Kalmana Retreat

A completely new settlement with four survivors from earlier settlement.

Lantern Year 1: Population 12

So, first year hunt with my wonderfully proficient survivors. Well, actually I only took two of them, since Qyillus had to spend some time pondering the meaning of existence, and I figured it might be good idea to get experience on some fresh survivors, too.

And what an absurd hunt phase it was. A frenzied tree punched Mesul and left a special showdown four years from now, and then Cleaner Birds took a dive inside of Cardani. Flesh Monolith was casually passed by while playing word games for Something to Pass Time. And then... Unnatural Hunger. It is one new event of mine that gets archived once it is encountered once. You nominate one survivor, who gets eaten by the rest of the hunt party. This rewards each who stayed behind with a permanent attribute of their choice, some insanity and survival and a removal of a disorder or permanent injury. Idea with this event is to severely hamper the showdown, but still give something highly coveted: permanent attributes, especially those hard-to-get Luck, Evasion or Movement.

This early in campaign the card didn't affect didn't ruin my carefully curated survivors. Mesul, having been beaten by a tree, was obvious choice to become a meal. His flesh was already tenderized.

First hunt was certainly colorful, but I'm reserving judgement about the homebrew thingy for a while. I mean, if they bring this level of random they need to be tuned down, but on the other hand even with the original 100 you can have some crazy hunt phases now and then. On to showdown!

Which opened with Posturing Piss from Gorm. Free Ammonia innovation if survivors manage to win. Survivors spend a good while knocked down during this fight, but they did have enough insanity to endure multiple Lure Paroxysms. And a chance bonus was Gorm illuminating quite a few times during showdown.

But damage trickled in to both parties, and soon enough Gorm had continuously picked targets other than the tank. Eyes rolling here.

Kalnetan was disemboweled, and he and Cardani took heavy damage. Had it not been for Nasanovim and her mighty Gaxe, I don't... Oh. Now that I think of it, only Cardani did two wounds to Gorm, and Nasanovim dealt all the remaining nine. Anyway. Victory.

Lantern Year 2: Slender Blight

Event unleashes a fever amongst departing survivors, which is a relief even if it has them lose some survival - insanity is now its worth in gold. (No, I have no idea about the market value of insanity. Maybe it correlates with bitcoin?)

Choice of Death Principle is obvious. Cardani, having already eaten the Mesul, ate what was left as snacks, and gained +1 speed. She now has +2 luck, +1 speed. Love Juice turns into a new survivor, so I got both principles in the same year. Settlement develops Gorment Boots and uses Gormchymy to make a healing potion. Boo. Need that Wisdom Potion.

Settlement innovates Inner Lantern, which triggers a homicidal Hooded Knight. Population fell to 10, which is again that much further away from my goal of Collective Toil + Protect the Young + Cannibalize. Oh well. Two Monster Hides. Off to Gorm hunt.

Year 2 hunt + showdown

Second year hunters: Zamarias, Qyillus, Logar and Linenne. They lost their additional insanity right at the gates of their settlement to a mourning bull. Kalmana Retreat's near vicinity sure looks like a Gorm infested place! But otherwise this hunt went far more "as expected", although I was bothered by the amount of brain damage the survivors received.

And the Showdown was not short on brain damage, either. Strobe and three traps made me lucky that only Linenne perished to mortal fear.

It was one angry Gorm, and instead of optimistic confidence I soon found out I was doing everything I can to have at least Qyillus survive.

Maximum amount of attacks caused a random severe injury on all three survivors, as they were sll adjacent to Gorm when it reared up, and there was no-one to encourage them up. Added Megalophobia made my White Lion replacement Gorm look like a terrible idea. Well, at least there's the Antelope, and Flower Knight soon enough...

But in the end, survivors made off victorious with only one Bone Blade broken. Looked like Strobe was going to be the last card in AI deck, but then Qyillus scored a critical wound with Savage Gaxe.

Lantern Year 3: Triathlon of Death
Nominated survivors were Qyillus the founder of language and the double first speaker, Kalnetan and Nasanovim who taught the settlement to survive by eating the dead and who have Doomed progeny, and... Logar. Well, he was the first father settlement had.

