Tales From Overguilds, Part 13

1st Granite, 1054

The Coming Of Werelizard Akul Icgasom

or

 Why you fear the night.

Well, I have an angry werelizard in my back yard. And he managed to bring a bunch of terrified troglodytes to the surface with him. Time to summon my military, and observe the fun. 

No. Wait. It seems the terrified troglodytes are fighting back.

I'll let them fight it out instead. Then my military will polish off the victor.

And Akul is all ready sporting wounds on his head, right lower arm, left lower arm, and left upper leg. Akul, you dissapoint me.

Or not. I also find an unconscious troglodyte who is unconscious and has been seriously mauled. About this point, I see a flashing pale blue U appear on screen followed by this announcement:

The human Akul Icgasom flees off the edge of the map. An angry troglodyte pursues him, but unlike Akul, it does not leave the map.

Assuming I don't have to put down any disturbances by angry troglodytes, it seems my dwarves can get back to whatever it is I was working on.

And after a brief computer problem forcing me to reboot everything, I do return to whatever it was I was working on.

Or at least I try to get back to whatever I was doing...

I read the announcement that one of my woodcutters has bled to death.

His body is laying in a pool of his own blood while an infant crawls nearby and a small group of dwarves hang out near a pond. It would be a great scene to be masterfully engraved on somebody's bedroom wall.

He's big and covered in dwarf blood.

Several of my dwarves have reported being scared by a Dwarf Eating Feral Draltha, so I have dispatched the military to kill it. I anticipate that should solve that problem.

Two of my military dwarves and a blue peacock chase down the big scary herbivore and kill it.

I hope my poor jeweler wasn't too badly injured...

My engravers continue their efforts to smooth and engrave high traffic corridors and living spaces. I currently have them working in a busy hallway connecting the farming and related workshops to my warehouse and trade level. I also have a series of alcoves carved along the sides, it is my plan to position statues along the corridor
once the engravings are completed.

And NOW there's a troglodyte chasing around a mule. Time to call up the militia (and peacock?) again. Likot Ebalkeskal showed up quickly and killed it with her *bronze battle axe*. They're much more effective not that they have real weapons.

This troglodyte makes her fourth kill (although I was hoping that the peacock would get credit for killing the draltha), if I manage to get her some armor now and more training, my milita just might be lethal yet.

I had plans for building a danger room for my military to train in, but this cycle of having to kill a dangerous animal every time I try to do something productive seems to be working too.

And before I finish my session, I am greeted with the scariest message I have seen today:

 More Tales from Overguilds.

Tales From Overguilds, Part 12

Alright... where were we?

21st Opal, Midwinter, 1053

My miners are still carving out bedrooms and removing a few surface ramps. I'll take the time to start beautifying the fortress. And as admiring a tastefully arranged statue goes along way towards improving a dwarf's mood, I have asked my manager to have twenty rock statues constructed. Later these will be place in various high traffic areas. 

Now, which of my idlers should I set to engraving duty?

I set two unemployed hunters to engraving duty and designate a section of the bedroom wing to smooth. Soon one of the two loafers show up and gets to work, but to my surprise, so does my broker. And he smooths FAST. Investigating, it turns out that he is a legendary engraver. Nice.

Ghosts are cool.

I look around to see what else is going on... It seems on the surface I've gotten a chunk of the ramps dug out (finally) and a series of walls underway (again, finally). And I spot... a ghost!

My sprawling catacombs.

Who am gonna call? Nobody at the moment. But if it does become a problem, I'll just call my engraver and have a memorial slab carved.  But that does remind me, what ever happened to that plan of mine to put in some catacombs?

 There's my catacombs, and they need some work. But, that'll have to wait until my miner finished digging out the bedrooms. Otherwise, I'll never get anything done.

I let things run for a while- I make sure my workshops are still operating. I set one of my jeweler's workshop back to encrusting furniture, my engravers continue smoothing things, and my farmers complain about being out of plump helmet spawn again. Then I get the following notification:

It seems a bunch of troglodytes have arrived, too. Anyone wanna bet it's a troglodyte werelizard?

The Werelizard Akul Icgasom has come! Who the heck is the Werelizard Akul Icgasom? It'll find out next time (I promise, it'll be less than a month till the next update). Seeing as it's almost Christmas, I figure I'll upload a copy of my save game for any readers who wanna pull Akul's tail off to see if it'll grow back...

Quit yer yappin', I wanna torture me a Werelizard! (Dwarf Fortress File Depot download link)

More Tales from Overguilds

Tales from Overguilds, Part 11

Winter, 1053

A diplomat has left unhappy. Well isn't that too bad. Maybe if my expedition leader/legendary miner wasn't still recovering from being mangled by that  troglodyte last season...

But thanks to the bronze and steel bars I traded from the caravan last season I can finally forge some real weapons. Now my militia happily chiffonade troglodytes with real battle axes rather than use the cheap wooden ones they used on the troll.

Now, all I need to do is....  wait, what?

#@&%, he was legendary, too!

That does explains why he wouldn't meet with the outpost liason. Ineth was found dead in the public barrack where he had been recovering from his injuries. Who the heck was on give food & water duties? I suppose it's time to build some catacombs before we get ghosts.


