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

I like Option 2, too. They probably have a later storyline about getting uppity like those Ducks did, though.

Is there an option to kick Valensta off the council? 'Cause she is clearly not with the program right now.

I vote that we ask for annual tribute and stop killing them. I'm sure there are other enemies out there in need of a good sword to the face.

She's contractually bound by Chalana Arroy to advise against kicking them while they're down. Still a better leader than Arene. We'll see if a good heroquest can fix that.

Year 1339, part 2



Here's the thing about our tribute demand: if they have no realistic way of paying us, then this is essentially identical to picking option 4.

Honestly, though, for the amount they offer you in a one-time tribute, this is always preferable over option 5. We'd probably get better returns if we blackmailed them for the minimum 10 cows a year.



And then I realize they're paying us in cows, not goods. We're not exactly hurting for either, but I've been complaining about being at near-capacity for cows. A quick check (not pictured) shows that we're at about 80% capacity, so I guess this is fine.

Sea 1

Last night was garbage night, and I was going to take out the garbage around 7, but my wife hadn't eaten yet, and she was holding the baby, and she told me to take the baby instead of doing the trash, and then I totally forgot about doing the trash.



So the moral of the story is let's get the Maran Gor prophecy taken care of early.



We learn Blast Earth, a ritual that I thought was available from the start of the game, but I guess not. It doesn't matter because it's not worth using, since it's nowhere near as cool as it sounds: it just makes another clan's crops infertile. If you want to screw with another clan, ask Eurmal*.

Sickeningly



Achoo!

A plague has stricken your tula. About 62 have caught the disease so far. They are weak and unable to exert themselves; some of them are barely able to remain conscious. They are feverish; those with more advanced cases also suffer from a painful pox which erupts on their skin. Several children have died.

Yerestia: The Six Brothers dislike us. They will give us a hard time, but will in the end allow us to sacrifice at their temple. Recommends #1.
Harvar: Sacrifice cows, not much-needed trade goods. Recommends #1, #2, or #3.
Insterid: A sacrifice to Malia guarantees success, if you sacrifice enough. Recommends #2.
Iskalli: Malia is the dreaded goddess of disease, one of the Unholy Trio of deities who brought about the Great Darkness and destroyed Orlanth's time of justice. Recommends #1 or #3.
Valensta: A bargain with Malia is no bargain at all! Recommends #1 or #3.
Arene: We can afford to sacrifice a few cows. Recommends #1, #2, or #3.
Heortarl: Malia is expensive, but gets results. Give her 5 cows. Recommends #2.
Mogri: I'm kind of floored by how much of the ring is willing to throw in with the evil disease goddess.

How much you wanna bet the Osgosi have something to do with this? We should ask the ancestors once this event is wrapped up.

*Or, apparently, Malia??? Intrigue!

Cows for the Disease Goddess! (2)

I have no idea to whom, but we should really sacrifice some of those cows to somebody. So I guess that's a vote for 1, 2 or 3.

Chalana Arroy is the goddess of healing things, right? This sounds like her bag. And Heortarl being in favor of asking the Death goddess for help is as compelling a reason as I can think of to not do that.

3

Deals with the devil are for suckers.

It just so happens that we have cows to spare (even though they are probably infected with smallpox, somehow.)

We actually do have a Chalana Arroy temple right? If we do, we should go with 3.

We have lots of cows now. Let's get rid of them.

3

We've got tons of cows and attracting the attention of a death goddess does not sound like a good idea.

No, that's a different event.

We do. The implication is that Six Brothers has a bigger temple. I think ours is a shrine.

So I started reading this LP about 24 hours ago and now I have found myself buying this game and playing it for like 3 hours.

This is all your fault, Mogri.

Watching Mogri had the opposite effect on me! I decided I definitely did NOT want to buy the game. I appreciate playing it vicariously through this LP

It is a fantastic game, and you're welcome.

iOS or Windows?

edit: I think I've sold at least three copies of the game with this LP alone. I should get a commission.

I know I bought a copy because of this LP, though I haven't actually played it. Grabbed it during that crazy GoG sale where they had a fixed number of codes for each of the deals and it wound up stretching on for days and days.

Give Malia 5 cows. 2.

This game is hard. I can't figure out how to win the long game.

If this game had multiplayer it would be fantastic. Someone needs to make that happen.

