Magic Realm: Day 26

The Black Knight's plan for the final week in the Magic Realm included visiting the Inn, to finish off the Rogues.  Yesterday's events are forcing him to revise those plans.

The most momentous of yesterday's events was the Black Knight's discovery of the Mouldy Skeleton in the Troll's Vault.  The Mouldy Skeleton treasure is accompanied by a curse.  In the Black Knight's case, he was cursed with Disgust, making his accumulated Fame worthless.  Since the Black Knight needs his Fame to win the game, and the only location that allows the curse to be reversed is the Chapel, he must travel there.

Therefore, the Black Knight's new destination is the Chapel.  There are only 3 days left before the end of the month and the game, and it will take the better part of 3 days to reach the Chapel.

The Black Knight suffered four points of fatigue during the previous two days of combat, with the Heavy Snakes, and then the Troll and Giant.  There is no time to recover that fatigue, if he wants to have the Disgust curse removed before the game ends.

The Black Knight has recovered a significant amount of treasure during his adventures in the Magic Realm, including the Cloak Of Mist, the Gloves Of Strength, and the Lucky Charm.  He is also in possession of several other treasures.  We have two extra actions, in addition to the ones needed to travel to the Chapel, so one of those two actions will be a trade action, to sell those extra treasures to the Order.

At the start of day 26, the Black Knight records four move actions, and an extra hide action, courtesy of the Cloak Of Mist.

The prowling monster roll for day 26 is a 4, so Giants and Trolls are active.

The Black Knight uses his four move actions to move to Deep Woods clearing 4, and attempts to hide.  With a hide roll of 4, the Black Knight's hide attempt is successful.

A Giant appears at the end of the day.  I had forgotten that the Stink M chit attracts both Spiders and Giants!  Fortunately, the Black Knight is hidden at the end of the day, so he will have little difficulty finishing the Giant.

During combat round 1, the Black Knight switch weapons, activating the Axe and stowing his Morningstar.

He's doing this to demonstrate that the Black Knight can use the lowly axe to defeat the Giant (his original weapon, the Mace, is ineffective against Giants, which is why defeating the Guards and obtaining an axe or sword from their loot is so critical to the Black Knight's strategy).

As the Black Knight is still hidden, he waits until combat round 2, and then alerts the Axe.

Playing his FIGHT H4** action in conjunction with the alerted Axe, the Black Knight kills the Giant.  The Axe does medium damage, with a "sharpness star" that increases its damage against unarmoured opponents by one harm level, and the heavy fight chit increases it one more level.  Therefore, the Axe does Tremendous damage, sufficient to kill the Giant.  The Black Knight's speed 4 attack undercuts the speed 5 dodge attempt of the Giant.  And the Black Knight's speed 4 attack strikes before the speed 5 and 6 attacks of the Giant, so we kill the Giant before its' attacks have a chance to connect.

Because the FIGHT H4** action is very fatiguing, the Black Knight suffers another point of fatigue.

As a result of that combat, we add another 8 Fame and 8 Notoriety to our accumulated victory points, leaving us with 64/10 Fame (once the curse is removed), 120/60 Notoriety, and 63/30 Gold at the end of day 26.

Magic Realm: Day 25

Today is day 25 in the Magic Realm, and there are only four days remaining until the end of the game.  The Black Knight is currently unhidden in the middle of the Cliff, with a swarm of monster and treasure sites surrounding him.

I know I said earlier that, with the Black Knight's equipment and treasure, he is well-nigh invulnerable.  That is not entirely true:  if too many tremendous monsters arrive at the same time, the Black Knight could still suffer an untimely death.  The Lost Castle is a dangerous place, even for a character as well-equipped as the Black Knight now is.

Yesterday, the Black Knight recovered the Lucky Charm.  That treasure allows the Black Knight to roll one die, instead of two, for such actions as hiding and searching.  That improves his chances of hiding from 70% to 84%, and chances of obtaining the first treasure at a site from 3% to 16%.  The Lucky Charm is another game-changing treasure that you seldom find in the Magic Realm, but makes a huge difference in your chances of succeeding.

