Lantern Year six begins with a hunt.
Acropia, Astalonia, Werno and Candice set off for Screaming Antelope level 1.
First hunt event is Grazing Fields. Sadly, though, as it isn't very useful when there has been no injuries yet. Roll came out as 94, Sickening Mess. Astalonia is the only insane one, so she takes -1 Strength token. The rest of survivors get a resource and hits to random locations.
Hunt space two is 89, Cleaner Birds. Candice is the straggler, so she gains +1 Luck. Her nickname bonus and the penalty from this result cancel each other out.
Last space before showdown is Stampede. Courage gains don't trigger any Bold events. Stampede causes some brain damage, but then showdown starts. Once more fight itself is uneventful - it's more about me trying to get Candice killed than Antelope causing me much trouble. I succeeded in this questionable action. Now I'd have only seven survivors in the settlement once Armored Strangers show up.
But this quarry feels like such a loot bag.
I got:
Sword Beetle, Fresh Acanthus
3x Monster Hide, Broken Lantern, Skull, ??? and Love Juice
2x Pelt, Bladder, Muscly gums
Event is Dark Trader again. And it cannot have been caused by shuffling the deck lousily. I shuffled deck, rolled two d10 and took the event, counting from top.
And now we get Armored Strangers. Gosh, the eight member of settlement just happened to die during showdown. After counting people Armored Strangers decide upon supportive action. Roll is 4, giving me extra Monster Hide, Monster Bone and Monster Organ. Also, Guidepost. Also, Hooded Knight. Also, Hooded Knight rolls 1 on the table. Acropia uses his lifetime roll on this one, getting a desperate 4.
I use the resources right away to innovate. From the choices I figured I'd need Face Painting the most. Since I got Love Juice, why not try to have a healthy pair of twins. What could go wrong? I use one Endeavor on Face Painting, which gets +1 on Intimacy rolls.
Then Astalonia and Werno make a baby, Astarno (F), who instantly matures to Age by listening to Livia. I don't know what Astarno heard, but as a consequence she gained Ruthless fighting art. Phew, making babies with Survival of the Fittest feels stressful.
I still have one endeavor left. I decide to trigger a challenge scenario, the "free partnership" one. It results rapidly in a fail, when Clever Ploy scored two hits on the same location against Adam, who then rolled "2" on Body severe injury table.
I make Lucky Charm, Bone Sword and a second set of Bandages and Rawhide Boots. Before I get to level 2 quarries, it's time to get rid of this Flower Addiction once but not for all. Flower Knight, here we come! Livia, Paraske, Astalonia and Mursonus depart.
First roll is 72. Livia rolls 8 on the table - which isn't much of a surprise. I mean, nearly all other survivors in the settlement have been taught and instructed by her. Of course she knows the best games around to pass the time. I'm not saying she has brainwashed the whole settlement. Or am I?
Anyway, this triggers Bold for Paraske and Astalonia. Paraske gains a Speed token for next showdown, Astalonia gets a little Understanding.
Next space is 47, Banquet Trees. All of the survivors here are insane, so everyone takes a bite. Only Paraske thinks it's worth a second round.
Last space before Forest Wants What it Wants is 68, a familiar face of a friend long since passed - on the ceiling. Mursonus loses all insanity and gains +1 Understanding.
Party rolls 6 on the Forest table. Astalonia and Livia take extra bleed tokens to make it into a forced entry.
Hunt Event is Watched. Everybody just lost all of their insanity.
This fight was the most exciting one in this particular campaign until now. I managed quite often to have Flower Knight fight so that no-one was in the Fairy Ring. Good thing I did, because my attack rolls were absolute rubbish. Mursonus eventually gets Fencing secret fighting art and starts to get job done. Livia had taken injuries so that she wasn't able to dodge, which made me hesitant in bringing her into action. So it was a weird dance with Mursonus most often there in the ring, with Astalonia taking walking to-and-fro to make some futile attacks that yield nothing.
But in the end nobody died or had crippling severe injuries.
I received:
Sighing Bloom, Lantern Bloom, 4x Osseous Bloom. I would have needed Warbling Bloom quite desperately, but what can you do.
Monster Hide, Monster Organ, ??? and Broken Lantern
Settlement Event is once more Weird Dream. Again it cannot be because of poor shuffling, as I randomized it with dice. But of course I take Dark Traders and Weird Dreams any day of the week rather than, say, duplicates of Murder.
Livia breaks the silence of the passing by from Phoenix. This triggers settlement phase Bold and Insight, neither of them yielding permanent stat bonuses. But as I did have Survival of the Fittest, Livia has now impressive +2 permanent evasion.
Settlement innovates sculpture. Still no Ammonia, still no leather gear. I had five choices from Symposium + Insight. Sigh.
Acropia makes Abyssal Sadist into a sculpture right away. I just wonder how that sculpture looks like.
Paraske and Mursonus try to learn this new fighting art, but only Mursonus succeeds.
With last endeavor I use face painting, but there were no other effects except for being a laughingstock.
Settlement builds Bone Club, Monster Tooth Necklace, Monster Grease and Rawhide Pants.
