Monsters

Olympia: The Age of Gods PBEM (Oct 4 2000)

### 2.1.12: Monsters

Olympia is roamed by many sorts of monsters. Monsters often attack player stacks.

Wilderness provinces (with less than 100 peasants) have more monsters than civilized provinces. Garrisoned provinces are even safer, as the mere presence of an active garrison keeps some monsters away. Very few monsters will enter a city, making cities the safest places of all.

A stack with 25 soldiers will be safe from most attacks, but very dangerous monsters exist that can challenge even a very powerful stack. When possible, "double up" with other players to give yourself as much protection as possible, especially early in the game. Missile weapons are also valuable against monsters, as few monsters have the intelligence to take advantage of missile combat.

Dumb monsters will attack any stack they outnumber. Smarter monsters will evaluate the combat strength of a stack before attacking. Certain monsters (such as balrogs) attack anything that moves, and can be very dangerous. Fortunately such monsters are rare.

All monsters fight to the death when they attack or are attacked.

Many monsters will kill and eat any prisoners they take, although they may release prisoners if already well-fed. A few, like bandits, will merely strip prisoners of all their valuables and turn them loose again.

Some monsters will rush to join in when they see other monsters attack. For instance, wolves run in packs and will usually aid other wolves. Bandits are quick to take advantage of any combat, and may join in a battle if they see an opportunity. Smart monsters may learn combat skills, making them tougher than expected. Players should keep these and similar possibilities in mind when attacking monster stacks.

Monsters spend much of their time breeding. Players are wise to eliminate small, weak stacks of monsters before they became large, strong stacks.

Monsters will also pillage, attack garrisons, raze structures and do various other things to stop the incursion of humans into their territory.

Monsters get no special advantages in Olympia. With a couple of minor exceptions, monsters use the same commands as nobles. The only difference between monsters and nobles is that nobles only queue commands at the beginning of the month, while monsters can queue commands at any time. However, an effort is made to avoid giving monsters a "special advantage" through this.

Cities offer bounties on some monsters. For example, a city might offer 1 gold for each rat tail. When a rat (or other monster) is killed, the rat tail (or appropriate monster part) will automatically be added to the inventory of the stack leader. These can then be sold at city markets to collect the bounty. Note that not all cities offer bounties on all monsters; the bounties offered will appear in the city's market description.

Bounties are initially offered (for sale or purchase) at their "base price". For example, the base price for elf ears is 2 gold, the base price for nazgul tails is 40 gold, and the base price for centaur hides is 5 gold. Here's the complete list:

      Part                Base Price
      ----                ----------
      elf ear [317]            1
      savage ear [318]         1
      nazgul tail [319]	40
      centaur hide [320]	 5
      minotaur hide [321]	 5
      spider eye [322]	 2
      rat tail [323]		 1
      lion mane [324]	         5
      bird feather [325] 	10
      lizard tail [326]	 5
      bandit ear [327]	 1
      chimera eye [328]	10
      harpie feather [329]	 5
      dragon scale [330]	40
      orc scalp [331]		 4
      gorgon liver [332]	10
      wolf hide [333]		 3
      cyclops eye [334]	 8
      giant's tongue [335]	10
      balrog horn [336]      300

Bounty prices rise and fall with demand, as with any other good. An unfulfilled bounty will eventually be dropped and replaced with a different bounty.