Let's play King of Dragon Pass, just as our ancestors did

5 then. Let sleeping spirits lie. We don't need to incur any wrath.

Fine, it's magic mining time. 3.

Year 1336, part 7

For those of you who weren't keeping count, Destil made the vote a three-way tie. But before he did that, it started getting slightly windy in northwest Washington, so I made a snap judgment.



U LEADIN: Bad

Note to self: must send Yerestia on more heroquests

Anyway, this turned out for the best -- the "snap judgment" part, I mean, not the part where our neighbors wouldn't know magic rocks if they took one to the face -- since although my power didn't go out at the time, it did the next day.

Dark 2

And if you've been paying attention, you might be thinking, "Didn't we just do Dark 2?" But if you've been paying more attention than me, you might have realized two updates ago that when I wrote "Dark 1," the next screen clearly showed it was still Earth. My one gripe with the interface is that there's no clear indication which half of a season you're in (as far as I know).

If you are reading this LP after the fact, then you have no idea what I'm talking about, because I already corrected those posts. Sorry about that.



So, Dark being Dark, I decide to spend a turn on ~mysteries~. Barntar obliges by giving us the Plowsong blessing, which is helpful if you are bad at the game and for some reason don't have enough cows.

This is not -- strictly speaking -- what I wanted.



I didn't want this, either.

Screen shows Charge, but I changed to Skirmish at the last minute, since Skirmish counters Charge and you just know there's no way trolls ain't gonna Charge.



Thus, this.

And then this



Let's find a more permanent solution this time, yes? I didn't grab the ring's advice this time because I don't know. But here's what they said last time.

The gods demand blood and cows are for milk and meat SACRIFICE THEM to whichever god would look most favorably on blood sacrifices. Alternatively, if there are clans we want to get on the good side of trading may be an option. Recommends #3 or #5

Sorry, Mogri from the past. You can't point out a legal loophole and then not expect me to exploit it! EnThrall them! (#4)

Once again, if you want to sacrifice them, mention to whom. (I'll try to check if our ring has any relevant advice here, since they can say something important on this subject.)

5 again.

Sacrifice to our ancestors. We don't want another incident.

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

capsban

Sacrifice them! It's a bit fucked up, but I doubt Humakt would mind.

I'm definitely up for a sacrifice, though I have no idea which god does what.

Kill kill kill

2 - Just kill em and be done with it

Just checked -- the ring is expressing frustrated over dealing with these guys again or repeating advice from last time. Iskalli mentions, "The spirits of our ancestors are exasperated with us, as they watch us fret over trollkin." Insterid adds, "They will stick to this clan like ticks unless we kill them." Harvar, Valensta, Arene, and Heortarl repeat their previous advice.

Sorry, I was gonna look up which god to sacrifice to since I couldn't remember which would be happiest with this type of sacrifice and I had to run. I think Orlanth would be happiest with this sacrifice.

I will say that with regards to the sacrifice, there is one correct option and everyone else is wrong. Our advisors aren't kind/knowledgeable enough to tell us, though.

3. Sacrifice to the trickster god!

5 - Sell them to the duck men. Two problems solved!

So there's a pretty clear consensus on sacrificing these guys, but a huge vote split for who should receive our sacrifice. I don't mind letting you know that the correct option has been mentioned. Who should we choose?

• Ancestors
• Eurmal (god of trickery)
• Humakt (god of death)
• Orlanth (god of storms)

Humakt seems closest to the Blood God.

Do him

I change my vote to Humkat. I took a break from writing a paper to do a different type of research!

Eurmal seems like it'd be Heortarl's pick, so it's mine.

We don't want to trick the trollkin, we want to kill them! VOTE HUMAKT.

I think it's safe to say sacrificing them to the Trickster God will kill them just as dead as sacrificing them to the Death God!

It's finally time to give Eurmal his due.

It's a close contest between Eurmal and Humakt! I will cut off voting at some point in the next few days.

Logically speaking, you shouldn't be able to get any deader than being sacrificed to Humakt.

...Unless we killed them again.

Year 1336, part 8

Okay, we've put this off long enough. Let's sacrifice some trollkin.



And here's our winner. This guy will be the lucky recipient of a bunch of deformed, ugly pests.



Somebody's a sore winner! And just like that, we're down 2 points of Magic.

In case you were wondering, the correct answer was... *adjusts glasses* the Mormons Eurmal. Yes, Eurmal. Only he would appreciate this joke of a sacrifice.

Oh well!

Storm 1

Storm season, huh? What to do, what to--



Hmm! Sometimes these problems just solve themselves. Yes, I think we will teach them a lesson.



Don't mind if I do...



This is the full force of their army, huh? We could drop a point of magic on this, but... nah. We're good.



And we get a battle event starring some guy. Who is this, exactly? I don't know, but he's an Orlanth worshipper, so he can't be a total slouch in combat.

Let's throw all our hopes and dreams behind him. He can't possibly disappoint us!



And he doesn't! You've got a bright future ahead of you, whoever you are.

I mean, not that bright, since our war chief position is filled for the foreseeable future, but at least I won't grimace when I see your portrait. So that's something!



Well, that's that! The hated Osgosi will think twice before



...

This is your entire army, isn't it.



Hey! They took out a weaponthane! This is unforgivable, and vengeance will be swift. Once we're finished sowing our fields, that is.

Storm 2

But first, while weighing our options for this month, I notice that we only have two trade partners.



Even for a War clan, that's a little anemic, and we can do better. Harvar approves.



"The Six Brothers have the most goods," he tells us. I think that used to be the Orlundi. Then again, our own goods total is in such constant flux that I'm not sure it even means that much. Still, we'll go with them. I'm not sure this even matters, to be honest.



Here's a piece of news that, as far as I can tell, has nothing to do with anything. File that away in case we ever hear about Hiord in the future, I guess. I'm fairly certain we've never heard of him before.

The end

of 1336.



Yep, we're looking pretty good. Net loss in food this year, but it was a bad harvest. We'll hopefully compensate this time.



A good omen and a nice magic windfall! This is a nice start to 1337. (First person to make the obvious joke gets punched in the nose.)

You'll notice I've already earmarked two points each to Crops and War. These are pretty much non-negotiable. I'll also inevitably throw down two points into Herds. But what else will we do this year?

• Given our totally sweet omen, it might be nice to pump out some trade this year.
• For that matter, now that our goods total is climbing back up, we could try to buy treasures from other clans.
• We'll definitely raid the Osgosi. Heck, we might do it more than once.
• It might be too soon to heroquest, but it's not too soon to plan our next one. Should we try to learn a new quest, or should we send Yerestia on Ernalda Feeds the Tribe or Making of the Storm Tribe in a year or two?
• If we're not aiming to learn a new quest, we should decide on a god for learning new mysteries.
• Should we spend some time exploring distant lands this year?
• We'll probably want to recruit weaponthanes -- the earlier, the better.
• It's never a bad time to feast. Clan Destine throws the best parties in all of Dragon Pass.

Plenty of options this year!