Existential Monkey Business

Again now for something Malifaux. A game of 50 soul stones with Corrupted Idols strategy.

My list:

Molly + Necrotic construct
Philip & Nanny + Grave Spirit Touch
Madame Sybelle
Mourner + Grave Spirit Touch
2x Crooligan
Rotten belle

6x stones

Schemes: Detonate Charges, Harness the Ley Lines


Opponent had

Asami Tanaka + Amanjaku
Ohaguro Bettari
Ama No Zako
2x Obsidian Oni
Jorogumo

9x stones

Schemes: Harness the Ley Lines, Search the Ruins


I had mistakenly thought that Jorogumo's had Ruthless. This is why I opened the game by using Mourner's Blasphemous Ritual and walking her within walking distance of Jorogumo. I hadn't grasped the Flicker mechanics yet. But I thought I should be quite safe with Terrifying (11), Disguised (charges generate no attacks against her) and Hard to Wound.

But the one attack Jorogumo was able to do brought Mourner down to health remaining, so I panicked and yanked her away from action with Madame Sybelle, who in turn went to engage Jorogumo.

Molly and Philip questioned the Jorogumo to death. I suppose their interrogation methods must be exhausting. However, another Jorogumo popped into existence right away via Asakami's summons.

Also, the burning ground thingy Obsidian Oni's have... I didn't know how terribly Burning condition is. And one Obsidian Oni had come to center of the board.

Turn 2 I won initiative, but somehow thought activating Philip & Nanny first was the right thing to do, and get some Boring Conversations going on, as well as to put their Chatty ability into use. Next thing I knew, I had Philip & Nanny, Madame Sybelle, Crooligan and Rotten Belle inside burning ground. What a nightmare.

I don't know what the heck I could have done if it wasn't for Rotten Belle, who took a point of Burning, walked away and lured Obsidian Oni with her. Given their impressive Willpower, I was lucky to have it succeed.

Crooligans and Molly were pretty good at dismantling enemy scheme markers. Ohaguro Bettari charged Philip & Nanny, an attack that burned a good portion of my soulstones. But the prams survived.

Necrotic Construct had engaged another Obsidian Oni earlies in game, and I was faced with a dilemma - Oni was at one health remaining, and it had put up the burning ground thing already. Necrotic Construct was also at one health remaining. Kill the Oni? Dead. Try to heal yourself, disengage and do something else? For +3 burning, sure. Luckily Madame Sybelle was able to get Necrotic Construct's back... only to have the construct wrecked by Jorogumo.


It was probably Mourner who fed on the Oni's grief to have it explode with no-one inside it's radius. Oh wait, no. Mourner tried to do that and would've succeeded if it wasn't for Black Joker who made her damage track 0/0/0. Molly told the Oni a really disturbing story, and it exploded. Then she walked to strategy marker and threw it away from centerline.


I had laid the centerline full with scheme markers, and was able to score three points on turn 2 - detonate charges on Ohaguro, and Harness the Ley Lines.

It's curious how in this game often seems to happen that what you consider safe & sound course of action turns out wrong.

I was pretty certain I had secured my end phase Harness the Ley Lines with a crooligan who had laid scheme markers in the safety of my left side board. Nope. Asami had a double walk there, blew the crooligan six inches into the hazard terrain and used free action to eat all of my precious scheme markers.

Also, scoring Detonate the Charges seemed unlikely, because damn it - enemy models were detonating themselves already!

Serene Countenance and Hard to Wound on Molly make her quite survivable. She had four health remaining, as she had been tossing corrupted idols.

Then some stupid monkeys pop out of nowhere and throw them back. Ohaguro dies when it threw one idol back to centerline, too.

It wasn't until fourth turn when scoreboard saw any additional movement. Opponent scored one point from Corrupted Idols.

Had Amanjaku survived when it went to engage Molly, there could have been a chance of draw. But Mourner overachieved and killed the totem, and Molly was able to secure me a second point from from Corrupted Idols. We decided to end the game there, as opponent had no realistic chances to score three points for a draw in last round, all the while blocking me from littering the centerline with scheme markers.

