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

I thought we weren't doing well on the wealth front... Let's do an alliance through marriage.

1

We're hardly poor. If we get a chance, I want to set up more trade routes in 1341, but we have plenty to spare until then.

That said, Insterid would totally vote #1.

#1.

If Talking Time has taught me anything this year, it's that that's why you have to marry your cousin.

If they dislike us, they probably won't agree to marriage. We have enough magic to give them a ritual. I vote 3.

We have literally a thousand cows. We are drowning in cows. Give them 50 of our stupid cows.

3. They seemed uncomfortable with the gifts to begin with, I don't think more will help.

"Bella gerant alii, tu felix Mogri, nube!"

1

Year 1340, part 4

Let's play love connection!



Or not. Yeah, I guess this is the risk you run doing negotiations on a year you didn't devote any magic to Diplomacy. Ironically, the blessing we just learned from Lhankor Mhy would have helped here.

Behind the curtain: I had to run through this event a few times. Due to the magic that is Windows Update, I had a limited amount of time to close this, and on my first attempt, I got a random event following this up. The other attempts failed because I got something else from Lhankor Mhy. It turns out that offering our magic would have taken 3 points of it with the Rakstanti still not calling off the feud. Good thing we didn't choose that...

(That's also why I have one good more in this screenshot than the last.)

Dark 1



At a loss for what to do in the Dark, I check out our crafters situation. It turns out we have some unique goods we haven't been using. I remove our Plain and Fancy good production to work our gems and greenware. I also add about six more crafters. Harvar mentions that we don't have enough trading partners to support more crafters, but more goods is good, and we'll get more trading partners in short order.



This just in.

Dark 2



After last year's failed expedition, I opt to go for one that's slightly safer.



We find iron, rounding out our crafting materials collection. (What were our weapons made of before??) As we've just seen, we have no way to work any more trade goods, so this will probably languish.

Magically



Hey, remember dragons? This game is about them sometimes.

Yerestia: I knew we'd be up to our necks in dragons if we migrated here. Recommends #4.
Insterid: If it does mean us harm, we're better to keep it outside our fortifications. Recommends #2.
Iskalli: The paraphernalia he carries is clearly that of a magician. No recommendation.
Valensta: There used to be creatures like this all over the continent, but in most places they are now just memories. No recommendation.
Arene: Those teeth of his show him to be trustworthy. He eats plants, not people. Recommends #1.
Heortarl: Let's get him inebriated and see if he spills any dragon secrets. Recommends #1.
Mogri: Arene is a plant hero, so there's no reason to doubt her on this.

Our ancestors took a positive attitude towards dragons, and our magic will suffer if we treat dragons differently.

Dragons are horse people?

Who knew...

Anyway, make out with that Dragon!

Choice 1

As always, Heortarl is correct. 1.

1 I am excited for Dragon times.

Isn't Arene the one with the Legendary skill in plants, or whatever? I am inclined to trust her opinion here. 1.

The ancestors said Dragons were our friends.

1. Let us /friend this dragon.

Year 1340, part 4, continued



Yeah okay.

Yerestia: Provision is most important, for, without food, all other questions are moot. Recommends #7.
Harvar: Hospitality is the most important. Without it, King Heort's Ring would never have enumerated the other virtues. Recommends #4.
Insterid: Defense is the most important. If enemies slay us, other virtues cannot be upheld. Recommends #2.
Iskalli: Justice is the most important. All the written authorities say so. Recommends #5.
Valensta: I don't know. No recommendation.
Arene: Provision is most important, for, without food, all other questions are moot. Recommends #7.
Heortarl: Let's not waste time figuring out what is correct. Let's figure out what he wants to hear. No recommendation.
Mogri: Arene is a real brown-noser.

Hospitality, 4. Going with Harvar this time; no one ever seems to listen to him and I think it's time we threw him a bone.

We/you have seen one dragon so far. Why isn't there an option for "Tell Yerestia to shut up."?

