Thea: The Awakening, Zorya 1, Final Part

Finally, Kostey and the Oracle visited my village and started the Giants Return Quest. While talking to Kostey, there was an option to consider abandoning the village. Choosing that option revealed a little of Zorya's history. It was unfortunate that I did not chose this option in my game with Lada.

Kostey knew something about the village's history.

My expedition was randomly attacked by Werewolves in an Event. Despite the text, there was only one Werewolf in the Fight Challenge. After the fight, I had the chance to recruit a wounded wolf-man. Interestingly, there were options to deal with the situation that were related to Zorya, Horos and Lada.

I could recruit something.

Selecting the option with Zorya, I got an Alpha Wolf. The Alpha Wolf was not as impressive as my Giant Crow. Then again, the Giant Crow had been through many adventures and had gathered lots of attributes.

The attributes of the Alpha Wolf.

My expedition met with the Striga Mistress Event at night, twice. In each, after succeeding in a Hex Challenge, many of my expedition members received permanent Magic. These were very welcome to give my people the Magic they sorely need.

There is a spelling mistake in this screenshot.

I started crafting Claws of Veles out of Dragon bones and Moonstones. These 2-Handed Swords would increase the damage potential of my Warriors by a lot. Unfortunately, I would later quit the game before my expedition could return to the village to collect the weapons.

Making a Claw of Veles out of Dragon bone and Moonstones.

My expedition arrived at the place where they could find more information about the Giants. The place was different from the one in Lada's game.

The Giants Return Quest led my people to a stone house.

It was fortunate that my main expedition had gained a lot of Magic since there was a difficult Hex Challenge to overcome within the quest location.

My expedition completed the Hex Challenge and I then had a Giant Magic Crow.

At the end, my expedition found an old Dwarf who knew a lot about the Giants.

The Dwarf Runemaster had a sarcastic greeting.

By asking the Dwarf about his beard, I learned a little about the Dwarves and their history. There was mention of Dwarven runes and Runemasters. I had not brought my Dwarf Smith and I wondered if he would have unlocked alternate options or additional rewards.

There were two options to deal with the Giants.

After all the text, I had two options to deal with the Giants. With Zorya as the patron deity, I decided to try (try, not do) the violent approach and chose the second option to go for the Umbrage Lord directly.

I had already confronted Giants before I had met the Dwarf. The number of encounters I had was enough to make the Umbrage Lord appear. However, he could not be bothered to deal with my people and went on his way.

The Umbrage Lord was unimpressed with my people.

After tracking the Umbrage Lord to his lair, one of his minions joined my expedition and it would not accept any rejection. At first, it was a Shade. However, I loaded my game and on the second time, I received a stronger Shadow Creature instead.

A Shadow Creature joined my expedition.

The following screenshot showed the state of the game:

The state of the game.

The Umbrage Lord was in the final location at the top right of the screenshot while my main expedition was at the bottom right. There was a group of Giants at the bottom who were close to my village.

I decided to ignore the Giants and go straight for the Umbrage Lord. Since it was still day, there was less risk of the wandering Giants stumbling into my village.

However, the final challenges were too difficult. My people were not good in a Social Challenge to convince the Umbrage Lord to be less destructive. In addition, the Social Challenge was very difficult with the Umbrage Lord's and his Mroki lieutenant's attributes. Failure in the Social Challenge would Curse my people, which was bad because it meant less Health for the fight immediately after. And the Umbrage Lord was also very difficult in a Fight Challenge.

Failure in the Fight Challenge would lead to the Umbrage Lord devouring everyone in the expedition. I think the Quest would also end in failure (I can't remember), though it was possible to load a saved game.

After a few failures, I decided to bring in the gatherer expedition from the top left of the screenshot above to help in the final battle. I skipped the Social Challenge and went straight to the Fight Challenge with a large expedition of 26 people (inclusive of Beasts, Orcs, a Shadow Creature, a Goblin and a Ghost).

There was an epic battle and towards the end, only the Mroki was left with a scratch of health. I used Piercing to finish the Mroki off.

Note the musician on the left-most of the offense stack.

I was limited to 16 cards per round because of the settings I made at the start. The limitation did prevent me from deploying all my people at once but it was mostly a minor inconvenience.

The Umbrage Lord was defeated!

After the fight, another creature of shadow joined my expedition. This time, it was a Shade.

A Shade joined my expedition.

The option to go after Umbrage Lord had been quicker and had given two creatures as rewards. However, that solution had been way more difficult than the first option where my people would enlist the Weatherer's help.

After the fight, the score summary appeared.

The final score.

I had received two interesting creatures. Unfortunately, I had 11 injured people. I decided to quit the game rather than deal with my injured people. If the Herbalists hut (as shown in an earlier screenshot) was closer, I could have brought my people straight there for healing. With 11 injured, it was very likely that a few people would die.

I forgot to take a final screenshot of the Dwarf Smith. He had at least 28 Craft. The Dwarf Smith was happily crafting with his wife back at the village during the whole Giants Return Quest.

The bonuses of Zorya, version 1.20.2010.0.

I had unlocked Zorya's first three bonuses. Her bonuses made her people more suited to Fight Challenges. I wonder how powerful would the weapon given as the fourth bonus would be. Whatever it was would be very useful early in the game.

Thea: The Awakening, Zorya 1, Part 1
Thea: The Awakening, Zorya 1, Part 2
Thea: The Awakening, Zorya 1, Part 3
Thea: The Awakening, Zorya 1, Part 4

Thea: The Awakening, Contents