It was a fun scenario and a good game.

More (and less) Criblings

Lantern Year 4, showdown against Butcher. Defenders were Arb, the first speaker and Mutna, Ines and Cahlona.

First two cards in the nemesis's deck was Lantern Frenzy and Double Hack. Would have been nice to win Butcher, but here goes, I thought.

Combined with survivors scoring no hits or wounds for, what, the first four rounds of the game was... discouraging. Most survivors spent their survival on Surge, and yet no wounds, barely even hits. Arb, the support survivor, even broke his bone darts on the super-dense location. But at least Butcher was just as inept as the survivors - mostly because I had lucked out with terrain and received Tall Grass. But still, Wild Carve had some automatic bleed going on.

Then Butcher starts screaming, and while it could have been a blessing, Arb - the survivor with bandages - went down in mortal fear. I know I got dentist next week, and after this kick in my teeth I probably need it, too.

Cahlona, who had Iron Will, had become the target for Lantern Frenzy. If it only had been Ines, but no... the only survivor with extremely difficult to get ability. However, she did surprisingly fine in the constant mauling of the early nemesis. Granted, Butcher was hitting on 8+ for most of his attacks.

Then wounds started trickling in, but I waged guess that far, far too late. And when the second survivor exploded into bleed tokens, Butcher still had at least six cards in it's deck.

Next enemy turn Butcher drew both Screaming and Lantern Frenzy again, and was suddenly down at four cards remaining. I guess screaming and frenzying puts you in a vulnerable position. By this time Mutna had frenzied three times and Ines two times. Both had three bleed tokens. Losing one survivor would give Butcher +2 wounds via discarded moods, as well as +2 damage tokens from Dreaded Trophies.

One chance.

Mutna leaves Tall Grass and circles to Butcher's back, rolls five dice and scores three wounds with no trap or impervious or otherwise damnable hit locations involved.

Next, Ines. She charges in and deals the remaining two injuries with her speed 4 Rib Blade. I checked the hit location deck, and trap was next card. Hairs breadth away from defeat.

Ines had received Flower Addiction from brain trauma, but no other permanent negative effects for the remaining two survivors. Admirable, and not only because judging from the beginning, this showdown was unwinnable.


Lantern Year 5

Settlement Phase

Settlement event is Stranger in the Dark, who is apparently a terrified survivor who Butcher had been pursuing in the first place. Did Strangebutch lead Butcher into settlement...?

Mutna experiments with lanterns during Hands of Heat and gains Red Fist and +1 permanent strength from lantern branding. Right in the afterparty of branding, an old crone tells her tale of Flower Knight. Flower was given to Ines, since she had Flower Addiction already. And a precious point of evasion.

Population of nine isn't too bad, but it's far from society principle. Only two endeavors are spent on Auguries, which yields one intimacy and a double-widower Tondelone. Palm plantation in my face.

With Ines having Flower Addiction and Mutna being Megalophobic, next hunt is has a decent chance of being rough.

But first there is this Manhunter that needs to be dealt with.

Special Showdown vs Manhunter level 1. Defenders were led by Mutna, who has Red Fist, Double Dash, Mammoth Hunting and a whopping +3 permanent strength and three little survivors who have never left home: Tonone, Strangebutch and Fumelia.

Manhunter opens up the game by attempting to wrestle Strangebutch down, but once he proved dodge-y enough, he decided to shoot him in the head. Armor saved from severe injury. Makes for an emergent storyline. Perhaps Strangebutch did not lead Butcher into settlement. He may have been pursued by Manhunter instead. However, Mutna and Fumelia deal in an impressive four wounds on turn 1.

Next turn Manhunter attempts to wrestle Fumelia, and then takes a crack shot at her, knocking her down this time.

Strangebutch tries to take a swing at their enemy, and succeeds once. Then he surges another attack, and receives Prey disorder instead.

