Planting Daggers

Two summer games of Malifaux in the pine woods of Kuhmo, both were 50ss. 

Strategy: Standard Plant Explosives

Schemes: In Your Face, Death Beds, Sweating Bullets, Power Ritual, Espionage

My list:

Ensouled Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Kari Zotiko
Midnight Stalker
Auguste Hart
Hanged
Prospector
2x Guilty

Pool: 3
Schemes: Sweating Bullets (Hanged), Espionage

Opponent had:

Dark Bet Lynch & Hungriest Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Mr. Graves
Kara
Soul Battery
2x Illuminated
Tanuki

Pool: 3
Schemes: Sweating Bullets (Gwyneth), In Your Face

Turn 1:

So, now with the new henchman in my possession, I wanted to try how Montresor-less Jack Daw would fare. What madness is this?! Why do I torment myself so?

Since scheme pool had Power Ritual, I remembered to bluff it - top left Midnight Stalker, and bottom-left Prospector. 

Top looked somewhat problematic, when there was pretty much only a Guilty and Midnight Stalker there, all of whom had explosive tokens. Against them, there was Mr. Graves and an Illuminated. So, Auguste had rather unpleasant job of running to engage Mr. Graves. 

Once the second Illuminated committed to center after Lynch had activated his aura, Jack Daw walked and charged the Illuminated. He managed to land the hazardous upgrade and even deal four points of damage in hopes of luring Hungering Darkness in the middle for Hanged to score Sweating Bullets.

That plan failed miserably, because Hungering Darkness did a full run & charge maneuver right to Hanged, who had already activated and whispered forbidden upgrades for Jakob. Otherwise good, I guess, but Hanged wasn't within 6" of center point. 

Fortunately Kari Zotiko was able to come and heal the damage Hungering Darkness had caused, and whistle a walk for Hanged.

Kara was approaching from the bottom-right, and Gwyneth and gone to center, staying just outside of hazardous aura of middle Illuminated. 

Tanuki was supporting middle, and Soul Battery was with Mr. Graves and Illuminated on top.

Turn 2:

Hungering Darkness began to beat the snot out of Hanged, which was easier said than done. Damage blocks were plentiful, and after three attacks that all hit, Hanged had taken only two points of damage in. But, as it was my Sweating Bulleteer, I could not risk it. Kari activated, charged Hungering Darkness for severe damage, and healed Hanged back to full, with complementary Concealment from the heal action.

But opponent just wouldn't leave it at that! Lynch activated, walked and charged Hanged, but damage was blocked. Although first Illuminated had to deal with her anger issues, just walking around and concentrating hard.

In the center, Gwyneth walked past the wall and charged Jack Daw, dealing a couple points of damage.

Lady Ligeia had exposed herself by walking into middle. Jack Daw healed Hanged for a bit, bought Masks and attacked Illuminated, pushing himself within 4" of Illuminated, Lynch, Gwyneth and Hungering Darkness. It's a shame I did not buy Rams for the upcoming Draw Them In, as Hungering Darkness, Lynch and Illuminated all failed the Mv checks. 

On top, Illuminated and Guilty went to place a strategy markers while Midnight Stalker did his thing, placing scheme on the centerline and speeding towards opponents deployment. 

Auguste was able to slap five points of damage in to Mr. Graves despite negative fate modifiers. Tanuki had to patch up the bouncer as best as it could before Mr. Graves missed all of his attacks. 

Bottom, Kara walked and tried to pounce on Kari. She failed, and instead charged Prospector, missing the attack completely. 

The round felt... wrong, because of the disparity of our flips. I scored severe and moderate damages with negative modifiers, blocked damage with severes and moderates and at least connected pretty much every attack I made. 

Opponent, on the other hand, missed every attack of Mr. Graves, Kara and Gwyneth, and half of Lynchs' attack as well. When he dealt damage, it was minimum or black joker. 

However, it's rare to see this uniform lines in Malifaux. All but perhaps one model fits inside a 4" or 5" wide corridor. 

Both players scored strategy, and Outcasts got Sweating Bullets for a 2-1 lead for Jack Daw.

Turn 3:

From top to bottom, Midnight Stalker was able to place a strategy marker and a scheme marker inside opponent's deployment area. With absurd damage flips, Guilty was able to kill the uninjured Illuminated that had placed a strategy marker last turn.

Auguste tickled Mr. Graves down to two health remaining. Tanuki failed to heal the bouncer, but did manage to remove Distracted. And finally Mr. Graves had had enough of chasing ghosts, and offered a deep dive interview to Auguste from his fencepost. Auguste died in two hits. Another Guilty charged Mr. Graves, bringing him down to one health remaining. Unfortunately Soul Battery was there to bring Mr. Graves over the Hard-to.Kill threshold before sacrificing himself for two soulstones.

In the center, hot damn I had not realized how awesome counter Kari or even Hanged's heal reduction aura is to Luck Thief! Hanged had activated early to activate his aura, so both Gwyneth and Lynch we vulnerable now like never before. 

Illuminated was able to heal herself a bit and steam off her anger issues with focused concentration. 

Jack Daw used all of his actions to kill Lynch. He might have had some actions to spare if he didn't have to cheat to succeed at Draw Them In, with the brilliance gained from that pushing him out of range from Gwyneth and Hungering Darkness. Final blow came from Unquiet Soul. 

Hungering Darkness considered Kari an easier prey than Hanged, but the attacks dealt in only weaks. Kari activated and healed herself, plus tried to smack the henchman leader for a bit now that it wasn't able to heal.

Prospector pushed himself out of melee, walked to centerline and dropped a scheme marker after Kara had missed all attacks against him.

So that was a second unfortunate turn for Ten Thunders in a row.  

Outcasts scored strategy and Espionage, while Ten Thunders got Sweating Bullets with Gwyneth for a 4-2 lead for Jack Daw.

Turn 4:

Mr. Graves survived against all odds, but at least Tanuki died against all odds. Jack Daw finally got his Guilt of the Many train running. Tanuki had to pay for the sins of everyone involved. Mr. Graves dropped an explosive, as did Kara. Lucky Guilty from last turn was able to pick up strategy marker that an Illuminated had left.

Hungering Darkness had been unlucky thus far in its attacks, but that all changed this turn when it was able to kill Kari and use its heal action before Hanged had activated Entropic Curse. Oh well. I was not in a position to complain. 

Midnight Stalker spawned all of his remaining strategy marker and scheme markers without anyone able to contest. 

In the middle Gwyneth took small steps in getting closer to my deployment zone for In Your Face end condition, and Illuminated tried all it might on removing Lady Ligeia - but Lady didn't even flinch. 

Outcasts scored strategy, and so did Ten Thunders with In Your Face to boot for a 5-4 lead for Jack Daw.

Turn 5:

As it was such a struggle for Ten Thunders, we did not play until the very end. When Jack Daw removed opponent's third strategy marker, it was about 7-5 game over for Jakob. 

Game 2:

Strategy: Flank Cloak and Dagger

Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Ensnare, Protected Territory, Outflank, Espionage

My list:

Hamelin the Piper & 3x Stolen
Nix
Benny Wolcomb
Hans with Wanted Criminal
Tunnel Rats
Rat Catcher
Winged Plague
Malifaux Rat

Pool: 6
Schemes: Protected Territory, Espionage

Opponent had:

Charles Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Joss
Melissa
Peacekeeper
Hunter
Medical Automaton
2x Watcher

Pool: 2
Schemes: Protected Territory, Ensnare

Turn 1:

Nix and Rat Catcher placed required scheme markers for Benny, and Hamelin obeyed Rat Catcher to do that again.

