Settling a 7x7 Volcano Pillar in Dwarf Fortress

the ritual to placate the volcano Spirit these dwarves swore to defend requires sacrifice that ultimately leads poorly geared soldiers to war against the force 10 times their size the rumbling font of magma was supposed to be a blessing but this one thrums with a foul curse and it isn't that I'm constraining myself to only using this tiny pillar that reaches down all the way to the magma sea that means I have nearly no supplies to build an army but I'm not allowing myself to raid enemies to make up for the lack of resources until threats from afar can show up at the door I'm leaving permanently ajar can The Devout dwarves Purge the world of those who would under the ancient holy site they've sworn to protect or will death's grip ultimately cool their fervor the first three problems are immediately apparent as soon as they arrive the entirety of the available arable land is a single level of fungus covered soil that the animals they brought start their graze on each level is only large enough for a single workstation so the economy will be a sprawling mess spanning all 80 stories and forget rarer resources even basic stone is extremely finite not but the lava around them is endless ghosts immediately make themselves known to the newcomers though their ghastly whispers are unintelligible and no one can make out what they're trying to say The Dwarves Mine deeper still until they find that one single level in the middle of the pillar is made of soft soil instead of hard rock but that still only leaves them with nine tiles they can actually grow crops on I'm not sure that Mansion meetings and calling this Fortress a mansion is awfully generous is going to have much Brewing going on but it should support a small population that doesn't mean there isn't hope Merchants arrive and we ask for precious iron and next year's shipments to help make weapons the Traders offer a couple light jokes about how there's no way that a fortress that barely has any iron of their own could ever amount to much but Aesop the leader makes a lighthearted joke back about that being a bold thing to tell your future boss there isn't any malice in either of their eyes as they all exchange laughs the Traders here have fairly little for now but we will buy a black bronze bar with the extra Anvil some hilarious suppliers sent in the original Wagon it's going to be crafted into something spiritually important though niceties feel far off while dwarves eat and sleep in a cramped dining hall and dorms that doesn't stop the first of many migrants from coming to join in the Holy shrine's defense hopefully they don't mind the miasma these creepy crawlers infest The Fortress and keep dying the corpses rot and start to leak the miasma but there's no real good way to get rid of them the first attempt at dumping them off the edge is a good reminder that lava splashes and grass Burns there's mostly animals gone right off the bat including whatever a fluffy warbler is oh and there's the first dwarf gone to join the ghost from this Expedition the volcano rumbles with a bubbling wrath while the ghost wailing grows incessant and desperate more of the crawling hands come to die blank the crops and threaten to starve everyone the sickening match ceremony of ghostly whales and rotting stenches infest the thoughts of everyone here until only meditating on murder quiets those low howls did dwelling on such things always make them discontent more and more crawlers drop dead in full View and no one here reads sign language they miss with the Kang hands spell out almost starving The Fortress was not an accident nor was it an act of malice a subtle desire coalesces in their mind no less naturally than any other idea is coming to all of their minds at once the dwarves find themselves digging down and down and down until they find the magma sea closer to the land's core it's from here that the bubbling red life blood is pumped up to surround the Fortress and it is from here that we will throw our offerings to the volcano Spirit the pests are plunged and the magmas rumbles grow almost intelligible as the gnawing Whispers simultaneously fade it's all too easy to find an addictive Serenity in the low notes to replace a cacophony a magma field smelter is nice but accessing lava on another level for a forge requires yet another sacrifice psylab wasn't always bad with words but it's just so hard to think with all the eerily quiet noise clouding his mind he barely seems to understand what's happening when the votes come in and his fate is sealed before he knows it he's assigned to the Cubby but he refuses and wanders off listlessly he makes his way to a temple and prays to the god of safety then meditates on the very essence of what makes a fortress run he thought it was freedom and hope but now something cold yet close tell him that Duty and sacrifice are the most noble traits that one can have good God I'm actually starting to feel sorry for it but not that sorry joining the magma for eternity is Noble as is providing the Fortress with the opportunity to build a magma forge on the level above the Alcove rest in peace cylob there isn't much ore to mine out inside the pillar so weak copper weapons will have to do for now which is very unfortunate because migrants arrive immediately afterwards to push the Fortress above 30 dwarves the game accounts for the wealth of the Holy site we aren't touching when