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Our uniform shall be blood (red)

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Danger room training shall be forbidden.

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Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: April 02, 2013, 10:22:42 am

[Wastedlabor]

~ Moltenchannels ~
(Ardentdikes II)

Prelude:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The small group of migrants stood on top of the hill, gazing the ominously crackling and sparking air over the ghostly walls of Ardentdikes. A robed figure was strenuously climbing the slope. They waited for him.

"By Ilon, what happened?", the migrant guide asked.

"It had to be done! They were tearing down Urist's confinement! Fools! Fools all of them!"

"Is this the Urist people rumors about? The one whose crimes were so heinous no jail could contain him, and had to be entombed alive --yet he continued being chosen to rule this place?"

"He found a way to trick the dwarves into digging him out of his tomb. Time was running out, and they had to be stopped!"

"But, the fortress..."

"Magma was breached over the blood soaked battle axes, and Armok's power sealed the fortress in a different plane. Nine loyal dwarves will guard Ardentdikes for eternity, as no material walls would hold back Urist McDuck anymore."

"May Armok rest their souls! Knowing too much about it won't do us any good, though... So, what is your name, and what are we supposed to do now? We have travelled for too long, and I fear we won't find a safe place to stay before our supplies run out."

"I'm Armok's Priest and last manager of Ardentdikes. Udib Wastedlabor is the name. I can guide you to blessed land. I only ask that you help me build a new magma fortress, for I fear leaving the old Ardentdikes unguarded. I'm sure Urist will try to return to our world, even if the only way is through Hell itself."

And so began the story of Moltenchannels...

DF Version: 34.11
Tileset: The original save uses IronHand. There's no raw customizations, except for enabling human diplomats with DFHack, so replacing the raws with vanilla or your tileset's default ones should be fine.
Ardentdikes thread: here. TL;DR: here.

General rules:
1. Each player has one in-game year to run the fortress.
2. Each player has two weeks of real time to finish their turn. This timeframe may be changed if deemed necessary. Take as much time as necessary to complete the turn, but give regular updates, lest we throw you into the bees pit while you sleep.
3. Once the previous' players turn ends, you have 72 hours to begin your turn before we throw you into the bees pit AND then into the eternally-burning-zombie-forgotten-beast-ridden cavern. You won't get free sandwiches there.
4. If you changed the tileset in your save by replacing the raws, specify it when posting the save.
5. Try not to kill the fortress.

Dorfing rules:
1. When a dorfed dwarf (named after a player) dies, redorf them with an incremental roman number. I.e. Urist McAwesome -> Urist McAwesome II.
2. You can freely play with undorfed dwarves' professions, but try to respect changes from previous overseers and to make the names relevant to the dwarf's role/history in the fort.
3. You can dorf yourself during your turn if you aren't dorfed already.
4. You can arbitrarily name undorfed dwarves, up to 5 (besides yourself), unless there's only 10 or less unnamed dwarves available.

The Ardentdikes style:
1. Try to build a nice aboveground fortress.
2. Magma dikes > Magma moats.
3. A device to cleanse the fortress with magma is mandatory. This is how Ardentdikes survived the rotting extract spiral. Twice.
4. Automated traps that kill enemies and innocent bystanders are awesome.

Succesion List:
1. Wastedlabor. 1 2
2. dhokarena56 1
3. notquitethere 1 2 3 4 5
4. UristTheGrey 1 2 3 4 5 6
5. eharper256 1 2 3 4
Udib's interlude
6. ☼!!Troll Fur Sock!!☼ 1 2
7. Triaxx2 1 2 3 4 5
Udib's interlude II
8. DuckThatQuacks 1 2 3 4
9. CaptainArchmage 1 2 3 4,5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16,17,18,19,20
10. bp920091 1 2 3,4,5 6
11. Urist McKiwi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8,9 10 11,12 13 14
12 (alternate turn). Triaxx2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
CaptainArchmage's (alternate) report 1 2
12. CognitiveDissonance 0 1 2
13. CaptainArchmage 0 1 2,3,4,5 6,7 9,10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Migrant Welcoming Transcript
Udib's Interlude III
-- (continued) 17 18 19
14. notquitethere 1 2,3,4 5,6
15. Urist McKiwi 1 2 3,4 5,6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
16. Triaxx2 1 2,3,4 5 6,7 8
17. CaptainArchmage 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Urist McKiwi's Interlude I
-- (continued) 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
18. Urist McKiwi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, 11 12 13 14, 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
19. Triaxx2 1,2,3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18,19
20. CaptainMcClellan 1 2 3
21. Wastedlabor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
22. notquitethere 1 2 3 4 5
Urist McKiwi's Interlude II 1 2
-- (continued) 6 7 8
23. Urist McKiwi 1,2 3 4 5 6 7 8
24. Ghills
25. CaptainArchmage
? bp920091
? Psuedonym
?. KJC3
?. InsanityIncarnate

Initial save: Here.

