Rimworld Episode 38: The New DLC Comes Out In Like 5 Hours And My Mods Won't Be Compatible Anymore

[Tweed]

Well, if no one else wants the position I guess I can nominate myself since I have diplomat and some limited social skills, that has to be good for something, yeah?

[Oyster Sauce]

I forgot to mention that when a skill you're passionate about hits 15, you can choose an expertise related to it. Alternatively, you can wait until another one hits 15, Hoss' cooking skill is almost there for example. @Jordy @A Chinese opium den @Zothique

[Jordy]

I forgot to mention that when a skill you're passionate about hits 15, you can choose an expertise related to it. Alternatively, you can wait until another one hits 15, Hoss' cooking skill is almost there for example. @Jordy @A Chinese opium den @Zothique

Go with Sowing for Duke unless you think that's a waste.

[Oyster Sauce]

I forgot to mention that when a skill you're passionate about hits 15, you can choose an expertise related to it. Alternatively, you can wait until another one hits 15, Hoss' cooking skill is almost there for example. @Jordy @A Chinese opium den @Zothique

Go with Sowing for Duke unless you think that's a waste.

It's going to be very worthwhile with so many idiots to feed.

[Jordy]

I forgot to mention that when a skill you're passionate about hits 15, you can choose an expertise related to it. Alternatively, you can wait until another one hits 15, Hoss' cooking skill is almost there for example. @Jordy @A Chinese opium den @Zothique

Go with Sowing for Duke unless you think that's a waste.

It's going to be very worthwhile with so many idiots to feed.

Only suggesting because I wasn't sure if it was already quick with 18 in plants.

[A Chinese opium den]

I forgot to mention that when a skill you're passionate about hits 15, you can choose an expertise related to it. Alternatively, you can wait until another one hits 15, Hoss' cooking skill is almost there for example. @Jordy @A Chinese opium den @Zothique

I'll take sharpshooting then.

[OnTilt]

I would like a pawn in this one. He should preferably be:

- Of humble origins, maybe a farmer or peasant or something
- Religiously fanatic
- ascetic
- kind
- make his nickname Ontilt, otherwise I'll forget which was mine when I read about it later.

Fill in the rest as seems fitting for the theme or as is useful for the group.

[Oyster Sauce]

Episode 2: The Mysterious Door Opens



In the morning, two ******* weirdos arrive on The Slab. Jet'll be spending most of his time in the kitchen while Captain helps with construction and mining.



Boon models our latest advancement in armor. It's... better than nothing.



This place is getting filthy. That's the problem with having so many skilled laborers and no T10s/T30s around. You know what they say, it takes all kinds.



Can't risk having otters around. They're no real threat to us, but they could pick off a pet if they were hungry enough.



It's getting really cramped in here, so we mark out some bedrooms for mining. That big room on the left will be used for storage. We're currently just chucking everything in the hallway.



Another problem is our lack of refrigeration. Some meat has gone bad before we could cook it. There are 85 simple meals here, but they spoil in about 3-4 days unless frozen. We're currently researching complex furniture which will allow us to build proper research benches, and then we'll push for electricity.



Game is pretty scare now. Stack fishes up some perch when he can. Not a huge problem though, we have tons of crops growing outside.





Some traders pass by. We offload some leather and grab some electrical components. They'll be crucial later on.



We get our first quest - a knight is fleeing from a... butterfly larva and is seeking protection, offering honor in return. Since Elias has the "Become royal" aspiration, he claims it. He has a ****** personality for it, but that's life.



Moments later, a little ******* worm appears and slowly advances towards our base. It doesn't put up much of a fight.





A shuttle arrives and picks up our guest.



Elsewhere, Rusty tames a painted snapvine turtle



And the first harvest begins!



Oyster works at hacking the mysterious door open. It'll take a long while.



Progress shot. A few lucky people have moved out of the barracks. Think we'll wind up keeping a few beds in there to serve as a hospital, since it's much easier throwing wounded people in a room that's right beside the entrance.



People who are absent-minded will occasionally forget what they're supposed to be doing and go elsewhere.



A turtle we were trying to tame has been torn apart by an arctic coyote. It did get a bite in, maybe the wound will become infected and do that ****** in.



9 refugees ask to stay for a season, promising to help fight and work for us. That's way too many mouths to feed. If wild animals were more abundant we might be able to swing it. We tell them to kick rocks.