Hamelin was able to obey a Hunter back to enemy deployment zone. 

Supercharged Peacekeeper, however, was a bit of a problem. It hit with harpoon gun and moved plague master to a distressing position behind a wall, with closest models being the Peacekeeper and already activated Hoffman. 

Benny conjured up some rats and walked forward to perhaps save Hamelin next turn. Hired Malifaux Rat formed the Rat King. 

Both augmented Watchers speeded towards strategy markers nearest to outflank corners, so I thought opponent might have that scheme. Hans brandished his clockwork rifle and took aim - missing the bat completely.

Winged PLague had placed an Espionage scheme to my deployment zone, and Tunnel Rats were inside a fog bank and near blocking terrain to mayhaps leap to score schemes next turn.

Guild had Melissa and Hunter flankin from top, Joss from below center and the big guys with supporting models in the middle, enjoying the fiddling performance Hamelin was putting out for them dangerously close.

Turn 2:

Sure enough, the Watchers placed scheme markers and interacted with strategy markers in both corners, but more akin to Protected Territory. So I wouldn't be able to deny them point this turn in any feasible way, but Hans shot the one on top-right corner anyway. This time he scored a hit, but didn't drop a scrap marker on board.

Joss was such a terrifying Nix-killer that the Rat King just ran to block Joss' charge lane to the good boy. With 0" melee range Rat King wasn't in reach to declare a charge. Joss was content on beating up the three kids in a trenchcoat, but landed only two points of damage.

Center saw some odd action. Hoffman overcharged Peacekeeper once more, walked closer and attacked Hamelin with enhanced blowtorch, setting the piper's cape in flames. 

That was not enough to stop him from piping, though. First he stunned Peacekeeper with Piper's Influence, and then obeyed it away with 2" push and 4" walk, behind Medical Automaton so that at least one action would be wasted on a walk. He also obeyed Nix to walk a little forward behind a strategy marker and Rat King. He also obeyed Rat Catcher forward.

Medical Automaton attacked Peacekeeper to use Bedside Manner - it never occurred to me that it is possible to use the ability this way, too - to place it in front of it. The bot also removed Stunned, so Hamelin was in deep trouble.

Benny sacrificed himself and walked and charged Peacekeeper. And even after four attacks, Benny was still standing with three health to boot! Although that was mostly due to one damage block being Red Joker. 

Hunter also spent its entire activation shooting Benny, bringing him down to one health and depleting all of Plague's soulstones. Two surprise shots by Mechanical Attendant later Benny was gone. Might have been the noblest thing he ever did in his life.

Nix had activated Loose Bowels, interacted an intel and placed a scheme marker on the centerline for Espionage. 

Throughout the turn toll on my hand had been heavy, and in an attempt to save Benny I had cheated every 8+ card from my hand. I needed more to secure scheme points this turn.

So, a Stolen walked forward and spat at something before splitting into two rats. Another Stolen, then, charged one of those rats and managed to kill it for a card draw. A three. Not good. So, despite Hamelin being in such a precarious position, second Stolen used Inevitable Fate and became two rats. And YES. It was no more and no less than the exact eight needed. Unfortunately not Crows, but that would have to do.

After Melissa had shot Winged Plague dead that had flown into a cloud to get intel, Tunnel Rats used their teleports action and failed the check. Two kids, your sacrifices were not in vain. Tunnel Rats teleported to Guild deployment zone to place a scheme. Rat Catcher went to place a second marker to center line.

Phew. What a turn. Both players scored strategy, and Espionage for Plague, Protected Territory for Guild. It was a 2-2 tie.

Turn 3:

Hoffman overcharged Peacekeeper, walked past the wall in middle and charged Hamelin. He only had five health remaining for now, so he had to figure out whether his life was worth a thing in this situation. Unfortunately he decided it was, so he obeyed Peacekeeper to charge Mechanical Attendant and stunned Peacekeeper afterwards. He obeyed Rat King within 0" of Joss and walked so that Peacekeeper would not be able to melee him. 

This... was not good, after all. Peacekeeper decided to ditch the effort and go after Tunnel Rats. Luckily enough the Rats survived, but only with three health remaining. Some combination of a Hunter and Melissa removed this super important model from me. 

Before all this happened, though, I had tried to block Peacekeeper's movement with Malifaux Rats, but there were only two of them. Medical Automaton and Mechanical Attendant were plenty enough to remove those. 

At least opponent had used good cards in accomplishing all of that, so Joss had to beat Rat King with no cards, and he had also been slowed by Rat King's ability. No damage to Plague, but Rat King landed three hits on Joss. Nix also charged the henchman to get within interaction range of a strategy marker, but failed to kill Joss. However, he was seriously injured and would have to go down next turn.

Hans didn't do anything of note, and even the Watcher he had damaged last turn was able to hide behind a dense cloud. Why am I paying this guy?

Plague was struggling with strategy markers, and were not able to score strategy this turn. But Guild had no such problems thanks to Hans' magnificent performance. Scores went to 3-2 lead for Guild.

Turn 4:

Hans scored his first kill and second damage instance in the game by shooting down the Watcher at bottom-left corner. Not during his own activation, no. He had to be OBEYED to do that.

Rat King nibbled Joss dead with just one bite, and thus had a chance to aid in scoring Protected Territory next turn. 

Nix picked up Intel and moved along with the strategy marker.

Hamelin had disengaged by stunning Hoffman into a hazardous marker, obeyed Hans and likely also gave an attack for Rat King before it had killed Joss.

Rat Catcher picked up intel and tried to place itself behind Melissa so that Hunter would not get a clear shot at him. Unfortunately Peacekeeper was able to get a lane to charge him, that meant no points for me this turn from strategy.

Thanks to Hans, or should we say Hamelin, neither did opponent. He was able to collect two intel this turn because he had been so busy with killing my models. 

Painstakingly opponent spawned scheme markers in the middle with Hoffman and Medical Automaton. I didn't think much of it as I had completely forgotten there was Ensnare in the pool. Looking at the picture now it's... kind of obvious, isn't it?

However, Hamelin had already activated, so points stayed at 3-2.

Turn 5:

It's turn five, and Hans scored his first OWN kill in the game by shooting top-right Watcher dead. This actually had an effect in the game as because of activation orders, Guild just could not get three intel this turn either. But neither did Outcasts, as Mechanical Attendant came to steal the intel Nix had.

Hamelin obeyed Nix to interact a scheme marker into enemy deployment, and that's when opponent scored Ensnare.

Melissa went to secure Protected Territory end condition, and Medical Automaton placed a scheme marker that was hugged by Hoffman.

Rat King walked to place a scheme marker deep in the enemy table side, and Nix charged right past Mechanical attendant to place a second scheme for Protected Territory whatever condition.

Scores went to 5-4 victory for Guild.

Summer of Betrayals

Wow, second time playing Betrayal at Baldur's Gate within a month, when last time around was four years ago.  

During my bi-annual trip to Kuhmo, we had three players for two games. My sister had a wedding to plan - I suppose that's good enough of a reason to not play more Betrayal at Baldur's Gate. 

Game 1: Haunt 33: Will of Yeenoghu

Adventurers were none other than Torskar Stonecleaver the Barbarian, whom the haunt calls for specifically and Azadeh Rashka the monk, plus Lia Faen Tlabbar the Warlock.

Early on Warlock went spelunking in the catacombs, and armed herself with Cursed Armor and Berserker Axe... not really the best combination for a warlock.

Azadeh kept company for the dwarf for a while until she, too, took a sewer grate and went into catacombs.

