2-1 for betraying the mage, 2-1 for leaving the nobility alone. The Empire is a great faction for off-loading prisoners and slaves you have no use for, and I've never pissed them off in a game so it'd be all new territory (then again, so is some of this anyway, thanks mods).
We're still pretty low on food, especially after Randy killed my fucking meat supply (thanks, dickhead), but we're luckily able to buy some Pemmican from a travelling visitor in exchange for offloading our shit weapons and a couple bone sculptures. This'll get Kevin making new ones, yay.
Luckily, we have some peach trees nearby that once harvested, provide enough for quite a few meals. This'll be handy.
And capture of the Mage Drurk is successful. We had a 75% chance at best and Randy took pity on us. Time to begin the process again...
With this done, we begin the "Secret Fair". We construct Skylanterns out of wood and let them go. Hopefully, we won't attract more attention from Earl...we don't, but we do randomly trigger "Dust to Dust", a ritual reward that causes the whole map to be cleared of corpses. Magical!
Finally, on 1st of Septober, year of our Lemmy 5500, I finally manage to convert our first prisoner, Opare. When the fuck did I betray that beggar again? Back in the first post?
To simulate tranch incompetence (and also to feed the animals), I open the fence gate and let them all rush out. They eat their fill of the grass growing around the area. Now I just have to get them back in...
I noticed that the Mage, Drurk, has no resistance, meaning the moment we break her to joining our religion, I mean, transgender way of life, she'll be instantly recruited. Maybe we'll make her the moralist. Yeah. Make the powerful teleporting mage your high priestess. That...can't go wrong, right?
Ah yes, my favorite inspiration, and it lands on the artist with 15(!) Artistic. We'll see what Kev comes up with when he's rocking
INSPIRED
Suddenly, raider! Just one guy with a club. He is tough, though, and we don't have the Mage's Magic Missile to completely ignore him. Also, his ideology is a Supremist ideology, which doesn't actually mean anything but I'm going to pretend they think they're better than the Tranchers, which is going to rile them up and prevent me from even considering a capture of this guy.
I don't know why he allowed Penny to shoot him four times before he actually attacked. Maybe they're dumb, and the Tranch is a way to dump all their idiot clan members on someone else. Regardless, the hits to his left leg and torso (which got him in the pelvis) reduce his movement speed to 35%, and leave him with severe pain. The next few bullets get him in the torso as well, and he drops after one last shot from Kevin to his chest.
Kevin does make a Masterwork! It is called "Crazy Terrorist" and is as follows: "This piece bears an artwork of a district. The image is bordered by dozens of yams. Almost every shape in the image seems to be dynamic." I can only imagine, with that title, Kevin wishes to fill a city building with yams, just stuff it full of yams til it's bursting. Is Kevin o...I can't say that with a straight face, he's not okay.
Now Penny gets an inspiration to plant a bunch. I make an extra zone of Haygrass, figuring it can't hurt. Penny will now only be sowing until she finishes her inspiration. INSPIRED!
For extra fun, the Empire rings us up and says "Hey, uh, I got this Shellos? That's uh, suffering from paralytic abasia, and I want you to take care of it for a couple weeks. I'll give you psychic powers if you do." Jen gets the call and says yes, because POKEMONS! and because I want to spread the love around a bit as far as Psionics, which reminds me.
In order to get said powers, you need to do a bestowing ceremony to go up in rank with the Empire. There are other ways, but for the Empire path, this is how you do it. Penny vomits during the ceremony, as he has food poisoning caused by Jen never cleaning the fucking stove. But, he ends up with the Stun power, which is great for keeping an enemy at bay while everyone else shoots/stabs them.
As the struggle to survive mounts, and we slowly run low on food (and no, no eating the alpacas, they're venerated), a gift appears. A cheetah in the animal pen! Immediately, orders are to hunt it down. This does not pass without incident, and Kevin and Penny both take wounds...
But worst of all is the mage going berserk in her cell, and trying to bash down the door.
And she manages to do so, and even kills one of our young alpacas that I named "Kupla". To make matters worse, a cheetah hunts Penny down while he's fighting Drurk. Luckily, they put aside their differences for the moment, and team up to beat up the cheetah. This helps, as the cheetah does more damage to her than to Penny, allowing me to recapture her. But, I have to stuff her in the kitchen for now, until we get the door fixed...
