Interviewing the Flutist

 A 50ss Malifaux game on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Carve a Path

Schemes: Assassinate, Breakthrough, Hidden Martyrs, Leave Your Mark, Spread Them Out

My List:

Hamelin the Piper & 3x Stolen
Nix
Disease Containment Unit
Catalan Brawler
The Midnight Stalker with Soldier for Hire (kind of a mistake...)
Obedient Wretch
Prospector
Malifaux Rat

Stones: 4
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Brawler & Obedient Wretch), Assassinate

Opponent had:

Nellie, Voice of Disorder & Printing Press
Phiona Gage
Allison Dade
Auguste Hart
Guild Steward
2x False Witness
Field Reporter

Stones: 4
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Steward & One False Witness), Spread Them Out

Turn 1:

Well, since most of the enemy team would be able to control my Interacts, I thought best course of action would be to try and smuggle my strategy markers from toppest of tops and bottomost of bottoms. Midnight Stalker was tasked with tops, and team of Prospector, Disease Containment Unit and Obedient Wretch were dealing with bottom. They were joined by a Rat King that was created from one Stolen and Eyes in the Walls.

Nix, Catalan Brawler, Hamelin and a couple of Stolen were focusing on the middle. Nix, especially.

Especially Nix.

Phiona used "bring it" to move Nix way past center line relatively early in the game. I managed to save the dog by Obeying Phiona away from melee with the 2" push from trigger and attacking Guild Steward, then Obeying Nix into forest. Last action was the aforementioned Eyes in the Walls on a scheme Obedient Wretch had set up. 

Since opponent was still teasing Nix with odd damage points, Catalan Brawler walked and placed some condor security more than 8" away from enemy story chasers.

So, enemy had Phiona, Nellie, Steward, Allison and False Witness coming from the middle. A lone False Witness was punching the ball on top, and below were Auguste, Printing Press and Field Reporter.

Turn 2:

Midnight Stalker and False Witness on top are able to push their respective strategy markers to opponent's side. 

Nix charges in to the middle of enemy crew and heals to full by drinking some spirits. Opponent forced Nix to make an Interact, but there was no excluse interview close enough so it "only" spammed a ton of Focused +1 on journalists and gave a point of irreducible damage to my henchman.

But since there now was a scheme marker, Catalan Brawler came to offer his services.

Hamelin removed one enemy scheme marker and failed the rest of his activation, except for stunning Phiona. She was also Staggered from Brawler.

Opponent mauled Catalan Brawler down to three health remaining (picture shows two, but that was before we remembered that Cruel Disappointment had saved him one point of damage.)

I took too long to react on the bottom side of things - Auguste parked over my strategy marker below and with Exclusive Interview that was a nasty place to be. He also nearly killed Obedient Wretch, and had Disease Containment Unit engaged.

Prospector came and planted a scheme marker which Disease Containment Unit used as a rapid response target, pushing Obedient Wretch and self out of melee. Then she blasted Printing Press and Field Reporter once. Sadly not twice. 

Both players score strategy.

Turn 3:

Miraculously Hamelin wins initiative, and Catalan Brawler saves his butt with Juggernaut... at least for a while. He also tosses Nix into mud and makes a futile attempt at attacking Phiona.

It certainly takes a lot of work to remove Catalan Brawler, but eventually that just happens. Hastily Obedient Wretch takes a run towards my deployment because losing both Martyrs in one round would suck big time. 

One of the better moves for this round was when Midnight Stalker kicked enemy strategy marker back to their side and leaped to engage False Witness. Witness did manage to deal a couple points of damage to the honorable gentleman, but situation there was now locked. For both sides, though.

Nix is able to weather whatever is left of the middle storm.

Disease Containment Unit was still trying to fry the Printing Press and Field Reporter, but kept failing.

Auguste kicks my strategy marker back to my side a little, but this was a mistake - Hamelin was able to Obey Prospector to the marker, who interacted twice and got it past centerline. Hamelin also tried to kill one of those infuriating False Witnesses with Piper's Influence and Bleeding Disease, but failed at that.

Field Reporter parked close to Hamelin so that he'd have to start discarding come next activations.

This turn scores went to 1-3 for Outcasts as I was able to reveal Hidden Martyrs while denied opponent a strategy point.

Turn 4:

Up until fourth turn I had not been able to kill a thing, but that changed surely enough.

Nellie started to soften up Nix but failed to do much of a progress - and then Nix just healed the damage that had been inflicted.