Race Contest went clearly to Logar, with Nasanovim and Qyillus following. Kalnetan was the slowest of them all.
Debate Contest was no surprise when Qyillus won everyone with a lantern ten. First speaker and all. Kalnetan and Nasanovim followed, all of whom had been survivors from Deluge version of Kalmana. Logar's debate was laughed off.
Fight Contest had Nasanovim victorious, which is a bummer since she placed third in debating, and is now too angry to hunt for weapon proficiency level 3 before Butcher. Kalnetan and Logar placed in the middle, and Qyillus lost one of her arms.

Gorm Climate gives a point of courage for Surastus.

Deluge separatists, Kalnetan and Nasanovim, have twins Kalovim and Nasalne from Love Juice. Because of Nasanovim, they are both Doomed.

Not to be outpopulated by strangers, Logar and Surastus have Lostus. Population is back to sighable twelve.

Settlement innovates Paint, and Cardani listens to wonderful tales about the old settlement, learning Combo Master in the process. Inspired, she also builds Leather Worker.

I'm stressed out by the Gorm and its ability to do brain damage, so that armor set has to wait. Next year Kalmana Retreat hunts the Screaming Antelope.

Lantern Year 3 hunt and showdown.

Departing survivors are Cardani and Kalnetan, the literal eaters of the first survivor, Qyillus the First Speaker and Voice of Reason, and... Nengar. Well, he is the firstborn.

Dead Antelope and Teething give a lot of resources already, and ample criticals gave them even more. Two fresh acanthuses and extra vermin was found, too. A critical damage by whip gave the antelope -1 toughness token. All this combined, the showdown still wasn't run-through easy. Qyillus ran out of her survival very early, and only Qyillus and Kalnetan had any insanity.

Of course the survivors managed to pull the trap while there were three of them adjacent to the Antelope. No-one died, but Kalnetan's and Cardani's characters were enriched with Hyper-Sensitivity and Binge Eating.

Later, when antelope was no longer a threat and was wandering aimlessly on the board, Kalnetan uncovered someone from beneath the Silk Nest. Population 13! ... well. Let's get back to settlement.

Lantern Year 4: SEASON OF THE SPIDERLING

So, another settlement wasted at the dawn of their being. But the thing still needed to be ascertained by rolling dice. Hoping for a miracle, I put Qyillus in the front of the line - she had a chance to win the whole thing, regardless what others would roll. Nope. Dead. And she was so promising, storywise... now Zamarias is the last surviving member of the original original four.

Kalnetan goes next, and he scores a victory, but he thinks the person he found from silk nest was the one who brought these spiderlings in the first place. And he killed him.

Next Nengar, the last insane survivor of the settlement. He scores a victory too, but fells the settlement population back to 9 again.

And then, miracle did happen but not the way I had hoped for. Cardani scores a victory too, and here we are. -3 population from one event. Gorm Climate robbed three resources Kalmana had, so grand victory with a staggering amount of resources feels that less great now.

The happenings around Kalmana are very evocative however, so settlement innovates Storytelling. Love Juice has a new kid bringing population to 10. Kalnetan succeeds in Augury to see that Kalmana still needs more population, and Suragar receives a sibling, Rastgar.

A few survivors listen to shared experience and trigger their first Age milestone. Settlement developed two dried acanthuses, leather shield and leather cuirass. Kalmana Retreat is a bit low on meaningful weapons, but I think Butcher should be doable with what I've got. Don't know how it goes with Manhunter and Lonely Tree that are coming up right after, but, oh well.

Lantern year 4 showdown - Butcher.

Kalnetan, Zamarias, Nengar and Nasanovim confront the first real menace towards their settlement. I had great faith in Nasanovim, who had impressive evasion and a shield, plus Kalnetan who had some evasion, hyper-sensitivity and rawhide set.

Regarding survival, my faith was not ill-based. But when it came to actually wounding toughness 9 monster, I quickly found out that in the long run Butcher is going to win if I fail most of my attack rolls. This makes me anxious about the upcoming Lonely Tree fight. Looks like population 7 to me.

Anyway, even playing solo the fight took two long hours. I realized how "easy" it is to manipulate Butcher into attacking the survivor you want - at least with the AI cards that I had around. With careful positioning and odd damage here and there, survivors won, with no casualties or permanent injuries. But it was close. Last few rounds I expected bad hit locations to account for a dead survivor, but no. Nengar healed bleed tokens every single round, apart from the first.

After the long battle, Butcher just vanished in a flash of light.