So now I am supposed to be ready for level 2 quarries. Maybe I am, and start to hunt for a lion to finally get the Cat's Eye Circlet. Livia, Paraske, Pepleh and Mursonus are testing their wits against Cunning level two lion.
And first hunt event is Lion Cub, who triggers showdown right away. I got mixed feelings about this.
White Lion got a few penalties to Accuracy in early game, which helped the fight immensely. There's just something impervious in a survivor in Tall Grass that the White Lion hits only on 9+. But dashing because of Cunning quickly ate through Survival, especially when Rawhide rolls to gain back the survival point were unlucky.
All in all the party managed to pull off a victory just a turn before real damage would have started - with most survivors having zero Survival and many hit locations at heavy damage. Livia takes a couple of nasty severe injuries - she's at -1 Accuracy, -1 Strength after this fight. So maybe she'll be the one who tries to soak up attacks, not bothering with actual damage dealing herself.
Party got quite a few resources, but still no Cat's Eye.
However, I feel like I somehow jinxed the game when I talked about murders earlier. Because that's what happened - Settlement event: Murder.
Livia is murdered, Pepleh is the culprit. Both die. Probably because I didn't have axe user in training. That stuff is dangerous, as shown by earlier settlements. Livia had a special part in the story of this settlement, so I was a little sad when I had to, so to say, pull the trigger.
I had hoped I'd have the hunt event that would have given free Ammonia innovation. It wasn't to be, but at least I had the option to innovate it in settlement.
Then it's time again for a little face-painting. Losing two from seven survivors has the settlement on the brink of destruction.
Love Juice gets one new survivor - not nearly enough, but at least parents didn't lose their mind and wander off into darkness.
Settlement made Leather Shield, Leather Mask, White Lion Coat, Lion Beast Katar, Bone Sickle
Since I got many endeavors now, new survivor matures instantly and gets Sneak Attack from Age. Again right before Nemesis encounter. Is it an omen?
She fails to learn Abyssal Sadist from sculpture, though.
Next we'll see if the settlement is erased from the nightmare world. King's Man knocks on the door.
Mursonus, Biliouli, Astalonia and Acropia start to dance. First turn, before Battle Tempo cards are placed on top of King's Man deck, I try to cause a little damage. I throw my last Founding Stone at the nemesis. And oh my. Critical gives King's Man -1 speed token. Acropia manages to hit with the Claw Head Arrow, but doesn't cause a wound.
Mursonus with shield, fencing and Flower Knight badge giving Diversion Tactics, combined with -1 Speed actually made me rather hopeful. But there were something like five complete rounds before I was able to make another damage to King's Man. Many survival points had been spent by then, but neither side did any real damage.
Once Mursonus finally succeeds learning King's Step, damage actually start to slowly seep into the King's Man. Now Mursonus has Red Fist, Fencing and King's Step. I will probably cry if he would die.
Astalonia gets destroyed genitalia at some point, and Biliouli has to spend her re-roll to not die from brain trauma. She gets secretive instead.
It took every single resource survivors had at their disposal - even the +1 strength tokens had to be used for survival. But much to my amazement - I won King's Man with zero survivors dying. I had bad luck at so many different points during showdown that without that -1 speed token on King's Man I wouldn't have stood a chance.
Settlement event is Open Maw. No one dares to enter.
Hands of Heat makes Mursonus blinded, which bothers me quite a bit. Accuracy feels so important for this brawler. At least he gained +1 Luck, and there is no longer Hands of Heat tradition.
Next year I somehow will need to start breeding more survivors after Armored Strangers have made their second visit.
Astalonia learns Abyssal Sadist on second try. Someone tries to pick up guidepost from ground but fails. Shame, since supportive Armored Strangers would have given me new Guidepost next year.
Settlement innovates Pottery. I feel like I don't have enough strength capable of cracking Screaming Antelope level 2 just yet. Now, if there only were a level 2 quarry with toughness on the lower side, and that would be vulnerable to Luck... Alrighty, then. Off we go to hunt Level 2 Flower Knight!
First hunt event comes up as Pus Fields. I want to play it safe, so survivors slug carefully across the oozing puddles. At the end of the fields there were Dead Weeds, but even with a sickle nobody managed to pull out the weeds.
Next survivors come up with a Corpse, and losing survival hurts a bit. But it triggers Insight for Mursonus, who gains +1 permanent Evasion. He's not on his way to becoming an amazing Evasion tank - he is that right now. Permanent evasion +2, gear to make that at least +4 or even +5. Shield and Fencing secret fighting art, with Abyssal Sadist to keep a steady supply of Survival. He might actually tackle even Hand himself.
Then we get Madflies. I may have very well lost the battle now, when Mursonus and Astalonia both get Frenzy. The inability to dodge or use Monster Claw fighting art wrecked all of my planned tactics. But if I read the rules correctly, Secret Fighting Arts are not Fighting Arts (at least that applies in new Sculpture innovation) so I assume that Mursonus can still use his impressive set of Secret Arts.
