Fall with Fleme

[AntiTwelve]

No worries, lymond. Go ahead and revolt GK immediately and yeah, everything else looks fine. I'll leave using Gryn to your discretion.

 

[Fleme]

Good! I'll update tomorrow once you're done. Looking forward to seeing the game get rolling again.

 

[lymond]

Turnset Report:



t64 - Gryndane fortifies on forest hill and 2 Lizards die

t65 - Acheron the Dragon is born. Gravedigger dies fortified on Fizziks workshop to a Skeleton that has to cross the river too. Gravedigger should have been to full health on that very turn, but I also thought that the hill would be a safe haven with that contraption on top of it. Apparently not. My bad.

t67 - Find Lizard Ruin in SW...Frostling standing on ruin...lots of nasty things in the wilds

Spoiler :

t68 - Promo time on G from killing Frostling last turn...take Heroic Strength II

t69 - Finally standing on Lizard Ruin and espy another Lizard ruin just to the SW. Gryndane taking ridiculous amounts of damage attacking weak Frostling at 99.999999% odds. BS. He's now surrounded by Lizzards.

Spoiler :

t70 - 2 Lizzards die trying to rest Gryndane from there ancient home, but the Super-Tracker extraordinaire survived. Somehow G got poisoned but I don't recall attacking a goblin - maybe last turnset. Anyway healing is very slow. Don't want to pop the ruin until I feel he is safe.

t71 - G pops ruin for 117 gold. Well that certainly doesn't hurt and much better than 10 Lizzies popping up all around him or the Lunatic promo. Rogue finishes in cap and start Elder Council. Oh...the warrior that completed several turns ago is moving south to next city site.

t72 - Moving Rogue in direction of G. Reason is that I'm sick of them dying so easily. He can provide back up to G and gain some cheap experience before moving back to cap for upgrade to Explorer.

t74 - Decide G is strong enough to move to jungle hill above 3rd Lizard ruing to get a few. He's strong enough to defend. Some lizards attack but some just walk by when G is fortified. Wimps. View reveals Mt. Kashekk and Tlacotli Forge

Spoiler :

t78 - Stupid goblin waste event lessens the output of our wheat farm. Hellhound appears outside our borders. Pull Rogue back to city.

Spoiler :

t79 - G heals. Kills Liz on ruin - no damage. Pops ruin and two goblin warriors appear. G moves 2 tiles to a hill that reveals a graveyard. Mokka and 2 Liz escorts are are 2 tiles north. Mokka does not appear as the defender in the stack. We would have to kill the Lizards first. Elder Council finishes. Running Scientist. Hunting still far off. Hellhound disappears.

Okay, I kind of made a bit of a mistake not switching to God king earlier. I'm so used to playing normal speed that I was thinking we should switch to GK and Pac for only 1 turn of Anarchy which I was going to do this turn. Well, it's 2 turns of Anarchy. GK doesn't boost research like in regular civ however it would have finished the EC a turn or 2 faster - granted you still have the turn of Anarchy there. I did not make the switch to see if we still want to take the 2 turns of Anarchy. I figure some Pac would be nice to speed up the scientist for the academy. Anyway, I apologize for effin' that up

Overall, a very slow and rather uneventful round other than revealing a few new sites and - I believe - fulfilling the Lizard quest. And finding Mokka. I played a couple of turns more since a majority of the turnset poisoned Gryndane was healing up.

What is this "held" Lizard all about?

Spoiler :

.
.
Note this Griffon to the North:

Spoiler :

.
.

 

[uberfish]

Assuming the lizard situation can be satisfactorily resolved, I think we should plant a city 1SW of the survivor camp. I notice there's an already improved pig and cottage there and we can get the gems and the free Silk offered by merchants.

 

[Fleme]

DM Intervention.

First, I'd like to point out that while I do believe you killing those lizards and taking out the ruins, I'd prefer if you posted screenshots of these actions rather than a report. No big deal, but hopefully that's not too much to ask for in the future.

Now, on to the game:

The Destruction of Foxford:

Spoiler :

Recon patrols report that the village of Foxford has been utterly and completely destroyed. All that is left are smoldering ruins and the only building remaining is the stronghold immediately to the east of Foxford. Routes are closed and reports are sketchy at best. The werewolf alpha has been spotted outside the borders of Telyhohn and is said to be immensely powerful.

