The Rise and Fall of Wildnesspaged

The fall of a fortress is inevitable. The rise is what makes it interesting.

Most of the time, when I create a fortress, I decide to make it challenging. Maybe I'll settle near a volcano, or maybe in the most hostile, haunted, terrifying marsh I can find. Or maybe I'll just piss off the elves from the get-go. With Wildnesspaged, however, I thought I would take a different approach. I would build a fortress that deserved to fall.

And, by Armok, did this fortress deserve to fall.

The first thing to do was find a location, so what better place than the happiest, most joyous and magical woods I could find? We struck the earth in an area that had clouds of giggling pixies, stumble-bumbling fluffy wamblers, and even mysterious, fabled unicorns. It was a beautiful enchanted land when we found it, but this was not to last.

The Elven Caravan:

About a year into settling the fort, we got our first elvish caravan. Now, normally, these guys are douchebags about our cutting down trees. This time, however, I can only imagine that they were so traumatized by what they saw when they arrived that they felt it was already too late. The best thing to do now was do their trading and get out.

So here's what happened:

They arrived on the frozen riverbanks of the southeastern river, only to find that it was lined with the rotting corpses of unicorns. The unicorns had crossbow bolts in them. The bolts were made of unicorn bones. That right there should have been enough to get them to turn back, but they pressed on.

As they emerged from the riverbank, they saw that the land had been clear-cut: trees had been replaced with endless fields of stone stockpiles. Chimneys emerged from the soil and spewed forth clouds of nauseating miasma. A single tower stood surrounded by a deep moat, its only access point a retracting drawbridge.

Horrified, the elves warily crossed the bridge under the watchful eyes of the several crossbow-wielding guards on the parapets. They had only just gotten across and into the trade depot when goblins suddenly attacked! The bridge was retracted and a fierce battle broke out.

Unfortunately for the elves, the retracting drawbridge offered no protection and the trade depot was in plain sight of the goblins. A fierce battle broke out, with arrows flying from all sides, and the goblins were eventually defeated.

One elf survived. The animals were dead, and so was the trader. We got to keep all the stuff and the one elf was left to return home, presumably to warn the others never to come here and avoid Wildnesspaged like the plague. Obviously, his word carried little weight as the elvish caravans came right back the next year.

I never heard them complain about the trees, though.

Forgotten Beasts, And How To Piss Them Off:

The design of the fortress called for the construction of a reservoir since the rivers froze every late autumn until about mid-spring. We started digging one in the lowest portion of the fortress, beneath the dining hall, with a floodgate that would allow it to be refilled whenever the rivers thawed.

About three levels down, two levels short of the intended depth, we broke through the ceiling of a giant underground cavern. It was a massive cavern, with lakes and forests of fungiwood. As incredible as it was, however, it posed a structural problem: the reservoir would be too shallow, and with summer coming to an end, we wouldn't have time to dig another one.

The solution came about accidentally. As we peered down into the abyss, a low growl echoing off the walls revealed the presence of an Unnamed Horror, a Thing-That-Should-Not-Be, a mythical and terrible Forgotten Beast. To keep the snake-like, scaled monstrosity from flying up through the reservoir, I ordered that the hole at the bottom of the reservoir be walled up and then covered.

By about mid-autumn, we had most of it walled, but there was no longer any time for a cover.

To hell with it: open the floodgates before the rivers freeze!

One of the most common fates my fortresses have suffered is death by flooding, and the construction of a reservoir made this a very real possibility. However, because of the walls at the bottom of the reservoir and the missing cover, I had created a drain. The water would rise up as high as the walls, then the overflow would drain into the caverns below.

Onto the heads of the Forgotten Beasts that took up residence there.

There were about five before they started becoming a problem.

Of Mice And Dwarves:

To me, the most amazing aspect of this game remains the dwarves and the tragic little lives they lead. What amazes me is how starkly different they are, reacting in very different ways to the same situation and having their personalities change over time.

Avuz was my most prevalent dwarf. She was a machinator, a pure politician, and by the time she passed she had probably occupied every noble position there was. As Chief Medical Dwarf, she slowly got used to the repeated tragedies and disasters, hardening her for the position of mayor. It was there that her misanthropy really shone through.

