My young army somehow managed to kill 1 cave crocodile and 12 troglodytes in a cavern, at the cost of 4 iron-blooded dwarf warriors. Great coffins have been built to let them rest in peace, and their families have been given superior bedrooms to "cancel out" their sorrow.
The problem? Their corpses are still in the water after they drown, and it seems that no dwarves are willing to haul their friends' bodies out of the water. Also, I need their steel helms and steel mail shirts to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
As those purple tiles to the top-right corner of the viewpoint suggest, miasma has already started gathering. What should I do?
Best Answer
Dwarves will not willingly path through water that's at least 4/7 deep, so as long as the lake remains a lake, your fortress' belongings will remain at the bottom of it.
The easiest way to recover the corpses and gear is then to drain the lake and simply walk through the mud to reclaim your items. One way to do this would be to dig a drain leading into a lower cavern layer, making sure to leave one tile of solid rock between the drain and the lake before you need it. Once the drain is complete, you can channel (d -> h) the tile keeping the water back and let it safely inundate the lower level.
Moving water can drag along objects and creatures, including your dwarves, so it might be a good idea to install a floor grate or horizontal bars right above the drop(s) in your drain, to keep what you're trying to recover from washing down with the water.
If you're mostly interested in not having your dead dwarves come back to haunt your fortress, you can engrave and place a memorial slab, which will put your dwarves to rest just as a grave would.