Explorer council now considers this as the number one threat on the Austrin and urges Gryndane to return to defend the capital immediately.

In game terms:

Echoes of Foxford is no longer in play. The quest is now "The Werewolf Threat" and is about the obliteration of the Werewolves to save the Austrin nation, it's desires for expansion and the safety of the explorers. The werewolves are reported to be carrying items of value and slaying them would grant access to these artifacts. Also note that the Werewolves will not cross your border but pose a significant threat to any units venturing towards Fizziks.

Fizziks:

Spoiler :

You wanted cloneworkers, I got you cloneworkers. Goblin clones made from the finest genetic samples you could find in all of Erebus, scratched off the back of yours truly. Now, these clones might not possess the technical prowess I have, but they're ideal for manual labour. Make sure you connect my workshop with Telyhohn so our business can run smoother in the future.

Oh, and tell Gryndane to visit. I need him to do something for me.

Game terms: You now have 2 Gretchin units standing on the Workshop without escort. Good luck. As a condition to the next quest being available, road constructions must be either completed or at the very least, underway.

Telyhohn:

Spoiler :

The explorer council is pleased with Gryndane thwarting the Lizard threat and establishing contact with them. It would seem that there was an ancient civilization located here and the information gotten from N'zesh just means that the exploration efforts will have to be doubled if we are to uncover the full story.

Furthermore, the council has announced that Gryndane is to be promoted into a full-fledged guardian and given the vestments that come with the rank next time he visits the capital city. The bonuses include removing the weak promotion, ability to command an additional unit and a trained Rock Raven (promoted scout bird that can act as a "fighter"). In game terms, the next time you pass by Telyhohn, take a screenshot and I will add these promotions to you.

Elohim Friendship:

Spoiler :

Word has reached the Elohim that the Austrin are struggling with considerable lizard infestation and they wish to send humanitarian assistance to help those in need. Brother Tancred and a cart of supplies have been dispatched but are waiting for further orders on how to reach Telyhohn.

Q: Make sure Brother Tancred and the Cart of Supplies reach Telyhohn safely. Consider dispatching Gryndane to escort because the way is filled with perils.

R: You gain the supplies the cart carries (potions), the cart itself (can hurry production) and Brother Tancred will offer his services to you as the Elohim liaison. (Conditions revealed when the convoy reaches Telyhohn)

Game terms: A weak convoy needs assistance. Getting this done might help with Elohim relations in the long run and net you a potentially powerful cleric as well as free stuff. If the convoy attempts to cross the distance on its own and perishes, this obviously means you lose the goodies and take a relations hit with the Elohim.

The Slithering Shadow

Spoiler :

As you enter the forge, you can sense it being ancient. There is a shadowy flame flickering in the pits burning off seemingly nothing and generating no light. The halls are cold and shadows envelop you as you enter.

A hissing voice speaks from the darkness.

Heed me, warm-blood, and heed me well for you are within my mercy. I’ve long waited for your arrival here and you ssshould feel privileged to be within these wallsss. You ssseee, the Tlacotl precede you and your kind by aeons and aeons. You explorers surely have hissstories on the Mazatl and the Cualli but your sstoriess are asssumptionss and hearssay. We are the Tlacotl.

Hear and underssstand the ssstory of thissss world. For you ssseee, the Tlacotl were here long before your kind and have witnessssed the cycles that define Erebusss. Agesss come and go, hell prevailsss over heaven, heaven prevails over hell – either way, when the cycle completesss, man iss wiped out and it sstartss anew. None of this concerned the Tlacotl, for we lived under the care of Agruonn who cares not of the rest of the Pantheon and their petty qualms and the other gods knew well enough to stay away where hisss shadow wasss cast. And hisss sshadow wass cassst over the Tlacotl and pro-vided for usss. We did hisss bidding as it isss within our nature and Agruonn staved off the cyclesss of Erebuss. This wass our life, for aeons and aeons until the lassst cycle, as it became to be known within the lassst generation.

You ssseee, the lasst cycle wass different from the otherssss in a way which proved cataclysssmic to our entire existence. Men warred againssst each other asss they alwaysss do, but this time, godsss were denounced by men of the ice whossse leader then rosssse to godhood himssself. Erebus froze over and many of my kin panicked. You ssseee, it isss cold in the sshadow of Agruonn and to deepen that meant the demise of my kin. In their folly, some of my kin – those that became to be known as the Mazatl to you – looked to the skiesss and below the ground for godsss of warmth, sso they thought. Even this forge bearsss witnesss to that folly, firssst intended asss a sshrine to the basstard Kalsshekk who with hisss brother Omorr brought their spite upon the Tlacotl.

