- "Honor among thieves? Hah! Any thief who invokes such rubbish is a hypocrite! The instant they have the opportunity to stab their best friend in the back, you know they won't even hesitate. A pirate, on the other hand, lives by a different motto. "The last one standing gets the gold.""
- ―Tawni Balfour —
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The Strait of the Lost is the third scenario in the A Pirate's Daughter campaign in Heroes of Might and Magic IV.
Information[]
The Strait of the Lost has earned its name. This region is swarming with pirates, and the sea itself has been known to swallow ships. Someone, or some thing, is terrorizing this waterway. Tawni must find out who and destroy them if she is ever going to gain mastery over the Gold Sea.OffBck
After taking control of the Strait of Storms and killing Captain Swift, Tawni decided to focus her attention on the Strait of the Lost to complete her conquest of the Gold Sea. She sent some of her men down to the strait to establish an outpost called Rumport, which would act as her garrison in the area.
She soon lost contact with them, so some months later, she took seven of her ships into the strait to learn what had happened. Her fleet was immediately attacked by sea monsters, and five of the ships were sunk before they managed to drive the creatures away. As the monsters swam away, Tawni spotted a group of mermaids leading them, and she realized that the mermaids had planned an ambush for them.
After locating Rumport, Tawni started to rebuild her fleet. In order to get the required resources, she ordered her men to dig up all buried treasure in the area. The men hesitated, as digging up another pirate's treasure was dishonorable, but they obeyed. At one point, Tawni freed the Medusa Queen Cyrca from a prison, and Cyrca promised to accompany Tawni to "follow her destiny".
Tawni decided that Pete Girly was getting too ambitious, so when she prepared to enter the Bay of Maids to face the mermaids, she left Arnoc the Hairless in charge of the ships around Rumport and Pete Girly in charge of the town itself, hoping that the division of power would prevent any infighting.
Walkthrough[]
Tawni and Pete Girly start on a small island to the north, with a small handful of bandits and pirates and three ships. This is the last scenario where the player can control Pete Girly, so don't spend too much time leveling him.
The blue enemy has a single Stronghold to the southwest, with a tenth-level General. The green enemy has an Asylum to the far south, with an eight-level Lich, and another to the northeast, with a fourth-level Thief. There is one neutral Stronghold to the southwest (just south of the blue player's Stronghold), one neutral Asylum to the north (west of the green player's northern Asylum), and two neutral Asylums to the east (northeast of the green player's southern Asylum). There is also Rumport, a neutral Asylum near the center of the map.
Tawni should get in one of the ships and immediately head south to Rumport, so that the player can capture it and start building an army as quickly as possible. The entrance to the area around the town is blocked by a quest guard that only Tawni can open. The player can open this, or approach Rumport by ship and leave the quest guard in place - it's possible to build a shipyard in Rumport, allowing the player to come and go as they wish, and as long as the quest guard remains in place, the enemy will be unable to attack by land.
Pete Girly can accompany Tawni, or explore the map. Some of the pirates or bandits should enter the third ship and start picking up flotsam, sea chests, and other water-based resource sources. Avoid the mermaids and sea monsters.
In order to make the scenario easier, the player should hasten to sail southwest and take out the blue player, then take the ferry northeast to the northern Asylum. By conquering the two enemy towns and taking control of the neutral town near each of them, Tawni will have control over five of the eight towns on the map.
Tawni should now build up an army, march south, and take out the green player's forces, eliminating them from the map. The two last Asylums can also be captured. Northeast of the green Asylum, there's a red keymaster's tent, guarded by black dragons, behind a quest gate that only Tawni can pass through. After visiting the tent, go to the northeast (just south of the green player's northern Asylum) and free Cyrca from the prison. Cyrca is a 15th-level Fireguard who will carry over to the next scenario, so the player should make sure to level her up as much as possible.
While progressing to the final goal, Pete starts questioning Tawni about having some of her captains killed. Tawni realizes he is actually questioning her leadership, and gives him a slap to the face. While Pete is left bewildered, Tawni starts thinking how he wants to take over everything she has claimed, and suspects she'll have to kill him eventually.
The player should send some armies out in ships to kill all the red mermaid stacks in the ocean. With Cyrca and Tawni, go through the quest guard near the blue Stronghold, defeat the thunderbirds, and visit the blue keymaster's tent. The player can now go through the border guard chain south of Rumport to eliminate the last red mermaid stack, completing the objective. Send Tawni to the nearby small island with a red two-way portal. Go through the portal, visit the gold oracle, and dig up the grail. Bring it back to Rumport to win the scenario.
Driden talks to Tawni's crew members how they have established a significant portion of control over the Gold Sea, and any incoming ships would have to pay a large fee to cross the sea. In order to claim the rest of the sea, Tawni has Pete organize the defenses while she goes with the rest to defeat the mermaids.
Towns[]
- Six Asylums; Rumport
- Two Strongholds
Strategy[]
To the southwest (near the blue Stronghold), there is a quest guard that Tawni can pass through if she brought the Steadfast Shield from the first scenario. There, she can pick up the Giant slayer sword, which will carry over to the next scenario.
In addition to the gold oracle (which must be visited to win the scenario), there are three other oracles on the map, all of which are located underground and lead to nearby resources:
- The entrance to the blue oracle is between the two neutral Asylums in the east.
- The entrance to the white oracle is south of the northern neutral Asylum.
- The green oracle is located in the large underground cavern with three entrances (one near Rumport, one near the Blue Stronghold, and one near the southern green Asylum).
