Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Completed In the grim darkness of Fantasy Poland, there is only potato. (Thea: The Awakening LP)

MZeta

Scholar
Joined
Sep 28, 2015
Messages
103
A2
A
 

Mrowak

Arcane
Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
3,947
Project: Eternity
How come this game went off my radar?

Anyways, A2, C please.
 

Baron Dupek

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
1,870,725
A2
A

How come this game went off my radar?
Because there are games that looks similar on first look, when you search through Steam Store? Not to mention massive flood of indie games. You need to either find good source or competent people that can merge (flawed) diamond from mountain of mediocore guano.
It's really easy to miss good games these days (see - Underrail).
 

Kayerts

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
883
III. DOGS OF THE SUN

1. THE ICE PRINCESS AND THE MOON QUEEN
SOUNDTRACK

2016-01-09_00002.jpg


"You understand the path you have chosen?" Karina asked the naked Milohna, examining the holy symbols Andela and Katharina had inscribed in her flesh.
"All of the Warrior Cult swear to give our lives if needed. The time for my offering is now," Milo said. "It is yours, my comrades."
"It belongs to Svarog now. It is the torch He will use to burn away the darkness," Bolebor assured her.
"May its light burn bright," Milo said, a wan smile on her face.
"You shall be the striking wooden blade in His hand," Bolebor told her.
"You shall be the fire in His pooptower," Karina declared.
"You shall be the wicker by which He binds the souls of wicked," said High-Gatherer Pendantra.
"You shall be the cabbage from which He shall birth a better future," promised Twinkletoes.
"I shall be His warcry. When you hear my howl, you will know Moon has joined the Sun's cruasde," said Milo.
"You are the best of us . . . Moon Queen," the senile witch grinned, running her dagger lightly around the top of Milo's head, giving her a crown. Blood welled out--far more than she would expect from such a shallow cut, Milo thought absently.

Silently, the band watched as the Moon Queen went forth and approached the silver statue alone.

*

"Why have you come here, manling?" asked the werewolf, sniffing Milo suspiciously and scowling at her runic inscriptions.

"I am the Moon Queen," she explained, punching him in the snout as hard as she could.

He didn't flinch. The growls of the werewolf's pack filled the air, but he held up a paw, and a puzzled look came into his eyes. "Excuse me?" the werewolf asked.

"I am the Bride of Svarog," she continued, slapping him on both sides of the face. "I am the flame in his heart. I am the marriage of the Sun and Moon." She took a deep breath and kneed it in the groin. "I am the mistress of this pack!" she shouted.

Snarls filled the air. The werewolf bared his fangs, and his eyes glittered with venom . . .

2016-01-09_00003.jpg

2016-01-09_00004.jpg

2016-01-09_00006.jpg


*

The Moon Queen lay dazed in a pool of her own blood. It was very quiet now. She blinked at the pink meat in front of her. Was that her leg? Her arm? A bit of stomach? There were so many choices. She closed her eyes for just a moment to think about this.

A wolf padded up to her, licking at the blood on the ground and nosing her in the face. The human stirred, and its eyelids fluttered open. A hand--no, not quite a hand?--shot up and grabbed the wolf by the throat.

Abruptly the wolf whined its submission. The grip loosened, and the wolf lowered its gaze from the human's golden eyes, pressing its nose to the ground. It howled, calling to other wolves in the area, calling them to come and pay homage to the new Packmistress.

*

2016-01-09_00007.jpg

2016-01-09_00008.jpg


Losing an event battle with werewolves creates a chance of turning into a werewolf. The person selected for lycanthropy is chosen at random, but if you've only got one villager in your band, randomness turns into determinism.

Werewolves rock: massive piercing damage, moderate magical ability, tanky to the extreme, smart, perceptive, sneaky, good with traps. They're great in either deck and in alternative challenges. Their one disdavantage is that the only equipment they can use is an artifact, but that's not much of a drawback when they're comparable naked with a warrior tricked out in endgame loot.

As you can see in this screenshot, Milohna is embraced back into our band as its leader. This has the side effect of making her model the main one that the game uses to represent our band on the strategic map, so now I get to see her loping around the map whenever I move anywhere.

*

On our way back, we find the Icy Princess's tower.

2016-01-09_00009.jpg

2016-01-09_00010.jpg

2016-01-09_00011.jpg

2016-01-09_00012.jpg

2016-01-09_00013.jpg

2016-01-09_00014.jpg

2016-01-09_00015.jpg


Free rubies, and the book made our retarded granny a better medic! Also, we may have released an ancient evil into the world.

2016-01-09_00016.jpg


Ok, we have definitely released an ancient evil into the world. Relevantly, we have released an ancient evil near our village.

Releasing the princess generally gives better rewards than leaving her locked up; in particular, the medic skill bonus is nice.* But it does have the side effect of spawning this mob. The single skull is intentionally misleading; they fight like a four-skull encounter, at least. We should hope they don't wander into our village.

There's another side effect of releasing her that we'll see if we're unlucky enough!

____
*The highest medic skill in an injured villager's group is subtracted from his chance to die, so e.g. a dude at 24% health, with a skill 5 medic, would have a (30 - 24) - 5 = 1% chance of death.

2. THE GOD AND HIS GOLDEN GUARD

We now have two supercombatants and seven normal villagers, all well-equipped, three of them wielding Leshy's Hair pikes. It is time for the awakening of the great golden god. We head to the location we'd previously been given as the Divine Quest target.

We are bombarded by a blast of exposition, the likes of which this world has never seen.

2016-01-09_00032.jpg

2016-01-09_00033.jpg

2016-01-09_00034.jpg

2016-01-09_00035.jpg

2016-01-09_00036.jpg

2016-01-09_00037.jpg

2016-01-09_00038.jpg

2016-01-09_00039.jpg

2016-01-09_00040.jpg

2016-01-09_00041.jpg

2016-01-09_00042.jpg

2016-01-09_00043.jpg


TLDR: These bros explain the backstory of the game. Back in the day, these scholars apparently were worried that the gods were going to wipe the earth clean of humans (like gods do) and decided to strike first. They conspired with a certain Dark Lord who fought in the "Great War of the Eye," and committed a large number of atrocities with dark magic, ultimately dethroning the gods. Svarog got off relatively easily: they merely created a black hole that sucked away his light, and thus, his power. This knocked him out until the sun reemerged. For their part in this, the spirit of the fallen pantheon cursed the scholar's spirits to be forever bound to this university. They tell us about an oracle that might be able to help hasten his return to power.

