Dwarf Fortress IV: The Inspiring Tale of Shorast the Miner

A recurring source of fun in my fortresses, I've come to notice, usually has something to do with the well. Whether it's the lack, misplacement or misuse of, it somehow always relates to the fortress' final fate.

Not so with Machinekindled, I decided. We would build an unprecedented project, this time. First, we would divert the river, as we always did, but then we would build a lever-controlled floodgate to be able to manually stem the flow of water into the fortress. Second, we would build a vertical shaft down which the water would plummet into a reservoir many levels beneath. When the reservoir was full, we would stop the flow of water with the floodgate, and all would be good. Third and final, the well would be many levels above the reservoir, in case it did flood, to allow the dwarves enough time to gtfo.

In the end, the project worked beautifully, and I owe most of that to Shorast, the most dedicated little miner in all of Machinekindled. You see, while we were building the vertical shaft, we had to dig down, obviously, but since I wanted to finish the project quickly I would dig out several levels at once.

What this did was cause a cave-in. As Shorast diligently struck away at the earth beneath his feet, the floor suddenly collapsed and he fell. He landed gracelessly and managed to break both his legs. Another dwarf, this one studying to be a doctor, dragged Shorast away from the mining operation, stuck him in bed, and began to clean his wounds, bring him food and water as he lay bedridden, and suture his wounds.

The project continued without Shorast, but slower. He wasn't the only miner, but definitely one of the best, and one of the problems with my project was that while we were busy building this shaft, there weren't any farms or irrigation being built and the other dwarves were slowly starving.

Shorast would have none of it. The moment he had splints attached to each leg, he was right back up on his feet, pick in hand, charging back to work. No hesitation, no complaints, no ability to bend his knees until the splints come off.

Well, thanks to him, we got the project done in time, and it worked perfectly. The farms were up and running soon after that, and Machinekindled thrived like I'd never seen a fortress thrive before. To commemorate his efforts, I built a special lavish tomb for Shorast so that he'd be remembered in the ages to come.

Unfortunately, the tomb lies empty since goblins came and murdered everyone.