Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 3

Note: I have updated my version of Thea: The Awakening to 1.20.1921.0. The material below is taken from that updated version.

I brought my expedition back to the village to put together a party for the Divine Quest. After considering the people (and creatures) I had, I decided that I would switch one of the Beasts with a Craftsman (or rather Craftswoman).

As my expedition entered the village, a group of bandits demanded payment for entering their territory. It was my village! What do they mean it was their 'piece of this road'!?

There is a spelling mistake here.

In Lada's name, my expedition played a game of chess against the bandits and won. The bandits thought that the victory was evidence that Lada brought luck despite the fact that chess is not a game of luck. Impressed by Lada, one of the bandits joined my party and my people were blessed with a temporary increase of Intelligence through an attribute called Bless of Intelligence.

A Bandit joined the expedition.

I switched a weak Beast from the expedition for my best Craftswoman. I also left the newly recruited Bandit to help defend the village. My expedition had not gone far when the village well was poisoned.

The Poisoned Village Well Event required that my expedition take a small detour to seek a water spirit to cure the afflicted villagers. Completing a Sneak Challenge convinced the water spirit to heal everyone with no bad effects. Past experience suggested that Attractiveness (which I had from Lada's third bonus) would prevent the bad effects and thus far, I have not seen any evidence to the contrary. I also have not seen any evidence that curses would be healed as written in the text.

The water spirit healed my poisoned villagers.

My expedition was confronted by Werewolves in an Event. Fortunately, I had forgotten to drop the Silver at the village when I switched the members of my expedition. Thus, I had Silver available, some of which was consumed to ward off the Werewolves. The Wolves that were left were easily dealt with.

Interestingly, the option to use the Silver mentioned the god Veles.

Werewolves confronted the expedition.

At Turn 216, I finally explored the dungeon in Theodor's Tutorial Quest. I took the left path and solved the Intellect Challenge. I received some resources and a villager gained permanent attributes.

The left path led to an old library.

On my second and last exploration of the dungeon, again taking the left route, my expedition found Spidersilk. There was no Challenge or any permanent attribute reward.

On my second exploration, the left path led to an altar.

My village attracted a Vily. It was unfortunate that my expedition had already departed. Its Magic of 4 would have been useful. She had 6 in the screenshot below because the Totem in the village gave her an additional 2. She had Piercing but it was from a Short Pike she carried.

The village attracted a Vily.

My expedition made it to the location of the Divine Quest. The text mentioned a little of Lada's history.

Lada's Story.

The members of my expedition still had the Bless of Intelligence, which was very useful for the 3-Skull Intellect Challenge. As a reward, my expedition received even more of the Bless of Intelligence.

My expedition was blessed with Intelligence.

The next location of the Divine Quest was nearby, at the edge of the map. The 5-Skull group of undead was still around. As it turned out, they were the only baddies around.

The 5-Skull group of undead was still there.

I visited the 'Place of interest' and claimed the reward for King's Quest. There was not much loot. What was interesting was that one of my expedition's weapons gained Leech.

The reward of King's Quest.

The Leech improvement was bestowed on a weak weapon, made of basic material. At least the weapon was of Good Quality, which also increased the effect of Leech.

The sad Hunter had a spear to match his picture.

In the second part of the Divine Quest, my expedition had to convince Lada of their worth through a Social Challenge. Lada had some stats but she was not difficult to convince since I had the Bless of Intelligence.

Convincing Lada in a Social Challenge.

After completing the Social Challenge, Lada gave a couple of good equipment and sent the expedition onwards to the last location.

Lada's reward was a couple of good equipment.

One of the reward, the Scale Shield was made of the best material and gave good stats. The other, the Tear of the Nymph was helpful since my people had yet to acquire the ability to craft Jewellery.

The Scale Shield.

I completed the Challenge at the final quest location. The Bless of Intelligence again had made life easy. I then had the option to make Lada the Supreme Goddess.

Was Lada going to be the Supreme Goddess?