We then have to decide what to do with the scholars. The divine quest in Thea generally rewards you for behaving according to the values of your god. Svarog's portrayed as an obedient do-gooder, so the optimal move here is to let the judgment of the pantheon stand.

2016-01-09_00044.jpg


As we are about Svarog's business and now have a clear mark of his favor, our new leader gives her pack a new name.

2016-01-09_00045.jpg


It's now just after evening. We start heading toward the location of the oracle, when this happens:

2016-01-09_00046.jpg


Meet the striga. Once Thea levels up past a certain point, walking around at night has a decent chance of triggering an encounter with one of these assholes. This usually represents a significant spike in difficulty, and is a large part of the reason why I've been pushing for learning magic. Depending on whether you hit a male or female striga, you have a few options to try to stop them; if you fail, one of your party members runs off with them, presumably to make a large deposit to the local blood bank. Notably, if you try to fight, you're limited to using units of the same gender as the striga, since all the opposite-gendered members of your team are beguiled.

2016-01-09_00047.jpg


The game continues to have strange ideas about gender. I *think* everyone in Thea is straight; if true, that means that the elven wanderer's absence here suggests that they're a woman. This is consistent with their portrait, despite the male pronoun they get in their intro dialogue. Also, apparently Milohna the Moon Queen is considered a dude for the purpose of this challenge, so either werewolves are immune to the blandishments of striga, or we're venturing into the exciting world of lesbian werewolf adventures.

Striga masters are no joke in a fight, and the fight would normally be pretty difficult for three villagers. But two of them are wielding our golden lances, and the other one is our werewolf. The batmen never had a prayer.

2016-01-09_00048.jpg


Strigas' hearts turn to rubies when they're killed. We also get some armor and moonstone for our trouble. Pound for pound, moonstone is a better resource than anything else in the game, but it can only be used in certain weapon types and buildings.

Presently, we come to the oracle. Note the tasteful reuse of art assets.

2016-01-09_00051.jpg

2016-01-09_00052.jpg

2016-01-09_00053.jpg

2016-01-09_00054.jpg

2016-01-09_00055.jpg

2016-01-09_00056.jpg


TLDR: The chick here is an "oracle" who the scholars back at the university drained of her power. We have to "face our fate" before she ponies up the way to help Svarog, though.

2016-01-09_00057.jpg


We now are confronted with the avatar of Svarog himself.

"Holy shit, it's God," gasps Karina.

"Aim for his head!" advises Milohna.

"What? No. He's our god; we've spent this entire time trying to restore him to glory. We can't just attack him," Karina objects.

"Let's test that hypothesis," Milohna says. She picks up a rock and lobbed it at Svarog. He frowns as it bounces off his head. "Science is amazing," Milohna says. "Looks like we can attack him."

Granny writes in her notebook:

Gods' weaknesses:
truth-in-advertising laws regarding claims of advanced watchtowers
traitorous academics
black holes
rocks
wood swords???

"The Lord Svarog will not be pleased if we raise our hand against him," Chabor says.

"Nope, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what he wants," Bolebor says.

"Perhaps this a test of our ingenuity or wisdom; perhaps what he really wants is for us to find a peaceful, nonviolent route to--"

"HEY! Are you a god?" Retard Granny bellows at the avatar.

"YES," says the Lord Svarog.

"Then die like a god!", Granny yells. She charges at the avatar, screaming, "TASTE MY WOODEN BLADE!"

Sighing, the rest of the band follows . . .

2016-01-09_00058.jpg


Svarog starts in the tactical deck, so this is an easy fight. God goes down in the first round!

2016-01-09_00059.jpg


We have proven ourselves, so Svarog sits up in a pool of golden blood. He tells us to seek a particular creature and build a shrine out of its hide. Then he gives us some disappointing loot and vanishes.

The creature is nearby, so let's find it!

2016-01-09_00067.jpg


Welp. That's a zmey, and that's no good. A zmey is a Slavic dragon, and with western dragons, they're the strongest creatures in Thea. (I believe the next strongest is the Rock Troll, which typically has around 1/3-1/2 of a zmey's HP.) We have the option of passing a physical challenge instead of direct combat, but it's one of the hardest physical challenges in the game, and we can't win it right now. Let's try fighting!

2016-01-09_00068.jpg


We get the pessimal deck configuration, and the zmey starts out in the opponent's offensive deck. Let's try not fighting!

2016-01-09_00069.jpg


Retreating is relatively painless. Things go better on the next try:

2016-01-09_00072.jpg


As you can see, even a weak zmey has a ridiculous 172 starting armor and does 64 damage per hit, which is enough to one-shot anyone in our group. Thanks to favorable layout, this one won't be getting the chance to attack at all.

2016-01-09_00074.jpg

2016-01-09_00075.jpg


We are given a choice to make Svarog the Supreme God of the pantheon, or to have him continue as a loyal servant of his father. Considering that this band decided to infect one of their own with lycanthropy in exchange for greater power, and released an ancient evil from imprisonment in exchange for a promised reward, there's only one in-character choice.

2016-01-09_00076.jpg


Praise the sun!

2016-01-09_00077.jpg


I take it back, fuck the sun. Completing the divine quest will allow you to recruit a creature associated with your god. These generally are on a comparable power-level to Twinkletoes, i.e. stronger than any human is likely to ever become. For Svarog, one of the options is a dwarven smith. Dwarves have physical stats comparable to werewolves', but they can also equip armor and weapons; i.e., they're some of the scariest units in the game. Instead of one of those, I get the shittiest form of fire demon. He is as physically strong as our witch and can't equip items.

It's okay, though. Despite its general lack of fighting skill, he is good at one thing.

2016-01-09_00995.jpg


He's got magic coming out of his ass. This will be quite useful to us in a bit. For now, though, we've restored our incredibly stingy god and made him the head of the pantheon. Having been showered with his gratitude, such as it is, and having recruited two creatures of magic, we prepare to return home in glory.

3. THE BANDIT CHIEF AND THE ELVEN LORD
SOUNDTRACK

Whereupon we walk immediately into an ambush.

2016-01-09_00078.jpg


"Don't worry, guys, I got this," Twinkletoes says.

"You know, we could easily kill them all," Bolebor says.

"Don't worry, guys, I got this," Twinkletoes repeats.

2016-01-09_00062.jpg


Welcome to the hidden Thean romance.

"It's okay, guys, I'm gonna take one for the team," Twinkletoes explains. "In the butt," s/he clarifies unnecessarily.

"It really would take less than five minutes to just beat them up," Karina objects.

