"Solve the mystery of the missing Children and establish the first contacts with the Orient."
The Lost Children is the fourth Chapter in the Campaign. It introduces the player to a new region with southern islands for the player to explore and learn the basics of the Orient. During the Chapter we are introduced to Karim, as well as two new Leaders and Ambassadors; Grand vizier Al Zahir, ambassador of the Orient, and Hassan ben Sahid, leader of the Corsairs. The Chapter ends with a short introduction to the first Patrician Buildings and some simple Naval combat.
Introduction[]
- "The Seamen scramble around the rigging and the Sailors haul the Provisions aboard. The sails of the ramshackle rustbuckets with their cargoes of children had not long disappeared over the horizon. Lord Northburgh harboured a terrible suspicion. He drove everyone into action, exhorting them to move with the utmost haste. Until finally a small Fleet was able to set off in pursuit. An adventure began, the outcome of which no one could have ever imagined at the time."
Barely has Lord Richard Northburgh spotted the Coffin ships sailing through the storm with the children aboard when Corsair ships suddenly appear. Hassan ben Sahid, the leader of the Corsairs, goes alongside the Ship and takes command of the coffin Ships. Lord Richard Northburgh is horrified to realise that your Ships are damaged and you can't help the children! He navigates you through the Storm to one of his Islands where you can wait until the Storm dies down.
Missing children 
[]
- Objective: Find all the missing children.
Lord Northburgh cannot stop thinking about the fate of the children. The injustice they have suffered must be put right. You should do utmost to rescue the children.
Our starting materials are divided between our Island and our Flagship. We'll start by Unloading the Goods from our Flagship to our Warehouse. The Chapter starts off with a Quest to build a Repair crane. As we do not have enough Inhabitants to unlock the Repair crane yet, however, this Quest can't be completed until later in the Chapter. The Quest has been placed in the guide such that it comes at a more natural time to reach the Population threshold. The Chapter also contains a Quest to build a Tools production chain, which starts once the Player's Tools storage drops below 
10t Tools. When playing with Hard starting conditions, this will trigger as soon as the Chapter starts, but on lower difficulties it might be much later in the Chapter. Again, we have placed it in the guide such that it makes the most sense.
Out of the frying pan into the fire []
- Objective: Contact the Monastery in Guelphdon.
Use a Market building and a Road connection to bring the Mountain monastery within the Influence area of your Settlement.
Perhaps the Monks know where the children might be. But the heavy Storm has washed the Road away...
We should place the Market building such that we can easily reach the Stone deposit next to the Monastery's gate.
A first clue []
- Objective: Look for the missing children at the Reef Northeast of Guelphdon.
Anxious about the welfare of the children, Brother Hilarius has followed you and has only just managed to reach the Monastery on the Island of Guelphdon. But he now actually has received a first clue regarding some of the missing children.
Shipwreck []
- Objective: Rescue the shipwrecked children from the Reef to the Northeast of Guelphdon.
Tools, wreckage, children.
One of the coffin Ships has run aground on the rocks to the North of your Island. The surviving children are floating in the Sea near there.
Hurry to save them before the children become too weak!
- Reward: 12t Tools (retrieved as Flotsam)
Soaking wet children []
- Objective: Take the rescued children to the Mountain monastery.
Anxious about the children's well-being, Brother Hilarius insists on attending to the welfare of the rescued children personally.
You should therefore make sure that the Mountain monastery is accessible by Road.
- Reward: 20 Honour
Tattered clothes []
- Objective: Make the following available in a Trade building for Brother Hilarius: 4t Linen garments
You may have to block your People's access to Linen garments to accumulate enough Linen garments in the Goods storage.
Those poor children you rescued are wearing nothing but some filthy rags and are in urgent need of some new Clothing.
Linen garments production.
Our Island is not producing Linen garments yet when we arrive, so we'll have to set it up ourselves. We will also build 5 additional Peasant houses to reach 
240 Citizens. Once the required amount of Linen garments becomes available in your Warehouse, Brother Hilarius will automatically request them from you.
- Reward: 10 Honour
A request for help []
- Objective: Collect the gift for the Grand vizier from Lord Northburgh's Ship.
Lord Northburgh has brought a present for Al Zahir, to request the Oriental Grand vizier for help in searching for the missing children.
- Reward: 1 Splendid gift for a guest
A diplomatic mission []
- Objective: Find Grand Vizier Al Zahir's Island in the South of the region and deliver Lord Northburgh's present to him.
