Dawn of Verpowere

 So, finally Clinging Mists led Golimato, Tremuli, Rahlovia and Leiha to a new settlement. This is a continuation from the 

This time population was whopping 14, and when Golimato invented new and improved language for the survivor swarm. This made him a Matchmaker, and first year began with five endeavors.

Tremuli braved the storm and got blinded as a result. 

Endeavors:

1: Settlement innovates Paint
2-4: Organ Grinder, Skinnery, Bone Smith
5: Matchmaker procs both New Life and Society principles.

Settlement chooses Survival of the Fittest, and Neliprinso, the first baby, was born a rageholic.

Society Principle in turn gives settlement the Death Principle, which was Graves.

It took three re-rolls to get +1 permanent luck for aichmophobic Leiha, but now we had a Fist & Tooth master in training. What a smashing start for Verpowere settlement!

Settlement produced Bone Axe and started hunting more Gorms. 

Year 1 hunt & showdown - Gorm level 1

Confidently Leiha, Rahlovia, Neliprinso and Urvivo set out to hunt a gorm.

Neliprinso gets Priority Target token from getting her face painted by an experienced sportsman. 

Urvivo steered the hunting party clear from a Mourning Bull. 

Leiha leads the survivors down a Tomb of Excellence, where everyone gets depressed how weak they look when compared to murals. Damn strong murals. 

Survivors found the Gorm munching on a generic dead monster. Turned out it was Gorm, and survivors were able to skin a hide out of the corpse.

Despite having the ambush, survivors landed only two wounds on the first turn. And before Gorm had activated, it had also dealt two points of damage to Rahlovia. He was walloped for another two points. 

Rahlovia continued to inflict two wounds, while everyone else failed. Gorm was the first to break this cycle by trying to backslap Rahlovia, which he dodged. 

Survivors hacked three more wounds in, and Gorm had had enough of this pathetic display. It flattened Neliprinso, the first born of Verpowere settlement. Every single attack hit, although hit on the head was dodged while she still could. No severe injuries happened just yet, but waist and legs were on heavy injury level.

With Flatten now in the last three cards was threatening to say the least. And also trap was coming up.

Rahlovia decided to take a walloping and trigger the upcoming trap. Flatten was now next in line. Leiha messed up her attacks, but at least Rib Blade wielding Neliprinso did not. Anticipating smooth sailing now, right?

Well, I was adamant in trying to get at least one wound in with Leiha to start training Fist & Tooth. There even were flank locations coming up next. 

Urvivo tanked two wallopings, Leiha failed to wound both flank locations. Urvivo went down to zero survival, so tanker had to be changed. Rahlovia took a backslap to his chest, and finally - Leiha's ninth hit in the fight was finally a wound. Not a critical wound, though. She pulled Gorm by the tail and inflicted a normal wound with flank bonus.

Finally. 

Neliprinso took a walloping before Gorm was finally put down - in style. Rahlovia scored the only critical during this fight when there was only a single AI card left in Gorm's deck. But that was a crit with Bone Axe. 

Killing blow: Rahlovia.

Lantern Year 2: Gorm Climate

Random event was Gorm Climate, which forced the entire team to skip next hunt. 

Golimato and Urvivo duke it out with Spidicules, Urvivo being the one to die in Young Rivals.

Endless Screams made Rahlovia a figure who now stand in the beginning and the end - he became Matchmaker as well as gained the Orator of Death fighting art.

Endeavors:

1: Settlement innovated Face Painting
2-3: Being entirely new innovation, survivors quite weren't able to get it right straight away. It took two attempts to get a +1. 
4: Matchmaker from Rahlovia. Timac and Eebon, who had used their re-rolls last turn digging graves, welcomed their newborn Timbon to settlement.
5: Augury gives an intimacy. Timac and Eebon were at it again, and Timbon got a sibling, Eemac

Settlement develops Gorment Boots and Greater Gaxe.

Lantern Year 2 hunt & showdown - Gorm level 1

Right after being born Timbon and Eemac go on a hunt, lead by Golimato and Seresteheen.

