Datanerith Entry 30: The Fortress Upgrades

I've redesigned the outside of Datanerith. The walls have been entirely rebuilt, so the whole thing is a little closed off. Instead of just having two walls that curve outwards and forced my enemies to come in from a particular angle, I figured it would be best to just make it a proper fortress. The fortress is walled off entirely now, with the exception of a single bridge that spans my moat. I've got some archery towers flanking the bridge; my marksdwarves can shoot at enemies as they make their way across that bridge. It's a pretty good system.

Let's see my girlfriend find a phallic symbol now!

You can see I've got some above-ground farms now. I've got rope reed and strawberries. My mushroom farms are still strong below ground - four of them now - but who doesn't like strawberries? To the left of the Underpass, by the pond, I've got my pastures. Lambs, llamas, alpacas, my hen house, and the war dog training area. Anyone remember Stakud the Ranger? Dwarf who killed all those dingos? He's apparently my fort's main dog trainer, too. I decided to assign three war dogs to him and drafted him into his own military squad. He still spends all his time ranging, but now he does so with three snarling, highly trained battle canines surrounding him. He, like Solon Beridos, is available for combat at a moment's notice.

I've also built a snakepit, right underneath the Underpass. Currently there's no way in, but I hope to convert a large section of the trapdoor to drop wary enemies in. Meanwhile, it's just got a bunch of snakes. A black mamba, two giant bushmasters, and some rattlesnakes. And! One of the rattlesnakes is female, and one is male. My hopes is that they'll start spawning, so my snakepit will one day just be swarming with dangerous snakes.

I've never wanted snakes to fuck so badly in my life.

I took the liberty of having Udib design some statues to place at the entrance to the Underpass. After all, when migrants and diplomats make the trek into the hallowed halls of Datanerith, I want them to know what we're about.

This is the first thing that greets all newcomers. Udib really does not like Endok, does he?