Phiona was a bit more adept in killing Nix with three attacks. Hamelin then killed Phiona, who had eleven blight tokens at the time, with two Bleeding Diseases and used Obey to bring Prospector to my strategy marker.

Field Reporter managed to bring strategy marker to my deployment zone against all odds.

Rat King was able to chew Printing Press down.

False Witness in the middle placed a scheme and walked for a bit, and False Witness on top died for a bit after Midnight Stalker activated. Allison Dade slowed him down and even shot a couple of points off with derringer.

Obedient Wretch moved a bit and interacted a scheme.

Auguste was busy with rats but eventually managed to move out of melee, only to become slowed by Rat King that was pushed back into contact with Rapid Response by Disease Containment Unit who also healed my remaining martyr, Obedient Wretch, over half of her health remaining. 

A Stolen managed to shoot False Witness dead. Who was, by the way, opponent's Hidden Martyr. 

 Prospector pushed strategy marker around, and scores went to 2-3 for Outcasts, although at the time we thought it was 3-3 because we missed the insignificance of a Stolen.

Turn 5:

To deny opponent a point from Hidden Martyrs, Hamelin smashes Guild Steward and takes eight points of damage in the process, essentially scoring the point from Hidden Martyrs for opponent now. Great job.

Allison shoots Midnight Stalker, who is - yay - saved by his Hard-to-Kill from the purchased upgrade.

But then Midnight Stalker fails to leap, so he can't get to charge Nellie in a futile attempt to scrape assassination points.

Stolen manages to shoot dead Field Reporter, who went to place a scheme marker in my deployment zone.

Prospector had been obeyed by Hamelin, so she is able to double-interact the marker to enemy deployment zone.

Nellie manages to land third scheme marker 10" away from each other scheme marker, but is not able to teleport Auguste Hart away with False Reality, so Obedient Wretch is able to run to get engaged with Auguste, scoring me Hidden Martyrs end condition.

Scores in the end go 4-5 for Outcasts.

Burning Pram

 I gave another Malifaux demo on Vassal for a potential player with whom I had already played a demo game earlier.

We expanded the complexity to:

25 soulstones with masters

Standard Plant Explosives

Schemes: Assassinate, Search the Ruins, Breakthrough, Detonate Charges, Claim Jump

My list was:

Molly + Necrotic Machine
Philip & Nanny
Rabble Riser
Night Terror
Crooligan

Stones: 2
Schemes: Search the Ruins, Detonate Charges

Opponent had:

Dr. McMourning + Zombie Chihuahua
Rafkin
Flesh Construct
2x Guild Autopsy

Stones: 1
Schemes: Search the Ruins, Breakthrough

Since it was essentially a demo I won't go into that much detail. Suffice to say that with this low model count it was kind of difficult to deny points which, I think, fits well to a demo game. After all it's more fun to score points.

Dr. McMourning got a really good stacking of poison going on, but this also caused Experimentals to move in one big group. This left Crooligan, and to some extent Night Terror, to plant strategy markers and scheme markers without anyone stopping them. 

Turn three was rather interesting for me. I had managed to save one thirteen from last round. I had to take a picture from cards I drew. 

And as opponent was throwing away cards left and right I couldn't even refill my hand with Molly. This all caused, for example, Philip & Nanny to fail to put up Boring Conversation. And that was their death sentence. In the end they survived the activation phase with two health remaining. But they had a staggering amount of Poison +13, which Necrotic Machine failed to remove because of my hand.

In the end scores went 8-6 for Molly with opponent missing end condition from Breakthrough and one strategy point.

The Newest New

So here is the first full game of Warmachine Mk4 using up-to-date everything. Had to invent new tags, too. And my statistics... damn... what am I going to do with my spreadsheets? I play Warmachine so little these days that getting in enough games for them to mean anything is going to take forever. 

Sob.

Anyway, my list:

Dark Host
Scaverous
-Corruptor
-Reaper
-Inflictor
-Deathripper
-Ripjaw
Bane Warriors
Bane Warriors + Officer & standard
Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech

Opponent had:

First Army
Siege2
-Defender
-Cyclone
-Ironclad
3x Trencher Infantry
Trencher Cannon Crew
Rangers
3x Trencher Sniper

Scenario was the only relevant scenario from rulebook.

Cygnar started game. I gravely underestimated both distance and accuracy of Trenchers, but at least I had the sense to play stealth card on smaller unit of Bane Warriors. My reasoning was that the other unit had both Tough and recursion from officer.

After Trenchers had taken their second turn, both units consisted of a single member. Fortunately Trenchers had to come close on the right side of the board, so Tartarus was able to slice and dice two additional Bane Warriors to the unit, and a couple of Excarnates brought them along even more.

