Settlement 2, Lantern Years 6-8

So, I hunt Screaming Antelope.

First I find a Vomit Pile that Bewh scavenges. Finds nothing. Then he encounters Consuming Grass and archives Cloth.

Then I avoid Stampede, because I want Voici to remain insane.

d100 is 13. Bewh receives a +1 accuracy token.

And then showdown starts.

Antelope just runs around randomly. Materna finds Scrap Sword from debris.

All in all fight was relatively easy - it was my own idiocy that caused most of the bad stuff to happen, anyway. I didn't bother to check AI cards once. And Lone Rampage it was, when I had just a moment been thinking how large the Zone of Death in that particular card had been... and all of my survivors were within four spaces of the beast.

A couple of heavy injury knockdowns happened, as well as one Brain Trauma on Bewh, who doesn't like Stinky gear from now on.

Last card to remain on the AI deck was - once more - the Lone Rampage. This time, however, I was a little better prepared for it. I scavenged the board or, well, what was left of it. Mostly just a couple of Acanthus plants and Bug Patch.

Despite a certain easiness of this fight, it was far more interesting than level 1 white lion at this point.

Rewards:
Fresh Acanthus
2x Monster Organ
2x Monster Bone, Monster Hide

Pelt, Beast Steak, Shank Bone, Muscly Gums

Accunaicus receives +1 permanent strength from Age.

Settlement event is Silk Storm. Nuhuu and Fahert endeavor there - Nuhuu endeavoring twice. Both find a Crab Spider, and Nuhuu can depart with a full grid. I couldn't believe my sensory organs when I noticed Crab Spiders were hides. Oh my.

Armored Strangers make Voici Stark Raving Mad, which is a major boon. She's the one I plan to have Butcher's Axe mastery.

I build Stone Circle, along with Screaming Coat and a new Dried Acanthus. Because of the Crab Spiders I decide to build one extra pair of of Rawhide Gloves.

And then we get last Lantern Year for a little while.

I hunt level 1 antelope again.

First event is Teething, and I find two Large Flat Teeth.

d100 is 29, Dark Blacksmith. Only Materna has 3+ Courage. She gives her Cloth away, but it doesn't turn into a Steel Shield. Bummer.

Next, Antelope is Skittish. d100 result of 61. Bewh is struck by a Frozen Lightning, and Ancient Lantern (the cola bottle lantern) is archived. Well, now every memory of having played a challenge scenario has been removed from this settlement. Time for a new one, I guess?

Last space before Showdown has some Dead Weed growing in it. Too bad I didn't have any Severe injuries.

Then it's showdown time, and Screaming Antelope gores forward and receives five wounds in retaliation. I get the feeling I was way too scared when I chose my quarry...

Chow Down tries to mitigate this, but it heals only one wound. Accunaicus critically injures the palate and causes an injury to strange eye. Bewh found skull and some insanity from survivor corpse.

Outrageous damage dealing backfired a little, when Voici wounds the restless shank, which gives her three injuries to arms location, and one from collision to a stone column to legs. And then - again. AGAIN. Lone Rampage. Why does this particular attack haunt me so? I don't think there's more than one of them in the whole deck, and in all of my encounters against Screaming Antelope it has caused me many and much a grief.

Soon enough fight was over, and I decided to not bother with level 1 quarries again. Well, White Lion and Screaming Antelope quarries, that is.

Rewards:
Fresh Acanthus
Pelt, Screaming Brain, Bladder, Beast Steak, 2x Large Flat Tooth
Skull, 2x Monster Hide, Monster Bone, Love Juice.

Settlement Event is Skull Eater. Voici is the Skull Eater. Makes sense - she's been killing all over the place and everywhere with a sentient axe she stole from Butcher.

She gets +1 strength and courage, but next year Materna is going to die, no way to prevent that. I'm not happy. Materna gets +1 permanent Strength from Age and Bewh gets Unconscious Fighter secret fighting art.

Phoenix Feather rolls 2 for Nuhuu. Nuhuu and Voici consume Love Juice, I roll 7 and 9. I take two newborns.