One thing that will actually happen in this game is that your thanes can randomly be super racist. I suspect Yerestia is dragon-racist. I've never seen dragon-racist before; it seems like elf-racist and beastman-racist are more common. When ring members' personal preferences override their inclination to give you useful advice, all you can really do is make a mental note to ignore that person the next time you run into that situation.

Insterid's marriage-obsession is the most prominent personality quirk we've run into so far, but it's been fairly benign. I can't imagine it getting us into that much trouble. Racial preferences are a much bigger problem (life lessons here, everyone) -- Orlanth forbid your leader have a soft spot for your clan's ancient enemy.

Iskali seems to be implying that the official Orlanth-sanctioned answer to this question is 'justice.' Everyone else is just talking themselves up.

5

Isn't hospitality a big thing with our ancestors? Let's go with that. 4

Geez, where did my D6 go.

5

Year 1340, part 5



In light of the tie, I chose hospitality because remember that one time those foreign weaponthanes came over and we totally let them hang for a year or so?

Anyway, I'm not convinced that this choice even makes a difference as long as you don't pick #1.

Storm 1



I make another attempt at getting Sense Chaos from Urox. He laughs in my face.

Side note: Berserker is a great blessing if you want to pursue an extinction agenda against another clan. In fact, it's really good for winning battles, too, but it makes them more costly.

Storm 2

Our exploration last year didn't pan out. I wonder if we've found a replacement expedition leader yet.



Oh hi! This year's model isn't as skilled, but he's a strapping young lad that will probably become even more strapping over time.

It occurs to me that we haven't seen a single Humakti or Uroxi. Representatives of those gods are remarkably rare when you're not in a War clan. They're even rarer than tricksters, in my experience. Heortarl won't have a successor for a very long time, so we keep him safe.

Anyway...



Our northwest voyage last year was ill-fated. The obvious choice this time is to go southeast. Problem solved!

Sacred Time



Hey, look at those numbers! Those are some good numbers. We also have a stately new cathedral to Humakt on the northeast end of the tula. Looks nice.



You know what else looks nice? This year's forecast.

We've got options this year. We'll earmark the usual 2 points each to Crops, Herds, and War, and that leaves us with 9 points.

• Quests are off the table this year. It's too soon.
• There are plenty of Mysteries we could learn. If we want to send Iskalli, Harvar, or Valensta on a quest, we'll need to discover the secrets to their gods' quest. Eventually, we'll need to discover more quests, since it will take seven distinct quests to win.
• We could really use some Diplomacy and/or Trade this year. Settling one of our old feuds or opening new trade routes would do us a lot of good.
• We've hovered just barely below the top of the Reputation meter for over a year now. Giving gifts to our neighbors and throwing feasts could put us the rest of the way, providing us with the reputation that we need to start forming a tribe.
• Reputation isn't the only thing we'll need, though. We'll need neighbors who want to join our tribe, and enough goods to bribe the neighbors who don't. If we invest in Diplomacy, we should consider forming more alliances.
• And, of course, we simply must perform a cattle raid this year.

What's our angle for 1341?

Let's angle for forming a tribe!

Mysteries! Diplomacy! Trade! Max them!

All three? Crazy talk!

It's what Heortarl would want!

Heortarl's advice on this screen is pretty consistently to save a couple of points in case we need them later. I think it's Harvar who flippantly suggests that "we might as well spend it all, since we'll have the same amount next year." We pretty clearly won't: we're getting 11 points per year, so if we spend it all now, we'll have 11 points next year.

Valensta always tells us to put points into Health, Arene says Crops and Herds, Iskalli I think wants Mysteries, and Insterid probably wants War magic. Only Yerestia's advice tends to vary much here. I didn't capture it this time because it covered up the forecast.

Oh, fine, do whatever works well. Full mysteries and one each in the other two?

I've never seen an Uroxi Thane. I didn't think they existed. Flavor-wise, I was under the impression that all Uroxi spent all their time fighting chaos.

Let's learn some quests. I say we call in a favor and ask another tribe to tell us about their hero rituals.

Let's stick a point or two into Diplomacy and Trade.