"Nope! Gonna sacrifice myself for the cause! It is a far, far better thing I do!" Twinkletoes bravely continues. "I regret that I have but one anus to give for my country!"

2016-01-09_00079.jpg


The rest of the band look at the conversation that Twinkletoes and the chief are having.

"Hold," hisses the fire daemon. "My second sight tells me something is amiss. It feels . . . unclean."

"Like they're behaving according to some anachronistic set of values? Like, say, that they're trying to ensure that when people hundreds of years from now are reading our legend, their futuristic morality isn't offended by the details of how this encounter went down?" Karina suggests.

"And that that's odd for the bandit captain, given that their job description is robbing travelers and murdering them if they resist?" Bolebor asks.

"Yes," seethes the fire daemon. "Exactly so."

"Yeah, happens all the time since we started adventuring together," Karina says. "You'll get used to it."

"There are a few things that are still a little jarring," Chabor admits. "Like, every time we're back at the village and I'm about to get to second base with Bogdala, we both black out and wake up in the cabbage patch, hours later. Not sure what's up with that."

"Also, what was the deal with that literary-sounding reference Twinkletoes made right before they went off? Seems kind of anachronistic?" the svarozek complains.

"Hey, I think they're banging," Bolebor says.

2016-01-09_00080.jpg


"So how are we supposed to feel about this?" Karina asks.

"Not sure. Is the bandit chief a man or a woman? I couldn't really tell," admits Bolebor.

Karina shrugs. "I couldn't either; I think the lack of pronouns threw me. Does anyone know what Twinkletoes is?"

"Absolutely not," says Milohna. "Fursonally, I'm not really sure what I am. Last time we were in camp, I spent two hours with my crotch and a map, and I still couldn't figure it out." "She" laughs heartily.

"So no one knows whether we're observing a lesbian romance, or what we think about it if it is?" Karina persists. "I can't tell whether this is inclusive or not. I want to have an opinion, though!"

"I got nothing," says Bolebor. "Hey, do you ever wonder what gender these kids we're carrying around in our backpacks are? I can never tell before they hit adulthood, for some reason." He knocks on his pack for emphasis. A muffled voice says, "PLEASE let me out."

"Nope. I sort of assumed the male ones just grew a dick when they hit age 18?" Karina admits.

"Great question," says Chabor. "And yes. I was just lacquering the weapons in the armory one day and bam, dick out of fucking nowhere. Nearly took out Eliska's eye."

"Hey, I think they're done," says Milohna.

2016-01-09_00081.jpg

2016-01-09_00997.jpg


This concludes the Thean lesbian (?) romance. The bandit captain appears to be a woman. She's also the one recruitable character who's depicted with a horse! Bandits are one of the worse classes for villagers, but a bandit captain is usually pretty solid. This one's as tough as Karina and almost as strong. She's not good at anything but fighting, but she's pretty great at that.

4. THE DEMON, THE WITCH, AND THE WARLOCK

2016-01-09_00088.jpg


We've had a very successful trek out, and our latest recruit brings us up to a full complement of 12 in our party. We have our svarozek exuding enough magical energy to burn water, we have Milohna's newfound powers, and we still have a few turns left from the magical blessing we got when we killed the striga. We can finally do something I've been waiting for.

2016-01-09_00089.jpg


We go to the hut that the Skshack pointed out to us. Retard Granny steps forward. "Hut of brown, now sit down," she says.

2016-01-09_00090.jpg

2016-01-09_00091.jpg

2016-01-09_00092.jpg

2016-01-09_00093.jpg


This is one of the tougher hex challenges in the game. If you don't have at least three strong magic-users, you probably can't win this. As it happens, we've got three, and thanks to the striga encounter, we have eight more who are moderately capable. We demolish the challenge.

2016-01-09_00094.jpg

2016-01-09_00095.jpg


Breaking the curse gives us a chance to recruit Baba Yaga to our cause. She comes with some high-quality equipment and gives us a pair of children as a peace offering, but the real reward is Baba Baby herself:

2016-01-09_00996.jpg


She's fully equippable, smarter than anyone else on the team, has almost as much magic as the guy who's made of magical fire, and her base combat skills are better than anyone besides our elf and werewolf's. Her one weakness is that she'll kinda blow if she gets stuck in the tactical deck, but she's still a very powerful fighter-mage.

I could give her our best armor and one of the leshy hair pikes and put her on par with our two other superhumans, but instead, I give her mediocre equipment, in the name of balance.

balance.png


(The randomness of combat generally rewards distributing fighting ability somewhat evenly across your party.)

Recruiting her basically means that I can stow the svarozek in the village, so that we can run around with a magical powerhouse who has more advanced combat options than "hope something big hits him instead of someone important."

Incidentally, the consequences of failing that hex challenge are pretty bad. All of your villagers, including the ones in the village and in other expeditions, receive a curse that gives them wounds every turn. Also, Baba Yaga casts a hex that causes all the children in your expedition or your village to wander away during the next night, and you can never get them back.

Lastly, we check out the "suspicious tower" which suspiciously sprouted just outside our village.

2016-01-09_00801.jpg


"HELLO," Bolebor says brightly. "That's definitely a thing that you're doing to that old man. Ha ha! Incidentally, my leader would like a word with you."

The leader of the scavengers looks around, seeing no one. "Eh? What's the word, then?"

Milohna lays a claw on his shoulder. "Die."

2016-01-09_00802.jpg

2016-01-09_00803.jpg

2016-01-09_00804.jpg


And we get a sage. He'd have been a great pickup earlier, but is now just a worse version of our witch, so he's likely headed to the Village Defense Force.

This concludes Update 3. It's looking like this is going to be a short playthrough. Sorry about that! I've had better luck this game than any I can remember playing.

Our band's now pretty strong. What should we do? Vote for as many as you like, with your strongest preference first.

A) Beeline the endgame. We'll probably cross paths with some enemies we can't handle along the way, and some of our villagers might die, but I'd give the overall mission good odds of success.

B) Finally look up those fire demons that Svarog told us to find, and:
B1) Attempt Demon Diplomacy
B2) Take the path that leads to the most glorious battle

C) Try to put down the Icy Princess. It won't be easy, but it's probably doable at this point, and "unleashed a horde of wraiths upon the world" is the sort of thing that tends to tarnish one's legacy.

D) Gear up! This game has focused less on crafting than it usually does, mostly due to having a windfall of decent spears and armor. Focus on becoming overpowered before we face the endgame.
 
Last edited:

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
2016-01-09_00012.jpg

2016-01-09_00013.jpg

2016-01-09_00014.jpg
I am probably being that guy again, but the screen in the middle is a duplicate of another screen that came before it. Some screenshot with the princess' offer should have been in its place, probably.

