Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[KharBevNor]

It seems we have a few people here who play Dwarf Fortress so I think it might be cool if we got a succession game going!

WHAT IS A DWARF FORTRESS SUCCESSION GAME?

A Dwarf Fortress succession game is a form of communal entertainment in which a succession of players take it in turns to play one year of game time in the hyper-complex, infamously user-unfriendly strategy game Dwarf Fortress. The classic example (from way back in Dwarf Fortress's fairly basic 2D days) is the Something Awful Forum's Boatmurdered.

The point of Dwarf Fortress is not to win. All but a very few of the most epic and well crafted fortresses will eventually fall from a combination of external threats (ranging from goblins through to titans, fell beasts and, if you should dig too greedily and too deep, the entire amassed armies of hell) and internal threats (dwarves wallowing in filth, going insane, autocratic nobles commanding your best craftsdwarves be beaten to death for failing to produce them enough green glass gewgaws, dwarves going on killing sprees and ripping dogs in half because you accidentally dropped their pet mole dog in the magma sea, and so on). The point is to have fun, to wrestle with disaster, to build awesomely complicated systems of traps that malfunction spectacularly and fill your main dining hall with pressurised magma during the queens birthday party, and to get lost in the emergent sandbox storytelling gameplay. In succession games it is CRITICAL that each player provides a detailed account of their time in charge of the fortress, oreferably in character. The games are enhanced massively, especially if the fortress looks like becoming really successful, by cheerful psychopaths who spend their turns hunting down and killing every cat in the fortress, or executing important dwarves for imagined crimes, or constructing a vast, electrum plated penis on top of the highest mountain they can find. Reading Boatmurdered (and also the much longer, but more up to date twin sagas of Headshoots and Syrupleaf, also from the Lets Play archive, or any of the games linked in the Dwarf Fortress forum's Hall of Legends) will give you a good idea of what is expected of you with regards to storytelling and general high-grade idiocy.

We will each play 1 year, from the First of Granite to the 28th of Obsidian (or around then, if you lose count). Then we will save the game, and upload the save file to mediaf!re or similiar for the next person to play their year. We will start the game when there are five people interested (which should translate to just over a week of play, when allowances are made for real life). Turns will be granted on a first come, first served basis, with me taking the first turn. We will use a random starting party. Those not interested in actually playing may also request a dwarf be named after them.

For this game we shall be using the current (at the time of writing) Version 0.31.12, unmodded.





I have taken the liberty of generating a world already. It is Defini Ametha, the Dimension of Winds:



(click on the image for a larger version)

It should be noted that although the Persuasive Continent would appear to be named for how inviting it looks to settlers compared to the other two landmasses, it includes such landmarks as The Intense Murk, the Forests of Eviscerating, the Somber Prairies, The Dunes of Carnality and the Hill of Mortifying. Surrounding all these landmasses is the Scarce Sea. Those purple blobs in the south of the Land of Dangers are vast Goblin Fortresses which we should probably steer clear of.

I'm open to debate about a starting location. I kind of fancy somewhere fearly bleak and harsh, but not too crazy (ie, not a haunted or sinister locale). I kind of want to try and find a Serene place full of unicorns with a magma lake underneath and turn it into a scabrous boil of heavy industry and fight endless wars with the elves. What do you guys think?


CURRENT TURN LIST:

1: KharBevNor
2: Boro_Bandito
3: KvP
4: Jeans
5: Christophe
6: Est
7: Damnable Fiend
8: Jace


CURRENT DWARFING LIST:

1: KharBevNor - DORFED
2: David_Dovey - DORFED
3: Scandanavian War Machine - DORFED
4: öde (or Danosaur, as I can't be fucked to try and get those special characters in game) - DORFED
5: Jeans - DORFED
6: Alex_C - DORFED
7: Boro_Bandito - DORFED
8: Thomas Edison - DORFED
9: Christophe - DORFED
10: Dicky - DORFED
11: The Pied Piper - DORFED
12: Buttfranklin - DORFED
13: Kris - DORFED
14: Falrender
15: Minty
16: Ackblom12
17: Jace

[Boro_Bandito]

I'm in, even though I really, really suck, so there's a possibility that a little too much Fun will happen on my turn.

[David_Dovey]

I have no idea how this game works nor do I have any interest in learning but I would be pretty happy if there was a dwarf with my name.

Also I pissed myself laughing at the OP so I'll keep reading this thread

[Scandanavian War Machine]

Well, I'm still brand new to the game (just started today, actually) and I'm having a weird save glitch that erases some of my progress every time I save, so I'm gonna sit this one out and watch but a dwarf named after me who's moronic subterranean exploits I can follow would be fun.

[KvP]

I think I'm foolhardy enough to try this, bearing in mind that our dwarves may find themselves suddenly retarded. If that's not up to your standards, name a dwarf after me.

[est]

I would love to play but I am also incurably lazy.  Dilemma!

[Spluff]

I would love to play but I am also incurably lazy.  Dilemma!

Your turn doesn't last an actual year, you know

[öde]

I want to be the worst dwarf!