As the borders of the Sultan's kingdom are not far, Lord Northburgh suggests approaching the Sultan's Grand vizier for help. He is currently supposed to be staying close to an Island far to the South of the region.
Find Grand Vizier Al Zahir and entreat him for his help.
Calamity on the high Sea []
- Objective: Help Al Zahir's damaged Ship by supplying the following Goods: 3t Ropes.
Ropes production.
One of Al Zahir's Ships was badly damaged when it was rescuing some of the children from the storm. It is now adrift at sea and is not fit for use.
However, Al Zahir would like to entrust its passengers to your care as thanks for repair materials.
The Ropeyard is unlocked upon reaching 240 Citizens. Once it is unlocked, we'll create a Ropes Production chain. With our Ropes production set up, it won't be long before we can deliver the requested repair materials to Al Zahir's ship.
- Reward: 15 Honour
After delivering the Splendid gift to the Grand Vizier, he will start sending out his Trading fleet. We can set Goods from our Islands for Sale in the Trading place of our Warehouse. Every time a Ship from the Trading fleet docks at our Warehouse, it will buy a certain amount of Goods from us. These Goods will sell for 2.5x the amount we'd get from actively selling them at other Warehouses, which makes Passive trade a very important way of gaining wealth. The Ropes we're producing offer a great source of Export, so let's offer them for Sale in our Warehouse. This will ensure some additional income for the later stages of the Chapter.
Tools production []
- Objective: Build a Tool production plant in Guelphdon.
Tools production.
Look for an Ore deposit and build all the required Manufactories.
Until then, however, you can also acquire Tools from the Friars at the Mountain monastery or from the Caravanserai.
When playing with Hard start conditions, we will have exactly 0t Tools left at this point. Luckily, we've also unlocked all the necessary Buildings to set up our own Tools production. Remember that you can toggle through Natural resource locations by clicking on the 
icon in the expanded Fertility bar to find the Ore deposits. The Tools Production chain shows us the required Building materials. To start, we will top off our Wood and Tools storage to 40 tons each by buying from Hilarius.
Cost:  2750 •  41 • 19 •  10
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Maintenance:  110 + 4
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Tools |
= | 2x Toolmaker's workshop |
+ |  Iron smelter |
+ |  Ore mine |
+ |  Charcoal burner's hut | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As we can see, the Tools production chain will cost a lot of Maintenance, which needs to be offset by the Tax income from our Inhabitants. We can use the Inhabitant support page to see how far we can expand our Settlement with the supply from one Weaver's hut.
40 Houses and a Tavern.
| Good | Inhabitant type | Consumption rate | Support | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| People | Houses | |||
|
|
420 | 476 | 31.7 |
 |
190 | 1053 | 42.1 | |
 |
80 | 2500 | 62.5 | |
Here we can see how many Inhabitants we can support with a single Weaver's hut. Since we only have Citizens at the moment, we'll only look at the first row. It says we can support 476 Citizens in 31.7 Citizen houses. We'll round this up to 32 to simplify the calculations. The Population page tells us that only 80% of our houses can become Citizen houses. This means we'll need (32 / 0.8) = 40 houses total to reach 32 Citizen houses, with an eventual Population of 64 Peasants and 480 Citizens. Inspecting the other tables on the Inhabitant support page shows that we'll have (just barely) enough Fish, but that we'll need an additional Cider farm. We'll also unlock the Tavern after reaching 355 Citizens, which we can immediately place to further increase our Tax income.
Repair work []
- Objective: Build a Repair crane.
Lord Northburgh's Ship has been badly damaged in the Storm and is helpless. Your own Ship will also sail at a reduced speed for as long as it is damaged.
Use a Repair crane to remedy the situation!
We will also finally unlock the Repair crane at 355 Citizens. Simply place it in your Harbour to complete the Quest.
Note: The Quest reward is placed in the Warehouse's Strong room. Transfer the Item to your Flagship to receive the Item's bonus effect.
- Reward: 1 Studded planks
A home for the children []
- Objective: Take the rescued children back to the Mountain monastery.
Brother Hilarius, still anxious about the missing children, asks you to bring them to him. Sail the Caravel to Guelphdon and transfer the children to your Warehouse to place them in Brother Hilarius's care.
- Reward: 20 Honour
The Road to Karim []
- Objective: Contact the Caravan driver Karim in the West of the region.
There are adequate Goods on board the Ship that Al Zahir gave you.
Build a Warehouse and a Road connection to the Caravanserai in Ku'Raast.