Current save: Just check the last update.

[Wastedlabor]

Here's the world

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Civilized World Population

   7949 Dwarves
   15330 Humans
   13545 Elves
   46202 Goblins
   2203 Kobolds

   Total: 85229

The Strategic Bodices, our civilization

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Strategic Bodices, Dwarves
 Worship List
  Moldath, deity: wealth, jewels, minerals
  Ilon, deity: fortresses
  Id Silvergolds the Hollow Echo, deity: mountains, caverns, metals
  Kodor Dawnedbury, deity: rebirth, death
  Dimshas, deity: inspiration
  èshgor, deity: deformity
  Enten, deity: games, luck
  Okang Styledpoem, deity: beauty, art, children, youth, longevity
  Litast, deity: light
  Ulthush, deity: lust, depravity
 king List
  [·] Eshtân Razorbanner (b. d. 91, Reign Began: 1), *** Original Line, Married
      7 Children (out-lived 5 of them) -- Ages at death: 78 76
      Worshipped Kodor Dawnedbury (14%)
  [·] Iden Glazequests (b.15, Reign Began: 91), Inherited from father, Married
      11 Children (out-lived 11 of them) -- Ages:
      Worships èshgor (69%)

Stonesense pics
1089
1096

Quotes

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hey, guess what other dwarves have just done? NOTHING

Later that summer, keas, keas everywhere. Keas down the well, keas in your hair, dead keas in the hospital beds.

The Kinhunter, Urist McBadass, had murdered over five hundred animal people in the Swamp of Decency. He had explained that animal people never wore any clothes and their indecency was making a mockery of the swamp.

Dwarf: "Praise be to Urist Mcbadass, Sealspines the Skewered Basis of Beards!"

Moltenchannels truly is cursed!

At this point, the entire goblin army from last season has arisen as undead. Nearly 300 corpses there now.

For a moment, we were all trapped in web. But one dwarf was able to break free from it. Able to single-handedly slay the beast. A dwarf and his wife, drafted into our gladiator program. A couple with nothing to lose. I dont remember her name, but the girl was the last to fall. I think that was when the tides started to turn. I had looked into his eyes and saw nothing but anger, rage. And what I saw after was something only a lasher master could do. But hes no legendary lasher, just picked up the whip last season. Obok is his name. Unfortuantely, the dwarf went mad after the battle. Still the thing this dwarf accomplished will be talked about for years

Over 40 coffins have been filled with the extra bodies outside, so the space was needed.

What is this "going wrong" you speak of? Things go right, and then they go better. Then they go on fire, if you've really done your job.

This was a good year for lizards, and a bad year for Urists...

Mmh, from the last turn, we have nice magmaworks, we have glass works, plenty of farms, a big pile of forgotten beast meat, sharp sticks, tons of caged unicorns...

Can you point me in the direction of this party?

Just head north until you see a giant pile of corpses , you cant miss it

TrollFurSock went berserkr!

It may be worth noting that after near 6 years we have 130 dwarves and a wooping total of 7 soldiers, 3 of them guards. 

When I flood the fortress, I guarantee no room will be safe.

This place has so. Many. Cats.

There are now no fewer than five necromancers in the field.

Oh, well, I can help you there. You want to put the thingee in the thingimajig, and the other thing goes on top of the thing on top of it, and I think you should just leave the thingiemabob alone.

Complete! We now have a granite armor stand with an image of a zombie being killed by a draltha leather sock. A most fitting piece to glorify our fortress.

So, I guess that we will soon have lots of engravings depicting "elf's corpse corpse corpse left arm third finger striking down Urist McHunter"...

Extra! Naked mole dog washes down dining hall waterfall! Read all about it!