I'm still trying to install the graphical version of the game.

[Alex C]

I think I'm foolhardy enough to try this, bearing in mind that our dwarves may find themselves suddenly retarded. If that's not up to your standards, name a dwarf after me.

I think you mean extra retarded.

[KharBevNor]

It should be noted that I'm fairly new at Dwarf Fortress myself, which is why I'm not suggesting we embark on a haunted glacier full of skeletal mammoths and elk.

I've been scouting round for starting locations and I quite fancy this place:



It's on the borders of the Hardy Swamps and the Tiring Mountains, where the two brooks Rapidcried the Harmonious Kindness and the distinctly less fetchingly named Bowelpungent flow together with The Abated Union to form a larger waterway. There is an aquifer, fairly pleasant surrounds, the goblins aren't too close, we're fairly near our parent civilisation (The Worshipful Corridor) and the site has trade access to Elves, Dwarves and Humans. The only significant problem I can see with this site is that there's no sedimentary rock layers, which may mean iron is scarce, unless we strike a vein of heamatite in one of the igneous layers. However, if we set up the fortress defences correctly, we should have no problem utilising the fourth source of iron in the game, the fabled goblinite. Apart from that the mineral prospects are pretty shit hot. We've got a good chance of striking gold, silver, sunstone, zinc, lead and emralds, and we've got whole fucking layers of magma-proof rock to play with.

I'm going to kick this off whenever the naming count reaches seven, for our starting dwarves, or the player count reaches 5, whichever is sooner. For the starting dwarves, if anyone wants some extra fun people can choose the profession they want their dwarf to follow, including custom professions. I kind of have an idea for my first entry which should be pretty fun.

[snalin]

I want a miner dwarf named after me. I might sign up as a player for later, but right now I'll have to see if I have patience for playing this game or not.

[Alex C]

An aquifer? I predict fun.

[KharBevNor]

Alex: That's why I chose the confluence of the two biomes. The aquifer layer only exists in the soil under the Hardy Swamps. The Mountains of Tiring are soild, juicy dwarven rock all the way down to the Happy Fun Stuff. The Aquifer justy give us an infinite underground supply of water for farming and Operation: Drown All Goblins.

[Boro_Bandito]

At some point someone's gonna need to walk me through how pumping works then, since there's an aquifer, but that place you picked looks excellent beyond all that, I say good spot. I'm playing, but I still want a dwarf named after me, I'll be woodcutter/carpenter

[Alex C]

I want to be a mechanic and pump operator. I wish to be directly responsible for your fiery/watery/steamy deaths. I don't mind if you wait until a migration to set someone up like that though.

[Boro_Bandito]

That might give us the opportunity to try out the AI thing I was reading about in the wiki. gonna lock you in a room with 10 years worth of food and booze and put all the levers there.

[Thomas Edison]

I would sign up, but honestly, this game.

I suck so bad but I'd make a rad dwarf, so definitely name one after me.

[KharBevNor]

WE HAVE SEVEN DWARVES. I'll get cracking.

Alex:

Pump's are actually really easy. This diagram from the DF wiki makes everything blindingly obvious:



You'll notice that in game, the pumps have a light green square and a dark green square. Fluid is pumped from the square below the square in front of the light green square to the square behind and at the same level as the dark green square. My misapprehension as to how the levels worked was the cause of Atticsparched's demise. The light green square is the square that a manual pump operator stands on, or the square that mechanical power is run into. The dark green square is impassable to movement and fluids. To move fluids quickly up multiple z-levels your best bet is a pump stack, which looks like this:






For the initial defense of the fortress, I'm planning on building a mechanised trap system called a goblin grinder. They're pretty vicious.

[Christophe]

Put me down on the turn list as well as the dwarf list.

Do you think we'll be able to hit magma at all on your map? So far, in all of the fortresses I've played I've yet to hit sweet red crude.

[october1983]

Can there be a dwarf named Dicky? Reading Dwarf Fortress threads has become my new favourite distraction from my dissertation.

[KharBevNor]

As far as I know, in the current version of dwarf fortress you will always be able to hit magma on any map: the entire world is underlaid by the magma sea, which corresponds to the mohorovicic discontinuity in the real world. According to the DF wiki:

The Magma sea is a large, multi-level 'sea' of magma  that expands across the entire world. These can typically be found by around Z level -120 (though this seems to vary wildly (minimum -5 maximum -450 z level)Verify. The magma sea is always found below the last Cavern level.

Source: http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Magma_sea#ixzz0xpIlpwqF


I have embarked. Our fortress is named Gorgeconfined. My Dwarf has INCREDIBLE MUSCLES. Proper update in a bit.

[KharBevNor]

THE CHRONICLES OF GORGECONFINED

Chapter 1: Under the Cursed Sky

Journal of 'KharBevNor' LashedGills, expedition leader.

They called me mad, in the Mountainhomes. But I have proved them right, oh, how I have proved them. For my visions were true.

Let me explain.

