Hey there! Sorry if Fox is a bit of trouble for you—he’s the sort of guy who doesn’t like to be found!

It sounds like you lost track of him after the end of chapter 1. Did you talk to him before that? If you’re on the right track, you’ll probably have encountered him at least twice before then! If all that appears to be going well, play around with some of the different choices in the second chapter—you should be able to come across him in some unusual places!

If you still find you’re having trouble after that, feel free to drop us a line at queenatarms[at]gmail.com, and we’ll be happy to share a few more hints!

No, but you can win brownie points with Lucius in those first two chapters by talking to him at the tavern (don’t play cards) and following him into the Medical Tent after Kendrick’s big speech.

The scene I was talking about is after you’ve marched out and set up for camp. At a certain point in the game you’ll get the option to “Cheer up Nick” and if you take it in the evening you’ll see a scene with Nick and the Prelate having drinks together.

Happy playing!

- D.R. Berry

Yes, there is a romantic moment with the Prelate.

As far as not getting an option to search for Nick, that’s because the option isn’t really called “Search for Nick”. I was being general since I didn’t remember what the option was called off the top of my head. I dug into the game code real quick and hunted up the exact menu.

“Check on the Prince.”
“Speak with the soldiers to raise their morale.”
“Study magic with Rubus the Archmagus.”
“Cheer up Nick.”

You want Cheer up Nick, but make sure you pick it in the evening.

- D.R. Berry

I get a lot of similar asks about Prelate Lucius, and I’ve already answered them as best I can without knowing a person’s exact play through.

http://queenatarms.tumblr.com/post/123127113517/i-seem-to-be-missing-something-on-the-prelate#notes

http://queenatarms.tumblr.com/post/123153250207/ive-followed-your-4-tips-post-and-im-still#notes

Hopefully those answers will help you!

- D.R. Berry

Lorimette is tricky. You have to make sure you see and talk to her every chance you get. It takes a bit of option exploring to find some of the places to meet her too. I’m afraid I can’t give much more advice on her that isn’t full of spoilers.

You know you “locked” Lorimette if Nick talks to you about her before Chapter 4. Be careful though, you could still end up ruining your chances with her if you pick the wrong side.

- D.R. Berry

You hold down ctrl to skip text in the game. If you open the html in the folder called README and scroll down you’ll see lots of shortcut keys the game has. (The README comes default with the renpy engine, so if you might notice things in it we don’t have in game, but all the shortcuts are the same.)

Sorry if you were confused! We sort of take for granted that anyone playing a VN would already know this stuff. Maybe in Second Ed we’ll include a quickie tutorial option on the main menu.

- D.R. Berry

Don’t worry about sending messages. We like the feedback and right now that feedback seems to indicate that we might want to put together a walkthrough after all, ha ha.

As far as I can recall at this moment Rubus doesn’t have any “hidden" options to get close to him. He likes honesty and appreciates an addition to the conversation (if you see him chatting with Lucius don’t be afraid to join in). Taking the time to learn magic with him is a really quick way to impress him as well.

Also, don’t forget that you can better your relationship with people by spending time with them before everyone marches out. Try chatting with Rubus at the tavern and hanging out with him at the ball if you haven’t done that yet.

Outside of that, take any chance you get to hang out with him. He’s pretty straight forward most of the time and there isn’t much you can say that will upset him. Just tread lightly when it comes to uncomfortable parts of his past.

- D.R. Berry

It’s hard to answer this without giving away some mild spoilers. To get it you need to side with the Queen before Chapter 4. Then just explore the different ways the trial can end. Crown of Hope is one of those endings.

- D.R. Berry

Ha ha, okay. That scene might be harder to find than I assumed it would be. Writer’s folly. Anyway, you’ll want to make sure you do that in the evening. You’ll know you did it right if they’re in there having a drink when you arrive.

- D.R. Berry

The Prelate is a tricky one because he needs more of your time to warm up to you than other characters. I wish I could be more helpful without giving away spoilers, but here are four tips I can give you and all the other players who are wanting to explore the romantic elements of the game. (Tips 1-3 will not really work with Lorimette.)

Tip 1: After you’ve marched out, you get most of your romance points with a person during down time. Hanging out with them while camping will do wonders in progressing down their romance path.

Tip 2: Chatting with them while marching will build up some points, but not nearly enough make or break a successful romance. Don’t be afraid to chat with someone who isn’t your romantic interest at that time.

Tip 3: Before Chapter 4 you should get a scene close to the end of the war where the character you’ve spent most of your time with will either come to your tent or you’ll go to theirs. That’s actually when the locking point of the romance takes place. If you didn’t get the person you wanted by then you won’t be able to win them in Chapter 4. 

Tip 4: We don’t punish save scumming in this game (it’d be an especially dick move, we felt, in a VN where you can die.) You can and should save the game on a decision screen if you’re not sure of the consequences. If you didn’t get the person you were wanting then you can always load up an old save and try different options. It’s actually not always obvious which ones will have you hanging out with the person you’re interested in. Sometimes going to talk to one person can lead to an option letting you hanging out with someone else.

An example of Tip 4 (in relation to the asker) is, at a certain point long after you’ve marched out, you get an option to look for Nick at camp. You end up finding him in the medical tent with Prelate Lucius and, after a quick scene of the two of them, you can decide to follow Nick out or stay with the Prelate and chat.

Lorimette is super tricky since you don’t get to see her too often. Try and spend time with her when you can. (Maybe there was a time you could have hung out with her and you missed it? There are a few secretish moments in there.) However, a big decision at the end of Chapter 3 can end things instantly.

Hopefully my co-writer can weigh in with some better advice. Lorimette is her baby.

- D.R. Berry

We haven’t really considered making a walkthrough. Most of the romance routes are pretty straight forward though. You mostly just need to make sure you spend a lot of time with the person you’re interested in. 

If someone wanted to make a walkthrough of the game for us we wouldn’t be opposed to that. Even if it’s a video walkthrough. d:

- D.R. Berry

Thanks for the advice. I don’t think we’ll be giving away free copies of the game for LP or review, though. We might to a reviewer that we want to review the game, but that’d be us going to them so there would be less to worry about there.

-Serenity Frost