Mafolzasit "Chamberknife" - 120 Early Autumn by Servu

DF Map Archive:

Points of Interest

Δ 22. Outdoor Fort - The Heroes' lodgings

( 120 Early Autumn to 126 Early Spring )
This is where my military will have their assigned rooms. After the area is complete, I can safely set everyone to sleep in room. Generating some happy thoughts to battle the general unhappiness afoot. Every room will have a bed, a chest/cabinet, an armor stand, a weapon rack and a fortification window. The Legends' quarters in the corners will have even neater stuff. - Servu
Δ 21. Outdoor Fort - The new barracks

( 120 Early Autumn to 126 )
Still unfurnished, this will be the new sparring area for my military as soon as the floor above is ready. The barracks circle around the fort and the only entrance to the area are the microcline stairways in them middle, so there should be no fall-related sparring accidents involved. - Servu
Δ 20. Outdoor Fort - Trade depot and firing stations

( 120 Early Autumn to 126 )
This is a floor of grief. When I first started to construct the place I thought of having the possibility to drop the depot and any traders all the way down to the bottom levels. (Sadly, my world does not have elves. Good riddance.)

So guess what happens right after the grates are in place? Thats right, my best mason places a floor tile to the wrong spot and sends himself flying down.

Wisened up, I build a temporary floor to link the depot area and the walkway. Then someone places a tile to the opposite side. No fatalities this time though. I should be happy.

Finally, after painstaking micromanagement with the suspend button I get the platform, the depot and the supports built. I double-check everything. I even examined the pillars that they are, in fact constructed before - very carefully - deconstructing the temporary floor.
Boom! The whole thing crashes down because the floor above was still unconstructed.

I start again. And again the floors are built in the wrong order so some smaller cave ins occur (I'm getting used to these by now), but finally the thing is complete. This time I build the second floor and after that remove the temporary floor. It stands! Hooray!

The collapsing system is still untested. I'm reluctant of pulling those levers since the cave in would leave me with a hole all the way to the bottom level of the fort. - Servu
Δ 19. Poor Mafol Lokumazul

( 120 Early Autumn to 126 )
a few years ago (118 if I remember right) the fort was doing incredibly well. Orc sieges usually bought no archers and even the goblins had been quiet for some time.
At the same time I got some migrants I had no use for. (actually my pop cap had already been breached due to kids)
One of those migrants was a female hunter named Mafol Lokumazul who also had a husband and a child with her. As all of my construction was going on swell already and even dumping was made on time (!!!) I decided to assume her to hunting duty that used to be forbidden for the constant ambushing taking place outside.
During the next year Mafol proved to be very good in her profession; Every time I looked she was either chasing around a herd of buffaloes that often hang out nearby, or actually returning kills. In fact I even disabled my butcher's other duties as Mafol was bringing so much meat home (and there was a bunch of animals that I wanted to get rid of)
Whenever the orcs came to knock on my gates, Mafol always got in safely well before the invaders had even started to move towards my position. Once She didn't make it, but actually managed to stay unnoticed during the entire siege!
During that time she even gave birth to a baby, much to my annoyance since my system was struggling to keep track of all the existing dwarves anyway.
But in the early spring of 119, while Mafol was getting some well earned rest on a grass bed here, a goblin ambush popped up right next to her! They were mostly wreslers with just loincloths and only sporting two hammermen, but still a worthy foe for a lone hunter.
I counted her dead as soon as I saw the goblins completely surround her, but Mafol would not go down that easily. She managed to kill one of the wrestlers by bludgeoning it with her crossbow, only sustaining a mangled knee and hip. But soon the goblins managed to pin her down and Mafol were unable to return any blows anymore.
Then one of goblin hammermen made a bad mistake: he threw Mafol away with a shield bash, causing her a bad injury to the lower body. (Too bad the baby she had with her wasn't as lucky, as it got killed instantly.) But now Mafol had some distance between her and the goblins. She had all her limbs free and had her crossbow still with her. She even had an almost full quiver of bolts for once. This is when I took a look to her stats. Legendary Crossbowdwarf.
The goblins were gunned down before you could say 'thermonuclear catsplosion' and Mafol, while immobilized, bleeding and unhappy for losing her baby, was still alive. I had had my slacking champions ordered her way as soon as the goblins had emerged, so help was not far away.
However, the goblins would not have that, and just when the champions made it through the north gate three other ambushes were revealed. Two of them with bows.
I have a policy regarding goblin archers: Everyone stays inside, no exeptions no matter what. My own crossbowdwarves deal with them safely befind fortifications.
Too bad my champions were already in their sights and the third ambush that consisted of melee units was in their way. Even better, I only had two champions on duty at that time as the other squad leader was sleeping at the time. Therefore the goblins managed to lock my champions at a melee while their ranged units did the dirty work.
The champions did survive (sporting fancy new spinal injuries though), but Mafol Lokumazul would not have that luxury. Her older child was just on his way to visit his mother, so when the aforementioned ambush took place, the kid was cut off from the rest of the fort.
Even worse, there was a bunch of goblins chasing him.
The kid was faster than the crappy wrestlers and made it to his mother just in time to have a nice chat with her before the goblins finished her up and snatched the child. - Servu
Δ 18. Magma cistern