I have been, all my life, an ardent worshipper of Vush, goddess of Fire, Earth and Volcanoes. May Her Fires Ever Burn With The Flesh Of Goblin Heretics! Vush has seen fit to bless me with many visions, often whilst I conduct the most sacred ritual of her cult (The Ceremony of the Consuming of the Three Barrels of Swamp Whiskey). Six months ago, she granted me a most terrible vision! Armok himself, the ancient god of blood, had become displeased at Dwarfkind. Too long had we traded with elves and walked above the ground in the horrible light of the sun. We had forgotten what truly made us Dwarven. Vush (MHFEBWTFOGH) told me that the fire under the earth would rise up under the mountainhomes, and fire would descend from the sky, and all would be destroyed. Only seven dwarves would be saved, an echo of the seven that founded the great mountainhomes in long ages past. We would go far away from the Mountainhomes, and only we would be saved. The end would come on New Years day, the first of Granite 1052. In further visions, I was given the identity of the six that would accompany, as well as mystical names for each of them and myself in some long dead tongue known only to the gods.

First, my good self, a fine handsome figure of a dwarf:



Next, David Dovey. A good dwarf, though I have heard disturbing rumours of his fetish for crutches. His skill with wood is legendary.



Third, Scandinavian War Machine. His occasional impiety disquiets me, but his tireless drive with the pick will serve us well



Danosaur, unassuming fisherdwarf and collector of toy boats. There shall be little time for his hobby if we are to survive the wrath of Armok.



Jeans is what the Doctors call 'Oretistic'. He's not much to talk to, unless you get him on to the subject of one of his odd obsessions. I never knew there was more to the matter of Ballista Bolts than putting them the right way round.



Alex C, our doctor and, if I do say, something of a badass.



And finally, Boro_Bandito, the only dwarfess among our group. Truly, Armok expects great things of her loins.





After many months perilous journey across the Tiring Mountains (aptly named) I see by my sundial that it is only one year until the Armokalypse. We can go no further. Below us spread the Hardy Swamps. We will not find much solid rock past this point. I name our new refuge Gorgeconfined, for surely the stones will embrace us.

STRIKE THE EARTH!





1st Granite 1051

Our first task is to get out from under the Cursed Sky. I order Scandinavian War Machine to start digging.

"Where?" he asks.

"Straight down!"

Shrugging, he swings his pick. Soon he has dissapeared down the hole he is digging, carving crude steps as he goes.

"Don't stop till you strike solid rock!"

I tell the other Dwarves to gather whatever plants and trees they can from the surface before we descend into the comforting embrace of the Earth forevermore. We will need a smattering of supplies to establish our new fortress.

"Jeans, go gather up any berries and grasses you can find!"

"Um...er...no...I'm a fisherdwarf"

He wanders off towards the river, but soon, Armok sends him a sign. A buzzard shaped one! He runs back towards the wagon, a wet patch between his legs. Suddenly, one of the dogs who for some reason accompanied us leapt a clear twenty feet in the air and tore the buzzard in two! Merciful Vush!
(MHFEBWTFOGH)


3rd Granite

Chaos reigns! The dog, having tasted buzzardblood, is insatiable. Armok surely possesses it. It leaps across the face of the mountain, tearing buzzards out of the sky.



Dwarves run panicking from the rain of buzzardparts as they frantically try to deconstruct the wagon and place wood and food in two temporary stockpiles I have designated next to the hole in the ground, from which a constant stream of earth and faint swearing emanates. A buzzard swoops for Boro_Bandito, who lets out a mighty yell and dodges the swoop at the last second with astonishing agility. Unfortunately, she dodges straight into a tree and is knocked unconscious. The buzzard lets out a caw of victory.

Then the dog tears its legs off.


11th Granite

"Danosaur, I need you to set up a carpentry workshop so we might have beds when the construction is finished below"

"But sir, I'm a fisherdwarf, I don't know anything about carpentry! I'm a great fisher though, so..."

"Look, I didn't think this would be necessary, but there is something I have to show you"

I took a worn scroll from my pocket.

"Before we left The Worshipful Corridors I purchased a map of this wilderness. We are here, and that stream there is the Abated Union. What do you see?"

He is not a fast reader, and it was a good ten seconds before his skin went pale. Emblazoned across the map, the words that haunt the nightmares of every fisherdwarf.

HERE BE CARP



Work on the new beds progresses swiftly, now he has mastered which way round to hold the chisel. Work is progressing well below also. We have started on the first temporary accomodations, and I have picked up a pick myself to help the work. We must get out from under this sky!


15th Granite

Yesterday, a buzzard stole some of our plump helmets (why?). Today it came again. It did not get very far.



Jeans put down his consignment of berries, then nonchalantly walked over, picked up the remains of the buzzard and put it on our foodpile. We dine well tonight!


28th Granite

It has begun to rain! Armoks wrath is upon us! FEAR THE SKY!

I order the food and wood moved to the new stockpiles underground, and the carpenters shop on the surface dismantled. We have enough beds now to equip a small temporary dormitory. Boro_bandito once worked with precious gems, but now she works with baser rock, carving tables and chairs for our dining hall.