Dwarf Berserker was the only adventurer on city level, and there he found Meenlock and Dimensional Shackles... and triggered haunt with that. What a horrifying combo - endless reckless strikes! And that re-roll of blanks...!

Warlock and Monk might have had a chance had they planned movement a little better... but that kill potential of the traitor wasn't apparent to us. If the monk would have lured out the dwarf with Warlock a little behind but out of reach, heroes would have had a shot at wrecking the possessed dwarf with an eldritch blast. But, Torskar had a speed of five and warlock had three, so she would have to tank one attack of, like, eight or nine dice with re-rolled blanks before getting to it.

There were no miracles this time around. Victory for the traitor.

Game 2: Haunt 49: The Dark Light of Bhaal

Adventurers were Gretchen Titchwillow the Druid, Grusk Mugtug the Paladin and Dhadius Scarlet, the Wizard.

Gretchen was hell-bent on trying to uncover every single street tile there was. She failed in her endeavor, but at least she found a spell-book. Such a good item for a versatile character able to pump a single stat of choice.

Dhadius and Grusk were kind of hovering between catacombs and city level, not making up their mind where to be. Dhadius found potion of speed, locket and some sort of fireball beads that were worse than his own fireballs.

But the Paladin found Hand of Vecna, and triggered haunt with Figurine of Wondrous Power inside Shrine of Bhaal. Uh oh. 

First round after Paladin went rogue both the druid and wizard picked up two out of three quest tokens. Second turn Grusk wasn't able to do much other than position. He lost Figurine of Wondrous Power to a fireball by Dhadius and stopped Gretchen in her tracks with Eye of Vecna.

But then, Grusk entered same space with Dhadius and charmed him.

Since Grusk had moved to same space with Dhadius, Gretchen was able to go and pick up the third quest location with her mighty Sanity of six... not. Check failed miserably.  Fortunately Dhadius was able to shake up the enchantment, and blasted Grusk again with a superior fireball - and took the lantern. Curses! Had Gretchen picked up the quest location, heroes would have won.

But now things got a lot trickier. Grusk scrambled the lantern from Dhadius, and now finally Gretchen picked up the quest location. Unfortunately, however, Wizard could not repeat his last success and, in fact, just died to next attack the paladin did.

Druid still had a chance to win the game by using spellbook to attack Grusk. However, Eye of Vecna denied entering the space and paladin charged druid dead.

Another victory for the traitor.

Dawn of Decapitulium

 It's been a while since I played Kingdom Death solo, but recently I did start my first Kingdom Death 1.6 campaign. 

I'm using Gorm, Spidicules Lion Knight, Slenderman, Dung Beetle Knight and Dragon King expansions. My aim is to try graves/survival of the fittest and break it to the extreme, but without Flower Knight and Manhunter. That's because I have a suspicion that those two expansions are the reason why graves/survival gets so messed up.

Lantern Year 0 showdown: Prologue White Lion

Survivors had already deposited three wounds in to the lion with Cuhuu taking the permanent strength from first hit. I thought I was in for another easy, no death prologue. Hoo boy, was I wrong!

Survivors kept failing their attacks for a few rounds, scoring failure reactions and even the trap three times. Light and heavy injury levels were gone on most locations before Chomp turned out to be one of the last few cards in AI deck. 

Cuhuu was the first to go down with a massive head explosion. Right next went Keinoin, although that was not because of Chomp. It was still head explosion, though.

Finally Chomp was the very last card in AI deck, and both remaining survivors had their head location injury levels filled. And surely enough, Yaddarah received a Chomp. Fortunately it was not third explosion, the lion only nibbled Yaddarah's eye off. 

It might have been a prologue loss, but the one-eyed Yaddarah still managed to score both hits with Founding Stone which were both injuries. 

Lantern Year 1: First Survivors

First Speaker was the one-eyed Yaddarah.

Second returning survivor, Tellilovia, was the one who braved the gorm storm, losing her eye in the process. So my returning survivors brought back enough eyes for one complete person. 

Because of events during prologue, settlement was named Decapitulium.

A total of ten survivors. Graves gave +1 survival and understanding, which kind of felt better than permanent luck. Since I had only two returning survivors, I only had one endeavor after innovating Paint. With Bone Smith I was able to craft Bone Axe and Bone Darts. With such horrendous gear, that +1 survival might actually be required for surviving past year one!

Endeavors:

1: Innovated Paint
2: Built Bone Smith

Lantern Year 1 hunt & showdown - White Lion level 1

Vergeerd, Tellilovia, Medolonh and Serhoa start the hunt with two survival points each. 

Vergeerd discovers Prowling Lion, so that's a bonus at least. Tellilovia suffers a mental breakdown during Sea of Golden Grass, presumably from remembering the prologue fight. She got Revenge -disorder. 

Medolonh decided it is too risky to rush through Pus Fields in these circumstances, and instead Tellilovia suffers another mental anguish in the form of crippling misery. Maybe she should have taken a break after the traumatic prologue fight... oh well.

Showdown starts with Toppled Pillar and a Sinkhole.

Since lion was a prowling one, survivors were able to prowl back really hard. But, for once the cat outsmarted survivors! First hit location was no other than the trap. 

And I suspect this cat was not so distant relative to prologue lion - severe head injury gave the bone dart wielding Medolonh an intracranial hemorrhage. 

Third failed hit location had a basic attack reaction on failure, and Medolonh was adorned with gaping chest wound and two bleed tokens, so he was now at four. This showdown was going just GREAT.

It wasn't until fifth attempt when Medolonh finally scored a wound - and what a wound that was. It was a critical wound that removed the lion's jaw. Phew. Ground Fighting discarded. And Medolonh would now have to run for the hills in case Ground Fighting would later come back. 

Thankfully each survivor was able to score a wound that turn, although Tellilovia did it by tossing her Founding Stone, also giving the cat -1 accuracy token. Four wounds out of twelve did give a little hope. 

First real AI card was Power Swat, so easy dodges there. 

Serhoa managed to land a critical wound with Bone Axe. What a boon! Decapitulium might actually live to see the new monster I have never played before. 

I couldn't believe my luck when the Lion received another -1 accuracy token, this time by Vergeerd. 

Next AI card was Alert, and Tellilovia made her second contribution to the fight by triggering it. I didn't realize the priority target token part, though...

Serhoa and Vergeerd made exceptional job at beating the lion from behind, and last card in AI deck turned out to be Alert, again. With only mood in play, Serhoa just needed to land one wound in with his Bone Axe, and that he did. 

So, the first real showdown reminded me why Kingdom Death can be such an exciting game. Situation was beyond grim after Bone Dart user got so badly mauled that there didn't seem to be much hope for victory. But as it happened, remainder of showdown passed through without another severe injury roll.

Tellilovia received Last Man Standing from her Age milestone.

Lantern Year 2: Slender Blight

Second intense moment - would Slender Man attack the settlement? No, but survival and insanity for departing survivors would be switched. 

Gorm Climate was no other than "1", so everyone just kind of forgot how to speak. 

Medolonh and Serhoa were chosen to become rivals... with intracranially bleeding, chest wound gaping Medolonh succumbing to Spidicules' tricks. 

Serhoa was nominated for Endless Screams, and stood as the Voice of Reason. Whatever that meant now that settlement did not have language. She became Matchmaker.

Not a single bone had been scavenged during last year, so survivors weren't even able to try to innovate language back. But, at least there were plenty resources to build a full Rawhide set and even bandages to boot. Those coupled with Cat Eye Circlet made me quite confident about the upcoming fight.

