Hand Giveth Hand Taketh

It's been a while, but the settlement of Burkstad has not been forgotten.

Yesterday our group continued this sorry tale, which ended up in The Hand giving the finger.

Somehow that makes sense.

Vladimirana, Igorina, Ennhilde and Gummi were to face the god-like entity known as The Hand.

Though Gummi wasn't exactly a promising survivor with his gaping chest wounds and all, he did have Last Man Standing fighting art. So he might actually be a fine candidate to survive rude slaps or full-powered flicks.

But the showdown itself. What a fight.

We were trying to arrange most of Hand's attacks to Gummi, who had been stacked with all evasion we could muster. On hindsight, why would we stack evasion or enduring capabilities on the survivor who would shine when there's no-one left but him? But in the end it worked fine.

Because despite being served severe injuries and brain traumas left and right, survivors put a miserable enough show for The Hand to appreciate. Shattered Jaw and something else on Vladimirana were the only permanent injuries for survivors, unless we count Disorders as such.

When situation looked right, we tried to injure The Hand. A total of three tokens were placed on Impossible Eyes, so when there were only three cards left in AI deck we just decided not to resist.

Hand is a theatrical fellow. Third last card was "Take Your Best Shot" and second last was the ominous chuckle that dealt five brain damage to all non-deaf survivors. I see that quite climactic and evil mastermind villain-y thing to do. And of course last card was a jump scare in the form of Bullet Jabs.

Nobody died. Would Burkstad finally play a one full Lantern Year without nobody dying?

Gummi rolls for The Hand's applause rewards. It came out as "1", which is unpreventable instant death. Nope, we didn't break the chain of death following Burk's spirit.

And literally ALL remaining survivors rolled a natural lantern 10 for applause rewards. Perhaps Gummi, the second last male of Burkstad, was the sacrifice.

Whoops, a little spoiler there. Because we did have Tourneghulle and Vladimir in the settlement at the time, too.

The player who had played Gummi drew us a settlement event and said jokingly that obviously it's going to be Murder.

It was Murder.

Tourneghulle, the red savior, had most hunt experience so he was the victim. He was the fourth savior Burkstad lost. So far settlement has been more of a lethal place to saviors than actual showdowns.

The Hand's legacy isn't ending here, because aftermath rewards killed yet another survivor from settlement.

However, The Hand had a retinue of King's Men with him, and these Armored Strangers gave some compensation for the playful little holiday trip of The Hand.

So, here's one more example of the weird way how random element sometimes just clicks so well in Kingdom Death. I find fascination in the full catalog of unlikely events this game offers.

Before showdown population was nine. And nobody died during showdown, so our population was still nine. Armored Strangers take destructive action on population of 8+. So in a way, the poor rolls on rewards and Murder settlement event were actually good things.

Because Burkstad was blessed with some resources we could innovate. Choices weren't that special, so we decided to try Petal Spiral.

As we have been continuously losing our highest experienced survivors, we used Shared Experience to get a couple of survivors to first Age milestone.

Augury gave some intimacy, so population was at seven. Which is terrible, but at least a step for the better.

Armor ritual was success and one Rawhide Headband was crafted. Petal Spiral was put to use right away, so we have an aspiring swordmaster coming up with zero hunt experience.

Coming up next is the Sunstalker. Which I need to start painting, I suppose.


Burkstad

Population: 7

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric


Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking
Sculpture
Partnership
Shrine
Petal Spiral


+Guidepost

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

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



Resources:
2x broken lantern
2x organ
Skull