16th Slate

Will these rains never end? Nothing is above ground now but a growing pile of refuse. Buzzard blood washes from the mountainside and swills around the bones.



28th slate

With the end of our second month comes the end of the first phase of construction. I have concentrated on moving the bare essentials of life down into our meagre quarters. Over the next few months we shall expand and improve our quarters, improve our industries, and begin the construction of defences agaiinst the vile beasts that shall surely stalk the earth once the Armokalypse is upon us. Danosaur, who took a course in technical draughtdwarfship at the undercollege, has drawn these fine diagram of the current status of Gorgeconfined. First, the nascent industrial area:



and, a way below it, our meagre living quarters:



Humble beginnings, but from such humbleness great things may come, if we but put our trust in Vush (MHFEBWTFOGH). We have safe quarters, and we have defeated the first challenge of the Cursed Sky:



I order celebrations. Jeans has been putting his careful skill with the dissection of fish to new ends. He takes the bridle of the horse that drew our wagons across these mountains. Sadness comes across some faces, for we travelled far with it. I was wise not to give it a name. It becomes skittish slightly as he leads it away into a back room...



BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

[the_pied_piper]

I have no idea how to play this and would probably be woefully inept so if someone lets my hamfists command the armed guards that would be much better.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

helluva start

go, stray dog, go

[Buttfranklin]

I'll take a dwarf!  Mostly on account of how great of a dwarf name Buttfranklin would be.

Looking forward to reading more updates!  :{D

[KvP]

This is fucking awesome.

I will inevitably see it destroyed through my inept blunders. I must take a crash course in Dwarf Fortressing, and quick!

[Boro_Bandito]

Truly that dog will become the backbone of our military. Beware the carp.

Khar you've really set the bar here, and I laughed for about 5 minutes straight when it got to my dwarf. Also what the hell is up with my god, its got a huge name.

[Alex C]

It's almost a shame that the dwarf with incredibly tough is also the one who got the spatial sense and analytical traits. I sorta like it when I get a mighty/tough dwarf ends up with few beneficial traits-- makes for a great excuse to slap an axe in their hands. Then again, you never know someone will go dwarfshit and start randomly attacking your useful specialists, so it never hurts to be tough.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

Khar you've really set the bar here, and I laughed for about 5 minutes straight when it got to my dwarf.

That's part of the reason I didn't wanna take part in this one (besides my complete noob status): I knew that Khar, and probably the rest of you, would write some legit verse about your shenanigans that I would never be able to measure up to. I'm just not very creative, unfortunately.

I am just a simple, backwoods hyper-chicken, after all.

[est]

Ok, if there is still time I'd like to be added.  I'll bone up on play tomorrow afternoon.

[KharBevNor]

I'm working on the next update, probably covering a longer period in-game because theres's nothing really going on but building, except a wave of migrants. I've got a point in my head I want to reach to parcel off the next update.

[KharBevNor]

Chapter 2: No Goblin of Goblin Born Shall Harm Me!


Journal of 'KharBevNor' LashedGills, expedition leader.


16th Felsite

Jeans is becoming very...eager about his new job.



At the protest of my old friend Scandinavian War Machine, who dotes terribly on his pet cat Asob, I take him off of butchery duty for a while.

Many new projects are underway. The sounds of digging, hammering and sawing reverberate throughout the fortress. Stockpiles expand, new workshops are created. I order David Dovey to begin the construction of a large quantity of pointy sticks.


22nd Felsite

"Danosaur"

"Yessir?"

"How are you finding your new job as the fortress cook?"

"Well, I must say that the ingredients I've been given to work with are slightly...unconventional."



"Well, you can put aside your misgivings. Because you're now a wood burner! Go upstairs and make me some fucking charcoal!"

"Aye sir!"

Charcoal is dangerously undwarvish, but until we strike coal it will have to do...



27th Felsite
All dwarfs but me now have their own bedrooms.



Not all furniture is in place, and smoothing has barely started, but eventually they will be fine little rooms, each containing a bed and a stone cabinet, with perhaps a statue eventually. I personally still sleep in the barracks...for now.

It continues raining above. Be merciful Armok! I order the installation of doors to block the outside world, and the construction of a small schist edifice to protect the top of the stairs to the Cursed Sky.


14th hematite
Rain stops. Work progresses. All that can be seen of Gorgeconfined on the surface is the schisthouse, which is shituated nexsht to the shitpile.





26th hematite

Armok be praised! Vush be sated with goblin burgers! 5 hardy souls have trecked across the mountains, away from the sinful and soon to be annihilated decadence of the Worshipful Corridors, to our haven at Gorgeconfined. They came over the eastern pass, with a few pack animals and little more than the clothes on their backs.

I met with the most senior among them, Likob Ilunathel, who Vush (MHFEBWTFOGH) was already whispering possessed the true name 'Buttfranklin'.

"This is fabulous!" I cried "More pious souls have come out to us to await the armokalypse!"
He looked confused.
"They said in the mountainhomes you had struck adamantium..."
"The tongues of sinners spew only lies my brother, now come..."
"Look, let me be quite frank. I'm only really a casual worshipper of Lashed the Queen of Pregnancies, and all this pentarmokstal shit is kind of freaking me out, so I think I'll just get my pack animals and..."



