Boneyard: the grim beginning

Oh my. The players are going to love this when they read it.

Anyway. First time ever I got to play a 4-player Kingdom Death.

Prologue lion killed my character and bit the eye off another, but otherwise prologue went surprisingly well. Settlement was named Boneyard, and we had nine survivors after returning survivors.

Three endeavors innovated Ammonia for us, and Skinnery and Bonesmith.

Year 1 hunt goes amazingly well. White Lion ambushes survivors on the second space on hunt board. Thanks to some Ground Fighting abuse we managed to kill the great cat without too much hassle. All the survivors were on the verge of dying, but I don't think anyone actually got permanent injuries. In fact it was the settlement event Rivalry that made my character take gaping chest wound.

Settlement builds Organ Grinder and innovates Paint. Two auguries don't give even slightest moment of intimacy for anyone.

Year 2 hunt is already Screaming Antelope, and I'm genuinely baffled on how easily that beast went down, too. First card was Chowdown, so survivors scavenged what they could while Antelope grazed from plant to plant. Nearing the end of the showdown, things went absurd. One of the players wanted to train fist & tooth proficiency, and was running besides Screaming Antelope, punching it as it wandered aimlessly. It had no cards in AI deck and since there were no knocked down survivors, it just trod with equal speed with survivors, thanks to one -1 Movement token.

Settlement event is Heatwave. Rivalry loses it's impetus.

Settlement builds Weapon Crafter and innovates Hovel. There was at least one attempt at augury. I don't quite remember what the last one was - possibly even more augury.

Year 3 hunt is The Butcher.

That's right. Year. Three.

So, I dare our dear players to lynch me next time we meet, for we fought Butcher one year earlier than we were supposed to. Prologue still messes up my mind when it comes to Lantern Year progress. Also, Screaming Antelope was a surprising quarry for lantern year 2, so I thought intuitively that next was the horrifying Butcher fight.

Random terrain cards were the Lonely Tree and the Nightmare Tree. Boneyard is on the edge of a forest, I believe.

The fight itself. Oh, we could have done it. We had a player wounding Butcher on 4's, but he failed far over half of his wound rolls. We dashed and danced all around Butcher in a most professional manner, and with only a little bit of luck here and there could have been victorious.

Maybe it could have been enough if my character wouldn't have died to the very first Severe Injury roll she had to make. All the other survivors died to bleed tokens, most resulting from Dreaded Trophies.

So, it was a full wipe at Butcher. But let's sigh from relief. I mean, it's the worst that can happen, it's all for the better from now on, right? Wrong.

Settlement event is Murder, so I suppose Butcher's lunacy truly was contagious even outside of the actual showdown.

Then.

Let's talk about Burk for a second. Earlier he had poked a gaping chest wound to my character during their rivalry, which is understandable. Accidents happen. But.

It didn't stop there, no. In fact, the hunger grew and now he murdered the most experienced survivor settlement had. Didn't get caught, though. Now HE was the most experienced survivor - no doubt his ultimate goal. To be the leader.

But then it was time to have population bloom. Eight endeavors prompted quite a few auguries, and Burk decided to become the progenitor of new fierce warriors.

Well, his only contact with other survivors had left a permanent mark on him. Mostly just violence and death. Mother (Igorina, was it?) and the child both perished. Burk figured out he had done a grave mistake somewhere along the road, but couldn't quite gather, where. Ashamed he received Performance Anxiety (cannot be nominated for Intimacy).

Population: One male, one female and one Burk.

All the rest attempts at Augury yield absolutely nothing. So actual year 4 begins with three survivors. But since we now have one surprise year worth of hunt out of nowhere with relatively good gear, this settlement is definitely salvageable as long as we have a breeding pair without performance anxieties (which, I must admit, developed out of a very good reason.)

But since the session ended, I realized we still have two endeavors left - one gained from Murder and one from the botched intimacy attempt.

I'm going to suggest we spend one of them for Candice & Ancient Lantern challenge scenario to have a decent chance to save the settlement.