When first Matchmaking by Beahbewe resulted in a baby and Survival of the Fittest, second year fight would probably go fine. So, a Gorm it is. 

Because Slender Blight was about to mess up survival values, I decided to stock up on Stone Noses.

1: Skinnery
2: Organ Grinder
3: Stone Nose
4: Augury
5: Stone Nose

Lantern Year 2 Hunt & Showdown - Gorm level 1

Beahbewe, Veergerd, Simuli and Serhoa began to hunt. First Serhoa investigates some mating fields, finding a stout hide. 

Survivors begin to suffer from head-splitting brain, and Veergerd gains Monster Panic, Simuli overcomes the sensation by becoming Emotionless and the ordeal leaves Serhoa with Hyper-Sensitivity.

And then, showdown!

Gorm was seen in a massive meadow with a total of four Tall Grass terrain pieces and even a couple of Acanthus plants.

Gorm starts by standing on two hindlegs. This gave time for Simuli and Beahbewe to pick up some Acanthus with no results. 

Once the beast came stomping down, Serhoa and Beahbewe were able to wound it already. Gorm tried to backslap Beahbewe, who was inside Tall Grass terrain, missing completely. 

Serhoa was able to score yet another wound, but Cat's Eye Circlet revealed that trap was coming soon. 

Showdown went smoothly until Gorm reared up again, knocking down Serhoa and Beahbewe - the two main stars of this fight. Now this wouldn't have been problematic if it wasn't for the loss of language... nobody shouted words of encouragement for those two. Boom.

Beahbewe survived because of her Tough -fighting art, Serhoa suffered contracture. And then? Survivors manage a few rounds just fine, but plans go south when Beahbewe tosses a bone dart, leaving Gorm with two AI cards remaining. Those cards were in the discard pile. Reat Up and Scratch. 

Cat Eye Circlet revealed a hit location to move Gorm away with failure, so Vergeerd tried to charge in and trigger just that. Nope. A 50% chance of Rear Up.

But... it was Scratch! Attack rolls succeeded just fine, and soon enough Gorm was at zero cards remaining. Up until now, Beahbewe and Serhoa had done all the work, dealing all those wounds, taking all the risks. And now, Gorm nearly dead, Vergeerd made his entrance and kill-stealed the beast. Oh wow, what a jerk. At least he did it with style, critically injuring a resource location.

And finally! Survivors received some bone for innovations. A Perfect bone, ??? and Meaty Rib. Not a whole lot, but at least something.

Lantern Year 3 - PLAGUE

Hell yeah! No ammonia, no nothing!

Good bye, Decapitulium. 

Tellilovia, Yaddarah and Veergerd were to die at the end of settlement phase. At least Simuli made a full recovery. Phew. It didn't stick.

Gorm Climate wasted returning survivors' insanity and denied returning survivors to hunt again.

1: Settlement innovates Symposium.
2: Augury intimacy, Tellilovia and Yaddarah had to spend their re-rolls, but it's twins, Tellirah and Yadlovia! Anticipation of impending death causes the parents to breed like rabbits, drinking Love Juice, using Vergeerd's re-roll in the process. Third kid, Rahlovia, is born. At least population remains at nine. 
3: Augury, giving understanding and ensuing Insight giving +1 permanent accuracy for Serhoa.
4: Shared Experience for Rahlovia

Settlement develops old trustworthy Rib Blade, Rawhide Headband, Rawhide Vest and Luck Charm.

Lantern Year 3 Hunt & Showdown - Gorm level 1

Since survivors gained stout kidney and two stout hides, I'm drooling at the mere thought of gorm vest. 

And since multiple instances prevented returning survivors to depart, new kids lead the charge. Yadlovia, Tellirah and Rahlovia start their own weird saga with Leiha tagging along. 

Leiha discovered a Founding Stone in flatter earth, while Tellirah took some good advice from a passing huntsman. 

After carefully trekking through pus fields, Yadlovia tries to take something out of a stone mouth, getting bitten as a result. And then it was showdown already.

Terrain cards were Lion Statue and Dead Monster. Hooray.

Leiha doesn't find anything of value from the carcass. Tellirah scores the first wound.

Gorm started walloping Rahlovia, but missed both attacks thanks to tall grass. Leiha tossed a bone dart at the quarry, but failed to wound which resulted in Rahlovia taking a retch to the face. Ouch.

Gorm attempted to head-butt Tellirah, but missed its attack, and next turn I hit the jackpot - Posturing Piss. The beast had gone head trashing Rahlovia, so Tellirah had to end his act in Gorm's blind spot. But definitely worth it, as he got a critical strike against Gorm with Bone Axe. 

Survivors were going slow and steady, as there was Death Blow location coming up. It was annoying for sure, as attack rolls just did not seem to connect. Last AI card that was left in the deck was wallop, so I made sure it just kept walloping Rahlovia who had Rawhide armor set. 

It took three wallops until the beast had zero AI cards. Then survivors just had to make sure Rahlovia would hit with Rib Blade, and that one took at least three turns, too. Fortunately Gorm rolled absolutely terribly its attack rolls with basic action. 

Finally, the Rahlovia's Rib Blade hit home and even scored a critical with a 9. Not that Death Blow has a critical, but still. 

And yes! Not one, but two Stout Hides as a reward. Otherwise this hunt provided rather few resources, and bones were avoiding me again. At least there was one regular monster bone for innovations. Rahlovia went blind from gaining Pure Bulb.

Lantern Year 4 - Glossolalia

Settlement event was Glossolalia, but I'm not sure how that works out without language... Isn't that like, the normal? Anyway, Leiha starts to argue with everyone... somehow... and ruins the settlement phase. Well, at least there is an endeavor left for innovating.

Gorm Climate gave Golimato a point of courage. 

1: Settlement innovates Inner Lantern. Additionally they had gained Ammonia from Gorm's piss.

Golimato and Simuli drank a love potion, and they barely managed to make a new baby, Gomuli.

Settlement develops Gorm Suit, and after some deliberation Cat Gut bow, although that meant sacrificing Perfect Bone I had stashed. Settlement needed some weapons against Butcher.

And then...

Lantern Year 4 Nemesis Showdown: Butcher level 1

Almost weaponless Yadlovia is terrified with going against Butcher with measly fragile darts as her armament. But Beahbewe assures her: You have my sword. Megalophobic Serhoa takes the Catgut Bow, as he had lost a point of evasion from Rival's Scar. He tells Yadlovia: You have my bow. And her brother Tellirah yells rather annoyingly: And my axe! as he was armed with Bone Axe. Oh yeah. That just happened.

Two first AI cards were, but Butcher wasn't even able to reach survivors. But the next upcoming AI cards... Hack City and Lantern Hunger. Oh boy oh boy. Fortunately I had both Dash and Surge, so I was able to get that Hack City do nothing, and Lantern Hunger targeting evasion tank Beahbewe. That went fine, but once the deck refreshes, who knows.

Also trap was within first three cards during first three turns, sheesh... At least Beahbewe, who also had the priority target token, managed to land two wounds. Tellirah also inflicted two, but took a point of brain damage. This robbed him of his re-roll, and put him already at two lunacy tokens. 

But... yeah. I had been a tad too trusting with the priority target token. Yeah. Lantern Frenzy. It was too good to be true to have five wounds in two rounds. Ah well. Yadlovia was the target, the only survivor with only cloth armor. Yadlovia was also so far from action that first Kick didn't reach her even with +2 movement.

Next card? Bite. Fortunately only one attack hit, and she still had the survival to dodge. 