Tonono encourages Fumelia up, who then injures Manhunter and uses Surge for another attack. This draws trap, and encouraging Fumelia up is something that Tonono regrets... forever. Fumelia gains Shallow Lungs disorder from enough brain damage from trap's Gun Action. Tonono, on the other hand, dies of mortal fear.

Mutna strikes Manhunter with Butcher's Cleaver, and total from second turn is four additional wounds to Manhunter. This particular hunter seems to be quite the gunslinger, since the two AI cards left in deck both use Gun Action. Fortunately all remaining survivors have some insanity to shield their ears from ringing to the tune of Deathpact.

On turn three Manhunter was not fast enough to wrestle anybody, but he did shoot Mutna.

Strangebutch triest to attack Manhunter again, but finds a kick in his groin instead, breaking his hips. Strangebutch decides to dash away, as not being able to dodge Tombstone attacks that deal three damage per hit was intimidating. Also, I thought Manhunter might well die this turn.

Well, he didn't.

Fumelia strikes him twice, dealing wounds with both attacks, but getting knocked down from reactions - well, that sounds far less severe than what happened. She was disemboweled.

Anyway. One wound from essentially strength 9 attacks shouldn't be a problem, right?

Meh. Mutna's both attacks miss.

I try to play my cards right, and Mutna surges a block with Knuckle Shield, and then moves away to lure Manhunter away so that she is picked as basic action target instead of Strangebutch, who had one bleed token.

Plan works, and next turn Mutna butcher's Manhunter with Butcher's Cleaver. It took only four turns, compared to the excruciating 9+ turns of Butcher.

Population has sunken to only seven members, so it might be best to hunt for a Screaming Antelope next. Otherwise I would've gone for yet another Gorm, but I believe I need Mutna's matchmaking capabilities, and she is megalophobic.

Year 5 hunt - Screaming Antelope

Hunters are Mutna, Iniro the firstborn, Murdejy and Strangebutch. Latter wasn't a choice, it was necessity. Fumelia had to skip next hunt from disembowelment, Ines follows only her addiction and Tondelone has Fear of the Dark.

During hunt, survivors come across devoured grounds where a lone cauldron stands in its midst. Mutna and Strangebuch are compelled to drink, and Mutna takes ruptured muscle as she feeds the cauldron with herself. After that Strangebutch just can't stop eating and gains Binge Eating disorder.

Whole party takes a nap in their home settlement, except that when they wake each one of them has turned into their evil doppleganger. Hello, Murder. It's been almost a year since you came to visit.

During this time the antelopes have migrated, making this into a nightmare. Being evil, stupid replicas of their former selves, the hunters come across a rotten monster and decide to take a bite. Then they take a little s(o)norous rest, mostly filling up insanity. Next in line are some refugees who speak unknown language. With no resources the evil hunters may not help.

Overwhelming Darkness space has Mutna take a point of damage to arm, Strangebutch and Murdejy to lose all survival, and Iniro to gain post-traumatic stress disorder.

Wasn't that one of a fine hunt phase.

Showdown in itself went pretty well. Received a total of thirteen resources, which could have worked wonders... if it wasn't for entirely other kind of "wonder" about to happen.

Year 6

Survivors return victorious. Settlement event is Season of the Spiderling. Two victories were not enough. Dead were Ines, Mutna, Fumelia and Tondelone.

Then murder triggers. Both Strangebutch and Murdejy are dead.

Settlement is left with just one survivor. Bravely she attempts to attack Flower Knight's stronghold, and while she survives for a great long time against the riposte master, she managed to deal exactly two wounds.

Evil dopplegangers seem to herald the doom of an entire settlement. Exactly same thing happened with my last solo settlement. Damn it. I'm not yet giving up on my dream of testing protect the young + cannibalize + collective toil. But I have to say it's already showing up how much better Survival of the Fittest just is. With just one re-roll this settlement could have continued.

For a while I've been testing around Protect the Young that allows re-rolls for Age, Bold and Insight milestones. This allows for trying to build your survivors a little to a direction of your choosing, slightly mitigating the inherent wimpiness of Protect the Young survivors as time passes on, but keeps settlement events and hunt results and severe injuries just as lethal as before.