She would constantly request items to be constructed out of extremely rare materials that she knew we didn't have. When the items weren't produced, she would have the Captain of the Guard jailed for incompetence.

She was even part of the military for a while, emerging victorious from every battle.

Sibrek was a much quieter dwarf, but I had my eye on her. She was a marksdwarf, proficient with a crossbow to the point where her skill was ledengary. She never complained about anything, never made a fuss, and her only friend was a small dwarven child. Other than that friendship, however, she didn't really care about anything else anymore.

She was always in the thick of battle and somehow managed to avoid all injuries. She could headshot a goblin before it even saw her and reload before the others reached her. She eventually earned the nickname: "The Silken Sloth", which is a terrible nickname.

Her military career continued successfully until the fall of the fortress, and then she was among the last to fall.

One of the most memorable dwarves, however, is one whose name I ironically can't recall. It was more than one dwarf, however, it was a whole family of dwarves.

It started when I was checking out the various family trees around the fortress. There were two siblings whose father I was familiar with, him having the then-Captain of the Guard, but the mother I was less sure about. Her name was Datan, a weaponsmith I believe, but for some reason I couldn't find her anywhere.

After a while, I discovered why. While designing the masoleum, I came across one of the names on the coffins: Datan.

Meanwhile, the Captain of the Guard was having a training session in the arena against captured goblin invaders. A whole squad of dwarves were pitting themselves against a single goblin who managed to outmaneuver them all. It stabbed the Captain through both hands and then broke out of the arena... into the training area for the rest of the military. It was quickly cut down.

The Captain then went up to the hospital where Avuz, of all dwarves, patched him up and sent him on his way. He went back down to the training area and continued the training session until another goblin ambush forced them all to rush to their posts.

The Captain led the charge and, though the goblin assault was repelled, he fell in combat and was placed in a coffin next to his wife's. His two children were orphaned, but in his sacrifice he managed to keep the other families safe for a little while longer.

Blood, Stone and Ash:

The Forgotten Beasts were something I was going to have to deal with sooner or later.

A plan was hatched: we would create a killing floor that was two storeys tall, with the upper level offering sniper positions for my archers. We would lure the Forgotten Beasts into this area and then turn them into pincushions.

Shockingly, the plan worked. For about a minute.

What I underestimated was their speed. The key component in this plan was that I would have to chain up some animals or goblins to lure out the Beasts, in which time I would be vulnerable to attack. I figured I would have enough time to see them coming and shut the gates before they made it through, but it turns out I was wrong. All the Beasts rushed through the killing floor, getting hit by numerous arrows on their way, but inexorably making it through and reaching the surface.

Forgotten Beasts are peculiar in that each one is unique and occasionally defy common sense. For example, there was one of these monsters that was a blob of fire. Not a blob of magma or coal. Fire. When it emerged, it set the remaining lush greenery of the land on fire, and it left a blazing trail as it beelined for my fortress.

The entire land went up in flames. The fire spread outwards, sweeping the massive shelves that made up the surrounding wilderness. Unicorns were roasted. Pixies incinerated. It snowed ash.

We retracted the bridge as the Beasts hunted down and killed those who were unfortunately too slow to make it in time, and from a "safe" vantage point we fired down at them.

One of the recruits was a brave dwarf by the name of Olom. When the alarm was called, she didn't bother to run back into the fortress. Instead, she ran up a nearby hill that gave her line-of-sight to the front of the fortress and sniped at the Beasts from a safe distance. She somehow managed to mortally wound the fire-blob and it exploded, searing most of the flesh and all of the fat from another of the Beasts. Enraged, it disengaged and went after her.

The two of them fought as the fire around them continued to burn and surrounded them utterly. It was, unfortunately, much too strong for her, despite its weakened state, and it was only once the flames had died down did the rest of my military hunt down the Beast and finally slay it. The other Beasts were taken down through sheer force of numbers.

The Forgotten Beasts had emerged from the fathomless depths of the world and were struck down by the hardened dwarves of Wildnesspaged. The land, once a joyous, magical place, was now a wasteland of blood, ash and stone.

The Silent Scar:

The battlements of Wildnesspaged are silent, now. Tattered remains of once-proud flags now flap listlessly in the breeze as trees find it difficult to grow anew. Stones still lay scattered among rusting armor and weapons, some still with lifeless, skeletal hands attached to them. No eyes watch from the walls any longer.