Karim, the Caravan driver, travels around a great deal. Al Zahir thinks he may be able to help you in your search for the missing children.
The total cost of expanding Ku'Raast will be 39t Wood • 30t Tools. If we have all of the required Building materials available, we can load all of them on our Caravel at once to avoid additional trips back and forth.
You scratch my back... []
- Objective: Found a Nomad settlement in Ku'Raast with at least 145 Nomads.
Settling the Orient.
Build a Bazaar and Nomad houses to encourage the Nomads to settle down.
Bear in mind too that the Orientals have their particular Needs and preferences which must be satisfied. Look in the Nomad houses' Building menu to find out what these are.
Karim needs your help to build up his business...
Each Nomad house can house 15 Nomads, meaning we'll need to build 10 Nomad houses to reach 
145 Nomads. Karim offers the following Auxiliary quests once you've built the first 5 Nomad houses, but we can build the final 5 before completing them to speed things up.
The Desert lives []
- Objective: Build at least one Noria in Ku'Raast.
Norias are large water wheels that pump life-giving moisture from deep underground up to the surface.
Use the foreign technology to make the barren Land in Ku'Raast fertile.
- Reward: 10 Honour
The Date plantation []
- Objective: Build a Date plantation in Ku'Raast with 50% Productivity.
Build the Date plantation in the area irrigated by the Noria, otherwise it will not be very productive.
Karim would like to guarantee a supply for the Nomads so they don't move out again.
Date plantations have a ridiculously high maintenance cost (45 per minute), so it is advised to never build more than is strictly needed. One Date plantation can support 450 Nomads, so we'll only need one during this Chapter.
- Reward: 10 Honour
With a steady supply of Food secured, we will soon have enough Nomads in our Settlement to gain Karim's trust. He will then allow the Children to be returned.
Once we reach 145 Nomads, they will develop a Need for Drink, which is satisfied with Goat milk. We can buy Milk from Karim to increase our Tax income until we have set up our own Milk production, which we will do during a later quest.
- Reward: 30 Honour • 1 Children from the Caravanserai
Tasty []
- Objective: Build a Spice farm with a productivity rate of over 50% on your Island in the South.
Make sure you build the Spice farm on suitable terrain. Plants can only work effectively where the Noria irrigates the Land.
Your Inhabitants would love some Spices to make their dishes even more delicious, so don't forget to transport them by Ship to your Settlement.
Upon reaching 145 Nomads, we unlock two new Production buildings; the Spice farm and the Goat farm. Spices are the first instance of inter-cultural Needs. The Spice farm is unlocked by expanding Oriental Settlements, and must be cultivated on southern Islands, but they are required by Occidental Inhabitants. Meanwhile, the Goat farm produces Milk for our Oriental Inhabitants, but it does not require any particular Fertility, which means it's more effective to place it on our Occidental Island where it won't need a Noria to function. We will also build an additional Stonemason's hut to prepare for the upgrade to Patricians. Don't forget to create a Trading route to move the Spices to Guelphdon. We will add the Milk later, as we still need it to complete a Quest in Guelphdon.
- Reward: 10 Honour
Familiar surroundings []
- Objective: Take the rescued children back to the Mountain monastery.
Brother Hilarius has received word about the missing children in Ku'Raast, and wants to have them in the Mountain monastery as soon as possible.
Sail them back to Guelphdon so that Brother Hilarius can take care of them.
We also want to bring at least 
5t Spices before heading to Guelphdon.
A sign of trust []
- Objective: Visit Al Zahir at his Harbour.
Your dedication to finding the abducted children has impressed Grand vizier Al Zahir. He has now summoned you to him to discuss an important matter.
Perhaps the Grand vizier has news of the other missing children!
We'll also take 10t Tools and 5t Spices with us, just in case we need to pay ransom to save some children from slavery...
- Reward: 20 Honour • 1 Official letter from the Grand Vizier.
An important Messenger []
- Objective: Give Al Zahir's letter to the Mine manager.
Al Zahir's letter to the Mine manager should make him more receptive to your request. If it is really true that some of the abducted children are being forced to slave in the Mines, you should hurry...
Children underground []
- Objective: Deliver the following to the Mine manager for rescuing the children: 10t Tools • 5t Spices
The Corsairs have evidently sold some of the children to the Mine manager. They are now being forced to work underground for him.
Hurry and meet the Mine manager's demands.