I'll have my new miners get right on that. Just as soon as they finish digging out my bedroom wing.


And, I'm greeted with another announcement. My mayor (I've got a MAYOR? When did that happen. Did you guys know I have a mayor?) has mandated the construction of a crown. The dwarves sure didn't waste any time electing a new leader, did they?

I wonder what she's making with all that?

Yay! My weaponsmith has been taken by a strange mood, and was last seen carrying some silver bars to the forge that she just claimed. I hope to have a legendary weapon soon... I haven't had one of those since I had got a goblin bone ax in the 2d version.

After a little bit of waiting and a draltha reverting to a wild state and mauling a baby to death, I have:

Finally! An artifact that's not useless!

Rabed Melist, a silver spear! Now I might just train up a speardwarf.

More Tales From Overguilds

Tales from Overguilds, part 10

Mid Autumn 1053

Lost pants mid-battle! How?

My valiant militia commander and her subordinates are fighting the troll who had taken up residence in my pastures. But with three of them being unarmed, they are taking their sweet time at it. Perhaps that's for the best, my raw recruits need the practice, the fact that one of them managed to loose their trousers mid battle is evidence of that.

Strangely, I seem to have acquired 2 axedwarves during this battle. On inspection, I discover that my dwarves are armed with wooden training axes. No wonder that troll is taking so long to die.

And having repaired my legendary miner's compound fracture, my chief medical dwarf is now a dabbling surgeon! When my miner recovers, we'll celebrate by building a hospital!

Hear that, our works are LEGEND!

Even better, the dwarven caravan has arrived. For some reason, their wagons refuse to travel over the cage traps at the fortress' entrance, but I still have a line of mules laden with goods heading into my fortress. Hopefully, one of them will bring me the metals that I have been longing for. 

Oh, and as the caravan begins unloading their goods and my broker makes his way towards the depot, my militia has finally hacked the troll to death.

In exchange for a handful of highly decorated trinkets, I manage to acquire all the metal bars the caravan brought, miscellaneous weapons, a mountain of leather and cloth, various food items, and a broker with the appraise skill. Not a bad haul, if I might say so myself.  

  

 An here's what I've got as of late autumn:

More Tales From Overguilds

Tales From Overguilds, Part 9

Early Autum 1053

I've been a way for a while so, for a refresher:

• I have a population of 52.
• Plenty of food for the time being.
• Three newborn dwarven infants.
• No military to speak of.
• A cave that spews out dangerous angry creatures.
• The immigrant waves I've had have all been large, I'm probably two immigrant waves away from seeing my first goblin ambush. 
• Plenty of flux, but no ores on my map.

 Obviously, my most important concern is getting my fortress able to defend itself, both from goblin invaders and from the cave full of troglodytes that have killed two dwarves and a blue peacock.



My plan to secure Overguilds consists of two parts, first to construct a danger room and begin training a military to be equipped with weapons and armor made from metals acquired from the caravan.

The other part of my plan is to remove most of the stairs and ramps on the surface so I can force hostile creatures and invaders  into cage traps. I also plan on walling off my above ground pastures.


The second part of my plan is where I ran into my first problem with that plan, while my legendary miner was removing the slopes near my bee hives, he was accosted by one of they previously mentioned troglodytes. You might think that an legendary dwarven miner armed with their trusty pickax would be able to kill a troglodyte with ease, I know I thought so.

My wounded miner.

Well, now I have a wounded miner on resting in bed waiting for my newly appointed chief medical dwarf to diagnose his injuries.

My militia commander (the sole armed dwarf in the fortress besides my woodcutter) is dispatched and makes quick work of the troglodyte. 

Her first kill... I hope it's the first of many.

But my militia commander only commands one other dwarf. For her to be a true militia commander, she'll need to actually have dwarves under her command, so it's up to me to see who I can assign to her command...

But what's this? A dwarf has been possessed and has claimed a workshop. Just when I was occupied by more important things, too. Typical of Dwarf fortress, really. Degel Tashemolin,  for your sake, you had better make a diamond axe in that jeweller's workshop you just claimed. Degel immediately runs to the gem stockpile across the hall and grabs some rough amethysts before beginning construction. Looks like I am gonna be saddled with an amethyst earring or sock... And it's an earring, big surprise! It'll go well with my other artifact earring.

Now back to setting up my militia. I've added a few useless dwarves to my militia and now I set up a barracks for them to train in... 

Let's hope he's just here to say irritating things.

What's this? A TROLL is harassing the masons who are trying to wall off my pastures.  Well, I guess I'll dispatch my militia again....

More Tales from Overguilds

Tales From Overguilds Part 8

There should be a tower here.

Late Summer, 1053

The cheesemaker's rotten corpse has been found down in the caves. I figure that's Armok's way of telling me that it's time to start building catacombs. I have another pressing problem, a blood

New Pastures. Will require walls.

soaked troglodyte loitering on the surface scaring all my dwarves. On closer look, it's no wonder he's scaring people, his belly is cut open with his injured spleen and intestines on display. But not to worry, the militia has been dispatched.