Rusty tames another turtle, giving us a breeding pair. This species of turtle can even be trained to guard and attack. Their shells can take quite a beating so this might be a handy trick later on.



An enraged muffalo is taken down using some advanced kiting techniques. Some animals will retaliate when they take damage, and longer range weapons minimize that chance. Not very helpful when we're packing shortbows though.



Zoth strikes gold while digging out a hallway. Gold is obviously very valuable, but it's also used in high end furniture, and you can even tribute it to the empire for honor.



We've been hacking this thing in shifts. Raviola almost has it open. It's been a pain taking researchers away from their work.



I just noticed that these beds Kalarion made were so high quality that he carved artwork into them. Of course the people depicted are reassigned to sleep in those beds.





The door has finally been hacked open. There's still a cave-in that needs to be cleared before we can see what's inside, but that shouldn't take nearly as long.



Elias drinks some of the aperitif we received as a gift for rescuing that knight, fulfilling one of his aspirations and causing him to throw up. They're a good way to clear food poisoning and certain other conditions related to the stomach, or to make room for extra food buffs. Aspirations can be added at any time if you didn't pick any. Ticking them off decreases your mental break threshold slightly, and something special might happen if you fulfill all four.





Set up a small public washroom. The tubs on the ends will need to have water hauled in from the well outside. One day we might get proper plumbing, water treatment, and heated water, but not today.



There's a second ******* door...



Stack is chosen to become the Administrator due to his "Become a leader" aspiration.



Jet becomes the Jr Admin for the same reason.



And Elias volunteers for the role of Global Moderator, thus forming the triumvirate. Whatever these guys say goes, so long as the majority of them agree. Also, they'll each be receiving a Turtle Coin™ for their service.



Though the people still crave a Custodial Engineer to serve as their moral and spiritual guide.



Complex furniture is finally researched, which will let us spruce up our bedrooms, build shelves for storage, and set up proper research benches to unlock even more stuff. Life is good!






----------------------------------------------------------------------







Turtle Coins™
Black Dog = 1/3
Chuck = 1/3
Elias = 1/3
Stack = 1/3
Vitya = 1/3
Zoth = 1/3

Gain a passion point - 1
Summon pet turtle - 1
Romance attempt - 1
Fistfight someone - 1
Trigger a beautiful aurora in the sky - 1
Spawn 2 simple meals per colonist (New!) - 1
Summon rabid tortoises (next enemy raid) - 2
Remove negative trait - 2
Gain positive trait - 3
Miraculously beat an otherwise fatal infection (automatic) - 3

[A Chinese opium den]

Praying hard that there's a 3rd door now.

[Jordy]

Those 9 refugees can watch our food spoil from afar.

[Tweed]

How can I be kind, but abrasive?



Oh well, I guess I have to throw my weight around or people won't respect my title.

[Oyster Sauce]

How can I be kind, but abrasive?



Oh well, I guess I have to throw my weight around or people won't respect my title.

fixed

[Oyster Sauce]

Episode 3: The Mystery Finally Revealed (NOT CLICKBAIT!)



Back to work.



Kalarion hits 15 in construction and decides to specialize in building things quickly.



A storage rack for meals and a chess board really brings the mess hall together.



Which is perfect because that's where we're having our Summer Festival. It would have given us a bonus if it went well, but without speakers and disco balls it's not much of a party.



Stack is out taming turtles when he spies 5 raiders planning an attack. We outnumber them, but they brought proper weapons. Even if we used our hoopty little barricade they'd outrange us and whittle us down.



Everybody pulls inside the base for now, which at the very least lets us get a lot of work done. Taking stock of the situation, we have 14 archers and a battle turtle to the enemy's 5 riflemen.



Thinking fast, we dig a small bunker into the front of the base with embrasures to shoot from. We only had time to set up a small one which barely has enough space for our best marksmen.



Hoss drives the first ******** away with an excellent shot to the head (giving him permanent brain damage should he survive the bleeding hehe), but it's clear that stone arrows are not meant for combat. Our lack of range is giving the raiders free rein to ignite our crops. Hoss also earns a Turtle Coin™ for distinguishing himself in battle.



We can't afford to lose that food. Everybody else rushes out and nails this idiot with a volley.



There's nothing to do but heroically rush forward and make use of our barricade. Praying our wooden plank vests catch any incoming fire, we charge!