I decided that Lada should remain pure without the desire for power. Thus, I had the tree sapling planted in the village without cutting its roots. I thought that roots were for a plant to draw in nourishment, not distribute them. Anyway, the Divine Quest was complete. A few of my villagers gained permanent attributes and a Dola joined my expedition.

A Dola joined the expedition.

The Dola could only equip Jewellery and Artifacts. However, she had high Strength and the important Magic. She also had good Traps.

The Dola had a little Magic.

As of this point, I had completely explored the small game world. I knew all the terrain and could see all creature lairs and resource gathering spots that popped up. My score for Hexes scouted should be maxed.

On the way back, my expedition explored one of two Suspicious Houses that I had marked on the map. There was a Ghost there. A ritual in the basement easily fixed the Ghost and she joined the party.

A Ghost joined the expedition.

The Ghost would be helpful since she could carry equipment and use Magic.

The Ghost had a little Magic.

Meanwhile, my village attracted a Striga Bat, which was not a weak Beast. The bat had good Health and Leech.

The village attracted a Striga Bat.

I visited the second Suspicious House and freed the Ghost there. This time, the Ghost did not join. I did get some resources though.

The Ghost did not join this time.

My expedition still had the Bless of Intelligence. I thought I should complete the main quest, Cosmic Tree, while I still had the blessing active. With a Small World Size, my expedition would be able to visit the quest locations fast. Along the way, my expedition should stop by the village to reorganize, reequip and resupply. I made it a point to remember to drop off the loot this time.

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 1
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 2
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 4
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 5
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Final Part

Thea: The Awakening, Contents

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 2

I started construction on a Meeting Hall, a new building introduced to the game. It would make available the Sage class. In addition, the building provided a chance for two new classes, the Scholar and the Inventor, to be options when a Child grew up. These features would be nice, if I had any Children. My single Cabbage Patch thus far had not attracted any Child. Maybe I needed more Cabbage Patches but I did not have the resources to build them.

Building a Meeting Hall of Elven wood and Monster bones.

I used a lot of Elven wood and Monster bone to construct the Meeting Hall. I hoped that along with the buildings I already had, I could attract Beasts. The small bonus to attract Elves was welcome but I did not put much hope in attracting one.

Before the Meeting Hall was completed, my village attracted a Bear.

The village attracted a Bear.

The Bear had a lot of Strength and would be helpful in carrying loot. It also had Blunt Damage so it was good against weak baddies.

Shortly after, while the Meeting Hall was still incomplete, a Malicious Spider joined the village.

The village attracted a Malicious Spider.

The Malicious Spider had poor stats and did not even have Poison. About the only attribute of note was Traps but it was too low to be relied on. I was going to consider this spider 'disposable' and use it to soak damage in fights. I wonder if I could trade the Beast for something better.

Later, I had a Warped Snake join my village. At least the snake had decent Stealth.

The village attracted a Warped Snake.

My expedition found a trapped Skschack. After releasing the Skschack, the creature asked that I free its mistress and left a map. From past experience, I knew this was the start of the Baba Yaga's House Quest. In order to achieve the best outcome, I would need to overcome a 4-Skull Hex Challenge. It would be a long time before I could complete this Challenge but the Baba Yaga that would hopefully be the reward would be worth it.

A Skshack gave a quest.

When I had collected enough experience for my villagers to gain attributes, my Malicious Spider finally picked up Poison. That would increase its damage output in fights. I still considered the spider 'disposable', though.

The Malicious Spider finally gained Poison!

I had finally unlocked Dragon bones at a cost of 3 Advancement Points. It took a lot of work to gather small quantities of 5 Dragon bones each time but I could do it from the safety of the village. While waiting for the resource to be gathered, I continued Crafting to advance my research, which would be invested into Crafting recipes that could make use of Dragon bones.

It was a lot of work to gather Dragon bones.

My village attracted a Queen Bee. She was a good fighter with Poison and Ranged Damage. Interestingly, she had 4 Craft, including the 2-point bonus from the village Smithy.

The village attracted a Queen Bee.

A large group of well-armed traders visited the village. In exchange for a place to rest, they gave me a single Lucky Button. What a pitiful reward!

