It is time, I decide, to rip off a very old bandage - I have not taken a look at the military screen since the utter defeat of the dwarves by the demons. The squads are mostly empty - some entirely so.

I disband the entire militia.

I create two new squads - the Mindful Mines and the Disemboweled Tombs - and I enlist nearly the entire fortress, everyone except two miners.

Despite the restructuring, they are all consummate professionals, collecting their newly assigned equipment and gathering around the artifact armor stand known as the Massive Beans.

Around the dwarves, as they train, have also gathered several of the ghosts that persistently haunt Roomcarnage. Frustratingly, concerningly, none of these ghosts appear on the lists of creatures that may be memorialized via slabs, and so I have no way of allowing their spirit to pass on - except to track down their corpse and give it a proper burial, which may well be impossible to do at this point.

There is, of course, one ghost who I could banish at any time - the spirit of Adil Crushedgild hovers here too, coyly silent as she was in life, even if she has lost most of her uncannyness.

I turn my attention to the upper levels of the citadel, with a new eye towards taking advantage of what I can recall about slade. It is unminable, true, but not from underneath - not entirely.

After walling off the trapped corridor for safety, I order an upward stair to be placed, leading directly up into a slade ceiling.

Once it has been built, I designate a down stair to be dug on the floor a level above.

The designation sticks, and I unpause.

The down stair is dug out before I can capture the gif. I pause again, and order walls to be placed at choke points near the stairwell.

Workers arrive and I watch as they drag the blocks into place. I feel as though my FPS has somehow dropped several ticks in this moment.

I check in on the workers - these to are Astesh Daggerled, legendary miner, and Dôbar Sealyawned, chief medical dwarf.

They are the only two workers in the fortress at the moment - the rest of the fort is brushing up on their combat skills. I expect they will need to use them soon - but still, I am relying heavily on my luck that the demons will not suddenly attack Asteck and Dôbar before the walls are built.

But the walls are built without incident, and the dwarves are one z-level closer to the unexplored passage at the top of the citadel.

I scan the next area up - first a labyrinth, open to the levels, where no fewer than seven assorted demons wait at the ready to crush anything that peeks out. I will need to pass through this chamber - above this, the citadel narrows, and I absolutely cannot mine horizontally through slade.

I take some time to consider the situation before proceeding, as though some other idea might come to me.

There is only one way forward - up. I find a column that will emerge into the chamber above behind a wall of slade, half-hidden from the demons - as shielded of an entry point as I could hope for - and order the construction of a carefully-placed upward stair.

I also station both squads nearby.

The militia arrives before Dôbar. They watch as the medical dwarf lays the stones in place.

As I designate an up/down stairway, an announcement appears - the fortress has attracted no migrants this season.

If there is anything alive out there, beyond the haunted glacier known as the Ice of Ghosts, it has long-forsaken the dwarves of Roomcarnage.

The tile is dug out - leaving a boulder of slade behind.

I am dumbfounded. This object weighs 20,000Γ - surely some biblical weight placed arbitrarily high, so as to connote the idea of the uncountable.

I have no use for it at the time being - moving up, I designate the down stair above, and unpause.

The stairway is completed. Once again, I urge the dwarves to delve upward - directly upward - and order an up/down stair to be built above them.

I am not hopeful that the dwarves will be able to work in this area without drawing the attention of the demons.

Although that is something I do hope I can turn to my advantage.

One of the constructions has been suspended - the chief medical dwarf, Dôbar Sealyawned, has been spotted and interrupted.

I suspend the other construction, and unpause.

I want to scream - instead of fleeing back down the stairway and past the waiting militia, Dôbar panics and flees outward, into the chamber and directly into a pack of demons.

I take one final look at the chief medical dwarf's profile. She is only fifty-seven years old, having been born on the 20th of Granite in the year 1249.

She was just six or seven years old when the dwarves breached hell. I wonder if she has ever seen sunlight.

Dôbar is quickly set upon by the demons - one of the ashen theropods stabs her with its claws, and she drops her pick.

The hellish mob surrounds her, pressing to the south.

Finally the pig monster siezes her by her toe and punches her away and into the wall.

Her death is not entirely in vain - the demons, alerted to the stairwell, begin to make their way down.

One by one, against a dozen legendary warriors at once, they pose no threat at all.

The Monster of Tears rolls down the stairs first...

...and is reduced to a puddle of water laced with butterfly demon goo.