Nice one Jeans! You shall have a double helping of cat tallow at dinner tonight!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After consuming seven barrels of Longland Beer (it is considerably less holy than Swamp Whiskey) and deciding the true names of the new migrants, I take the opportunity to interview each one.

Thomas Edison is the only dwarfess amongst them. Although Alex C says she looks quite sickly, she will need to shoulder some of the dreadful loinburden from Boro_Bandito.



"So what do you do?"
"I'm a woodworker."
"We already have two carpenters. I think you'll find your a mechanic. Next.

Christophe walks in. I am instantly jealous of his incredible sideburns.


"And what do you do, my good dwarf?"
"I'm a milker sir. Fifty years before the teat."
"That's going to present a problem."
"How so?"
"Well...can you milk cats?"
"...not easily"
"Better learn to cook then. NEXT!"

Dicky Dodoksat enters. It is a shame he doesn't have a stammer, I could use some cheer to take my mind off the impending Armokalypse.



"What is your profession then?"
"I'm a planter"
"Farming is for elves, humans and other heathen scum! Do you know what's Dwarvish?"
"Beards?"
"ROCKS! YOU'RE A MASON NOW BOY. NEXT!"


The Pied Piper is a tall (almost four feet), muscular Vushite. I feel almost sexually attracted to him. I must take a penance of Rum tonight!


"So what do you do?"
"I'm a potash maker."
I write 'mason' on the work ledger.
"NEXT!"

The last of them is the diagnostician Buttfranklin.
"Look, KharBevNor, I warn you that when I have the chance, I'm out of here, and I'm taking whoever wants to go with me."
"How about I make you book-keeper?"
"..."
"You'll get a study. and a cobaltite throne."
"bastard!"



Now, back to work!


28th Malachite

IT IS FINISHED! The first of my great works is complete! I summon Danosaur to prepare new diagrams:




What you see here is two pairs of pressure plates and hatch covers, linked together with the one next to them. It is a device invented by the finest Dwarven minds to exploit the weknesses of lesser ones. An attacker will walk down the corridor, trying to find the quickest way into the fortress. They will pass over the first hatch and plate, but when they reach the second plate, it will activate the hatch in front of them, which sits over a massive drop. Unable to continue, the confused attacker will instead try to back out...only to activate the other hatch on his way out, blocking his exit! Thus he will scurry back and forth for all eternity. It goes without saying that the pressure plates have been cunningly engineered not to be set off by dwarves.

Should he have a friend who falls down the hatch, each one has a pit extending three levels to this room:



Indeed, actually, to a pit one level beneath this. The fall should injure or stun them. Later on the pit can be filled with magma or spikes, or both!


But you ask, what is the point of just trapping an enemy for eternity between two hatches, in the only entress to the Fortress? Well, you see those brown bars in the first picture? And that lever in the second picture? Each of those brown bars is a spring-loaded bundle of wooden spikes. Every time that lever there is pulled, they will shoot out the ground and retract again. Given that they're only wood, I will probably order the lever pulled about 20-30 times to make sure the job gets done.

I must go. We're just getting ready to begin our first smelting operations!

[Johnny C]

oh my god i want to be a dwarf

[KharBevNor]

You can, I've got two migrants.


I am going to probably play through to the end of my turn tonight, and write the last update either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. A lot of stuff happened. Part of the fortress is...kind of wet.  Boro, I'm stocking up on the components of brass screwpumps. Your turn is going to be really fun

[Buttfranklin]

Haha, I love the trap!  And thanks for letting me be a dwarf! :{D

looking forward to reading more

[Felrender]

I would love to be a dwarf.  I always love reading stories and LPs of Dwarf Fortress, but I can never get into it.

[Damnable Fiend]

hmm, I'd be interested in taking a turn (hopefully I'll be good enough to not bring the entire fortress down around our ears by then)

[LTK]

I'll enjoy reading this. Name a dwarf on behalf of me, please! The name shall be Minty.

[KharBevNor]

Chapter 3: Armokalypse Now!


Journal of 'KharBevNor' LashedGills, expedition leader.


2nd Galena

Just as the many material projects of Gorgeconfined go well, so does the other secret project I have been working on.



Now, I don’t want to get trapped in the friend zone! I wonder if cat tallow makes a good moustache wax…now I have my own modest quarters in which to perform such ablutions.


17th Galena
Our first metal bars have begun production. So far we have managed to smelt brass, billon, copper, zinc and silver. There are riches to be had in this rock, though soon the riches of the earth will be as nothing, when dwarfkind reaps what it has sown!


1st Limestone
We have been here for six months now, and there are six months till the Armokalypse descends upon us. I have commissioned Danosaur to prepare some new drawings. I have asked him only to annotate those parts not annotated in his previous drawings:







8th Limestone
Two new migrants have arrived, bearing delicious pack animals. I have given them their names and tasks.

Johnny C,  tough but clumsy.


Kris, making it just a tiny bit less of an elvish sausage festival.