Our plan for day 25 is to hide and loot the Vault.  With the Lucky Charm in our possession, we should have a better time of recovering any treasures at the Vault.  Thereafter, we will travel to the Inn and finish off the Rogues.

For day 25, we record one hide action (using our Cloak Of Mist), and four search actions.

The prowling monster roll is a 4.  That means Trolls and Giants are prowling today.  Not a good result for the Black Knight.

The Black Knight is currently at the Vault of the Tremendous Troll, so the Tremendous Troll will arrive at the end of the day.  To complicate matters, a Giant will also arrive.  From hiding, the Black Knight can easily dispatch one of those Monsters.  The second will be more challenging.  Good thing we recorded a hide action this turn!

Our hide roll is a 6.  We fail to hide.  Okay, now we're in really deep crap.  It would be a challenge to finish off both the Troll and a Giant when we begin combat hidden.  Unhidden, the Troll or Giant will both attack in combat round 1, virtually assured of hitting the Black Knight, as the Troll gets one attack and the Giant, two, and there are only three avoiding maneuvers available to the Black Knight.

There are four treasures left at the Vault.  The Black Knight's first search roll nets us a 4.  We discover the Mouldy Skeleton.  The Mouldy Skeleton is a cursed treasure: the skeleton wears a gold helmet, silver breastplate and jade shield (which are added to the treasure pile) and when the skeleton is discovered, the discovering player rolls to see what curse his character is inflicted with.  We roll a 6, and the Black Knight is cursed with Disgust, which makes his accumulated Fame points worthless.  We need those Fame points to win the game.  We will have to travel to the Chapel before the end of the month, since that is the only location where curses can be removed.

There are now 6 treasures remaining in the Vault, since the gold helmet, silver breastplate and jade shield have been added to the Vault's treasures.  Our next search roll is a 1, and we recover the gold helmet.

The gold helmet is heavy armor, compared to normal helmets, which act as medium armor.

The Black Knight's next search roll is a 6.  Since there are only five treasures remaining, he recovers nothing.  His last search roll is a 2, and he recovers the jade shield.

We end the day, unhidden at the Vault.

As I mentioned earlier, both a tremendous Troll and a giant appear during the combat round at the end of the day.  Both monsters are deadly.  If the Troll makes a successful attack in combat round 1, he will automatically rend us apart in round 2.  In comparison, the Giant gets two attacks per round, one as he tries to stomp us underfoot, and the second as he swings his mighty club.  But because the Troll will rend us apart next round if he strikes us this round, he will be our first target.

The Troll has an attack speed of 4.  As a result, we can't use our Warhorse during combat round 1, since the Warhorses fastest move speed is 5, and the Troll will automatically hit us unless our move speed is 4 or less.  Therefore, we must use our MOVE H4**.  That means we must play a slower attack.

At the end of combat round 1, we get extremely lucky and kill the Troll.  The Troll lines up with our maneuver, and therefore should have grabbed us, but, as you may remember, during combat round 1, weapon length determines who strikes first.  The Troll, with his claws (weapon length of 0) hits after the Black Knight, with his Morningstar (weapon length of 6). 

The Giant misses us during combat round 1, as his attacks do not line up with our move, and his attack speeds are slower than our move speed.  



During combat round 2, we use our H4** chit to alert our Morningstar.  We can use our Warhorse to maneuver, as the Giant's attack speed, and the Warhorse's maneuver speed are both 5.  The Giant will be unable to undercut our move.

With an attack speed of 3, the Black Knight undercuts the Giant's move speed of 5, killing the Giant.

We got very lucky with those two rounds of combat.  We could have just as easily been hit by the Giant during round 1, destroying our Armor and resulting in our death in round 2.

As a result of those two rounds of combat, the Black Knight suffers another two points of fatigue.  As a result of the Monster kills, the Black Knight collects another 24 Fame and 24 Notoriety (8 for the Troll, and 2x8 for the Giant).  The curse that we suffered makes our Fame worthless, but once that curse is lifted, we will have 56/10 Fame, 112/60 Notoriety and 63/30 Gold.