So that's two cheetah attacks and a berserk all in one day. Goddamn...
Recovery is slow, and we have no real way to dispose of bodies, and it seems like the "Desperate Hunger" mod doesn't seem to make them want to eat bodies. Unless I just haven't been letting it go long enough. Whatever, we'll make it work as we desperately forage for our meals.
Speaking of meals, some "Royal Aves" (they look like chocobos) wander in, with packs on them. We can tame or kill to get those packs. We're desperate...it's killing time! Kevin goes out to hunt them and immediately pisses them both off, forcing him to run like hell as he has no backup. Luckily, he managed to wound them enough where he has a slight edge in speed. But it isn't the birds themselves that are interesting, it's what they're carrying, including...
Mechanite Slurry, our first taste of Pawn Morphing. It's said to be randomized and painful, so we'll just hold onto it, for now...
Finally, the mage breaks, and we can promote her immediately to Machine Philosopher, aka High Priestess. This gives her a few extra abilities, the ability to "Convert" (Cause a non-ideology member to take a massive hit to their certainty), Counsel (remove a bad memory), Reassure (Boost an ideology member's certainty) and Preach Health (small boost to immunity and healing speed).
Another cheetah tries to hunt Drurk. Emphasis on TRIES, as the magic power she holds means the pussy is dead before it can get close to range.
Jen asks for a style change, as their old look no longer fits his beliefs. It would appear Jen has de-transitioned if that fucking beard is anything to go by. Jen also ends up having a mental break because of Drurk snapping that young alpaca's neck, and goes on a food binge! Fantastic...
And no one's cleaning, so food poisoning is running rampant since there's blood all over the stove.
A fourth cheetah hunts Kevin. Unsurprisingly, with our mage now on the board, this doesn't go well. It's barely something worth registering at this point.
Finally.
With Geothermal power, and how close the steam vent is to us, we can easily fix our power problems and have more than we use basically forever. I decide to make beer brewing our next objective, since, well, why wouldn't the Tranch make their own shitty rotgut?
Also finally, we recruit the first prisoner we had. She is a Desensitized, Pessimistic, Misandrist medical assistant, with medicine being just about all she's good at. Her clothes are also crap so she immediately strips naked thanks to my Outfit policy. We'll need to make her some new clothes. But, finally, FINALLY, we have someone who will actually clean things up. Which is good, I was getting tired of staring at trash.
(I know, I know, "then why are you playing as the tranch, hur hur")
Beer brewing is researched quick. So, next stop, Drug Production! It gets completed also quickly, since we have two dudes doing research. So with the basics done, let's take care of a pressing matter, researching tabletop games.
What's left of the season passes uneventfully at this point, the Royal Tribute Collector shows up from the Empire, but we don't have any slaves or gold to offer, so they chill out for a bit and then leave.
The last thing that happens is an exotic goods trader comes, and we trade as the season turns to Winter. And the androids (as they are from an android enclave) are willing to buy our Alpacas...it's time to get rich. We sell off a good chunk of our herd for no mood penalty, going back to our original breeding pair, as well as selling a bunch of sculptures, and buy up all the gold he has. This gives us some extra silver, and brings today's session to a close.
BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT...there is one last thing.
We have a chance to alter the weather around here for the good of the Empire, and get rewarded. We can get the following rewards, in exchange for our weather being Rainy Thunderstorm for the entire season, and some change. The rewards are as follows:
Honor + 3 and Painstopper: Honor is used to rank up in the Aristocracy and grant us psychic powers. Honor + 3 would upgrade anyone who isn't Penny to be able to get one power, and make them a Yeoman. Note: Kevin is Greedy, and if he gets high enough, he will refuse to do any work, I am pointing that out because I know how you fuckers operate. The Painstopper is a brain implant that makes you feel no pain, which can be a double edged sword and requires one of us to "install" it.
Eltex Shirt (Good): Eltex apparel increases how often you can use psi-powers. It also satisfies any "noble apparel" requirements for that slot. Only of use to Penny at the moment.
Psychic Shock Lance: This gives me two shots of a lance that can instantly knock someone out with sheer psionic pain, plus possible brain damage. It can only be used twice, and it's gone for good afterward.
So, which reward should I take, or ignore this quest entirely? You vote, we report!