Settlement innovates Sculpture (boo!) and since Voici might find herself dead rather sooner than later, I spend the three remaining endeavors in her trying to pull up the lantern halberd that acts as guidepost. She succeeds on second attempt. (She has 3 permanent strength.)

With efforts such as this, I can't bear too big of a grudge against her for going to murder Materna.

Settlement builds Screaming Leg Warmers and Blood Paint. Last endeavor is used in building Weapon Crafter.

I'm definitely going to hunt a level 2 beast next. And I haven't had a real, distressing challenge for a few years, so a level 2 Screaming Antelope it is.

So, first hunt event is Skittish and 66 is the d100, forbidden word. +1 understanding and brain event damage. Voici gets Coprolalia and Materna gets Delicious. There's some theme in here somewhere, I think. Bewh gets Enfeebled, which doesn't couple that badly at all with his newly gained Unconscious Fighter. It now takes six bleed tokens to kill him.

Forbidden Word triggers Insight for Voici, who gets to re-roll a hunt event during this hunt phase.

Next space is 25, Titans in the Dark. Nope. Voici re-rolls it right away into 21, Drawings. Both Voici and Materna try to decipher the pictures. Voici rolls 9, Materna 10. I don't know why I wasted such good rolls on this event, because none of the results would have done any good for me. And I don't know why suddenly Voici and Materna are such good buddies and pals. Voici must have been planning this murder for quite a long time already, studying her target very closely indeed.

Third space is Stampede with a roll of 9. Thank goodness. But, before Showdown this triggers Bold for Voici and Bewh. Voici rolls 9 and Bewh 8. I won't say no to +1 permanent strength. Voici is such a shining star right now with +4 permanent strength. Please, Murder event. Spare her from judgement. Settlement will not endure loss of both Materna and Voici.

Random terrain cards are Giant Stone Face and Tall Grass.

First turn dealt a respectable five wounds to Screaming Antelope, who had diabolically trampled nearby.

It drew Infested card. During a flow I decided to move Voici to relative safety of Tall Grass. Next AI card is Great Kick. I pick Accunaicus as the target and dash her to Tall Grass. Next is Great Kick, and every damn attack hit Accunaicus. No Severe Injury rolls were caused by these five attacks, but her armor is now devastated, and Dried Acanthus is gone. I praised dice gods when trample from Diabolical resulted in targeting Bewh.

Materna takes a step back and encourages Bewh up. Next she strikes Screaming Antelope, causing a wound. This makes Antelope to jump one space away from the attacker... Bewh went down again.

Dedicated damage dealer, Voici, activates next and goes pick some flowers. Well, she does find Fresh Acanthus. Then she encourages Bewh up once more... who then moves away, encourages Accunaicus up and checks location deck, because I'm starting to fear the trap. There was no trap, but Ferocious Spasms was rather a critical card to navigate. Accunaicus charges in with Lantern Halberd and hits once. Well at least she got away the spasms.

Antelope has received seven points of damage at the start of turn three.

AI card is Back Kick, and the beast targets Accunaicus, whom I Dash to Tall Grass. Both Back Kick attacks miss, and then Diabolical trample goes to Materna's Body.

Then it's survivor turn to act. Voici huddles closer, but couldn't reach Antelope. At least she checks next AI cards, Kick and Gore. She also encourages Materna up. Accunaicus goes and inflicts two wounds on Antelope and backs to Tall Grass. Somehow I just feel next AI is going to be the Lone Rampage...

But first Bewh moves closer to Bug Patch and uses Cat Eye Circlet. Strange Eye coming up, so need to be careful.

Materna scores two hits with Catgut Bow, and first time in this showdown a damage roll fails - because of Infested trait. Oh well. Ten points of damage in at the start of turn 4.

Screaming Antelope reveals the last "blind" AI card. And it's Stomp & Snort. Antelope targets Materna, who dashes away from Zone of Death of Diabolical. This turn I will have no tramples coming in that cause damage. Yay... Anyway, Materna takes two brain damage and some knockback, but thanks to Stalwart she is not knocked down.

I flush out Restless Eye with the only non-insane survivor, Accunaicus. She scores two wounds (the blind location wasn't trap) and she gets back to Tall Grass with lantern halberd special ability.