Lantern Year 5: Phantom
And just to mock me for innovating Storytelling, Phantom comes around and wrecks returning survivors' insanity. The very same phantom also will remove one armor point from survivors that depart.

Hands of Heat also screw Kalmana Refuge over. Nope, did not get Red Fist this time around. Showdown with Lonely Tree looks just about impossible now. But for the first time ever, there is Bone Witch on the timeline now.

Cardani hears the old crone's tale, so she's out from these special showdowns.

Nasanovim uses her matchmaker to spawn twins to the settlement, so at least we're twelve heads strong.

I think it is only thematic that settlement innovates Bloodletting, considering the amount of removed bleeding tokens from Butcher fight.

Nasanovim tries to use Bloodletting to either gain insanity or remove disorders. But she gets +1 understanding instead, and inability to receive survival. Next attempt at least gives +3 insanity to trigger her Quixotic, but, ech.

I suppose Manhunter shall be the first encounter, but that's going to happen in the far future.

Now for some statistics!

Population 12

Settlement Locations:
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Bone Smith
Gormchymist
Gormery
Leather Worker

Innovations:
Lantern year 0: Language,
Lantern year 1: Symposium + Nigredo,
Lantern Year 2: Ammonia + Inner Lantern,
Lantern year 3: Paint
Lantern year 4: Storytelling
Lantern year 5: Lantern Oven + Bloodletting

Gear:
4x cloth
2x founding stone
2x stone nose
3x monster grease
2x bone blade
1x bone axe
1x luck charm
1x gaxe
1x healing potion
Full rawhide armor
1x Rawhide Boots
1x Rawhide Whip
1x bandages
Skull Helm
Gorment helm + boots
Leather Cuirass
Leather Shield
2x dried acanthus
Sleeping Virus Flower (On Cardani)

Storage:
1x large flat tooth
1x monster hide
1x broken lantern

Survivors of note:


Zamarias, last remaining from the original original four starting survivors from Deluge.
- Entitled Prima Donna with Megalophobia
- Dealt the killing blow to Gorm in last settlement, and has hunted Gorm and is a Butcher survivor of Kalmana Retreat
- +1 permanent accuracy from Age.

*

Kalnetan, mourning parent of a child lost in time and space. One of the original four of Retreat.
- You don't want to anger him. He's Crazed Berserker with Hyper-Sensitivity.
- Shared the feast of Mesul during Unnatural Hunger, triggering Cannibalize.
- Fought spiderlings during Season of the Spiderling, but slayed an unnamed survivor whom he had just saved from beneath a silk nest.
- Placed second in debate contest and fight contest, and was last in race contest during Triathlon of Death.
- Has two children with Nananovim.
- Has hunted Gorm twice in previous settlement, and Screaming Antelope in the current one.
- Dealt the killing blow to Butcher
- +2 permanent strength, +1 permanent evasion, 3 courage (stalwart) and 1 understanding.

*

Nasanovim, mourning parent of a child lost in time and space. One of the original four of Retreat.
- Encountered an elderly bee that doomed her and her future children.
- Believes she has a higher purpose, though, and has Quixotic disorder.
- Shared the feast of Mesul during Unnatural Hunger, triggering Cannibalize.
- Won the fight contest, and placed second during race contest and third during debate contest in Triathlon of Death.
- Has two children with Nananovim.
- Has hunted Gorm thrice and is a LY 4 Butcher survivor.
- +1 permanent strength and +2 evasion, courage 5 (matchmaker) and understanding 1.
- Doomed: You may always choose Path of Doomed during Overwhelming Darkness. If you do, gain +1 on your roll. When you are one of the parents during Intimacy, the children will inherit this ability.

*

Kalovim and Nasalne, doomed children of Nasanovim and Kalnetan.

*

All of the above have unbroken lineage from the previous settlement, Kalmana Deluge. Below are original people of Kalmana Retreat.

Logar, the twice widowed apathetic and megalophobic trailblazer.
- Is the first father of the settlement, and has four children - Nengar, Rastgar, Lostus and Suragar with two different mothers, one of whom is dead and another has been banished from the settlement. No wonder he's apathetic.
- Won the race contest, but placed third during fight contest and lost the debate contest during Triathlon of Death. Especially debate result seems thematic - he was the only participant from Kalmana Retreat, others were from the first settlement.
- +1 permanent movement, +1 permanent strength, +1 permanent evasion.
- Hunted Gorm on lantern year 2.

