I have been too scared to attempt this achievement for a very long time -- prior to this my best run was around 22h.
After getting every other achievement I decided it was time to finally do this.
Many mistakes were made, and many saves were abandoned along the way, but I got there. Very happy with the time too!
Seed: 8250-6644, with dark fog off
I'll shortly be running the Fort Forsaken part of the Delian Tomb, and I suspect that my players might take a combat approach to the palisade area, and then encounter Thurston.
The problem is, if all the bandits outside have already been killed, the negotiation really doesn't make much sense anymore. All the benefits the heroes could get from negotiating Thurston up beyond Interest 2 are nullified.
I'm curious to hear how other Directors would handle Thurston in this situation. Try to adjust the outcomes of the negotiation? Take the negotiation out of it entirely (kind of like the "Aldiva's already dead" scenario), noting this removes the possibility for the heroes to earn a non-violent Victory from Thurston. Turn it into a single Reason/Presence Test?
Thinking something like:
Tier 1: Thurston doesn't think he can make a deal with the heroes and attacks
Tier 2: Thurston agrees to take his guards and leave, as long as the heroes can either guarantee him a pardon and set him up with a comfortable life in Broadhurst, OR agree to hand over the bandit's treasure to him
Tier 3: Thurston agrees to take his guards and leave without any conditions
I'm sorry, it's probably not funny to anybody except me, I just had to get this joke out of my head.
Just a general region to search would be fantastic. I've been going over the Scarlett Meadows area and from there up to Emerald Ranch and down to Pleasance and everywhere in between, but in the words of Tim Russ, "we ain't found shit".