No such luck. The 500 year old Raviola takes a shot to her arm. Bullets are no joke, any that nail us in the head are likely to be fatal.



How do you fuckin' like it? We've sent the remaining raiders into a rout, but we've for sure gotta down some of them and grab some guns. You can see that a good number of arrows are bruising rather than cutting when they fail to penetrate.





We wind up downing 3 enemies in total. We get all of their clothing, 2 rolling rock rifles, a hunting rifle, a volcanic pistol, and about 50 bullets between them, not to mention 3 sticks of dynamite. Decent, but we'll be sticking with shortbows for hunting and saving the bullets for defense. The raiders are left to bleed out in the dirt.





Raviola is fine and ready to help bring in the next rice harvest, by the way. She gets a Turtle Coin™ for taking it like a champ.



Rusty gets slightly mauled by a hungry lynx, but escapes with all of his digits intact.



A general goods trader visits, and we exchange some of the gold we mined up the other day for components.



The second door has been opened. Time to mine the rest of this rubble and see what lies beyond.



Zoth is almost through...



With the final chunk of stone hauled out of the way, the gang discovers a narrow hallway with notably less secure doors on each side.



Five doors to choose from.



Vitya clears the first on the right. Just a toilet and an old ventilation system.



Directly across, Oyster finds a tube television, a dirty couch, and some obscure board game he's never seen before.



Boon opens a door and slams it closed immediately, swearing he must have seen at least a dozen rats inside.



He regains his composure and cautiously opens the door at the end of the hall...



"Ahoy thar."



The little guy introduces himself as Dorfleet. He says that he's been stuck inside his bunker for a long time now since the cave-in blocked the way out. Boon asks how he could have survived for so long, and he simply explains that he has a room set aside for a self-sustaining ecosystem where rats eat and breed with each other in perpetuity, generating essentially infinite free food. It doesn't sound right to him, but Boon has 0 animal skill so what does he know? At any rate, he's grateful for being freed and will contribute to the colony.



Boon earns a Turtle Coin™ for bravely taking point. The boys are on their way out when Oscar remembers the final door they hadn't checked.



...



...






-------------------------------------------------------------









Turtle Coins™
Black Dog = 1/3
Boon = 1/3
Chuck = 1/3
Elias = 1/3
Hoss = 1/3
Raviola = 1/3
Stack = 1/3
Vitya = 1/3
Zoth = 1/3

Gain a passion point - 1
Summon pet turtle - 1
Romance attempt - 1
Fistfight someone - 1
Trigger a beautiful aurora in the sky - 1
Supply drop of 2 simple meals per colonist - 1
Summon rabid tortoises (next enemy raid) - 2
Remove negative trait - 2
Get inspiration relevant to skills (new!) - 2
Gain positive trait - 3
Miraculously beat an otherwise fatal infection (automatic) - 3

[Jordy]

So getting through those two doors just added two more mouths to feed?

[Oyster Sauce]

Episode 4: Stop Attacking Our ******* Base Please


Saurid raiders have shown up and begin their assault immediately.



We don't have time to set up (figure out the loadout switching mechanic), but Hoss takes makes full use of us having the ranged advantage this time and snipes this ligger in the heart.



This is completely one sided, every shot Boon and Hoss fires finds its target and explodes an organ or cripples a limb. @Boon can even choose a shooting expertise.





4 of them fail to get away, netting us some decent loot. Most notable and frightening is this grenade launcher.



Raviola hits 501 and finally enters menopause. Could have been worse.



People are pretty unhappy about not having a moral guide. Chuck seems like he knows what he's doing. Good luck, Chuck!
He also gets a Turtle Coin™.



After forgetting to allow people to go outside for a few days, plenty of crops are ripe for the harvest.



Stack wanders past some ancient, glowing machinery. Someone could volunteer to check it out if they so desired.



Zoth nearly breaks a stool from being so fat.



Pretty decent stockpile of food for now.



Our painted snapvine turtles have had little turtle babies. Soon they'll make fine soldiers.



393 active mods by the way.



We can get groups of visitors now that we have beds set up for guests. We charge them 10 silver a night, plus they can buy meals from us if they need to. It's a good way to build friendly relations with other colonies.



A large herd of aerofleet is passing by. They're pretty passive, just looking to graze before moving on.



A cold snap has set it. This is going to drastically reduce the temperature (currently 4C/39F) which will likely kill a bunch of crops and freeze people who are outside.



