A severe storm damages the Eldaric and scatters much of the refugee fleet. Lord Typhon recommends a group of small windswept islands where the ships can regroup and make landfall. The islands are Naga scavenging territory, however, and the local leaders immediately treat the fleet as prey.
The victory dialogue restores the campaign’s forward motion: the fleet regroups, the next landfall should be the Great Continent, and Jevyan’s Familiar is seen following the refugees.
Dialogue beat
Function
Burin’s seasickness
Provides comic continuity from the long voyage.
Typhon’s warning
Explains beaches, Naga territory, and captured-ship scavenging.
Naga attack
Turns logistical necessity into immediate combat.
Familiar surveillance
Maintains Jevyan’s pressure during a scenario where he is not otherwise present.
Map description
The compact 27 × 32 map consists largely of deep ocean and shallow water surrounding several small sandy, scrub-covered islands. Haldric’s red galleon is placed near the southern landing area. The three Naga keeps are distributed across separate island positions, forcing the player to use coastal and aquatic movement rather than a single land front.
Map element
Design role
Mostly ocean terrain
Rewards the recently unlocked merfolk roster and Lord Typhon.
Three separated Naga keeps
Creates multiple amphibious objectives on a small map.
Soft-sand landing areas
Supports the story reason for choosing these islands.
Deep-ocean ring around the party
Provides legal spawn terrain for delayed Sea Serpents.
Objectives, sides, and balance
Victory
Defeat all three enemy leaders.
Defeat
Death of Haldric, Lady Jessene, or Lord Typhon; turns expire.
Carryover
40%, with early-finish bonus.
Side
Leader / roster
Gold and income
AI
1 — Refugees
Haldric and all available companions
200 / 170 / 140; income 3 / 2 / 1
Human controlled
2 — Naga
Abraxas, Naga Warrior
80 / 110 / 140; income 2 / 3 / 4
Aggression 0.60; no scouts
3 — Naga
Xamalia, Naga Warrior
80 / 110 / 140; income 2 / 3 / 4
Same as side 2
4 — Naga
Gaxmail, Naga Warrior
80 / 110 / 140; income 2 / 3 / 4
Same as side 2
Easy allows only Naga Fighter recruitment. Normal and Hard add Vampire Bats and use a scout/fighter-heavy recruitment pattern.
Casualty-triggered Sea Serpents
The first casualty belonging to each enemy side schedules one named Sea Serpent for that side. A global delay counter spaces the three scheduled arrivals by one, two, and three turns in the order the sides first suffer a casualty.
Originating side
Serpent name
Message
2
Chompey the Serpent
Growling roar
3
Scaly the Serpent
Roar
4
Toothey the Serpent
Hiss
The nested new turn event waits until its scheduled turn and searches deep-ocean hexes that:
contain no unit,
are within radius 10 of a side-1 unit, and
are not within radius 9 of a side-1 unit.
The resulting ring places the serpent exactly ten hexes from the nearest player unit, keeping the arrival visible and relevant without allowing an immediate one-turn attack.
Implementation lesson. A local Standard Location Filter macro avoids duplicating the same multi-clause location logic in both the availability check and the actual location storage.
Special events and state
Trigger
Behavior
prestart
Recalls Jessene, Burin, the route knight, Edren, and Typhon; places the galleon; installs objectives.
start
Explains the emergency landfall and Naga threat.
First casualty for each Naga side
Marks side_N_serpent_triggered, assigns the serpent identity, increments the global delay, and registers a nested spawn event.
Scheduled new turn
Finds a random legal deep-ocean ring location, creates the serpent, and clears local search variables.
Enemies defeated
Regroups the fleet, stages Familiar’s appearance, clears serpent-trigger variables, and ends with 40% carryover.
Time over
Jessene reports that the scattered fleet will be lost across the world.