Burkstad 8-9

...

Maybe I can leave this like that?

These two lantern years were, once again, extreme to say at least. There seemed to be no safeish middle ground. It was all either things going horribly worse way possible, or amazing performance beyond all expectations.

Year 8 hunt is a Screaming Antelope. Hunt phase went fine, though survivors had their identities re-written by a Phoenix flying overhead above the clouds. But actual showdown went exceptionally. Antelope did next to no actual attacks against survivors - targets were always able to dash away. Most attacks made by survivors hit, and it was somewhere around sixth wound attempt when it failed for the first time.

If memory serves, only one point of damage was taken by the survivors, and that came via trample.

Victorious, survivors return to settlement. Only that the last survivor from the original four - Trevor (or Greyvor after getting renamed) got too curious about what's inside of saviors. He poked a hole to our savior's head and the savior just disappeared. Shocked, settlement murders the murderer.

Now isn't that nice. It wasn't like we needed a savior in the upcoming fight against King's Man.

Bob orders people to breed, and we received another savior. Well then. We decided to get a green one. Augury gives one additional moment of intimacy, and hey. A second savior. Too bad there can be only one, but at least we got twins. Population is brought to ten.

Settlement innovates Inner Lantern, which also is a major boon. But then to the next challenge...

King's Man. People of Burkstad aren't going down that easily!

But... they sure are going down.

Bob, Hecu, Tournebulle the Dormenatus savior and former Gwennyth confronted armored stranger.

It starts pretty well. Except that Cat's Eye Circlet revealed trap to be there within first three cards. But Claw Head Arrow hits, and then former Gwennyth lobs a bone dart to lure off the trap.

First turn King's Man did no damage at all.

Bob scores a critical wound against the nemesis monster and lowers it's speed by one. Hooray. He scores a second wound, too, but it had reflex that did basic action against attacker.

It's two hits. Two leg locations. Severe injury roll of 2.

Our best survivor down.

And still ten or eleven wounds to be done. Game over.

Or is it?

Hecu scores a critical wound that gives King's Man another -1 speed for the rest of combat. Then on the second attempt she gains King's Step.

Greater Gaxe was also doing damage here and there. Even Tournebulle does some, and looked like after losing Bob we stood an actual chance.

But then survivor luck ran out. Might be because they also ran out of survival.

Whenever Hecu tried to flush out Battle Pressures, she picked a card that one way or another returned all Battle Pressures on top of hit location deck.

This could not go on forever, and random hits were taken by the survivors here and there. Eventually Hecu bled to death.

That's when Tournebulle and former Gwennyth started dancing. Gwennyth had a head start since she had tried it a couple of times. But once leg location went to heavy damage levels, she had no courage to continue. She managed to get a total of five battle tempo tokens before... dying.

And it was not a pretty death either. She already had no jaw. She also got gaping chest wound, broken back and broken arm. She was mangled beyond recognition.

Now it was a duel between green savior and King's Man. This took an exhausting length of time, since King's Man was quite adept at missing him, and when he did hit, Tournebulle was able to get some armor back via dormenatus.

Tournebulle held his own and managed to trigger Age 4. King's Man had four cards in it's AI deck. With a little bit of luck perhaps showdown could still have been won, but Tournebulle beat even former Gwennyth in amount of tempo tokens. He got six of them.

Bleed tokens were also his downfall.

There are no survivors to return to settlement. Only a blood-quenched executor that's thirsty for more.

Glossolalia has Tiberius babbling endlessly. Gorm Climate gives such a storm that it pulls out Guidepost that had been erected by King's Men on lantern year six.

King's Man takes notice of this and lodges another halberd into the ground. And since it has no longer a halberd, he has to go and fetch a new one before executing whole Burkstad. Casually it tosses three random basic resources to settlement. Considering one survivor just disappeared from being, the origin of these resources was dubious.

Settlement also innovated Cooking. Hmm. Tastes like chicken.
There was also Bob's last matchmaking gift. His corpse was probably the Love Juice. That's nice, since population of six carries a promise of losing settlement to darkness.

Well, it's a miscarriage that kills both mother and the baby. Down to five.

Tiberius starts doing auguries, which yield intimacies surprisingly easily.

Population is down to four. Tiberius, you're reading the portents upside down.

Then it gets better. Intimacies bring two survivors with +1 permanent strength, one survivor with no specific anything and...

A savior.

Also, Bob came back as a withered husk and offered flower to a survivor who became Bob again.

Once again Burkstad emerges from the brink of utter annihilation.

It's tenth lantern year, and death count is nineteen. Plus three vanished saviors.

Burkstad is absurd. With other hand it's giving sweetest cake, and with another hand it stabs you with a poisoned knife. It gently pats you on the head with sole of a feet and with another foot it kicks you in the tummy. Head bashes you down, then gives a lapdance.




Burkstad

Population: 8

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves

Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking

+Guidepost

Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Bone Smith
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Catarium
Gormchymist
Gormery
Weapon Crafter

Gear:
3x Cloth
3x Stone Noses
Full Rawhide Set
1x rawhide vest, 1x Rawhide Gloves
Gorment Boots
Skull Helm
Bone Dagger
Bone Darts
Rib Blade
Greater Gaxe
Cat Eye Circlet
2x Monster Grease
Lucky Charm
Monster Tooth Necklace
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow
White Lion Coat
Bone Dagger
Flower Knight Badge



Resources:
Phoenix Small Feather
Pelt