Within a few hours the outside temperature has dropped to -8C/17.5F



Stack was attacked by a large toughback turtle he was trying to tame. It got a good chunk out of his leg.



His gashed leg gives out when he tries to cross the river.



An entire squad has to be called out to take down the beast.



Raviola drags him out, but the turtle was merciless when he slipped. At least we're not living in medieval times. Maybe he can get a cool prosthetic or bionic leg at some point.





Even colder.



Bionics are a long ways off, but this'll do for now.



A friendly AI offers us a way out of this dump and possibly back home. The ship is on the far side of the continent though. Might be easier just to stay put and build our own.





Boon chops down an anima tree to hear its psychic scream, fulfilling one of his aspirations. It gives everybody a mood penalty for a full 5 days, so I hope it was worth it.



We get a distress signal. The reward is possibly great and the threat is unknown, but it's too dangerous to travel during a cold snap with the clothing we have now.



The research team has finally figured out electricity.



We have wind turbines! They're don't have anything to power right now, but we have 'em. The amount of power they're generating is represented by that bar in the center. It'll fill up when it gets windy and there are no trees or walls blocking them. Right now it's basically dead calm, which is the big disadvantage wind power has.



The cold snap ends and we get an electric stove set up. Both turbines combined are just enough to get it running for the moment.



Behold our power grid.



Vitya sets up our first batteries. These'll make sure excess power doesn't go to waste and give us a bit of a buffer for when the turbines aren't spinning.



We've even got Dorfleet's old ****** TV running.



Speaking of Dorfleet, somebody's making moves on his beautiful goddess of a wife.





Weeb food production is a go.



Rusty's a weird guy. He gets a Turtle Coin™ for being consistently hilarious this episode.



A livestock trader comes by and we pick up two chickens and some hay. It's a tough call since winter begins in 11 days and we're having our first snow. We'll keep the pair separated until spring to prevent fertilization so when we do get chicks they'll have grass to eat.



A psychic storm strikes. We hid inside for a day or so but none of the traders got zapped so the lockdown has been lifted.



We got this little area set up for the chickens.



A black hive swarm has surfaced and is heading right for us.



Once again we're terrible at scrambling into position, but Hoss manages to take out a spelopede before they get in close.



Hoss runs dry and falls back as Elias and Vitya make it to the frontline. Dorfleet's wife is swinging a massive steel club which crashes through their exoskeletons.



Vitya gets a couple grenades off on the massive mammoth worm. Black Dog takes a toxic spine to the neck but keeps fighting. Elias is just kind of hanging out with his volcanic pistol.



Another danger close grenade puts the biggest threat down.



After Hoss fled we desperate threw some short bows into the fray, but this turned out to be completely unnecessary - the one-eyed guy with a grenade launcher was surprisingly effective. Have a Turtle Coin™, Vitya.



Things turned out alright, but we're going to need a steady supply of ammunition if we're dealing with giant insect attacks.



And a really big wall.





----------------------------------------------------------------







Turtle Coins™
Black Dog = 1/3
Boon = 1/3
Chuck = 2/3
Elias = 1/3
Hoss = 1/3
Raviola = 1/3
Rusty = 1/3
Stack = 1/3
Vitya = 2/3
Zoth = 1/3

Gain a passion point - 1
Summon pet turtle - 1
Romance attempt - 1
Fistfight someone - 1
Trigger a beautiful aurora in the sky - 1
Supply drop of 2 simple meals per colonist - 1
Summon rabid tortoises (next enemy raid) - 2
Remove negative trait - 2
Get inspiration relevant to skills - 2
Gain positive trait - 3
Miraculously beat an otherwise fatal infection (automatic) - 3

[ArcaneLurker]

Ol' Chuck is raking in the T-coins.

[LemonDemonGirl]

Are we going to have 40 turtles like last time lol

[Tweed]

At least this time we actually have a perimeter. It might keep us from getting brutally killed.

[Oyster Sauce]

Episode 5: Winter Is Coming


Construction of our great wall is underway



It's being made out of steel since we have so much ******* steel just from mining the base. We're growing tobacco and rolling cigarettes if anybody wants to get peer pressured into smoking by the way.



The ditch will slow attackers as they approach, the sandbags will protect the walls from being damaged and hopefully catch some explosives further from our defenders, and the embrasures will let us shoot from the inside.