I wonder how butterfly demon goo could have possible gotten here.

Ah, here it is - a coating on the axe of the dwarf that slew the monster. Some of it must have gotten on the axe earlier, and then been washed off during the attack.

Dwarf Fortress. What a fucking game.

It does not take long before Dôbar's corpse shambles to its feet and begins causing problems for the demons.

I could wait... I could let the undead continue to fester and pick away at these demons for some time, until...

...until what? Until more dwarves pass away?

A week passes. None of the other demons appear to be considering the stairwell.

Ah... fuck it.

I give both squads a kill order, targeting the four Haunts of Cinders.

I unpause, and the militia advances.

The dwarves surge out of the stairwell and around the corner.

A haunt of cinders countercharges with a bestial roar, stabbing the militia captain, causing him to pass out from the pain.

More of the militia pours in behind - the pig monster rushes in from the north, the butterfly demon from the east, and a bloody melee ensues.

Checking the combat reports, I am startled to find the militia captain. Wait a moment - I thought the militia captain was killed in the initial assault?

Ah, I see. Since the 'militia captain' noble position is retained separately of military status - and has to be manually removed if the dwarf is demoted - there are, in fact, a few militia captains left in the fortress.

The battle is a slow motion mess of flashing tiles and ampersands. As I watch, one of the dwarves - the mayor, Unib Pageorder - is flung backwards, careening out of sight to the north.

The blow from the pig monster tore apart the mayor's spine's nervous tissue - a death sentence. The rest of the combat report is a series repeated glancing blows as he skids along the ground.

He lies, stunned and dying, at the end of a trail of his own spattered blood. His killer, the pig monster Mangefated, stands alone.

I unpause, and the battle continiues. A spearmaster spots Mangefated and charges - as I watch, the pig monster punches out the warrior's teeth. Another dwarf is lobbed to the north, falling out of sight into the labyrinth below.

This dwarf, fortunately, seems to have survived with minimal bruising.

Amid the battle, the former chief medical dwarf's corpse rises to its feet.

I lose its flashing glyph in the confusion.

It is difficult to tell what is going on, but as I monitor the progression of combat reports, I am encouraged. One of the dwarves literally bites the head off of one of the haunts of cinders.

Others are dispatched more conventionally.

Even the butterfly demon succumbs eventually to the onslaught of adamantine razors.

The pig monster, as I expected, puts up the fiercest fight. So far, the spearmaster has managed to keep the upper hand, but all Mangefated needs is to land a single blow, and that will be it.

We can do this. We're almost there.

I order the militia to kill Mangehated.

The soldiers - even the mayor, somehow - close in around the demon boar, even as it screams rage in a tongue never heard amongst the living.

Soon, it is over. The pig lies in pieces at the feet of the surviving dwarves, surrounded by a greyish pool of goo.

The situation, needless to say, is delicate - several dwarves have been grievously injured our slain, but I have no other workers.

I switch the Disemboweled Tombs, one of the two militia squads, to inactivity.

Half of the dwarves switch into civilian service, and begin taking up other jobs.

I cancel the construction of the suspended wall and stair - I placed these only moments ago from the dwarves' perspective, but when I check the clock, hours have passed.

Like some kind of horrid gravity well, Roomcarnage spits me out confused and scrabbling at lost time.

Once again, I consider replacing a recently dead noble - and this time, I do. Astesh Daggerled, the legendary miner, receives a promotion to chief medical dwarf.

Don't worry, Astesh. Your responsibilities can only diminish from here onward.

Immediately, dwarves begin to die of wounds suffered at the hands of the demons - the first, Rimtar Gateechoed, asphyxiates on the floor not far from the stairwell.

The mayor, Unib Pageorder follows soon after.

Before there is time to do anything else, the mess of gore and limbs begins to shudder and move.

The severed right arm of the former chief medical dwarf, Dôbar Sealyawned, grips and siezes its way across the slade floor towards the dwarves that still struggle nearby.

Most of the demons that were left in the citadel have been overcome - but I cannot bring myself to call this a victory.

The corpses of the slain dwarves must be removed before the final push to the top of the citadel. I order a cage trap to be placed below the battleground - just one.

There are only a few corpses, after all.

As I wait for the trap to be built, I notice a living - and apparently healthy - dwarf wandering down the corridor to the east, the corridor that has been blocked off, which was previously full of cat corpses. One still lurks down here, yowling balefully as the dwarf tussles with it.