14th Limestone
Our new migrants mean we no longer have enough living space, so I have ordered it extended. The miners doing the operation have found damp stone. We must be careful. I order exploratory shafts dug on the level above, looking for more damp stone.


10th Sandstone
The miners trying to find the source of the water have struck sand. Eventually we shall be able to produce glass! I have been reviewing the geological reports, and I hadn’t realised how close our fortress was to Bowelpungent, which runs through a narrow canyon in the rock just north of here. We must be able to exploit this resource, especially if we have soil to work with…




28th Sandstone
I have drawn up plans for a new water system. This is the cavern that will hold it, in rough outline.



Water will enter from the river through a channel on the floor below, and be raised via screwpump into a large holding cistern in the centre of the room. Then it can be directed using a floodgate manifold to irrigate farming caverns, fill ponds or well reservoirs, or any number of other useful things!


12th Timber
We are having a lot of trouble with the construction of the cistern for the new water system.
The cavern it is to be built in was carved purely out of schist, and masses of the rock were left over afterward, so I ordered the cistern tank to be built out of schist. Even though you can’t construct a floor on wall on top of a pile of rubble, I imagined that, if the building material is actually to BE that pile of rubble, then there would be no problem. No such luck! What the masons are actually doing is going to their jobsite, then wandering across the room, grabbing any random piece of schist, and then declaring they can’t complete their work order because the worksite is clogged up with schist.
Unbelievable!


16th Timber
Traders have arrived from the mountainhomes! I do not want any of their cursed goods, especially not if it means going up under the cursed sky, with its rain and its buzzards. But the others argue me down. Their faith is weak! They are tired of longland beer and horse kidney, and they wish to see what the traders might have bought with them. I reluctantly agree: we will need all the supplies we can get to weather the Armokalypse, and I have been finding our diet somewhat tedious.
I have reluctantly ordered the construction of a trade depot, and have  decided that Jeans be made broker, as he is extremely good at counting things.


16th Moonstone
The traders start packing up. Excellent! Soon there will be no need for us to be topside.
Jeans did well. He traded some of the stone crafts I had ordered constructed in order to use up our massive surplus of rock, along with some silver bars and a couple of cat leather quills that were lying around in the store room for no apparent reason. In return he got us goods of real value: cheese, plump helmets and barrels of alcohol. We shall now certainly be able to keep mind and body together through the coming times of tribulation.

In other news, my quarters are now smooth, just like my loving (but unlike my chin).




22nd Moonstone
Broker finally leaves! BATON DOWN THE HATCHES ALL DWARVES INSIDE PREPARE FOR ARMOKALYPSE


25th Moonstone
I have finally ordered the fortress Gorgeconfined, last refuge of all dwarfkind sealed up, perhaps for all eternity, but certainly until the gods have visited their mighty wrath upon the decadent surface dwellers!
I have ordered Scandinavian War Machine to continue with the construction of the expanded sleeping quarters. The sand above the ground we are trying to dig on is not even damp.


1st Opal
I have been a fool! As Scandinavian War Machine and his fellow miners were working, they broke through the damp dolorite into a layer of saturated red clay. Suddenly, water began gushing into the workings.

FLOOD!



It sweeps down the hallway. Desperately I order what doors there are to be sealed, and muster by masonry dwarves to try and erect barrier walls and cut defensive channels, whilst mandating the construction of floodgates at both the carpentry and masonry shops.


23rd Opal
I am wet and shaking. But I think we’ve managed it. No dwarves died today, and with luck the flood is contained. I was nearly its victim. In a regrettable piece of oversight, I had managed to wall up mine and Buttfranklin’s sleeping quarters…with myself on the side of the flood. By the time I had realised what I had done the water was up to my beard. There was no prospect of removing the wall and trying again. I turned to strike at the wall, but my pick kept skipping off as blind panic took me. Then, suddenly, the wall bulged out from the other side. It was my old friend Scandinavian War Machine. He had dug a stairwell down to my level singlehandedly to pull me out. That is Dwarven spirit at its best.

When the opportunity arises, I am going to learn to swim.  


25th Opal
The flood is now definitely contained. It laps at the stairwells, but rises no higher. We lost half the sleeping quarters, but there is no time to greive.




We have barely a month till the Armokalypse! Perhaps it has already begun...


10th Obsidian

All dwarves now have their own rooms again, either in the new, fairly basic sleeping quarters, or, for some of the lucky ones, back in the old quarters. Those rooms that could be sealed against the flood have had their doors permanently bolted and sealed with cement, and each has its own access stairwell from a new gallery on the mezzanine level above.


21st Obsidian

One week left. Armok be mercyful



28th Obsidian

The Armokalypse is upon us! On this day, all the dross of the old world shall be burned away. And the very gods themselves shall stride the earth, raining fire on the unbelievers! Take cover, stout dwarves of Gorgeconfined! Ere the sun rises in the Cursed Sky, everything we know except the rock shall vanish!
1st Granite 1052
A miracle! The wrath of Armok falls upon the world so softly it’s almost as if…

…



…

Shit

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal of Jeans Roughnessflicker, broker of Gorgeconfined.