( 120 Early Autumn to 126 )
This area is where the magma pumped through the pumping tower to the east is stored. The floodgates are still to be connected to the respecting levers before I can start to fill it up. At this point the planned uses for this magma are the pressure pipe (see PoI), a noble spa (follow the southeast pipe) and the magma lake (below Bridge of Despair.) Disregard the area below. That is absolutely not planned to flood the fortress. - Servu
Δ 18. Outdoor Fort - Main hall

( 120 to 126 )
While this place would make a nice statue garden, I'm reluctant of assigning it, at least yet, since the levers in the center will soon control the bridges and floodgates in the fort's main access route. Therefore if a dwarf does go berzerk while partying there, he might open up the route for any hostiles outside. - Servu
17. The forest

( 117 Mid Spring to 126 )
It seems I forgot to set the forest level to be exported, but I guess every forest looks the same anyways and paying attention to the trees is elvish.

So whats special about this forest? Firstly it is Huge, and Thick as my woodcutters have never cut it. This is because they never come back. This woodland is the last resting place for four woodcutters, a marksdwarf squad and a human caravan. It seems every time I send someone out there they get ambushed and zerged, either by goblins, kobolds or the local wildlife. When orcs are afoot they usually prefer to assault from here. Nowadays I simply have decided not try to go into the forest. Lumber might be harder to find elsewhere but it's not really worth the danger.

Also, I could SWEAR I saw a GCS there one time... - Servu
¶ 17. Bridge of Despair

( 120 Early Autumn to 126 )
This is the ground zero for the Battle for Mafolzasit that took place just before the update. At least 60 orcs met their end here during the heroic charge my champions issued while bolts and arrows flew to both direction.

(video)

Many good dwarves in temporary mason duty were too stupid to run towards the gate instead of the invaders and were lost to the first few orc wrestlers that made it over the bridge.

The bridge itself is made out of alunite, with two towers (one still incomplete) built out of rhyolite in the middle. It is currently the only route for caravans (or anything else) to enter. - Servu
16. Microcline wall

( 117 Mid Spring to 126 Early Spring )
After losing hefty loads of orcinite to fleeing invaders and my woodcutters getting ambushed over and over again, I decided to raise a temporary wall to guard my outer perimeter. there is a (currently refracted) drawbridge over the northern moat to let me trap any enemies inside. As you can see, there is a hammerorc squad running from my champions currently trapped inside, so I can make sure to melt all their items. - Servu
Δ 17. Outdoor Fort - Entrance level

( 120 Early Autumn to 126 )
This level serves as the entrance to the outdoor fortress. When I choose to let attackers inside, the champions will wait in the corners to avoid missile fire as long as possible. Well at least thats the plan, unless one of them spots an enemy too soon and decides to charge blindly.