Traders visited the village.

The Lucky Button was of Bad Quality. It was heavy and provided a measly bonus of 1 Armor. That button was so going to get scraped for resources.

The Lucky Button would be worth more as resources.

I unlocked Silver for 2 Advancement Points and discovered that Mithrill had appeared close to my village! If I had the Advancement Points, I could start harvesting that rare resource. Unfortunately, it would be quite some time as I needed to unlock recipes to make use of the Dragon bones first.

A Mithrill gathering spot appeared near the village!

I crafted a pair of Claws of Veles from Dragon bones. While they were not as powerful as Dragon's Banes, they had Shielding and could be wielded single-handedly by Warriors. My Warriors would be able to heal themselves in Fight Challenges with Leech from the Claws of Veles.

Claw of Veles (2-Handed Swords).

With a lot of Dragons bones and Sandstone that I had somehow gathered, I began construction on a Totem. Being able to choose the Witch class was a small benefit since my village still did not have any Children. The more important benefit was that the people in my village would have some Magic to protect themselves from certain supernatural events. The possibility of attracting Demons was also good since I needed better villagers. I had too many weak Beasts but Sandstone, which provided Attract Beast, was the best primary material I had enough of to construct the Totem.

Building a Totem of Sandstone and Dragon bones.

Without warning, a Dragon dropped by and stole all the Gold in the village (as if it had nothing better to do!). If the creature was alone, I would have tried to defeat it. The text definitely mentioned 'minions' so the Dragon was not alone. Thus, I had to let the Gold go. Fortunately, I could mine Silver so the loss was not so great.

A Dragon stole all my Gold!

I wanted to explore the north-west corner of the map where the Divine Quest location was. It was the last part of the small world that I had not explored. Unfortunately, a 5-Skull party of undead appeared. I decided to run while it was still day. Undead might be easier to defeat but the 5-Skulls made me cautious.

A 5-Skull group of undead appeared.

My expedition came across the skeleton of a Dragon. The text mentioned that the creature had died decades ago so there was no chance that these were the remains of that Gold-stealing Dragon earlier. Anyway, the Event mentioned both Lada and Morena.

My expedition found the bones of a Dragon.

While looting the corpse, my expedition was attacked my Spiders. I used my own Malicious Spider as a meatshield to take a damaging hit since it was not good for anything else. The spider later recovered.

A Deformed Bat joined my village. I already had enough weak Beasts. I needed stronger Beasts or something from another class.

The Deformed Bat had Stealth.

A 4-Skull group of baddies appeared close to my village. It was Turn 195 and the progress of my people was too slow. I successfully dealt with this threat but I seriously needed to gather more strength.

A group of 4-Skull baddies appeared close to the village.

In the King's Quest, I came across a king who had trouble pulling a sword out from a stone. The Quest followed a popular legend with a couple of similar names mentioned. After completing the first part of the Quest, I was shown the second location where I would find a bridge.

The start of the King's Quest.

The second Quest location was at the south-west corner of the map. After the 4-Skull baddies I faced earlier, I needed to check that corner of the world for threats.

The second Quest location appeared at the south-west.

Meanwhile, my village attracted a Warrior. Finally, I had someone who was not a weak Beast! He would be of help to defend the village since I did not have any fighters at home other than the Queen Bee.

A Warrior joined the village.

As I approached the second location of King's Quest, I found a 5-Skull group of 22 baddies. That was way too many to handle, especially since Dwarves tend to be well-equipped. Well, I know Dwarf Warriors are well-equipped, not sure about Dwarf Cultists.

The baddie group's name was missing.

I sneaked around the Dwarf Cultists and faced the trial at the bridge of King's Quest. I was asked three pretty weird questions. Actually, the first two questions were weird. The reply for the third question was stranger than the question.

I was asked three questions.

After completing this stage of the King's Quest, I was shown the next location, a 'Place of interest' at the north-west of the map where I had left the group of 5-Skull undead.

The next location of the King's Quest.