I'm now imagining some poor young dwarf who's just won an election getting chased by a huge wild-eyed mob shouting "ATTEND MEETING!" at him as he runs down the finely carved halls, finally reaching his new office (which his predecessor sure as hell didn't ever use), slams the door and catches his breath before turning around...... to find a row of dusty statues slowly turn their heads and start moving slowly towards him....

"Attend.......meeting....."

That's right, MoltenChannels is so hardcore that the cats give explosive birth!

In so far as you can be safe when you're in a damp hole in the ground that has a bad case of the eldritch abominations (and sometimes giant spiders) with 166 filthy alcoholic midgets who are mostly running around in rags ranting about grass.

It's now raining pancreas down there.

Lots of blood out there. Lots and lots of blood.

The military continues to complain about being on duty for so long. MAYBE THEY'RE ON DUTY BECAUSE WE HAVE A BLOODY WORM WITH WINGS CRAWLING UP THE DRAIN!!!

I just want to say that I'm really proud to be part of possibly the only fortress that spontaneously combusts to ward off attackers. Even though we don't know how or why this happens, we've done a great job with that.

Well then, it's time for industry! MINE! FORGE! MINE! FORGE! MAKE BACKPACKS!

Why on earth would that be suspicious? The forest is always on fire.

Think of it as dinner and a show. "Urist, lets go down and see if someone falls down the hole. The betting pool is up to 250 gold pieces, and ive got a couple people that i know are clumsy and i want to bet on"

I think we've had an axedwarf fall up the waterfall

Welcome to moltenchannels! Where food hygiene is our 17th priority!

there are a few zombies trapped in magma under layers of obsidian burning for eternity, and I have learned that forgotten beasts can still destroy doors when they're undead...

DuckThatQuacks never considered such luxuries as 'floors' to be essential to snipers

7. Kill. Everything. This is quite easy, because the enemy is by this stage worn down, injured, vomiting and running for their lives.

the fortress exterior is currently painted a wonderful shade of vomit mixed with blood mixed with other blood mixed with ash from the fires. And magma from the SHroud

Apart from the dark energy, smashed squads, tantrumming soldiers who've just seen their wife and child rot in front of them for a month, the trails of blood across half the plain this fortress sits on from some shot goblin, screaming patients dying in the hospital and the stench of death, things haven't been going half badly.

corpse-hauling is a good solid profession around here. We've probably got some legendary Teeth Gatherers around the place.

We have a western bridge? I was unaware. (Editor's note: On year 16 -- 16 years after the bridge's construction.)

Isa the forgotten beast is locked in some strange network of what-is-this-I-don't-even, and has contracted forgotten beast syndrome from another forgotten beast.

Yeah, the Vampire Queen managed to kill everything I set her against except the burning man.

And what's grander than being able to watch your deceased loved ones slowly decay into rotting sludge? Really.

Nice job! The fortress additions look like they were made by drunken monkeys.

Fortunately getting rid of the hive that was there and was actually there there allowed the one that wasn't there but was there as well to become a proper hive that was actually there-there and could be used.

Apparently he works with siege engines now. Unusual occupation for a priest, but I suppose they have to deliver pamphlets to the unfaithful somehow

Well, the worst that can happen is that a lone skeleton wipes out our entire military.

Everything was constructed here for a reason. Just, sometimes, they weren’t good ones

this might be kinda dumb but dang is there a lot of magma.

You'll get used to those burning corpse messages. They never end.

Well it worked out fairly well in the end. We got part of our queen back.

You just got horribly burned to death then cast into a temporally frozen hell-dimension, BTW.

Most forts send their soldiers out with dogs. Or tigers. Or bears.

Us? We send a sheep.

I've gone down to the caverns and not found the hospital yet. Either of them.

Actually we have three of them. One was shut down during Wastedlabor's last turn, one (on the surface) is full of forgotten beast blood that kills anything it touches and has been sealed for about a decade now...

...and the working one is...um....somewhere. I honestly don't know either.

Everything has gone terribly terribly wrong. Fuller details soon.

This sounds promising.

Any situation during which you are not directly under attack or engulfed in flames is quite calm indeed. Any simple matter such as screaming in pain, or undertaking not to die a slow, pain filled death of dehydration as your body sucks water from it's own organs is insufficient to disrupt the slow measured pace of the average dwarf.

