Part 11: Exploring Continentia, Part 2: The Irok Invasion

Exploring Continentia, Part 2: The Irok Invasion



This is the town just southeast of Irok. We now know which towns sell both Town Gate and Castle Gate, which is going to make our lives about ten times easier once we start needing to teleport between continents. Sweet.



Well, that doesn't sound so bad. Unfortunately we don't currently have a garrison bitch (and no, my archers aren't useless enough that I actually want to dump them yet), so we won't attack yet. I mean, we wouldn't want to attack Irok without having some idea of what the hell to do once we've defeated our enemies.

"If you make all the Middle East jokes now, you're not going to have any left when we get to Saharia."



So instead, we do some more exploring. Ooh, a town and treasure! Could today get any better?





Well, maybe there'll be something useful in town.



Find Villain. It's an okay spell, but I usually don't bother using it since you're going to end up fully exploring each continent and finding all the villains anyway.



As usual, this castle doesn't sound too threatening. And we picked up a gnome on the way back through Hidden Grove, so we might just give it a try.



But first, even more treasure! (The sign says "Secret Pass"; as usual, it's full of crap. Nothing in this game is really all that secret, considering that you have a frigging automap and can see what areas you haven't explored.)







Meh, we have enough income. At least it's not actively insulting like all those chests with 100 gold.

I bet now that I've said that the next chest will have 100 gold.



I am pleasantly surprised.



Boy howdy, this game sure does have a hard-on for throwing Sprites at me.

Anyway, further north up the pass...



What castle could this be, I wonder? Well, those of you who don't know will have to remain in suspense a little longer, because before we find out I'm going to collect that treasure!

(The sign says "Pirate's Cove")



I'd still rather have a leadership boost, but as income boosts go that's a big one for this continent.



Thanks, King's Bounty! You're being surprisingly agreeable today.



Caneghor's castle. Yeah, we're not fighting him yet.

"Are you sure? I promise my archmages won't set you on fire or anything."

"Don't listen to him! He's got his fingers crossed behind his back!"

How can you possibly know that? You can't see his back from here!

"I know because that's what I do when I promise not to set someone on fire."



Okay, that's enough of that. Time to run back to town, get a boat and explore this little lake.



Hey, another castle on this island in the middle of the lake! This must be Castle Faxis. I'm sure that with the great luck we've had so far, that treasure chest will contain something spectacular!





Screw it. Let's just attack the castle.



Well, this isn't so bad. I mean, I have to make sure those wolves don't get anywhere near my gnome, but I can just send my cavalry up to handle them...



FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

So yeah. Absolutely every enemy decides to gangbang my Cavalry in round 1. That's 800 gold down the drain right there. Awesome.

I also managed to lose an archer by trying to melee the dwarves with them. This is not my finest hour.



About half of that money will be spent recovering the cost of the archer and cavalry I lost by making a complete pig's ear of this attack.



Fuck you, gnome. A unit I actually cared about died protecting you. Go and guard this castle so I never have to see you ever again.



CURSE YOU, APTLY-NAMED ISLAND



Being taunted with another awesome unit I can't get yet confirms that King's Bounty is right back in "fuck you" mode.



Oh, hey, here's something to lighten my mood.



Forget what I said, King's Bounty. All is forgiven!



When viewing the map of Continentia, we now have a button to switch between the complete map and our automap. This allows us to tell which areas we still need to explore. As you can see, there aren't too many of them left.



I don't suppose the game has decided to cut us another break and give us Druids?



Whatever. We needed a garrison bitch anyway.



This treasure horde isn't so bad, really. I mean, it's not great, but it's not terrible.



I withdraw my previous statement.



Remember these monsters from way back in the first update, when Ignatia had to run away from them? Yeah, that cave is the tunnel we went through. Back then, all of those wolves and dwarves were fearsome opponents; now, they're just another 1600 gold for our coffers.



Photographic proof that it's the same tunnel. We could use this as an easy route back to Castle Maximus, except that we don't want to go back to Castle Maximus yet. We've got one more castle to conquer first.



We're going to stay the course in Irok this time!



Let's see if I can win this one without getting any more of our cavalry killed.



Success! And now, it's time for the most satisfying part of our job...



... condemning useless midgets to a lonely, miserable life guarding a ruined castle.



"Ooh, Lightning! If only there were any worthy enemies left alive to use it on."

Lightning is about half as powerful as Fireball, at only a third of the cost. Usually if you need to use attack magic at all, then you should use the best magic you can, but since this is free I may as well use it.



Fuck you, King's Bounty. Just you wait until I get Demons.

Well, there are a few more treasures along the rivers that I haven't collected yet, and Ignatia can always use another leadership boost, so let's see what they are.



Okay, fine, no leadership boost this time.



Not this time either. Third time lucky?



I think the game is mocking me again.

There's only one more red dot on the map (representing treasure, monsters, or a town) that I haven't been to yet. It's in the far southwest of Continentia, along the coast. Since it's so well-hidden, I bet it's something really special!



Oh, that's right. Red dots can also be signs.

"Like you said, if it's well-hidden it probably says something important!"



Fuck you, King's Bounty.

There's still some uncollected treasure in the desert, but I'm going to wait until after Caneghor to do that, so that Ignatia has more spell capacity for Time Stop spells. Since that makes this the end of the update, it's time for a status check!



Our army. We're going to want to build it up a little more.



Fortunately, Ignatia has the leadership and the gold to do so. Unless her loyal retainers have a sudden change of heart and send her to explore Forestria first, next update we're going to take on Caneghor!

"A proper wizards' duel! I can't wait."