determining how big it thinks we are and thus what our population should be so this migrant wave is massive but it also accounts for that when determining how big raids are while you normally can't be attacked until you have 80 dwarves I change the game's settings to start throwing sieges at us at just 30. that means a hard-hitting attack could strike any day now most dwarves are left with little work to do but plenty of time to meditate on death disease and fortresses their Lively debates prompt the first religion to ask for a temple it's understandable but problematic all the same because these require a fair amount of displayed wealth though a gold statue and altar are enough to anoint kib to the position of the Sacred bulwark that's half of the valuable medal from the entire pillar gone while more dwarves Rubble about when their religion will get a temple but that isn't all of the valuables gone someone brought a scroll on how to control the wind perhaps to better spread an eruptions Ash and the volcano's delighted bubbling is obvious that's all the encouragement that anyone needs to start building a library scribes and Scholars will make new codexes and replicate what's here it doesn't take long for the first of many foreign academics curious about the volcano's wonders to seek passage here so they can State their curiosity the sacred boar kib though knows either too much or nothing at all he claims the lava's bubbling is actually warm Whispers he can understand the voices break him until he's nothing but a babbling fool pacing about his former Temple above the nonsense though rise a few repeated words no that's definitely just a side effect of drinking miasma tainted booze right everyone tells themselves that making a crop of pigtails to make paper sheets from will both stock the library and make sure that they aren't imbibing the same rot that broke Kim is this the wrong way forward for them people go missing in the lava Spirits abound and there are always more memorials to the dead to place but no one finds it strange some are consciously aware that they probably should but no one asked for a different path even when children are so used to death that they play atop freshly installed coffins everyone the Diplomat sees is all smiles even as we ask for the basics when Traders arrive next year this year's Merchants are going to get all of our Exquisite food silver goods and even a gold figurine for the Cornucopia of all eight iron pieces they actually brought when that's all we asked for do these trade bring so little because it's a long trip from the Homeland or because they fear this volcano and don't want us to usurp the capital they came from every good dwarf dreams of Steel but that needs plentiful iron and charcoal we have little iron and we're almost out of logs in the Fortress there are at least enough for a few bars of shining Dwarven Nirvana though Unfortunately The Whispers In Their Ears telling them to burn it all causes them to make ash from the logs instead of charcoal that problem can be fixed but doing so uses up the last logs The Fortress has moments later the sect of demons seek a temple that goes in right beneath the sective sanctuary the last gold bars in the Fortress decorate it but there's no jealousy yet welcoming the sect of demons prompts The Whispers to encroach on vulnerable Minds yet again not everyone hears them clearly but a single urge is obvious The Fortress needs more weapons the books here aren't enough not for long we need soldiers a full Squad ten proud doors even if most will only have a simple weapon to train with for now armor is really overrated the dead can feed the heat as a reward for their bravery and service steel is steel is overrated apparently we have charcoal now but a miscommunication means that the precious marble that was needed as flux Stone to make steel bars was instead used for coffins that can't contain the fortresses looming Doom to atone for their failure the dwarves turned the black bronze that first thing brought from the outside world from those traitors into a figurine that will decorate the Temple of the sect of demons everything that brings their Temple closer to completion amplifies The Whispers they're louder stronger but the tan is the one to lose themselves they're too much he's too little they're too right the raving madman screams are directed at the walls but dwarves can hear him from a dozen stories above how can you not understand how could you why can't you understand it how do you expect me to explain it to them how could you but you can't but you have to but you can't we've been able to be Siege since the population hit 30 which means that we could have rated others but we only start now that we have a full Squad with weapons the dwarves crossing the the bridge for the first time since arriving here a year and a half ago are happy to leave Daton to his Babylon they risk death not for metal or for well but for precious reading material they pilfer to supplement the library it doesn't matter what subjects it's on all that matters Is possessing all of it for some reason they're not really sure why with a Fresh Victory and a fresher Temple kogas ascends to the head priest of the sect of demons with a fitting title her holiest of sins she starts a sermon and newcomers flock to her channel the volcano's desires prove or worth the volcano's Eternal Blessing by equipping a full Squad in Metal Gear looted from