Bewh checks hit locations, and still no trap, but a certain chest wound is coming up that would make everyone very sad if a wound is caused. But Voici would have chances on killing the Antelope right now... unless she scores four hits, and last location is a trap. She's Stark Raving, though. All in! She scores only two hits, but wounds with both. Antelope no longer has cards in AI deck. And there are no knocked down survivors, which means it will start grazing, which will mean it starts healing...

Materna Dashes and Slams closer to Antelope and attacks with King Spear. No. Hits.

So, Antelope gets to an Acanthus plant and heals one wound. Then there's Accunaicus in Diabolical lane. She's picked as a target, but she Dashes away so that Antelope did not reach her. It was last Survival of Accunaicus, though. Bewh encourages Voici up, and checks hit locations. Great. Trap is coming now. But the beast needs to be wounded only twice.

I activate Voici and she walks to blind spot. She activates Butcher's Cleaver. And scores only one hit. That wounds, sure.

Well, Materna Dashes to blind spot and aims with Catgut Bow. She still needs 4+ to hit. She hits, exactly with a 4. Now she needs a 4+ to inflict a wound. And she rolls exactly 4.

Oh dear. My first encounter with level 2 Screaming Antelope was not all that bad. It was a good battle and I felt like I made the right choices. I didn't have to roll any severe injury rolls or brain traumas, but every survivor had many hit locations that were at heavy injury levels. Curiously I didn't roll even a single critical damage.

Rewards: (includes resource coming from Materna...)
Screaming Brain, Bladder, 2x Shank Bone, 2x Beast Steak, Pelt

2x Monster Bone, Skull, 2x Broken Lantern, Monster Hide, Monster Organ

Fresh Acanthus


Now survivors return, and Voici murders Materna after receiving Axe proficiency. Of course she rolls 8+ from the event, and a new Murder is added to timeline thankfully at least five years from now. Hey, now. Voici received her from me nominating her to became the voice of reason during endless screams. This does not sound very reasonable at all. Unless might is the only thing that is right, and who is going to dispute that when Voici has +5 permanent strength?

The actual event is Acid Storm which rolls one additional scrap.

I give Burning Ambition from Promise Under the Sun to Bewh.

I endeavor to innovate, but have to choose from Pottery (which I might lose right next to King's Man...) of Face Painting. I make a Love Juice from Pottery anyway. Two Dried Acanthuses, Bone Axe, Scrap Dagger, Claw Head Arrow, Blood Paint, Screaming Bracers and Counterweighted Axe enter the settlement, as well as Lucky Charm.

Fahert goes to Bloodletting and rolls 1. Nice enough I suppose, but I really wanted Insanity for him. This triggers Insight. He rolls 10, gaining a permanent strength.

Next I use Love Juice to spawn a Savior, and I get excited when I roll 10. Only to remember I haven't innovated Hovel... Oh well, people are bound to die next year anyway.

Resource-wise the settlement is broke once more, and I don't even know if my A-team will be there after next fight. Sure, I'd have enough population to throw at King's Man just to die, but I've felt I've been damn lucky in this campaign. Even if I'm not perfectly geared to fight King's Man, I'd like to take chances.




Resources:
2x Broken Lantern




Storage:
2x Cloth
2x Bone Darts
2x Rawhide Headband, Vest, Boots, Gloves, Pants
Rawhide Gloves
Cat Eye Circlet
King Spear
Whisker Harp
2x Monster Grease
Catgut Bow
Claw Head Arrow-
2x Skull Helm
Bone Axe
Bone Blade
Bone Dagger
Bandages
3x Dried Acanthus
Butcher Cleaver
Monster Tooth Necklace
Lion Headdress
Scrap Dagger-
Scrap Sword
Screaming Coat
Screaming Leg Warmers + Bracers
Lantern Halberd
2x Blood Paint
Counterweighted Axe
Lucky Charm

Population: 9

Innovations & Principles:
Language, Ammonia, Bloodletting, Paint, Lantern Oven, Sculpture, Pottery
Cannibalize & Protect the Young

Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Organ Grinder
Skinnery
Bone Smith
Stone Circle
Weapon Crafter