*

Cardani, the binge-eating, flower addicted combo-master.
- Braved the Storm in the very first lantern year, but was blinded as a result.
- Was "blessed" by the Cleaner Birds during hunt for Gorm. Then she encountered Flesh Monolith, and during Unnatural Hunger she was one of the survivors who ate Mesul. Then, back in the settlement, she took what was left of Mesul and showed everyone how beneficial it is to eat corpses, and not disgusting at all.
- Fought off spiderlings during their invasion.
- Is training to become unarmed master. One-eyed cannibal with excessive craving for food, martial zen combo-master.
- Hunted Gorm on lantern year 1 and Screaming Antelope on lantern year 3.
- +1 and -1 permanent accuracy, +1 permanent strength, +2 permanent luck, +2 and -1 permanent speed. Courage 2.

*

Nengar, ruthless berserker and the firstborn of the settlement.
- First departed on a hunt on lantern year 3 against Screaming Antelope. He is also a Butcher survivor.
- Fought off the spiderlings, but got frenzied in the process and killed an unnamed survivor.
- +1 permanent strength, +1 permanent speed.

Dead or missing survivors of note:

Qyillus, one of the original four from both Deluge and Retreat
Cause of death: Valiantly defended the settlement from spiderlings during Season of the Spiderling, failing in that but perhaps her example encouraged the remaining survivors to try extra hard and achieve victory?
- Has taught the secrets of language twice to different settlements an spoke some reason to the settlement during Endless Screams.
- Considering the above, no surprise she won debate contest during Triathlon of Death, and was third during race contest and lost fight contest. After all, she wasn't that much of a fighter anyway if we read into her Enfeebled disorder.
- Has hunted Gorm, and slain one Gorm and one Screaming Antelope.
- Enfeebled and Megalophobic disorder
- +1 permanent accuracy, +1 permanent strength. 3 courage (matchmaker), 3 understanding (tinker).

*

Surastus, a banished survivor who tinkered with lanterns and got disfigured. Before departing, suppose she was the "old crone" that offered Sleeping Virus Flower for Cardani. She's coming back on year 8 as Bone Witch.

Kalmana Deluge (New Game+)

And finally, finally I got through the Kingdom Death tutorial. How so?

Well, since we continued Burkstad campaign, I decided to start another solo campaign. Except that I got a second full part death during tutorial. Two in a row. Both had one thing in common: Enraged.

The survivors could have won, though. They got the White Lion down to just having Enraged in play, but by then there was only one survivor left, who had her one chance to win the day - and failed.

Later I did another prologue, which this time went almost like a breeze. Everything else was perfect, if it wasn't for the survivor who received permanent stat boost to rip off the lion's testicles, and as a consequence become the target of Chomp. Chomp chomp.

Other than that, I had a positive start. A total of 11 starting survivors had their first newborn and death principle on year 1. A total of 12 survivors, and +3 insanity for departing survivors might save the first hunt against Gorm. Principles are Cannibalize and Protect the Young. If this doesn't carry me beyond lantern year ~8, I'm giving up testing it for a while.

Back to the settlement. For once I had next to no hides, and developed two bone blades, bone axe, bone darts and two monster greases.

Settlement builds Bone Smith and Organ Grinder, and also one Stone Nose.


Notable survivors:

Fanethon, the slayer of Prologue Lion
Qyillus, who spoke the first words.
Zamarias, one of the starting four.

Kalnetan and Nasanovim, the parents of firstborn strategish, Nasatan.

Nasatan, the firstborn.

First Gorm Hunt consists of Nasatan, Kalnetan, Fanethon and Nasanovim. Special thing here is I'm testing my homebrew hunt events, which expands each original event and adds fifty more.

First head-splitting pain gives disorders and a brain trauma for the whole party. The newborn Nasatan gains Secretive disorder.

Horizon of Bones ends up paralyzing the whole party, while a tiny bee shouts to Nasanovim: YOU. ARE. DOOMED, and thus marks her and her future children for culinarist harvest.

The family fights the best here. Fanethon, one of the original four, is first flattened, slammed into a wall, tossed around and eventually head-butted with Lure Paroxysm. He was blind with intracranial hemorrhage and destroyed genitals before finally bleeding out.

But even with no armor items to speak of, the first parents and their firstborn child bring victory, with the killing blow made by Nasatan. She surely made her parents proud.