You sseee, Agruonn iss not in favour within the Pantheon – never has he aimed to be nor will he ever be – and for that the other godsss hate him. Manipulating their newfound following, massive ssshrines were built in the capital of X’ketshehh, covered and filled with gold to appease the gods but thisss wass not enough. No. For you sseee, the godss were not interesssted in the piety of the Tlacotl, but their aims were merely to weaken the protective sshadow of Agruonn, allowing them to dessstroy hiss position on thisss world and ultimately in thisss they succeeded.

In their vindication, when their goalss had been reached and Agruonn sufficiently weakened, they started their plan. Firssst, the skiesss opened and Kalshekk hurled a massive meteor that hit X’ketshehh. The city held, but the blassstwave of the meteor wiped out roughly three quartersss of our ancient empire in one ssswift blow. Not wanting to be bested by hisss basstard of a brother, Omorr dissspatched hisss pet, known to you asss Acheron to finisssh the deed. The dragon made the gilded temples of X’ketshehh hisss lair and made hisss daysss pass by hunting what remained of my kin. Those that sssurvived, were driven to madnessss and turned to the sssavages you fought to get here. Under what remained of the shadow of Agruonn, a group fled far east, to the jungles beyond the Maelstrom to start anew. Lassst I heard, however, wass that even within them the sseeed of corruption of Omorr and Kalshekk has grown and born fruit.

I am N’zesh, a priesst of Agruonn and the lasst ssurvivor of the great Tlacotl nation and I want vengeance for my god and my people. Agruonn will rise again and both Omorr and Kalshekk will be cast down to the pitsss whence they came from. You will help me.

N’zesh joins you as a hero. He is a (Shadow-Dimensional-Body)Mage/ Dark Priest/Rogue multi-class with Evil alignment. To his joining, several conditions must be met:

1) Declare and maintain a war against the Mazatl once you establish contact until one of the nations is destroyed.

2) Once the Mazatl are discovered, N’zesh will have to campaign against them continuously unless otherwise specified.

3) You cannot adopt Runes of Kilmorph (Kalshekk) or Empyrean (Omorr) as your state religion and must remove those religions from your cities when they spread (N’zesh gains Inquisitor once those religions spread to you). The Austrin are by default followers of Tali, who is against Kilmorph.

4) Evil alignment means that he cannot participate in “good” deeds

5) He will abandon your civilization if any of the aforementioned conditions are not met. As an exception however, he can simply sit out if you choose to be “good” while questing.


Additional information:


1) N’zesh will gain substantial power boosts from (him) razing cities with Kilmorph/Empyrean in them and doing so to Holy cities will result in even greater boons.

2) N’zesh cannot enter the great desert – superstition means that he will not venture anywhere Omorr could see him, nor can he enter Tundra tiles for more than 1 turns in succession in order not to perish. This will change as N'zesh gains power and becomes less afraid of the wrath of gods and more firm in his own, however.

3) At a certain point, N’zesh will be able to capture/enslave units and all those units should then be sacrificed (dismissed) in honor of Agruonn.

4) N’zesh will select a city in the jungle region as his home and improve it with buildings otherwise un-available to your civilization

5) If played right, N’zesh will be able to found Council of Esus in his “home” city prior to Deception and gain various promotions across all his lines if you follow CoE (mage/priest/rogue)

6) N’zesh will give you quests as you progress.

7) You may not take any spell school promotions on N'zesh, those are granted based on the hero's progression.

Game terms:

The hero has been posted on the Tlacotli Forge and both N'zesh and Gryndane have looted an item from the remains of the Forge (Night Gear +15% retreat) and Mazli Oiled Gear (Marsh and Jungle strenght increase).

Important! If you choose not to take N'zesh on board, you will have to delete the unit on the first turn. Additionally, he will become a hostile Shadow Priest of Agruonn (considerably more powerful) and unite the lizard force against you.

Discuss.

Quest, N’zesh’s bidding:

Spoiler :

Now, let usss desstroy thiss foul place once and for all... I will return for that mountain of filth later, but for now this ssshrine to that basstard of a god will have to do.