All the survivors are too dumb to understand what enormous, smooth boulders might mean. Horizon of Bones is also closed off because of incompetency, and instead Seresteheen investigates one of the stone faces. She is struck with loneliness and loses all survival.

Lastly, the hunting party braved through a jagged bones storm. Results were... rough. Two heads and one body was starting the showdown with heavy injury level already.

Terrain cards were some stone pillars and flowers. 

Gorm started hiccups right off the bat. I guess it was intoxicated, as the showdown went so sorry for the great beast. Despite inexperienced survivors, this showdown went a lot more effortlessly than the first year one. 

Lantern Year 3: Hunt Re-Enactment

Well, the enactment was all about Gorm, wasn't it? No other monsters killed yet, not even prologue lion! Leiha and Timac play their parts, but only Leiha exits the stage, alive. 

Gorm climate forces another new lineup for the next hunt.

1: Settlement innovates Albedo, because the other choice (Ammonia) might come from upcoming Gorm hunts. Yeah, I'm going to farm this quarry.
2: Settlement builds Barber Surgeon
3-4: Face Painting x2
5: Golimato's matchmaker, Eebon and Odge have their first chiled, Eedge.
6: Augury gives Intimacy right away, although I was fishing for +1 Understanding. Oh well. Odge and Roficien barely manage to make a baby, Odcien.

Settlement develops Gorm helmet, Monster Grease and Dried Acanthus.

Lantern Year 3 hunt & showdown - Gorm level 1

Leiha, Rahlovia, Neliprinso and Talwar begin the hunt.

All survivors investigate the mating fields, finding a mammoth hand and triggering bold for Neliprinso. She got +1 speed token. And was using Rib Blade. Yaaay.

Once more a mourning bull looks too threatening, and survivors steer clear from its sight. I had three stone noses and two survivors were already down to injured brain, so might as well.

Leiha discovers the coveted Object of Desire, and takes even more brain damage out of it. 

Showdown began with advanced AI, Eat and Run. Talwar, being the freshest face, was picked up as the target, but she dashes out of reach. Neliprinso is knocked back as a collateral damage.

Leiha begins to miss her attacks, but also encourages Neliprinso back up. Rahlovia gets one hit after rolling six dice of attacks, but at least that one was a wound. Neliprinso missed with a one. Somehow it looks like the A-team is doing worse than the newbies.

Neliprinso is walloped for a bit. and the whole survivor turn becomes a mess. Wounding on 2+, Rahlovia fails to wound Gorm and Gorm makes a basic attack. It tramples over Leiha, who is eventually encouraged back up by Talwar. Forming a deep bond already, I see!

Well, Leiha struck Gorm and made it retch, Leiha getting hit right to the head.

A total of one wound was dealt with a Catgut Bow by Talwar. 

Hiccups start next, and Neliprinso is retched all over. 

Leiha manages to crit a flank location, but those were the testes. Not wanting to look any worse, Rahlovia crits Gorm with Greater Gaxe, and scores three hits. Wow. Too bad the crit was to a location that caused Gorm to run away. This showdown... Sheesh.

Thunder Footing Gorm pushed Leiha and Rahlovia around, and Neliprinso that had been heavily injured by a retch was encouraged up. At least her blade struck true. One turn there had been two wounds done to the monster, but otherwise it had been a steady "1".

AI deck went over, and of course the thing started again with Eat and Run. Rahlovia was the target, but he managed to dodge the only hit. That was his last survival point, though.

A turn went by without survivors dealing ANY wounds. Resources started to run out. But then, the hunting party finally got their act together and landed three wounds, leaving the beast with only one AI card  left. Last attack from blind spot even moved the monster away from survival-less Rahlovia. 

Neliprinso managed to strike last AI card away, which was Aggravated Bite anyway. And now, three cards left in hit location deck, and there was Death Blow coming up. Looked like a job for Rib Blade's singular attack.

...

And it took six turns for Neliprinso to score the required hit! Leiha was taking the hits, and she was inside Tall Grass, so she was still at one survival point after the showdown. 

But what a farce. At least nobody died.

Talwar, never having hunted Gorm before, wasn't aware of the dangers of picking up the Pure Bulb. She went blind.

Rahlovia got Axe proficiency online.