Second turn was also when Scaverous used his feat. A well placed Feast of Worms gave Scaverous five souls after Reaper and Bane Standard Bearer went into soul shopping.

Cygnaran heavien and cannons and whatnot had been shooting Inflictor, which I strategically kept in reserve forgot to activate. But it was in a relatively good spot with Necrotech and Old Faithful repairing it.

During first two rounds I managed to remove all Trencher Infantry units.

Turn three Cygnar removed Bane unit from the right and kept shooting Inflictor, bringing it down to, like, four boxes remaining or so.

Reaper removed Ironclad with the help of Dark Shroud and Feast of Worms. Inflictor was still being repaired and forgotten to activate. Admonia and Withershadow Combine in general were making lucky 10+ rolls to hit entrenched Trenchers, although souls helped a lot there.

Deathripper ran to contest enemy flag, so I gained advantage of one point.

Turn four my warjacks couldn't believe their luck. All of them remained intact, albeit each were crippled with just a few boxes remaining. Bane Warriors were gone, though. 

I have to do telekinesis shenanigans to get Necrotech to repair Reaper. Bane Lord Tartarus is also nudged a little forward, and he charges Cyclone. Reaper finishes the heavy jack. 

As Siege had not managed to remove Deathripper and Scaverous moved to control my flag, point difference went to three in Cryx's favor.

Fifth turn both of my heavies and Deathripper are removed from board. Admonia also runs into rocket turret's counter blast and dies. Ripjaw arcs a Feast of Worms on Defender, and Tartarus manages to kill the already damaged Cygnaran warjack.

Necrotech creates a whole lot of scrap thralls. Point difference goes to four in Cryx's favor, so we end the game.

Mature Audience

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Flank Cursed Objects

Schemes: Breakthrough, Leave Your Mark, Public Demonstration, Set the Trap, In Your Face

My list:

Molly2 & Necrotic Machine
Philip & Nanny
Archie
Noxious Nephilim
Rabble Riser with Grave Spirit Touch
Rabble Riser
Night Terror

Stones: 5
Schemes: In Your Face, Leave Your Mark

Opponent had:

Nekima & Blood Hunter
Hayreddin
Mature Nephilim
2x Young Nephilim
Lilitu
Black Blood Shaman

Stones: 4
Schemes: In Your Face, Leave Your Mark

Turn 1:

Opponent started with shooting Mature Nephilim with Hayreddin and pulsing off focused with Black Blood Shaman. On my side Noxious Nephilim regurgitated a corpse marker and Rabble Riser who had Grave Spirit Touch pulsed focused for my crew,

I had brought Rabble Riser a tad too far, so Mature Nephilim was able to fly and charge it, triggering shove aside, clumping up my crew even worse than it already was. Necrotic Machine took a point of damage, and second attack against the Riser brought it to one health remaining.

Molly had to activate to heal the minion a bit, cheating a precious severe from my hand on the heal flip. Remaining attacks she tried to poke some fun at the Nephilim with her baton, but the Nephilim was too mature for her childish slapstick humor. 

Remaining Nephilim crew was vomiting corpses left and right and then eating those corpses with appetite. I didn't want to bother them and let them have their fun instead. At least that's what I passive aggressively tell everyone on my blog because Nekima didn't invite me to her party. 

Rabble Riser moved out of Archie's way, then Nekima took a double walk and charged the un-upgraded Rabble Riser, leaving him reeling at two health.

Archie pushes with Molly's ability,  leaps next to Mature Nephilim and slaps it around, leaving it alive with one health.

Philip & Nanny managed to land slow on Mature Nephilim, and Necrotic Machine gave the upgraded Rabble Riser a healthy dose of black joker on heal flip.

At the end of first round I had three models completely out of my deployment zone. 

Turn 2:

Resurrectionists win initiative, so it's one dead Mature Nephilim in the hands of Archie. Nope, not a single attack connected even with mournful memories.

Black line is deployment

Mature regenerates and at least doesn't do much of a damage on Molly's models as a consolation.

And then Molly is there to tickle Mature Nephilim again with her baton. She had not learned her lesson. This Nephilim didn't even crack a smile. Tough audience. But at least parade route succeeded, but I didn't check the lines beforehand well enough and turned out I could only get one irreducible damage on the thing, and three ticks of Black Blood on my models.

Eventually grave spirit touched Rabble Riser killed the Mature Nephilim that had cursed object on it. Then? A Young Nephilim grew into an additional Mature. 