It took the better part of Granite, but she finally drew up a list of everyone she intended to kill this year:

"Siga and Spos and Uktang and Bora;
Zomus and Slasto, and Gorhax and Aste;
Ijat and Nunur and Spos the Coastal Deep;
Anam and Smunstu, One and Isa;
and Zolak the Silty Servant Weevil."

"And finally, any bleedin' gobbos still lurking oot there."

"Well it sorta kinda had wings and maybe got over the wall in the caverns and is now Sebastian2203 is maybe a little bit unconscious."

"I have travelled far and I was Amxu Thiefransacks and I would know the name of my killer."

"I am just Stukos, a fisherdwarf from these parts," said Stukos as he sliced the goblin in two.

Next time on Moltenchannels: a human ambush strikes while everyone is on the surface, elven merchants arrive safely, and Cutey conducts a plan to kill three of the forgotten beasts by flushing a necromancer into the lower caverns using the lever-action cavern-dousing system she set up a decade ago, in order for the necromancer to raise the many corpses to fight. What could go wrong?

So confident were we that most of the winter was taken up by an elaborate scheme to pick off three beasts by luring them close by dropping peahen chick over the wall and then shooting them from above.

In the end it was deemed more effective to just send in a dozen dwarves to finish the job

Werepanthers really were the least of our worries. No, and here I say this with a heavy heart: our problem was Aste. His corpse, raised a second time by agents unknown, trampled down into the tunnel carved out by the behest of Cutey almost a decade ago. It had been kept tight shut this turn with an artefact floodgate but such beautiful furniture was no match for the might of the twice-raised crab. Before the fort knew what hit it, it emerged inside and there was nowhere left to run.

The remaining might of the fort was sent to destroy him and stem the undead tide long enough for a mason to plug up the hole and save the fort. This might have been possible, for Aste fell once again and though many more dwarves were lost, the undead were momentarily pushed back from the tunnel. And that's when the goblins arrived.

Their ambush was swift and brutal, and many that might have been saved the carnage threw their lives in the name of 'picking up equipment', the deadliest phrase in all dwarfdom. Children ran senselessly into a barrage of bolts as the foul goblins wreaked their revenge for Ngom and Amxu and all their kinsmen slain or still rotting in cages. Nobody was left alive on the surface of the fort, even inside the high walls. The doors inside were locked shut and the remaining 31 dwarves greeted the new year in pain and despondency.

Though over the year they had bested a full eighteen forgotten beasts, it had come at a terrible price. The upper fort was now awash with goblins and over 90 dwarves had died. Udib Wastedlabor had survived, along with Lucky II, Sebastian2203, and Urist McKiwi V. They were still protected by a Royal Mace Lord, but the rest of the survivors were decidedly less useful. There were 13 children, three peasants, three other nobles and three other farmers, at best a leatherworker, furnace operator and a gem cutter. Finally, miserable and in chains and walled in for eternity, the vampire Ustuth still paced. While the others discussed leaving this forsaken place, Ustuth, like the hundreds of dead before him, would never leave.

Edit3: Dwarf (Sebastian2203) decides to go looking outside for new clothes on bodies. Decides carrying giant rock while doing so is excellent idea. Notices giant forest fire. Thinks "There must be socks in there!" and goes for it. Realises mistake, drops rock and dodges the flames. Runs ~5-10 metres then decides to have a nap. Gentlepersons, I think we have our Most Stupid Death of the Succession.

-Udib has decided that stacking things up is more important than mining through to the volcano. Mining is literally the only labor he has enabled.

Current summary:
1. We are still boned.
2. Udib is a lazy jerk who doesn't like killing everyone.

it's turned out rather well. Bits of goblin flying everywhere. Udib casually walked up to clean the traps, then shot the hell out of a pre-crippled goblin. Brutal.

We are now down to three goblins. Can't kill them myself, because of obvious reasons. Unfortunately all the traps around them are jammed with bits of their friends. It's going to take a few years to fix them at this rate, so hopefully the gobbos just walk a little down the corridor. This place must seem like the Tomb of Horrors on acid wielding an axe to them.

[AnimaRytak]

May I request a dorf?

[Wastedlabor]

Dorfing is free for all. Here's the first seven and their gender:

[AnimaRytak]

I'll take the blacksmith!  Name him AnimaRytak

[StLeibowitz]

Name the Butcher of Trees Saint, please!

[Wastedlabor]

Forgive the garbled accents, I use IronHand's tileset on vanilla raws.