Depending on whether you hit a male or female striga, you have a few options to try to stop them
Oh? Do tell... :desu:

Thea romance sure was lulzy. What is the attractiveness score for a Werewolf? Is it possible for him/her/it to participate in the challenge? :M

B1>C>D.
 

Kayerts

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
883
I am probably being that guy again, but the screen in the middle is a duplicate of another screen that came before it. Some screenshot with the princess' offer should have been in its place, probably.

Thanks!

2015-12-31_00478.jpg

2015-12-31_00479.jpg


Depending on whether you hit a male or female striga, you have a few options to try to stop them
Oh? Do tell... :desu:

One of the gods can recruit striga mistresses from that event. Another can recruit striga masters. The resistance paths are slightly different, too; resisting a striga master by sheer force of will gets you a will blessing, whereas resisting a striga mistress that way gets you . . . another reward, I forget. :D Magic is usually the most rewarding path, though. You can break their hex and then attack them while they're weak, which for mistresses gets you a permanent +2 magic to every character who can use magic.

Thea romance sure was lulzy. What is the attractiveness score for a Werewolf? Is it possible for him/her/it to participate in the challenge? :M

Probably! I believe that event selects the expedition member with the highest attractiveness. Ours is at 3, but that's because Svarog gives +3 to attractiveness. Werewolves can't gain attractiveness naturally, but events can give it to them, and artifacts can give them bonuses.

On the subject of werewolves, it turns out that anyone can become one. One of my earlier runs gave me a giant rat as a recruit, and he made the transformation successfully. Sadly, the game wouldn't recognize him as a wererat, but I did give him an intellect-boosting book for his artifact slot to represent the Grimoire of Pestilential Thought.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,140
What an interesting little game. It looks like you were not lying when you said Thea hates children. :lol:
Almost as if this was the average Cavia title. By the way, is it possible to do what these scholars asked and completely destroy the Tree?

Anyways, I vote for D+B1+C.
Also, if possible try to leave a child in the village to show us these horribad events you mentioned, please. The god of Fun demands it.
 
Last edited:

Kayerts

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
883
What an interestibg little game. It looks like you were not lying when you said Thea hates children. :lol:
Almost as if this was the average Cavia title.

Drakengard's Arioch is a woman driven mad by the loss of her children, who in her depravity kills and eats children. Our latest recruit is Baba Yaga.

There may be some similarities. :D

By the way, is it possible to do what these scholars asked and completely destroy the Tree?

Yes.

Also, if possible try to leave a child in the village to show us these horribad events you mentioned, please. The god of Fun demands it.

I don't think the next update will disappoint.
 

MZeta

Scholar
Joined
Sep 28, 2015
Messages
103
Usually you are fielding one expedition for everything (exploring, monster nest clearing, gathering...), or multiple ones?
 

Kayerts

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
883
IV. LUX PERPETUA

1. I Am No Man
In which the Child Apocalypse is averted.
When last we left our heroes, they had infected Milohna with lycanthropy and made her their leader, secured an alliance with Baba Yaga without even having to whip up a batch of Mandrake Mousse, slain a weak zmey, and seemed poised to steamroll the map. Now they have been tasked with defeating the icy princess they freed from her tower.

SOUNDTRACK

The Wraith Queen of the North raised a hand curtly. "Report."

"Yes, great mistress," gibbered the goblin, shivering in the snow falling around the princess. "We fell upon the weaklings of Green Anvil. We fought bravely in your name, and none escaped."

"Indeed?" she asked, amused. "Little brother? Is that true? Did he fight bravely?"

The small shadow lingering behind the goblin flared to life at the Wraith Queen's command, its head lifting up as though yanked upward by an unseen hand. A small hole in the air with glowing coals for eyes spoke in a shrieking voice. "Some of the goblins did. They have since joined our number. This one hid behind us as we drained the life from the enemy's village."

The Wraith Queen's laughter rang so sharply the goblin thought its ears would bleed. "We shall have to whip this one with icicles until it learns the value of either bravery or honesty. What of the children?"

"Nine of them, Great Sister," the child-wraith said. "Six rose after we gave them the gift. Our return trip was easier for it. A few of their adults were captured to replace the losses among our living."

"Excellent," the child-wraith said. "While you were away, your little sister captured Wormrot. Soon we shall fall upon the orcs of Perun's Smelter."

"Great Sister . . . " the wraith paused. "Should we perhaps move against the Children of the Light in Ostoya?"

"Them?" the Wraith Queen chuckled. "Why? They barely have any children, and the ones they have keep dying. And they did us a boon, after all. You would not have us appear ungrateful, would you, brother?"

"Boon or no, would it not be wisest to remove this threat?"

"Ha! Do not worry, little brother," the Queen said. "Our three-eyed sister has given a prophecy: 'Not by the hand of a man shall I fall,'" she said.

The child wraith quietly bowed and left, thought he had his doubts . . .

*

"This is where she went," Milohna says. "I can smell it. Nothing living lives here."

"Right, then," Bolebur says. "Baba? Granny? You guys good?"

Baba and Granny give him the thumbs up.

"Rad. Let's rock."

2016-01-12_00001.jpg


The band marches into the frozen wasteland that had begun to spread near the site of the old goblin village. A familiar malevolence assaulted their thoughts immediately. The twelve pressed on until they came to the heart of it all. "Zuzie," Milohna says. "Long time, no see. We're here to put down that which we called up."

"Thou fool," says the Witch Queen. "Do you not know the prophecy? No man alive can hinder m--"

werewolf.jpg


babayaga.jpg


karina.jpg


twinkletoes.jpg
???

"I probably should've paid more attention to the wording," she muttered.

2016-01-12_00010.jpg

2016-01-12_00011.jpg


*

The Kiddie Wraith Squad was totally capable of destroying our village, so taking it out when we did was a good call. One thing I generally like about Thea is that when you choose to unleash an ancient evil in exchange for some immediate advantage, it actually unleashes an ancient evil, and that evil may end up destroying you.

Incidentally, this didn't happen in this playthrough, but if we had gotten cursed, severely wounded, or poisoned in between freeing the princess and killing her, we'd have had a chance to get this event:

wraithQueen.jpg


Choices and consequences!

*

Magic's in the air tonight. On our way home, we get this event:

2016-01-12_00004.jpg

2016-01-12_00005.jpg

2016-01-12_00006.jpg

2016-01-12_00007.jpg

2016-01-12_00008.jpg


[Lost a screenshot - She does in fact mean something close to years. She talks about how she turned down her orcish gentleman caller, some time ago, and how he didn't take it very well.]