Minkot Frillyoils - what are you doing over here?

I can hope that the planter finds her way back over into the fortress, and watch - while I wonder how in the hell she got over here in the first place. She is somehow on the other side of the constructions on the level above as well.

Minkot begins to move, running around the corner to the north and back towards another up stairwell - and, for a brief moment, running past an opening and briefly spotting a couple of butterfly demons to the north.

Oh - I see. Of course.

Minkot Frillyoils was the swordsmaster that was knocked down into the labyrinth during the battle before - and she must have been scared or confused into fleeing downward, into a part of the citadel that is a dead end.

I try, briefly, giving Minkot a solo station order within the dwarves' portion of the citadel.

Rather than fight her way through the undead on her way to the fort, however, Minkot simply stands there in the channel, taking no action at all.

I cannot be sure what is causing the swordsmaster's indecision - perhaps it's the long pathing through the maze, or the undead that loom within view just above, or some combination of the two.

I must try something else. I order the constructions that blocked off the cat-choked passageway to be torn back down.

Minkot herself takes up one of the removal jobs - but her path takes her directly past the butterfly demons again, passing within a few tiles.

The demons, despite their power, appear to have lost the ability to stand, forced to crawl along the ground. Minkot easily and boldly steps past - it would seem that the cat zombies really did soften them up a bit.

By the time Minkot has reached the constructions and begun tearing them down, the butterfly demons have lost interest entirely.

Back in the fort, Dódok Parchfence, blacksmith - the only dwarf with any skill left at the forge - succumbs to her wounds. Many of the adamantine masterworks and copper cages that now decorate and protect the fort were forged by Dódok. They were enough.

I lock the door to her chambers.

Checking around on the rest of the survivors, I find one lingering in the labyrinth - Solon Telllances, lying hungry, thirsty, and drowsy...

...and attended by no fewer than five ghosts, including Adil Crushedgild.

"He has been haunted by the dead lately."

Oh. I bet he has.

To make sure I have as many workers as possible at my disposal, I place both militia squads on inactive status.

I follow Solon for a few minutes - but the screen doesn't budge.

He is, probably, waiting for someone else to come and recover him, and to carry him back to the hospital. In my experience, injured dwarves will very happily die of thirst or starvation rather than drag themselves back to a hospital.

It occurs to me that I will need to engrave some new slabs very soon. I place a new furniture stockpile on the ground floor of the citadel, and set it to accept only slabs.

Time moves forward - but Solon does not.

One of the three remaining butterfly demons pulls its slimy, chipped bulk through the bloody passage below. It will not be affected by the cage traps - only the soldiers of the Momentous Dye can stop it.

I call both squads - all of the remaining military dwarves that can still carry a weapon - and station them just below the stairs, where the butterfly demon will emerge.

Fortressses pass through curious phases of development. The frontier colony, the bustling town, the sprawling mountainhome - but now, in the twilight years of this hundred-year old settlement, the vast halls and extensive passageways loom against the very dwarves that carved them, like a vast dungeon or unexplored city being picked over by dying scavengers. The soft tissue of the fortress has pulled away from the huge shell it once filled, leaving a withered, withering creature that clings to the outline of its carapace and struggles under the weight of its own labored breathing.

So, by the time the butterfly demon has nearly reached the base of the stairs, just three of the soldiers of the Momentous Dye stand ready to face it.

The militia commander, Zulban Ochrehoists, is hopelessly far away, near the passage upwards to the old fort.

Of the eleven dwarves that remain alive, most are elsewhere - gathering equipment, sleeping, or still en route.

I am unwilling to let the demon pass any further into the fort. I watch as it tumbles down the stair and is mobbed by the dwarves beneath.

The battle is joined, and the first page of combat reports looks promising. I know that if the dwarves can surround and beat down their foe in a coordinated attack, they can overcome it quickly.

Alas - things are never to be so easy in Roomcarnage.

I scan the combat reports - despite the hail of adamantine blades, the demon siezes the right lower arm of Tekkud Watchfultreaties between its mandibles and fatally rips the limb from its socket.

The battle ensues for a few more seconds.

Mercifully, the demon is slain - bisected by a blow from a battle axe.

The battle is not without another casualty - Domas Urnprice's foot was bitten, crushed by the demon moments before it was slain.

I cancel the station orders again, and allow the dwarves to regroup.