What happened to Wildnesspaged? There are only rumours.

The latest elven caravans believe that the land itself, so angry with the pain they had inflicted on it, gave birth to a creature so vast and mighty that not even those that had slew the Forgotten Beasts could stand up to it. The goblin nations boast that they were finally able to breach the ostensibly unassailable walls of the fortress and managed to slit the throat of every dwarf there, but who can really believe the boastings of a goblin? The humans only believe that the dwarves left, having nothing else to gain from the wasted land, having mined every last gem from the underground. Whatever the truth, each civilization agrees at least on one thing: they had it coming.

In the mountainhomes, however, a different story is told. That the dwarves, having slain all of the Forgotten Beasts, knew the undergound to be safe, and that if any others showed up again, that they would be able to destroy them. With this confidence, they dug deeper and deeper until they no longer had any use for contact with the surface world. They went on to build a magnificent underground city, mining gems undreamt of by those of lesser courage.

Regardless, the remains of the fortress still stand, host to wandering wildlife, territorial monsters, and the occasional adventuring party of foolhardy warriors.

A warning to some, perhaps.

Or maybe a testament.

SPINEMACHINE - Asshole Parties

The title says it all, I believe. It seems that these dwarves like to party... Let me rephrase that. It seems that these dwarves ONLY party...

So much so that they no longer worked. They kept drinking and drinking until we were out of Drink! Yet they continued.. all throughout Summer and into a good portion of Autumn. They finally stopped after a Dwarf died of thirst. Let us remember Udib Kiddirzasit the Metalsmith.


Apart from that, the year was pretty quiet. I removed all the slopes that I wanted from the Mountain to increase security. I also moved all the useless stones into dumps and stockpiles. Then I increased the Workshop area to fit each workshop with its own stockpile.

That's all.

SPINEMACHINE - A Rough Start

The first year has passed and already 3 rulers sat in the throne. A rough start, but at least, the last ruler has solved the starvation issues.

And so the fortress is now passed onto me. As I sat my ass on my throne, I immediately started looking at the fortress design. About an hour and half later, here I sit with a few plans of my own. Let's start off by looking at this magnificent little message our dear friend left us:

Moving on... The first task I have decided to take on is getting rid of all the useless "construction" stones lying around or placed in stockpiles. I can achieve this by making a garbage dump. With a dump, I can basically stack items on a single tile, reducing a lot of clutter. Of course, I will keep some of the construction stones available in case I need some emergency walls and shit. I'm not sure yet where I will place this awesome dump, but fuck it, what's the worst that could happen?

My next plan involves adding security. I have decided to remove all the slopes around the mountain which allowed any creature to be able to move upwards to the top of the mountain. As of right now, this is MY mountain. No creature should be able to reach the peak of the mountain. Doing this should ensure that nothing is able to attack from above.

And finally, I want to finish off with some reorganization. For some reason, most of the workshops are placed in a single room with no supplies nearby. This means that the dwarf working at the station must leave his post and go across the fortress to gather any object he may need. I think simply mining out a large room, adding some stockpiles, and then adding some separations will be the best thing to do.

Hopefully, I don't manage to do too much harm to the Fortress.

SPINEMACHINE - Initial findings

It is Mid-summer on the 1st of Malachite, 1051.

The reign of the previous ruler of Spinemachine (henceforth to be known simply as "The Machine", or "Ol' Spiney") has been cut short, due I presume to a painful bout of Ocular Herpes Simplex. Though this is pure speculation, I think it reminds all of us that, like the sun, you shouldn't ever stare directly into a hobo's anus.

So the succession has been passed prematurely down to me, and with it an apparent food crisis. Am I ready to lead these dwarves into the black? To pull them back from the brink of starvation? I have only stepped into the fortress for a few minutes when the sight of anorexic dwarves makes me physically sick, all over myself. I make a promise to myself right then and there that I shall make it my personal quest to fatten these wretches up, and restore their beards to their once glorious sheen.

I begin looking around..