Serhoa had climbed atop Giant Stone Face to shoot a blind shot with Cat Gut Bow. Cleaver deflected one hit, but another wounded through Thick Cape. 

Since Yadlovia was now about to receive the worst of it, other survivors were free to be as reckless as they please. Yadlovia used Cat Eye Circlet and checked that there were no traps coming. 

Beahbewe knocked Butcher down heroically, which encouraged Tellirah to spend her last survival point to dash into Butcher's blind spot. Together with Beahbewe they managed to leave Butcher with just two AI cards remaining.

There were two cards left in AI deck. And the first one... oh dear. No no no no. Hack City. Only six hits though, and spread of hit locations was fairly even. Hooray, a chance to get Legendary Lungs! Well, she didn't get it, but arguably got something better for this situation: +3 survival. 

And the second card left in AI deck? Why, Bite of course! This time it was two hits, one of which was dodged. Even after re-roll, attack resulted in decapitation right at the gates of Decapitulium. Lantern Frenzy got discarded, and survivors lost Cat Eye Circlet for the showdown. 

Beahbewe landed one hit on Butcher's blind spot, and received second lunacy token. Although, that was the only hit done. This was getting scary.

Bite came first. It went on Beahbewe, the hero of the showdown, and only one hit was promptly dodged. Second AI? No good options there, but I believe it was the worst. Well, settlement's name is Decapitulium, after all. Lantern Frenzy. 

Tellirah became target, and Lantern Frenzy forced to draw Bite again. Three hits, how else?

Showdown just got serious. Beahbewe landed a hit on natural 10, but for wound she rolled a 1. I deemed this roll serious enough to warrant a life-time reroll because of head hunter failure reaction. 

Either Lantern Frenzy or Bite went away. Pheeeeew. Serhoa managed to remove the last, too. After a round of doing some basic action on Beahbewe, Butcher fell to Serhoa's Cat Gut Bow.

As a reward for this tough showdown, Beahbewe received Tough -fighting art from the deck. Too bad she already had that fighting art. Milestone, wasted. 

Butcher left five broken lanterns behind, so there's that.

Lantern Year 5: Clinging Mist

Returning survivors just need to skip next hunt, nothing too fancy here. 

Gorm Climate gives another point of courage to Golimato. 

Serhoa receives Red Fist and permanent strength from Hands of Heat. Too bad he isn't going on a hunt now. It's a whopping seven endeavors this settlement phase. Oh... Right. No bones for innovation... unless...

1: Gormchymy! That's Albedo for settlement.
2: Matchmaker from Serhoa. It took two re-rolls, from Gomuli and Trelevari, but finally resulted in Tremuli.
3: Stone Noses
4-6: Rahlovia starts augury, which ends Simuli's life and has Golimato considering himself immortal.
7: Beahbewe checks if she's a better augur. Well, it's intimacy, but drains way too many re-rolls.
8: Beahbewe gains a point of understanding from trashing Butcher's lanters via augury.

By losing language there was actually very little for me to do during this settlement phase. No resources to build locations, no language for shared experience. No useful innovations. Augury and stone noses were, in matter of fact, only real choices. So the settlement got third nose and terrible, terrible auguries. 

Lantern Year 5 Hunt & Showdown: Gorm level 1

Since it's not going too well back in the settlement and I kind of want more Gorm armor pieces, Tremuli, Golimato, Rahlovia and Leiha begin hunt.

Tremuli steers survivors clear from a mourning bull. 

Flashing lights followed by head-splitting pain devastates survivors; Leiha becomes aichmophobic, Rahlovia is an unrelenting hoarder, and Golimato wastes team only re-roll because of brain trauma. At least the Immortal Golimato gained a little insanity from his ordeal, and even Ghostly Beauty disorder to boot. Interesting combo there. 

Gorm starts the showdown with posturing piss and backslapping Temuli, missing the attack. It looked like a promising start, but survivors missed every single attack they made. 

Gorm Eat & Runs Leiha down, while survivors do manage to make one wound, but then they start missing again. 

Survivors seem content with their rate of one wound to Gorm every two rounds, which could be sustainable if Gorm kept flailing as uselessly as survivors did. But, another mood came into play, Thunder Foot that was "upkept" by survivors triggering trap and everyone getting knocked down. 

Rate of wounds was reduced to one per three rounds and Gorm just flattened Tremuli. Rahlovia manages to break Bone Axe. Showdown was getting miserable, although not yet hopeless. 

And even if one-in-three was the new standard, at least Flatten was confined to wound stack after Rawhide Headband shenanigans.

Survivors had managed to dodge any meaningful attacks for a long time, but finally a few survivors were at zero survival remaining with multiple heavy injury levels. Fortunately the hunting party realized they need to stop whatever the hell they were doing before, and slapped three wounds in in a single turn along with tearing an active thyroid out of Gorm. Gorm was down to one AI card remaining, which was Scratch. 

They still spent three turns in taking the life of this mighty beast, but at least they did it with style - Tremuli made the killing blow with Rib Blade, scoring a critical and gaining an extra Stout Kidney.

Lantern Year 6 - Clinging Mist

Uhh... soo. The mist just wouldn't leave Decapitulium alone, now would it? So, Leiha, Tremuli, Golimato and Rahlovia start a new settlement. So... it will take a while indeed until I get to fight new monsters. Oh well.

So I guess I drop this update here. It's kind of a shame, as Decapitulium had a theme going on - it had four survivors decapitated already.

300

A game of Warmachine Mk4 (oh, shouldn't use that name anymore...) 50 points over War Table platform.

My list:

Horrushks with Inviolable Resolve & Windstorm
Tyrant, Relentless Charge, Quad-Bolt Thrower, Scything Flail 17
Jackal with Arc Node, Flamethrower, Assault Shield
Gnashers 9
Warwitch Coven 4
Grhotten Keeper 5
Halexus              4

Command Cards: Grave Robber, Power Swell, Old Faithful, Savagery, Sentry Duty

Opponent had:

Ilari with Avenging Force & Superiority
Dire Wolf with Flamethrower, Long Axe and Evasive
Great Bear, with Grand Slam, Heavy Cannon, Blasting Fist, 
Shock Trooper Gunners
Winter Korps Snipers
Winter Korps Infantry with 2x Autocannon & Standard
Winter Korps Infantry with 2x Rocketeer & Standard

Command Cards: Break Through, Careful Recon, Infiltration, Old Faithful, Power Swell

Game:

Scenario was Recon. Once I put my list on table, I realized the staggering disparity in our model counts. Maybe I shouldn't have used a 17 point heavy. Oh well. At least I had the durability on my side.

I left Gnashers in ambush and with them I tried to tie up a unit of Riflemen on the left. Apparently I ambushed them a turn too soon, as far as I know they can spring up earliest on turn two. But hey, in my defense - I was the second player!

Khador had their heavies and warcaster in the middle, and the remainder of the force on the right.

Horruskh and Halexus had good positions behind a building with 30mm obstacle. Grhotten Keeper and warjacks were going down from the middle, with Warwitch Coven on top of a hill. 

This time around opponent got good mileage out of Ilari's feat. Winter Korps on left disengaged inside objective forest and the entire unit scored a meager four points of damage to Gnashers. But then Ilari activated... and Gnashers were promptly removed. 

Well, at least that took away feat and activations of both heavies. Remainder of Khador troops didn't really accomplish anything.

