Banquet for Fools - Early Access on September 30

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The devs of Serpent in the Staglands release a new game into Early Access on September 30; it's called Banquet for Fools:

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Banquet for Fools

Story

The deities have shunned the Vollings, and they have turned to paganism to survive. But Vollings are resilient and ever industrious. One lord has embarked on an enterprise to settle an island long abandoned by its dead civilization, braving a cursed land in hopes of farming a lucrative spice grown only on its hillsides.

His venture is a success, but trouble quickly presses fast upon him from many sides. As he is leaving to sail out to defend his fields from a jealous neighbor, he has received word that every inhabitant of one of his farm holds has vanished without a trace. With few options at hand, he calls on his guards for four volunteers to venture across the island to investigate this mystery.

Party-based adventure

Explore the island of Invimona in this open-world adventure with four generated companions. Depending on the stats given to them they'll each have unique choices in dialogue with NPCs and amongst each other as they bond over the course of the journey. You're assigned a pack-boro for your mission, who can carry a boat as well as extra items you pick up along the way, and together you all can hike and portage around the Invimona rivers and sea.

Visit towns for clues and to stock your party with unique items. As a guard you will be asked for assistance as you meet various farmers, scribes, artisans and even Gadaars among the holds. In the five years since the island was settled, grave robbers have flocked to Invimona like vultures, and ensuring they find their way to Exile Island is a constant battle.

There is no auto-compass or quest logs for you in Banquet for Fools, though many quests and requests are given to you in scrolls. Navigating the island effectively is a part of the challenge of quests.

Skills
Equip your four companions you've created with a variety of skills to overcome the challenges your adventure will take you through. Choose favored weapons, armor, pagan spells, animal binding, music and rogue abilities and level them up with experience or with buying training from individuals you meet around the island. Skills used most are granted bonuses to get more powerful with level ups.

Character Advancement how you want
When a character accrues enough XP they can choose to level up their skills and a stat point. You have 3 points to distribute into any of the skills you wish to pursue, and skills you've used frequently during the interim of the last level up are granted bonus points if you advance them.

Intercessions
Though the Volling have entered a pagan age, their ancient deities still listen through their likeness in stone, and perhaps if they find the speakers worthy, speak back...

Asking for intercessions from these beings grants Vollings the ability to make custom holy items uniquely tailored to those favored, but these boons come with a required donation and completion of a quest to deem yourself worthy. These beings are petty gods, and competitive, so choose your statues wisely. Find ancient and newly erected statues around the island with various powers to bestow, and bless new intercessions with even more powerful versions as you advance.

Songs
Configure your musical setlist during combat by buying songs with situational auto-procing and potency levels. Songs can proc at the start of a battle, after an enemy is fallen, when companions are low on health, and a myriad of options between! You can memorize a limited amount of songs at once with different power levels, so choose which songs are heaviest and when they'll occur to compliment your playstyle and party composition.

Pagan Spells
Learn unique spell effects from different Vol trees, then make a custom spell of your choosing by taking its birch and etch your rune in blood to communicate this tether with the world. Create more powerful variants as you grow in power during the course of your travels. There are three Pagan skills: Fauna, Vines, and Spores, each with different specialties and application to the world.

Rogue
A wily party knows when to keep the law they're employed to uphold, when to bend it, and when breaking it is the best course of action. Items can be stolen from shops, but at the cost of not being able to be purchased again, and getting caught is always a risk. Guards and merchants follow patrols and sleep schedules, so keeping tabs on your surroundings and waiting for the changing of the guard is a ripe opportunity.

Committing crimes will accrue a price on your head, and the Vollings of the villages will treat you accordingly. You can always pay off a local bounty by yelling bribe.

Field Kit
Running out of arrows mid-dungeon? Stuck on an island with Padurii children hiding in every tree and low on explosive elyxirs? Having a field kit in your inventory allows a party to re-supply while away from shops during hikes across the island. The field kit allows you to assemble ammunition for three types of categories: arrows, darts, and elyxirs.

Arrows come from finding wood pieces and various types of arrow heads from wildlife, poisonous darts are crafted from noxious and volatile foliage in crevices, and you can convert amphoras of alcohol from healing items into explosive elyxirs with various added effects.

Guard Duties

The Pavura requests that instead of being executed, criminals be shipped off to a husk of a rock just north of his garrison which the locals call Exile Island. The local ghost population is haunting enough, and the ethereal grave keepers of the Carrion god would want nothing more than to add to this assembly.

You can choose on the fly if your party is attacking to kill or stun, the consequence of which is yours to decide. Killing hostile combatants is less risky, but they could be resurrected into ghosts if a keeper is near. Stunning will knock out your enemy for 24 hours, and if that enemy is a bandit or grave robber, you can report them for coins in your purse, though Exile Island will get more populated with each turn-in. Stunned criminals will only stay stunned for so long, and you'll need to reach a local fort or village to tell another guard to send a wagon and pick up your purse.

The list of criminal acts is something worth keeping in mind before exacting justice, and your characters need to bear witness, otherwise unless your characters have proof of the crime they'll be the ones committing it when assaulting.

Farmsteads and holdings from various other Houses from Minorev have settled the island under the Pavura's governance, and will have various problems that they wish someone would help them deal with. As a guard you'll find quests and duties within to attend to. Your relationship with towns is unique to each, and if the reeve commends you it could come with fine rewards.

Combat
Banquet for Fools features pausable real-time combat. When your action bar fills, you can pause the game by opening your combat dome, and choose an action and/or target within the dome. Play as one companion at a time, but switch between them at will. The others will press on with whatever tactics you've given to them in your formation menu.

If enemy combatants are too heavily defended, use a critical attack to weaken that enemy for follow up attacks for your companions, or add your attack rolls together when you unlock Rally attacks during combat to strike simultaneously!

About
This game is being created by two people. We've released Isle of Bxnes, Serpent in the Staglands (which is set in the same world as Banquet for Fools) and under a publisher, Mechajammer.