The central rooms are the catapult deck. I intend to build catapults facing both directions. Just in case. - Servu
15. The Cave of Terror

( 117 Mid Spring to 126 )
This place used to be a part of my main farming area. My dwarves don't go there anymore.
The story begins from the much earlier days of my fort. I had numerous incidents of thieves being spotted in the western areas, mostly in the Old Fort. I counted this to my military’s fault, who were abandoning their positions every once in a while, allowing my the deeper parts of the fort to be infiltrated by goblin snatchers and skulking filth.
How wrong I was.
The true, much darker nature of this little cavern came to reveal itself during a remarkably large orc siege in 114. The early stages of the siege went as planned, I trapped the two first orc squads between my drawbridges, letting my new siege operator (last one was slain by Sirobkubor) to take pot shots at them while remaining unreachable to their bows. Finally the orc archers were all either dead or too wounded to fire, so I chose to give my three newly trained champions their first taste of orc blood. As expected, the wounded orcs posed no threat and were swiftly cut down.
But when the last one of the orcs was about to get the hammer-to-face treatment a message of most terrifying of nature popped up: Urist McPumphelmet. Planter cancels plant seeds: Interrupted by orc wrestler.
The panic was total. A handful of orc wrestlers had snuck up to my Main Hall and were ripping through any of the defenceless dwarves unlucky enough to be attending the ongoing party. Those who managed to get away ran to my western hallway, a dead end.
But just when I thought my champions were way too far away to rescue the unfortunate partygoers, a hero emerged. One of my champions, Mafol Vabiksedil, Had decided to get a drink during the combat, so just when it looked like the orcs would slaughter the markdwarves I had hastily ordered to defend the hall, the orcs were put to the uncomfortable situation of lying in between a fully armored champion with a battle axe and his drink.
Mafol charged the orcs, giving my marksdwarves enough time to unload their quivers and my two other champions to get back from outside to kill off the orcs. Mafol himself, though was badly beaten and bled to death soon after, but not before killing the leader of the orc unit. Routdevil the Ominous Daub of Anguishing as my dwarves call him after killing most of my planters and a cook.
While this battle was won, I still had no idea how exactly the orcs had gotten into my fortress. I made a complete integrity check to my fort to ensure there wasn’t any small holes left to let invaders inside, none were found and I was left baffled by the incident.
So seasons went and the attack was left a mystery for me. However a year after this, in the middle of the goblin season when I was too occupied of keeping my woodcutters from being turned into needle cushions an another subterranean attack was encountered. This time a group of goblins ambushed one of my legendary planters who was planting seeds on my large farm. While the planter and a hauler were killed, I now knew the attackers emerged somewhere from the old fort, and a squad was set to guard duty in the area.
Finally I caught the Cave of Terror in action during an orc siege in 116. I had been routinely checking the old fort area every siege and finally I witnessed the foul event: When the orc siege entered the map, a single squad (consisting of wrestlers and hammerorcs) was spawned inside the cursed cave! Even better, the guard squad was only halfway back from it’s break and the Cave claimed it’s most expensive victim so far: My only brewer.
And that, my friends is why I sealed off the area.
tl:dr Enemies spawn here sometimes. - Servu
16. Fortress Defences

( 113 to 126 )
My defensive structures are situated here. Above the chasm is the main drawbridge. To the north is my outer secondary bridge that I use to seal any attackers in to obtain maximum loot. When all the greenskins are past that both the inner secondary bridge (to south) and my gate (more south and 1 z-level up) are both closed so the path to the fort is also closed. Making any attacker past my cage traps either marksdwarf food (If they get over the inner secondary bridge.) catapult targets (If they don't.) or they fall to my garbage chute. (See PoI) - Servu
14. Grand Cistern

( 117 to onwards )
After I fired up the waterfall I am having trouble of maintaining an adequate water supply for my fort since the local brook tends to freeze in the winter. The Grand Cistern will become my water storage for the cold months to keep the waterfall and the power plant running and the dwarves happy.

Later I intend to add a water-recycling system (the central pipeline to the west) that will lift up any used water from the bottom levels of my fort to be re-used, thus making the whole system a kind of a dwarven perpetual motion machine, except in a larger scale. - Servu
Δ 14. Pressure tube

( 120 Early Autumn to 125 )
This room will in future be filled with 'pressurized' magma from the magma cistern above the fortress proper. So when the hatches above are opened, I can flood the above valley with sweet fiery death to obliterate any invaders in case the Outdoor Fort falls.

Or if I get bored. That'll work too.