Lantern Year 4 - Open Maw

Talwar, blinded by the pure bulb didn't see quite well enough when she came back to the settlement and instead strayed to Bone Witch's hut. 

It took one re-roll to get Eedge to draw courage from Gorm Climate instead of losing language again.

1: Talwar's Bone Witch does nothing. Oh well.
2: Settlement innovates Hovel, which blew up the innovation deck. Oh well.
3: Eebon tried the Open Maw, making it close its jaws. Oh well. 
4: Matchmaker. Tremuli and Odge have a baby, but it takes two re-rolls. Oh well.
5: Seresteheen was tutored a bit, but she just received useless Fighting Art from aging. Thrill Seeker.

Settlement completes Gorm armor set. 

And as a little bit of a risk, survivors dabble in Gormchymy, getting a... whoop-de-doo... Steadfast Potion.

And next, Butcher.

Lantern Year 4 Nemesis Showdown - Butcher level 1

Tregde, Rahlovia, Neliprinso and Seresteheen were the champions of the settlement. 

Butcher started with some bad news. Embrace the Pain on the first turn, plus Hack City and Kick going into the discard pile. 

At least only one wound was made this turn, when Butcher had cornered all survivors and bashed three of them knocked down. Well well. All survivors knocked down at the start of monster turn 2. 

Carefully gritting teeth the showdown continued on, and while survivors were slowly and steadily getting mauled, the damage was spread over pretty much each of the brave defenders. Double Wild Carve gave some use for bandages, but for a few turns that was the worst threat faced by the team. But there was the psychological factor of knowing Hack City was in the deck, and deck had already been reshuffled. There were only four cards left in the deck when it got confirmed that the City had been thrown out. Phew! Kick was the most threatening card, but surely enough that was threatening.

Bleed tokens start piling up, and last two AI cards are Wild Carve and Kick. Things might very well go south, still. 

Tregde patches up Rahlovia, who is no longer suffering from bleed tokens. However, Tregde had two and Neliprinso three, so only Rahlovia dared to challenge Butcher after Seresteheen missed with Catgut Bow. And look at that, three hits! With Axe proficiency! Butcher might go down now.

My teeth couldn't have taken much more of the pressure, and Rahlovia decided to spare me a bill from dental services. First, Butcher's Mask fell off. Next, Butcher's Cape. And lastly, killing blow was struck through Pig Iron Shoulders.

Hooray!

As a reward, Butcher just vanishes without giving resources. 

Lantern Year 5: Dark Seamstress

Butcher vanished in a flashing light, and in its place was standing an innocent looking Dark Seamstress, willing to craft sub-par items for exorbitant prices. Could have been worse, though.

Seresteheen experiments with lanterns during Hand of Heat, and burns four re-rolls from the settlement in getting the best result. Only one re-roll available now - ironically on Seresteheen.

Endeavors:

1: Settlement innovates Pictograph. What can I say. Innovation deck is bloated now.
2-3: Face-Painting, one success.
4-5: Matchmakers from Seresteheen and Rahlovia. Odge and Roficien have the siblings Rofige and Egifor.
6: Battle Paint is a success. 

Before moving on to level 2 quarries, I decided to give Ammonia a one more try. I also had the Pure Bulb, and wanted to try Riot Mace for the first time. So a level 1 Gorm it was.

Lantern Year 5 hunt & showdown - Gorm level 1

Hunters were Leiha, Rahlovia, Neliprinso and Seresteheen. Lonely Tree made an appearance again, this time straight out of deck. 

Neliprinso encounters Horizon of Bones, and Rahlovia takes the lead. This triggered Bold from Leiha. Do those have a thing going on between them?

Mating Fields gives Jiggling Lard and a bunch of brain damage for the hunters.

Last hunt event is Bone Storm. Rare indeed to get a total of +12 Courage during a level 1 quarry hunt, but I guess it happens.

Gorm starts showdown with a body check on Rahlovia, but misses. Rahlovia returns the favor by missing eleven times before landing a successful hit. That single hit required three points of survival. Probably not worth it. All other survivors missed, so this might be the case of curse of A-team again.

