Chronicle of the trials and triumphs of the Quarterlin(g) clan in Dragon Pass

No sooner have we finished clearing our fields of dead Foxes when another raiding party is spotted. Again our scouts have provided no warning, and we are outnumbered.

Using the same tactics as with the foxes the Vanstali charge into a trap.

Salinarg attempts to shoot down the Vanstali heroquester in midair, but the Vanstali air spirites protect him from harm and he manages to kill two of our weaponthanes and injure three others before we can drive off the raiders. In their hurry to escape they leave some horses behind, but it is little compensation for the clansmen who had died.

It is clear that we must build up better defenses to protect home and hearth from raiding scum. We don’t have enough goods to afford to build a proper palisade yet, so trading is in order. In the meantime we need to train more weaponthanes.

The Grey Foxes, having been turned back by our brave warriors, are now looking for weaker prey. A raid does not make for a feud. Weak clans will not survive in Dragon Pass and it is only right that the stronger clans take what they can from them.

That said, the Stag Hearth clan has been friendly towards us and we have no cause to make them resent us for letting raiders cross our borders freely. The Foxes are turned away.

With that gesture we also hope to secure the friendship of the Stag Hearths, enough for an alliance hopefully. Gifting them with five fine horses we ask them to join us in alliance so that we may overcome our foes together. Janstan, chieftain of the Stag Hearths agrees and we drink to Orlanth in celebration. Sadly good news are tempered with bad.

As the Dark season of winter settles it’s clear that the omened bad harvest came to pass and we won’t have enough food to feed our clan the coming year. We need to call in favours or trade. We have many fine horses that should fetch a good price, it’s best to save favours for emergencies. The ducks, in spite of their defiant barn-burning, did come through and deliver us the food they had pledged. This will ease our burdens a bit and though relations between us are strained it might be best to try to better our relations.

In preparation for next year the carls clear out some of the wildlands and set aside more land for pastures and farmland. We have more than enough Carls to tend our farmlands but we are lacking in oxen to pull our ploughs. A shrine to Uralda the cow mother might be in order. The cost to properly maintain and venerate so many temples and shrines might be too much of a burden for our small clan at the moment though.

Having only lived on our Tula for two years the lands around us are still unknown to a great extent and Voskandora, warrior under Vinga the adventuress, has asked permission of the ring to explore the wildlands around our tula. Taking five weaponthanes and a dozen footmen with her they brave the snows and find a secluded valley filled with old bones and ivory teeth which will sureley benefit our craftsmen.

Sadly they were not the only ones braving the snows.

Grave accusations though spirits, even ones as powerful as the rock spirit of theirs, are not infallible. The clan ring ordered a divination to ask the gods for guidance and they clearly showed that Yanioth was innocent. Our attempts to convince the Tree Brothers of this were not very successful however, though they grudgingly admitted that they needed more evidence before they could press their claim. The last word on this matter is not yet said however, and the rock spirit of theirs make their warriors a fearsome threat.

As the snows melt, we raid the Vanstali with aid from our Wildcat allies.

A great success!

But it seems we are never allowed to enjoy our successes this year, for when the raiders return home our clan regalia is gone. A grievous blow to the clan’s reputation and to our magic.

Salinarg is sent off with all 22 of our weaponthanes for three seasons to hunt down our regalia. As much as the blow hurts the clan, we need him and our weaponthanes all back before the season of Fire starts and the clans go raiding again.

With our thanes gone the Tree Brothers steal 18 heads of cattle from us. A loss we’ll have to take in stride.

The year ends. Our food supplies from last year helped us through our bad harvest, other than that, the clans prospects are looking good. We are more than holding our own. If we get a decent harvest this year and, Orlanth be praised, find our lost regalia we can make a bigger name for ourselves.

The one concern I have is that there isn’t one noble who follows Eurmal the Trickster in the entire clan. A trickster on the ring is very useful and would help us go on a sacred heroquest in the realm of the gods. A succesful heroquest would give us much prestige and possibly other rewards as well.

Oh, and Jason, sorry for booting you off the clan ring but while you were very good at both tending crops and managing animals as could be expected of a follower of Barntar you simply didn’t excel in either field and the clan ring needs the very best.

Thanks for the thread Kalle! I really love this game, but I have never been any good at it. I hope I can still find my disc somewhere, as your story already has some excellent tips that I could put to use.

