I seek the moly land

 A friend visited over, and since it had been almost a year since our last Kingdom Death campaign found it's conclusion, we started a new one.

Prologue went fine-ish. One survivor died, the permanent strength survivor survived, no crippling severe injuries. 

Settlement phase, however, was phenomenal.

Moly, the dead survivor from prologue, was commemorated in the name of the settlement, which was from then on called The Moly Land. 

Prologue rewards included two love juices, and starting population was thirteen. After the very first moment of intimacy between people of the settlement, Xenia was born. Raised as a stark raving warrior, she was to be the future leader and hero of the Moly Land. 

I suppose survived considered Xenia stark raving, because she was always talking about this utterly weird nonsense concept - death. Only three prologue survivors had witnessed death, and one of them was ogling the lantern hoard without talking to anyone. 

So it was easy for the settlement to Accept Darkness as their society principle. And that was when Xenia really got more fuel for her fire, when she became the Orator of Death. She was adamant on enlightening the settlement on matters of death and dying.

Settlement developed Symposium.

Lantern Year 1:  Xenia and a bunch of others hunted for level 1 White Lion. Bone Dagger and Bone Darts were the only weapons on top of Founding Stones. No wonder, then, that survivors were absolutely useless in attacking the beast. Fortunately White Lion didn't fare much better. It took a while, but eventually White Lion kicked the bucket. 

Rewards were utterly useless, though. At least settlement was able to develop Catgut Bow and some more rawhide armor pieces. Settlement developed Paint.

Gorm Climate forced hunters to skip next hunt, so Xenia was out when Moly Land set out to hunt for Gorm. 

Lantern Year 2: Open Maw Gorm level 1

We actually felt compassion for the Gorm. Its performance was so, so pitiful that it felt wrong to kill the giant baby headed beast. The beast just kept body-checking everyone and even missed most of those attacks. 

Once again survivors got a bunch of Love Juice. However, they were not used as Senaus, one of the prologue survivors, had become Matchmaker. Instead, after some Gormchymy settlement managed to snatch Wisdom Potion from abstinence. 

Since returning survivors were again denied further hunt, settlement bloated the innovation deck with Hovel so they'd not have to suffer that result again.

Lantern Year 3: Dark Dentist: Gorm level 1

Xenia leads her second hunting party, this time against Gorm. And while the showdown went rather well up until the last quarter of it, this showdown was the first time Xenia used the Orator of Death ability. That was a bad omen. Bad, bad omen. Because then a reaction caused Gorm to attack Xenia, deal a double hit which were none other than the dreaded double head. 

Well, she had Tough, so at least she had a pretty good chance of surviving with a 4+, with a re-roll?  

Nope. With her last words she encouraged the remaining survivors by telling them that this, this is the real meaning of death - while being decapitated by Gorm.

Gorm was put down, and Moly Land celebrated with death principle.

Lantern Year 4: Acid Storm

Year three was the last we got the time to play this time around. 

A quick list of development of Moly Land:

Innovation:

Language, Symposium, Paint, Hovel, Ammonia, Nigredo, Albedo

Locations:

Lantern Hoard, Skinnery, Organ Grinder, Bone Smith, Catarium, Gormery, Gormchymist

Principles:

Survival of the Fittest, Graves, Accept Darkness

Gear:

4x Cloth, 3x Founding Stone
Stone Noses
Bone Darts, Bone Dagger
Lucky Charm
Catgut Bow
Acid Tooth Dagger, Wisdom Potion
Rawhide Head, Vest, Gloves, Boots
Bandages

Resource:

3x Broken Lantern
Scrap
???
Perfect Bone
Acid Gland
Stout Heart
Handed Skull

Maurala Epilogue

During friend's visit we finished up our long standing Kingdom Death campaign.

Lantern Year 19 Nemesis Showdown - King's Man level 2 

We brought our A-team of Moldonial, Maxaria, Brix and blue savior Hopeanuoli to smash and blast King's Man beyond recognition.

The plan was executed flawlessly. After first two or three rounds King's Man was mercilessly beaten down to it's knees with over half of its health done as damage. 

But by then, King's Man was really, really pissed off by Moldonial's clumsy but deadly attacks. It decided to show some real skill to this annoying usurper and drew Perfect Thrust after players had got too confident and didn't bother with Rawhide Headband.