Stack keeps forming bonds with the baby turtles while training them. He's named two Starlight & Talisman.



Complex clothing has been researched and Chuck starts pumping out some parkas for us.



At long last we've achieved refrigeration. As an added bonus, the industrial cooler will be pumping the hot air right into the rest of the base.



It might be -16C/61F outside, but we're doing alright inside.



Rusty gets in a fight with Raviola and she goes right for biting.



A lynx starts hunting the boys while they're working outside. Hoss runs to the rescue, lines up a shot, and blasts Rusty's left arm wide open.



It catches up to Stack first but luckily gnaws on his peg leg.



Elias brings it down and everybody gets away with a few little critical injuries.



With smithing unlocked we're finally able to upgrade from stone to steel arrows, make helmets, and have an emergency stash of Molotov cocktails.



The Empire is calling on us to provide troops for an aerial assault on a Deserter base.



The shuttle touches down in a marsh not far from the enemy base.





As we move into position, it's pretty clear that we're completely out of our depths. Our allies have cataphract armor and charge weapons - two of us are using bows.



The approach lacks any sort of meaningful cover. We're just going to have to let these guys charge in and pray the power armor holds up.



Gedusdus sets up the bipod on his charge anti-material rifle and gets to work.



His first shot deletes a Deserter's brain instantly, triggering her death acidifier implant which melts her armor so we can't loot it.



His next shot pierces the lung of the first Deserter brave enough to rush us. Phosber deploys his charge LMG and starts laying down fire.



With just one guy remaining, the rest of our pals rush up and strip the gear off of an enemy to keep it safe from his implant.



The final bad guy loses his head to an LMG round and explodes into a mist of acid.



With the job done, all that's left is to scavenge the place.



They promised us the loot, so we filled the shuttle to capacity with whatever we could grab. Most notably a charge SMG with 120 rounds, ammo for other guns that we don't have, and a doomsday rocket launcher.







There's still the matter of who should get the honor. Turns out it's restricted to just the 5 of us who went on the mission.



We also get an offer from a group looking to trade a sciencemagical treasure map for our entire colony if we hit a total wealth of $350000. We're currently sitting at $117655. I think we'll pass on selling out.



While researching gunpowder, Raviola suffers a heart attack. She's rushed to the hospital and saved by Captain (+Turtle Coin™!), but he chews through a lot of our herbal medicine treating her. It's going to be a few seasons before our next harvest.





A feast is held and everybody has a good time



P'nut found some drugs lying around and sadly overdosed, dying before anyone knew what had happened



He's entombed next to Elias' throne in his brand new throne room.



Speaking of Elias, a delegation arrives to bestow him the title of Novice within the Empire.



Everybody gathers to witness the freaky psychic ritual. I wonder what sort of mysterious power will awaken in Elias now? He earns a coveted Turtle Coin™.



More importantly, we're now able to produce flintlock muskets and finally replace our shortbows.





---------------------------------------------------------------------



As cold as it's been, today is the first day of winter. It's going to get a whole lot chillier. Need volunteers to investigate the ancient technology near our base and to snag the honor from the Deserter raid.








Turtle Coins™ (nobody has spent a single Turtle Coin™ yet)
Black Dog = 1/3
Boon = 1/3
Captain = 1/3
Chuck = 2/3
Elias = 2/3
Hoss = 1/3
Raviola = 1/3
Rusty = 1/3
Stack = 1/3
Vitya = 2/3
Zoth = 1/3

Gain a passion point - 1
Summon pet turtle - 1
Romance attempt - 1
Fistfight someone - 1
Trigger a beautiful aurora in the sky - 1
Supply drop of 2 simple meals per colonist - 1
Summon rabid tortoises (next enemy raid) - 2
Remove negative trait - 2
Get inspiration relevant to skills - 2
Gain positive trait - 3
Miraculously beat an otherwise fatal infection (automatic) - 3

[Faceless_Sentinel]

Vitya volunteers to investigate this ancient technology.

[Tweed]

It's good to be king.

king.png

[Jordy]

Duke volunteers seeing as it's winter and there's nothing to grow.

[Kalarion]

I want a Turtle Coin^TM

On a related note, people might be more inclined to part with their hard-earned flair if they could see what their characters looked like. Post updated sheets?

[Tweed]

I just realized how far out of the way my throne room is....

[Oyster Sauce]

I just realized how far out of the way my throne room is....