Gorm strobes all but Leiha down. Leiha manages to crit the beast, but got trampled over as a result. Face palm moment there. Well, at least that caused Gorm just to illuminate. 

Gorm's attacks were no longer much of a threat for survivors, so I delayed attacks to that each survivor got their wound in for weapon proficiency. And as an added bonus, last card in AI deck was the Posturing Piss. 

Showdown was a miserable stooge fest - survivors were not getting injured, but damaging Gorm didn't quite succeed either. When 2+ wounding, accuracy 7+ Rahlovia scored three hits, first two locations were a "1" to damage. Axe proficiency made the other into a wound, but second cancelled the rest of wound attempts. Bah.

Finally showdown ended by Leiha critting the Mammoth Testes. Again.

Hoarder causes Rahlovia to see the truth. He needs to protect his waist from now on, but has the Sweet Battle ability.

Lantern Year 6 - Acid Storm

Neliprinso has to skip next hunt after she runs into the acid storm, flailing wildly. 

And then, the white speaker appears and explodes into black water that makes returning survivors forget fighting arts. Most consequential was Rahlovia losing Orator of Death.

A lion-like figure was watching all over this, stoically, without moving. Neliprinso encounters this monster and worships it during her acid rain trip and gains Tunnel Vision.

Hovel protects survivors from Gorm Climate second year in a row. Weather, however, is getting really bad - need to innovate Drums and Song of the Brave, fast. And survivors didn't even receive all the materials for Riot Mace. But I don't know if I want to tackle a level 2 Gorm just yet. Well, let's look at the endeavor results first.

1: Settlement innovates Family. That's no Drums. 
2-3: Face Painting succeeds twice, thanks to Acid Storm. 
4: Matchmaker from Seresteheen marries Seresteheen and Golimato. They form a deep bond and choose Bowister as their surname. Goleheen Bowister inherits a point of bow proficiency.
5: Matchmaker from Rahlovia confirms that there was a thing going on between Leiha and Rahlovia. They pick up the surname of Toothon, and Leiha gives birth to Leihovia Toothon, who inherits a point of Fist & Tooth proficiency.

Settlement develops Scavenger Kit. 

To aim for Amber Poleaxe or Silk Whip, next hunt it going to be Spidicules level 2.

Lantern Year 6 hunt & showdown - Spidicules level 2

Leiha, Rahlovia, Golimato and Seresteheen start to track the gigantic spider. Golimato only because he had to, to avenge Urvivo.

Right outside of settlement Rahlovia was grabbed by the feet by spiderlings. His leg was saved.

Golimato took some brain damage from encountering a formation of cocoons.

Antler-gouged terrain tears Rahlovia's leg muscles.

Golimato took a heavy injury level to head from spiderlings when attempting to retrieve the Weaver.

First Overwhelming Darkness of the game! All the survivors were able to walk the path of the brave, and Leiha even gained a fighting art. Golimato and Seresteheen got some minor damage, but -1 accuracy token for Rahlovia... damn, that hurt.

Terrain cards were Debris and Survivor Corpse, so no help from there.

Echoing Screech didn't amount to much, but Spidicules was also out of reach.

But for the longest time that was the only relatively good news about the showdown. It was stressful, it was intense. Somehow survivors just wouldn't land hits or wound even the spiderlings. While survivors were able to get by, number of survival point and armor was finite. It was going to badly that Rahlovia tossed  a Founding Stone at the Spidicules, giving it a -1 toughness token. 

That course of action also revealed that there was trap coming up, so survivors had to spend even more turns just to remove spiderlings. 

Soon enough survivors were at one or two survival points lost and multiple heavy injuries, and the beast itself was only down to about half wounds remaining! Eight spiderlings on board!

But then Golimato had had enough, and suffered Frenzy brain trauma. He was knocked down before he actually did anything, but that seemed to signal the survivors to get their act together. Two AI cards remaining. Necrotoxins and Echoing Screech. 

Maybe there was still some hope, although every survivor was about one hit away from severe injuries?

Spiderlings were blocking the way for Golimato to reach Spidicules, but after Seresteheen hit with bow and triggered a spiderling-shuffling wound reaction, she was able to encourage Golimato up and go frenzy against Spidicules. No hits, though. So there was a new Spidicules turn with nine spiderlings.