Yikes. Despite the Grand vizier's letter, the Mine manager wants some compensation for releasing the children. We should tell the Grand Vizier that one of his underlings is asking ransom for literal Children. Luckily we prepared for exactly this scenario when we brought those Goods with us before. He also takes 2000 Gold coins, so make sure you have enough saved up before accepting.
- Reward: 20 Honour • 1 Noble appreciation
Free at Last! []
- Objective: Take the rescued children back to the Mountain monastery.
With the Children safely out of the mines and onto your Ship, Brother Hilarius is anxious to take care of them. Time to bring them back to Guelphdon and allow them into Brother Hilarius's care.
Before we deliver the Children to Guelphdon, we will make a quick detour to Al Zahir's Island to deliver the 
1 Noble appreciation we've received.
Ascension of a Village []
- Objective: Reach the Patrician Civilisation level.
Make sure that the Needs of the Citizens of Guelphdon are satisfied and the Taxes are in the dark green zone; only then can the Citizens become Patricians.
Lord Northburgh insists that you expand Guelphdon to increase your chances of finding the children.
If we built a Tavern earlier, our Citizens should be able to start advancing as soon as the first Spices start being delivered. We can look at the House menu of our Citizens to see if all their Needs are being satisfied and if they're ready to advance. Once we reach the Patrician tier, Brother Hilarius will request the following Goods.
A crust of Bread []
- Objective: Make the following available in a Trade building for Brother Hilarius: 10t Bread
The Buildings for producing Bread will only become available once Patricians live in Guelphdon.
As the Monastery was unprepared for the children's arrival, the Friars are now starting to run out of supplies. Help Brother Hilarius and make sure that no one has to go hungry.
| Cost: 1900 + 300 • 29 • 13 • 9
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| Maintenance: 70
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 Bread |
= | Bakery |
+ |  Mill |
+ |  2x Crop farm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We can use the newly unlocked Patrician buildings to start producing Bread. The Production chain above shows us exactly what we'll need and how much it will cost. Once we have produced enough Bread, Brother Hilarius will automatically request the 10 tons needed to complete the quest.
A bowl of Milk []
- Objective: Make the following available in a Trade building for Brother Hilarius: 15t Milk
Brother Hilarius has asked you for a little Milk. The cool drink should provide the children with some energy.
Self-defence []
- Objective: Build at least one Weapons smithy in Guelphdon.
Your Settlement must develop to the point where it has Patricians before you can manufacture Weapons. You may also have to temporarily shut down your Tools production to have enough Iron available.
Lord Northburgh wants to be well prepared if it comes to an armed conflict with the Corsairs.
We will most likely have some surplus of Iron from our Tools production, which we will use to make the Weapons. Simply place the Weapon smithy near a Warehouse to complete the Quest. You may have to pause one of the Toolmaker's workshops if there's no surplus of Iron.
In pursuit of the Corsairs []
Investigating pirates.
- Objective: Find the hidden Corsair ship in the Southwest.
According to Al Zahir's informants, a suspicious Corsair ship has been spotted in the Southwest of the region.
If there really are children in the Corsairs' clutches, they must be found immediately and rescued!
Right-click the Corsair ship to sail alongside them, and then left-click the ship to complete the quest. Some players report having to approach and click the ship multiple times before the quest is completed.
Al Zahir's help []
- Objective: Deliver the following to Al Zahir in return for a Boarding crew: 5t Weapons
Al Zahir is absolutely furious that the Corsairs have sold the children into slavery and would like to contribute to the rescue operation by providing a Boarding crew.
With the Children in the hull of the Corsair ship, a head-on attack would be way too dangerous. Luckily, there's an Infamous Boarding crew available at Al Zahir's Warehouse, who will be able to take control of the Ship without any risk of sinking it. They'll need some new Weapons before they can get back into the action though.
Prepare to board! []
Board and plunder!
- Objective: Board the Corsair ship and free the kidnapped children.
Left-click to socket the Boarding crew in your Ship. You can now use the Item like a button. Activate it and then select the Corsair ship.
Lord Northburgh is itching to finally rescue the children being held captive on board.
- Reward: 20 Honour
Safe and sound []
- Objective: Take the rescued children back to the Mountain monastery.
We've rescued another group of Children, and that can only mean one thing. Brother Hilarius is eager to take the Children under his wing.
Simply sail the new Corsair ship to Guelphdon and transfer the Children to your Warehouse, like we've done many times now.
- Reward: 20 Honour
Sea battle []
- Objective: Produce at least 2 Small warships.
