish, including injuring Logem Akrelunib's mother. Eventually the forgotten beast was felled by a righteous punch delivered by none other than the dwarven child Logem Akrelunib. At roughly the same time that the beast's body was taken to the refuse stockpile, Logem's mother died of mortal wounds and Logem instantly went stark raving made. She was later found dead in what had been her parent's room.

The fortress now contains 43 living dwarves, and it is just about the beginning of year 130. All of the original 7 are dead.