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.