It’s like a simulation of my real life.

With our clan regalia gone our reputation amongst the clans of Dragon Pass has fallen. The gods and ancestors only see fit to grant us one point of magic for the year in light of this and though it will be assigned to war, we should call in a favour for magic so that we can defend ourselves during the year.

Planting season is uneventful. Three suitors, all from different clans, turn up seeking the marriage of one of the clan’s women. Orldag of the Eagle clan is picked by the clan ring despite the protests of the would-be bride. Orldag offered to tell us secret lore of the gods and our relations with the Eagle clan needed improvement.

As fire season comes round there is still no word from the party sent to discover our missing regalia and the ring starts to worry. Worse than that, the clan is left without thanes to patrol the tula. Worried clan members give formal complaint to the ring and worthy candidates, eight men in all, are given the rank of thane while we wait for our missing warriors to return.

Food supplies are running low, trading horses for food gave us a temporary respite but a favour might have to be called in as there are still some weeks left before harvest.

As we send out another trading party to the Slapfoot Ducks who seem to have much food we are raided by the rangdani tribe.

Though we only have three thanes at hand and half as many foot troops as the rangdani we manage to set a trap for them.

Offir, healer of the ring, rushed forward to heal our war leader and emboldened by his courage our hard-pressed troops helped save Dastandros from the battlefield. The raiders managed to reach our tula however and made off with cows and goods.

Soon after Horse Nomads from outside the pass raided us. Again we were hit hard and they made off with 16 precious horses and five captives, slaves no doubt.

Salinarg returned, too late to help against the raiders and with none of our regalia, but he did have knowledge of the Horse Nomads. Followers of Yelm, the Bad Emperor and enemy of Orlanth, the come from the West to raid wielding powerful fire magics.

With 30 weaponthanes now in our clan we have more than enough men to avenge our raids on nearby clans, and the harvest looks good enough to carry us through the next year. It has been a bad year so far, but we can still make an impact.

Ring member Minara is sent off to the Six Brothers clan to trade some of our cattle for goods. We need more goods to maintain our temples and keep our now large number of thanes in service and if we don’t do it now we might not have the chance when the snows come.

The Antorling tribe to our north now seeks friendship and bears gifts looking for an alliance. Having them as allies against the hated Vanstali will be a great boon for our Storm season raids.

(Seasons: Sea - planting, Fire - Raiding, Earth - Harvesting, Dark - Can’t move from the Tula for snows, most likely, Storm - Raiding)

With the snows we explore more of the tula, finding precious stones our crafters can turn into amulets. With many wounded men still in the tula we sacrifice some of our newly traded goods to Chalana Arroy

As the clan gathers round the fires to ward off the dark a strange party arrives at the tula.

A Humakti Deathlord on a heroquest is definitely not one to be taken lightly, duck or not, and a challenge to the death is likely to end with even the finest of our warriors slain. He is potentially a valuable ally, and a fight to first blood seems like the best option, but I don’t want to insult him either.

Heorl, an Orlanthi champion and a truly excellent warrior takes up the challenge. Both warriors face eachother and as one their blades move. First blood strikes Heorl’s head off his shoulders while his sword cuts deep into the Humakti’s chest. Both warriors die, and as they carry his body away the deathlord’s companions remark that he must have had a holy gift to kill the next man to challenge him to first blood.

As Storm season comes round we raid the rangdani in retaliation. Despite greatly outnumbering them and outmaneuvring them an Urox berserker wreaks havoc among our troops and we are unable to stop him. The raid is aborted. A second raid planned against the Vanstali is aborted before it even begins as harsh weather overtakes our men and force them back to the tula.

The Gray foxes raid our cattle but we spot them and overtake them, killing many. Worse, the Vanstali raid us and burn our steads. Despite outnumbering them, their magic is stronger than ours and we are worse to give up the battle, letting them make off with cattle and horses.

The year ends in ignomy and our reputation is surely suffering. We must fight and reclaim our rightful place among the clans if we are to survive the next year.

Nice job Kalle. I loved having a trickster on the ring - they bring a lot to the table (Though not always good long term solutions).

So this game gives you the chance to pwn Howard the Duck? Man I missed out by not getting into pc gaming till late 2000.