Lantern Year 2: Acid Storm

Five basic resources and six gorm resources and scrap from Acid Storm are certainly an impressive second year resource pool. Endless Screams are silenced by Nasatan's voice of reason. This kid is a paragon of hope for the settlement. She even innovates Paint with the Endeavor she received from becoming a Tinker.

=== INTERMISSION ===

Alright, something just happened. Something that makes redundant to write up-to-date reference of game being played. Kalnetan, Nasanovim, Zamarias and Qyillus are victorious against the Gorm they were hunting. But when they were returning to the settlement, they noticed that...

... there was no settlement. Just ragged group of survivors, strangers all, with no known language. Qyillus, who had originally spoken the first words spoke them again. Zamarias is also now an original four survivor in second generation.

Settlement event was Clinging Mist, and I rolled 9.

This is an amazing boon, though. And something I know happens from time to time, but I have never got to make a new settlement with experienced survivors.

Originally I had thought that having no White Lion would make up for me not using the tedious Gorm Climate. But now because of this, I think I'll slap it in.

Settlement innovates Symposium, and builds Skinnery, Organ Grinder and Bone Smith. I believe this requires a separate blog entry, so that the memories of the past won't be too confusing.


So, statistics for Kalmana Retreat:

Population 12

Settlement Locations:
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Bone Smith

Innovations:
Language, Symposium

Gear:
4x cloth
2x founding stone
2x stone nose
2x monster grease
2x bone blade
1x bone axe
1x luck charm
1x gaxe
Full rawhide armor

Storage:
Stout Hide
Acid Gland

Survivors of note:

Zamarias, one the original four from both Deluge and Retreat.
- Dealt the killing blow to Gorm in last settlement.
- +1 permanent accuracy from Age.

Qyillus, one of the original four from both Deluge and Retreat
- Has taught the secrets of language twice to different settlements.
- Has hunted Gorm.
- Enfeebled disorder
- +1 permanent accuracy from Age.
- 2 courage, 2 understanding.

Kalnetan, mourning parent of a child lost in time and space.
- Has hunted Gorm twice.
- Crazed fighting art.
- Revenge disorder.

Nasanovim, mourning parent of a child lost in time and space.
- Encountered an elderly bee that doomed her and her future children.
- Has hunted Gorm twice.
- Quixotic and Destined disorder.
- +1 permanent strength and evasion.
- 1 courage.
- Doomed: You may always choose Path of Doomed during Overwhelming Darkness. If you do, gain +1 on your roll. When you are one of the parents during Intimacy, the children will inherit this ability.

Burkstad, Anno Homicidi 17

Rollercoaster continues.

Cohenia, Ghentavi, Melvin and Nestor hunted for White Lion level 2, and hunt phase was extraordinarily positive experience. There was no Overwhelming Darkness because the beast jumped one space forward on the hunt board, and each survivor gained +2 courage and understanding, and some even more than this. Only questionable outcoming was the Madflies bursting from the mouth of Ghentavi, who frenzied. And frenzy at least has positive sides to it.

Melvin received Hyperactive disorder, which was bothersome as he had cumbersome bow.

Showdown had its danger moments, like Nestor receiving Maul (three damage base) when he had both Monster Controller tile and controlophobia disorder, which did end up in one of the first times of successfully using Healing Potion.

Total resources Burkstad were 5 basic resources, 6 white lion resources, iron strange resource and two flower resources from Flower Patches.

That was before Armored Strangers paid a visit. Add +6 basic resources for a grand total of twenty resources.

Settlement event was Season of the Spiderling, which nearly ended the settlement, but instead gave the returning survivors +1 strength.

Two love juices gave a blue savior and twins, and Burkstad was back at a population of nine. Settlement developed Bone Pickaxe, White Lion helm and waist, and innovated Momento Mori.

We are going to hunt another White Lion level 2 to complete the armor set. This year had gone far too well. Let's see how many head explosions we get next year.




Burkstad

Population: 9

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
Momento Mori

+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, Helmet and Waist
Scrap Sword
Flower Knight Badge
Cycloid helm + vest
Death Mask
Bone Pickaxe



Resources:
3x Monster Bone
Skull
Monster Organ
Broken Lantern

Cat Eye
Sinew

New Innovation

Tokens! Everywhere!

Alright, let's put it short.

I re-based my magnetized survivors. Or, based them in fact. They had no real texture to their base. I had been procrastinating with that, because I toyed with the idea that I'd put another magnet slot to the base. Why?