Leiha went deaf. Seresteheen got gaping chest wound. Golimato was disemboweled. Seresteheen succumbed to bleed tokens. Rahlovia had to spend his last survival point to go out of range of spiderlings.

Oh my. Last turn, I reckon.

Rahlovia attacks Spidicules, but triggers a spiderling action response. He also takes a severe injury, but it's prevented by Dried Acanthus. He had heavy injury levels at body, waist and legs, plus light injury level at hands.

Still two wounds left. 

And there it is! Golimato's AWESOME revenge, frenzying with a rib blade. Both attacks cut off a leg from Spidicules, giving the narrowest of victory for survivors!

While it was annoying that I lost Red Fist, at least the stars of settlement didn't go down. Leiha unfortunately did not get a point of fist & tooth proficiency, though. She also gained a fighting art from second Age milestone, boo!

... oh no. I had completely forgotten about Taken. 

As a final act of stress and aggravation, Spidicules took Golimato! Golimato! Nooo!

Lantern Year 7 - Dark Seamstress

Well okay, Dark Seamstress stuck around, then. 

Rahlovia dared to pick Phoenix Feather, and Goliheen Bowister challenged Gorm Climate, getting a bit more courageous.

Endeavors:

1: Settlement innovates Cooking
2: Settlement build Leather Worker
3: Face-Painting is a success
4: Matchmaker from Rahlovia, Timbon and Egifor Brees get twins, Timbifor and Egibon
5: Battle-Paint is a success
6-7: Rahlovia and Leihovia worshiped the lion statue together, Rahlovia getting Tinkerer as a result.
8: Rahlovia's Insight lead to also Timbifor Brees to worship lion statue.

Settlement develops Bug Trap.

Lantern Year 7 hunt & showdown - Spidicules level 1

Since my team power level dropped dramatically and the last showdown was such a stressful occasion, Leiha, Tregde, Neliprinso take Goliheen Bowister with them to avenge his mother and rescue his father from a level 1 Spidicules before settlement is slapped with an onslaught of Nemesis monsters.

Hunt party crosses the lonely bridge without issues, and bad vibrations increase the number of spiderlings at the start of showdown.

Goliheen, on the other hand, stumbles on his lantern and burns his clothing. What a champ.

Showdown starts with Tregde and Goliheen picking up some silk and getting knocked down, and Neliprinso finding a second Scrap Sword. Leiha misses her attacks, but so had Spidicules done because of Tall Grass terrain.

Although survivors proved themselves capable of messing up a staggering number of attacks, Tall Grass made it easy to farm all the egg sacs, and three out of four survivors went to dig through Silk Nest. Pidicule was found there, as well as a skull.

Goliheen had to spend his re-roll to rescue dad. Golimato had either seen too much or suffered too much spider venom, and suffered from seizures from now on.

Lantern Year 8 - Gorm Climate

This settlement is making history in a particular way - Only seven settlement events in, and already twice has there been duplicates. Hovel protected survivors from the worst of Gorm Climate.

Tremuli witnessed the falling meteorite, and felt destined because of it. 

Neliprinso felt another calling, becoming obsessed by vermin after witnessing a gigantic beetle rolling a ball up and down a hill. 

Tremuli, Egibon, Tregde and Goliheen were chosen for the play. Goliheen gains Anxious disorder from the stage fright.

Endeavors:

1: Settlement innovates Citrinitas
2: Settlement builds the Silk Mill
3: Settlement makes 3x Leather
4-5: One successful Face Painting
6-7: Leihovia and Timbifor worships the lion statue, but something has changed. They whip each other into a religious frenzy and give +10 survival for departing survivors. 

Roficien and Eedge Nimportan made a new baby, Eedgien Nimportan, by drinking a Love Juice.

Settlement develops Amber Poleaxe, Wisdom Potion, Leather Mask and First-Aid Kit

And now, the less interesting years have passed. From now on, Verwpowere is going to get physical instead of Tabletop Simulator.

Population: 21

This entry was actually written back in November, last year, but it took me this long to copy settlement and survivor details to paper format.