Dwarf Fortress

[Mediocharist]

So, I've been on a big Dwarf Fortress kick and I decided, why not open a thread? I'm sure some have already gotten sick of hearing about it in private channels, so why not make a big open place I, or anybody else who would wish to share, can record and discuss the misadventures of our diminutive, industrious charges.

[Mediocharist]

As an exemplar; I ran a fortress for the past week. On the initial founding, I drafted EA, Rev, Gule, myself, Smerc, Unfogged, and Losty (in the future I would prefer volunteers).

The embarkation site was less than perfect. Zero flora at all, and every few days, it rained elf blood on the dwarfs. After months of sleeping on the floor, enduring the blood rain, wear began to show. EA fell into multiple depressions. She would not survive the first year, growing melancholic and dying of dehydration and starvation as she refused to eat. My own dwarf would follow this example a year later. Smerc would srvive all three and a two third years of the fortress, despite throwing a tantrum every two weeks and committing numerous assaults. She eventually fell, along with Unfogged, Losty, Gule, Rev, and Momsby.

Momsby joined the fortress as a hero; a dwarf bit an invading giant in the neck, shook it around for a while, beforce spending a day hacking at the monster's neck and decapitating it. On Rev's suggestion, this dwarf was christened Momsby. She would later become the mightiest dwarf in the fortress, and appropriately later threw a troll by the neck before decapitating it also with her favourite copper axe.



This is the combat log of Momsby slaying the giant.




This was the layout of the fortress, one year before the cataclysm:







So, what was the cataclysm?


A Hydra appeared at the edge of the map suddenly. Our fortress was... ill prepared for such an encounter. As we lacked access to any metal other than tin, and no source of fuel even if we did have real metals, we had only what we reclaimed from dead adventurers, killed in the caverns below. Our militia consisted of three experienced military dwarfs who had in the past slain an invading giant, and a strangely pacifistic troll. They were... poorly equipped. We supplemented their number with the strongest dwarfs who could be found.

Decked out in all the leather which could be spared, wielding mostly crossbows, they formed up and waited in the very same place the troll once stood. Waiting as the hydra mercilessly butchered the dozen dwarfs and three elves outside.
The Hydra broke through the doors.
There was not even a single attempt at retreat.
It felt as though it was over in 5 seconds.
A lucky bolt tore open the hydra's third head. A strike opened up its lower body.
And all ten militia dwarfs were dead. Torn apart limb from limb, some rendered into a meaty slurry by the monster's claws, others were lucky enough to have had their heats torn from their shoulders.
The Overseer tried to keep the remaining dwarfs safe by ordering that they meet in the dining hall while two others sealed the stairs to the lower floors. But they failed to listen. Rushing to retrieve corpses, and do the necessary planting despite orders and all common sense.
The dwarfs saw the beast and rushed it. Dying. Irrigating the farms with their own blood. Their numbers allowed them to to bruise much of the monster, but nothing more. Even the children attempted, assumedly driven mad from hearing the screams of their parents being rent asunder.
The fortress lingers even now, as monster hunters pour into the area, apparently drawn in their dozens to the beast.
110 dwarfs dead. 2 yet live. Somehow, huddled away from the looming monstrosity. Eventually, the final two fell. One to the beast immediately, being decapitated like so many dwarfs before him. The other, out long time mayor, was wounded by escaped deeper into the fortress as another monster hunter arrived. living a trail of viscera, he crawled to the hospital, the nearest bed to him. And rested. In two days, he was dead from dehydration. Unable to get out of bed due to his injuries, too weak to move for want of blood.

It is now the 3rd of Fellsite, 253. For nearly 4 years this fortress, Clasptool, survived the endless torrential elven bloodrains of the Wastes of Immortality, endured starvation and sobriety, and conquered the troglodytes of the cavern.

Now I have started a new fortress, somewhere with less blood rain. If anybody would like to volunteer, I need 6 names. preferably 1 male and 5 females because that's what the game randomly generated for the party. If something interesting happens, I'll post it.

[Smercury44]

Wait, I don’t remember any of this. Have I gone completely mad?

[Mediocharist]

Wait, I don’t remember any of this. Have I gone completely mad?  

Honestly, you, Losty, and unfogged were picked at random. I didn’t this on a privately Discord server Rev, Gule, EA, and I use. Really i felt a little weird using names without permission, which is why I asked for no for volunteers for the next fort. It really helps personalise the fortress.