While raiding the Duckmen can produce nice short term gains, it can also lead to other consequences. Unfortunate consequences.

With the new year we assign two points of magic to herds to ward off a possible omen of disease amongst our pigs and to increase our number of cattle, two points to war, to reclaim what is ours, and one point to trading, to get more trade goods. That leaves us with 3 points of magic for the year.

The stones we found near the tula seem to have caught the interest of a Six Brothers trader. He offers us 40 heads of cattle in exchange for them. We tried to bind them to a long term trade agreement but they were not interested and the negotiations resulted in naught.

Another trader from our allies in the Wildcat clan offered to buy Esra’s basket, one of our Artifacts, for 40 cows worth of goods. While tempting we are already on good terms with the Wildcats and the basket is surely worth more. After some lengthy bargaining we settled on 51 cows worth of goods. Less than what it’s worth, probably, but the clan is poor.

Our first raid against the Vanstali goes poorly, yet again. though we kill and wound a number of them for no losses of our own we are not able to bring home any plunder. A second raid against the Rangdani achieved the same result. We suffered no casualties, but neither did we recieve any plunder.

While harvesting our fields our farmers discovered a wondrous skeleton, akin to the ancient dragons. We traded it away for a good price, and used some of the profit to buy a spirt fetch from a pair of wandering spirit talkers. The fetch will act as a repository of magic for when we need it.

In the middle of winter we see another raid from the Horsespawn of the west. Luckily our patrols spot them and the entire clan is ready to face them.

Outflanking them we struck a great blow, killing 20 of them and injuring 60 more for the loss of just three clansmen. 50 horses were our spoils and more than that, our clan has showed that we are no weaklings. Following up this great victory, a small party snuck out among the snowy mountains to raid the Vanstali herds. 37 cows were brought back to the tula and our luck might just be turning. When Storm season comes we will fall upon the Vanstali with swords and axes and burn and plunder.

The first raid of Storm season was yet another bloody failure. Many enemies fell, but we were unable to press home our advantage and return with plunder. The Vanstali tried a cattle raid in return but we drove them off emptyhanded.

Our second raid of the season turned out better. With the help of the Wildcat clan we evaded their patrols and burned two of their steads to force battle. As the bewildered Vanstali charged we led them into a bloody trap where we butchered them leaving us free to burn more steads and escape with 19 cows and 8 horses, all without a single Quarterling casualty.

We are once again a strong clan, and we have proved ourselves in the eyes of our gods and ancestors.

Long live the Quarterlin!!!

A new year, and new plans. The Vanstali are greatly weakend from our raids and while their lands are too far away for conquest we can take their goods and herds and burn their homes. Harsh, but a feud is not to be taken lightly.

We have eight points of magic, two go to war, one to mysteries, and one to herds. We need more cattle.

A delegation is sent with gifts to the Slapfoot ducks. We have an abundance of horses and while they pay us tribute it can’t hurt to befriend them. The gifts were extraordinarily well recieved.

Oh no! Men have been sneaking out to see a wood nymph.

Asking around the tula, three men admitted to having gone to the creature. Ensorcelled no doubt the clan performed a ritual to free them from any curses she might have left on them.

With Fire season upon us we raid the Vanstali. It was a bloody affair but the women auxiliaries were able to heal all of our menfolk and we made off with cows, horses and goods from their tula. The Vanstali must be short on warriors by now. We will press them until they yield. After the battle our spirit fetch caught some magic for us. Another five points were added to our clan before the spirit departed.

Though we thought ourselves safe from the wood nymph, one of the men who admitted to laying with her was killed when strange viny growths sprouted through his skin. Once again we pray and sacrifice to the gods, this time to lift the curse from the entire clan.

Another raid sent to burn the Vanstali steads was a lesser defeat. Though we fought bravely our warriors had to fall back as the Vanstali refused to break. The raiding has left us lacking for farmers though. We still have kin in the Heortland outside the pass and we will try to entice some of them to join us.

As winter comes to the pass we see to our fortifications, building earth ramparts against enemy raiders, and sacrificing to Orlanth to keep us safe. Life during the Dark season is slowpaced but when a strange malady strikes our warriors the entire tula is up in arms.