What must a desperate dwarf eat to survive in the Factional Forest? Perhaps the mythical Satinybursts the Tufts of Breakfast truly is made of liquid bacon and scrambled eggs .. Or perhaps we must dine on the abundance of half-finished furniture and crafts left strewn around the dining room:

Also of note are the creative mining plans left for the sub-basement of the fortress:


I can only assume that this is part of the aforementioned water irrigation system, so I shall endeavor to preserve this work for future generations, as our forefathers intended.

But this will all have to wait for now. Food must be found, perhaps we might create a giant underground straw to the neighboring civilizations so as to Drink Their Milkshake.

To be continued..

Dwarft Fortress V: The Ageless Realms, Part XI

15th Timber, 1052, Late Autumn: Assholes of Every Race

The year was mostly uneventful. The farms are now up and runnin and producing edible goods quite consistently. We're brewing a ton of alcohol and managed to slaughter some livestock to keep our meat supply going. We'll send out hunters soon enough, but for now trading seems to do the trick.

We were visited by humans, who were pleasant enough. We were then visited by elves who
happened upon us just as we started razing a nearby forest. They were dicks about it.

Still, wanting to keep relations civil, I agreed to their insane demands. The humans sell us wood for almost nothing, anyway. All those gems we found early on really paid off!

Meanwhile, a couple of dwarves were taken by moods and took over some workshops, but luckily they were able to find what they needed to build their insane things.

We now have a silver floor hatch covered in menacing spikes and a chain made of horse bone. Go figure.

The main upgrade to the arena is finished: a giant crushing wall that covers the entire field. Now, if a creature survives battle, I can pulverize it by lowering a bridge onto it. That should solve my problem from last time! My plan now is to capture Troglodytes with cage traps.

Here's how I'll do it:

The Troglodytes get lured in because of the Horse and walk into a wall of cage traps! Simple, yet efficient!

And while I was getting all this prepped, before I had a chance to open the door to the caverns below, a goblin snuck in from up above!

Damn her! Well, now she'll feel our hundred fists of pain! We've killed far worse than you!

Osta the Goblin:

Show no mercy, men!

Dwarft Fortress V: The Ageless Realms, Part X

1st Slate, 1052, Mid-Spring: A Year Already

A year has gone by and you can hardly recognize the fortress from when it started out. We went from 7 dwarves to 5, to 15 and then 14, and now with this latest influx of migrants we are 36.

What am I going to do with all these mouths to feed?

The obvious solution is to draft an army and wage war on the Troglodytes, but I feel that it wouldn't go in our favor and there might be a lot of blood. Arena matches are a definite must, as soon as I upgrade the arena a bit. I guess, for now, I'll keep them busy cleaning the rocks out of the fortress...

Current projects going on right now: building a farm and organizing the hospital.

The hospital is already doing well. Danielle is our resident Chief Medical Dwarf, despite having absolutely no relevant experience whatsoever.

Despite her inexperience, she patched up Kevin quite nicely! His agility is somewhat impaired because of the broken shoulder, but she set things straight! Hopefully, when it comes time for surgery, she'll be just as capable.

The farm project is nearly complete!

Here's what it looks like so far:

The grates will open up onto the caves below, where the water will drain. The tunnel at the top leads to the river, currently frozen, and just to make sure the timing isn't off I haven't built a channel to it yet. I've lost too many fortresses to flooding. We've come too far with this one to have that happen here, too.

Future projects: build a crushing trap for the arena to pulverize surviving monsters, and then build a lure room down below to trap monsters in cages and have them moved to the arena.

I guess I should think about getting some weapons for these dwarves...

Dwarft Fortress V: The Ageless Realms, Part IX

10th Opal, 1051, Mid-Winter: There Will Be Blood (More)

The arena is complete.

Well, maybe not as complete as I would like it, but it is technically functional. Here's what it looks like:


There are two prison chambers that contain cages. The Ogre is in the northern one and the Troglodyte in the southern one. Now, all doors are set to forbidden passage, which technically means people or creatures can only get through if they smash them down.

I don't think Cave Ogres can smash them down.

Anyway, in the control room, there are five levers. Two of them open the cages of each creature respectively, and two others open the doors to the rooms that contain the cages and open out onto the arena floor. It'll be up to the monsters themselves to wander out and maybe duke it out. At this point, I have no idea if they'll actually fight.

The fifth lever opens up a small compartment containing more cage traps, so that when the monters are done killing each other, or if they don't kill each other at all, eventually they may wander in and get trapped once more and I can start the process over.