Nekima scored a strategy by killing the regular Rabble Riser and failed to do anything against Archie. 

Philip and Nanny slowed both Nekima and the new and improved Mature Nephilim. Noxious Nephilim did good job in attacking Nekima, but with all the healing going on in enemy team I wasn't convinced I could take her down.

As I had lost an unactivated Rabble Riser I was woefully behind (or forward?) in activations so I didn't dare to mess up the obvious plans of Neverborn to score Leave Your Mark. 

But, I had managed to score In Your Face with Mature Nephilim so scores went even, 2-2.

At the end of second round I still had only three models completely out of my deployment zone.

Turn 3:

I had Red Joker in my hand and won the initiative after a little cheating contest. I decided to activate Archie first since I had my doubts if he was to live for another round. I still tried to heal him as much as I could - the problem was that whatever heal I could get in was pretty much canceled by Black Blood.

Anyway, Archie used Leap to engage Black Blood shaman. He was able to secure straight flip with Red Joker, and got a severe. Second strategy point for me.

Hayreddin single-handedly killed Archie, though. Nekima then takes a swing at Noxious Nephilim and tosses a corpse marker with proper suit to stun Necrotic Machine and Rabble Riser. Riser survived the damage and charged Nekima. 

And killed her! Rabble Riser killed Nekima! What is this! Yay! Hooray! 

Oh yeah, Rabble Riser was stunned and had essentially killed Nekima with Critical Strike. 

At least Noxious Nephilim was able to finish the job and start slowly wobbling towards enemy deployment zone.

Molly makes a feeble activation, failing to heal Philip & Nanny but succeeding to heal Necrotic Machine. My last soulstone is spent on saving Philip & Nanny from just about dying when Mature Nephilim charged them and got a severe for damage. Necrotic Machine is able to heal her for a bit.

Blood Hunter charges Noxious Nephilim, and I can't get an angle for Night Terror to go and plant a scheme in the middle - Lilitu and Young Nephilim had been positioned so that I had no window to interact. Because of that Night Terror went to kill Blood Hunter, but failed at that.

Scores go 3-4 for Neverborn when both players score Strategy, and Neverborn had killed Archie while he was close enough to Nekima.

Turn 4:

Hayreddin kills both Necrotic Machine and Rabble Riser, securing strategy. Noxious Nephilim does the same for Resurrectionists by killing Young Nephilim. 

Lilitu had failed to kill Rabble Riser, but we already know his fate. 

Mature Nephilim decides to ignore Philip & Nanny who had backed into safety, thus kind of ignoring themselves. Once opponent had only Blood Hunter remaining, Night Terror felt bold enough to leave melee and plant me Leave Your Mark.

Scores even to 5-5 in this one of the toughest games in recent memory.

Turn 5:

Hayreddin and two Mature Nephilims (Lilitu had grown at this point) kill Night Terror, thus getting a strategy point for Neverborn. However, the little guy survived long enough for opponent to be unable to plant third Leave Your Mark scheme on the table.

Philip & Nanny tried to kill Blood Hunter from blocking Noxious Nephilim's way into Neverborn deployment but left the totem alive with one health. Fortunately Molly succeeds to concentrate and move the thing with Parade Route. 

Noxious Nephilim is then able to cruise 13" into enemy deployment.

Opponent scores fourth strategy point and Resurrectionists get end condition of In Your Face.

That's 6-6. What a game!

Who Is Watching the Watcher?

Some Kingdom Death solo since the board was set up.

Lantern Year 23 showdown - Butcher level 3

Laifuseuskaja, Hovelina, Tranaree and Zoronuro confront the Butcher, and it was rather uneventful. It could have gone south if wrong target would have been picked when Butcher got Lantern Frenzy going on, but instead the target became Laifuseuskaja, whom Butcher hit only on 9+ even with the accuracy tokens!

However, two to four attacks per round against a single target was no joke even with 9+ hits. Laifuseuskaja had to burn her surge each round to use Block on her beacon shield, so progress was on the slower side when it came to wounding the monster since the only one who could reliably wound had to spend her resources on defense. Well, that, and the fact that the 8+ "armor save" on Butcher could have almost as well been the 1.3 version's 6+, so often the nemesis seemed to make those rolls.

There wasn't that much brain damage on rotation. Only one survivor frenzied as a result of infectious lunacy, although both Tranaree and Laifuseuskaja had zero insanity at the end of the showdown.

But, the showdown steadily grinded itself away and it was time for new lantern year.