28 and counting

The Lantern Year 15 hunt, for the survivors of Burkstad, was Sunstalker.

It was almost like different settlement altogether. Although hunt phase made us lose both monster greases, we gained Death Mask for the price of one cloth.

And the showdown with Sunstalker itself. Not a single severe injury roll had to be taken. We even had secure enough of a position to take some basic actions from the Sunstalker who had no AI cards left to gather salt. Two critical hits gave extra resources we desperately needed.

Settlement event was Glossolalia, which robbed most of our endeavors. Gorm Climate also had the settlement make a protective barrier against the harsh weather from Partnership innovation. This was a terrible omen...

However, this was second year in a row when no survivors died, and first year in the whole history of Burkstad when no-one was even crippled for the rest of their life. Had the tide turned for the better? Oh wait, we forgot about Hooded Knight, so that might be two dead survivors right there. Roll was lantern 10.

Definitely seemed slightly better. Surrelia received a cursed, sentient sword as her burden, but that's not a death. Whole hunt and showdown didn't take too long, so we decided to play for another year. Settlement innovated Drums and enacted hunt ritual with success. Settlement developed Cycloid Scale vest and helmet.

Lantern Year 16, come Butcher level 2.

Random terrain was Dead Monster, so it was a good start. First survivor turn shaved off four wounds from Butcher, so it was a terrific start, in fact. Curse of anything named Burk was finally lifted. At least for a moment.

At least before Butcher had its first turn.

Then it did, and we were down to three survivors. On first turn. Against nemesis that only gets stronger from each survivor it kills. Good game. Well played.

Some three turns later no-one had died, and Butcher was down to three AI cards remaining. Situation was tense - Surrelia had lost one of her legs, but had two stacks of Frenzy. But she had Catgut Bow, so if we only managed to keep Butcher close enough...

Igorina, long timer of Burkstad (four hunt xp was second highest xp we had), had been doing most of the job until Butcher devoured her lantern and gave three -1 accuracy tokens. But if she was able to pounce to Butcher's blind spot, she still had realistic odds to hit.

Then Butcher killed her, which made such chances... not so realistic.

Surrelia removed all of Butcher's AI cards with a single shot from her bow. We still had her and a supporting character with Scrap Sword.

Gosh it looked promising, when Butcher rolled zero hits against the support character, and then second attack resulted in only one hit which made the survivor deaf. However, last attack did three hits and then it was a duel between level 2 nemesis and a legless archer, who was too far to shoot with cumbersome weapon.

Had my character (the supporting one) died to second attack, Butcher would have been close enough for Surrelia to shoot. If only... if only Surrelia had two feet. She could have outrun Butcher and only take one basic action attack.

None of these conditions applied, though, and Butcher had two basic actions worth of attacks against our only hope.

We had the horror that is Butcher level 2 down to no AI cards remaining. What an anticlimax. And no, it did not "even out" our earlier astonishing success - once again we lost all of our settlement's characters who had some degree of progression.

Also, Cohenia lost her partner. Just as the partners had reflected the Emotionless disorder from one to the other, Cohenia received Enfeebled disorder which makes her die easier to bleed tokens. And her partner, Surrelia, had died to exactly them. They certainly shared a strong bond. Perhaps we did wrong to dismantle Partnership.

Well. Butcher had us lose every scrap of resources we still had, and Haunted had us lose one endeavor and have returning survivors set their insanity to 0. For narration, add a hollow giggle somewhere in here.

With eight endeavors we got two more survivors, Nestor and Purvina, shrine ritual success and Synchronized Strike for Nestor and Cohenia.

Next we'll see how well almost fresh survivors manage against a level 2 White Lion.

Considering our losses so far, we're doing surprisingly fine. As in the meme "this is fine". With death/vanished count of 28, Burkstad nearly averages two deaths per lantern year. Sure, the Watcher will most likely wipe the settlement if King's Man level 2 doesn't do that already.