Magic Realm: Day 24

We're on the home-stretch, folks.  It's day 24 in the Magic Realm, and the Black Knight has five more days before the end of the game.  The Black Knight has satisfied all of his victory conditions, as he has 20/10 fame, 76/60 notoriety and 63/30 gold.  Any additional treasure, fame, notoriety or gold will simply go to improving his final score.

In the past couple of days, the Black Knight has recovered the Gloves of Strength from the Dragon's Lair, a treasure that, in conjunction with his recently purchased Morningstar and Warhorse, makes him all but invincible.  The only monsters that pose a serious threat to him are the Octopus and the Winged Demon.

The Black Knight is currently hiding in the Deep Woods.  His plan is to visit the Cliffs, to the Northwest, and then backtrack to the Inn, where the Rogues are waiting to be routed.  If there is time after eliminating the Rogues at the Inn, the Black Knight will continue North, to the Ledges, to uncover any monsters or treasures there.

Here's the Black Knights list of actions for day 24.  He will use one action to hide (courtesy of the Cloak Of Mist), two actions to move to clearing 3 of the Cliffs, and then will search twice.  He will search in clearing 3, because there is a secret passage between clearings 3 and 6, so he will be looking for both that passage and any treasure locations.  We will not stop in clearing 2, as the only potential treasure location to be found there is the Statue, with only 2 treasures, which is a poor treasure location indeed.

The prowling monster roll for day 24 is a 2: snakes and demons. 

The winged demon is one of the few foes that is still a threat to us.  Hopefully the Black Knight's hide action is successful, or we don't encounter the demons. 

During the Black Knight's hide action, a 1 and 5 are rolled, so his hide is successful.  He moves twice to clearing 3 and performs two search actions. 

His first search roll results in double ones, and finds the Vault of the Troll.

In addition to discovering the Vault, the Black Knight also discovers clues as to the other monsters and treasure locations in the Cliff.  The Cliff is the site of the Lost Castle.  In Magic Realm, there are two sites that contain an abundance of monsters and treasure: one is the Lost Castle, found in one of the mountain tiles, and the other is the Lost City, found in the cave tiles.

Based on the clues above, we are able to tell that the Lost Castle is overrun with bats, dragons, snakes, and giants, along with the Vault of the Troll, the Pool of the Octopus, and the Statue guarded by a mischievous Imp.  Since our prowling monster roll was snakes, we can expect snakes to arrive and battle us at the end of the day.  As you can appreciate, the Lost Castle and Lost City are both dangerous and rewarding locations.  The Pool is in clearing 6, and the Octopus does not appear unless the prowling monster roll is a 3, so we are safe from his attack for the moment.

The Vault of the Troll is impossible to open, unless your character has tremendous strength.

Fortunately, our Gloves of Strength give us tremendous strength and thereby permit us to open and loot the Vault.  Our second search, for treasure in the Vault nets us a roll of 1 and 3, and we recover the Lucky Charm.

The Lucky Charm is another absolutely fantastic treasure.  Normally, we must roll two dice when performing an action, using the higher of the two rolls.  The Lucky Charm permits us to roll only one die instead of two, vastly improving our chances of performing various actions.

At the end of the day, all of the monster and treasure locations in the Cliffs are revealed.  As you can see, we are surrounded by monster and treasure locations.  Two Heavy Snakes also appear to battle us.

Heavy Snakes are a tough opponent.  Their attack speed is a four, on their less dangerous side, which is fast enough, but their move speed is three, even faster.  Since the Black Knight's fastest attack is speed 3, he cannot undercut the move 3 of the Heavy Snake. 

Under normal circumstances, the Black Knight should absolutely avoid the snakes if possible.  However, his Warhorse is invulnerable to the attacks of the Heavy Snakes, since monsters need to deal tremendous damage to kill the Warhorse, so the Black Knight will be able to defeat the snakes, although it will take him several rounds to do so.

During combat round 1, the Black Knight alerts his Morningstar and attacks the Snakes from hiding.  He misses the snake, and the snake does not attack him since it was surprised.