So, it was time for a counter-feat. Grhotten Keeper charged a sniper and managed to kill it. Tyrant rolled a whopping four shots and removed two Shock Trooper Gunners. But yeah... that was it. Both warjacks took hiding in a trench, with a couple of Warwitches nearby contesting my objective building. I had chosen such a center terrain piece because I thought I would not be able to stretch my forces around that much...

It took both heavies and all of Ilari's focus points to remove the Arm 23 Grhotten from contesting enemy 30mm objective, but darn it, it succeeded. A unit of Winter Korps Riflemen from right took a flanking position and shot two Warwitches off the board. 

It was time for desperate measures. Remaining Warwitch went to cover Khadoran warjacks with Dark Shroud skill, and Tyrant with Inviolable Resolve charged for a thresher strike. Sadly the Warwitch died even with a re-roll from Horruskh. I had played Savagery on Tyrant, so it was able to deny heals for both warjacks. However, damage rolls were on the lower side. Had Warwitch survived, Great Bear would have lost both of its hands, but as it stood, only cannon had gone. 

Jackal tried a desperate attempt to shoot both jacks and a Sniper with a flamethrower, but this amounted to no damage other than the Sniper dying. Well, at least I still had some chances with good fire damage rolls, right?

Horruskh had gone down to zero focus points because of re-rolls, so he had to get out of sight. Halexus entered trench to contest my flagged building.

Opponent had taken lead in control points. I was mildly hopeful because of Old Faithful - even if Arm 21 Tyrant took a beating, he might still be able to kill Great Bear and maybe do something against Dire Wolf. 

However... those damage rolls! First 13, then 14, then 18, then 15 and then again 13 on three dice. No hope for Tyrant surviving that, or even Jackal for that matter. 

Well, actually Jackal did survive, but was tagged with no heals from Ilari, and only both hand operational.

Halexus died to a full Combined Ranged Attack by Winter Korps Riflemen from right, and, well, that was that. We ended game, situation was so hopeless for Horruskh.

McCabe at it again

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Raid the Vaults

Schemes: Espionage, Take Prisoner, Outflank, In Your Face, Power Ritual

My list:

Leveticus & 2x Hollow Waifs
Rusty Alyce
Ashes and Dust
Marlena Webster
2x Scavenger
2x Abomination

Pool: 4
Schemes: Espionage, Take Prisoner (Rough Rider)

Opponent had:

Lucas McCabe, Tomb Delver & Luna
Sidir Alchibal
Mr. Ngaatoro
2x Rough Rider
2x Ruffian
Hopeful Prospect

Pool: 4
Schemes: Outflank, Espionage

Turn 1:

Wastrels advanced from around flanks, with Rough Rider (prisoner) and Ruffian on the left, and another Rough Rider with Hopeful Prospect on the right. 

I didn't have much of an idea how Leveticus plays, but I do certainly like to bait people with master. Leveticus peeked from behind a size 2 stone terrain near center-right strategy marker, chuckling like the merry old timer he is. 

Scavengers had scavenged high cards from discard pile and pushed models around with weird devices. One of the scavengers was unfortunately positioned so that Lucas might  have stunned Leveticus with a blast from pepper box. However, Scavenger was an able-bodied tough-as-nails target well capable of defending himself, so it came as no surprise that Lucas McCabe just would not hit even with two tries.

Sidir took as two damage from Leveticus, Leveticus two from Sidir. Sounds fair to me. Leveticus was delayed, which was a bit of a bummer.

Marlena healed what she had taken from Leveticus when he had activated, and formed a nasty clump of tightly hugging models for all the blasts opponent had available. 

Ngaatoro tried to talk Scavenger into attacking Leveticus - and succeeded at that. The attack, however, missed. 

Rusty Alyce and an Abomination had placed scheme markers to my deployment zone. Ashes and Dust dived past centerline, attempting to kill Ruffian that was denying taking Rough Rider as a prisoner. No such luck. 

Turn 2:

Sidir opened the turn by opening fire on Leveticus. And what a terrifying activation it was - even with negative modifiers Sidir first flipped severe damage, and moderate damage right next. Marlena and Scavenger nearby were both wounded heavily, not to mention the old guy himself. I wasn't ready to lose Leveticus that fast, so he had to activate and leech one Abomination to get back to seven. 

But that Unmaking... sheesh. I love Leveticus already. Hopeful Prospect kept shooting Leveticus. Rough Rider on the right kept shooting Leveticus, each just dealing heavy damage to themselves. Combined with Marlena around Leveticus survived a ridiculous amount of punishment from minimum 2 models.

Marlena had to activate not to die too soon. She even managed to wither Mr. Ngaatoro for a bit, but this only infuriated the bully. Note to self: Mr. Ngaatoro is Leveticus' worst enemy. Neurotoxins completely shut off my master's potential to tilt people. 

Ruffian wasn't able to land any hits on Leveticus, but Lucas McCabe charged the grampa and eventually managed to whip the old-timer dead. Nurses, doctors, grandmother and grandfathers, kids of various sorts - undead kids, living kids, mentally impaired people, and even puppies have been whipped dead by this monster of a man. I implore... can nobody stop him? Anybody?

When a Hollow Waifcracked open like an eggshell and a new grandfather crawled out of there, I bet Lucas took firm notice and maybe even salivated a little. 

Injured Scavenger went to shoot Hopeful Prospect with a shotgun, making him merely a Prospect with one health remaining. 

One of the Abominations ran to deny healing and hopefully cause enough trouble with Entropy aura in the middle. McCabe, however, had cracked his whip with a trigger that left me unable to contest center-right strategy marker. At least another scavenger was able to go and claim center-left marker.

Rusty Alyce ran on top of centerline, while Rough Rider and Ruffian on the left kept attacking Ashes and Dust. Rough Rider also dropped a scheme that was later removed to score Outflank.

However, Ashes and Dust scored a lucky Necrotic Decay against Ruffian with its first action. It brought Ashes and Dust down to four health, but got me a chance at taking the rider as a prisoner. 

Both players scored strategy, Explorers got Outflank and Outcasts had Take Prisoner for a 2-2 tie.

Turn 3:

So, another Malifaux achievement unlocked. Both players flip Red Joker for initiative. Explorers win thanks to unused pass token.

Mr. Ngaatoro put his best effort into killing Marlena Webster, barely failing at that. This forced Marlena to activate right away and heal herself with Aetheric Healing. 

A Ruffian tried to attack a nearby Abomination, but didn't do much else than throw Timeworn Blade for Lucas McCabe. Precarious situation indeed - Marlena at four, Leveticus at four, one Abomination at two and the other at four. To protect my more valuable models, Abomination with four health remaining tried to engage McCabe. 

And then Lucas activated and did a horrifying activation. He donned Phantasmal Mask and started whipping around. Abomination died with one hit, thanks to the rams suit. He charged the 14-15 old orphan with a teddy bear, killing her instantly. Pepper Box shot killed the Abomination at two, and even the last shot from Pepper Box would have hit Leveticus if I hadn't cheated my highest card to the duel. 

Absolutely devastating. 

Leveticus activated and tried to kill Mr. Ngaatoro with some irreducible damage. He was able to get only weak damages in, and one attack missed so the big bully was still alive after Leveticus' activation. 

After Hopeful Prospect and Rough Rider on the right had missed all their shots against already injured Scavenger, the unsung hero activated and failed Weird Device on himself. He had to walk au naturel and waste an action point to get Mr. Ngaatoro in LoS. At least the shotgun shot hit home, and even a spent soulstone did not help the henchman. So at least an important model went down from Explorer's, too. 

The prisoner Rough Rider rode away from Ashes and Dust and tried to shoot it, missing. 

