Part 8: Time Waits for Nomad

In today's update, we're going to capture Hack the Rogue!

Time Waits for Nomad



On our way back up the coast, another week passes. And of course, it just has to be Sprite dwellings that are repopulated. Also notice the upkeep costs on our units: those Cavalry are expensive. (And Elves cost much less than Archers, despite being better in every way. The catch is that they're only available in limited numbers... for now, anyway.)



Here's where we go to load up on Time Stop spells before the big event.



No shit, Captain Signpost. What do you think we bought all these spells for?



What's this? That doesn't look like a treasure chest!

"Eek! A bug!" *stomp*



"Hey, that bug was crawling over a ring wrapped in a square of cloth!"

Well, what are you waiting for? Clean the bug guts off it and put it on! And for heaven's sake, give me that bit of the map before you set it on fire.

The manual doesn't describe the Ring of Heroism's effects very clearly. Basically, it's meant to increase your overall luck. I have no idea what exactly it does, if anything. But hey, it can't hurt, right?

Anyway, onward into the desert we go!



This is what happens when a unit wants to join you but your army is already full. What a crushing, ruinous loss. How shall I ever continue?



We run out of Time Stop spells just before reaching the castle. Also, more recruitable monsters run away from us. I'd have liked to walk around them for now so that I'd have a useless unit to garrison after beating Hack, but it would have meant wasting another day in the desert.



"Stop righppt there!"

"How do you do that?"

"Do whappt?"

"Spit and talk at the same time."

"Pracpptice."



The Lawrence of Arabia wannabes are Nomads, thus thinly justifying the horrible pun in today's update title. Think of Nomads as cheaper versions of Pikemen; they're a very good unit early on and I'm a bit sad that I haven't found any for hire yet.

"Nomads live in the desert. Deserts are hot. Fire is hot. We fight fire with fire."



"Ergo, fiery death."

Ergo? You may be a sorceress, but I never exactly had you picked as the scholarly type.

"What do you mean? That's just the noise people make when I inflict fiery death on them. You know, 'erg... ohh...'"



These are the survivors of our massacre of Hack's forces in the first two rounds. Our archers, failing to pull their weight as usual, killed 5 of that group of 30 militia, and the elves killed the remaining 25.



We win the battle in round 3 without losing a single soldier.

"Caneghor's spptill a bepptter mage than you. Jusppt you waippt and see!"

"I'll gladly take him on, just as long as he doesn't spit so much."



Our Dwarves are put on garrison duty this time. We can always go back for them with Castle Gate later on.



Speaking of which, there's no way we're walking back through all that desert with no Time Stop spells left. Ignatia, do your thing.

"Ziggety zaggety, zip zoom bah! Take us to Hunterville, rah rah rah!"

... are you a mage or a cheerleader?



Well, here we are, back in front of Castle Maximus! Let's look at Ignatia's stats.



If we fight Caneghor the Mystic next, I'll go back and get more dwarves. If we fight Baron Johnno Makahl next, I probably won't bother with them.



That ring sure does look pretty at the bottom of our status screen, even if I still don't know what it does.



The Ring and Hack yielded two pieces in the southwest corner of the map. We now know that the mountain range forms a continuous barrier to the south of the Sceptre, and curves northward to the west of it. A few more pieces and we could almost start guessing where it is.

Well, that's it for this update. The only two villains remaining in Continentia are Caneghor and the Baron. We also still need to explore the rest of Continentia for treasure, and we can always go to Forestria and see what can be seen there.

"Forestria, eh? Know what I like best about forests? Forest fires!"