We sacrifice to Chalana Arroy to beg for help against this strange malady but despite offering up 20 cows to her the omens remain bad. In spite of this we raid the Vanstali again as the snows melt. Plunder is ours, though their clan must be all but spent by the fighting. They can come beg us for peace when they have had enough. Instead they raid our cattle only to withdraw as soon as they see us coming to head them off.

The strange palsy remains with us, and this is bad. A divination tells us that angry ghosts are the cause and that propitiating Malia, a chaos goddess, will save us, but that cannot be the answer. Malia is not to be trusted. We send for shamans, giving them 15 cows to deal with the ghosts.

A second raid saw another bloody defeat. We killed four Vanstali thanes though, so it was worth it. They must be hurting, maybe it’s time to resolve the feud.

Another year is at an end, and we are prospering.

This thread makes me want to find my cd. Is your’s in plastic or paper? Would narrow down the search…

Crap. lost a year’s worth of text. To summarise, we went some raids, refused to take in a woman who was to be married to a man who had shamed her, had our ancestors pissed off to the point where they revoked our magic and demanded sacrifices, promised to hold a troll-killing artifact in exchange for goods, fought trolls and did so well that our ancestors gave back our magic (but not the sacrificial cows), raided some more, had a clan member kidnapped by the woman we turned away which eventually lead to a raid on the grey fox clan which had taken her in where we captured and eventually killed her. Oh, and we built a stockade.

Is there any way to get the game to play without constantly loading stuff from the CD? It’s making the game almost unplayable, especially since my disc doesn’t seem to be in the greatest condition and often it freezes up trying to read from the disc. Oddly, the disc looks like it’s in great condition, no scratches or anything, but my drive seems to have lots of trouble reading it.

I believe it shipped in a paper sleeve.

Make a cd image and load the image in a virtual drive.

Any time I read an AAR for any game, it makes me desperately want to play it. I’ve purchased GalCiv2, Civ3: Conquests, Warlords Battlecry III, Dominions 3, Europa Universalis III, Crusader Kings, and Heroes of Might and Magic III (again) all based on AARs. So now I want this game.

With many of our farmers too injured to work the fields after the recent fighting the first priority is to learn Chalana Arroy’s Healing blessing. A sacrifice of 18 cows should do it. With that learnt the shrine we have to the goddess can alternate between Curing, to prevent disease, and Healing, when we have many wounded people. There’s not really any need for a larger shrine to use both blessings simultaneously.

The clan, overall, is pretty contented but the farmers have been on the sharp side of the fighting a few too many times for their liking. Something should be done to raise their morale but I’m not quite certain what that would be.

While we send off traders to the Old Owls to barter horses for more cattle the Vanstali raid our herds. A small skirmish ends with half a dozen men dead or wounded on both sides and the Vanstali make off with 16 cows. We must hit them in return to make them regret their daring. Though they did not have any valuables to speak of, our men returned with twice as many cows

Speaking of cows…

We let the matter rest. The men returned the next day, claiming they had made their escape. The clan women suspected them of adultery but a bit of convincing had the women drop the matter.

With nothing to do during harvest Voskandora petitioned for an expedition to explore the Quivin mountains to the south.

While the lair of a Wyrm might promise riches to other clans, we honour our ancestors and leave dragon-kin well enough alone, strengthening our magic.

Disaster!

(I meant to have an image here but I forgot to capture one, oh well)

A ringmember and the best magician in the clan made ill from a chaos-infested shirt. This bodes ill. Minara recognised the shirt and claimed it had come from the Tree Brother clan. When the matter was brought to them, questioning eventually revealed the truth of these allegations. The Tree Brothers were horrified at having a chaos worshipper in their clan and we left the matter in their hands. Stricken from the protection of the laws the foul chaosworshipper was killed.

Insterid is still sick and sacrifices to Chalana arroy to heal the chaos-sickness had no result, though all others in the clan were healed of their maladies.

Repeated raids at the Vanstali during Storm season have little result. Though we kill a number of them and burn two of their steads we are unable to win the day. Atleast we can take solace in that councillor Insterid recovers from the chaos hex.

A good year for the clan. Now if only we had a Trickster on the ring so we could haroquest with some confidence of success.

this is just…too awesome.

I, also, am playing. Well, trying to play. Still learning HOW to play is more likely what I am doing.

But this thread has helped me some.

Chris