2016-01-12_00009.jpg


TLDR: This chick, who appears to be a relative of the elf who's currently stuck inside the leshy, was cursed by a spurned orcish lover, and only he can remove the curse. Let's find him!

2016-01-12_00013.jpg


"You guys know Alys?! Awesome! How the hell is she doing? Oh. Cursed, right, I did sort of curse her to an eternity of agonized loneliness, right. I have GOT to start writing this shit down."

2016-01-12_00014.jpg

2016-01-12_00015.jpg


This demon sounds like a real kauk!

2016-01-12_00016.jpg

2016-01-12_00018.jpg

2016-01-12_00020.jpg


Kinda regretting not telling her to just murder him! Maybe next time.

2. An End To The Evil Of All Svarog's Foes
In which the darkness has passed, but the legend yet grows.
SOUNDTRACK

Having completed our mission in the wraith queen's former domain, we prepare to take the long trip north, around the great lake, and eventually confront the fire demons Svarog showed us. On our way back, we see that they've made some diplomatic overtures to our village:

2016-01-12_00021.jpg

2016-01-12_00022.jpg


We lose most of our wood and two children. (Per Codex request, I left the kids in the village before venturing out. This is about five turns later. The little redshirts don't waste time.) All the adults recover from their burns, though, so we don't care! Our band continues to return home, when:

2016-01-12_00023.jpg

2016-01-12_00024.jpg


Oh, these fucking dicks. We had just enough mithril for a suit of armor, and any competent fighter in a suit of mithril armor is a god of the battlefield. We decide to pay them a visit:

2016-01-12_00025.jpg

2016-01-12_00026.jpg

2016-01-12_00027.jpg

2016-01-12_00028.jpg


And walk away the proud owners of a ferocious guard rat.

We'll probably be gone for over a day. The village now has six defenders, and we've been doing regular sweeps of the surrounding area, so it will probably be okay. For good measure, Chabor and Pendantra spend a day putting up signs around the village:

Beware of Rat
This Area Under Protection of Prince-Archbishop Rat
Are You Sure Your Dick Doesn't Resemble Cheese In Any Way? Do You Really Want To Take That Bet?
WARNING: Rat Nearby - Could Turn Into A Wererat At Any Time

"That should do," Chabor says.
"Hope you don't all get murdered!" Pendantra tells the villagers.

The journey north is underway, when we see:

2016-01-12_00030.jpg


"Hold the fucking phone," Milohna says, bringing the expedition to a halt.
"What's wrong?" Karina asks.
"If you recall the werewolf who crowned me as Moon Queen?" Milohna says. "That's him, and the remnants of his pack that didn't kneel to me."
"Ah," says Karina.
"We have unfinished business," Milohna explains.
"Luckily, we're mostly businesswomen here," Pendantra says.
"And retards!" says Granny.

One extremely dead werewolf later, we find:

2016-01-12_00036.jpg

2016-01-12_00037.jpg

2016-01-12_00038.jpg

2016-01-12_00039.jpg

2016-01-12_00040.jpg


TLDR: The demons served Svarog in the past, but in the time since his fall from power, they have instead been busy holding a contest to see who can be the biggest bitch. Right now, their entire race is tied for first place, so most of them are off serving fire dragons instead of our Lord.

"BURN THE HERETIC," Granny says. "So says the Solar Creed!"
"What does the solar creed have to say about witches?" Milohna asks, rolling her eyes.
"I haven't read that far, but I bet it's something really cool," Granny says. "Like 'always suffer the witch to live! In fact, we're not even sure why we said 'suffer!'"

The thread narrowly voted for Demon Diplomacy, so just killing these assholes is out. The dialogue choice I picked was supposed to open up a path to call all the demons pussies and shame them into falling in line behind Svarog; unfortunately, the text for that was identical to the generic dialogue option to parlay with them. The other version had a chance of recruiting a better version of the svarozek we got from our divine quest, but it's okay. This course is the manlier one. We are tasked with slaying a mighty elder dragon who lairs far to the west!

Before setting off, our band prays and sacrifices a nearby cave full of bears to Svarog and to Arengee.

2016-01-12_00033.jpg


Svarog does not answer.
2016-01-12_00041.jpg

2016-01-12_00042.jpg


Arengee speaks twice as loud. The fiercest foes rout when they hear our lord's shout. We welcome Elf #2 to our band, naming "him" Overkill. (This one also has boobs and is clearly pulling a Mulan. I'm onto you, Lesbian Battle Elves!)

We spot some nomads en route but ignore them for now, until eventually:

2016-01-12_00046.jpg

2016-01-12_00047.jpg


We have our first five-skull encounter.

2016-01-12_00048.jpg


Dragons are the toughest enemy in the game, this one landed in the offensive deck, and then the computer got first draw. Uphill battle. Baba Yaga ended up absorbing most of the dragon's breath, and we managed to end the beast. What treasures await us in the dragon's hoard?

2016-01-12_00049.jpg

2016-01-12_00050.jpg


Slightly worse than what we got for killing the spider queen with our starting party circa turn 5. Huh. Demon Diplomacy is starting to feel overrated.

It's okay, though. Our brave deeds in his name have brought us the favor of Lord Arengee. Not only does Baba Yaga not die during the night, but:

2016-01-12_00051.jpg

2016-01-12_00052.jpg

2016-01-12_00053.jpg


Yeah. We get another one. We name him Excess.

Wait, him?

2016-01-12_00926.jpg


Not pictured: boobs of any sort.

This issue requires immediate attention. Milohna, Karina, and Bolebur halt the expedition and form a tribunal of inquiry into what's going on with their elves' genitals. "You could just ask u--" says Excess.

"Shut up," Milohna explains. Evidence is catalogued, presented, analyzed. Petula is summoned as an expert witness. Baba Yaga performs divinatory rites, hoping to solve the Mystery of the Missing Donger for good. Eventually, they determine the following:

a) There's only one art asset for the elven wanderer event, and it's male-looking.
b) The text referring to the wanderer as "he" in the event occurs regardless of the elf's actual gender.
c) However, elven wanderers can be male or female. When in doubt, the ones with the feminine features . . . are just elves, stay in doubt.

legolas.jpg


The ones with the boobs are women. Hence they get sorted with the women during striga attacks.
d) Bandit Captain gender is a social construct. It defaults to male for pronoun purposes during the bandit encounter event, but if the captain decides to join the party post-sexin', a gender is randomly assigned. This can turn people gay or straight at random.

