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You have the cloaks given to the Spymaster and his men.

Few minutes later, the Lametanian envoy is let into the throne room.

"Greetings, Duke Estwalf! My King, Salatus the Younger, has been long trying to find a way to develop closer ties with the northern realms, and when he heard that you have taken the throne of Tven, he decided to part with his only daughter, Stela, who is of sixteen winters and of great beauty, and offer her as your wife, if you're so inclined."

A) Nah.
B) Sure.

You agree to see the elves first.

The ten or so of them are clad in shiny chainmail, while the elf leading them is wearing a tunic decorated with silver thread and silver leaves.

"Greetings, Duke of Tven. Your predecessor honorably kept his word and did went against the dwarves, albeit he failed in his noble nedeavour to destroy Ankurvat. Still, we were impressed by his guile and therefore our King has decided to reward your peoples after all. We bring a two hundred of the moonthread cloaks that we feel are valuable enough to compensate for the loss of such a magnificent leader and the men who fell with him." You decide to...

A) Demand they give you all that was agreed upon with Merachd.
B) Accept the cloaks.
C) Imprison the elves and turn them over to the Dwarves as an extra means of apology for the whole siege deal.

You let the dwarves in.

The smelly creatures are clad in purple and dark green robes, and except their scrawny, short beards they are bald on their heads to the point of shinyness.

"Greetings, o Duke of Tven. Your soldiers under the rule of your predecessor has dared to invade our land and lay siege to our city of Ankurvat. Trade was broken and profits were slashed. We demand compensation... or there will consequences." The dwarves, per usual for their kind, are straight-to-the-point. You think for a moment before...

A) Agreeing to pay them some money.
B) Refusing their demands.
C) Attempting to talk your way out of this.

You send the money and the letter asking for the troops.


The guards arrive at your throne room - a delegation of dwarves demands to speak with you. The guards ask what to do about them.

A) Get rid of them bearded ones, please and thank you!
B) Fine, let them in, even if it won't be a pleasant meeting.

A choice has been made by the Electoral Council!


You are Estwalf, and you has been choosen as the next Grand Duke of Tven! You're known for your martial prowess, and you already have seen combat when you subjugated the rebels of far north four years ago.

The Advisor to the Duke brings you the Scrolls of Kingdom Status.

Happiness: 3
Population: 4
Economy: 5
Army: 2

"The people got a bit riled up after the pointless and disasterous campaign of your predecessor, and our Army has suffered many losses back then when the dwarves released their earth magickery against us. Also, the ducal scribes have finished their map of the Tven and the known lands, based on old maps of Luathbas and Dahnia."


"Of matters of importance we have the tribute that needs to be paid to our senior, King Tinwulf II, as it needs to be every five years. Then we have the shortage of soldiers: shall we press some peasants into the Army, or call upon our senior to provide soldiers to guard our borders for a year?"

As for the Tribute...

A) Send a letter in which you ask for postponement of the tribute for one year.
B) Obediently send the money.
C) -

As for the Army woes...

A) Draft some peasants but also call upon King Tinwulf to provide soldiers for security of the Duchy for a year!
B) Let's just push some peasants into the Army.
C) We can do with a smaller force for a year, what can possibly happen?
D) Let's ask our good and merciful King Tinwulf II to provide some soldiers to defend Tven borders for a year.

//Remember no split votes.

You call the Army to counterattack and go against the city!

1

The Army backstabs you and runs away!

But no honestly, they also back-stab you quite literally; one of more angry officers stabs you when you command him to turn around and attack Ankurvat!

1

He failed to miss your heart. As you collapse, you can only argue with your past self about the stupidity of your actions.

Maybe you weren't cut out to be a Grand Duke after all...?


The Advisor of King Tinwulf II smacks the pedestal with an iron cane, silencing the gathering of more than fifty men (and few women) in fancy and expensive clothes.

"Welcome, Lords of Dahnia, on this council. King Tinwulf has called upon you to determine the successor to the Grand Duchy of Tven, per the electoral allowance when the King of Dahnia is unwilling or unable to truthfully decide by himself. The young heir of late Merachd is unsuited to take the throne even with regency of his mother, as he isn't even six years old. Therefore King Tinwulf has seen it suitable to find another set of candidates that could replace the ruling family of Merachd and govern the Duchy to the best of their abilities. The candidates, their genealogy, abilities and skills and famous deeds, matters of family and personality are therefore as follows." The advisor opens up a large scroll.

"The first candidate is Estwalf, son of Ceodwell IV the Short, third to the throne of Kingdom of Ceodwell. Patrilineal descent from King Ceodwell I, first King of Ceodwell Kingdom, son of King Feodh and Queen Elana, rulers of defunct Luathbas Kingdom. Estwalf is known for his martial prowess, which he proven during the quelling of rebellion in the far north in year 954 AD. Of twenty one winters, unmarried and of no known issue." The advisor puts down the scroll and then opens up another.

"The second candidate is Lord Enach of Tven, cousin of King Tinwulf, by father's side. Patrilineal descent from Tinwulf the First, Enach is a wise man learned in history, religious treatrises and matters of herbs, and is known for bouts of illness that govern his sickly life. Of twenty winters, married to Lady Elana of Eist, no known issue."

lots of rolls

The Advisor then opens a scroll that bears a mark of the Oracle of the One.

"The royal diviners of King Tinwulf has therefore been requested to provide a set of Seven Electors from the entirety of the Council, who by the will of the gods and the King shall decide the next Grand Duke of Tven. Their names are as follows."

"Lord Bir of Dyean (birdy51), Lord Imi of Tsyne (Imic), Lady Soworda of Stare (swordstar), Lord Heid of Duede (heydude6), Lord Drai of Genann (Draignean), Lord Upgaard of Pedn (Puppyguard) and Lord Voith of Deslaienn (VoidSlayer). May the choices of Seven Electors be wise and bring prosperity to Dahnia and all its subjects."

Electoral council vote time!

The first candidate to gain 4 votes will be chosen as the next Grand Duke of Tven!

Also, complete punt in the dark for Haspen - all of those games sound interesting, by the way, hope you get some more answers - could #4 be Moonstone or Dominus? And #3 sounds a little like one of the old Dragon's Lair games, though Dirk wasn't a particularly Conan-like protagonist.

Nope to all these.

2) An old (pre-98 at least) dungeon-crawler similar to Wizardry, with a repeating theme of cards/suits (it definitely wasn't an actual Wizardry game - I'm aware the suits/cards motif shows up in Wizardry V and possibly others). Like, you might meet/fight the 'Knight of Hearts'. Or 'Knight of Cups' - I forget whether it was 'regular' suits or the Tarot ones. Don't remember very much about it at all aside from that, including the system, but there aren't a million dungeon-crawlers (sadly).

SNES had Arcana, where a guy was using 'card spirits' in battle, and enemies were represented as cards too. There were 5 elements: Water (blue), Earth (green), Wind (yellow) and Fire (red), each defeating one and getting defeated by one, and a Neutral (grey).

Could it be this?