I check back in on Solon Telllances - now there are eight disembodied spirits, hovering over his quiet, still-living frame.

It's not too late. If I can clear the undead from the chamber above, the dwarves will be able to recover the wounded captain, and I can move from this macabre scene on to the next.

I try a new tact - burrows. I create a new burrow covering the area of the slade citadel within which I wish to contain the dwarves. It is relatively small - just a few z-levels at the base of the structure.

Then, I create a new alert and activate it - restricting the dwarves to the tiny burrow at the base of the citadel.

I am, effectively, issuing a blanket order to all dwarves to stay here, at the bottom of hell - just for the purpose of forcing an injured dwarf out of a dangerous area.

It works. Dehydrated and starving, Solon begins to drag himself along the floor of the maze, away from the ghosts that hover, watching him slowly depart.

I follow the militia captain on his slow, agonized crawl. As another dwarf did earlier, his path brings him within view of the remaining butterfly demons, who begin to crawl after him.

Frustrated and alone - except for the butterfly demon lurking around the corner - Solon throws a tantrum.

I take a snapshot of his status screen once again, fully anticipating that he is about to perish.

To my surprise, however, the butterfly demon seems to lose interest once again, and Solon - still tantruming - grumbles down the stairs and towards the burrow where the rest of the dwarves are restricted.

Solon eventually makes it to the fortress...

...and is recovered by Astesh Daggerled, who carries the captain the rest of the way to his room.

Domas Urnprice, the soldier whose foot was bitten, is also carried to rest.

Astesh, a relatively skilless diagnostician, gets to work immediately.

And, of course, as part of treating these dwarves, their wounds must be cleaned.

The conflict presents itself immediately.

With my burrow restrictions in place as they are, the dwarves have no access to a source of fresh water. The injured cannot be cleaned or given water. Astesh holds an empty copper bucket in hand.

Surely I should, then, send the surviving dwarves back, to reclaim the water source, which was lost to undead years ago?

My heart is as heavy as slade. What would be the point, here at the end?

I lock the bedroom doors, sealing the two injured dwarves inside their adamantine-paved tombs.

I order a fresh set of slabs.

When they are finished, I order them to be engraved - memorials for the dwarves that perished in the battle upwards through the citadel.

I take some time to read through each of the memorials, sitting with each one as it is graven into raw adamantine.

I have them placed at the south end of the citadel's ground floor - a peaceful hall of remembrance, at the utter basement of hell.

During the time I've spent distracted below, most of the undead have cleared out of the former battleground. It is fortunate, I reflect, that the Ice of Ghosts cannot reanimate the remains of the demons.

There is now but one demon left in the citadel.

It is time. I give station orders to the militia.

Gathering in force for what may be the last time, the dwarves of the Momentous Dye begin the ascent.

They pass through the trapped corridor, stepping past cages shaking with undead remains.

I wait until the entire group has gathered at the far end before I give the next order.

Once everyone is in place - as many people as I dare wait for - I give the kill order.

The soldiers burst out of the stairwell and rush the butterfly demon.

As the battle is joined, the dwarves also discover the remains of a certain cat in the area beyond - and a minor mystery is solved.

I let the battle continue...

...and fortunately, this one almost entirely one-sided. Except for a single bite somehow knocking out a swordsdwarf's tooth, the butterfly demon fails to land any hits, and the militia commander puts the creature down with a decicive hack to its abdomen.

That's it, then. The citadel has been cleared, all of its previous occupants evicted, slain, or contained. The pathway upwards, to the darkened passage, the last frontier of the Momentous Dye, lies ahead.

I reclaim the forbidden blocks and order the construction of the upward stairwell to continue.

Once the up/down stair has been finished, I order the slade floor above it to be carved into a landing.

I follow Astesh Daggerled, the last miner, on her way up through the citadel.

She reaches the stairwell, ascends...

...and completes the down stair.

The way is clear. I give the militia dwarves a station order, sending them up through the last few barren levels of the citadel, and into the twisting, shadowy tunnel.

As I watch, the dwarves wind their way through the slade passage, until...

The end of the passage is revealed.

An upward stair! The corrider terminates in another set of steps, that leads upward to...

...nothing.

A dead end.

More disappointment.

Wait.

No.

There must be something here.

I order a downward stairway to be dug on the unexplored square just above the slade upward stairway.

I unpause.

The designation flickers like a sputtering candleflame, choking in a pool of its last wax.