During combat round 2, the Black Knight targets one of the snakes, but it slithers out of range before he can strike it, while the second snake lines up with the Black Knight's move, flipping over to its more deadly H5 attack.  The second snake's fangs connect, but fail to penetrate the armor of the Black Knight's Warhorse, so the Warhorse is unharmed.  The Black Knight used a fatiguing attack during round 2, so he suffers a single point of fatigue.

During combat round 3, the Black Knight targets the second, slower and deadlier snake.  He connects with the snake, as the Black Knight's attack speed of 3 is faster than the snakes move speed of 4.  The first snake's attack misses.

Since we killed one of the two snakes during combat round 3, our Morningstar becomes unalerted and is flipped over to its slower, speed 6 side.  During round 4, we target the first snake, which has flipped over to its heavy attack side.  The Black Knight misses the snake, and the snake misses the Black Knight.

Finally, during combat round 5, the Black Knight finishes off the other snake.  The snake flips to his faster attack, so the Black can't undercut him, but the Black Knight's attack lines up with the snake's move, so the Black Knight finishes him off.  The Black Knight once again used a fatiguing attack, so suffers another point of fatigue.

After five rounds of combat, the Black Knight (astride his Warhorse) finishes off the two Heavy Snakes, collecting 12 fame and 12 notoriety in the process (4 for the first snake, and 2x4 for the second snake).

He now has 32/10 Fame, 88/60 Notoriety and 63/30 Gold.



Magic Realm: Day 23

There are six days remaining before the end of the month, and the game.  The Black Knight has uncovered four of the seven treasures in the Dragon's Lair, including the Enchanted Meadow.  There are three remaining treasures in the Lair, too few to spend any more time looting there.  Therefore the Black Knight needs to travel elsewhere to seek additional treasure and opponents.

The Black Knight has seven options.  He could travel to the Ruins.  That location is immediate, but is somewhat distant from the Inn, where the Rogues are waiting to be routed.  The Cliff is closer to the Inn, and also gives him access to the tunnels under the High Pass.  The Ledges are just beyond the Inn, and could be the Black Knight's destination after he eliminates the Rogues.  The Borderland has yet to be explored, but visiting there may preclude a visit to the Inn.  And the Chapel is distant  as well, although the Black Knight could take out the Order and the visiting Lancers while he is there.

Given the options before him, the Black Knight decides to visit the Cliff, then the Inn, and if he has time, travel beyond, to the Ledges.

We record a hide action, and four move actions for day 23.

At the start of the day, we make our prowling monster roll, obtaining a 2.  That means that snakes and demons are prowling today.  Only Dragons and spiders reside in the Deep Woods, so we are safe today.

With rolls of double ones, the Black Knight's hide attempt is successful.  He moves four times, ending the day just at the border with the Cliff and the Evil Valley.  No monsters appear, and the Black Knight ends the day.

Magic Realm: Day 22

The Black Knight begins his final week in the Magic Realm having already met all of his victory conditions.  He has 20/10 fame, 76/60 notoriety, and 63/30 gold.  During his final week, the Black Knight's goal is to collect as much additional fame, notoriety, gold and treasure as possible.  He wants to avoid the Octopus and the Winged Demon, the only two Monsters that pose a threat to him.

Yesterday, day 21, the Black Knight recovered the Gloves of Strength from the Dragon's Lair, a treasure that permits him to deal tremendous damage with the Morningstar he purchased from the Order. 

Yesterday, with the Gloves and Morningstar, he killed the Tremendous Dragon making the Lair it's home.  He has now recovered three of the seven treasures there.

The Black Knight will spend one more day looting the Lair, which still contains four treasures.  After that, he will seek out some additional opponents and treasure sites.

For day 22, we record a hide action and four search actions.

Today's prowling monster roll is a 1, which means Dragons are on the move.  The Dragon that appears in the Deep Woods has already been dispatched, so no other Dragons will appear today.

For his first action, the Black Knight attempts to hide, rolling a 2 and 5.  His hide action is successful.

The Black Knight attempts to loot the Dragon's Lair.  His first loot roll is a 5 and 6: with only four treasures remaining, he collects nothing.  His second loot roll is a 2 and 6, so he collects nothing. 