Burkstad

Population: 6

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric


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

+Guidepost


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

Gear:
1x 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
3x Monster Grease
Lucky Charm
Monster Tooth Necklace
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow
White Lion Coat, White Lion Gloves
Scrap Sword
Flower Knight Badge
Cycloid helm + vest
Death Mask



Resources:
None. Thanks, Butcher.

One More Revenge

So I was finally lured into continuing A Touch of Evil campaign via Tabletop Simulator.

Recently, we've been having some good luck in our campaign. That was about to change.

We tried to vanquish our nemesis, the Shadow Witch. And from the very first round of the game it seemed apparent we'd have a very rough road. Two Spectres spawned on turn 1, one of which was fortunately removed right away. But still. During the whole game there was not a single round we'd draw only one mystery card in a turn. Even first turn was compromised when Brother Marcus entered The Marsh, and... did not draw an event.

You know how cats are usually drawn to those who like them least? Solomon was no exception either. He made acquaintances with Brother Marcus very soon after game started - but only after Brother Marcus, who sports a Cunning value of 1, received Devil's Mark that gave -1 Cunning.

It gives a good idea how vehemently the game treated us, when Brother Marcus finally entered The Coast board (where both Shadow Spectres were), there was a cave-in in Smugglers Cove that threw him right back to Abandoned Keep.

Our other hero, Anne-Marie the Schoolteacher didn't find a single book in the game. She was able to buy Sacred Chalice, which could have saved us if it wasn't third or fourth Mystery card that removed it from the game. Sure, such were the probabilities anyway. But we would have needed a little extra there.

At worst, we had to draw three mystery cards per turn and roll 4+ to see if we needed to draw additional mysteries.

When Shadow Track fell five whole steps in one round, it was about the time to start showdown. With no gear, events, nothing.

Grandest accomplishment must have been surviving the first Showdown fight round, although...

Oh. It wasn't any accomplishment at all, now that I take a closer look. We forgot all about Shadow Witch gaining extra combat dice from Remains In Play - which Brother Marcus already had two. Both were Devil's Mark, by the way.

So we accidentally cheated and survived one showdown fight round, where Shadow Witch rolled only eleven dice, as well as hitting on 4+ from Laying in Wait.

So... now we got less than half of heroes remaining.


Campaign statistics

Villains defeated: Spectral Horseman, Vampire, Siren, Bog Fiend, Volgovian Nutcracker, Delion Dryad, Scarecrow, Krampus, Sunken Seven, Gargoyle, Banshee
Villains still to be defeated: 8, +1 investigation vs Werewolf and Shadow Witch

Heroes dead: Brother Marcus, Anne-Marie, Lucy Hanbrook, Harlow Morgan, Scarlet Shadow, Maria de la Rosa, Thomas the Courier, Adrianna, Valeria, Jack Fellows, Argot Blackwell, Inspector Cooke, Isabella von Took & Liliana, Lost Soul
Heroes remaining: 10

Stashed investigation: 10

Lich Lord vs Witch Coven of Garlghast

Had this 50 point game of Warmachine a couple of days ago.

My list was;

Lich Lord Asphyxious [+28]
- Deathripper [6]
- Desecrator [14]
- Inflictor [13]
Bane Lord Tartarus [6]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Misery Cage [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Bane Warriors (max) [16]
- Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [5]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]


Opponent had:

The Witch Coven of Garlghast [+26]

- 2x Deathripper [6]
- Reaper [13]
- Slayer [10]
Bane Lord Tartarus [6]
Bane Warriors (max) [16]
Satyxis Blood Witches (max) [13]
- Satyxis Blood Hag [4]


Scenario was Close Quarter from main rulebook.

Witch Coven feated on second turn, which mitigated my damage potential. As I was playing Asphyxious2 anyway, I ran forward with Bane Warriors. Their deaths wouldn't feel that bad, considering how they were coming back.

I managed to take down the contestants from my flag, and scored first scenario point from the four required to win.