Lantern Year 24 - Glossolalia

Hovelina who already has no jawbone left receives the Endless Babble ability.

For the first time ever my settlement manages to build the Mask Maker thanks to Butcher dropping the forsaker mask without roll.

1: Settlement innovates Forbidden Dance
2: Forbidden Dance for Laifuseuskaja - success.
3: Forbidden Dance for Voxanius - failure.
4-6: Face Painting for +2 on intimacy
7-8: Two matchmakers for the plant people, +2 population.
9: Scarification for Voekele, blinded.
10-11: Laifuseuskaja and Zoronuro drums for some insanity.
12: Shrine Ritual is success.

Then I should pick a last hunt before the big fight with Watcher. Since I'm leaving Laifuseuskaja to wait for a year and because Antelope Mask looks inviting, I think I'll pick the boring fight against Screaming Antelope level 3.

Lantern Year 24 hunt & showdown: Screaming Antelope level 3 Gigalion level 3

Zoronuro, Hovelina, Menoloromias and Chanial start to hunt for the Antelope. A non-choice of Opportunists as well as Devouring Ground from Antelope hunt events brings survivors to Overwhelming Darkness in no time. Everyone just receives penalties to accuracy and evasion there.

After Overwhelming Darkness not much happened. Just the pickaxe broke, and level 3 Gigalion attacked the survivors.

Fortunately the Dead Monster from the hunt event gave me a headstart and I didn't have to struggle with the smart cat moods. Still, the first round was costly. 

Hovelina managed to land two wounds - one of which critted the fuzzy groin. Hoo boy. Showdown just got serious. Zoronuro also manages to wound the monster but with a reprisal reaction, losing total of nine points of armor. 

And first four cards showed trap coming up, so I had to juggle around that. I decided to take a risk with Menoloromias the Luma-murdering-spear master-to-be, and for the first time ever I got use out of spear specialization. I'm not sure if it was first time ever, but certainly feels so!

The two cards are, then, failure reactions. First card Menoloromias failed to wound (he needed 5+ after all), got attacked. Since he is immortal, he just took the brain damage and was able to fail the second required 5+, this time getting grabbed. 

First AI card is Ground Fighting, but then Vicious kicked in and as Menoloromias was still immortally insane he was not able to dash away. 

He started showdown with, like, 26 insanity. After first round he was sitting at light injury level in brain. To make matters worse, I noticed he has the Stark Raving disorder, meaning he continues to be immortal thus rendering his second-highest armor levels useless. 

At least there was Ground Fighting in play now. This gave a good opportunity to loot three egg sacs, dead monster and acanthus plants. 

Annoyingly, there was trap coming up again.

Vicious caused big trouble in getting to monster's blind spot, but Hovelina had 6+ Understanding so she was able to take aimed shots at the beast without taking brain damage. After a failure reaction with a forward sprint, Zoronuro was able to dash to its blind spot and start swinging counterweighed axe with his mastery, causing two permanent injuries on top of fuzzy groin.

Vicious, however, made it relatively easy to mitigate drawn AI cards with Hovelina dashing just out of reach. Although with Movement 9 (it had gained one -1 move token from a critical location) it required some planning.

My greediness for axe master guaranteed crits cost me the dear life of Zoronuro. He just couldn't make that roll even with a re-roll, and got a basic attack instead - obviously rolling "2" for the one and only severe injury he had to take. RIP Zoronuro, you were with Enerva from LY 1. 

What was supposed to be a secure showdown turned out to be excruciation exercise on tip-toeing. Slowly and steadily Hovelina thinned down the hit location deck, but there were still five to six wounds to be done after the deck was emptied. 

Since Hovelina was uninjured and had at least four armor in each location, she fished out the trap with grave results. She was in Tall Grass and Gigalion had one negative accuracy token. Still three attacks out of five hit her, causing a severe injury. Since she was Necromancer, chances for her to die were at 30%. She didn't, but this scared me to such extent that Hovelina ate fresh acanthus right away to get body armor back up. 

There were two Size Ups and Ground Fighting in the discard pile, so I thought I would be able to make it slowly. But it took so many turns that Hovelina was starting to run out of survival points. When there was only one AI card in the discard pile - Ground Fighting - I thought I had it made. 

But then the persistent injury that gave Gigalion wounds on a "1" before it draws AI made its first "successful" roll and wounded the Ground Fighting away. Hovelina was too close to dash away with her last survival point. Only one survival meant Hovelina would not be able to dodge hits if she wanted to dash away from Vicious. 

So, Chanial made a valiant sacrifice and dashed next to Hovelina. Tactics card had been Diversion Tactics. 

