Derived map dimensions. The map source contains 42 terrain rows, each with 37 hex entries.
Story & dialogue
The shared first story panel closes the Stormvale arc by emphasizing Eldaric’s sacrifice and Haldric’s permanent exile. The route-specific panel explains that the river road leads toward Clearwater Port through land polluted during the Wesfolk War and now occupied by an undead-imitation cult.
The playable opening establishes a deliberately uneasy atmosphere. Fog conceals the swamp, Haldric remembers that local forces once cleared it twice yearly, Burin complains about the smell, and Lady Outlaw senses an ambush. Victory brings Sir Ruddry, sole survivor of a Clearwater Port expeditionary force, who warns that the direct river road is blocked by an immense orc army. Haldric therefore redirects the refugees through Oldwood.
Dialogue phase
Function
Shared exile panel
Connects both branches to the same emotional transition.
Swamp-history panel
Links geography, the Wesfolk War, and current enemy identity.
Opening unease
Prepares the player for fog, traps, and surprise spawns.
Temple encounter
Introduces Minister Edren with humor and campaign context.
Cultist death lines
Characterize the cult through obsession with undeath.
Ruddry’s warning
Converges the branch on Oldwood and adds a loyal knight.
Map description
The 37 × 42 map is a long wetland journey composed primarily of swamp, shallow and deep water, wooded grassland, rough roads, hills, villages, and scattered castle/keep structures. Haldric begins near a castle in the upper-left portion, while the three cult leaders occupy separated positions across the map. Five temple images and one eastern signpost turn otherwise ordinary hexes into exploration nodes.
Spatial system
Design function
Fog on the player side
Makes route planning uncertain and supports hidden-edge ambushes.
Three distributed cult keeps
Forces broad exploration rather than a single assault line.
Five temple locations
Create optional risk/reward detours with randomized identities.
Three scorpion trigger regions
Divide the map into exploration danger zones.
Eastern signpost at 34,12
Foreshadows Oldwood and rewards geographical inspection.
Objectives and sides
Type
Condition
Victory
Defeat all three enemy leaders.
Defeat
Death of Prince Haldric; turns expire.
Side
Leader / roster
Gold
Notes
1 — Refugees
Haldric, Noble Commander; Lady Outlaw and Burin recalled
160 / 140 / 120
Fog enabled; recruit list carried from campaign state
2 — Cultists
Cleon, Dark Sorcerer; Bat, Walking Corpse, Dark Adept
80 / 120 / 160
Nearest and intentionally softer leader
3 — Cultists
Lollyra, Dark Sorcerer
130 / 170 / 210
Difficulty-dependent undead and mudcrawler roster
4 — Cultists
Clurka, Dark Sorcerer
130 / 170 / 210
Same broad scaling pattern as side 3
All cult sides use NO_SCOUTS and the recruitment pattern scout,fighter,fighter,fighter,archer. On higher difficulties, sides 3 and 4 replace many level-0/1 recruits with stronger forms such as Necrophage, Wraith, Shadow, Revenant, Deathblade, and Bone Shooter.
Special events
Trigger
Behavior
prestart
Places five temples and a signpost, creates difficulty-scaled guard scorpions, recalls Lady Outlaw and Burin, and sets objectives.
start
Runs the swamp-ambience conversation.
Move near one of three trigger centers
Records the region and creates a delayed new-turn scorpion ambush near the current edge of player vision.
Move onto randomized help temple
Creates Minister Edren as a loyal, strong White Mage.
Move onto trap temple
Spawns hostile bats/corpses; Hard also adds a Ghost.
Move onto loot temple
Grants 50 gold.
Move to signpost
Displays the Oldwood warning and permits undo.
Cult leader last breath
Each leader speaks a distinct line about immortal undeath.
Enemies defeated
Ends with victory and 40% carryover.
victory
Creates Sir Ruddry, redirects the party through Oldwood, sets last_done="River", and clears temporary variables.
Visibility-aware scorpion ambush
The scenario’s most advanced system is not AI code; it is an event-driven ambush algorithm:
A side-1 unit enters within radius 4 of one of three centers.
The region is added to triggered_scorpion_locs so it cannot trigger again.
A nested new turn event searches terrain at the boundary between visible and unseen hexes.
The search starts at radius 5 around the triggering unit and expands until a valid location is found or the radius reaches 20.
A loyal Giant Scorpion for side 2 is animated into that location.
Search variables are cleared.
Why this is notable. The ambush appears near the player’s current vision edge rather than at a fixed coordinate. The same authored event therefore adapts to different movement paths.
Randomized temple system
Three local macros define temple outcomes:
Macro
Outcome
TEMPLE_HELP X Y
Creates Minister Edren and recruitment-style dialogue.
TEMPLE_TRAP X Y
Spawns hostile units belonging to multiple cult sides.
TEMPLE_LOOT X Y
Grants 50 gold.
A random value from 1 to 3 assigns help, trap, and loot among three temples. The temple at 34,36 is always a trap; the temple at 30,10 is always loot. This mixes reliable knowledge with replay variation.
Dark Sorcerer, undead roster, Giant Scorpion, White Mage, Knight
Core
All route-specific combat and companion unit types
Lessons for campaign authors
Design interpretation. The swamp route makes uncertainty the central mechanic. Fog, randomized temples, distributed leaders, and adaptive ambush placement all reinforce the fiction that the region has not been safely patrolled.
Pattern
Reuse lesson
Adaptive spawn at vision edge
Use player perception, not only coordinates, to place fair-feeling ambushes.
Randomized points of interest
Give repeat players uncertainty while preserving some fixed anchors.
One scenario, several exploration rewards
Optional companions, loot, and traps make detours meaningful.
Difficulty changes unit tier, not merely quantity
Higher levels can alter tactical texture, not just numbers.
Temporary variables explicitly cleared
Keep save-state hygiene visible in complex event scripting.