Let's see how it goes!

ROUND 1: FIGHT!

The Ogre emerged from its cage as the Troglodyte ran out onto the arena floor! The Troglodyte ran at the doors a few times, but the Ogre just sort of sat there... Neither creature attacking the other.

Damn it.


... I don't like the way that Troglodyte is staring at those doors.

I think maybe it hears its brethren calling from down below. There's a whole squad of them just waiting for us:

Now here's the messed-up part. The one that killed Eric earned itself a name!

That's right! It is now infamous! And it bears the scars of battle to prove its superiority!

Damn you, Merrangod! DAMN YOU.

ROUND 2: FIGHT

Okay, well, at least the Cave Ogre is contained. I can just hit the lever and trap it once more. The question now remains, can my dwarves take on a single Troglodyte? It'll be 4 against one, but I have yet to kill one of these things.

All right, here we go. This one is for Bex, Mariko and Eric, whose tragic losses are felt every day...


The Troglodyte makes a break for it! It dashes out the door and the squad is on it in an instant! We unleash our fury with wild abandon, beating the living breath out of it! The thing never stood a chance! We literally tear the thing in two! Blood is evewhere! My god, the carnage!


And no sooner do we kill it does Nicolas run up and grab the thing's upper body. I hope it's to toss it in the refuse pile, but then again he is a tanner...

That only leaves us with...

ROUND 3: FIGHT

Time to take care of the Ogre.

Again, I feel kind of bad for these things. They're blind, slow and stupid, but they'd rip us in half if we gave them half a chance. So here we go. We open the last doors and release the rest of our anger...

The thing tries to run! It smashes into Kevin and Emily, breaking Emily's ankle and Kevin's shoulder as the rest of them pound into it. Bruised all over and bleeding profusely, it makes a break for the rest of the fortress while we give chase!

It stumbles through our furniture and stone stockpiles as even Emily, whose ankle is broken, continues chase! We corner it and continue to give it a fierce beating until it breathes its last...

... Man, that was messy.

Okay. This arena thing merits revision.

Dwarft Fortress V: The Ageless Realms, Part VIII

26th Timber, 1051, Late-Autumn: Oh God, The Blood!

Well, we have one less mouth to feed, at least. While he was out... doing things in the underground caverns, Eric was set upon by some Troglodytes and torn to shreds. Honestly, I have no idea what he was doing down there. My guess was he sought out the Troglodytes to avenge the fallen, but they got the better of him.


So naturally, I sealed the doors and left his body there to rot. We'll build a tomb and get his body once it's complete, but until then, I ain't risking no more dwarves!

Actually, his death wasn't for nothing. While he was down there, he found something... strange. An ancient passageway that led down...


Where could it possibly lead? As far as I can tell, it goes down several levels but I haven't been able to adventure down there just yet. We'll train up a military before trying anything too crazy.

So while all that was happening, we managed to get a Troglodyte in a cage and stick it with the rest. All the dying has distracted me from the pit arena, but I'll get back to that fairly quickly.

Merchants arrived from abroad. I managed to buy some cheese from them and ask them to bring more booze next time around. I also tried to sell them one of the Blind Cave Ogres I'd captured in one of my cages, but when Dee tried to move it it escaped!

I quickly recalled the squad that had earlier pummeled that Giant Olm to death to do the same thing to this Ogre. It was a bloody fight! Even the dogs got in on it!

It was brutal! But in the end, we managed to get it. First, we beat it to unconsciouness, then kept pounding away until there was nothing left.

I almost felt bad for it, but with Eric's recent death still fresh in our minds, our tiny stout fists smashed away with the fury of the mountain itself.

Then we had some cheese.

Oh, and the river's frozen again.

SPINEMACHINE - Bob Ross and the Awesomest Plan

Alright, time to start this thing! Now the first thing to do when starting any DF game is to set the mood. Yes yes, chopping down trees, building doors and trying to drown your dwarves is important too but first:



Hell yeah, that's how we roll here in Spinemachine. With some Bob Ross blasting in the background, we can get to work!

Simple enough start. I set Daniel Boone and Americuh to chop down trees, MC Hammer and Toothless McGee started mining us a flat, while the Rabbi and Meatcurtains gathered up stone and built a mason's workshop. Irish just kinda stood there until I told him to go pick some fucking plants or something.