[CONSTRUCTION SCRAPPED] I'm foing to build a giant double helix stairway there instead. This project will probably be relocated somewhere else. - Servu
15. The graveyard

( 113 to 126 )
Due to all of the mishaps this fort has gone through I have a lot of dead dwarves to bury, so this graveyard was constructed to keep tantrums down. Most of the pictures are Orcs killing dwarves, Tired slave orcs (my civilization's symbol I guess) and my dorfs laboring. It's very fitting to have a tomb that accurately depicts the usual life-cycle of one of the dwarfs here. Well, except for the slave orcs. - Servu
14. Old Cemetary

( 113 to 126 )
The first burial site of my fort. When this was filled much sooner than I thought the construction of the main graveyard was commenced. - Servu
14. Sirobkubor's Gambit

( 113 to 126 )
This particular level of the Kogsak Chute has a special name due to an event that took place in my fort's second winter.

The fort's second orc siege was launched and my marksdwarves had shot all the invaders. Except one. Sirobkubor the orc spearmaster was able to take so many bolts that my flimsy ammo stockpile had almost ran out. So I lured him over the garbage chute so that the sweet deadly magma below could do the dirty work. This was successful but Sirobkubor aka Leonidas would not be defeated so easily.

The chute had just been completed and there was a fault in the design: A tiny floor piece was still attached to the wall in this floor. Needless to say, Sirobkubor landed on this tiny strip instead of falling to the magma below. I was not too worried however, as my marksdwarves could surely shoot him down with some time and the bolts made of Sirobkubor's squad. After some time I got the bolts made and started shooting. Then something happened. It seems one of the bolts threw the orc away, to the other edge of the shaft (the fortifications were not constructed yet.)

Sirobkubor killed half of my population. He also kicked one steel clad marksdwarf to the chute. Propably yelling while doing it. You can still see his stuff down in the magma. - Servu
14. The waterworks

( 113 to onwards )
(The tileset change has screwed up everything, go a bit northwest)

From right to left: First is my main water channel (goes all the way north to the local brook.) The stone here was never dumped as a certain orc spearmaster exploded the demand for water.
The Emergency Reserve serves as my water source, should the main supply be contaminated or accidentally drained. It is a 3-level cistern so there is plenty of water to go around.
The Waterlock is a series of levers and floodgates that control the flooding of my two chambers. To the south are some additional pipes I have not thought about yet.
Next is my Main Reserve. This part provides my three main wells in the main hall with water. South of it is the upper part of my under construction dining room waterfall.
Finally, there is the drainpipe to the chasm that I can use if I ever need to access the waterworks again. - Servu
13. Garbage Chute

( 113 to 126 )
This room is used to collect invaders falling from my innermost drawbridge. The Kogsak Chute (Named after my first elite marksdwarf) Usually houses any hostile bowmen that I don't want to engage in a shootout.

Usually in these cases the chute floor is opened and the invaders fall to the waiting magma below. - Servu
11. Momma Catten's Happydays Nursery

( 117 Mid Spring to 126 )
I have recently gotten a lot of children, and especially infants diving down the waterfall, only to be found in the unused flooding system. When I noticed this I promptly locked the door in the north and watched the hilarity.

What is small, pink and powering my water wheels with it's blood? - Servu
12. Dining room

( 113 to 126 )
The usual legendary dining hall any self-respecting fortress has. It also serves as a beer stockpile so my dorfs can eat and drink conveniently in the same room.
The room had a little mishap in the opening ceremony. The magmafall (I just find the expression more natural than magma waterfall) overflowed the room with 1/7 magma. Setting almost ten dwarves ablaze. One of them thought of getting a drink when on fire (My booze was located elsewhere that time). I guess I don't have to tell you which disaster was the more serious one.
Over time the booze was replenished and even the volcano drained above the magma intake, letting me to reclaim the hall.
There is also a waterfall in the center, generating happy thoughts. If you look one level lower you can see that this time there are more flooding precautions. - Servu
12. The Trampoline

( 113 to 126 )
It's a 9x9 room with a refracting bridge covering the floor. I used to throw captured enemies inside through a hole in the roof, then task the lever controlling the bridge to repeat and watch them bounce around merrily. Or I would have if the Bouncing Castle Massacre had not taken place.

This was when I had just captured some human crossbow- and swordsmen in a siege (orcks killed their caravan) and was pitting them in the room. Some minor problems arose.