Luna dug up Phantasmal Mask for Sidir, so another Scavenger tried to discourage Sidir from shooting by blasting Luna right next to him with a refurbished shotgun. He got a severe, reducing Sidir down to two health remaining. Yay.

Sidir activated and managed to flip a Red Joker for heal. Noooo. Opponent's deck had just been  reshuffled.

Fortunately Sidir messed up most of his attacks. It was only the third attack that actually hit Scavenger and dealt minimum damage... but that was done with Masks. Only Rusty Alyce was in Sidir's range and sight, and he took that shot. Boom. Severe. 

Ah well, could have been worse. 

Hollow Waif was able to shoot the hope out of Prospect, this time eternally.

Rusty Alyce had placed a scheme marker to centerline, and Ashes and Dust was free to do the same to enemy deployment zone, thus securing Espionage. 

Explorers hadn't really explored vaults all that much and missed their strategy point this turn, while Ashes and Dust claimed a point for Outcasts for a 4-2 lead for Leveticus.

Turn 4:

Rusty Alyce placed a scheme marker for Espionage end condition and took a shot at Sidir, bringing him down to two health remaining. Again. I forget who opponent activated, but as it wasn't Sidir, Scavenger at the center-left strategy marker tried to get rid of the threat.

Which was Luna, obviously. Yeah, I was a bit too greedy there, as I wanted to kill the dog and Sidir with one attack. But only doggy died. Last attack went to Sidir, but did not connect. 

Sidir activated and drew a severe for juggernaut heal. Sigh. 

At least damage wasn't all that excessive, just one point to Alyce and Scavenger. 

Lucas, having such an adrenaline rush from killing granpa's and teens and tormented amalgamated undead little weaklings, charged Scavenger at center-left after Ruffian had placed a scheme marker and tossed Timeworn Blade for Lucas. But healthy adults don't seem to be Lucas' forte, and he missed three times. Last attack did hit and left Scavenger at one health remaining. 

Eventually Rough Rider had to ride to contest center-left marker and finish the Scavenger. 

As I had lost my chance at scoring strategy this turn, Ashes and Dust went to place a scheme marker deeper into enemy deployment zone for Espionage end condition. 

Rough Rider was unable to kill the Scavenger that had injured down to three health remaining early on turn two, but Hollow Waif and the remaining Scavenger were just as useless in killing the rider. 

Leveticus, who had two health by now, went down to one as he discarded a low card with Sanguine Evocations. He took a walk and a charge, trying to kill Ruffian at the center-right strategy marker. He scored only two points of damage, but the most important thing was to contest center-right marker, thus robbing Explorers a second strategy point.

Nobody got points this turn, so scores continued at 4-2 for Outcasts.

Turn 5:

We decided to continue until result was clear. And that was first activation, when Scavenger managed to kill Rough Rider at right, making Outflank pretty much impossible. 

So it was about a 5-3 victory for Leveticus. 

Of Betrayals and Meenlocks

I had brought Betrayal at Baldur's Gate with me on my weekend trip. Three games were played with three players.

Game 1: Haunt 13, Juiblex Commands

First game was with Magic Missile wizard, Dhadius the Scarlet and non-event Orc Paladin, "Grim" Grusk and not-slowed-by-enemies Halfling, Tasha Brightbottle. 

It was the first game for Halfling and Orc, and quite a while has passed when I had my last game of Betrayal. But at its core the game is easy to get into. Even when the Halfling finally triggered Haunting, the betrayer rules were clear enough for a newcomer to navigate alone.

Me, as the veteran player, did not exactly do a great job at contributing to... anything, really. Halfling and Orc had found the Ranger Statue and whatever the place was where you gained Knowledge, right next to each other. I tried to get to those places, but at the same time expand map. Well, my detour was stopped every single turn by an event. And when I could have turned to close in towards those stat-ups, I started receiving only corridors. So my adventurer just took a direction and walked there, one step at a time, until the haunt began.

Haunt was number 13, Juiblex Commands, which was some sort of slime god cult thing. And my mage began his long walk back into action, and just died to first gelatinous cube encountered. 

Halfling had found locket and chainmail in her travels, as well as demon flask of tuerny(sp?) so she was rather tanky. Orc, on the other hand, _paladin as he was_ had collected Book of Vile Darkness, Gambler's Dice and had earlier been temped by some arch-devil to make a pact, although he did not succumb to its promises.

Orc managed to beat gelatinous cubes rather easily empowered by Book of Vile Darkness, but the showdown against the Halfling was epic. Orc had enormous damage potential with Gambler's Dice and the Book, but using them now was precarious to say at least. Both adventurers had base Might of four but Halfling had damage reduction. Orc, on the other hand, had a healing potion so it could go either way. However, thanks to some wonderfully skewed rolls  Orc didn't even have to resort to healing potion - Baldur's Gate was saved from whatever plans the slime god had for it. 

Until we read the rules for Meenlock a little closer. The Orc Paladin died turn ago to over-use of Book of Vile Darkness.

Game 2: Haunt 29 - Bottled Lightning

Second game, we had better grasp of the rules and Torskar Stonecleaver the Dwarven Barbarian, Vort Dormal the orc Cleric and Azadeh Rashka the Human Monk. 

Dwarf kept discovering the city level of Baldur's Gate, most notable finding Helmet of Teleportation and Ring of Regeneration.

Orc Cleric fooled around both above ground and in the catacombs, finding Figurine of Wondrous Power and, importantly, Chainmail and Cursed Armor.

Human Monk headed straight into catacombs, and there she kept grinding omens. Bhaal's influence seemed apparent, as Bhaal temple was discovered along with blood covered statue of Bhaal. And Meenlock. And Berserker Axe. And Dimensional Shackles. And, finally, Iron Flask of Tuerny in the sacrificial chamber, triggering flood in the basement with haunt 29, Bottled Lightning

As it happened, Orc Cleric was just one move away from the valve, and he was able to open in the first hero turn. That was good, because the damage potential of the Monk with Berserker Axe was horrifying.

However, the Dwarven Berserker was not too shabby either, having Might value of 6 with his Reckless Attack special ability. He used his teleport to enter the space before neglected chamber to block Azadeh's way. Much to heroes dismay, Azadeh rolled an absolutely hideous roll with eleven successes. Urgh. Aaargh. Ring of Regeneration didn't help much, when the dwarf died with first strike. 

Uh oh. A crappy cleric versus a superior murder machine. It was up to Vort Dormal now to stall long enough to flood the required chamber. And he did put up an admirable resistance, surviving an astounding five turns. However, only once did the heroes get an additional trickle of water that was eventually removed by a water spirit thing.

Oh well. Another victory for the betrayer.

Game 3: Haunt 35 - Mother's Fury

Avrixis Mizzrym, the Drow Ranger, Azadeh Rashka the Human Monk and Ralvio Escanor the Human Sorcerer began to wander through the streets of Baldur's Gate. I was playing the sorcerer, and at first it looked like he'd face the same fate as Dhadius did earlier - events, and only events after every single turn. The one and only item he encountered was at least the Book of Vile Darkness. Clueless as the Wild Mage was, he never encountered even one omen card.

Same can't be said about the Ranger, who went tomb delving right away. Somehow she managed to draw most of catacomb tiles that injured her, even failing checks in secret cache. Soon enough she had accumulated, like, four omens without ever triggering haunt.

Monk had started by searching city levels, but eventually decided to join Avrixis in catacombs. There she picked up Cursed Armor and Meenlock, the latter of which triggered haunting in Kobold's Lair. This gave us a cooperative ending 35, Mother's Fury.