First thing of note is that the place I picked is full of precious gemstones. WOOT! After an hour or so of work, we have some basics down:



Sweet! Except there's one problem: I'm farther away from the stream than I'd originally planned... and in DF 2010, you need water if you want to farm. Chanelling water down into underground farms is a tricky business. Hell, it flooded half my fortress the last time I tried it... but I think that I wasn't thinking BIG enough. I've learned from my mistakes, oh yes, and so I've devised a plan to build a gigantic underground reservoir using nearby ponds. BEHOLD!



In short, I will funnel the water from the ponds into a huge reservoir. Whenever the ponds refill with rain, I'll just hit a switch and dump it all into the reservoir. That way, we can maximize the amount of water we get from rainfall. I'll also build a channel to funnel some of that water to fuel underground farms.

My plan is to eventually have enough water to build this awesome underground river that will go through the entire fortress.

It can't go wrong!!!

Spinemachine Intro ft. Frigidbowels

Time for some Dwarf Fortress! And by that I mean time to build something up only to have it ruthlessly destroyed before our eyes. What will do it this time? Flooding? Goblins? The fever dreams of the deranged? Nothing is as impermanent as the ambitions of the stout mountain folk.

In an attempt to share the humiliation, three of us are going to manage this new fortress.
1 year for each tyrant. Every spring we will rotate and throw this mess of a hot potato to the next guy, for him to sharpen his cruel will on our past mistakes.

Being the least experienced of the three players, I will play the first year and construct the flawed foundation upon which all of our future blunders will rest. Straw-picking determined the rest of the order:

1. ME!
2. TheJamer
3. T.O.M.

First step is to randomly generate a world. Behold Xestsumon, The Enchanted Plane!



I've picked out a spot in the middle of the map. It's near some human settlements, it's near a brook called Satinybursts the Tufts of Breakfast, in the Factional Forest. Sold!

Now for our seven dwarves:

MC Hammer: Miner, wrestler, and lord of good times.
Toothless McGee: Professional biter, bone carver, but also a miner.
Daniel Boone: Tree expert, intrepid hero.
Rabbi Ephraim: Gem-cutter, stone-worker, appreciator of shiny things.
Irish: Brewer and cook.
Americuh: Farmer and fish cleaner.
Meatcurtains: Fisherdwarf and prankster.

These merry men are officially known as Frigidbowels the Garish Blisters of Anger, sent off to forge a new future in the fortress of Spinemachine.

STRIKE THE EARTH!!!

Dwarft Fortress V: The Ageless Realms, Part VII

13th Sandstone, 1051, Mid-Autumn: Blind Cave Ogres And Other Dangers Of Farming

So I asked Dee to set-up a few cage-traps in the tunnel that leads into the fortress from the caves, but about mid-way through setting up the last of them he was interrupted by a couple of wandering Blind Cave Ogres. He had the good sense to run back into the fortress, behind the other traps he'd thankfully had the time to set-up, and the two Ogres ran straight into them.

Fortress-death averted!

Of course, now I have two Ogres in cages I need to stash somewhere.

What to do, what to do...?

Can you say fighting arena? I'm sure nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan!

24th Sandstone, 1051, Mid-Autumn: More Migrants!

Well, this is a surprise! I guess news of the survivability of the fortress has spread! We have now jumped from 7 dwarves to 15, which is both a good and bad thing.

Obviously, the advantage is that we get all those extra hands at labour. The disadvantage is feeding, clothing, and sheltering all these dwarves. I think I'll draft a bunch in the military and send them off on suicide missions.

So, among the newcomers are: Romain, Steph, Meghan, Alanna, Danielle, Tansy, Nicolas, and Liisa. Geez, only two guys in the whole group. I'm running out of people I know. We have Brewers, Cheese Makers, Tanners, Buthers and Engravers. Gonna have to see about getting them to make themselves useful.

I've just noticed a real serious problem, besides the Ogres that might bust out of their cages and kill us all, that is: we're out of alcohol.

Dwarft Fortress V: The Ageless Realms, Part VI

27th Limestone, 1051, Early Autumn: Keeping The Faith

I have a plan.

