[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Well.... the Spider Lord has a second form and is available everywhere. For 100 gold, you have nearly forty hitpoints of fever fetish.

The fact that you've got the ear of the lord for spying (with a secondary effect of stealth preaching), the ear of the lord who can patrol as well as 15 humans for a third of the cost, and a pretty well equipped although capital only assasin doesn't hurt.

And with access to the Mother of Serpents, healing, I suppose you could rescue your investment if you really wanted to, but I'm not sure this nation really cries for healing.

These ape heroes are kinda lame. Are they multi-heros at least, of do they have any use aside from free monkey-spawn chaff?

Abasi? I don't see his use as a hero, but his description is very amusing.

edit: and on the spider kings... It's entirely possible to not expand outside of your starting province and end year three with 115 fire gems. With some actual effort, a cheap fort, and some witch-doctor manual site searching... Hell. If 100 gold really matter, you can heal the spiders with the Mother of Serpents. You only have to check once a year to keep the spider alive.

edit: and ears of the lord causing unrest while carrying bane venom charms in an enemy fortress might be fun and hard to counter. Especially with a couple assasins to move in later. Though of course, death isn't specially easy for this nation to bring in gems for. Not impossible..

edit: and I just realized what to do with my wasted earth gem income: forge dwarven hammer or two, really churn out fever fetish.