Either to keep track of various items and tokens that could benefit from having a small reminder, or just purely for aesthetical purposes.

For example, survivor uses Block. Sometimes it is easy to forget, but now you got a token for it. Or, if you use Gorn, Pulse Lantern or any other single use item, you can remove the token. I won't be making one for the most obvious one, though - Claw Head Arrow - because 95% of time it is used during first turn.

Also in the pictures some tokens for survival actions, and a special dodge token just for the sake of the memory of Burk.

Another Obsession

Had a 50 soul stone Malifaux game. And this game somehow marks me going "serious" with this game, as I did it. I began tracking statistics for Malifaux. My spreadsheets for Warmachine are filled with tables and measurements of all kinds, so I'll start somewhat of a same thing here.


Strategy was Turf War.

My list was:

Seamus with the Whisper + Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle
Mortimer
Bete Noire
Dead Dandy
Rotten Belle
Mourner with the Grave Spirit Touch

Cache: 5 stones

Schemes: Assassinate, Outflank


Opponent had:


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

Cache: 6 stones

Claim Jump
Outflank

Turn 1 is straightforward. I position my troops for using Interact next turn on two strategy markers, and Asami summons a spider demon Jorogumo, who assaults Mortimer. Seamus shoots one Obsidian Oni dead, as I could secure it with Red Joker in my starting hand.

Turn 2 Mortimer is smacked down to one hit point remaining, and a summoned Obsidian Oni sets Madame Sybelle and Mourner on fire. Seamus did try to shoot the Obsidian Oni down first, but moderate damage isn't enough to bring one down.

As I had been busy dealing with those obsidian shenanigans, I hadn't paid attention to Ama No Zako, whose positioning (looking back now) is obvious for Claim Jump. But it escaped me. Dead Dandy had been poisoning itself to deal with a strategy marker in hazardoous terrain. Someone's got to do the dirty work.

Both players scored Outflank and strategy, plus Ten Thunders got the lead with Claim Jump.


Turn 3 onis had started to disappear, and I felt the pressure lifting somewhat. Bete Noire managed to kill Ohaguro with first attack and moved closer to center line. Later I figured my tactic was to put her there to screen Seamus. Yeah, tactics work that way. Anyway, Seamus took a shot at Asami but misses.

Then one of those damn monkeys charges Seamus, gets scared and blinks away and trashes my turf with Interact, does some action to remove the poison condition from itself. And then blinks to engage Dead Dandy so that I'll have to work for regaining that objective.

Ama No Zako had put up hazardous and severe terrain, so I took my focus against the obscene Yokai. Copycat Killer shoots and deals some damage, and then Mourner charges it dead.

Then Dead Dandy sighs and looks what's left of his fancy clothing and rotten health. He has to do the dirty job again and go reclaim the turf in the middle of poison. Without healing effects, he would now die by the end of the last round to poison condition.

Rotten Belle on one of the table edges survives againstan Yokai and Obsidian Golem, which is impressive. Last models to activate, Mortimer enters the fray again. He had had to back down a little after his encounter with the spider demon.


Turn 4 Obsidian Oni smashes Rotten Belle just a little too late. A second time one of my models had been brought down to one hit point remaining. Such luck certainly adds up against a crew that has tendency to have its models disappear.

Seamus moves twice, shoots at Asami and scores my Assassinate, and then walks and interacts the enemy turf back to neutral. I guess you could go and insult Seamus and say that's only another kind of filthy monkey, trashing other people's turf.

Asami then unleashes the full fury of her wavy hair, and strangles Seamus down to seven hit points remaining or so. Only to notice that she had been strangling the Copycat Killer all along. I brought Seamus to the safety of my side of the table.


Turn 5 we don't play entirely, as Asami fails to summon a model, but I succeed at killing Ama No Zako. So even if Obsidian Oni would've been able to kill Mortimer who had steadily climbed to six health remaining, victory would go for Seamus. After this, of course, Copycat Killer could have tried to shoot Asami, but, eh.

I lost surprisingly few models, but on at least two critical occassions I should have done so, which would have shaped entire game.

In this game we had two burning terrain markers that set things ablaze within 1", and could be removed with Interact. Then another hazardous terrain was the poisoned swamp, and both elements had an effect within game, which is oddly satisfying to me. Active terrain interaction is what's missing from many miniature games I've played.