It has been brought to my attention that a calf has starved to death! Starved! What moron has been managing the livestock. I designate a series of new pastures and make sure all grazing animals are assigned.

And my farmers keep insisting that they don't have seeds to plant with when my bookkeeper insists that I am sitting on hundreds of seeds. Something's wrong here...

Gleeris the Thief. Standing in the doorway.

But at this point I am interrupted with the news that a thief has been found in my fortress. Gleeris, the kobold thief. It seems it is way too easy to get into this fortress.

Back to my seed problem- For their insolence, I have decided to force the dwarves to gather plants from the surface, like elves, while I track down the problem.

Speaking of problems, I have almost run out of surface trees to clear cut. I think it may be time to breach the caverns and build an underground forest.

And what to do with my collection of caged troglodytes (including one who killed two dwarves and a peacock)?

Tales from Overguilds

Tales From Overguilds, Part 7

Early Summer, 1053

That poor, poor brewer....

The arrival of summer brings a newly appointed bookkeeper and a nasty rotting mess in my butcher's workshop. Perhaps it was unwise of me to designate a small refuse pile next to the butcher's shop to minimize the distance he has to go to get a butcherable corpse.

As I go to check on my miner's efforts at digging out a series of future bedrooms, I am interrupted with a message that my armorer has been interrupted by a giant olm! "What?" I ask myself, as I haven't breached the caverns yet. I zoom to the location and find that my dwarves have been playing in the cave (I had forgotten about the cave.)

I found my armorer facing down two troglodytes, one dead and in a pool of it's own blood, and the other very much alive. No bother, my militia can fix that. And judging by the giant cave spider web behind my armorer, it seems my cave is home to giant cave spiders. I wonder how I can trap one so I can begin farming giant cave spider silk.

The militia has been dispatched, but not soon enough to prevent my armorer from meeting a painful death at the hands of an irate sub-human. Soon after, I am alerted with the news that Ingzig Istanmudib the Cheesemaker has been missing for a week. And I have a bluepeacock missing. It's time I do something about that cave.

I also receive happier news, the births of two dwarf babies. Somebody get these two bottles full of dwarven rum before they're eaten by troglodytes.


 Tales from Overguilds

Tales from Overguilds Part 6

Overguilds now has an artifact and a legendary metalcrafter. Etnardarud, crafted from bronze and decorated with bands of amethyst. Okay, so I have an incredibly boring artifact. But at least Sigun is a legendary metalcrafter for having made the useless thing. To bad she had to use one of my two bars of metal. And I know the elven caravan that just showed up at the edge of my map won't be bringing any metal either.

Much as I expected, the elves didn't bring me any metal (no surprise there) or  even any sunberries. But the pointy-ears weren't totally useless, they did bring me a leopard. I have ordered my animal trainers to train it as a war animal.

Speaking of my animal trainers, I am alarmed to be greeted with the announcement that a giant toad has reverted to a wild state:




On closer inspection, it appears that the giant toad in question is still caged up, so- crisis averted. Right?

 And with that, Summer arrives on the calendar...

Tales From Overguilds, A Dwarf Fortress

Tales From Overguilds, Part 5

Mid Spring 1053

We've got a lot of Peachicks.

Ha ha ha. Now I have a well-trained Draltha.  I have assigned it to a pasture as I don't want it to starve to death while I train it further. I sure hope that it eats grass in addition to it's normal diet of cavern fungus...

Then comes the Spring migrant wave, bumping my population up to 40. Among this wave is way more rangers than I need and the administrator Ast Momuzilon. He is a great organizer and arrived with his wife and pet bunny. Congratulations Mr. Momuzilon, you are my new manager.

40 Dwarves! How am I gonna manage that?

With my new population boom, I will need alot more living space. I have ordered my woodworkers to start constructing beds, and my miner to start construction on bedrooms.

42 Now! Aarrgghh!!!

As construction of the bedroom wing begins, I hear a report that metalcrafter Sigun Nakuthsazir has been taken by a strange mood and has claimed my recently completed forge. I wonder what Sigun plans on building...

Tales From Overguilds, Part One

Tales from Overguilds, Part 4

Late Winter, 1052

A vulture has been harassing my fisher dwarves and stealing their catches! On closer inspection, I find that my haulers have been leaving barrels full of fish down by the brook...

Although, that does give me the idea of attempting to trap a vulture with fish as bait. I have ordered the carpenter to construct some animal traps.

I have also building a workshop and trade level on an upper level of my fortress. A network of mine carts will connect my finished goods stockpile to the trade depot in the near future and eventually to the entire fortress. 

And I was right, we do have thieves- and it's kobolds, Jugubusrursnin the kobold thief if anyone is wondering. I have ordered my military to kill Miss Jugubusrursnin... But she got away. Perhaps it's time to train some War animals an chain them up by the doors. All I've got other than livestock is a giant toad and a draltha, but you gotta start somewhere. 

Actually, after looking up draltha on the wiki, it looks like I won't be training war animals at all, but instead greatly expanding my pastures.

Tales from Overguild, part one