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.