This page will cover all the events, errands and quests that pop up between the end of the main quest Season of Bloom and the start of The Varnhold Vanishing.

After saving the realm from monster-spawning plants, you’ll be left to unceremoniously limp back to the capital on your own. As usual, after completing a main questline you’ll have a good bit of downtime before the next one starts up, so we’ll cover all the events and quests that pop up in the interim, which you can deal with if and when you please.

Depending on how quickly you completed Season of Bloom, there may be a lot of free time here, and hence, overlap with Season of Bloom - Events Overview. We completed the Season of Bloom with 239 days left on [An Ancient Curse, Part 3], which is over a month more than was really needed - such windfalls can and probably should be spent upgrading Kingdom Stats. Assuming you completed Season of Bloom before you started taking damage to your Kingdom Stats, (around +195 days, AAC3 Time) you should have nearly 200 days to burn, as the next main questline doesn’t start up until +5 days AAC3 Time, although there are a few quests worth venturing out and completing in the interim.

We suggest completing the following during this time period (not including any artisan quests you may unlock, which we suggest completing if possible, or advancing if not):

• A Feast of Feasts
• The Lonely Hunter
• Pariah
• Cruel Justice
• [An Ancient Curse, Part 3]

The Lonely Hunter is of particular interest, as it’ll allow you to claim the Silverstep region, which will unlock the artisans Mim Wobblegander, who has his own associated quests. We also recommend you focus on ranking up your Divine Kingdom Stat, as at Rank IV it’ll unlock the Arcane stat, governed by the Magister. This will also unlock the artisan Irlene. The sooner you get these artisans unlocked, the sooner they’ll start producing items for you.

You can (and arguably should) also start ranking up your Grand Diplomat by raising your Relations Kingdom Stat, as getting enough points to reach Relations Rank IV will unlock the Minister post - hopefully the final advisor you can appoint. There’s no aristan tied to this, but having more advisors means you can deal with more Problems and Opportunities at a time, and resolve them in different ways. Plus, assigning an advisor to deal with an event is the best way to raise the Kingdom Stat they represent - the longer you take to get a Minister, the harder it’ll be to raise your Espionage stat.

The next main story quest, The Varnhold Vanishing will begin with 5 days left on [An Ancient Curse, Part 3], and while you should stick around to deal with [An Ancient Curse, Part 3], you shouldn’t delay too much longer. Chapter 3 is nowhere near as long as Chapter 2 was - you only have five months from the start of The Varnhold Vanishing to finish it before your barony falls, and it can require a lot of resting and travel through mountainous terrain so it’d be wise to get started on it as quickly as possible to ensure you have plenty of time. While a lot of new companion quests start shortly afterwards, they’re in no imminent danger of failing, and can be completed once The Varnhold Vanishing is complete.

You’ll also hopefully get the opportunity to upgrade one of your villages into a town - if you wait and upgrade your newly founded village in Silverstep, you can build a Mage Tower there, and if you have one in both your capital and the Silverstep town (or any other town, for that matter) you’ll be able to teleport there at will, perhaps shaving a day or so of travel time between the frontier and your capital. It’s well worth doing - and worth setting your Silverstep village far to the east. You can similarly expand westward next chapter.

Decision - The Old Prison¶

The first thing that will happen when you return to your throne room is you’ll be forced to make a decision about what to do with the old prison. You clearly don’t need such a structure in your city, and Jhod proposes you turn it into a proper clinic… which is what you were using it for during the Season of Bloom, anyways. Alternatively, Kesten will suggest you build a guard headquarters. Both of these will lead to different events, but the main takeaway is the kingdom stats you’ll gain for it:

Pick whichever one you need more stats for, but note you’ll have to expend BP and assign one of your advisors to the task to actually get the rewards.

A Feast of Feasts¶

This started earlier, at +250 days AAC3 time, but it seemed rather poor timing to bother with this frivolity while your peasants were exploding. Now that you’ve resolved the Season of Bloom, you can deal with this whenever you please, you won’t get an expiration warning until +33 days AAC3 time. The quest is covered in detail here.

Letter from Maegar Varn¶

Pretty simple event, your neighbor to the east - and fellow adventurer-made-ruler - Maegar Varn will send you a care package to “last you through these tough times”. This takes the form of a Message from Maegar Varn, a Wand of Prayer and a Wand of Good Hope and comes with no strings attached. What a nice guy! You’ll also gain Economy +1 and Relations +1 for resolving this event.

Yes, he still sends this even if you’ve already completed Season of Bloom.