So, Gigalion hulked to Hovelina and took five dice worth of attacks hitting on 4+. Three of them hit. One was mitigated by Diversion Tactics, another by Fencing and the last attack thankfully went to a location with armor. Hovelina then dashed away, leaving Chanial to be torn to shreds with six damage grabs. 

Chanial didn't die, merely had to skip next hunt. 

After that showdown was essentially done. Hovelina could run too far for Gigalion to catch her, and as she had somehow stolen the cat's testicles with bow and arrow, it would not target anyone else. And then with Vicious it would just run away from as many survivors as possible. 

Eventually the "1" would come up.

Chanial and Menoloromias ate the Gigalion's eyes. Pheeew.

After such a difficult showdown at least the rewards were juicy, too. Twenty-nine resources were gathered in total throughout the hunt and showdown.

Lantern Year 25 - Triathlon of Death

Well it's been a while since settlement did one of these, but it's only fitting it happened on the eve of the final mid-boss. It's the fifth Triathlon for this settlement, so somebody will feel sorry for not gaining one more pair of rawhide boots.

Hovelina, Laifuseuskaja, Nodalus and Agyruu take part in the triathlon. Laifuseuskaja is - again - the race contest winner, Nodalus second, Hovelina third and Agyruu last. No surprises there. 

Debate contest is won by Hovelina, second place is for Laifuseuskaja with Nodalus third and Agyruu last. Would I get first banished survivor from Triathlon?

Fight contest goes easily to Laifuseuskaja, with second place for Hovelina. Third place is Agyruu so he isn't banished. I suppose Nodalus, the survivor with two dismembered arms, isn't exactly a prime candidate for triathlon duels.

1: Settlement innovates Storytelling for that extra survival limit. 
2-3: Face Painting for intimacy.
4: Matchmaker and Love Juice give settlement +2 population.
5-6: Face Painting for departing x2 success.
7-9: Menoloromias is finally cured of his delusions of immortality.
10: Nightmare Training for Laifuseuskaja
11: Momento Mori for Naoran, who gains the courage and understanding of Zoronuro.
12: Voxanius gets rid of Binge Eating with bloodletting.
13: Shrine ritual is success.

Settlement develops Red Charm, Drums, Scrap Dagger and another Beacon Shield. 

And then we have it.

Lantern Year 25 showdown - The Watcher.

Syllogi, Laifuseuskaja, Hovelina and Voegole are the chosen champions of Enerva settlement.

...

Yeah.

Utterly anticlimactic fight when Voegole activated to dash and move a retinue into position. Syllogi does the same so she has a retinue on both of her sides. She takes two attacks at The Watcher.

The Watcher dies.

ilo.avi

Lantern Year 26 - Haunted

Returning survivors join the chorus for some extra insanity. 

1-2: Nightmare Training for Laifuseuskaja for +1 weapon proficiency, +1 strength.
3: Scrap Smelting for two Iron.
4-7: Voxanius investigates the Exhausted Lantern Hoard.
8: A matchmaker that gives twins right away.
9-10: 2x Face Paint for battle.
11: War Room plan is made.
12: Shrine ritual is success.

Since The Watcher was such a pushover, I decided to take for a bit of a challenge.

Lantern Year 26 hunt & showdown - Sunstalker level 3

Laifuseuskaja, Menoloromias, Hovelina and Chanial hunt for the big fish.

There was no great drama during hunt except for survivors getting bombarded with events that caused loss of survival. While sonorous rest balanced it quite nicely, Laifseuskaja still had to start showdown four points short from maximum. 

Showdown itself was over in just four rounds - most of that thanks to the Sunstalker going soft on actually attacking things. Instead it tried to fry people with massive sun track damage when there were no cards on the track. Controlling AI cards with Rawhide Headband made it easy to predict when a solar flare would occur - and it did, once - to keep everyone out of light. Though a Sunspot Lantern helped a lot in this. 

I've been dreading Sunstalker level 3, but this showdown probably made me feeling overly confident in fighting it in other campaigns... 

Still, there were only three returning survivors. But that was Laifuseuskaja finally succumbing to King's Curse.

Lantern Year 27 - Triathlon of WHAT

Alright. Maybe Kingdom Death is trying to hint me to start a new healthy hobby or something. But this is just absurd. I know for certain that it just can't be a matter of shuffling poorly. The way I randomize settlement events is: I shuffle the deck. Then I start rolling a d20 one by one for each card, and I pick the one that rolled lowest. If multiple cards get the same number, I randomize one from those in the same manner. 