The third loot roll is double ones.  The Black Knight locates the Enchanted Meadow! 

The Enchanted Meadow is the site of a magical pony, and the Truesteel sword (the best weapon in the game). 

The are both very difficult to obtain:  since we must roll two dice, taking the higher of the two, during each search action, there's a 3% chance of recovering the pony, and an 8% chance of obtaining the Truesteel sword.  In comparison, there is a 30% chance we will obtain nothing, and 25% chance of being cursed.

Since we have located the Enchanted Meadow, we can either use our last search to keep looting the Dragon's Lair, or we can try looting the Enchanted Meadow.  Considering our chances of getting cursed (25%), versus obtaining either the pony or Truesteel Sword (11%), we will make one more search attempt at the Dragon's Lair.

Our last search roll results in 4 and 5.  Again, since there are now only 3 treasures left, we obtain nothing.

No Monsters appear at the end of the day.

Magic Realm: Day 21

The Black Knight spent Day 20 searching for the Dragon's Lair, finally discovering it late afternoon.  With the light fading, he resolves to begin looting the Lair on Day 21.

As Day 21 is the end of a week, another kind of magic permeates the Realm today.  This time, purple magic is available to spell casters.  That magical power is, of course, useless to the Black Knight, but it can be handy for folks like the Sorcerer, Magician and Wizard.

The Black Knight ended day 20 unhidden, so the brown side of his character token is face-up at the start of day 21.  We will record our free hide, followed by four search actions, so we can begin looting the Dragon's Lair.

We roll for prowling monsters and obtain a 1:  Dragons.  That is bad.  I had hoped we'd have at least a couple of days to loot the Lair unmolested, but the Tremendous Dragon will appear at the end of today.

We attempt to hide, rolling a pair of threes.  Our hide is successful.  That's good, at least we will not be running away from the Dragon at the end of the day.

Our first loot roll is a 1 and 4 which nets us ... the Gloves of Strength!

We could not ask for a better result that this.  With the Gloves of Strength, we can use the Morningstar purchased from the Order to dispatch the Tremendous Dragon.  This is an absolutely fantastic find.  Between the warhorse, our Armor, the Gloves of Strength and the Morningstar, we can now dispatch all Monsters but the Winged Demon and Octopus with relative ease.

The Black Knight immediately dons the Gloves Of Strength, and switches weapons to the Morningstar.

Our second loot roll results in 2 and 6, and we recover the Penetrating Grease.

The Penetrating Grease is a handy treasure, as it allows you to bypass armor when it is applied to your edged weapon.  It will not be useful in conjunction with the Morningstar, since that is not an edged weapon, but we might keep this treasure nevertheless.

Our third loot roll is, again, a 2 and 6.  As there are only five treasures left in the Lair, we get nothing.

Our last loot roll is a pair of fives, and we uncover the Dragonfang Necklace.

The Dragonfang Necklace allows the owner to control one Dragon.  I've never seen this item used in a Magic Realm game, but a Player using a character with access to purple magic might find it handy.  Ironically, since today is day 21, and purple magic is available throughout the Magic Realm, this item is "awakened".  It will be interesting to see if, during the combat encounter step, the combat engine allows me to cast the spell control dragons.  I can sell this treasure to the Lancers, and obtain 12 fame in addition to the gold price.

The combat encounter steps finds the Black Knight hidden, and facing off against the Tremendous Dragon who, prior to today, was invulnerable.  But now, with the Gloves of Strength and the Morningstar, the tables have turned and it the Black Knight who has the upper hand.

Having looked at our options during combat, casting control dragons is unavailable.  I presume that is the case since the Black Knight has no spell chits to play, in order to cast a spell.

The first thing the Black Knight does, while hidden, is alert the Morningstar.  You may recall that in the past, he has alerted his mace using his FIGHT M5 chit.  He will do something similar with the Morningstar.  The difference is that while the mace is a medium weapon, the Morningstar is a heavy one.  He can only play FIGHT chits that are the same weight, or greater, than the weapon being wielded. 