It wasn't difficult for opponent to do the same and deny my second point. I lost my Misery Cage, Soul Trapper and one Ironmonger in the process.

Bane Warrior minifeat brought back some of the destroyed models, and I tried to take down both heavies from Witch Coven. Reaper was destroyed, but Slayer took a big 13 damage hit, and broke not even a single system. Thanks, column 3.

Then I suddenly was looking at my five models versus enemy twenty. Enemy Tartarus had destroyed shield system from Inflictor, but thankfully nothing else. Anyway, even if scenario game was steady 1-1 or something like that, just looking at the numbers present told me I had no chance of playing scenario.

It's been a while since I played with Asphyxious2, or Warmachine for that matter, and I didn't realize I could reach Witch Coven with Spectral Legion. I could bring about four warriors to them. Needing 7's and 8's to hit was so unlikely that I tried to make certain Inflictor would be able to at least trample and take a swing at one of the witches, but Fortuna smiled on me this time. Not a single Bane Warrior missed their attack roll, and that's not good news for Arm 11, eight wound models.

I reckon some scheming

First game of Malifaux for the year of 2020. Don't know how mentioning that bears any importance, but you got to begin a write-up somehow.

Lists involved were:

Molly Squidpiddge + Necrotic Construct
Philip & Nanny
Mortimer
Bete Noire + The Whisper
Mourner + Grave Spirit's Touch
2x Crooligan

Schemes: Harness the Ley Lines, Dig Their Graves


Rasputina + Wendigo

Snowstorm
Ice Golem + Soulstone Cache
2x Ice Gamin
2x Ice Dancer + Magical Training

Schemes: Assassinate, Dig Their Graves

I played my first game with Molly, whom I wanted to try anyway even if Seamus might have been a tad better choice for Reckoning strategy.

Turn 1

First turn Rasputina made a grand opening move, where she killed a Crooligan and brought both Bete Noire and Mourner down to two health remaining. Also, Mortimer took a couple of damage. Well, next time I know not to bunch up my models in the middle like that against her. Whole bunching up happened because of my terrible deployment - I had forgotten about my plan of using Blasphemous Ritual on Mourner to stack some Focused on my models. With their activations I had to bring them into that formation. Which is a nice little bottle neck.

First time playing Molly was a mess. I mean, golems and whatnot would have been prime targets for 2x3 irreducible damage per turn, but I wasn't paying enough attention to the difference between hand sizes.

Turn 2

Next turn I had the choice of opening Reckoning strategy and leaving Bete Noire in vulnerable position, or damage Ice Dancer and leave Bete buried in safety. I chose to attack. After all she did have chance of burying herself anyway.

Nope.

Not against Ice Golem with pillars around, no. This was devastating. Ice Golem charged Bete Noire and was within melee range of Mourner, too. Golem was dealing a minimum of 4 damage thanks to ice pillar nearby, and even with reducing two, Bete died. And Mourner had regenerated a little, but was still only at four health remaining. Lethe's Caress tickled the Golem for sure as it butchered two of my priciest models. It wasn't much of a consolation.

Necrotic Machine and Crooligan had planted enough scheme markers to turn in Harness the Ley Line, and both players scored reckoning.

Turn 3

So... when you got a gigantic snow beast eating bodies of the fallen right next to an enormous magical construct of animated ice that's all but impervious to damage? Why... isn't the obvious thing here to charge them with a baby carriage and start asking the monstrosities some questions! I don't know, but that's what I did with Philip and Nanny.

Molly had made good use of her ability to remove markers and draw cards, because ice pillars are, in fact, markers. Necrotic Machine scored Dig their Graves on Ice Gamin. Rasputina was throwing endless barrage of stuff made of ice over Molly and Mortimer, and ice tornadoes from Snow Storm attempted the same.


Turn 4

Philip and Nanny had been tying up the Arcanist monsters rather well, but that was about to end. Snow Storm got over it's confusion, and dim-witted Ice Golem slowly categorized the pram as a threat. Time to find new nanny for Philip.