The Quest location was at the furthest possible distance since there was no direct connection between the north-west and the south-west. My expedition had to travel back around the body of water, past the village, to head to the Quest location.

5-Skull baddies had appeared. At Turn 204, the progress of my people was too far behind. I should have completed the Divine Quest by this time. I was not sure if I was ready but I needed to attempt the Divine Quest since I needed the Quest reward. I should get people with Intelligence from the village to help with the Divine Quest since my expedition lacked such members. However, this would take people vital for Crafting away from the village.

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 1
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 3
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 4
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 5
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Final Part

Thea: The Awakening, Contents

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 1

It has been over four months since I played Thea: The Awakening. A lot had changed with the addition of a lot of content and two downloadable content (DLC). However, I was disappointed that when I wanted to start a new game, Thea crashed. A look through the error log revealed that it was caused by the lack of memory in my old computer.

I did some research and came up with a few possible solutions to the crash. I implemented all of them at once (so I do not know which one worked) and managed to get Thea working. I started Thea in GFX Direct Mode since that was the standard recommendation. In addition, I began a new game with a Small World Size. Hopefully, this would reduce the memory requirements although I would not have a large play area. In the beginning, I noticed that the voice-over made the game stutter. Thus, I slid the Voiceover Volume left to zero.

This game of Thea: The Awakening was played on version 1.20.1912.0.

The bonuses of Lada, version 1.20.1912.0.

I chose Lada as the patron deity. It would take 447 XP to unlock her fourth bonus and another 1000 XP after that for her last bonus. It would take a long time to get 1447 XP since I had chosen a Small World Size. That setting would reduce the area available for exploration and the Score Multiplier. On the other hand, the game would proceed faster since locations for Quests were expected to be closer.

The custom difficulty settings.

I chose Gatherers as the Village Focus since Lada is a peaceful goddess.

As I did in my last game with Horos, I set the Enemy Aggressiveness to High so I would not waste Movement Points hunting down weak baddies at night. With Lada's first three bonuses, I decided I could manage with Starting Villagers set to 9. I had never used Reshuffles so I left that option at None. I left Saves set to On as a precaution. I was not sure if I would play a short or a long game. To cater for the possibility of the latter, I set Group Limits to 16. Blood Bath would seriously increase the possibility of villagers dying from combat wounds so I set it to Off.

The Score Multiplier is 125%, which meant that a lot of play was required for the 1447 XP I needed to unlock Lada's final bonus.

I decided to run the Tutorial so I had something to do at the start of the game rather than aimlessly exploring the land.

The end of the Tutorial introduction.

Once the Tutorial introduction was over, I checked the supplies at my village. I had a lot of Meat and 3 Children. I also had a few other types of food from Lada's third bonus. There were some good material but I was more interested in the War Hammers. Those were good weapons against weak opponents early in the game.

Resources available at the start.

I noticed that there were new 2D graphics for attributes, items and equipment. The new graphics do make the game prettier. I also noticed that I was a little disorganized since I had been away from Thea for such a long time.

An Elf visited my village. It appeared to be an Event related to Lada. In exchange for precious food (including Grain!), two villagers gained permanent Attributes.

Can you spot two incorrect words?

When it was time to start the Main Quest, the first location appeared close to my expedition. It was likely to happen, considering the Small World Size.

The first quest location appeared close to my expedition.

A few good resource gathering spots appeared near the village, probably influenced by the Small World Size. There was Wicker. There was also Monster bone and Silver although I would have to unlock these with research before I can begin harvesting.

Good resources available close to the village.

Silver was good for crafting good equipment, which will also increase research. However, it required 2 Advancement Points to unlock. Previously, it only required 1 Advancement Point to unlock any research.

Silver required 2 Advancement Points.

The first part of the Divine Quest for Lada appeared. I thought the text could use more words to describe what was happening because some context was missing. I derive some small amusement from spotting errors in the text. Having less text mean fewer opportunities for errors though.

This text needs more words.

I checked the location for the Divine Quest. It was around a body of water, near the corner of the map. Because of the Small World Size, it was not very far from the village.

