The Banner Saga Part #38 - Day 84: The High Pass

Part 38: Day 84: The High Pass

Taking into account the very real possibility that this is Bellower's army, we're going to take the long way around.

"I hate to say it," you tell Eyvind, "But I'm not willing to walk into swarms of dredge anymore. Juno will have to wait." You turn toward the long round around Haukstorp instead, hoping you've saved lives in the process.

+5 Renown

Day 84. Our journey just got a lot longer.

Named for the hawks circling overhead, Haukstorp is a small but growing town that helped to construct the High Pass, through which we are about to travel.

Hopefully we can buy more supplies when we get there.

I am not in the fucking mood for this.

The counter offer takes the leader by surprise for a moment. "We don't have time for this nonsense," hisses Oddleif, loosing an arrow before anyone can react, and the brigand leader falls over in a spray of blood.

SOmething sinister in the way Krumr laughs about this turn of events convinces the rest of the brigands to give up on their errand and beat a hasty retreat. "I like your girl, Rook," he says, to which Oddleif gives him a dirty look.

Day 85. Morale has dropped, but we've just reached something resembling civilization.

I'll take the middle road here between letting them get overrun by the dredge and picking up even more mouths to feed.

You welcome anyone who wishes to join caravan. Many do, while others choose to stay in their homes and see things through. You wish them luck.

+68 Clansmen

SIX per Renown? Hell yes.

Our supplies are more than doubled, and it doesn't even cost all of our Renown to buy them out!

Not much else for us here. Back to the road!

Well, that went well.

"They're coming," says Iver, pointing out a line of dredge leaving the village and marching toward you. as you watch, the dredge in front falls over, then the one behind it falls as well. You hear a "twang" to your left.

Been a while since we murdered an army of dredge.

The warriors complain as they ready their weapons. "Nid," you say. "Come with us if you can keep that up." SHe smiles and joins the fighters getting ready to head back to the village.

Let's see what the new girl can do!

It's my favorite map layout!

The enemy force consists of one Scourge Warrior, two Slag Slinger Veterans, one Inferno Slinger, and two Sun Slingers. Six against six.

Their forces are spread all around the map, but I opt to push everyone together instead. Top priority is taking that Warrior down.

We have three turns to beat this thing up before it acts. 15 Strength left.

Damn, even from halfway across the map these guys can reach us in one turn. At least it's just Rook's Strength, which I never use.

12 Strength! Now the Varl are relatively safe.

And a Guts from Ekkill drops it to 9 Strength. The threat has been neutralized.

The Warrior starts summoning. Pretty sure he's gonna get away with it, too.

Nid is a rank 1 archer, meaning her stats leave a lot to be desired. She has Puncture, which means I really should have put Rook before her on the turn order.

Her active, Bird of Prey, is a non-deflectable shot from up to seven tiles away.

The Sun Slinger active is super cool-looking. Krumr can't spend any Willpower next turn.

Well, Rook can work on setting up some easy kills for the newbies!

With an enemy force this spread out, Eyvind's capabilities are fairly limited. Still, lightning is lightning.

Inferno Slinger drops a pair of bombs next to Krumr. I've got plenty of time to get him out of there.

Could've killed it, but I don't want to mess with the turn order while there are bombs on the field.

Krumr is safe!

Iver's the one who can't use Willpower next turn.

Ekkill finally gets the kill he needs to promote a rank!

And there's the new Grunt. Nid welcomes it with a single point of Strength damage from 7 tiles away.

Instead of being productive, it hobbles off in a random direction, attacking nobody.

Rook does the Rook thing.

Seriously, he walked right up to that bomb. I don't know what to tell you, nameless dredge.

Eyvind is moderately fragile, but it could be worse.

Screw it, these guys are all pretty weak. Let's start taking lives.

Three down!

Four!

Nid is vaguely entertaining as a poke sniper, but I don't think I'll be keeping her active when I have Alette and Oddleif.

Bombs under Rook and Eyvind!

This would be dangerous, considering the rapidly-shifting turn order, but Rook and Eyvind are the next two people to act.