In conclusion, the devs spent way less time thinking about Gender in a Post-Darkness Society than this LP has. I can't hit that level of efficiency at this point, but I'm going to start trying now.

*

The final quest location to please the fire demons spawns:

2016-01-12_00054.jpg


Right outside our village. We'd like to parlay with those nomads we passed, so we're actually going to turn around and take the long way home, going back around the lake.

En route we find:

2016-01-12_00055.jpg

2016-01-12_00056.jpg


A leshy wants us to kill a bugay. We've never said no to a request to kill things! Blood for the Sun God!

2016-01-12_00057.jpg

2016-01-12_00059.jpg

2016-01-12_00060.jpg

2016-01-12_00061.jpg

2016-01-12_00062.jpg

2016-01-12_00063.jpg

2016-01-12_00064.jpg


The bugay's crew have decided that blood magic's probably the answer to all their problems, and since they don't have a reliable source of blood, they've been murking humans. We negotiate a favorable agreement with them, because Bugay Diplomacy gives us a large amount of ancient wood. Then Karina elects to renegotiate the agreement, starting by giving the Bugay a stab with the Peace Pitchfork.

2016-01-12_00065.jpg


After the battle, we get a small pinecone demon who's generally useless in combat and in challenges. That's okay, we've got a mission for her. We give her a week's worth of food and single, shitty sword, made from quartz, which is actually worse than wood. She can't actually pick it up (refer to being useless). That's okay. We send her off toward the nomads.

Meanwhile, the main band ventures to the far north. There were two five-skull lairs there. Lairs are generally more difficult than other encounters of the same challenge rating. The werewolf lair there has something like six Milohna- equivalents there, backed by 10+ alpha wolves. Trying to fight them would probably result in a wipe, but the raider lair near it:

2016-01-12_00071.jpg


Falls to simple intimidation. Let's see what we HOLY SHIT

2016-01-12_00072.jpg


Raiders' lairs generally give some of the best drops in the game, but this is still an amazing amount of loot. Most of it's top tier and will be put to immediate use. We give the spear to Granny and the two-handed swords and axe to our new elves. The dragonbone armor goes to Bolebur, and Karina takes the chain mail.

(Steel is the second strongest metal, and chain mail--heavy armor that's made primarily from steel--is the second strongest armor in the game. Equipment without descriptors--"axe," "spear," "chain mail"--tends to be endgame-tier loot or just shy of it. Thea is aware of how shitty it is!)

2016-01-12_00073.jpg


The main expedition now turns east, where the pinecone demon makes contact with the nomads:

2016-01-12_00074.jpg

2016-01-12_00075.jpg


And gets a shitload of moonstone for her trouble. (You can trade a weapon as long as you have one, and the quality of the materials you get isn't dependent on the quality of the weapon . . .)

2016-01-12_00077.jpg


It then rejoins the main party, and we lurch home. Enemies attack us on all sides, but they can't break our spearwall.

We eventually reach the rogue svarozeks' hideout, just outside our village:

2016-01-12_00079.jpg

2016-01-12_00080.jpg


And cast out the demons infesting it. (It's just a battle with four svarozeks; it's nothing special.)

Demon Diplomacy Mission: complete. Now all we have to do is wait for the game to acknowledge our feat. I'm sure that won't take long.

In the meantime, there's also Orc Diplomacy!

2016-01-12_00086.jpg

2016-01-12_00087.jpg

2016-01-12_00088.jpg

2016-01-12_00089.jpg

2016-01-12_00090.jpg

2016-01-12_00091.jpg


In which, after collaborating to unlock some treasure, the leader of an orc warband loans us an orc worker as a symbol of friendship between our peoples. We'll see how that works out in the next section. If we'd accepted her proposed exchange, we'd have gotten a very good orc fighter, on par with Karina. However, given that half our party already consists of even better fighters, and the other half is noncombat specialists who can also fight, this is a pretty bad bargain. Because we refused her offer, she just GAVE us an orc worker who's even stronger than the warrior would've been.

In the meantime, the strain of having to behave diplomatically and for such little reward has taken its toll on our heroes, so we're going to begin scorching the earth of everything near our village that isn't us.

3. Blood for the Sun God
In which there are crime-fighting efforts.
This section is the equivalent of a training montage. It's skippable.

Soundtrack

A while back, a bunch of refugees from a less successful Let's Play wandered into our village.

2016-01-12_00068.jpg

2016-01-12_00069.jpg


Their village got owned by orcs. (I assume their thread voted to follow Morena.) Let's go have a word with the orcs.

2016-01-12_00096.jpg

2016-01-12_00097.jpg


Orc Diplomacy! Well, she seems like a reasonable person, kind of a pity about the villagers she killed, Milohna what are you doing

2016-01-12_00099.jpg


Our peacekeeping efforts consequent to Orc Diplomacy have resulted in a 100% reduction in the Orc Crime rate.

We practice Orc Diplomacy on a few Raiders' Lairs, too.

2016-01-12_00113.jpg

2016-01-12_00127.jpg

2016-01-13_00020.jpg


Sadly, these guys run away before our peacekeeping mission can be completed.

While wandering, we also encounter the fearsome Dragon of the Random Hole in the Ground and his cousin, the Great Wyrm of the Nondeterministic Recess in the Earth:

2016-01-12_00103.jpg

2016-01-12_00104.jpg

2016-01-13_00001.jpg

2016-01-13_00002.jpg


The Dragon Crime rate in the region sees a sharp downturn.

But bros, it just burns me up inside to think about Striga Crime and all the precious resources that have suffered from it, resources that yearn to breathe free. Let us send out trained negotiators to engage in Striga Diplomacy to secure their release.

2016-01-12_00110.jpg

2016-01-12_00111.jpg

2016-01-12_00112.jpg


2016-01-12_00165.jpg

2016-01-13_00003.jpg

2016-01-13_00004.jpg

2016-01-13_00005.jpg


We did good, bros. We did good.

(With regard to the graveyard encounter, you can just take the silver bindings on the tomb and run without having to defeat the striga lord, but doing so spawns a four skull striga mob nearby. I had a game when that happened early on. I got some good crafting tool material and lost the game.

While on our crime-fighting mission, we are brought face to face with Dwarf Crime:

2016-01-12_00149.jpg

2016-01-12_00150.jpg


Dwarf Diplomacy is successful.

2016-01-12_00151.jpg

But what's diplomacy without peacekeeping?