those who had raised the holy sights an Elven Caravan arrives because they've heard we don't venture out to cut trees but we scare those flammable Tree Huggers off by showing them what we do to the logs we do have everyone's proud of it and laughing about what they've done until the fortress's manager suddenly goes slash she enters a trance-like stance at a workshop and money knows that she works their libraries are greater so they are greater do not mosque them until you can steal their books and firm their homes she snaps out of the trance as she eventually finishes a crown fit for kings of this land everything will belong to us in time with the bureaucracy handled by others Aesop the mayor has joined the military to prove his might and defend this place a fearsome Titan appears but Aesop only needs one punch to blow it apart like some kind of anime that would never work he leads raid after raid after raid to gather more books and hone his skills in combat with so much of the library coming from abroad it's little wonder that administrators regularly meditate on murder with the support of the largest temple Aesop is easily re-elected to continue leading Mansion meetings in unrelated news the first level of memorials is filled and a corpse rots in the cellar despite any complaints about the miasma Mansion meetings is 90 strong and the library continues to grow a third Squad of missionaries forms with their meager web weapons in hand and no armor just before Traders arrive we request a long list of metal logs and flux for next year just like we did last but that similar request Nets a laughable haul of mostly leather that's very easy to buy out why even have Merchants if they won't help Aesop remembers to jot their names down so they can be punished when Mansion meetings rules the civilization and the world without more than a hint of flux coming every year it looks like steel will forever be out of reach that means that iron weapons are the best we're gonna get anytime soon so Logan gets to work on an entire set of these fortunately they're ready before an Eaton arrives and a squad returning with a fresh book gut the Beast the Eaton's blows weren't much of a threat but cleaning all that blood off might be pretty hard goblins might hit harder though they have more gear than the entirety of the Fortress but parlaying with these dirty creatures is out of the question with the geared equivalents away from home and the golden Savant still figuring out which end of the sword to swing around only the more experienced Twilight of channels can keep a safe a few straggling civilians charging to die or flee but yet cut down goblins and croach cross the bridge but put their backs to the lava as soldiers emerged to fight back the mayor asab is once more fighting on the front lines for his home the combat is quick and goblins get a fitting end with not but a spray of flames those that don't meet their fiery demise leave gear that actually fits some dwarves meaning we're now a lot stronger to make up for the experience that their blades carved from this place a wear monitor which I think is some kind of lizard tries to attack but that only serves to let ASAP be the hero once again he cleaves the huge beast in two with one blow before it can infect anyone with its foul curse not that there aren't occasional problems a corpse in the well spews blight everywhere and it's impossible to actually fish the body out it's fine they're honestly used to miasma infused booze at this point Some Humans assume the Goblins weakened us and attacked with a huge Army to try and get revenge for stealing one of their books but they too found to understand what real strength is a few deliver a wretched blow each and they do kill some of the unarmored dwarves in the second Squad but there are plenty of fresh recruits to replace those that now rest with the lava only the truly worthy amongst the living will earn a promotion to the first Squad and the armor that that entails or well will entail we're still struggling to actually equip more than just Squad captains the dropped gear here is not going to help too much the humans didn't even have the decency to suck their guts in and wear something that fits a dwarf since it isn't part of the Holy site that we haven't been touching crossing the bridge to grab it melt it down and repurpose it into proper Dwarven armor is allowed more and more raids come from forces angry about the raids but each only adds to the metal bank here as they die again and again and again a forgotten Beast does cause some more trouble while soldiers are all out looting a huge tomb and though it kills a dozen civilians we looted so many precious books that it's hard to say that it wasn't worth the trip Scholars continue to visit the expanded Library we have to take a look at the impressive range of 47 titles like the dwarf and the dwarf the truth we have a queen too Mel Bill a woman of no real Renown or a note has just decided to become Queen of the entire civilization hmm she values sacrifice yeah she definitely fits right in here oh she didn't just decide to become Queen for no reason she ascended to the throne because our Capital that clearly did not have a volcano helping them out was conquered by a goblin Siege now there's a thousand Strong City of our enemies there with the most important Dwarven artifacts and written material in known history a smaller Goblin Force followed the refugees here