Part 17: Anchors Aweigh

The vote was reasonably close this time, but in the end exploring Forestria came out three votes ahead. In this update, I'll be clearing out Castles Duvock and Jhan, and picking up every treasure on the map. Don't worry, I'll only screenshot the interesting ones.

Anchors Aweigh



Here's our current map. We've still only explored about two-thirds of Forestria, and that won't do at all!



It just wouldn't be King's Bounty if every update didn't start with us picking up a shitty treasure.



Okay, this more than makes up for it.

"Hey, if these are nomads, why can't we recruit them?"

If you were a magical nomad, wouldn't you have better things to do than tag along with some pyromaniac?

"..."

Uh, I mean, with a master sorceress whose incredible magical talents would leave her followers with a constant sense of inferiority. Yeah, that's what I said. Let's move along, shall we?



That's more like it. Good old gold. Nothing I can say about this will get me set on fire.



A castle and a monster lair. Intriguing.



"Aww, it's only Dwarves."



"Prince who now?"

"Prince Barrowpine, cream of the elven nobility. What brings you to my castle, commoner?"

"For an elf, you've got kind of a chubby face."

"Have you some quarrel with me? If not, begone. I have no patience for your wearisome chatter."

"Oh, it is on now. Just you wait until I get a contract for you."



"No. Go shamble off and lower the morale of some other army. Preferably that elven jerk."



"Yay! Even more attack magic!"



Raise Control raises Ignatia's leadership for one week. Multiple castings stack. Remember way back when I got Clone, and I said that in combination with other spells it could completely break the game? Raise Control is one of them. Ignatia can boost her leadership into the stratosphere and create a massive cloned army of whatever troops she wants (well, almost).

Unfortunately, one Raise Control spell won't do much for us. We need to find a town that sells them.



"Oh God, please let this town sell Raise Control."



Or Bridge. Yeah, that's just swell. Because when you can incinerate an army with your mind, what you really want to do with all that power is conjure up big ol' planks of wood. Anyway, let's check up on this Prince Barrowpine fellow and his army.



"He still actually thinks Sprites are worth using. How cute."



Prince Barrowpine strode regally into the room. The pair of guards escorting him remained just inside the entryway, waiting silently. The Prince spoke, "You should be studying, not daydreaming, O mighty wizard." Magus glared at the Prince, daring him to continue. "Arech will be displeased with you, most ingenious of wizards, if we do not finish translating the second part of the Prophecy," taunted the elf. Magus' finger glowed sun bright and then the blinding light lanced out into two twin beams of destruction. Where the two guards stood, nothing remained but wisps of smoke, and even these faded into oblivion. A grin of satisfaction crossed Magus' face. The Prince burst into laughter, "Really Magus, you should not go around destroying my illusions like that. I shall just have to surround myself with new ones."

Prince Barrowpine then proceeded to reach into a pouch and removed his fabled enchanted coin. He held it aloft and it flickered briefly like a lighthouse beacon. The guards reappeared, silent as ever, waiting once again.

So basically we're after him because he helped to decipher the prophecies about the theft of the Sceptre. Also, he's a prick of the highest order.



Gee, I wonder what these will be.



Oh, sure, now the game gives us Nomads. Go back to Continentia where you actually would have been useful, guys!



"It's not good to be so stressed. Let's relax by conquering a castle!"

I approve of this plan.



No prizes for guessing what's going to happen to that one nomad we recruited.



"Money, money, money, must be funny, when you earn it through mass murder."

I... don't think that's quite how that song goes.



Okay, nomad, time to go sit in that castle and earn us some more money.

"Wait, what?"

I'm using you as a garrison. Castle Jhan is your new home. You'd better make yourself comfortable here, because I'm not coming back to pick you up.

"But... I'm a nomad."

So?

"nomad: noun a member of a people travelling from place to place to find fresh pasture for its animals and having no permanent home. Emphasis added."

Okay, so I guess you're not a nomad any more. Bye!



Hey, look, more troops we didn't ask for and don't want!



No stone will be left unturned, no treasure uncollected, no castle unconquered!



Oh fuck, this one has Giants.

"Relax, I'm on it."



"Hey, I had to use those Lightning spells somewhere."



Oddly enough, it gives us less cash overall than the castle that didn't have Giants. We didn't lose any troops in either of them, though, so it's still 100% profit.



Well, minus the cost of our garrison bitch. Not being a nomad any more must make you mad, huh?