So... It's the sixth Triathlon of Death for this settlement. At least somebody else gets the chance to win now that Laifuseuskaja is gone for a while.

Hovelina, Menoloromias, Chanial and Agyruu begin the sports.

Everyone is shocked when Agyruu is about to WIN the race contest. Spectators throw sticks and stones on her route to such extent that she actually loses. This took three re-rolls, though. But in the end Hovelina won, Chanial was second, Menoloromias third and Agyruu felt cheated, which she certainly was.

Debate contest went as it always went, with Hovelina winning. Menoloromias came close second. Chanial just got angry when Agyruu still continued to insist that race had not been fair play. No-one listened to Agyruu, so she became apathetic.

Fight contest took one re-roll for Menoloromias to win and become spear master, Hovelina second, and, uh, Chanial was third. That left Agyruu for the last spot.

 A survivor was banished because of Triathlon of Death! Traditions just got serious.

Then, since settlement had just innovated storytelling, it was time for Edged Tonometry. Noctamum became proficient with Katana, that's it.

Troka took a flower from the hulking King's Man look-alike, which then vanished into distance while Troka became Laifuseuskaja Twice Reborn. 

Settlement develops Monster Grease, Sun Lure and Hook.

1-2: Lantern Discoveries level 2
3: Oxidized a Beacon Shield.
4-7: Voxanius investigates 9 Broken Lanterns, 2 Cocoon Membranes and a Lantern Tube from Exhausted Lantern Hoard.
5: Settlement makes White Lion Mask! 
6: Settlement makes 3x Iron with Scrap Smelting.
7-8: Face Painting for Intimacy, Intimacy with Love Juice
9: Scarification for Voegole
10: War Room plan.
11: Face Painting for battle. 
12: Shrine ritual is success.
13: Hunt for Great Golden Cat!

Lantern Year 27 hunt & showdown - Great Golden Cat!

Woo! My first time hunting a legendary foe! (We don't count the Beast of Sorrow.)

Menoloromias, Laifuseuskaja, Hovelina and Voegole start their legendary hunt. I try my luck with Sky Fishing to start the showdown immediately, but it didn't work out. Menoloromias lost his nose.

Then, survivors encounter a river that drowns Menoloromias to just one survival remaining. This hunt it sucks to be Menoloromias. 

Right after, without getting the time to use sonorous rest, a giant carries the survivors straight to showdown. Guess I got my quick start after all.

Then the showdown, yes, it began.

The thing is... there was no Great Golden Cat around, like, at all. Worst case scenario came true: first AI card drawn was Vanish. Fortunately the kitty was found hiding, but only after a total of five actions had been spent in the search - two of them from Necromancer's Eye user. 

Still, Laifuseuskaja took a risk and dealt three damage. Hovelina didn't dare to push luck any further and instead went to scavenge some debris as if there was no legendary monsters around. 

Great Golden Cat takes a swing at Laifuseuskaja but fails to connect because Laifuseuskaja is inside Tall Grass.

Next turn after checking hit locations Laifuseuskaja attacks the monster but a timeless eye hit with counterweighed axe left a failure attack reaction coming up next. Now, if Hovelina would have walked to the monsters blind spot failure would be like 12% chance or something, but I deemed that too high. Those +5 damage tokens combined with -3 on severe injury rolls certainly made me cautious.

But then the showdown started going easily enough. Only scary moment was when I didn't take into account that Laifuseuskaja would not be in the Lion's field of view if she was in blind spot, so it targeted Hovelina instead, who was fortunately able to dash away from range. 

The rewards are absurd. Laifuseuskaja got even more strength and accuracy, even more because of the stirring tale from Saga. Laifuseuskaja is the monster here with +15 permanent strength!

Anyway, another Lantern Year.

Lantern Year 28 - Weird Dream

Weird dream, huh? That must be about the seventh Triathlon of Death. But the extra insanity is helpful for sure.

Settlement develops Lantern Glaive, Lantern Mail, Lantern Greaves, and Lantern Gauntlets.

1-2: Lantern Research level 3
3-6: Investigating the Exhausted Lantern Hoard for 17 Broken Lantern and 2 Lantern Tubes
7-9: Silk Refining into hides
10: Leathermaking
11: Forbidden Dance for Hovelina, succeeds with one re-roll.
12-13: Matchmakers
14-15: Storytelling time! And it's dirty story indeed, one that feels wrong on so many levels. I had to re-roll once to get White Speaker story event. Hovelina was nominated to hear the story of Forsaker. She gained +2 permanent strength and two broken arms. Which, thanks to Eternal Will, negate the associated penalties. 
16: Voxanius investigates one more Lantern Tube because I can't figure out anything else to do.
17: Shrine Ritual is success.