Windows. I do not have an iThing.

There are a lot of steps to winning the long game, and I believe it's possible to permanently screw yourself out of the good ending. Just remember that your goal is to unite Dragon Pass, and that includes the nonhumans and demihumans.

In more Dragon Pass news:

The extra scenes are already available on the iOS version, and the game will be available for Android next week. Time to steal my wife's tablet?

Finally managed to beat the long game (yes this is why I was late opening the mafia game today.)

The flavor in this game is so great. Game spoilers below so don't read them if you don't want to be spoiled.

We'll get the next update started, but first, some announcements:

• King of Dragon Pass is now available on Android, with the new content that you'd get on iOS. Get it here.
• Speaking of new content, the story scenes from the contest have made their way into the mobile versions of the game.
• Some dude is starting up a webcomic that takes place 200 years after the events of King of Dragon Pass and I figure maybe that's up someone's alley?

And now, today's episode: a tale of victory, sacrifice, loss, redemption, and more. Buckle in -- this one's a doozy.

Year 1339, part 3



I quietly closed the vote before Gerad weighed in. I think he would have tied us up. We ended up picking Chalana Arroy, which is the better long-term pick for sure, and often just as good in the short term.

Remember that Chalana Arroy doesn't like live sacrifices. We're sacrificing a generous amount of goods (partly for lack of a better use for them).



Everything works out for us.



And here's Insterid with the news. Sadly, we have to say goodbye to the two foreign weaponthanes who joined our clan temporarily.

Sea 2

You asked for it, and you're gonna get it...



Arene for Heroquester '39!

You may recall that Arene is a worshipper of both Ernalda and Uralda. It makes sense from a flavor perspective, but I'm still a bit unclear on the mechanical implications. Regardless, she's eligible for the quest, and we don't know Uralda's quest.



We're going to focus on strengthening her. Heaven knows she needs it. Ernalda's quest will help raise her Animals, Leadership, and Plants skills. We originally chose her for her skill in Plants (Excellent). She has Very Good Animals and nothing else above Good. I'm not entirely convinced she can do this, but let's give her a try.

Ernalda Feeds the Tribe will also help our crop and cattle yield, regardless of the benefit we choose here.

Ernalda Feeds the Tribe



Arene survives the dangerous first phase of the quest. If you have a strong combatant, it's possible to defeat Daga in this stage, but that aborts the quest with bad consequences. Leaving in this stage can throw the quester into limbo.



The elves might accept a gift of magic, but the other options are free. You can't really screw up this stage unless you somehow exhaust all of the options without success.

[size=3]The seed is called Adborl, and it is a burrowing thing that makes a big tunnel into the earth for Arene. Arene goes into the tunnel, where she finds Ernalda's terrible sister, Maran Gor, the earthquake goddess. She has taken Barntar as her thrall. "Your son, he helps me to break up the earth into pieces, so that I can hurl it at our enemies. You think that this fight with Orlanth's nephew was a terrible thing, but it is merely the harbringer of what is to come. The kinstrife he caused will soon bring about other bad things. Three bad gods will force Orlanth to give him their blessing, and together they will make a god that is worse than all of them put together. I need Barntar to help me fight them.

Remember how we had to appease Maran Gor last year by learning one of her mysteries? Yeah, this is her. The canonical option (shown above) is the best one, but if that doesn't work, you can still recover Barntar by other means. Offering her blood will kill some worshippers back in the mortal realm. If you happen to have earthshakers, you can offer them to her instead, but that would be a real waste. Finally, the first option allows you to proceed without Barntar, but if you do, you abandon any hope of receiving the quest's farming-related boons.

[size=3]Arene goes further into the tunnel, where she finds the cavern of Ernalda's terrible aunt, Ty Kora Tek, goddess of the dead. Ty Kora Tek has been collecting dead souls in her cavern. During the troubles with Daga, Uralda and Esra wandered in, seeking protection. Arene asks Ty Kora Tek to release the two bountiful goddesses. But Ty Kora Tek refuses: "What comes into my realm cannot come back out again. I cannot set a bad precedent now and just let out anyone who has a good reason to leave. Very bad times are coming, the halls of the dead will soon be fill to bursting with the slain.