With excruciating toil and trouble I had managed to bring the Ice Golem down to one hit point remaining. Suddenly three ice pillars shattered and the golem was back at seven. I think something shattered inside of me, too. Looked like I had to abandon any hope for a second victory point from strategy.

An Ice Dancer had skated deep into my lines. Here I so much wanted to activate Necrotic Machine and with accomplice activate Molly. And with Molly activate Necrotic Machine again, and with accomplice activate something else. But I considered dead Ice Dancer to be more important. Also I'm not sure if I had any models within 6" of Necrotic Machine anyway after it had charged Ice Dancer.


Turn 5

Ice Golem had got tired of Molly's disturbing stories and charged her. It started asking questions of its own with icy fists. Despite Hard to Wound and Serene Countenance, Molly died to just two hits.

There were so many corpses and schemes on board that we ran out of tokens. But I scored Dig Their Graves and Harness Ley Line again. Opponent scored assassinate, and had kind of forgotten all about Dig Their Graves. Game ended with 5 points for Resurrectionists and 4 for Arcanists.

Minsc and Boo were there

Oh, I completely forgot to publish this one when I was in Kuhmo. So, these games were played during Christmas time, when I got to play my first full games of Betrayal at Baldur's Gate.

A total of five games were played, with all but one being played with four players. One was done with three instead.

I think we got a pretty good distribution of different haunts. One with no traitor, one with bogus traitor, one with all players kind of being traitors, and two "honest" traitors. Of course I cannot know for sure how many alternate versions there are, but I think the only one we missed was one with a hidden traitor.

1st game: Fire in the Sky 38 (four players)

Here suddenly fire rained down from the sky for various reasons. Adventurers needed to carry some civilians to the safety of a teleportation circle to win. There were no traitors here, so I suppose it was a good introduction to core mechanics without the hassle of an asymmetrical ruleset. Adventurers won, although it was a close call.


2nd game: Rabble Rousers 10 (four players)

I was playing the dwarf warrior who was able to take hits for other players. With Cursed Armor, Berserker Axe and Iron Flask of Tuerny (spelling?) I was the traitor. Being able to take hits for the citizen who was guarding the treasure chest gave me a plan: lure all adventurers to the neglected shrine, take hits for the citizen to deny adventurers opening chest all the while attacking other players. Then, once all are in, I'd lob the flask, unleashing a demon to attack everybody. Bwahahaha.

Well, I rolled poorly for the peasant movement, so they weren't of much use. And first player to enter same square with me dealt around six or seven damage to the peasant. There were... some limits in how valiantly I would sacrifice my character, so the chest was opened. Which unleashed the monster.

It went down relatively easy - after all, no players had been injured by peasants (or my dwarf, for that matter) and nobody died. Except for the monster.

3rd game: The Big Score 36 (three players)

This scenario had players eventually competing against each other. First the halfling rogue found Star of Cthay, but it was stolen from her by evil wizard. From evil wizard it was stolen by... uhh... I don't remember which character I played. It was probably the evil monk. And at last, evil halfling stole it back and won the game.

Nice game it was, as each player held the Star at least once. Instead of one-sided run-through we had players using more or less violent methods to acquire the treasure.

4th game: Priscilla 21 (four players)

And here drow ranger proved to be the traitor, who was possessed by evil spirit. It was a close call, this one. Eventually Priscilla was able to seize enough eyes to win the day - victory for the traitor, that is. However, the players did have at least two chances to succeed in their banishing ritual.

5th game: Bottled Lightning 29 (four players)

Halflings are not to be trusted. The rogue was a homicidal maniac who valued a little ornament over the life of her comrade. The druid, on the other hand, went whole-hog in demonic manifestations. Her bloodthirstiness was her undoing, however. She, too, found it more appealing to murder all the people she once knew instead of trying to stop a particular chamber from flooding. While multiple adventurers died, the chamber was soon inaccessible and traitor lost the game.


Throughout all the games, each adventurer was being played at least once, which somehow pleases my completionist tendencies.