Next it's going to be King's Man level 3. I suspect the killing blow to be the most serious injury here. But I think this is enough Enerva for a little while.

+3 insanity for departing survivors.

Enerva settlement

Population 47, Survival limit 14 (manhunter hooch), +4 on depart (+6 vs nemesis) (+3 survival, insanity from Knowledge Worm) +monsterlevel on arrival 

Luma XXX otherworldly luck
Voxanius otherworldly luck XXX
Noctamum XXX
Laifuseuskaja 
Konahim XXX
Nodalus, hamstrung XXX
Firbab the First Baby XXX
Lepuri XXX +1str watcher -1 permanent strength from Lamplighter, -1 survival. Dared to investigate beneath lanthern hoard on LY 20, +10 insanity +1 permanent strength and Immortal & Flower Addiction disorders. Ate the Lantern Bud.
Nossos, with Ambidextrous, +1str watcher XXX
Kholkho, +1 str watcher Burning Focus fighting art. XXX +3 insanity, Anxiety from lost companion.
Chantur XXX +3 insanity, +1str watcher 
Phenial XXX +1str watcher
Agyruu XXX (Banished for losing in each triathlon category!)
Tranaloka XXX +1 str watcher found from silk nest, +9 insanity, Vestiphobia, Hemophobia and Secretive from lost companions.
Noram XXX 
Hovelina XXX 
Mallestik XXX +1 str watcher
Kholbab XXX +1str watcher
Pheruu XXX +1str watcher
Chanram XXX +1str watcher
Lojuba XXX 
Syllogi XXX
Tranch XXX, +1str watcher +3 insanity and Narcissistic from lost companion.
Noandalus XXX +1str watcher, Swordman's Promise from Warm Virus
Menoloromias, XXX saved by Lojuba during Overwhelming Darkness
Firbalus,  XXX +1str watcher Blinded via Scarification, +1 courage
Undenial XXX +1str watcher
Noantur, XXX +1str watcher  destroyed genitals via scarification. +1 courage.
Kholbea XXX +1 perm strength (watcher)
Noch, XXX +1 courage and Tough from Scarification.
Hunoka XXX, +1 perm strength (watcher)
Tranaree, +1 perm. strength, +1 courage, Tough (Has done scarification)
Pheboka, +1 strength (watcher)+2xp, +3understanding, +3 courage, +2 perm. accuracy (insight & bold) (Has done scarification)
Phentur XXX +1 strength (watcher) +2xp, +3understanding, +2 courage, Mammoth Hunting
Chanial XXX
Voegoran Warbling, XXX +1 strength (watch) Flower Addiction  (Insight done) Blotted Out (age)
Nagravarkele Warbling, XXX +1 strength (watch) Flower Addiction (Insight done) +1 accuracy (age)
Traalus +2 strength (watcher, insight) (bold done) (Blinded from Scarification) Otherworldly Luck (age)
Nodanch +2 accuracy (insight & age), +1 strength (watcher) (bold done) (Tough from Scarification)
Lepram, XXX +1 strength (watcher)(insight done), Heroic (age)
Voekele, +4 perm strength (intimacy, insight, age, watcher), blinded from scarification, +1 accuracy from Bold
Nagragoran, Tough (age) (insight done)
Voegole XXX (+1 perm strength from insight), Thrill Seeker (age)
Naoran (+3 perm strength from watcher, insight & bold), Combo Master (age), , blinded, Weak Spot, Sweet Battle from See the Truth, 8 understanding, 9 courage
Hunanch, +1 permanent accuracy (insight) Transcended Masochist (age)
Vole, +1 perm accuracy (insight) +1perm str (age)
Naan XXX, insight done random art (age)
Gragoran (insight done) +1 accuracy (age), +1 strength (bed)
Gorvar, XXX (insight done), random art (age) 

Inventory:

1x Shadow ink gland (organ)
Black Lens (organ)
2x Shadow Tentacles (hide,organ)

2x 1000 year sunstone
3x Salt

1x Beast Steak
2x Fresh Acanthus

1x ???
21x Broken Lantern

1x Web Silk

8x Leather

6x Iron

2x Cocoon Membrane
3x Lantern Tube
1x Black Lichen

1x Hooked Claw
1x Great Cat Bones

For masks:
Skull

Pelt

For the longest time a round of Word Winder was played a few days ago.