but neither they nor the beat dogs and they rode in stand for long we're gonna show their kin what a real raid is soon though after two and a half years of sending unarmored dwarves into combat it is so nice to see all these squares turn green as everyone finally puts on decent well one Squad gets decent armor anyways the others only get scraps and I don't see that changing this decade either way that's the volcano's request to fully outfit a squad and what our enemies brought here fulfilled the big names all descend towards the depths they're the religious leaders armored soldiers bureaucrats and of course the queen herself it is a little bit too cramped here but this is where the lava is closest to everyone the holyson kogask once again lets the volcano Spirit seep into them and speak through them we have proved we are worthy but we haven't proved that we believe enough if we sacrifice the fortress's most valuable Goods to the lava it will give us the strength to reclaim Dwarven Treasures from the Goblins that conquered our Capital managing that which silence those that doubt Melville because she again has no real accomplishments to her name so the queen immediately agrees to do whatever it takes to let our 30 dwarfs stand against the Thousand Strong City the Elven civilization to the South has some 300 people the only 60 guard the books on surveying the land to know where the Leyland is that we should sacrifice everything too while the soldiers gladly take their writings off of them the other dwarves work on a throne room for Mel bill with two gold statues and displays showing off artifacts and crafts then completed with a silver Throne it does borrow from the religious groups but they're happy to support her in her cause but even with all that this still is not nice enough to be a royal Throne Room the artifacts we take back from the Homeland should give it that last push though maybe people could stop throwing their dirty socks around like it's some teenager's bedroom and then it would be royal the elves fall and we have everything we need the Whispers around rise into a chorus of whales that sound awfully like some of the Departed devout 60 pieces of written Matilda are in that library and the dwarves start working on a platform above the boiling red lava to house all of it a pyromaniac even starts a fire to celebrate the imminent blessing someone else drowns which is a horrible way to go but I guess I chose that over the Wildfire raging above that ultimately claims seven the platform is complete the bookcase is installed and dwarves Ferry the written material up here someone stabs themselves to indulge in ritualistic Bloodshed covering the paper about to be dunked and burning red in their own crimson red Olan the manager gets kinda horny about the impending sacrifice but after a few trips the library is completely moved some choose to stay on the platform and join the lava instead of leaving and no one tries to stop them cylob's original partner from the first 12 dwarves does the deed and sends everything crumbling down into the lava Everything Burns to dust immediately completing the ritual and was it wasn't Donald burning some of the books are made from a magma proof Stone and don't burn really game I'm trying to tell a story here power courses through their veins as the soldiers turn their Gaze on the former capital there's 30 of us and a thousand of them this is a fair fight marching there attacking and returning takes a month and a half but they return with disgusting Tales of Traitor dwarves helping the Goblins only 28 soldiers returned but they each took at least one life before the alarms were sounded and they were all forced to flee they're empty-handed though the dead are replaced and the dwarves head out again while gone goblins and elves joined forces after realizing the foul aura that now hangs about this Tower they attack at the same time but with Holy Fire behind them it only takes a few dwarves with weapons and a bunch of civilians with nothing but their fists to fight back and carry the day with this much unnatural strength it's little wonder that despite being horribly outnumbered the EXP variant soldiers were able to sneak in and reclaim every last Dwarven artifact and book all seven of the artifacts are weapons of some sort which is kind of telling about the civilization as a whole but that honestly fits here a couple of special maces decorate the throne room which is finally fit for a royal subject just don't look at what anyone else wants because the remaining artifacts are going to go to the sect of demons for their support and help with the ritual that allowed this all to happen it turns their small Church into a proper Temple complex that everyone can worship at in the years to come after all three fourths of the world still have their books what power will we manage once we've truly burned everything this has been a ton of fun and I hope you liked this video but it has me craving a less restrictive playthrough with a grander scale was this me injecting too much story in on my own or do you want to see just as much of this as you do the gameplay when I conquer the world in my next and most epic run yet make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out

Channel: Just Don't Die

Views: 36,340

Keywords: Dwarf Fortress Challenge, dwarf fortress hard, dwarf fortress

Id: fK6OsCEKDl4

Length: 20min 25sec (1225 seconds)

Published: Fri May 12 2023