It's Lantern Year 24, and Sanurinn Pool is attacked by The Hand's bodyguard, King's Man.
Sacrala, Lavias, Spenaccio and Halyran are there to defend their home.
Spenaccio strikes true, but his blows only break through spots that had stored pressure and acid acid. Trap was drawn twice in one round.
Lavias misses both special arrows, and it feels like Butcher level 3 all over again. And while survivors were fairly immune to King's Man's attacks, Silent Hymn was stacking up.
It was not until third turn when Halyran inflicted four wounds, followed by Sacrala who landed a hit on regal back. She gained a point of evasion.
Spenaccio becomes the target for Hook & Pull, which was the only real damage for survivors this far. But thanks to the attack Spenaccio was now within attack range even if movement had already fallen to 1 space per move. Attack hit but did not deal damage. Reflex had King's Man take two steps back, and now it was within attack range of Sacrala if she dashed.
It was a good dash because it managed to deal eight wounds.
Then Silent Hymn had three out of four survivors at the nightmarish twilight between sleep and wake.
Sacrala and Spenaccio have seizures. Sacrala stops to believe in the protective nature of leylines. She needs body armor, that's her weak spot. Spenaccio dreams of a giant beast stepping on him, crushing him. This makes him megalophobic. Halyran receives clarity, and realizes cleanliness is the best form of protection in this disgusting world. He received squeamish disorder.
Clarity was a bad result as it robbed Halyran from all survival. But King's Man had only three cards left in AI deck.
Spenaccio prays the sun and scores one damaging hit, which brings King's Man to two wounds remaining.
Halyran had natural strength and strength from equipment equal to 14, so he would injure King's Man on a roll of 4+ if not in blind spot. His attack speed with shield was four. More than acceptable probability, so he attacks. He scores three hits and inflicts a wound.
Second hit location fails to wound and has a reflex that backs King's Man two spaces. Not a problem, as Halyran had King's Step and was able to join the dance pattern.
What
was a problem was Spenaccio in King's Man's blind spot. The only time Spenaccio succeeded with 6+ roll with Amber Poleaxe happened now.
King's Man impaled itself to the spear and cursed blood sprayed all over Spenaccio, afflicting him with King's Curse.
Year 25
The big year adds another element that has been falling from the sky. Worm white shreds that resemble either brain cells or silk threads made slow descend.
It must have been remains of a cocoon from a sun that had hatched high up in the sky. Sticky mess is all over the settlement, making it difficult to even move.
Event was Silk Storm.
No better time than this to innovate Choreia. Steaming the webs did not help in getting rid of them, but at least Sauna Shrine was a success.
Most of the nine endeavors I had were spent on curing Squeamish from Halyran. It took many so many attempts and even caused intracranial hemorrhage in the process, that also needed cure. But eventually Chilons succeeded in ruining Halyran's sense of smell.
Showdown
Sacrala, Sanorad, Halyran and Lavias happen to be taking a stroll outside when it happens: sun falls down from sky, hell-bent on devouring the settlement as a whole. At first, survivors don't even see what is attacking them. Red and green light scorch survivors, who huddle together to offer at least a little shade for each other. Speaking of shades, shadows are moving unnaturally and seem aggressive. Before they get too close Sacrala, Halyran and Sanorad each kill one - which is a good indicative that things are even more less right. Usually shadows don't die when you poke them with a weapon.
Lavias is the first to see the Great Devourer through Necromancer's Eye. She sees vomit kaleidoscope in the near vicinity. As well as a slowly creeping tentacle, which is shot off with Deathpack.
Turn 2
Dazzling beam is following Halyran no matter where he attempts to run and hide. It's no ordinary light, as it leaves a smoldering crater right next to Halyran.
Lavias prays to the sun for her Clawhead Arrow to hit and inflict damage perhaps twice with Legendary Lungs. But sun doesn't answer. After all it's standing there in plain sight, trying to devour everyone in Sanurinn Pool.
Halyran triggers Vomit Kaleidoscope and survives, though his regal gear sizzles and bubbles. Light capable of melting metal.
Turn 3
Oversaturation from aforementioned kaleidoscope bashes down Sacrala, Halyran and Sanorad. Light just keeps intensifying. Lavias tries to guide survivors who can't see anything with Necromancer's eye. Halyran swings his Knuckle Shield blindly in the blinding direction and deals four wounds in to Sunstalker - first damage from actual attacks, in fact. The attack hits prismatic handed fin, which sends Halyran flying, canceling remains of his attack.
Sanorad sees Halyran attacking something, and follows his example. Two more wounds to the devourer. Sacrala is occupied with the shades.
Turn 4
Slowly accumulating wounds have finally caught Great Devourer's attention. It turns and stares Sanorad, knocking her down with massive amounts of brain damage and a point of damage that ignores armor to every hit location.