Saint Burytowers, Butcher of Trees (aka Carpenter):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

AnimaRytak Chamberbulb, Blacksmith:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[☼!!Troll Fur Sock!!☼]

Count me in for the succesion list.

Also, can I haz the mechanic?

[notquitethere]

Go for the nurse and call it Cutey (for my initials). And can I join the succession? I'm fond of death traps and fonder of pit fights.

[Wastedlabor]

Troll Fur Sock Craftloves, our humble mechanic and architect:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Cutey the "sweet" nurse (amd chief doctor till we find a better diagnoser):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[notquitethere]

How appropriate, I too am fond of mittens and bogeymen for their terrifying antics.

[Wastedlabor]

Spring of 1081
It didn't take long before the migrants started to regret following me, for they barely had time to rest when I had given them already extensive orders about what trees to cut, what rooms to dig, and what walls to build. Fortunately, the land is joyous and the weather tolerable. We work fast and undisturbed, while the emus hunt for insects in the removed sand.

1st Slate
Work progresses well, though one corner of the wall had to be redone as they miscalculated the distance to the stairs. The dirt layer is shallow and we soon hit ore bearing layers. Copper seems to be abundant, and we have found also some hematite and a bit of aluminum.

The levers room is the first one to be useable, followed by the carpentry. Summer arrives when we have barely started to dig some space for the forges. We are still living off the food supplies we brought --hopefully we'll have some accomodations and fresh food before autumn, though I doubt we'll have anything to sell when the caravans pass by.

Summer of 1081
2nd Malachite
Good grief, a herd of unicorns approaches the unfinished walls. These beasts probably are upset we are invading their land.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Everybody went to work underground while the guard and the lumberjack watched the entrance --well, everybody but Troll Fur Sock, he decided to take a break. Fortunately they moved on without bothering us.

18th Malachite
Eight migrants and two children arrived following our trail. There's three generations of the same family among them, and they seem to have been bouncing around a bit. We definitelly need more hands, though they'll have to start working on getting some food if they want to stay.

[☼!!Troll Fur Sock!!☼]

Everybody went to work underground while the guard and the lumberjack watched the entrance --well, everybody but Troll Fur Sock, he decided to take a break.

Long, pointy horns you say? Pathetic, I say. A real dorf doesn't cancel his break because of something like that.

[UristTheGrey]

Can I be dwarfed as the hunter? Also can I get a turn? The above-ground magma has so much potential

[Wastedlabor]

Autumn of 1081
"Your skills are more than welcome, Urist the Grey Boltedstrike. We need someone to start assembling a squad of marksdwarfs, though you can probably keep hunting for another year, before the goblins find us."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

More migrants arrived. We are 22 now.

We installed some provisional beds in the dinning room. We won't add bedrooms this year, as there's already plenty of rooms to finish.



I mandated the construction of a magma chute with bridge gates on the first six levels, so magma can be fed to any of them for whatever needs, including the forges.

11th Timber
The first dwarven caravan arrived. The depot wasn't built in time, too many dwarves were busy with the magma bridges. There's nothing to trade anyway, as Troll Fur Sock has been slacking again.

A flock of keas decided to bother the merchants. The caravan guards couldn't fight all of them at once, so Urist the Grey and a ranger were sent to help. They shot down four.

Winter of 1081

I asked the mountainhomes to send us more alcohol and a few raw materials. The farmers installed a few nests for the ducks. I secretly hope they'll protect us from Urist McDuck, somehow.

The reservoir well progressed too slowly, and it will be barely clean of stones and ready to be filled by the end of the year.

We also installed the first forge:



There's still no magma for the forges. We ran out of alunite mechanisms and we have linked only the two top magma bridges.



The edge of the volcano can't be channeled until the other four are linked too.



The farm area was ready to start producing some food. We butchered a few animals, including some delicious kittens.



The spring arrives. The inner fort is finished, including two bridges that will arch over the future dike. All the planned digging was done just in time. The provisional miners went back to their main professions and the job was passed to new migrants. We also have assembled two squads; The Old Gang has four melee dwarves and The Joyous Piercings have two marksdwarves. They are still unarmored, though, and I've seen our lumberjack walking around with a training axe.



I hand the pickaxe too and retire finally to my arcane studies. I'm sure these dwarves will work happily and make the fort prosper --for most of them, Urist McDuck is only a tale to scare the children.

Save file: Here.