1/1/1052

There is a lot of trouble at Gorgeconfined. Mr. Lashedgills has locked himself in his room and will not come out. Apparently he is very upset that the world has not ended, which doesn’t really make sense to me, but then many things Mr. Lashedgills does do not make sense to me. For example he ordered the miners to continue digging even though they knew they were close to water and that is why my statue, which was blue, is now underwater. It is probably still blue but I can’t check because I can’t swim. Also Mr. Lashedgills let me butcher the stray cat but not the one that follows Mr. Fordcrypt around and gives him dead things, even though it is just the same sort of cat as the other one (though not obviously exactly the same otherwise that would be unusual).  This is why I got angry and killed the dog that killed the buzzards and made it into food, though Mr. Lashedgills didn’t find out about that.

Anyway because Mr. Lashedgills is the expedition leader everyone is sort of unsure what to do. Ms. Agessteels has a piece of paper which she says is the expedition charter, which says she can be next expedition leader if Mr. Lashedgills makes a mistake or gets killed. It has the official seal of the Rag of Man, two rats standing up on their legs being curious, and it looks official though Mr. Hailedring thinks it is in Ms. Agessteels’ handwriting and she stole the seal from Mr. Lashedgills desk whilst she was in his room kissing him. Anyway, someone has to be expedition leader because someone has to tell me what to do, otherwise I will get confused and not know what to do, which would be bad. So I voted for Ms. Agessteels and so did other people, so now she is expedition leader. I hope she does not flood my new bedroom, and also gives me a door and a new blue statue.

Also apparently Lors Rithokel, who was the trade liason, is in the flooded statue hall downstairs, only half her body is missing. Mr. Gatesculpture, who is the Chief Medical Dwarf, said that almost certainly means she is dead, and I agree (I have killed more things than everyone else in the fortress put together so I should know).  No one is quite sure why she is down there though I remember noticing that she was very sad because Mr. Lashedgills locked her in the fortress and wouldn’t stop shouting about the Armokalypse for the whole month of Obsidian, so maybe she threw herself all the way down the central stairs a few times. Apparently she was a very important person in The Worshipful Corridors and even a friend of the queen. I really hope the Worshipful Corridors are not sad or angry that Mr. Lashedgills drove her to kill herself.

I wish I had bought my collection of ballista bolts.


P.S. I found this sketch left lying around in the dining hall. The writing looks like Mr. Lashedgills’. It seems to show improvements he was planning on making to the trap system in the entrance. It looks pretty good so I will show it to Ms. Agessteels





END OF VOLUME 1











OOC: Notes to my successors
The flood may actually be a blessing in disguise. It’s nicely contained now, and we only lost four bedrooms and the statue garden. Had it got into the dining room or, Armok forbid, the foodpile we would have been fucked. Thank fuck I put doors everywhere. In fact, the flooded hall probably provides a much better water solution for the fortress than the aborted pump and cistern project, though that could still be used for farming. I got some stone blocks ready to build a well, but ran out of time. We could have a hospital down on that mezzanine level , beneath the two rooms on the north of the entrance tunnel, where I was planning on chucking the barracks and the armour/weapons stockpiles. Also worth noting the flood submerged the lever that controls the spikes in the trap system. Might be a good opportunity to deconstruct them, reconstruct them (perhaps smelt some galena and billon shit and get SILVER spears! Badass!). On the other hand, it also means we’ve got water to fill the bottom of the trap with. I suggest linking up the forbidden door to a lever from the dry side and opening it like that. I suppose it goes without saying that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you unforbid any of the doors leading into the flooded areas. I was going to block them off with walls, but then I realised that those rooms would now make perfect drowning chambers for any really irksome nobles that show up, if they can be persuaded to sleep in them.

Also I should note that my Dwarf REALLY IS locked in his room. Do what you like with him: depose him or drown him, but make it fun. Also, there's like five doors between the fortress and the outside and I think all, if not most of them are sealed.

BIG THINGS GORGECONFINED NEEDS:
A reliable food supply, especially if I've pissed off the traders. A hospital. A well. A military. A better entrance with a defensible trade depot.  Defences that will work against trap avoiders and building destroyers. A more diverse industrial base. Lightwells to stop the dwarves developing cave adaptation. A protected refuse tip with an opening to the sky. Coal. Iron. Flux. Magma. Other cool shit.
Also you need to do something to make the river entrance safe against flyers and amphibians. Apparently we have an amphibian man civilisation near us.

Fortress Status at the end of my reign:



And the save file:

Code: [Select]

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?xinxwat4m5l6vc4

Copy + Paste and swap the ! for a i if you're not a music swapping thread vet.

Strike the earth!

[KvP]

Explain to me how to build channels upwards into the sky! Thx

[KharBevNor]

It's quite easy!

You can't.

[ackblom12]

Oh yeah, I 'd like to join the shenanigans as a Dorf please!

[KvP]

It's quite easy!

You can't.

I mean like, how do you build a chimney for a forge, or an aerating shaft for an indoor refuse pile. I would like to know how to create a (mostly) sealed fortress.