Along our journey, we engage yet again in Elf Diplomacy:

2016-01-12_00142.jpg


We get another boobless elf, this one named Superfluo.

These efforts, and the crafting of the materials we won in them, have elevated our expedition's strength from extreme to absurd. I'll review that in a sec, but first, let's look at the home front!

4. The Tribulations of Ostoya
In which there is child abuse.
Meanwhile, the war at home:

2016-01-12_00121.jpg

2016-01-12_00122.jpg

2016-01-12_00123.jpg


Perun smites us for daring to have children.

Keeping children in your village in Thea is like climbing to the top of a lightning rod during a thunderstorm and calling every god a pussy. Which is what Mayor Bogdala was doing during this event, since she figured, hey, what ELSE can they do?

2016-01-12_00116.jpg

2016-01-12_00117.jpg


We are then hit by a terrible plague. Fortunately, Prince-Archbishop Rat develops a resistance to the plague, some might say an immunity. The emergence of a type of rat that can carry plague without falling victim to it might have long-reaching effects on Thean biology, but for now, +3 health!

2016-01-12_00121.jpg


A terrible storm scourges the village. The children are narrowly saved. My notes say there was another here that I forgot to screenshot, in which the narrator says something similar, even though we lost a kid. I like to think that even he's getting numb inside. Bogdala's journal: "Today, a massive storm struck the village. Fortunately, we responded quickly, and the lightning only destroyed a small amount of wood and a few of our less promising children. I congratulated the first responders on a job well done, we all got hammered in the tavern, and I tried to get the orc to hook up with the rat. Things were getting good when we all blacked out and woke up in the cabbage patch."

The next day, however, disaster: just as the sun is setting, Bogdala runs out of her home to find the Holy Pooptower ablaze. "What have you done?" she screams at Otrak, aghast.

2016-01-12_00143.jpg


"Otrak build advanced watchtower," Otrak explains. "For extra vision, no use poop!"

2016-01-13_00099.jpg


"Maybe human-friends send out welcoming parties when they see Otrak's people? Otrak miss other orcs," Otrak says.

Beyond not being made of poop, our new watchtower gives vision of the entire region and even has a small chance per turn to attract goblin warriors. This is helpful, because our population can no longer be supported by the village alone. We need to send out a permanent encampment.

2016-01-13_00098.jpg


Thea doesn't allow you to create additional villages, but encampments can exist indefinitely, so they're almost as good. The one thing I miss is the ability to build a watchtower, but our location gets vision from the one in the village.

The next night in the main village, disaster strikes again:

2016-01-12_00152.jpg


"MY BABY!" screams the child's father.

"Hang on," says Bogdala.

Time passes.

"What are you doing?" the frantic father demands. "Save my son!"

"I'm trying the thinking man's approach," Bogdala says. "Haste makes waste!"

2016-01-12_00153.jpg


"Slowness apparently makes a child-sized blood fountain," Bandit Captain Captain of the Guard Petula comments.

"I guess they don't teach you how to rhyme at Lesbian Elf Romance Academy," Bogdala says irritably. "I hope you don't think this was my fault," she continues, glaring at the weeping father. "How was I supposed to know that his tiny head had that much blood in it?"

Eliska eyes the growing mob of striga uneasily. "Bogs? Did we have a plan?"

Bogdala clasps her hands thoughtfully. "Do not fret, Eliska. Remember the old Ostoyan saying. 'When there's a child, there's a plan.'"

2016-01-12_00153.jpg


"We had an old saying in my bandit squad," Petula chimes in. "'The infant mortality rate in Ostoya has never been below 60%.'"

"I'm kinda impressed you had time to put together those stats, what with your busy schedule of murdering travellers and writing NC F/F elf erotica."

"You'd be surprised what you can accomplish when you aren't trying to build an advanced watchtower out of poop."

"Hey sises," Eliska said, "I don't mean to interrupt, but the striga have decided my kid's like their own personal brand of heroin. Can we maybe punch them now, and finish the who's-the-biggest-asshole contest later?"

2016-01-12_00154.jpg


Bogdala wiped the striga ashes off her hands. "I would've won the asshole contest, by the way."

Petula laid her hand on Bogdala's shoulder. "We live in Thea, sister," she said. "There are no winners. There are only losers and those who have yet to lose."

*

Striga return, and this time, it's distant and professional!

2016-01-12_00106.jpg


"Let's not be too hasty," Bogdala says.

"Let's be hasty," the child's father disagrees.

2016-01-12_00107.jpg


*

2016-01-13_00021.jpg


Next up, a demon shows up and tries to level up by farming dead children.

"Bogdala, what are you doing with my kid and that hammer?" Eliska asks.

"The only way to catch a demonic child-killer is to become one," Bogdala says solemnly.

"Or you could just wait around and she'll probably show up," Eliska explains. "It's what she's been doing."

"All right, but maybe we could use a child as bait this time?"

"Why don't we use gold," Eliska suggests. "Gold doesn't die if we're slow on springing our trap."

"But gold doesn't eat our food and bring disasters upon us," Bogdala frowns.

"And our last mayor didn't try to off all our children at every possible opportunity, but everyone's got their pros and cons," Eliska sighs.

2016-01-13_00022.jpg


Finally, Svarog wakes up and notices we did what he told us to for Kupala Night:

2016-01-12_00129.jpg

2016-01-12_00130.jpg


And we get rewards that are slightly better than the tutorial quest at the beginning of the game. Success at last!

5. A Power To Rival The Sun
In which things come to a head.
And so, having fended off everything that Thea could throw at us while remaining more or less intact, there is nothing to do but bring about the will of Svarog.

Resources from across Thea pour into Ostoya, fetched by the Dogs of the Sun. Forgemistress Bogdala now oversees four other crafters, all of them hammering day and night. They make the tools by which we shall pry open the gates of dawn and bring eternal sunshine to Thea.

Mithril is combined with gems to create the most extravagant armor Thea has ever seen. Bolebor--who's in the bottom half of our fighters at this point--is stomping around in mithril full plate, inset with diamond-studded diamonds. Bro could take a sledgehammer to the balls, and it'd only make his dick harder. We create two suits of dragon leather so that our weaker party members can cosplay as such legendary wyrms as The One Who Svarog Asked Us To Kill and The One Who We Found In That Hole. Granny ends up with an ultralightweight silk and dragon leather vest that Bogdala put together for the crucial Retarded And Weak demographic.

