Ekarna Four Trader

Ekarna Four Trader is a Ritual in which a hero attempts to enter the Godplane and to assume the role of Ekarna to reenact the myth of Ekarna's Four Trades, which tells the tale of Ekarna and the benefits of trade among many different peoples.

Benefits

Failure in a section may prevent a certain reward from showing. The benefits you can potentially select are:

• In exchange for 25 cows worth of goods gain 75 cows .
• In exchange for 24 cows worth of goods gain 19 horses .
• In exchange for 25 cows gain 75 cows worth of goods.
• Exchange one treasure for another.
• Aid in negotiating when Rams are involved for 7 years. (Requires successfully bargaining with Arandanth.)
• Aid in negotiating when Wheels are involved for 7 years.
• Aid in negotiating when peoples of the fringes are involved.  (Permanent.)
• Strengthening of quester's abilities (in Bargaining and Diplomacy)

Questers

The ideal quester for this heroquest has high skills in Bargaining and Diplomacy and worships Ekarna. A quester can also benefit particularly from having a quester that is skilled in Lore in this ritual. An alternate path can mostly work with very highly skilled combat ability. If the quester is female, they might get some bonuses to success with certain choices.

Walkthrough

Goose People Section

Your choice will be determined by your best skill for highest chance of success.

1. "Allaying their fears"
   Diplomacy choice vs Fear test. Aided by Diplomacy Magic.
2. "Extolling the virtues of her fox frightening bells."
   Bargaining based choice. Aided by Diplomacy Magic
3. "Describing the might of the seven sword nobles."
   Intimidation vs Confidence - Likely Combat + Diplomacy based choice aided by War Magic. Success is also affected by whether or not you recently have been victorious in raids.
4. "Showing the trade rune."
   Magic based choice vs Skepticism, Ritual Magic will aid choice.

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Arandanth and Thengist Section

This section involves you trying to get brooches of protection from Arandanth to fight Thengist . If you fail you will suffer a defeat against Thengist, but can still succeed in the ritual. It is also possible to successfully get the brooches to fight Thengist but have your victory 'tempered with fear' and end up in an unusual god's realm location that involves you either mediating or fighting for a side, or escaping a danger. Successfully getting out of an unusual realm event can get you back on to the path of the ritual. (while failure often results in loss of the hero quester)

1. "Hating Thengist gives us much in common."
   CombatLore vs Skepticism. Likely Combat + Lore choice. War magic aids choice. Success is also affected by whether or not you recently have been victorious in raids.
2. "Rams worship a god of change and trading with us would be a very big change".
   WedCultures vs Skepticism test. Likely Diplomacy + Lore choice. Diplomacy magic aids choice.
3. "Until you've been drunk on kumis, you haven't been drunk"
   Bargaining based choice vs Customer. Diplomacy magic aids choice.
4. "You will not want to cross the archers who bested Thengist."
   Intimidation vs Confidence - Likely Combat + Diplomacy based choice aided by War Magic. Success is affected by number of Ram clans that Fear or Mock you. Successfully Describing the might of seven swords against the goose people grants a bonus to success.

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Ghost City Section

Your choice will be influenced on whether you defeated Thengist in the previous section. It's hard to pass a test claiming you beat Thengist when you didn't in the story while other Lore based choices you can pick are recommended instead.

All choices are aided by Ritual Magic.

1. "Brooches of protection"
   Appears to be a a bad answer and will age your character if it goes poorly enough
2. "Feathers"
   Appears to be a a bad answer and will age your character if it goes poorly enough
3. "Plaques of gold"
   Possibly only a bad choice. Mythology Based While this choice doesn't seem positive it does not hurt the quester as badly as the above 2 choices.
4. "The story of Cenala"
   Mythology vs Spirits test - Likely Magic + Lore based choice only available if you know Cenala. Seems the better Lore choice if you failed to defeat Thengist in the ritual
5. "The story of how the Riders left the Golden City."
   Mythology vs Spirits based choice - Likely Magic + Lore based, you have a better chance of succeeding with this choice if you failed to defeat Thengist than the Lore choice 6 coming up
6. "The story of how the clan bested Thengist."
   Best choice if you defeated Thengist. Mythology vs Spirits based choice - Likely Magic + Lore based

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Samnal Section

Your choice will be determined by your best skill for highest chance of success.

1. "Deal with him sincerely."
   Bargaining based choice vs Customer test. Aided by Diplomacy Magic. Canon?
2. "Sing him a song of backhanded praise"
   Singing vs Openness test probably Lore + Leadership choice. Aided by Diplomacy Magic.
3. "Have Hyalor declare himself Samnal's equal"
   Mythology vs Openness test. Likely Lore + Magic choice. Aided by Ritual Magic.
4. "Have Osara show off her archery"
   Mythology vs Openness Test. Female questers get a bonus to this choice. Likely Lore + Magic choice. Aided by Ritual Magic.