Marked For Fun

Yesterday I finished painting some special miniatures.

Well, one is terrain for Kingdom Death. The Resin Dung Ball, which has been a little shy to enter the showdowns. Maybe because it had been unpainted.

Then, here are two markers I did for Malifaux. I've noticed Undivided Attention and Boring Conversation are abilities that are easily forgotten, or remembered retroactively. With a little more "sighty" reminder, maybe the abilities shall function more often as they should? Probably not. But hey, pretty markers!

Unsettling

I was about to begin a new solo settlement for Kingdom Death, but somehow getting a successful solo campaign has eluded me for some time now.

This only continued, when I had my first prologue wipe. Granted, out of six severe injuries I was called to make, four were either one or two.

I did get the monster down to one card remaining, so I might have pulled a win if I hadn't tried to be so stingy with Founding Stones and fish for critical hits by using fist & tooth.

Lesson learned here. Play the game, not the mechanics.

Unspeakable March of Horror

Touch of Evil campaign continued virtually once more after the bitter defeat of last time.

Katarina the Outlaw and Frederic Leon were against Unspeakable Horror. We decided to take two extra investigation points from our stashed campaign investigation.

Soon enough Katarina and Frederic were both KO'd and at zero investigation points, so those extras were essentially wasted.

Although Shadow Track was moving mercifully slowly, it didn't help much when heroes did next to no progress. Both heroes gained a lot of events, but even there were no especially good ones.

Early in the gave five elders had turned their coat and worshiped the Horror. Usually Surprise Showdown is only a negative experience, but this time we managed to take down three of the evil elders.

Surprise Showdown showed signs of what could have been a turning point for the heroes. And maybe it could have been, if it wasn't again the Sacred Chalice getting lost on second Mystery cancellation.

In this game, Brother Janus fell from atop the Inn, was murdered by those of his own creed as well as becoming a sacrifice you just have to make.

In the end there were quite a few minions on board, and March of Darkness triggered twice in one mystery phase. Shadow track was then sitting at a steady number of 3, except that then the murders started pouring in. Lair showed villain to be at the furthest possible point from heroes, so we didn't even get to fight.

Good night Katarina and Frederic. Another heroes will come to pull you back from the Void.

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: Katarina the Outlaw, Frederic Leon 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: 8

Stashed investigation: 6

Inviolable Parasite

Played a ten point game of Warmachine against a new and returning player. As he had played only a couple of games during Mk2, the game was more of an introduction rather than a bloody battle for victory.

My list was:

Lich Lord Asphyxious
- 2x Slayer
- Defiler
Minimum unit of Satyxis Raiders

Opponent had:

Grand Exemplar Kreoss
- Crusader
- Castigator
- Repenter
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanik

I started the game, and Asphyxious cast some Caustic Mists to block LoS. There was a building in the middle that acted as a sort of divider. And I decided to do just that - challenge from both sides of the house.

Satyxis Raiders put a dent on Crusader on turn two, and Slayer advanced behind a Caustic cloud on the other side of the building. Far enough that plain old walk wouldn't be enough to engage it.

Opponent put Castigator to act as a bouncer, but Slayer wanted to perform. (Get it? Eh eh.) I mistakenly thought that the helljack was able to knock out the Cortex of Castigator - a mistake that proved fatal, when P+S 19 automatically hitting attacks started pouring in.

Crusader had been finished by another Slayer, but as Kreoss was using his feat now, Repenter engaged in melee.

Then we has Asphyxious personally attacking the Castigator, casting Parasite on Kreoss and using Excarnate to pluck off one choir member. Then he used feat and tried to assassinate Kreoss with Satyxis Raiders. It failed miserably. The lucky critical knockdown had been used already on Crusader earlier in this match. Not a single lacerator was able to score 8+, but two horns did - but didn't do even a single point of damage.

Opponent shoots Cleansing Fire on Asphyxious and scores a whopping eight points of damage. If opponent had been pondering whether to charge Defiler or Asphyxious, I guess this tipped the scale towards my warcaster. Charge attack dealt nine points in, but last attack opponent was to make missed.

Kreoss had both Parasite and Inviolable Resolve on himself. Asphyxious was still rolling damage at -1, and hitting on 8+ required boosts.

All three boosted attacks Asphyxious could do resulted in a hit, and it was the very last attack possible that downed the Menite warcaster.