Embracing the Evil and using it for your own purpose

[Theodum]

Theodum looked up from his map. The endless march of the Bonedancers had been stopped - once again. But he contemplated another danger - what would happen if there ever was an ambitious settlement that allied themselves not with other settlements but instead with the Bonedancers, the Razmirians or some other evil scum pestering the wild.
Could this ever be done? These evil hordes where looked down upon. Emerald Lodge neighbours Xeilias and the Everbloom Alliance squabbled about the rights to fight these monsters as they called them and to be the first to get glory in defeating them.
And so far it seemed impossible to talk to the leaders of these groups directly. All Emerald Lodge diplomats send to the Bonedancers had returned via Pharasma. But this didn't mean it wasn't possible - it only meant you had to do it in a different way.
Wasn't there wisdom in knowledge. Did everyone think Theodum just collected the chants of goblins for his own ego? There was information and power hidden in these scraps of paper.
These hordes where like a flow of water - they seemed to flow from a spring towards lower lands. But hadn't mankind learned how to tame the flow of water? You could block the spring and it would stop to flow - that was what was done already. But you also could build dams to direct the flow in certain direction or to stop it to flow into direction you didn't want. You could enhance the spring and make it flow more freely.
No - Theodum looked up again. These were evil thoughts - this place in the River Kingdom corrupted. Allying yourself with Bonedancers or Skeletons Risen from the ground was clearly wrong. He only could hope nobody else would ever have the same ideas.
As clearly - embracing the Evil for your own purpose was just wrong.

[Thod]

Actually the Theodum post is not purely RP/theoretical. I observed all the possibilities while working on ways to combat the Bonedancers. That is when I noticed a few interesting 'options' with this game.
Can't be done overnight - and certain areas / settlements are much safer as others. But I noticed Canis Castrum currently sandwiched by 2 Skeletal Uprisings which would connect if you kill too many of the Bonedancers in the wrong hexes.
With the increased growth we have right now this could become awkward. And the best defence actually might be to let certain escalations grow while certain escalations need imidiate actions.

[Yrme]

Thod wrote:

Actually the Theodum post is not purely RP/theoretical. I observed all the possibilities while working on ways to combat the Bonedancers. That is when I noticed a few interesting 'options' with this game.

Can't be done overnight - and certain areas / settlements are much safer as others. But I noticed Canis Castrum currently sandwiched by 2 Skeletal Uprisings which would connect if you kill too many of the Bonedancers in the wrong hexes.
With the increased growth we have right now this could become awkward. And the best defence actually might be to let certain escalations grow while certain escalations need imidiate actions.

(OOC) While some have asked for the ability to directly aid escalations, the game already does allow more subtle manipulations as you suggest.

When an escalation source hex is killed off, its satellite hexes are normally orphaned. A special case exists when they are adjacent to other satellites of the same type, when they will be subverted and taken into the orbit of that other monster hex, reinforcing it.

So if someone wanted to aid your bonedancers - to stymie you - they could clear all of the monster hexes attached to the mass of bonedancer satellite hexes, in hopes of a new bonedancer spawn that would take over the mass. (This could be done willfully, but could also be done out of ignorance.) On the other hand, encouraging the growth of another escalation type might chip away at the bonedancers. There are certainly possibilities for the long game.

I think in the long term, more settlements will grow to appreciate the risks and possibilities of manipulating the spread of escalations. In time, I'd expect to see more settlements limiting farming escalations in their territory as a result.