You have the option once again to sacrifice worshippers in order to succeed in this stage. The other diplomatic options are very unlikely to succeed. Again, you have the option of proceeding without Uralda and Esra, and again, doing so sacrifices the rewards related to those goddesses. Additionally, if you abandoned Barntar, abandoning the goddesses as well will cause the quest to fail. You need to save someone.



Ernalda's quest is a candidate for the bloodiest: again, you have the option of sacrificing worshippers. You can also try giving magic. Beware that if you fail to convince the woman, she may kill your quester outright.



But Arene succeeds with flying colors on her very first try. Surprised? You bet I am! This will have some nice long-term benefits for the clan. In the short term...



...Arene is still recovering from the wounds suffered in the first stage of the quest. That's a nice boost to her skills, though.

Fire 1

Heroquests take a full season to resolve, so we've lost a month here. Let's make up for lost time. This is apparently a lie. The heroquest timing is a mystery to everyone.



The hated Osgosi have temporary immunity, so we have to fall back on the Karandoli. Unfortunately, the loss of those two weaponthanes has us tightening our belts here. We can't have the entire group leave, or we'll be easy pickings for cattle thieves.



The Blue Jays take us for all we're worth. To avoid losing a month to these jerks, I just give them the full amount. We should get it back anyway after this raid.



Or... we would, if we were to win. These numbers don't look good. I pump a point of magic and hope for the best.



No! Not Rostakos!

Everyone's favorite trader is on the chopping block. Things look dicey for him. I can't be sure, but I don't think Rostakos is especially good at Combat or Leadership. What I do know, though, is that we need to win this battle. I cross my fingers and pick option #1.

Alas, Rostakos falls. What he could not accomplish in life, though, he manages to do in death: the remaining forces redouble and push through the enemy.



RIP Rostakos. Your sacrifice won us this battle.



The same Blue Jays who watched our army march through their lands take advantage of that fact to take our cows. Wow, guys. Wow.



In return, we have our own raiders. The numbers are decisively on our side this time, so I forego any fancy tactics.



"Don't try to be a hero?" Why is that even an option for Insterid? She's a hero without even trying!

Maybe I should've had her take crazy risks, but fresh off the loss of the only non-ring thane I ever cared about, I decide to play it safe.



The results aren't pretty, although as we'll see, Insterid wasn't actually wounded here.



But our pride was. Seriously? They not only won the raid, but also managed to burn two of our steads?

I don't remember if we were feuding with the Herani before, but we are now.

More sickeningly



The game's kicking us while we're down.

Yerestia: The farmers will take it hard if we don't try to heal the cows. Recommends #2, #4, or #5.
Harvar: I can find shamans to drive away the spirits. Recommends #4.
Insterid: After this is over, we should replenish our herds by raiding a clan with lots of cows, like the Namoldings. No recommendation.
Iskalli: Our magic is sufficient, so we should beg Uralda to help us. Recommends #2.
Valensta: There is nothing to do but to destroy the diseased animals. Recommends #1.
Arene: Incapacitated.
Heortarl: Sick or not sick, our cows are still superior to the mangy beasts herded by the Osgosi. No recommendation.
Mogri: Bad timing to have our ring's Uralda representative MIA. Valensta is the most skilled Animals thane on the ring, but that's a lot of cows to lose...

We should really ask the ancestors about curses once this event is wrapped up.

During those battle events, you can view the thane's stats by clicking on their portrait.

Sacrifice to Uralda.

Then we need to make up our cow losses.

Raid the Blue Jays.

Then the Herani.

Then the Rakstanti.

Also, isn't there a resurrection ritual? You should get on that.

Oh dang! It never even occurred to me to try.

Yes, we could perform the Resurrection ritual, but we'd have to bug Chalana Arroy to learn it first, and then we'd spend a lot of magic doing it and it still might not work. If it be the will of the TT ring, I'll give it a shot.

We're moving into Earth, so there won't be another chance to raid for a few months.

Send for shamans! 4.

Killing the infected ones should work, and we don't want the whole herd infested.

I've never done it so I don't know how it works. But this is a thane you liked so I'd be willing to give it a try for science.

Boo. Think of what Eddie would say!

Windows Update is threatening my game, so if we're still tied, I'm going to tiebreak in the morning.

And we're locked in.

I was wrong about the month, by the way. That was Fire 1. I guess it's only when you fail a quest that it takes two months? The game is super unclear about this.

What this means is we have another opportunity to rain destruction upon our foes.