Therefore, rather than using his FIGHT M5 chit, he must use or FIGHT H6 to alert his morningstar.  We don't want to use the Gloves of Strength to alert the Morningstar, as that will make the Gloves unavailable during our attack.  The Black Knight needs those Gloves during combat, to deal the fatal blow.

During combat, we play the now alerted Morningstar with our Gloves of Strength.

As a result, we kill the Tremendous Dragon.  As we played the Gloves of Strength, they increase our Morningstar's damage from heavy to tremendous, which we need to inflict in order to kill the Dragon.  And the Morningstar's alerted speed of 3 is faster than the Dragon's move speed of 6, so we undercut the Dragon's attempt to dodge our attack.

We end the day with an additional 10 fame and 10 notoriety, for dispatching the Tremendous Dragon.  Therefore, we now have 20/10 fame, 76/60 notoriety, and 63/30 gold towards our victory conditions.

Magic Realm: Day 20

The Black Knight ended day 19 in the Deep Woods, at the reputed site of the Dragon's Lair.  On day 20, the Black Knight's plan is to search for the Dragon's Lair, and if successfully found, loot it until the Tremendous Dragon arrives and chases him away.

At the start of day 20, the Black Knight is hidden, as indicated by the green side of his character counter.  As there are no Dragons or Spiders about, we record four search actions and an extra hide action, provided by our Cloak Of Mist.

The prowling monster roll for day 20 is another 3:  Goblins and the Octopus.  Since neither inhabit the Deep Woods, that means we are safe from attack for at least one more day.

Our first search roll nets us two fives, so we find nothing.  Our second search roll is a 2 and 5, so we still find nothing.  Our third roll, a 4 and 5, so nothing again.  Our last search roll ... success!  We roll a 1 and 4, which means we locate the site of the Dragon's Lair.

There are seven treasures in the Dragon's Lair, three large and four small.  If we are lucky, we should be able to loot three or four of those seven treasures with relative ease, over the next day or two.  The last three treasures are difficult to obtain, not only because the probability of rolling a 1, 2 or 3 is low, but also because the treasures are guarded by a Monster we can't defeat, and so must spend extra actions dodging and hiding from.

Our final action, hiding, fails, as we roll a 3 and 6.  Thus , we end the day unhidden.  Not fatal, as no Monsters arrive to battle us.  We will spend tomorrow looting the treasures from the Dragon's Lair.

Magic Realm: Day 19

The Black Knight spent day 18 in the Magic Realm, haggling with the Order over the prices of a warhorse and Morningstar, which cost him 26 and 20 gold, respectively (when you factor in the cost of buying the related rounds of drinks).

In addition to 63 gold, the Black Knight has the following items.

He has his mace readied, is wearing heavy armor and the Cloak of Mist, and is riding his warhorse.

His additional equipment includes an axe, the Gripping Dust, a helmet, a broadsword, and a Morningstar.

He is still at the Chapel, with the Order.  The Black Knight could wait at the Chapel, for the Lancers to arrive, as they are another hated foe to dispatch.

Or, he could head back to the Inn, as the warhorse gives the Black Knight an excellent chance of defeating the resident Rogues.

I think the better choice is to travel to the Deep Woods, and try to locate, and loot, the Dragon's Lair.  You may recall that we travelled past the location of the Dragon's Lair on the way to visit the Guardhouse.  The Dragon's Lair has seven treasures (three large and four small), and it would be nice to pick up at least 3 or 4 of those.

With his current equipment, the Black Knight cannot defeat the Tremendous Dragon making the Lair its home, but the Black Knight is sufficiently fleet of foot that he can run away from it, should the Dragon awaken.  He is able to do so because the Dragon's move speed is 6, while the Black Knight has a faster move speed of 4.

At the start of day 19, we record the Black Knight's actions: four moves and an extra hide, courtesy of the Cloak Of Mist.  He is taking a bit of a risk here, as the Black Knight will end the day in the Deep Woods, with only one hide attempt.  With one attempt, there is a 70% chance of hiding.  However, as mentioned, he can easily run away from the Tremendous Dragon if it appears.  The only downside is that the Black Knight would need to expend extra hide and move actions, tomorrow, to arrive again at the location of the Lair, if he is unhidden at the end of day 19.