And, by chance, Moldonial was standing in just the right spot to receive three severe body injuries. So, our amazing flower powered zombie that had died during Gigalion to first severe roll he had had to make, repeated this pattern of behavior and went down with the first roll.

Oopsie.

Fortunately we still had fair chances, as Maxaria was able to wound with just 2+ even when attacking from King's Man's front. She also had Arithmophilia, so her movement would never drop to zero. Vespertine Bow had decent enough chances of wounding, too, and Hopeanuoli the blue savior had a total of six blue affinities, so had the possibility to inflict three criticals in a row. 

Maxaria, however, took her sweet time in acquiring King's Step and she was not impervious to King's Man's attacks with only total evasion of +2. There was time pressure for sure. 

Hopeanuoli wasted both of his Lucernae attacks. Well, first one did two wounds but didn't do any impactful criticals effects with those - and second Lucernae attack happened when King's Man had knocked Maxaria too far away to reach him even with dash, and with movement of one Brix would not be able to reach even aim range of 9 with Vespertine Bow. Hopeanuoli checked the battle tempo locations and disappeared.

In the end, Brix was not able to hand too many brain traumas from Hymn of Silence, and left Maxaria alone to duel King's Man. It went kind of fine, although Maxaria did get disemboweled after a while. She passed those severe injury rolls admirably, but without bandages there is a strict limit on how many of those you can take even if you somehow dodge rolling 1-2. In the end Maxaria succumbed to Bleed tokens after bringing King's Man down to zero AI cards remaining.

Lantern Year 20 - Clinging Mist

Wow! Clinging Mist! Time to start new settlement, hard mode? Nope, we rolled a seven and Pudge doused himself in urine. 

Just in time to attack the Watcher. We thought it best to end the campaign in style and challenge The Watcher right away, because two full party wipes seemed too much in the long run.

Lantern Year 20 nemesis showdown: The Watcher

Pudge, Oda, Ischmo and Scheppo were to save Maurala from the ultimate existential threat. 

... and were we surprised! We had no serious survivors or great equipment, no twilight sword, nothing. And yet, turn after turn, the four heroic survivors not only survived, but even put a dent in Watcher's lanterns here and there. Thanks to ghost citizens survivors were able to shave almost half of Watcher's health away before first survivor, Vespertine Bow using Scheppo died to blood clot.

Ischmo, who had Rib Blade, lost the will to live after losing Scheppo and was the next to go. But hot damn, The Watcher  had only five health remaining by then! And we still had Counter-weighed Axe online. 

Endless Inhalation had slowly been draining survival points from survivors, not to mention the "lose two survival or die" hit locations. With his last survival points Pudge did a heroic activation by rolling a natural ten with regular attack and natural ten with surge attack, right before Oda died.

Survival-less Pudge with only a few points of insanity against The Watcher who had only three wounds remaining. Stuff of legends! Time for wonders, miracles, even!

Well, it would have certainly been epic to win The Watcher with a population of -24 or so, but it was not to be. 

After six years of sporadic play, last lantern light of Maurala settlement disappeared in a wisp of smoke. 

Monsters slain fought:

Prologue: White Lion level 0
Lantern Year 1: White Lion level 1
Lantern Year 2: White Lion level 1
Lantern Year 3: Screaming Antelope level 1
Lantern Year 4: The Butcher
Lantern Year 5: Manhunter, Gorm level 1
Lantern Year 6: Flower Knight level 1
Lantern Year 7: Gorm level 1
Lantern Year 8: Gorm level 1
Lantern Year 9: King's Man level 1
Lantern Year 10: Manhunter level 2, Flower Knight level 2
Lantern Year 11: The Hand level 1, Sunstalker level 1
Lantern Year 12: Gorm level 1
Lantern Year 13: The Hand level 1
Lantern Year 14: Screaming Antelope level 2
Lantern Year 15: Lonely Tree level 2, Screaming Antelope level 2
Lantern Year 16: Manhunter level 3, Butcher level 2
Lantern Year 17: Screaming Antelope level 3
Lantern Year 18: Gigalion level 3
Lantern Year 19: King's Man level 2
Lantern Year 20: The Watcher

Harvester, second take

 A friend visited over, and we continued our Kingdom Death campaign.