Lavias let's go of taking peeks into future and shoots a volley of arrows with Catgut Bow with God's String attached. She prays for the Sun, who doesn't respond. But she finds the fiery conviction from inside of herself and deals six wounds to Sunstalker.
Sanorad succeeds to land two more. I get excited, as with a little luck I might be able to win - there were only three cards in AI deck. Only two wounds with the prayer, and it's a win.
Halyran prays to the sun and dashes to Sunstalker.
He scores only two hits on four tries despite hitting on 3+, but that's just enough and at least has minimal chance for drawing trap.
But the trap was within next two locations.
Kaleidoscope, again. This time far more devastating.
Lavias loses her source of shadow. Sanorad receives two bleed tokens from severe injury to body.
Halyran is tough. But not tough enough to make it through a stroboscope. First severe injury deals killing blow to him. And the trap emptied Solar Track, so survivors still had five wounds to chew through.
Sacrala dashes to Sunstalker's blind spot and prays.
Four attacks score three hits, which is enough to kill the Great Devourer. Being a child of the sun, her whip is Sharp and she has astounding amount of strength anyway thanks to her whip mastery.
However, last wound attempt was a "1". Sacrala had tried to pierce Sunstalker's heart, but failed. Sacrala is knocked back and takes five damage to only hit location that could not take it. And severe injury roll killed her. Except it just drained her life elixir.
Turn 5
Then I notice I've been playing this showdown with incorrect Toughness on the Great Devourer. Luckily only once I had rolled exactly 17 for wound attempt, so I re-took two cards from wound stack back to Devourer's AI deck.
Ironically Lavias scores only one hit, which scores two wounds. Would've been enough.
Dazzling Beam is on Solar Track, so Sunstalker has no cards in AI deck any more.
Hoping for a Timeless Strike from Counter-Weighted Axe, Sanorad attacks.
No timeless strikes here, only vomit kaleidoscope. But Sanorad has no metal armor that would have cooked her inside as happened with Halyran, and she survives. But it reset's Dazzling Beam again.
Sacrala dashes and attacks. She can't get into shadow, but that has no consequences, because from her three attacks, third location is...
...
...
Vomit kaleidoscope.
Well, at least it's dealing damage to only one hit location now.
Sanorad is disemboweled and Sacrala loses all armor and injury levels in her arms.
Turn 6
Sunstalker shoots Lavias with Dazzling Beam, which gives dizzying worm trauma.
And finally, Necromancer puts end to the showdown, killing Sunstalker. Heroic survivors of Sanurinn Pool managed to defend themselves from their voracious god.
Too bad most monsters had been scared to wander too close to the birthplace of this horrifying creature.
It's possible the Sun awoke because it noticed how humans were leeching it's power in the form of praying.
Whatever the case, settlement was doomed from now on, when endless wave of hungry monsters started nearing Sanurinn Pool.
So, I dislike these "game over" endings. I'm continuing campaign until defeat, with the rules from old version of Exhausted Lantern Hoard.
Since their god had died, I'm also removing Sun Language and Hands of the Sun innovations. And to wrap this thing up the write-ups are going to be short. As in: really short.
Year 26
Now that the unbearable source of light is gone from the sky, another one dares to approach.
Level 3 Gorm has made it's way into Sanurinn Pool.
Chiloresc, Parkara, Cratera and Lavias take on the mighty beast.
Parkara was disemboweled and suffered broken rib. Cratera was enriched with broken pelvis and broken rib and Lavias retired. Chiloresc had not don God Mask and the Sun had died, so it kind of makes sense that he got killed.
It was a struggle, though. A normal hunt would have most likely ended with four dead survivors. And it was Lavias who did most of the job here. Out of 20 wounds she dealt around fourteen. Legendary Lungs bow master on top of Giant Stone Face is a force to be reckoned with.
Year 27
Second challenge year is Spidicules.
+4 speed and +4 to damage was excruciating fight. Not to mention how you can get a maximum of only a couple damage points in to Spidicules per turn if you don't have plenty of spears and ranged weapons.
Lyrna, Sanorad, Klenovar and Spiress did their best. Showdown lasted well over ten turns and was hinging on the verge of defeat from, what, turn three. And yet miracles were happening for both sides. All but guaranteed attacks failed for survivors, and when they should not have made it, someone pulled it through.
Year 25 had the silk storm. It was the first wave of this assault that drowned Sanurinn Pool in spiders.
And Spidicules had zero cards left in it's AI deck.
Well then.
I doubt I'll play another People of the Sun any time soon.
Sure it was quite an experience. Absurd power trip, even. I believe that's thanks to changes in Survival of the Fittest. That extra evasion and re-roll function even better in People of the Sun than in the original campaign. For a long time I played Devastating wrong, even. I thought it triggered only once per attack instead of every time you wound. So early game would have been even easier.
Astonishing success gave so many possibilities that it eventually felt like a burden. Judging from this one experience only, it seems like late game goes even slower in People of the Sun. So finally having settlement destroyed carries a sense of relief in it.
Phew.
