Cruelest "1" I've ever had

Semathi State is my new Kingdom Death solo settlement.

It has some extensive house rules and additions - for example, hunt events are in a deck of 118 cards. Also I'm trying out a house-ruled Protect the Young principle that allows a re-roll of Age story events and Insight & Bold epiphany results.

I took far too few notes on the progress of first nine full years.

I wanted to trigger society principle as quickly as possible, when I managed to roll twelve starting survivors.

Currently it's year 10 settlement phase, and I'm still struggling with it. Settlement has had absolutely terrible luck with Intimacy and settlement events. Hunts were exceptional and went like a breeze, and nemesis challenges turned out entirely fine. Butcher, Manhunter, Slenderman, Lonely Tree... none put a dent in the assets of Semathi State.

Sure many a survivor suffered crippling injuries. Manhunter level 1 gave me two survivors with broken back and one with destroyed genitals, for example.

I think a lion during year one or two hunt killed someone. That's it. There was a maximum of one additional dead survivor I may have forgotten about until the encounter with Slenderman on year 9. Yet death count was 8 before that encounter, which I think is quite impressive with Protect the Young life principle. For the most part house rule I had with it didn't affect things much. Less than six times it has turned an unfavorable result into a permanent stat boost, so I wouldn't say success during showdowns was because of this.

But yeah. First settlement event ever was Skull Eater. Which turned into a yearly killing spree. Two years in a row I also got Haunted settlement event, which forced me to kick a survivor out of colony.

Then a spiderling season had insane survivors killing humans instead of spiders, not to mention the Plague without having innovated Bloodletting. Along with at least three deaths during Intimacy, with not even once getting twins. I fought Spidicules twice and both times I scoured the silk nest with all survivors, not receiving +1 population. When I fought Flower Knight, I did not draw even one Warbling Bloom. Currently it is year 10, and I have drawn exactly two Love Juices. And I still have goddamn nine Broken Lanterns, which I have been tossing left and right in every opportunity. Three resources for a Mighty Strike? Broken lanterns! Scrap Hood Katars? Broken lanterns! Augury 1-3? Broken lanterns! Hilarious.

There were many interesting characters developing throughout the campaign, but one was above the rest - whose history I will repeat here on this very blog post.

Suneais, your legend shall not be forgotten.

She was a survivor of Butcher fight, and received free Axe proficiency from there - along with Butcher's axe.

Experimenting with lanterns gave her Red Fist secret fighting art, and Manhunter encounter gave her both Abyssal Sadist and Tough - yes, she dealt the killing blow. Manhunter gifted her with destroyed genitals, though. During next hunt she just grew important bits back by pulling off some dead weed from the ground.

By the age of three she was an axe specialist, having honed her skill with killing such worthy opponents as Butcher, Manhunter and Spidicules. Even her courage was legendary - by the age of four she had four dots. Bold story event was triggered in no other place than during showdown itself.

She dealt the killing blow to Flower Knight, taking its badge as a trophy.

Well, then there was this White Lion hunt that was a disgrace. So far below her level. I should have had the courage to hunt a level 2 beast, it would have been doable with those rolls.

Season of the Spiderling gave her some additional weapon proficiency. On year eight she had +4 permanents strength and +1 permanent evasion. During settlement event Hunt re-enactment Tough fighting art is replaced with Last Man Standing, which was a bit of an annoyance. But it was good to know that even settlement sees the light of hope in the form of invincibility.

But I'm hesitant to engage Slenderman. So some of the broken backed survivors eat a lonely fruit, and - look at Suneais. Single-handedly chopping down the tree.

She is only one dot away from Axe Mastery.

And yet I choose to take her to challenge Slenderman. A big risk, and had I known beforehand how Slenderman deals with Insanity, I would have probably left her to the settlement. But I didn't - and without earlier experience, Semathi State won Slenderman. Well no, not the settlement. Suneais did. Out of the 13 wounds it takes to kill a Slenderman, she alone did nine. She even critically hits Slenderman so that she gets +1 permanent evasion.

Her hunt experience is 6. Lantern year is 10. Suneais is an Axe Master.

Such feeling of triumph and success. I was pondering which monster I would tackle next. I was considering level 2 Phoenix or level 3 Screaming Antelope. Suneais had +4 permanent strenggth and +2 permanent evasion.

But hey, it's year 10. Before hunt commences, we have to take down this Manhunter again.

He does have some scary moves and I have to be cautious. Maybe I was a bit arrogant when I took two useless survivors along, who were destined to die at the end of settlement phase anyway, thanks to infection from plague.

Turned out I kind of wasn't. Turn after turn Suneais was dodging tombstone attacks and dealing a wound or two in.

Manhunter was also fixated on killing the intracranial hemorrhage survivor that had Cat's Eye Amulet. Eventually he managed to do this, but by then he only had one card left in AI deck.

Suneais, go and end his misery already. You're fully capable of this.

She has to draw hit location blindly because the Cat's Eye Amulet was gone.

Gritty Visage had this reflex where attacker takes automatic severe injury with +1 to the result.

Suneais deals the wound with no problem whatsoever.

I'm worried about the prospect of some crippling permanent injury. This is pretty much her only "weakness" - dealing damage so reliably. She had the equivalent of +5 evasion from stats and gear. She had Abyssal Sadist and Rawhide armor set on her. She had insanity of 14, more coming every moment. She was continuously maxed out with survival and settlement's limit of six, so she wasn't running out of opportunities to dodge, and still was able to surge every turn.

So it was the cruelest 1 I've ever rolled in this game. She had such an amazing future for her. At such level of performance survivors are usually nearing their retirement, but she was just beginning.

Furthermore, irony is apparent. Because had not the settlement celebrated her prowess two years before and removed Tough fighting art, she would have survived even this with only a couple bleed tokens. She had a stock of three Red Vials, so bleed tokens wouldn't have stopped her the least anyway.

Then Manhunter goes and butchers another survivor. Manhunter has no cards in his deck, but I'm left with just one survivor. The only fresh face I had in that fight. I could sense his trembling. Or was it me trembling?

Baledda had white lion coat, king spear, monster tooth necklace with affinity bonuses and a +1 strength token from Suneais' secret fighting art. If Baledda managed to hit and hit location was damageable, he'd need only 4+ to kill, as he was able to pounce and strike with king spear.

He scored the kill, but I just could not feel victorious. Suneais' swansong. First fight as fully grown axe master was where she died.

And suddenly looks like settlement is doomed. At least I have a Spear Master and the axe mastery innovation, but without Butcher's Axe that went down with Suneais, I'm left with Bone Axes. I will have to fight a level 2 monster, that's for sure. But. Now is a very good time for a pause from Kingdom Death.