Q: Raze (Pillage) the Forge

R: Followup quest in the next segment.

As a tip, I suggest Gryndane makes haste to Telyhohn. Barbarian activity (by the game, not by me) is increasing and there might be raiding parties with up to 5 units in them crossing your borders by t90 if you're unlucky.

Questions?

Additionally, I'd like to remind you that you are adaptive. The first switch comes around t100 usually and you might want to consider what you want to replace your Charismatic with, if anything.

lymond just played.
Jarrema is up
Old_Lion on deck.

 

[Brian Shanahan]

Ok, just read through the last lot, nicely played lymond, it was pretty close to what I was going to do.

As regards the quests, let's take N'zessh on board (now that is a name without any teeth), and play with him for a while. And I would get Gryndane back to the cap post haste, and then onto escorting the Elohim group back to us.

We might consider getting a 3-warrior escort up before bringing the new workers back too.

I'll be back early tomorrow so I can give a better look at the game then.

 

[Jarrema]

I would love having N'zessh !!!
I wanted to go for following Essus anyway, and I love lizards

 

[lymond]

Yep, let's definitely play the Lizard Priest. Should be fun. As would CoE.

Sorry about screenshots. It's something I'm getting used to doing as play is in progress.

Don't forget civic switches.

 

[AntiTwelve]

Game wise:
revolt to GK and Pac immediately. This will bring in our first GS ten turns earlier. I agree that we need 3 more warriors before transferring to hunters. Don't forget, our UB allows recon units to eventually reach 10xp, so I propose building the Exploration Guild after increasing defenses.

We'll want to keep to the recon line to get tracking, allowing us to build our UU 5/6 str tracker and Harmatt. Defense is our best strategy atm.

Good God, quests:
Foxford and Fizzik's- LET'S GO ZOMB... WURRWOLF HUNTIN'! After getting Gryn back to the capital he should be strong enough to make it to Fizziks and hold off the Alpha wolf. Hopefully. I'm assuming we'll get a new quest when Gryn makes it to the shop.

N'zesh- We don't have much of a choice, do we? I'm not in full favor of his requirement to never ending war with Mazatl, but damn a body II mage this early? Sign me up.

Elohim- Wait until we can send trackers for cover and hopefully capture animals along the way. My 2 ¢.

 

[uberfish]

I think we need this lizard's help with so many dangerous creatures out. Regeneration and haste will save Gryndane a lot of turns running around/healing. Too bad Esus is a pretty lame primary religion unless they improved it in FF. I'm also in favour of dealing with the werewolf situation before the situation deteriorates even further and just spamming some warriors to deal with the barbarian threat. We need to get a second city and we need Gryndane free to do quests.

Presumably all these quests would be neutral?

 

[Fleme]

I'll give my input on a few matters.

1) You should probably hurry the Gretchins to Telyhohn and start road constructions from there. That desert isn't safe. However, make sure that they do not participate in other deeds before the road is finished

2) Take the tip of moving back to the capital seriously. The game can really screw you with one of those mini barb uprisings. Fizziks' shop and the Werewolves are capital adjacent anyhow, so it's both safe and reasonable to return. It's less than 5 turns to travel to the cap, with Haste and ignored terrain movement costs. On that note, if you want the Guardian promos right as you reach the cap, you can save and get the promos and continue the set as is.

3) Gryndane and N'zesh do not necessarily have to conduct their quests together and N'zesh can pick up quests for himself as well although in the current situation the only thing he could do on his own is head up north to escort which would take a lot of time.

4) A lot of the content will have upsides and downsides - some more apparent than others and here you have the potential to gain a powerful multiclass hero at the cost of having to wage an endless war.

Lastly, I'd like input on the added content once again. AntiTwelve has given me his opinions via PM already and I'm thankful for those but would also like to hear from others if there's something you'd like to see more - or less or if things are good as is.

Looking forward to the next set and developing the story!

 

[Jarrema]

Ok
what I think:
1. Raze the forge
2. Go with both heroes to capitol
3. build 2 more warriors, then think
4. I would strongly want to go for FoL religion as soon as possible. Funding it will help us at this stage of game. Especially if we later want to go CoE (and I want), because we will need priests from relifion other that CoE (and we cannot get RoK or Empy)
5. Die, ugly good lizards, die!