Each adventurer found their first dragon egg on the first turn. Luckily the dragon had also been funneled into a corridor, so it didn't pose much of a  threat in the first turn. Scenario felt way too easy, and Sorcerer, who was next in turn after dragon found the fourth egg right away.

However, the easy areas had now been scavenged for eggs and neither Monk or Ranger found any eggs that turn. Dragon also burned at least two extra tiles every turn. No adventurers were injured during process, though.

So, turn counter hit three. Wild Mage used Book of Vile Darkness to scrounge up fifth egg. Drow Ranger had to run in a straight line through the streets, and ended up in a newly discovered item tile. And look at that, sixth dragon egg. So that's a win for adventurers.

Only Vanilla Allowed Here

During my weekend trip we also managed to crank out a game of Talisman.

We used Cataclysm board, Reaper and Harbinger, plus a hidden ending. Prophecy was the one where magic fills the land.

Characters were Elf, Sorceress and Mutant. 

And damn that Mutant is crazy character. Well, it did get the best result from starting bonus so that might play a role in it. But it just seems excessive that Mutant can get one fate and heal one life on average rolls... and get two fates with a result just above average. That meant Mutant is able to roll one of the two mutation dice again too reliably, thus dodging negative results effortlessly. 

Or maybe it just seemed overpowered when two other characters were from base game... 

At least early on Sorceress found the Orb of Time that gave her an alliance of sorts with the Elf. She spent two charges and just happened to ditch the orb near Elf. Elf would then use last charge, transferring Orb back to Sorceress. Once, Sorceress did spend the last charge from Orb, but Immobilized Mutant so it couldn't use orb. Then she cast Acquisition, taking back Orb of Time now that it had replenished its charges. 

All of these shenanigans, however, did not lead into even one stat up for Sorceress. Elf had it rough too, and super early in the game Mutant went Craft 11, Strength 5. It looked like game over already, and even more so when Sorceress went to desert space to receive the absolutely worst possible item for the moment: Desert brought Sorceress down to one life, and she found cursed Key of Hades, healing her as other characters heal and damaging her as other characters get damaged. Next in turn order was mutating Mutant, who loses one life to mutate and kills Sorceress outright. Enter Priest.

However, things were about to turn worse for Mutant. It was perhaps a tad too greedy with mutations, and willingly went down to two Life remaining. Slowly, slowly Elf had been gaining strength and with Magic Belt was sporting Strength 7, Craft 5. After a time of exchanging blows with Mutant, Elf was down to two health remaining, Mutant one. 

Priest had modest stat gains, but managed to get everything required for a victory - Talisman, albeit a cursed one, Craft 6 and a Gnome. Mutant also had Ageless Talisman and a generic Talisman, but didn't dare to enter Inner Region with Life of one. If Priest wanted to challenge that monstrosity, it had to happen NOW. So, he got to middle region and entered Inner Region. There he was rather lucky, as he gained a generic Talisman from somewhere and was able to cast Alchemy on Cursed Talisman. Roll in the Mines was a six, and after only one turn of waiting, he rolled only one lost life while shivering in cold. 

As Priest was creeping towards Crown of Command, the Elf found Altar of Wrath and killed the threatening mutant by bringing himself down to one Life remaining. There were plenty of random terrain cards in the Outer Region, so Priest vehemently waited for his chance to cast a spell to choose the movement direction of a character. Before Elf healed, he just got that chance he needed! 

However, Mutant had been replaced with Mutant, and while she herself had no bid to the Crown, Elf would easily kill Priest, given the chance. And maybe Prophetess was a little sour from Sorceress/Priest allying with Elf to remove Mutant. Just as Priest cast the spell that brought Elf to it's doom, Prophetess saved Elf by replacing the Barrens terrain with only a Bog. Drats!

But, both Prophetess and Elf were too far away to actually threaten Priest, and either some weird Harbinger card or another spell gave Priest the Amulet, so he was safe from any attempts to Random his glorious victory.

And surely enough, Crown of Command he did reach. 

There was just one but. The hidden ending was Cult of the Damned, which turned game into "either everybody wins or everybody loses" -scenario. Oops.

And there were a lot of Denizens on the board. And characters just didn't seem to be able to land on spaces with cultists. Fortunately the amount of cultists was somewhat of a double-edged blade - at least it appeared that characters had a lot of time to kill them.

Elf had gained respectable strength by now, like eleven with Magic Belt. Even Priest had strength 5. However, neither of them did the major lifting. Oh no, it was the Prophetess with meager strength 3. Well, on the other hand, she did have the cursed Flail of Blood...

At least 3/4 of all of the cultists in total were killed by Prophetess. Majority of the remainder were killed by the Elf, as Priest botched most of his attacks despite drinking Potions of Strength and whatnot. Once the number of cultists ran down, they sped up so much that the trio was on the verge of losing. A couple of cultists managed to get past Portal of Power. And since there were now just three cultists remaining, this meant they would easily outpace adventurer characters in the Inner Region.

Elf killed a cultist in the Crypts, but a stack of two cultists - one Craft and one Strength - went to Mines. Earlier, Priest had managed to kill two cultists, and only one of them without a Psionic Blast. 

It was the very last turn heroes had their chance to win. And it all remained on Priest's shoulders, with Priest's track record. 

And while Strength 4 rolled kind of low, Priest managed to roll even lower. He did have one fate point remaining, so that had to be used. Such a relief! Cultist went down. 

Then there was Craft 3 cultist versus Craft 6 Priest. Easy, right? Cultist threw the dice before Priest dropped his, and rolled a six. Safe to say there was some tension in the air regarding that last dice roll that would decide the ultimate result of the entire game. A victory only on 4+.

Well, it was...

A six. Woo hoo, finally you did something right, Priest!

In this game, Harbinger was surprisingly benign. I don't think we got past third omen even once, as there were quite a few sixes and not a single one rolled in Harbinger encounters. All manner of angelic messengers also re-placed omens from their discard pile, so much so that our standing in revealed omens was so good even after at least four instances of selfish "discard omen to gain a boon" -type of things.

Munchkin Hazard

I visited a couple of friends over weekend. During the visit we played a few rounds of Joking Hazard here and there, and a game of Munchkin. I'll include both card games in this short write-up.

First session of Joking Hazard was with three players. Soon enough it became apparent that I wasn't proper player material for this game - I had only like two genuine laughs troughout the entirety of our eleven or twelve rounds. Certainly there were more occassions I was kind of amused, but somehow I feel like this game requires visible reactions to reach its humor potential. Despite this I still somehow managed to win with fourteen points. 

Second session was with four players, which appears to me as the sweet spot for the number of players in this game. There's enough options for the more promising card pairings, but not so many that it just repetitive to go through all of them. But eventually this sort of humor just grows stale. Please enjoy in moderation.

Munchkin was as Munchkin as ever. We had three players. 

My Elf Wizard with Bow of Ribbons from the get-go was a smashing success, especially after deciding Wizard class sucks and Warrior is much better. I also had Doppleganger and an impressive arsenal of various bonus gears, and when I was level 9 my victory seemed inevitable as I had the potential to go up to +34 and reduce monster level by -5. 

But, the game was Munchkin after all. I was about to smash a Baby Bigfoot into bits to reach my victory, but another opponent had just blindly donated Wandering Monster for the other player, and suddenly a Humonguous Plutonium Dragon wandered into combat. Another player already at level 8 slapped some kind of +5 bonus to monsters out of spite, and that monster strength 42 fight was a wee bit out of my league.

Next, the level 8 player just sold some gear and killed a nasty pit bull for a win.