Both Scenario 04 routes converge in the Oldwood without a separate story panel. Haldric’s party enters under fog and immediately encounters Elilmaldur-Rithrandil, an Ancient Wose who initially treats all humans as habitual tree-cutters. The orcs’ indiscriminate destruction gives Haldric an opportunity to prove that the refugees are “tree-friends.”
After the orc leaders fall, the Wose explains that an earlier human king imprisoned Lich-Lord Lenvan beneath the forest temple. The lich possesses a powerful artifact, which Lady Outlaw identifies as the Ruby of Fire. The Oldwood cannot accompany Haldric beyond its borders, but it can open the magically sealed catacombs.
Dialogue phase
Function
Forest unease
Uses Burin and Lady Outlaw to contrast fear, humor, and familiarity.
First Wose contact
Turns an apparent hostile encounter into a conditional alliance.
Orc turn lines
Reinforce that the enemy is burning and cutting the forest for sport.
Post-battle diplomacy
Rewards military aid with trust and access rather than a new recruit list.
Ruby revelation
Introduces the campaign’s central artifact and the next scenario’s quest.
Lady Outlaw objection
Deepens Wesfolk history and temporarily removes her from the party.
Map description
The 32 × 32 forest map contains four keeps, extensive deciduous, mixed, pine, and great-tree terrain, swamp pockets, water, villages, roads, and ruined settlement clusters. Haldric and the two orc forces approach a central Wose-held region. The temple at hex 23,22 is visible as a point of interest but remains sealed until the battle is won.
Map element
Design role
Fog on side 1
Makes the forest feel enclosed and lets the Wose reveal land through shared vision.
Four-side layout
Creates two hostile orc armies, a human refugee force, and an allied autonomous Wose force.
Ruined castle images
Visualize earlier human occupation being reclaimed by the forest.
Central temple
Foreshadows the next scenario before it becomes accessible.
Dense mixed forest
Gives the Wose faction a strong environmental identity.
Objectives and sides
Type
Condition
Victory
Defeat both orc leaders.
Defeat
Death of Prince Haldric or Elilmaldur-Rithrandil; turns expire.
Side
Leader / roster
Gold and income
AI or alliance role
1 — Refugees
Haldric; all available branch companions recalled
160 / 140 / 120
Human controlled; fog enabled
2 — Orcs
Tan-Gralg, Orcish Warlord
160 / 220 / 280
NO_SCOUTS; difficulty-dependent roster and role pattern
3 — Orcs
Tan-Rugar, Orcish Warlord
160 / 220 / 280
Mirrors side 2
4 — Treefolk
Elilmaldur-Rithrandil, Ancient Wose; recruits Wose Saplings
160 / 130 / 100; income 7 / 5 / 3
Allied autonomous side, with more resources on easier settings
Difficulty scaling
Element
Easy
Normal
Hard
Turns
35
32
29
Player gold
160
140
120
Each orc side’s gold
160
220
280
Orc recruit ceiling
Grunts and Pillagers
Crossbowmen replace Grunts
Adds Orcish Slayers
Wose starting gold / income
160 / 7
130 / 5
100 / 3
Preplaced Elder Wose guardians
6
4
2
Balance lesson. Difficulty is adjusted on both sides of the alliance: harder modes strengthen the orcs while simultaneously reducing allied Wose resources and fixed defenders.
Special events and state transitions
Trigger
Behavior
prestart
Clears last_done and escape_choice, places temple and ruins, recalls all possible companions, creates difficulty-scaled Elder Wose guardians, and installs objectives.
start
Temporarily clears fog around the Wose leader for dialogue, then restores normal fog.
Move to temple
Reports that it is looted and protected by a magical barrier; permits undo.
Turn 4 / turn 6
Orc leaders deliver forest-destruction lines.
Elilmaldur dies
Immediate defeat.
Enemies defeated
Gives the allied Wose side fog and full shared vision, runs the Ruby quest dialogue, and ends in victory.
victory
If Lady Outlaw is currently in the party, stores her into lady_store and removes her from the map for the scouting interlude.
Convergence-state cleanup
The first action in prestart is:
{CLEAR_VARIABLE last_done,escape_choice}
This establishes an important distinction:
Variable
Actual scope
escape_choice
Selects which Scenario 04 file loads.
last_done
Short-lived route-completion metadata available during transition.
After Scenario 05 begins
Both are deliberately discarded because the branches have reconverged.
Correction from release 0.4.3. Earlier text described last_done too broadly as a persistent route-history marker. The source shows that it is cleared at Oldwood prestart.
Assets and units
Resource
Origin
Use
No story panel
—
Branch convergence moves directly into the forest encounter.
portraits/rithrandil.webp; Haldric and Burin variants
Campaign
Wose leader and party dialogue
Temple and three castle-ruin images
Core/shared
Map-level environmental storytelling
suspense.ogg, nunc_dimittis.ogg
Core/shared
Forest battle score
Ancient Wose, Elder Wose, Wose Sapling
Core
Complete treefolk faction presentation without custom unit types
Orcish Warlord and difficulty-scaled orc recruits
Core
Enemy armies
Lessons for campaign authors
Design interpretation. The scenario makes alliance-building the reward structure. Haldric does not recruit Woses afterward; instead, their trust unlocks a location and artifact quest that advances the campaign.
Pattern
Reuse lesson
Allied AI faction with protected leader
Create cooperation without transferring every allied unit to the player.
Difficulty scales allied help downward
Balance can change the strength of support, not only opposition.
Point of interest shown before it opens
Foreshadow the next scenario inside the current map.
Clear branch variables at convergence
Prevent obsolete path state from leaking into unrelated later logic.
Store a companion for an off-screen task
Make temporary absence preserve level, experience, and identity.