"An anchor? What the hell kind of artifact is an anchor?"



The shitty kind, that's what. The Anchor of Admiralty does one thing and one thing only: it reduces the weekly cost for boat rental from 500 gold to 100 gold. By comparison, the Articles of Nobility increase your weekly commission by 2000 gold, and that's extra money you're getting even when you don't have a boat rented. I don't know why those are on the first continent and this is on the second. At least we got a map piece out of it.



This treasure is probably worth more to us right now than that anchor was.



Another castle! I have a feeling this one isn't just full of random monsters.



"Moradon? Isn't that some kind of dinosaur? Maybe I just associate you with dinosaurs because you're so damn old."

"So Maximus has finally sent an army to oust me -- well, if you can call that band of misfits under your command an army. I'll be looking forward to our next meeting."



Before long, we come across another town. That sign to the west says "Four villains rule Forestria."

"More like two villains, soon to be zero."



Time Stop again? This is getting ridiculous. Also, that is one happy-looking demon.



Moradon's gimmick is that he uses Castle-type units. He's no pushover, but that's not going to stop us from pushing him over.



Sir Moradon the Cruel, a knight with a rather sinister background, took the Czar's question as a cue. "I think we should ally with this Arech Dragonbreath. He has impressed me more than this knave Maximus. Arech said he would liberate Saharia and he did. Maximus was supposed to have a conference with us more than a week ago about establishing trade between our two empires. A man of inaction and indecision does not impress me as much as a man willing to take risks to ensure decisive action, even if it fails. I say Arech is right, he should rule the Four Continents rather than Maximus."

Moradon neglected to mention that he was secretly promised significant trade monopolies for cooperating with Arech. He had hesitated when Arech mentioned that a demon would rule as a figurehead, but his reservations were cleared when large parcels of land were dangled before his greedy eyes.

He conspired with Princess Aimola to overthrow King Maximus, and is another of the prisoners that Murray and Rob broke out of the dungeon. Also, he's a greedy, sadistic bastard. You weren't expecting any of these villains to be good people, were you?



Well, it's hardly Resurrect, but these spells will be handy for keeping Moradon's knights at bay when we fight him.



Fuck you, signpost.



Ooh, two treasures! At least one of them has to be good, right?








Sure, why the hell not. We need a fresh garrison bitch and I can't be bothered walking all the way back to get another nomad.



Another new town! What are the odds that it sells either Bridge or Time Stop?



Freeze prevents one enemy unit from moving for a round (although it can still attack anything that gets within its range). It's great for keeping fast-moving or flying enemies out of action.

"But I'm a fire mage! I shouldn't be freezing things!"

There's nothing wrong with a fire mage freezing things. Remember in Charmed where Piper learned to modify her power to freeze things so she could blow things up instead? It's like that, only in reverse.

"... you watch Charmed?"

_{... please don't tell anyone.}



Ah, that's a satisfying sight.



What a distinctive pattern of mountains! If the Sceptre were ever buried here, it'd be really easy to find.



Fuck you, King's Bounty.



All is forgiven!



I swear, if this is more elves...



Oh, it's a Troll lair. I may have a use for those later, but not right now.



Forestria has all the best signs, and they're all so very, very true.



Awesome, it's a treasure island! Well, either that or a monster and a tunnel.



Yeah, that's... real insightful there. Moving right along.



This is, what, the fourth group of mindless, shambling undead that have asked to join our army? For fuck's sake, King's Bounty, give me something I can use!



Okay, I could use these if I didn't already have an army full of Elves who wouldn't get along with them.



Let me guess: more orcs.



Ogres! I'm surprised, but not pleasantly so. They're cheaper than Knights and about as tough, but don't hit as hard, and just like Orcs they'll piss off our Elves.



Well, we've now explored the entire continent of Forestria, so I guess it's time to end this update. Stat check time!



I'm going to get around to buying/cloning back all those archers and knights eventually, I swear.



Looks like it's time to clone up some more Elves and Druids, too. Ignatia's leadership is getting ridiculous, thanks to all that treasure she's been giving away. Once we find a town that sells Raise Control, we'll start keeping all the treasure we find instead.



The Anchor revealed a square in the southeast. Looks like the southern mountain range ends right at the eastern edge of the map.

There are three options open to us today: we can either fight Sir Moradon, fight Prince Barrowpine, or travel to Archipelia. Vote now!

"Vote for Barrowpine!"

"Vote for Moradon!"