1. They still had their weapons and armor.
2. My military was bedridden.
3. I had dwarves hauling stones from the above room.
4. Some jerk pulled the lever linked to the trampoline room's door.

six dwarves dead and one legendary woodcrafter tantruming. - Servu
11. Powerplant

( 113 to 126 )
The water to this power plant is supplied through my dining room waterfall And then flows to the chasm.

The plant itself was ready to be opened a long time ago, but the process was hindered due to all the stone hauling in the pipes (for some reason everyone wanted to use the temple's garbage dump instead the one nearby. The plant is currently working a bit unsteadily due to my water supply dwindling above. There is yet no linkage to any machines, I intend to optimize the plant first. - Servu
9. The Cistern of Misfortune

( 117 Mid Spring to 126 )
This little room was made to hold enough magma to let the temple floor fill with enough magma to keep it from evaporating instantly, since the intake from my magma river is way too slow. Too bad that when I connected it to the dripper chamber in the south I forgot to drain the chamber first. Resulting in a !!Miner!! - Servu
7. Circular magmafall

( 117 Mid Spring to 126 )
Finally complete, the great magmafall hovers above the temple. When I want to temporally flood the temple floor, the steel floodgates in the chamber above will be opened to let the fiery death rain down straight to the outer rim of the pentagram, making a nice effect. - Servu
5. Temple - upper platform

( 117 Mid Spring to 126 )
This is where I intend to execute my prisoners. The platform and the bridge are both made out of electrum blocks (the inner part and the pillars are cinnabar) and the execution itself will take place in the center where I have a Pit set up.

The drop down to the temple floor is not a fatal one, but it does do some nasty damage to the victims limbs (hence the puppy below), adding to the gauntlet difficulty (plans around the temple.) - Servu
1. Temple - ground floor

( 117 Mid Spring to 126 )
Self explanatory. - Servu

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Mafolzasit "Chamberknife"

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Map details:

Fortress Name: Mafolzasit "Chamberknife"
Map Year: 120 Early Autumn
Author: Servu
Submitted by: Servu
Date Added: 09/10/2009

Submitted by: Barbarossa the Seal God - 2009-09-30 to 113 Mid Autumn

Awesome entrance, multiple magmafalls, and a room with both water and magma to go into it.

5/5, my good sir. Bookmarked for future viewing.

Submitted by: Servu - 2009-10-04 to 113 Mid Autumn

As soon as I get back to my Dwarf Fortress computer I'll upload the current status and a little video. The waterfall is completed and is running rather nicely. There are many other expansions on the way too.

edit:done

[Message edited on 2009/10/05 at 10:36 by Servu]

Submitted by: MetallicLion - 2009-10-05 to 117 Mid Spring

You can't hide that pentagram in the bottom floor.

Satanic fortress!

Submitted by: Servu - 2009-10-05 to 117 Mid Spring

Hey my dwarves don't mind. They have even scribbled some pentagrams to the walls themselves.

I don't know, but HFS in this map would make great justice. It would be awesome to find some in the only free mountain tile...
One can always dream.

edit: typo

[Message edited on 2009/10/06 at 01:20 by Servu]

Submitted by: Caranha - 2009-10-07 to 117 Mid Spring

Great map, and I loved the stories and your writing style! The "trampouline" room was hilarious.

Submitted by: Servu - 2009-10-07 to 117 Mid Spring

Thanks Barbarossa. I might even get an update up in a few days. There has been some Fun stuff happening once again.

edit: the update is up! I still have some PoIs to put up and a video to upload, but I'll do those later.

edit2: the video is up!

[Message edited on 2009/10/09 at 10:34 by Servu]

[Message edited on 2009/10/10 at 08:51 by Servu]

Submitted by: Obsidian - 2009-11-15 to 120 Early Autumn

Damn, you have seen quite a few slaughters in your time, haven't you. Sweet fort.

I like how there's a bunch of puppies in the middle of the magma pentagon ._.

Submitted by: Servu - 2009-11-18 to 120 Early Autumn

Yeah the place is actually just next to the orc capital. They can siege me multiple times per year, and usually bring full armies complete with the dreaded crossbows.

Submitted by: Demonic Spoon - 2010-03-20 to 127 Early Autumn

Love it, awesome and badass fortress.