Propitiating the Dread God Arengee - Let's Play King of Dragon Pass!

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

Important: what's a cottar?

They don't own land so they tend the land owned by the carls (I mean, the carls work the farms too though) and raise the sheep and pigs and not-as-important-as-cows. Basically they're low rung on the totem pole unless y'all decide I'm suddenly going against our ancestors and taking thralls (which I will if you want!) but they're still generally treated alright.

[UncertainJakutten]

1. Taking thralls would be just assholish, unlike raiding potential friendly clans during Earth season =D

[Von Stein]

*sniffs the air* I sense another event chain of horribleness.

Boil them before regrettable loss will come our way again! And then boil whoever's wife they were wooing! And their original clan! And us! And the ducks! And the dragons! And those stones earlier! And Mosdorl!

6

[Keegster2]

But if we boil ourselves, then we won't be able to do anything, because we would be dead. (We should boil Mosdorl, though.)

Still voting on 1.

[Sagus]

If we give them some land, will they occupy some of our unoccupied farms? If that's the case I vote 3, otherwise I vote 1

[Hello Purvis]

WE NEED MORE FARMERS AND WE NEED MORE FARMS!!!

VOTE 3!

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

If we give them some land, will they occupy some of our unoccupied farms? If that's the case I vote 3, otherwise I vote 1

Despite Purvis's chants, we don't really have discrete farms; we have X amount of farmland and Y amount of pasture, which requires Z amount of guys to plant/harvest/watch our herds. This is taken care of by pretty much any adult who isn't doing anything special (weaponthane, crafter, hunter, noble).

[Dead Princess Sakana]

How could we deny someone who has bested the Moordor Trail! Check them for disentery, and if they're fine give them some land to work with. 3

[Sagus]

Despite Purvis's chants, we don't really have discrete farms; we have X amount of farmland and Y amount of pasture, which requires Z amount of guys to plant/harvest/watch our herds. This is taken care of by pretty much any adult who isn't doing anything special (weaponthane, crafter, hunter, noble).

Ohhh.

Voting 1, then.

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

Yeah he's unhappy but no one else is. :V

Then Engarna complains about not having enough farmers again. Pretty sure you don't need to see a screenshot of it every time.


After that, Ernalda bestows THE BEST WISDOM. But before I can build a shrine for it...


Hendrick, a thane of the Blue Spruce clan, comes to ask you to make good on a favor you owe to his people. "We ask that you gift us with 20 cows, in return for considerations we have given you in the past, and in recognition of the goodwill between us," he says.

1. Give him less than he wants. (How much?)
2. Give him more than he wants. (How much?)
3. Give him what he wants.
4. Offer him food instead. (How much? We're tighter on food than I'd like, but just for reference, IIRC food is worth about 4 units per cow.)
5. Refuse him.

Customarily, the obligation we owe to them is worth twenty cows. (3)
Their warriors are few, and ill-equipped. We should curry the favor of the strong, and forget about these weaklings. (1, 5)
This is a fine chance to show our wealth off. (2, 3)
Generosity will reap its own reward, when we find them easy to bargain with in the future. (2, 3)
If they owed us a favor, we might want to ask them for cattle. (3)
  We can afford to give him what he wants. (3)
Cattle are too precious to be given away, even when we owe a favor to another clan. (5)

Oh hey yet another event with this same art because it's basically the same thing. :V

[Sagus]

Well let's not be stingy here. Give him what he wants. 3

[UncertainJakutten]

2, 30 cows.

[Hello Purvis]

He have an obligation, and we wish to be generous, but we also need cows for the farms the Ancestors keep telling us to build before we starve.

2. 21 Cows

[Dead Princess Sakana]

With the number of cows we have, may as well give a little more and hope that pays off at some point.
Going with UK's 2.) 30 cows

[Von Stein]

They need cows? How fortunate~

Refuse the cows, and prepare to raid the shit out of them! 5

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

I averaged together the actual numbers since "give more" won, and then the carls complained because the carls complain about everything ever I swear to god.


After the event I build that Ernalda shrine like I was going to before the event popped.


And then our exploration party to Kero Fin comes back. I left the entire screen here so you can see 1) the shrine to Ernalda defaulted to exactly what I wanted it to, and 2) this exploration result cost us two more fucking magic. >=|


Sacrificing to Barntar next gives us... exactly the wrong ritual. Plowsong is pretty fantastic (lets our oxen plow more cropland), but I wanted Vigor (which does basically the same thing for our farmers).


Finally, this Storm season, the defensive raids start happening. (Note that raids are an expected deal among Orlanthi, and while no the Zethnorings don't like us very much, it's not automatically a cause for "fuck those guys". I do want to work on relations some once we've got the crop-making ridiculousness underway, but in the absence of any particular opinion from you guys I'd actually like to keep these guys fairly unhappy for in case the Elkenvali are ever unavailable. :V)


And another victory, though less soundly than our raids this Fire season went.


p.s. Barntar is a jerk.


Oh hey look it's our punching bags.


And finally, a raid mini-event! Eventually Iskalli will probably be ridiculous enough to take insane risks, but fighting bravely is a pretty good default for anyone remotely competent in combat.


Nooooooooooooo my weaponthanes. Whatever, we can hire more later.


And then it's Sacred Time! We're doing pretty well for the first few years, though the fact that most of the sacrifices I've been making so far has been to gods that want goods rather than cattle doesn't hurt.