As autumn approaches, so does the inevitably reminder that the river is going to freeze again. With all the cleaning and building going on in the fortress, I don't think now would be the best time to try and build an irrigation system, potentially drowning everyone in the process. We'll build it once the river freezes, to make it safe.

In the meantime, though, we're going to need to rely on those farms we abandoned in the caves below. Extremely dangerous, I know, but we are not without defense!


We have built a series of cage traps in the narrow hallway that leads into our fortress, thus capturing any Troglodytes or Other Monstrosities that happen to wander in. I just hope wood is enough to hold them in. Once we get a few of them, I'll build an arena and get us to train against them.

In better news, we now have a dining hall that contains a working well, several chairs and even tables!


There's still a lot of stone lying around, but any dwarf with spare time usually picks up a rock or two and stashes it outside. Eventually these halls will be clean, but in the meantime we'll have to put up with a bit of a mess.

I happened to notice that Mariko and Roxy's clothes had been removed and thrown in a pile on the floor when the ladies were moved into their graves. Since I now provide occasional access to the caves below, that means we can get some spider silk, and with Ros as our clothier we might be able to get a decent clothing industry going.


And just in case it all goes horribly wrong, I'm also going to build a Hospital for Eric.

And through it all, we keep finding all sorts of precious stones! Bex is having a great time engraving them!

Now, let's take a more personal look at the dwarves. From what I can tell, there's about four different deities being worshipped, although Mariko seemed to be the only worshipping her deity, Atim.

Atim is a deity of The Oceanic Inks (which is the dwarven civilization from which we originally hail). Akim most often takes the form of a mal dwarf and is associated with chaos, war and jewels.

Gatis Bugud Duthal is another deity, worshipped by Bex and the late Roxy.

Gatis the Tummy of Worth is a deity of The Oceanic Inks (again, a deity from our homeland). Gatis most often takes the form of a female dwarf and is associated with hospitality.

Kevin, our miner, is the only one to worship Ustir. This one is pretty weird:

Ustir is a deity of The Oceanic Inks. Ustir most often takes the form of a female naked mole dog and is associated with the stars, the sky, the weather, nature, the sun and healing.

The most worshipped deity is Laltur Ikallimar, also known as Laltur Healedwealth, and his followers are me, Dee, and Ros.

Laltur Healedwealth is a deity of The Oceanic Inks. Laltur most often takes the form of a male dwarf and is associated with trade, wealth and fortresses.

That's good! I'm glad our newest miner worships a god of fortresses! The last deity you can find in this fortress is Thetdel, worshipped by Eric and Emily.

Thetdel is a deity of The Oceanic Inks. Thetdel most often takes on the form of a male dwarf and is associated with family.

How does having these different deities affect the fortress? Occasionally, some dwarves might create goods or decorations associated with these different deities, and so any dwarf that worships them will be made a little happier at seeing them. Keeping the dwarves happy, as I've learned with past fortresses, is very important since downward spirals of madness and depression can be more damaging than a marauding squad of goblins.

Dwarft Fortress V: The Ageless Realms, Part V

6th Malachite, 1051, Mid-Summer: And Then There Were Seven... Again

Migrants have come! Two! With nothing!


I can't imagine under what dismal conditions they were coerced to come to this fortress, but now they're here and they're stuck! Suckers! The new-comers are Dee Onulsanred, a Miner (which is excellent) and Ros Lertethiteb, a Clothier (which is less excellent).


Having an extra miner around is going to be a big help with the expansion. We'll be able to move the Trade Depot deep underground, as well as all the workshops and furniture. My only worry is that it also means an extra couple of mouths to feed, but we'll see about keeping them busy finding food sources.

(Close-up of the furniture for some reason)

Again, that extra miner is also going to help with the construction of an irrigation system for farming. The kind of farming that doesn't involve getting murdered by Troglodytes.

Shit, we better get started on a well, too. Once the river freezes again, we're humped.

Dwarft Fortress V: The Ageless Realms, Part IV

4th Hematite, 1051, Early Summer: In Memoriam

Let us take this moment to remember two of this fortress' finest dwarves, Mariko Thalallogem and Roxy Kelingul. The two of them had made the long journey here with the rest of us, knowing just as well as anyone that there would be dangers awaiting us all, but did not shy away. They showed strength and passion in everything they did and they will not soon be forgotten.

