• Understaffed (lower workforce than the requirement) applies Movement Point penalties.
• Severely understaffed (workforce below 50% of the requirement) applies severe Movement Point penalties.

Once beautiful Madrigos, a city famous for its wealth and hospitality, is now a forsaken ruin called Scorponar, dwelling of the Scortaur, a race of savage scorpion-men who hunt all other races mercilessly and uncompromisingly on and around the Plains of Bone. Only a handful of fortunate wanderers can tell the tale of seeing the city's shattered buildings and old walls at the heart of the wasteland. Those who did see it talk about bone scaffolding and fortifications, flayed bodies hanging from battlements, and banners fashioned from human skin. Scorponar is a place of horror and despair, with the old white stone of Madrigos peeking out from under the colorless sands like broken teeth or shattered bones.

'What... in Tartaris... is this horrible thing?'

- Decurion Flavius Arbo upon examining the corpse of the creature that tore apart three of his legionnaires the previous night

Little to nothing is known of the beasts now commonly referred to as 'ghouls' that appeared not long ago and now plague the Southern Jagged Waste and especially the gale-ridden expanse called the Singing Winds.

You will most likely come across the artwork you can see here when wandering into sewers below Imperial cities in Vagrus' main campaign. This might not seem a very good idea since such places are typically neglected and extremely filthy. They are also most likely infested by mutated beasts or stray undead. Yet a vagrus needs to plunge into such vile places more often than not.

'When we arrived at the observation  post, Borgan was nowhere to be seen. The craven slaves pointed to tracks in the sand that looked like someone had been dragged away, accompanied by small, triangular stab marks – Yrg prints, I presumed correctly. These led to a dark crevice at the foot of one of the towers. We tried calling after Borgan but there was no answer. Eventually, I sent down one of the slaves with a torch. The unfortunate bloke happened upon the mutilated body of Borgan down there and fled back up in a panic. Yrg are clearly present down in the underside of the city, that much is certain. This ties in perfectly with what we know of the Elven tribes of the Second Age. The accounts of Sage Ikar record that the realm of Dor Anthelas was involved in a great war against the Yrg that lasted for  millennia. What these insect broods were like, I cannot imagine, but  they must have been a far cry from the mostly docile Yrg we know today.'

'That thing hunted them. Relentlessly. Worse than any predator they had seen before, it hounded their steps through the forest called Smuggler's Cloak by the commoners. Yet no cloak proved to be enough to hide them from those horrible reptilian eyes. The creature was clever, too. It did not attack them but tracked them from a distance, waited until they were exhausted, harried, and desperate. And then it took them, one by one. The last wretched fellow gave himself up to the first patrol he stumbled across; better break rocks in prison for the rest of his life than fall prey to a Krawag.'

Well, we have just passed another major milestone in our content creation progress.

As mentioned in our post last week, with our Prologue ready from a content perspective, our writers have been already working on the Early Access stories for Vagrus.

In the Prologue we have well over one hundred thousand words worth of story and lore coming together from Events and Codex entries. Actually, even a bit more since the Narration and Tutorial texts are coming through another source and so are not included in the above numbers. Those two make up over four thousand words on top.

One of the core mechanics of the game is that time passes in-game each turn (1 turn equals 1 day) and you, as the vagrus, have to plan ahead when it comes to distances, supply consumption, and upkeep. At the end of the day you make camp to rest and make decisions concerning the above. This is where the Camp UI comes in.

Another character who plays a very important role in the Prologue, Javek is a young sorcerer who uses telepathic abilities. He is of Tarkian origin and because the Imperial province of Tark is based on early Persian and Turkish cultures from real life, Szonja designed Javek's appearance to match those in clothing and equipment.

Calm and easy-going, Javek's ability to pick up surface thoughts and glean motives can be very useful. He is also skilled at handling animals and beasts of burden. That skill is enhanced by his telepathic ability which works even better on animals. Does that remind you of someone? Hmmm. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? :)

Because you play as a leader of a caravan of sorts, a big part of Vagrus is how you manage your crew. The Crew Management UI aids you in your management tasks and displays information on your crew's stats. Crew management also includes the character sheets of the named 'Hero' characters, where you can check their stats and manage their progression. These characters can also play important roles in the crew, becoming your closest aides, called Deputies.