The Quest location appeared as far as it possibly could, which was not far.

Sometime after I had unlocked Monster bones, I noticed that Dragon bones had appeared next to the village! I could harvest this rare resource directly from my settlement. It was going to take a lot of Advancement Points and effort to craft Dragon's Banes (2-Handed Axes) with those bones but it would be worth it. Actually, it would be necessary to acquire Dragon's Banes for the tough baddies much later in the game.

A Dragon bone gathering spot appeared next to the village!

Meanwhile, my village attracted a Hunter. He looked like a sad person.

A Hunter joined the village.

With a supply of Monster bones and Wicker, I constructed a Smithy. If I was going to craft good equipment, I would need one. As an added bonus, the Smithy might attract Beasts.

Building a Smithy of Monster bone and Wicker.

My expedition met the Ruins of a House Event twice. The first time, nothing happened as I investigated and I got some loot as I buried the bodies. On the second time I had that Event, I was attacked, twice. Two of my villagers were hurt badly but they survived.

Can you spot the incorrectly used word?

My expedition came across an old tower. There were scavengers inside. After outsmarting the scavengers, I found that they had a prisoner. I hoped that I would get a new villager.

Is that an extra space in the text?

Unfortunately, the prisoner did not survive (either that or he was forgotten). I had to be content with 3 Stone Axes, which I dismantled for Quartz and Dark wood. The Quartz would be useful for construction.

I completed a Watchtower made of Monster bone and Clay. Both of these resources attracted Beasts. In addition, I would be able to see further from my village, which would give me advance warning of wandering baddies.

Completed a Watchtower of Monster bone and Clay.

My expedition found a tree with a crow's nest on it. Strangely, the Event mentioned Morena, another goddess. I chose to climb the tree and loot the nest.

Tree with Crow's Nest Event.

After looting the nest, the crows returned and attacked.

Attacked by Crows.

Not only was the expedition outnumbered, the villagers had to contend with a Royal Crow.

Look at the Armour on that Royal Crow!

My expedition won the Fight Challenge and got lots of loot. Unfortunately, I lost my Hunter (should I call her a Huntress?). The next time I came across this Event, I was more careful to avoid the crows. My people were not ready for fights of this difficulty.

Loot won from the Event.

I had an encounter with the Hochlick from the tutorial. I wonder if this event would have presented itself if I had not done the tutorial. Anyway, one of the options I had mentioned both Morena and Lada.

Hochlick's Debt Quest.

After convincing the Hochlick to tell the truth, I went to convince a few Karkandzas to leave her alone.

The Hochlick finally told the truth.

When I was successful in convincing the Karkandzas, the Hochlick appeared and blessed a few villagers with permanent attributes.

A few villagers gained permanent attributes.

It might have been a mistake to set Enemy Aggressiveness to High. As I was exploring a distance from the village in the late evening, my expedition was attacked by a 3-Skull group. I won but had many badly wounded people.

The sad Hunter was badly wounded.

Fortunately, my expedition was near the Herbalists Hut and my people could get healed for 30 Food, 5 Wood and a completed favor.

The Herbalists Hut was nearby.

My expedition met with a black wolf. This time, an option with the name of Horos was presented.

The Black Wolf Event.

The option involving Horos in the Black Wolf Event made me wonder if having Lada as the patron goddess also unlocked options related to certain other deities. This was something to keep in mind as I continued playing.

The game thus far had been quite peaceful and unexciting. There were hardly any wandering baddies or random creature lairs. Because of that, I was not getting many items or much resources as loot. I am not sure if it was because of Lada's peaceful nature or the fact that I had chosen a Small World Size.

There were random Events - the Ruins of a House Event had happened a few more times. However, I had to be careful with Events. Without Dragon's Banes, I had problems with even 3-Skull Fight Challenges.

Due to the peace, I thought that I should concentrate on Gathering rare resources, Crafting powerful equipment and constructing buildings to attract weird... things. I needed Dragon's Banes and more villagers.

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 2
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 3
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 4
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 5
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Final Part

Thea: The Awakening, Contents