I'm thinking second entryway just to the right of it

[Boontaker]

I'll take the honor, I'll duel anyone who objects

[Oyster Sauce]

Episode 6: Funeral For A Turtle



Rusty was visiting P'nuts grave when suddenly the floorboards started to crack and shift.



He barely made it out before a swarm of insects forced their way through. Lines are formed and Hoss' charge SMG comes in clutch.



A second team flanks from the south and opens fire.



The bugs change targets and go after our less armored fighters.



Our current level of firepower isn't enough to prevent them from getting up close.



A few of us have chunks of flesh torn out by razor sharp mandibles before Hoss can reposition and blast the larger targets from behind.



The situation turns into a desperate melee to finish off the remaining insectoids.



Trails of blood lead straight to the hospital where the wounded had to be dragged. Nobody took any permanent injuries, but fixing them up completely wiped out our medicine reserves.



Zoth and Rusty destroy the hives to prevent any more from spawning. There are a few low caste bugs that seem to just generate insect jelly and glow pods. They seem pretty chill so we live and let live.



We're offered yet another way off of this rock.



Stack manages to tame a toughback tortoise. They're too dumb to be trained for combat, but they can be used as pack animals.



A group of pigskin poachers show up, looking to take game from our territory.



We don't recall giving them permission, and Dorfleet has been manufacturing Lee Enfields we need to field test.



It doesn't take much to put some down and drive them off. Once we completely replace our outdated bows and muskets we'll be able to take on serious threats.









Kalarion has a hissyfit over something or other and starts slamming back cigarettes.



Friendly tribals couldn't treat this guy so they sent him to us for care. Might as well since it'll help train our doctors.



At long last we have modern bathroom fixtures and were able to get rid of the latrines we've been using.



There's even a boiler room to heat it for showering.



And a system of pipes, including a waste line that sprays our **** directly into the river. Up until now we've been collecting it in barrels and slowly burning it just outside of our base. No longer!



These jellypots are pretty docile. Might as well officially make them a part of the colony.



Rusty pisses off another toughback and has to leg it.



He gets away, unlike Stack, and its rampage is stopped by a musket ball.



We big turtle guys here though, so we tend its wounds and leave it be.



Earlier a coyote was gnawing on one of our turtles. Stack went out to rescue it, but missed the shot and blew the turtle apart instead. We've buried it in an appropriate box.



We at least give it a nice funeral.



A serious pain in the *** has popped up. Until we travel to and destroy a mechanoid smoke spewer, it'll be obscuring the sun indefinitely. With just two more days until Spring we have no choice but to go deal with it. This'll likely be the deadliest fight we've seen so far.



But first, we celebrate Christmas!






-----------------------------------------------------------

[Jordy]

[Boontaker]

This base looks excellent! Great design

[Oyster Sauce]

Episode 7: Armed & Dangerous


The away team sets forth towards the mechanoid cluster with the smog emitter. Once we arrive, we do a little reconnaissance from some ruins near the mechs.





They're lying dormant until we trigger an alarm or otherwise disturb them. There are two turrets to the north we can avoid by hitting the south side. The machine has to be inside of that building.



Hoss boots the door in, triggering the alarm and waking up the mechanoids. There's a turret in the back of the room but it can't shoot past the machinery.



He runs to the right to intercept incoming enemies with his charge SMG. Elias takes his place at the door and hurls a molotov inside.



It turns out that giant steel structures don't burn terrible well so Elias pushes up with a smoke grenade and starts bashing the turret to pieces. Some of the boys rush in and get to work dismantling the machine as the rest watch their back.



Hoss was able to pierce their armor pretty easily with his SMG, but it's nearly out of ammo and will have to be retired once we're back home. The smoke emitter is destroyed before it could do any real harm and we secure plenty of mechanoid husks and machinery for scrap.





Back home, Dorfleet and his wife share a tender moment. It's just those two, Chuck, and Raviola holding down the fort at the moment. Chuck doesn't travel particularly well during the winter what with him being nude and all.



Dorf finds a wounded girl in the river and brings her back to look her over and warm her up. We tried to save her arm but ultimately had to hack it off to stop the infection from killing her. At least she's alive.





When the team gets back they're collapsing all over the place from exhaustion. Almost two days travel with no rest.



Turns out Dorfleet took a little permanent brain damage from a friendly fire incident during the bug invasion.



