My first successful long game on hard (save between sessions) had an absolutely nailbiting finish - I had survived the early turmoil which usually claims my clan on hard, and settled into the safe slow path to the end.
The last heroquest I had had to do was several years earlier - the clan chiefs of my tribe voiced vigorous complaints about my king's long reign, but he managed to persuade them to think better of him, and I then had Kallyr quest MotST to prevent a rebellion (My heroic king - besides being NOT EXPENDABLE at this stage of the game - was Elmali). That worked.
All seemed to be going swimmingly: peace made between the tribes, town under construction - bliss, really, marred only by rumblings of tribal discontent. This time, they couldn't be persuaded or bought off, and recalling that one of the other options split the tribe so finely that the tribe might then disband, I chose the only option I had not tried before: threatening to fight each and every one of them if necessary. It worked for Orlanth in the myth, so why not here? I just needed to buy time to do another MotST, right?
My first clue that all was not well was when I had no option to quest to prevent a rebellion. I shrugged, quested to be a kingmaker at the next convenient time, and figured it was another oddity in the code like the way dual god-talkers get double battle text and results when they use their combat magic. Two seasons later ominous music plays, the screen displays a picture of an *awful* lot of Orlanthi fighting, and I discover that the all the other clans in my tribe took me up on that offer to fight all of them at once.
This leaves me with the option to cede the throne and write off this attempt to become King of Dragon Pass or fight with varying degrees of fanaticism before giving up. The ring gives no helpful advice, with everyone but Kallyr admitting it's all over - my king himself declared his willingness to step down rather than be known as 'Bad King Elmalandti'. My warleader Kallyr alone bucked the trend, advising that we fight to the death saying 'If we can win, our victory will be legendary'. Given that it was 5:1 odds, this took some imagination. Since I had already written the clan off as having successfully discovered yet *another* way to get my clan obliterated, and had no stomach for starting over after this time, the clan ring directed the Earthshakers to fight to the death.
And they won.
I had no more complaints from my tribemates before the coronation.
"The other clans prepared to attack us and force Elmalandti to step down. We fought them. Sneering at the overwhelming odds, Elmalandti led our thundering warriors into battle. The rebels were smashed, the rival chieftains humiliated. After a day of battle, the surviving rebels bowed down before us, declaring that the king still maintained the full favor of Orlanth."
Of course, this raises the unlikely possibility that, say, Ironhoof could be held off with some combination of the Raven Banner, an Elmali heroquest, and a ton of luck... Certainly, the mere dream of that possibility, be it a 1/10,000 chance, would make raiding the ducks a viable proposition.
HC
Powered by hypermail