Lantern Year 17 hunt & showdown: Screaming Antelope level 3

Moldonial, Tyypi, Twyllaria and Maxaria start the hunt, which seems to be a misfortune after another. Carpet of ticks? Check. Harvester again? Check. Devoured grounds, okay, not too gross, poop and half eaten plants as far as eye can see. But right after we get piles of vomit. 

After overwhelming darkness a pit appeared below Tyypi and broke her leg. Dead bodies of four survivors were found from failed start, and then, dead antelope itself. 

Depressing.

The actual showdown was a bit lackluster thanks to the Antelope not doing much other than stomping and snorting. It did less than five actual attacks, all others were negated in one way or another. At least trample did some damage here and there, but no severe damage rolls had to be taken at all, and only one brain trauma. 

There was one threat, however. Moldonial had received Tunnel Vision from the harvester and Screaming Antelope had a couple of these reactions where attacker needed to spend an action to regain senses to attack... and Tunnel Vision lets you spend actions only to activate weapons. Moldonial was wounding the beast on 3+, and once he rolled a 2 in such a location. Fortunately axe proficiency helped there. 

Finally the Antelope was slain and it's resource deck was emptied. 

Lantern Year 18: Acid Storm

Settlement event was Acid Storm, and it gave us a scrap. 

We had only five endeavors as Maxaria had received post-traumatic stress disorder from Screaming Antelope's trap. 

Innovation choices were horrible. Partnership, Nigredo, Shadow Dancing and Face Painting. It was a toss between face painting and Nigredo, and in the end survival limit seemed a better choice. 

With tons of resources the settlement developed a few screaming armor pieces more and beast katars in double. 

1: Innovated Nigredo
2-3: Moldonial tries to use augury, fails
4: Moldonial cooks a delicious Venison Oco Busco for himself.
5: Twyllaria uses bloodletting, losing survival and gaining +1 understanding.

Hopefully we can step up the pace this year, because this campaign is going to take a while if we only play one lantern year in six months... 

...

NINJA UPDATE from 21st of May. I decided to add our tabletop simulator game into this update. 

Lantern Year 18 hunt & showdown: Gigalion level 3

Moldonial, Fatalia, Tyypi and Noitatsaved were the hunters. Hunt began easy and stayed easy. First we get Gigalion with Ground Fighting automatically on. Later, white lion cub gives a ton of resources and begins the showdown right away before Overwhelming Darkness.

And the beast just begins by doing nothing and once wounds started rolling in, it was only sizing up or doing something else inconsequential. Cheap victory? No. Gigantic Pendulous Paunch eventually had to be fished out by Moldonial, who took the job since his purpose was to die anyway.

Resulting severe injury was only a knockdown. Gigalion had taken around nine wounds or so, maybe a bit more. 

Maybe emboldened by this, Fatalia demonstrates the true meaning of her name. She went to strike Gigalion from blind spot, and obviously scored a reaction that had it move forward - taking Moldonial along with it for a second six damage grab. Although Moldonial was supposed to die anyway. Just no quite yet when there were so mane AI cards left...

A lot rested on Tyypi's shoulders now. 

Fortunately she was able to score well aimed shots at the quarry. But she had only understanding of four, meaning she had to take three brain damage each time she made one aimed attack.

Trap broke Fatalia's back, and post-trap hit locations were horrifying. Pendulous Paunch and one with basic attack with extra damage wound reaction. Soon enough Tyypi had to start taking brain traumas.

Which she did quite well, actually. It was around the fourth or fifth that finally came up as the dreaded "1-2". 

So, Fatalia's back had been broken so she was out of the game. Noitatsaved was dedicated support and armed with only Rib Blade. In the end, the often mocked "Ground Fighting" actually took out any chance of winning the day. A total party wipe!

Lantern Year 19 - Dark Trader

Urgh. Population fell down to ten, which fortunately meant two endeavors for us.

First was to innovate Family. 

Second innovation still waits resolution.

Decent Murder

Third lantern year hunt for Purgatorio settlement was Screaming Antelope. 

We had three players this time around. Since the settlement was still in its infancy the game was upgraded to 1.6. 

Nothing too bad happened during hunt except for seeing a carpet of ticks. Vangel, Kelpo, Alina and Hilima found the Antelope standing behind the carpet and showdown began.

