Fortress Report, 1st of Granite, 257

Greetings. I bring you the long delayed fortress report of the last year.

The first issue that faced us in our struggles was the repeated deaths of many otherwise healthy animals in our now-crowed pen outside the front door. Determining that this was probably because of rampant overcrowding, the chosen remedy was to build a new, larger pasture, south of the first one.

previous animal pasture.

Additionally, a new carpenter's workbench was built next to the woodpile, in order to enable faster production of wooden objects, as well as catchment stockpiles, which may not be all that useful.

On the 9th of Granite, one of our animal caretakers withdraws from society, taking over a craftsdwarf's workshop. She claims several pieces of metal ore, as well as a well cut gem, and proceeds to work furiously. With the pen wall constructed, all of the larger animals are moved to the larger pen.

On the 21st of Granite, the artifact is finished. A tetrahedrite figurine of last years werebeast falling, after colliding with an object, presumably the KOMPACTOR. Of course, with the typical dwarven tendency towards excess, there is also an image (in hematite) of forgotten beasts, and an image of Rovod Palacedrills made from those lovely gems. To keep our artifact mechanism from being used in some unfortunate place, a pedestal is constructed for it, and placed in the temple.

While cats are our favorite animals here in Orangecat, their proliferation is disturbing. To fix this, we have issued orders to geld all but one male cat. This should keep things running much more smoothly, with fewer dwarves getting tripped up on strays. A farmer's workshop is constructed near the entrance for this purpose.

On the 7th of Slate, some more migrants arrive, bringing our population to a total of 112. This reinvigorates our efforts to provide every dwarf with a home, and plans for a housing complex are drawn up. Around the same time, The Foggy Hall, an animal caretaker guild is established, demanding a guildhall. Their petition is approved, and digging commences near the war dog training area.

Housing complex:

Summer comes, and with it, the undead. Our fisherdwarfs are trapped outside the fortress, but everyone else is safely inside.

The undead army is expansive, and our new large pasture proves to be a killing zone, with its unfinished walls. We lose five or six dwarves, as well as our large livestock, but things are otherwise fairly calm in the fort.

A minor artifact appears:

We have failed one guildhall agreement, for the ranger guild. Very unfortunate. I was unaware of this agreement, as it was made before my time.

And suddenly, in midsummer, our militia captain is whisked away by a fey spirit. We attempt to let a child in, who's stuck in the pen,, but she unfortunately gets atom-smashed. The finished artifact is a cherry wood cage, decorated with an image relating to the settling of Besmar Flaggold in Orangecat.

Towards the end of summer, discovered a dead reindeer in the temple. As the outside is still inaccessible, installed a refuse pile on the ground level, to hold these corpses. The guildhall for the Foggy Hall was constructed. A butcher's office was also established indoors, to deal with the dying animals who remained inside.

Fall arrives, the siege continuing. Do not feel confident enough in our militia's ability to deal with the undead who yet lurk outside our gate. Food remains a non-issue, however, so we will be fine remaining in the fort. We do have a necromancer wandering the halls, babbling and naked. Not sure where he came from. Commence a fortress decoration scheme, to provide for unemployed dwarves and to also deal with the huge quantities of stone lying around the fortress. Decide to start queuing up slabs as well, in order to commemorate the unrecoverable dead.

Finished slabs:

Around mid-autumn, apparently wearing thin due to the continued stresses of indoor living, an herbalist succumbs to fey infection. Unfortunately, his demands are hard to meet, especially given that our caravan will not be coming this year. He asks for silk, and while we could strike out in search of caves and webs, it seems unlikely that any luck could be had. The militia is made ready, lest he unleash a terrible attack on us.

Winter arrives, with no resolution to tensions. In fairly short order, the herbalist goes mad, which doesn't require our militia's cooperation. They are told to stand down.

Halfway into Moonstone:

He strikes down some of our other invaders, but is quickly stripped of his abilities of standing and grasping. Regardless, his presence so far is more welcome than not.

He manages to get himself stuck in the start of our glorious pens, which is a satisfying conclusion, for our purposes (the dark hunters knocked him in).

The slab constructions paid off in mid-winter, with a ghostly fisherdwarf being put to rest. Notes for the next in line (who?)

Firstly, the trapped giant, at y=44. You can probably use him as a target for marksdwarves.

Secondly, the animal pasture. All the dead animals are actually dead, as of this writing.

Thirdly, the fort is still under siege. This makes caravans a no go, til the necromancers leave.

A pump stack should probably be built to move the lava smelters up a ways. Right now they're around -99 which is a lot of walking. I had a repeated issue while burrowed, where the dwarves repeatedly abandoned otherwise wheelbarrows in the stairwell, and caused job cancellation spam as they couldn't get them outside of the burrow. You can't place burrows across z-levels in a single selection, exacerbating the problem. Right now, despite being locked in, the dwarves are not burrowed, so be careful about opening the doorways.