Our roll for prowling monsters results in a 3:  Goblins and the Octopus.  We already know that the Deep Woods is the home to the Tremendous Dragon and Spiders, so the Black Knight should be safe from attack today.

The Black Knight rides his warhorse to the Dragon's Lair and attempts to hide.  With a roll of 1 and 2, his hide is successful.  As no monsters appear, as expected, the Black Knight ends his day, hidden in the clearing.  Tomorrow, he will attempt to locate the Dragon's Lair, and start looting its contents.

Magic Realm: Day 18

The Black Knight spent the last couple of days in the Magic Realm travelling to the Chapel, the home of the Order. 

The plan for day 18 is to trade the Sacred Statue to the Order, to fulfil our fame victory conditions, and buy a warhorse and morningstar.  The warhorse will provide the Black Knight with extra protection, as opponents must kill the horse before they can wound or kill the Black Knight.  The morningstar is a fast, heavy weapon, that, in conjunction with the Gloves or Girdle Of Strength, allows the Black Knight to take on the most dangerous Monsters in the Magic Realm.  There's no guarantee he will find either treasure, but if the Black Knight does, he may as well have the right equipment available.

During day 18, we record four trade actions, and one hide action.

The prowling monster roll for day 18 is a 3:  Goblins and the Octopus.  The Goblins are dangerous, and the Octopus, more so.  Fortunately, we are safe in the Valley as no monsters prowl here.

During our first trade action, we buy the Order drinks.  Buying drinks costs 1 gold per Denizen in the group, and temporarily improves your relationship with the group by one level.  The relationships are Enemy, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly and Ally.  Depending on the Denizens, this may be worthwhile.  In this case, we are neutral with the Order, so buying them drinks costs 4 gold, and increases our relationship from neutral to friendly.  During the trade action, we ask the Order to sell us their best warhorse, worth 22 gold -- a massive, armored beast able to carry tremendous items and move at a galloping speed of 5.

We roll a 1 on the meeting table.  A roll of 1 on the friendly table improves our temporary relationship with the Order, from friendly to ally.  On the ally table, we roll a 2, and as a result, the Order agrees to sell us the warhorse for its price x 1, or 22 gold.  This is an fantastic result, as the only better result is a 1, where the Order gives us the warhorse for free. 

Rather than giving the Order 22 gold, we give the Order one gold, and make up the difference by giving them an axe, shield and the Sacred Statue, worth a total of 21 gold, thus buying the warhorse and at the same time collecting the 10 fame points for the Sacred Statue.

With that trade, we have collected 10/10 fame (the boon for the Sacred Statue), 66/60 notoriety, and own 77/30 gold (we had 82 gold, but used 4 gold to buy drinks, and provided 1 gold as part of the bargain for the warhorse). 

We have met all of our victory conditions.  Any additional points and gold from here on in go to bragging rights, as every player who meets their victory conditions wins the game, but the one who exceeds their victory conditions by the greatest value is first amongst equals.

We still have 3 trade actions and a hide action.  During the next trade action, we buy drinks for the Order, for 4 gold, and offer to buy the morningstar, worth 8 gold. 

The die result on the friendly meeting table is 6: no deal.  We try again, again buying drinks for 4 gold.  This time we roll a 1, bumping the Black Knight's temporary relationship up to ally, but the subsequent roll is a 6: price x 4, or 32 gold.   Too expensive.  On our final attempt, we buy drinks once more, and roll successive 1's: the Order offers to give the morningstar to the Black Knight for free.  Instead, we pay 2 gold and make up the difference trading a mace worth 6 gold.

As a result of all that drink buying and bargaining, we have reduced our gold to 63/30.  Still an adequate amount, and we now have a warhorse and morningstar.

Our final hide action fails, as we roll a 3 and 6.

During the combat encounter step at the end of the day, we roll a 3 on the meeting table.  The Order does not take offence the presence of the Black Knight at the Chapel, and the day ends.