From Herb Gathering the survivors get a little bit Survival back (and a fresh acanthus.) Last hunt event is once again an exciting game. But since there is no Livia making up the rules, Flower Knight himself appears as the fifth player. It's a showdown just before Forest Wants. Flower Knight felt insulted because it wasn't invited to last game.
Clawhead Arrow misses, which is terrible news for Mursonus.
Once again it was a really exciting fight - every wound felt like a glimmer of hope, and every failed attack felt like it spelled an inevitable doom. It was a exhilarating triumph when Astalonia scored a critical wound that gave accuracy penalty for Flower Knight. Its badge had once again blessed me with Diversion tactics, which combines so astonishingly well with Fencing.
After a long and dragging (but definitely not lacking) battle, survivors are victorious with no crippling permanent injuries. Survivors receive a stunning amount of resources, four basics and eight flowery ones.
Settlement Event is Hunt Re-enactment. Turns out settlement is so bewildered at their victory over King's Man that they want to make a play out of it. Well, roll is 3. Paraske re-rolls that into a desperate 4. Otherwise he would have died.
Armored Strangers toss six extra resources, which feels like an unbelievable boon in addition to the hunt results.
Hooded Stranger rolls once again 1, which is rerolled into 8. Thanks, Astarno. Astalonia is now cursed with Twilight Sword. And I won't start training her until she gets Katar mastery. It's so close now. Settlement has these once-in-a-life-time rerolls only on one survivor... for a little while.
Two Warbling Blooms are planted into nutritious soil, bringing total population to nine. Here we come, Society principle! (Well... actually I plan on forcing one of the stupid-faces to eat the Lonely Fruit I picked quite a while ago...)
Sense Memory makes me Vespertine Arrow and Satchel. Additional gear I make are Leather Skirt and Scrap Dagger
Oh, and settlement builds Weapon Crafter, too.
Settlement innovates Shrine and uses it right away. Departing survivors will gain +1 Insanity, which is the less ideal result.
Next I will be hunting level 2 Screaming Antelope, but those will take a new blog entry.
Perhaps I try to get some structure to these entries about Kingdom Death by putting a little bit more details about the settlement and survivors to the end of these five year spans.
Settlement storage:
Bladder
Muscly gums
2x Monster Organ
Monster Hide
Skull
2x Broken Lantern
Love Juice
Equipment:
2x Lion Beast Katar, 2x Bandages
Ancient Lantern
Blue Lantern
Dormant Twilight Cloak
Catgut Bow, Clawhead Arrow and King Spear
Bone Darts, Bone Dagger, Bone Blade, Bone Club
Scrap Dagger
2x Full Rawhide Set
White Lion Coat
Leather Mask, Skirt + Shield
Sickle
2x Monster Grease, Lucky Charm and Fecal Salve.
Monster Tooth Necklace
Flower Knight Badge
Sleeping Virus Flower (On Mursonus)
Regal Helm (on Biliouli)
Twilight Sword (on Astalonia)
Satchel
Vespertine Arrow
Locations:
Organ Grinder, Skinnery, Bone Smith, Leather Worker, Weapon Crafter
Sculpture: Abyssal Sadist
Innovations:
Language, Paint, Symposium, Lantern Oven, Inner Lantern, Face Painting, Ammonia, Sculpture, Pottery, Shrine, Guidepost
Principles:
Life: Survival of the Fittest
Death: Graves
Population 9:
Paraske (M) hunt xp 7, strength +3, evasion +1, Insanity 10.
Courage 3 (Prepared), understanding 2.
Bow proficiency 4.
Burning Ambition, Fated vs King's Man
Has no re-roll
Astalonia (F) hunt xp 7, strength +3, evasion +1, Insanity 5.
Courage 5 (prepared), understanding 2.
Katar proficiency 5
Abyssal Sadist
Anxiety
Destroyed genitals
Twilight Sword (cursed)
Has no re-roll.
Mursonus (M) hunt xp 8, accuracy -1, strength +1, evasion +2, luck +1, Insanity 15.
Courage 4 (stalwart) Understanding 3 (explorer)
Fist & Tooth proficiency 5
Monster Claw Style, Abyssal Sadist, Combo Master
Red Fist, Fencing, King's Steå
Blinded (in one eye)
Has no re-roll
Astarno (F) hunt xp 3, strength +1, evasion +1, Insanity 0
Understanding 1
Club proficiency 1
Ruthless
Has no re-roll
Biliouli (F) hunt xp 3, strength +1, evasion +1, Insanity 4
Understanding 1
Dagger proficiency 1
Sneak Attack
Hemophobia, Secretive
King's Curse (head)
Fated vs King's Man
Has no re-roll
Acropia (M), hunt xp 4, strength +1, evasion +1, Insanity 3
Courage 2
Spear Proficiency 2
Has no re-roll
Werno (M), hunt xp 3, +2 strength, +1 evasion, Insanity 1
Courage 2, Understanding 1
Dagger proficiency 1
Warbliana (F) hunt xp 0, strength +1, evasion +1, Insanity 0
Understanding 1
Sacronicus (F) hunt xp 0, strength +1, evasion +1, Insanity 0
Understanding 1
Upcoming events:
Armored Strangers & Hooded Knight on Lantern Year 14.
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