And thus the annual question: is there anything particular you'd like me to do this year? (But not more farms Purvis we have plenty of farms we just need to make the farms we have sufficiently awesome.) I took a screenshot with roughly the magic distribution I'd like to make in the absence of any specific requests - I'll probably take this year pretty similar to last in that case. The only thing I'd really like to do that I don't feel comfortable with yet is showing off a heroquest, since the only one we know yet is one of the more dangerous ones.

[Von Stein]

Personally, I feel it is time to start the inevitable arms race for Imperialism. We must discover the power of the atom, harness it, and burn the world in lovely nuclear fire, while serving the still living brains of our foes chilled with a slice of lemon, and walnuts. Moordor shall ruminate the remainders of the world mercilessly, reducing all opposition to either glass or a very fine, easily digestable paste. One does not simply meander into Moorder! Our ancestors will be granted sacrifices of blood from the very earth itself, as we render asunder the dreams of the sleepers! Break reality! Break your enemies! Break out more farms!

[Iced Fairy]

Hm...  There any use to setting up a better marketplace or should we get more trade goods before then?  And yeah apparently our ancestors want blood so we should give them some.

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

Hm...  There any use to setting up a better marketplace or should we get more trade goods before then?  And yeah apparently our ancestors want blood so we should give them some.

Well, better market mostly just means MOAR GOODS. Which is, of course, useful. We may want to get a bit more first to gift people to make them like us first? Help out with the trade route negotiation. But we've got enough of a base we probably could start on that.

[Hello Purvis]

THE ANCESTORS DEMAND MORE FARMS. WE ARE GOING TO FUCKING STARVE.

Also, it may not be a bad idea to work on trade goods and trade routes. Money is power.


And, Man, we fucked up that first raid pretty bad even though they slipped our defenses.

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

I shift one point from Herds (I normally only have one available slot there anyway!) and the point from Mysteries from my tentative setup to one each in Diplomacy and Trade in the name of helping get some routes set up.


Then I ship some gifts to the Narri to soften them up for bargaining. (I was gonna do the Six Brothers but oh wait they're one of the routes we started with. Might send them some shinies just for relations' sake later on anyway.)


\o/


And then I head straight back out to try to snag a route. Our guy will do a little bit of trading while he's there even if we don't succeed at setting up a constant route from it. Before he returns, however...


Cultists of Uralda, mother of cows, come to you and offer to perform a ritual to honor their goddess. The ritual will make your cows healthier and more fertile. Although they do so to honor Uralda, it is also clear that they want you to offer something in exchange for their ritual services.

1. Accept their offer; tell them you owe them a favor.
2. Allow them to perform the ritual, but offer them nothing.
3. Do not allow the ritual.
4. Offer them a share of your clan magic.
5. Offer them gifts.

If we offer them nothing, they will walk away, offended.
The carls are anxious for us to accept. (5)
Uralda is the bountiful cow mother, who brought her four-legged people into Ernalda's stead.
Give them five cows. (5)
They are right to expect something in return. (1, 4, 5)
They have invited me to assist them. We must be gracious. (5)
The carls are afraid that the ritual will fail, so that our herds will be worse off than before. (3)

[Sagus]

Well, we are Moordor, it would be bad if our cows were not the best. 5

[Stuffman]

Sartark sounds like he knows his shit. 5

[UncertainJakutten]

5. Bribe the cow cultists =D

[Iced Fairy]

Pay up front.  Favors lead to danger down the road.  5

[Von Stein]

Ah, fellow cowworshippers? Let us see if their ritual involves them turning into t-bone steaks! If not, tell them we owe them a favor, and then when they come, make them into T-Bone Steaks at that time! 1

[Dead Princess Sakana]

Cows for the Cow Goddess! 5

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

The going rate for cattle blessings: apparently, like half of what I'd've assumed. Thanks Sartark!


MORE WEAPONTHANES ALWAYS MORE WEAPONTHANES.


A small profit is apparently, like, 4 goods. Not pictured: Engarna complaining about us still not having enough farmers.


Let's try it all over again with a different neighbor! Because the Narri inexplicably dropped from light purple to pink and I don't know why. Like, I don't even think I've ever seen failed trade route attempts do that before. (Also not pictured: the immediate "blah blah they like us more now")


Hend and his wife Enastarra, of your clan, seek your blessing in the marriage of their daughter, Renatha, to Aslandar, son of the chieftain of the Rakstanti. Hend is pleased with the match, and with Aslandar's bride price of 15 cows' worth of goods.

1. Allow the marriage only if Aslandar comes up with additional gifts.
2. Bless the marriage.
3. Bless the marriage, and offer to pay 5 cows' worth of additional goods.
4. Disallow the marriage.
5. Suggest that Elusu would be a better match for Renatha. (I have no idea who this is, so they're probably some interchangeable noble we have in reserve.)

Assuming we can afford it, we should match the generosity of the Rakstanti, thus gaining status and respect. (3)
Marriage-bonds between clans build good neighbors. Good neighbors can become allies. (2, 3)
Good! (3)
Renatha is the loveliest and sweetest bride we have to offer. Surely the Rakstanti can afford a bride price more in keeping with her fine qualities. (1)
One marriage is worth a dozen wars. (1, 2, 3)
Our Renatha deserves a good start in her new life. (2, 3)
The Rakstanti look down on us, they do. They'll turn Renatha against us. Soon she'll have forgotten the entire saga of our clan. (4, 5)

[UncertainJakutten]

3[b/] BRIBE THOSE MARRIAGE CULTISTS!

[Hello Purvis]

We've already forgotten, Mosdorl. Look at how few farms we have.

This said, make it a wedding to remember: 3