I will play tommorow

 

[uberfish]

Picking up FoL is a pretty good idea, given that we have mysticism and are researching hunting already and our new lizard friend doesn't object. It seems to fit with the general Austrin theme anyway.

Fleme I like the extra content, it doesn't feel railroaded or anything because we're still making Civ and RP decisions about what's best to pursue and what our priorities are. (Can't do all the quests at the same time.) If anything - don't tell us all the consequences of doing stuff the characters like/dislike. Now we have some idea of what we can expect, it would be nice to have more of a surprise (as happened with the wolf quest.)

 

[Fleme]

Sure, I can make it more of a surprise if that's what you guys want. Don't worry, I've got plenty of stuff up my sleeve ready and waiting for the game to progress.

 

[Jarrema]

As for surprises - they will be good, but I will like to at least have an opportunity to try to infer from some clues what consequences of particular decisions may be

 

[Fleme]

Obviously. Either way, I have quite a bit of content stored up and the stories are building up according to play. My only concern is my trip (t minus 55 days) and how far along we can get before that. Well, there's a lot of content that can fit into ~2 months so let's not worry about that.

Looking forward to your set Jarrema - take screenshots of points of importance if possible.

 

[Jarrema]

Taking screenshots would be a PITA - as I described earlier, I can only set a timer outside of game , then launch it and wait... So for example there will be NO screenshots confirming killing units. Sorry.
I will try to take some, anyway

 

[Fleme]

Yeah no problem - just that it illustrates the story better when there's a picture or two involved but I do realize it being problematic for you. I'm sure a good description will do just as well. I'll update right after you've played.

 

[Jarrema]

Turn 80: Brother Tancred waits at Cahir Abbey. Roads are not safe this days.
Gretchins run away from a skeleton.
Gryndane wants to travel with N'zesh. In order for travel being smooth, he gave him his swift boots. With a haste spell, our heroes travel really fast.
turn 81: Maps traded with Einon Logos. It is benefitial for him rather than for us, but we want good relations with Elohim.
Revolution begins (sorry, I forgot to do it earlier).
Hell hound entered our lands from north! Alpha werewolf has been spotted at south! Our rogue decided to go home, to halp defending it
turn 82: A little relief. Werewolf didn't enter our borders, and hellhound moved north
turn 83: Our heroes visited our capitol. Thanks to N'zesh wise advice, our goverment re-establishes. Now, Austrin people have a God-King.

here I wanted to give an image, but I do not know how... I even cannot give it as an attachment because it is too big . Anyway, it looks just awful. I do not know why. So, no picture here.

Gryndane decided to get rid of pesky hell hound menacing our workers. So, with a little help of spells, he killed the beast.
Turn 84: Gryndane kills a skeleton that was pursuing our Gretchins
turn85: We started building a road to the Fizzik's workshop
Turn 86: Our heroes killed some orcish warriors (5 of them)
Turn 87: Heroes approached Ruins of Foxford from the west. They saw not only ruins, but also Alpa Werewopf north from the ruins, and two other werewolves in a castle east from Foxford. It is going to be a tough fight!
Turn 88: Despite low odds (75%) Gryndane attacked Alpha werewolf!. But... Alpha werewopf fled from a combat! N'zesh attacked him with his posioned blade (99% chance at this moment). And... werewolf fled once more! At the end, one of our lowly rogues finished life of the beast. Of course, he has gained a special name: Wolfbane. He had found an item on the beast body - a Heart Amulet.
turn 89: Wolfbane gave heart amulet to the Gryndane.
Turn 92: Werewolves at the castle were too tough for our heroes. After looking at the walls, they decided to go elsewhere. Maybe helping brother Tancred would be a good idea? The poor man is still waiting!
Someone probably has casted his worldspell
Spellcasting is now disabled. It means, that our heroes would be slower now.
Turn 94: We had lost warrior to the barbs. Wolfbane avenged him. Our Gretchins work further on the road.

 

[Brian Shanahan]

Jarrema are you trying to upload images directly to CFC? If so you'd be better off using an outside host like imageshack or photobucket or dropbox (don't use it myself but everybody swears by it). And you can always crop your shot by using paint or paint.net (the non-micro$oft version).
Then use the {img}{/img} tags (just use square brackets instead) to drop the image in (and maybe the spoiler ones too if the image is greater than 1072*768.

Edit: Game is looking good. Lol on the two retreats by the Alpha male though.