The Lonely Hunter¶

Appearing as a Letter for the Baron event, your Councilor will inform you that a man named Ivar in the town of Silverstep is drawing a poor comparison between you and some “Silver Dragon”, which Ivar apparently claims is the rightful ruler of the realm. If such a being existed, this Ivar would have a point, but until you see it, Ivar is just engaging in politically dangerous slander, and you must intervene. This starts the errand The Lonely Hunter, earning you Economy +1 in the process.

Completing this quest will allow you to annex the Silverstep region, but it also provides you a convenient base of operations adjacent to Varnhold, which will become quite useful as Chapter 3 progresses. That being the case, you’re encouraged to attend to this errand as quickly as possible - you’d do well to have it complete before The Varnhold Vanishing begins.

Claim Silverstep¶

After completing the errand The Lonely Hunter you’ll get the Claim Silverstep project in your Regions tab. It’s well worth the two weeks and 375 BP to claim, as it’ll allow you to found a new village to the east, not to mention conduct kingdom business when you’re engaged in Varnhold later in the chapter. It will also draw the attention of the artisan Mim Wobblegander, who should show up in your throne room before long. Check out the page for Mim Wobblegander for more information on this artisan.

Bog Mischief¶

At +203 days AAC3 time the event Bog Mischief will show up, which at a glance doesn’t stand out from other events. Assign an advisor to take care of the task, after which the errand A Trail of Misfortune will begin. It’s nowhere near as important as The Lonely Hunter, but it is easy to complete, and any errand that can be resolved by shouting is worthwhile in our book.

Pariah¶

When there are +135 days left on [An Ancient Curse, Part 3] Amiri will request your attention in the throne room, asking you to visit her in the tavern and speak with her about her old tribe. This starts the companion quest Pariah. While it won’t expire until a few months after The Varnhold Vanishing begins, it’s still an uncomfortably close margin, and there’s plenty of time to deal with it now, which we suggest doing.

The Lost Brother¶

When there are +65 days left before [An Ancient Curse, Part 3] ends, you’ll get a visitor in your throne room. Return to your throne room and you’ll be petitioned by one Edrist Hanvaki, who pleads for your assistance in finding his missing brother, Tomin Hanvaki. His brother was heading to Varnhold, and was last seen alive in your lands. Like An Amusement for the Nobles, this quest is optional, but it leads into the events of the main questline for Chapter 3. You can’t get started on this quest right away - you won’t be able to access the required area until +5 days AAC3 time - so file it away in the back of your mind for now.

Cruel Justice¶

Cruel Justice, a companion quest for Octavia and Regongar, will begin when there are +20 days AAC3 time left, starting via the event Octavia and Regongar Have Spotted Someone Suspicious!. While it does require you to travel fairly far afield to resolve, there’s no reason it can’t be finished in the week before The Legendary Scourge begins, and like Amiri’s companion quest, Pariah, it’s better to resolve it now than to let it linger, as you’ll want to be able to focus on The Varnhold Vanishing shortly.

The Legendary Scourge¶

Like the other An Ancient Curse quests, when the timer for [An Ancient Curse, Part 3] is nearly expired, you’ll start getting kingdom events which, if ignored, will deal significant, recurring Kingdom Stat damage. The Legendary Scourge is such an event, and it occurs starting +14 days AAC3 time. Be sure to assign an advisor to deal with it immediately, do not ignore it, do not go adventuring, do not start lengthy projects that require your full attention (Kingdom Rank upgrades being an example). Once you’ve dealt with this event, you’ll ensure you won’t take any Kingdom Stat damage from An Ancient Curse, Part 3 and that the quest will resolve itself less painfully, but you should head out to Bald Hilltop to deal with any enemies there if you want the best rewards.

An Ancient Curse, Part 3¶

When there are +14 days AAC3 time left, the evil forces at Bald Hilltop will once again manifest, this time in the form of The Legendary Scourge event, which you must deal with promptly to avoid Kingdom Stat loss - ignoring it will result in repeated stat damage. Complete the aforementioned event, then, if you want maximal rewards, head to Bald Hilltop and [deal with the enemies] there to finally complete this quest… and subsequently start up [An Ancient Curse, Part 4], which will be how time is reckoned going forward.

The Varnhold Vanishing¶

Deal with [An Ancient Curse, Part 3] and wait for the timer to expire. When there are +5 days left on AAC3, you’ll get the event “Message from Jamandi Aldori”, which directs you to head to Varnhold and investigate what happened to your neighboring baron. Waiting another couple of days to let [An Ancient Curse, Part 3] finish and perhaps to complete the project Expert Mountaineering (assuming it has popped up around this time - Varnhold is quite mountainous, and completing this project will speed things considerably) aren’t bad ideas, but for the most part, we suspend side quests for the time being in order to deal with the main questline now.