Moonstone gets turned into massive fuckoff warhammers for Baba Yaga and Karina, the latter of whom has been upgraded from Hayslayer to Nailseer. All four of our elves get the most absurd two-handed axes that can be made from dragons' claws, which I believe puts them at the theoretical upper bound for how retardedly overpowered a combatant can be. They can two-hit weak dragons and one-hit everything else. Even Granny, who after about ten level-ups is still the weakest possible character in the game, is using Perun's Thunderbolt, a terrifying mithril spear we found in one of the raiders' fortresses.

We've made artifacts that boost strength, that make us hunt better, think better, run better. We give Granny a full medic's kit, with the consequence that even if we run into something capable of stomping us, each of our party members has an 82% chance of surviving the worst possible wounds.

We have raised a structure that rises even above the Advanced Pooptower. Was man meant to climb so high? Will the gods smite us for our hubris?!

No. This is Thea; our gods smite or bless us more or less at random. We make our way far, far to the south, where the Leshy told us to go to kill his brother.

2016-01-12_00145.jpg

2016-01-12_00146.jpg

2016-01-12_00147.jpg

2016-01-12_00148.jpg



The 30 ancient wood reward for agreeing not to kill him is usually a core part of my strategy for winning. Ancient wood is the most powerful offensive resource in the game, because it provides a pretty good base damage boost and a massive poison damage boost. Because IT IS POSSIBLE TO TOTALLY AVOID COMBAT (or other challenges) up to the point where you get the wood, beelining the Leshy's brother is usually a pretty good idea, unless you get unlucky and he spawns over a day's journey from your village. In this situation, you have to do what we did: get strong enough without the wood that you can both field an expedition and a reasonably strong village defense force. You can also make a run for it, but that usually leads to a loss.

(There were some attacks on the village while we were out. I didn't screenshot them, because none of them were at all close. Petula's at peak human fighting ability, and Otrak is a little beyond it; between them, six angry villagers with pitchforks, and the ferocious Prince-Archbishop Rat, two- and three- skull encounters don't stand a chance.)

We soldier on and return to the Leshy.

2016-01-12_00155.jpg

2016-01-12_00156.jpg

2016-01-12_00157.jpg

2016-01-12_00158.jpg

2016-01-12_00159.jpg

2016-01-12_00160.jpg

2016-01-12_00161.jpg

2016-01-12_00162.jpg


Key points:
* Mr. Elf is a modern, 21st century elf with enlightened views on the lesser other races of Thea, and is thus willing to talk to us despite the fact that we're a bunch of potatowomen whose primary defense plan for the past year has involved a pooptower.
* Also he used to be a god
* The Cosmic Tree was a Pillar of Eternity or whatever
* We can find a seed of it, but first we need some shards of the tree, which will help our elf friend locate it.

The locaiton marked for the tree shards spawns nearby:

2016-01-13_00006.jpg

2016-01-13_00007.jpg


A mighty dragon guards them. We prepare for desperate battle with the dreadful beast. His armour is like tenfold shields, his teeth are swords, his claws spears, the shock of his tail is a thunderbolt, his wings a hurricane, and

2016-01-13_00008.jpg

2016-01-13_00009.jpg


nvm he just gave them to us lol

He also gives us a ton of diamonds and awakens some magical ability in us, for our trouble.

Nearby, we spot a band of humanoids observing us. "What's the deal with those guys?" Bolebor asks.

"I suspect they're 'monitoring our progress,'" Karina says with distaste.

2016-01-13_00010.jpg

2016-01-13_00011.jpg

2016-01-13_00012.jpg


"All right. We prepared for this," Milohna says. "Do you remember the plan, if a group of heretofore unseen know-it-alls showed up and cryptically displayed insider knowledge of our quest, before ultimately disappearing in a cloud of smugness?"

"I don't think it was a plan so much as you yelling 'GET 'EM' and then tearing apart an entire cow to make your point," Karina said.

"Let's agree to disagree," Milohna says. "Execute the plan. Also, them."

2016-01-13_00013.jpg


We take the shards back to the elf:

2016-01-13_00023.jpg

2016-01-13_00024.jpg

2016-01-13_00025.jpg

2016-01-13_00026.jpg


We're given the shards and trek off to find the seed and face one last challenge before achieving our goal.

What is our goal, by the way?

A. Plant the seed of the Cosmic Tree and bring back high magic, restoring the old order under Svarog's leadership.

B. Burn the seed of the Cosmic Tree, extinguishing light and dark magic together, as per the vision of the sage we met in the last update.

C. Ally with the orc humanoids and learn to thrive in this age of dark magic. Svarog and his followers cannot make pacts with dark creatures, especially not ones that we murdered.
 
Last edited:

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,518
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
Err, we are Svarogs chosen, right? Shouldn't we then take option A?

I'm curious. I want to see both branches. If we can have only one though, go for the dastardly B.
 

Kayerts

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
883
Usually you are fielding one expedition for everything (exploring, monster nest clearing, gathering...), or multiple ones?

Usually one for everything, up until late game. The reason for this is that there are enough unpredictably bad things that can happen that concentrating your forces is typically a good idea. The main issues are enemy gank squads rolling up on you from out of the fog of war and bad events. Vision in Thea is less than the amount that you (or enemies) can move in a day, so weakly defended gathering parties are always going to be risky. Sending out a single gatherer to farm precious resources near the base is usually okay, but I otherwise tend not to chance it.

Err, we are Svarogs chosen, right? Shouldn't we then take option A?

I'm curious. I want to see both branches. If we can have only one though, go for the dastardly B.

The game doesn't provide a lot of general incentive for choosing B other than "well I guess those guys who destroyed the world seem pretty legit." There are a few deities that are given reasons for wanting it (I believe Zorya will actually refuse to restore the old order, because the old order has her eternally acting as a jailkeeper for an evil dog, and she thinks that's lame), but Svarog has nothing specific.

Svarog ends up as the supreme deity in either event, though. The choice is between him ruling a world of high magic or a world without.
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,518
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
Well then, purge the heretic. I stand by my B choice. Orcs, goblins, elves, dwarves etc are all filthy and out to murder human children after all.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,140
So, having children in your village can attract demons, vampires and worse stuff. DRAKENGARD I mean, grimdark indeed. :lol: Too bad the "Quest Elf" doesn't seem to react to the fact your party has several Elves. In any case, I vote for A. Let's go with Mage, the Ascension ending.

By the way, that giant rat rocks. :lol: Can you provide more details about what does it do? Does it count as a fighter or something, or does it only work for special events?

EDIT: That "dragon diplomacy" event was awesome. Seeing that your party (well, army at this point) is becoming increasingly more "culturally diverse", is it possible to have dwarves join you as well?
 
Last edited:

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom