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Claiming the Outskirts Walkthrough
The Way to the Verdant Chambers
In this area you slew four Trolls, three Trollhounds, a pack of Worgs, numerous wolves, cleared out a nest of spiders, thwarted a bandit ambush, sacked two bandit camps, claimed an
abandoned treasure in an ruined watchtower, restored and operated an ancient dwarven device to acquire the treasure hidden therein and rescued some hunters stranded by magic. This one area alone was a worthy adventure, and you certainly are leaving stronger and richer! That said, treasure can be rather heavy, especially when it’s enchanted full plate mail, so now might be an ideal time to return to town. Do not doubt you’ve accomplished your goal, however, as the “Verdant Chambers” area where the Guardian of the Bloom dwells is easy enough to reach from the Ruined Watchtower, merely head:
- Southwest
- Southeast
- East (along the Murque River)
Having worked your way to the Ruined Watchtower, it shouldn’t be too much trouble for your protagonist to make their way to the Verdant Chambers on their own… not with a bit of luck, anyways. That said, there are also two areas between the Ruined Watchtower and Tuskdale left to explore: the “Bandit Camp” and the “Lone House” areas.
Annexing Oleg’s Trading Post
You can get to those areas shortly, however, as aside from possibly needing to sell off some loot back at Tuskdale, there’s another important task you need to oversee while you’re there. Assuming at least a few days have passed, you should be able to visit the campaign map in your throne room. Do so and pick the “Regions” tab where you should find the claim “Claim Oleg’s Trading Post”. By all rights this location should belong to you, since you cleared the area of monsters and smote the Stag Lord.
To prosecute this claim you’ll need to assign your Regent to the task, who will take two weeks to finish. In addition you’ll need 150 BP, which you should have, provided you didn’t build too much earlier. Unfortunately, this time you can’t take care of other business while this claim is being worked on, so when you pick the “Start the Claim” button prepare to skip ahead by two weeks. Make sure you don’t have any events you can send people on, and generally find as much to do as possible so you’re not completely wasting this time. Don’t spend any more Build Points, however, as you’ll have a use for them soon enough.
Events’ Outcomes and Consequences: Every event may result in one of four: great failure (dice roll is 8 or more points lower than the difficulty level of the event), failure (dice roll is 7 or less points lower than the difficulty level), success (dice roll is equal to the difficulty level or 6 or less points higher), or great success (dice roll is 7 or more points higher than the difficulty level of the event). The outcome may affect the kingdom’s stats.
Problems and Opportunities: There are two types of events: problems and opportunities. If a problem results in a failure, it decreases your stats. It has no effect if the outcome is a success.
A success of an opportunity increases your stats, and normally wouldn’t affect them if the outcome is a failure.
Each success or triump increases the stat that the Leader is responsible for by 3.
After the two weeks expire, you’ll add the Outskirts to your realm, accompanied by a satisfying image of the territorial absorption on your map. Groovy. It’s no time to rest on your laurels, as there’s a bit of development you can do with your new territory and some problems you’ll need to resolve. The event “Problem with Taxes” should have popped up, along with the new project “Build a Town”, both of which will be covered now.
Problem with Taxes
Exit the campaign map and you’ll have a familiar face brought before you. Apparently Oleg hasn’t been paying his taxes. Pick whatever you want the first time you get a chance to respond, after which you’ll have several dialogue options which are actually meaningful. Picking the [Neutral Good] option will forgive Oleg and resolve to settle the matter with the Aldori. The [Neutral] option will cede taxation rights to the Aldori, which will please them, certainly. Finally, the [Lawful Evil] action will doubly burden Oleg with taxation this month and antagonize the Aldori. Pick whatever option matches your politics and/or alignment, but note that only the [Lawful Evil] choice doesn’t get an experience reward.
- Reward: For resolving Oleg’s tax dispute
240 XP
Harrim Has a Request
Before you can get to the “Build a Town” project, there’s one more automatic bit of business that may occur. Harrim – everybody’s lovably fatalistic dwarf – will bring up a matter of personal interest to him as a dwarf. These lands were once colonized by dwarves, and spots of their ruined infrastructure remains. Naturally, if you find any substantial dwarven ruins, he’d like to see them, which may make it worth your while to drag Harrim along with you on a future expedition. This will be resolved when you actually have business exploring around such ruins, and starts the quest ”
The Court Alchemist
Another bit of business will pop up immediately after you claim the Outskirts, presumably after “Problem with Taxes” and “Harrim Has a Request”. Jhod, the old busy-body, will pester you about Bokken, who apparently is idly wasting his time at Oleg’s Trading Post. Now that the area is civilized and he doesn’t have bandits to help keep things interesting, he’s in need of a distraction. Given his proven abilities to make alchemical decoctions (which he must also have run out of, if he’s bored) Jhod makes the reasonable suggestion that you hire him as your court alchemist.
Build a Town
With that messy bit of business out of the way, you can focus on something less political – building! Select the “Projects” tab and select the event “Build a Town”, which will require you to advance time by five more days. When done, you’ll have done the preliminary work to establish a settlement and can scroll to the Outskirts on the Campaign map (note, not with the “Map” tab) and pick one of the marked settlement locations you find. It doesn’t matter too much which one you pick, their terrain is the same either way. just keep in mind that founding the settlement will set you back another 50 BP. Name your settlement and build whatever structures you can afford/are inclined to construct.
Note: To upgrade a settlement, you must have enough structures built there. When you do, click on the settlement on the map screen, then click the “Upgrade” button. This will unlock more building slots for you to utilize.
Once that’s done, check out what events you have and respond to them accordingly. This should free you up to get back on the road, and since you have found the way to the Verdant Chambers, you might as well meet the Guardian of the Bloom. Hit the area transition to leave Tuskdale and make sure you remove every companion from your party. You also might want to make a hard save, and bring a Camping Ration, and a Potion of Invisibility or two with you. You know, just in case you meet some trouble along the way… Before that, however, consider checking out the following section “Kingdom Rank Ups”, which will discuss upgrading your kingdom stats from Rank I to Rank II – something that may happen quite soon!
Note: If you only have a few days before an event completes you might as well just skip a few days using the “Skip Day” button on the campaign map. The difference between succeeding at an opportunity or failing a problem can be a relatively large swing in kingdom stats.