Share your Dwarf Fortress stories

[ThunderNorse]

Do you have some stories that happened in the game or by reading legends?

[Azohan]

My first fortress, a place of knowledge and culture lasted about 10 years. It survived many invasions, from Werecreatues to Hill Giants, but one day a Legendary Dragon appeared. Tha dragon itself was older than the world (my world was ~510 years by that time, the dragon was ~700 years old).
The dragon burned down the forests, the defence forces and every dwarf, elf, human and goblin that inhabited the fortress. Unfortunately for the dragon my fortress had narrow corridors and went deep into the earth, so as he burned my libraries and taverns and guildhalls along he also left a lot of smoke.
When the dragon tried to make his way out he was badly injuried, bleeding and eventually suffocated to death just one layer before the surface. After all the destruction all that was left was a single baby dwarf, forever forgotten in the deepest of the fortress, the baby was the thing untouched by dragon's flames.

I retired the fortress for I could not abandon it nor watch the baby starve to death. Good times, I still play in that world but never wandered too close to my first fortress ever again.

[amade]

In the third year since the founding of Endvaults in the Fatal Horn, the human mercenary Mesm Xetanbathru was in the service of the Fortress Guards when the swamp titan Slonu Waspshell the Mahogany Winds descended upon the fortress during a raging snow storm.

Poorly trained and similarly equipped, the few Fortress Guards that was available was sortied to the surface in an attempt to stop the rampaging titan before it could wreak havoc on the precious livestock that were still kept outside at the time. Mesm, in his heavy armor, brought up the rear of the squad.

Trudging in the deep snow with the wind blasting in their face, the guards were unable to see more than an arm's length in front of them. Suddenly, a terrifying bellow came from behind, followed quickly by the sound of metal meeting flesh. The blinding blizzard had caused the squad and the titan to miss each other by mere yards!

Doubling back, the guards soon found a mortally wounded Mesm already in heated battle with the titan. Joining in the fray, they quickly took apart the titan despite their lack of experience. Alas, it was too late for Mesm; he soon succumbed to his wounds upon the spot where the titan too had fallen.

The dwarves buried Mesm Xetanbathru in the ground where he fell, and erected a memorial to him upon of his grave which now serves as the first marker travelers come across when they visit Endvaults.

[ThunderNorse]

Cool, love these stories!

[Empath demon]

In the year 500, the civilization known as the Room of Bowels sent out an expeditionary force called the Coil of Ropes to found a new fortress in the heart of goblin territory - Chamberpot. Strike the... erm... "earth"!

[eugalB]

I have been playing the all animal men playble civilisation mod.

I had a proud little fortress of mantis men, out to regain glory for their dwindling civilisation. We dug out some basic facilities to get started, managed to start a decent steel industry and got a squad of melee fighters training alongside a few bow mantis men. We also started seeing an influx of pod turtle men mercenaries.

So when the nearby Spider monkey necromancer sent an attack on us, we weren't too worried about it. We knew about the tower and knew it wasn't heavily populated. And honestly, what if a few spider monkey zombies came to us? No big deal. Well there was also a nearby settlement of sloths men, so we might have to fear some extra slow zombies, ah!

But as it turns out, this necromancer raised neither spider monkey men nor sloths men.

A few decades ago, another civilisation tried to make a living in this land. But it's like they were cursed. They endured attack after attack, from beasts and titans. Eventually, they couldn't survive and were wiped out.

It is from the ruins of this civilisation that the necromancer picked his corpses. And they were saltwaer crocodile men.

Those creatures have about ten times the body mass of a mantis man, and their strenght is terrifying. The largest civilised creature around in this world were thought to be panda men, but even they were dwarfed by the reptilian menace.


Our strongest figthers noticed first two zombies and divided themselves to take care of them. Despite the size difference, the superior skill of the mantis warriors allowed them to wittle down the moving rotten corpses. But at the same time, a fetid zombie, a superior undead who retained intelligence and skill in this new abhorrent existence, sneaked up to the entrance of the fortress. He was intercepted by the pond turtle mercenaries, who were slower to exit, and a sloth adventuring swordsman who, as we discovered through a quick exchange of words during the fight, only came here to ask about a book. We did possess some books, which we acquired for a library we were building, but not that one.

The shelled mercenaries fought their best, but this time the difference of skill was not as wide and the difference of power still as dreadful. And while his armor was of weak quality, he had a steel sword and an iron shield.

First a head flew, then an arm fell. The sloth man tried to lend a hit but he couldn't. the main squad was distracted by those stupid corpses.

By the time they were finished and came back to help, the pond turtles mercenaries were nearly annihilated while the sloth swordman was paralysed by terror. They striked with all their might and skill and managed to make him drop the sword. But he held the shield.
At the start of the fight, he was only somewhat knowledgeable of fighting technique, but he turned out to be a quick learned. He kept improving as the fight went on and the iron shield in his hand was like a wall between him and the mantis men. And even disarmed, he still proved deadly as a single strike from his claws could blow away a mantis man's limb.
On his end, his gigantic body did not suffer from fatigue or bloodloss, while most wounds he received were superficial.

Eventually, one by one, the warriors fell. The citisens could have hidden in the fortress, closing all entrances. But Mantis men are war-mongers by nature. this would not go unfinished. Emergency squads were made, using any weapon available. They did not have spare armor, not that it would have helped.
Corpses piled up by the entrance. eventually a miner got a decisive blow on the head.


There were three more fetid zombies and four more corpses. They were slowed by the river after getting distracted on killing traveling bards.





Anyway, that's why checking legends mode before going into fortress can avoid you FUN surprises.