Opmot Begins

I started a new People of the Lantern campaign for a very specific purpose. I won't go there just yet.

This time I'll use Flower Knight but not Spidicules. I did get Dung Beetle Knight a while ago, but that's for some another time and age.

Anyway, prologue fight is a breeze. There were no dead survivors, or any permanent injuries either. Then, during first day, I rolled maximum population for start.

Settlement of Opmot was one member off from getting society principle right away. And prologue lion had been generous enough to give a love juice. Settlement also innovated Symposium, so things were looking bright.

But not to make things too easy settlement did not receive a new life principle that year. Intimacy result was 2, which meant a dead mother.

Cle, the almost-to-be-father, swore revenge. Towards who? I don't know. Maybe fellow survivors, as people descended into despicable wretches, cannibalizing the dead mother right after failed childbirth. Or how do I know if they even waited for it to fail. Gruesome.

Bone Darts, Bone Blade, Moster Grease and Rawhide Gloves were my choice of gear to be made for hunting White Lion.

Year 1 White Lion hunt has a brutal start. One of the survivors dies during hunt phase. This is probably second or third time or something like that when this occurs. Might be even the first. Cle died, but then on the other hand a new survivor was found from Bloody Eyes.

Monster Corpse eased showdown a little, but very first action Lion did was to attack and score hits with Bloody Claw against Elcan, who was the survivor with all extra gear. Two bleed tokens on turn 1 to the only real fighter was a disheartening event, coupled with the fact that there were only three survivors anyway.

Once Terrifying Roar dispenses survivors all over the board far from each other, one survivor lobs Founding Stone at it. This creates a nice organ trail, which gave me a little hope. Spoiler: it did zero wounds, though.

I had to use a second founding stone once Lion drew Lick Wounds.

But for quite a while it didn't seem too bad. It started looking unwinnable when Lion finally killed Elcan. Now it rested on Bone Darts on one survivor and bare hands on another to deal with Lion. There was only one card left in it's deck, though. And it was removed with Bone Darts.

One more wound.

Please.

Please.

Bare hands scored a hit and drew trap. Survived, but I had been rolling one hits with two dice - if it hits, the second die is wound roll if location is woundable. It would have been a critical wound.

Turn after turn Bone Dart just wouldn't hit, and hands would do damage. Bare hand fighter was knocked down most of the time, as Lion was targeting him with basic action every round. And there were at least five rounds like this until Bone Darts finally hit home.

Only to reveal trap, again.

Bare hand fighter eventually succumbed to all the wounds he had been inflicted. He had already been blind and disemboweled.

On the verge of flipping the table and go crying under it, Bone Darts did a second hit and scored wound.

Clinging Mist gave Elba Sun Drunk disorder. Nucni, the First Speaker, also becomes the Voice of Reason.

Settlement innovates Ammonia, and has a baby from Love Juice. Settlement picks Protect the Young as life principle.

Following equipment are developed: Catgut Bow, Fecal Salve, Rawhide Vest and Headband, plus King Spear.

I think I'll have to go for another White Lion for second year hunt.

Hunt phase gave a White Lion Cub as well as doppel den. Two survivors got switched into their evil counterparts.

Showdown started magnificently, which is often the case when Prowling Lion is in play.

First actual AI card it draws is Bat Around, and survivors had already dealt five points of damage in next turn.

But then it draws Lick Wounds. While it was in effect for only one round, it backed off so that next turn it would eat Lonely Fruit.

Never have I ever been grateful when trap comes up. Or maybe I have, I don't remember. There are weird situations in this game. Anyway, this trap drew White Lion away from the feeding range to Lonely Fruit.

But that was when the pain begun. A total of four traps were sprung during this showdown. Survivors were adept in failing to wound on hit locations that gave Basic Action against them. Last card that was left in AI deck was Revenge. But survivors did win, and with only one casualty. Sadly this was one of the doppelgangers, which meant Evil Elba ate Nucni, the First Speaker and Father of Words. I guess she wanted to complete her name and become incuNablE.

Settlement didn't approve and killed the murderer. Starting four survivors were gone, as were my hopes for society principle any time soon. Population had fallen to nine survivors. Event was Open Maw, where nobody entered.

Well, approaching storm gave settlement Hovel. The plethora of resources had settlement innovate Settlement Watch.

Development involved completing Rawhide armor set, skull helm, white lion helm, lion beast katar, claw head arrow and luck charm.

Two survivors used Settlement Watch, the other gaining +1 strength and the other got to select weapon proficiency.

I tried to trigger intimacy via Augury, but didn't succeed.

Now.

Approaching Storm heralded incoming Gorm herd.

So that's where survivors are going next.

But that may take some time...