[KharBevNor]

You go to the surface, and you dig down. Or I suppose you might be able to dig a stairwell upwards and then deconstruct it from the top down, but it's not something I've ever tried. Also I'm fairly sure you'd still have to channel out the top set of down stairs from above, because building stairs upwards doesn't penetrate the level above in the same way building stairs down does.

Forges don't need chimneys btw (bit of unrealism there). One place it is REALLY good to have vents though is the butchers shop.

[Boro_Bandito]

Alright, lets just see if I can have a go at this without killing the fortress before its the next player's turn, 'twould be a shame to end such a good story so early. I'll try to have the first update up in a couple hours, just got off work but ready to get crackin'.

[Ozymandias]

You can build stairs upward, you have to actually construct the stairs first, though, ('b' 'C' 'u'), then go up a level and designate your downward stairs on top of them.

I think.

[KharBevNor]

I played on a bit longer. Here are some fun facts (consider them gifts from Armok)

There's native gold just a little east of the industrial area, in fact there's some where I've designated those two undiggable rooms.
There's a huge fucking cavern about five z-levels below the fort. Don't try digging down anywhere north of the staiirwell either.
Shitloads of migrants incoming.

Whether goblins and stuff like that attack you is a combined function of your population and the wealth of your fortress. Since we just hit gold and got about eight more dwarves, I think fun should be starting fairly soon.

Oh yeah, also, you might want to try and rationalise the job settings a bit. In the flood panic I ended up basically just giving loads of dwarves masonry, mining and carpentry depending on what I needed to do at the time.

[Boro_Bandito]

28th Obsidian 1052:
Its been a year since I joined this expedition to the middle of nowhere, following on the heels of an insane man's dream. Don't get me wrong, KharBevNor is a good dwarf, lord knows that his strength and skill with a pick is well known, but this isn't the first time that his religious fanaticism has gotten him in trouble. In fact that's partly why the council let him go off on this mad quest of his, I think they were actually a little relieved.

It was my professional respect for him that made my fool head follow along on this journey, knowing that wherever he goes, I believed the good earth would provide for us with rich ore for me to craft into fine things. I suppose that it was my naivety that kept me from understanding that he was perfectly serious about all that bull-crap of the world ending, and, being the only dwarfess to make the trip, what started of as being awkward became downright dangerous until other migrants began showing up. Thank Usen Fortressrock that scar of Stockades that there are other women here now! I don't know what exactly he was thinking one dwarfess could do with six men... Usen I need a drink.

Anyway, since the date has come and gone that Armok would “rain down from the skies with the fury of a thousand rain-cursed buzzards” Lashedgills has locked himself in his quarters, after the flooding incident I don't think he was prepared for such a shock. On top of that, apparently he had been harboring some feelings for me that he confessed in a drunken stupor when I tried to confront him about carrying on with establishing our home here. I let him down easy as possible, it really hasn't been his week!

Anyway while he's gone off sulking its left to me to run this junk heap now, Gorgeconfined has had a decent start but I feel that it will be impossible for us to continue without setting up some decent trade. To do that I'll need to widen the corridors to the surface and being construction on more competent above-ground fortifications, with a possible courtyard and statue garden so nobody becomes even more afraid of the outside world than they are already, tales of the sky falling on our heads, honestly.... I'm keeping Jeans on as our broker, the lad is a bit simple but he seems fond of numbers almost as much as killing cats and crossbow bolts Usen bless him, and he will be critical in dealings with the outside world, as long as we don't let him alone near the trade caravan's pack animals.

1st Granite 1052:

Construction on the new entrance to the fort moves along slowly, but surely, I've set the miners to the task of building a much larger surrounding wall atop which heavier fortifications will be built. Around that I plan on building a moat over which a drawbridge will be constructed. This does not clash with the current plans for making the inner fort secure, which I found scrawled on the back of a napkin at the base of the door of KharBevNor's quarters, his magma pit with spikes is a good plan, but I intend on establishing a first line of defense that will allow a little fresh air every now and then. I've also ordered the outside trade depot to be torn down, and an area previously used for stone storage will become our depot, inside, where our goods and the traders will be safe, and under our watchful eye...

16th Granite 1052:

It seems we've run into a rather stinky problem. Lor's poor corpse has created a miasma straight through from her watery grave at the bottom of the stairwell straight up to the workshop level. Unfortunately no one can go down to retrieve her bloated corpse, or no one wants to...

Oh my, it seems to be spreading.

...Dear God.

OOC: Ok, not a whole lot of time to play tonight, I'm still really unfamiliar with a lot of the game's concepts and I don't even really seem to grasp the concept of stairs, I think I've trapped everyone below-ground in an attempt to make a wider staircase underground.

[Buttfranklin]

hahaha awesome I have an office!

I chuckled heartily, Khar, and I'm looking forward to more updates from you, boro!  This is fun!  just wish I had the time to spare to contribute something to it myself than just reap the laughs

[Johnny C]

it took exactly one turn for the fortress to fill with a godawful miasma