You can manufacture Small warships in a Shipyard. Bear in mind that, besides Wood and Weapons, you will also need Ropes for this.
As he cannot ascertain the true strength of the Corsair fleet, Lord Northburgh wants the additional Ships just to be on the safe side.
Despite having just unlocked the Large shipyard after reaching the Patrician tier, Small warships can only be produced in a Small shipyard. Make sure to build the correct one, as we do not need a Large shipyard in this Chapter.
Carpet trading []
- Objective: Acquire an Oriental warship from Al Zahir in exchange for: 3t Carpets
You may have to upgrade your Nomad settlement again to enable you to manufacture Carpets.
Al Zahir is also very interested in putting a stop to the Corsairs' mischief. Make use of the generous offer he has made you!
This quest is unlocked as soon as we deliver the Noble appreciation to Al Zahir. With our previous expansion, we'll already have the required number of Inhabitants in Ku'Raast to unlock the new Oriental buildings. We'll have to create a Carpets production chain in Ku'Raast.
| Cost: 1150 + 1000 • 15 • 7
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| Maintenance: 105
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 Carpets |
= | Carpet workshop |
+ |  Silk plantation |
+ |  Indigo farm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We'll also build an additional Small noria, bringing the total cost to 20t Wood and 10t Tools. Deliver the required Building materials to Ku'Raast and create the Production chain there.
Once our Production chain is set up, we'll soon have enough Carpets to complete the quest. It is advised to wait until after completing the quest "Sea battle" to complete this quest, as the newly acquired Oriental warship will fill up our Ship limit, which keeps us from completing the next quest. You can see your current Ship limit by expanding the Population tab above the map.
Act of reprisal []
- Objective: Destroy all 4 Corsair ships in Hassan ben Sahid's Harbour.
If you want to engage the Corsair fleet, you should have some Warships.
Hassan ben Sahid is still keeping some of the children captive on his Island.
Will you manage to defeat the Corsairs?
In his rage, Hassan ben Sahid brags that the final group of Children is stowed away on his Corsair island. We cannot afford to take the fight to them directly, but maybe we can force them to surrender if we take out their Ships. We are given the following quests in preparation of the fight.
Explosion hazard []
Booming business.
- Objective: Acquire a Powder keg from the Mine manager in return for: 10t Tools • 15t Spices
The Mine manager is showing his more friendly side for the first time.
A Powder keg could come in useful against the Corsairs...
Let's check on the Mine manager to see if he has grown a conscience yet. When selecting his Warehouse, he will offer a powerful Item in exchange for some more Tools and Spices. The Powder keg will help us tremendously in our fight against the Corsairs. When activated, the Powder keg will deal massive damage to all ships within a certain radius, including the ship that's carrying it. Our boarded Corsair ship should still be anchored in Guelphdon. Simply load the required Goods onto it and deliver them to the Mine manager in the Southeast of the region.
Important: This quest becomes unavailable after the 4 Corsair ships have been destroyed.
- Reward: 5 Honour • 1 Insane Powder keg
The Powder keg is so powerful that it is really the only thing we need to complete the quest. Simply sail the Corsair ship with the Powder keg on board to Hassan ben Sahid's Harbour and activate the Powder keg as soon as the Corsair ships start approaching. With a little bit of maneuvering we'll be able to get all 4 Corsair ships within the blast radius and...
Boom! Quest completed.
Saved! []
- Objective: Pick up the children from the Corsair Island.
Having seen his Fleet destroyed, Hassan ben Sahid has humbly agreed to release the last of the children. Sail quickly to Khor Bedi and take the leader of the Corsairs at his word! We'll bring our Oriental warship just in case though, because you can never be too careful when it comes to Corsair dealings.
Forget the terrible experience []
- Objective: Take the rescued children back to the Mountain monastery.
With the final group of Children now on board our ship, it is time to bring them to Brother Hilarius one last time. The Chapter ends as soon as the Children reach the Monastery, so make sure to have completed all other quests before doing so.
Ending in-game cutscene[]
Determined to tell the Emperor about recent events, Lord Richard Northburgh insists on setting off for the Orient where the Emperor is recovering from his illness. Guy Forcas appears unexpectedly and arrests Lord Richard Northburgh. Guy Forcas threatens you with the wrath of Kardinal Lucius, and orders you to have nothing more to do with the Crusade. Lord Richard Northburgh surrenders to Guy Forcas and whispers to you to stop the impending War.
Other images[]
Campaign Quests List[]