Food reserves are getting real low, but winter is almost over.



An Empire shuttle makes an emergency crash landing just outside our fortifications. The impact attracts nearby impid tribals and the royal demands we defend the crash site until rescue arrives.





It would be nice to use our embrasures, but these idiots are directly in the way so we dig in behind some rubble.



It feels like just yesterday when we charged a bunch of riflemen with just shortbows and stone arrows. The underdog didn't win this time though. Our friends leave us with a nice pile of gold before they leave.





While everybody's warmed up, we take out a herd of gigantelopes to get some meat in our freezer.



And so begins the time-consuming process of replacing our walls and floors with stone. An enclosed mountain base like ours catching fire would be a nightmare.



Duke was shot by Boon in a hunting accident. It was an accident, right?



@Chuck hits 15 crafting and can take an expertise if he'd like. Dorfleet is already a weaponsmith, though having two wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. He can have a Turtle Coin™ for single-handedly producing our of clothing and achieving such a milestone.



Especially because he just had a heart attack. Being 92 years old is rough.



Boon took the honor for that mission we went on the other day. He has his bestowing ceremony and a meditation throne is set up for him in the communal throneroom. Novices don't deserve their own space.



A group of starving insects comes looking for a meal



We finally get a chance to try out these walls. The firing angles are a bit narrow, but I prioritized defense over offense. They go down pretty easily.





The structure is basically done, just missing some concrete flooring on the west side. Planning on running cable through it and possible adding a small infirmary and armory for quick access. Some floodlights on the outside to illuminate targets at night would be smart, though I worry about them being destroyed easily. You can see it's being integrated into the main halls of the base on either end as well.



The last musket has finally been retired. We have a full roster of Enfields now.



Two drop pods hit the inside of our courtyard.



It's a Deserter strike team. They're here to kill royalty, namely Elias, Boon, and a guest we have staying with us. No Empire support this time, we have to deal with them on our own.



Even our armor-piercing rounds have trouble doing anything to that power armor. Most shots fail to penetrate and only bruise, but we have a dozen riflemen laying into them. They go down, but not before getting some good hits on our guys.







Thanks to them being getting walloped rather than torn apart by bullets, we're able to secure both sets of armor, a charge minigun, a railgun, and capture both of them.



Our ****** helmets and wooden vests definitely saved some lives today. We're currently working on researching proper armor.



While patching up the prisoners, Captain notices they have some pretty advanced implants, including subdermal armor, a fire suppression system, and a drill arm that gets grafted to your shoulder. We tear them out for our own use. They each get a Turtle Coin™ for getting us to Episode 7 without a single casualty.





A comms console gets set up in Dorf's computer room. It'll let us call other factions and ask for caravans, reinforcements, or diplomatic marriages. We may also get hailed by orbital traders occasionally.



On their shared birthday, Raviola and Oscar get some pretty ****** health conditions. Brain surgery might be a ways off for us, but our prisoners still have beating hearts... Raviola can have a Turtle Coin™ to cheer her up.



We're not taking any chances this year. Much more land has been set aside for crops, and since Duke has sown waaaay more than his fair share with his sowing expertise, he earns a Turtle Coin™.



And finally, we're offered a quest by a pack of werewolves wolfmen. They're offering to turn one of us into one of them if we throw them a bone.






--------------------------------------------------------------------












Turtle Coins™
Black Dog = 1/3
Boon = 2/3
Captain = 2/3
Chuck = 3/3
Duke = 1/3
Elias = 2/3
Hoss = 1/3
Kalarion = 1/3 (I forgot to give out TC last episode hehe)
Raviola = 2/3
Rusty = 1/3
Stack = 1/3
Vitya = 2/3
Zoth = 1/3

Gain a passion point - 1
Summon pet turtle - 1
Romance attempt - 1
Fistfight someone - 1
Trigger a beautiful aurora in the sky - 1
Supply drop of 2 simple meals per colonist - 1
Summon rabid tortoises (next enemy raid) - 2
Remove negative trait - 2
Get inspiration relevant to skills - 2
Gain positive trait - 3
Miraculously beat an otherwise fatal infection (automatic) - 3

ALSO the following items are being given to the highest Turtle Coin™ bidder: the Charge SMG, Railgun, Desert armor sets (x2), subdermal armor implant, fire suppression system implant, and the opportunity to become a WOLFMAN. You can bid on as many things as you'd like.