In their honor, tombs have been erected with statues. We will continue to improve the quality of their final resting place as time allows, for it would be a disservice to their memory if we put our survival aside.

(Statues not pictured)

The loss of Roxy was a staggering blow. It was a wake-up call that made us realize just how desperate our situation was. In our attempts at finding a food and water source, we were forced to cut corners where safety was concerned, and she was the first to pay the price.

While her demise was sudden, she went down fighting, bruising and bludgeoning the Troglodyte that atacked her to the point where it had to run away. Her wounds were too severe, however, and she didn't quite make it.

Let us take a moment to remember her:

Around her tomb are statues of dwarves and Lizardmen.

The loss or Mariko hurt just as much, but she too went down fighting. In fact, it was in defense of Roxy that she bravely sacrificed her life, running to her rescue without hesitation. Had the odds been in her favor, she might still be with us today, but alas, the Troglodytes were many and she was but one.

Her courage is exemplary and she will go down in legend. However, we will not remember her for her end, but for her life. She was a stoneworker, proud and content, and the proof of her work can be seen in the quality of the stone doors that protect the fortress from the deadly caverns below. She was in the midst of smoothing stone to further improve our lot when fate came calling, and none of us doubt that the fortress is worse off for having lost her.

Goodbye, Mariko. There will be none to replace you in our stout little alcohol-drenched hearts.

Adorning her tomb are statues of the Tummy of Gatis, deity of hospitality.

And as one season in the fortress passes, a new one inevitably starts. With the loss of two of our best dwarves, the work has piled up, and survival does not wait. To avoid depression, I made good use of the Giant Olm and butchered it for food. We moved the stores of food inside, where it should be safe, and we're slowly moving the workshops below as well. Soon, we'll build a well and hopefully catch enough fish to survive next winter.

Farms will have to wait for now. We are few enough dwarves that our supplies are now in abundance. A small comfort, but then, we must take what we can.

Dwarft Fortress V: The Ageless Realms, Part III

15th Slate, 1051, Mid-Spring: Good News!

Things are starting to look hopeful! Construction of the fortress is coming along steadily, no one's died or drowned yet, and best of all, the river has thawed! It's mid-spring and all the snow has melted, which means fishing after all!


I'm already hatching plans to create a drainage system that connects to the lower pools to ensure they never dry up: during the winter, while the river was frozen, we can build water-tunnels with floodgates. Meanwhile, down below, we can build channels and make the higher-pools flow into the lower-pools and place water-wheels all throughout, generating power! And when the higher-pools start running low on water, we just open the floodgates in the spring and summer to replenish them!

Okay, I might be getting a bit ahead of myself here. We should first concentrate on finding viable food sources and building some sort of industry. Here's what the fortress looks like now, only two or three levels above the underground caverns:


Not much to look at, sure, but it's coming along! The farms are down below in the caverns themselves since that's the only place where the soil is soft enough for crops.

25th Slate, 1051, Mid-Spring: Then It Gets Fun

Work in the fortress was coming along nicely. While digging out the fortress proper, I had requested that beds be built for when the rooms were ready, and since Mariko had been idle I asked her to build some doors. When the rooms were finished, each had a bed and its own door for privacy! Unfortunately, no one bothered closing them before Troglogdytes attacked.

The Troglodytes came out of nowhere (well, presumably from the underground caverns) and the first thing they did was to drag Roxy from her bed and rip her apart in a violent, gory mess! I quickly drafted Mariko into a squad and ordered her to take down the Troglodyte, and she lunged after it brutally, beating the shit out of it with her fists. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough and the Troglodyte managed to strike her down too!

Meanwhile, a Giant Olm wandered its way in looking for a meal. In desperation, I closed and sealed the door that leads to the lower caverns, drafted everyone else into a cohesive squad, and had them all charge the Giant Olm.


The five of us smashed the Giant Olm to pieces with our bare hands in a matter of seconds, and it was over. Time to pick up the pieces...

We'll need to start building a tomb for our fallen dwarves, but also rethink our survival strategy. Without access to those caves, we're without farms, though with the river presently thawed, we can probably manage an aqueduct system of some sort... Hopefully, we can get one up and running before next winter.

On the plus side, I think we can butcher that Olm for food!