Screaming Antelope wasn't too keen on hitting survivors with it's attacks, but it still gave some damage with trample and a trap. This is where Vangel the prima donna received Ghostly Beauty disorder.

Lantern Year 4 - Murder!

As it happened, Vangel murdered Kelpo, whose name translates into English as "decent".

He was going to be banished into darkness, but instead was re-rolled to come back with Immortal. So... I don't know, we got quite of a diva in our hands. Ruthless fighting art, Prima Donna, Ghostly Beauty and Immortal disorders... he sure got some character in his, well, character.

This also gave the settlement their death principle, which was chosen to be cannibalization.

Settlement innovates Inner Lantern.

Since one of the more decent survivors died so unnecessarily, another must come via shared experiences. 

A single augury intimacy gave the settlement a new decent kid also.

Next it's Butcher, though. Will Purgatorio continue to wreck monsters this easily? We'll see in a year or two...

Patricide

Maurala's ancient settlement saw continuity during friend's visit. This is its story.

Lantern Year 16 special showdown - Manhunter level 3

Moldonial, Tyypi, Noitatsaved and Maxaria attempt to fight off the enslaver from far off lands. Random terrain was Dead Monster, which gave survivors a convincing headstart of, what, four or five wounds? Based on initial progress Manhunter looked easy, but then things started heating up. Moldonial was dodging stakes on 2+, but still managed to fall on his face on those with only two points of armor in each location.

Next few rounds were cautious yet useless shuffling around with only one wound per turn done to Manhunter and multiples heavy injury levels for survivors.

Hero of the showdown was once more Vespertine Bow and especially its wielder Tyypi who didn't seem to be able to roll less than critical wounds. Even more of a help was Murderous Gaze that was often picking up Tyypi, who had raised her Courage to over 9000 with Hoarder disorder and had gorm helmet with full affinities. Essentially free turn for survivors since accuracy 4+ tombstones were hitting Moldonial with 10's. 

Fight took six to seven rounds I think, and ended in triumph for the survivors not a moment too soon. Most of the survivors had spent just about all survival they had, and even Moldonial with Abyssal Sadist and Rawhide Set only had four points left.

Lantern Year 16 showdown - Butcher level 2

Same team as above finds out how Butcher is a total pushover when random target for Lantern Frenzy becomes Moldonial. The poor monster was hitting him only on 10+. The team even had time to pick broken lanterns from Nightmare Tree.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think Butcher did not land even a single hit throughout the fight. Only damage came from Butcher's Roar and the damage + bleed token part of Wild Carve. 

So, the survivors left Butcher showdown looking for more serious challenges and soon enough they found it...

Lantern Year 17: Season of the Spiderling

Twyllaria, Oda, Tyypi and Maxaria win the day and gain +1 permanent strength and weapon proficiencies thanks to Twyllaria's sanity and courage. It was a dramatic moment when Maxaria mistook his father for a giant tiny spider and slayed him, too.

1: Settlement innovates Cooking right after having to use Shank Bone to innovate Cooking. Settlement still has Beast Steak, Nightmare Tick and Fresh Acanthus, so a Screaming Antelope is going to be a priority.
2-3: Auguries for Intimacy, and settlement rejoices when a new baby Scheppo is born.
4-5: Ischmo and Scheppo dance a forbidden dance with Scheppo losing some movement and Ischmo gaining evasion.

To Fell a Tree

Lantern Year 15 special showdown - Lonely Tree level 2

 Moldonial, Tyypi, Noitatsaved and Fatalia convinced apathetic, twice contractured and dismembered Twix to eat a delicious fruit they had found. Much to everyone's surprise the treat did cheer up Twix! Kind of, because he died.

 This showdown revealed how, how do they say - dope? Synchronized Strike is when fully built with Forbidden Dance and Heart Flute. Fatalia would have been tossed around the board, as well as given 2 bleed tokens for multiple people if the reactions triggers had not been changed to failures. 

People were still drawn over the board, though, but as far as reactions and AI cards go, this was more preferable than getting damage 6 explosions in the face.

When Moldonial was thrown to the corner on turn 1, it was slightly concerning - it wouldn't be until two rounds had passed when he'd be able to deliver those bites and punches to the tree. Tyypi with her Vespertine bow and +1 speed and +1 accuracy was quite adept in missing shots and rolling four or below when wounding. But her main purpose was to check the hit locations with Cat Eye Circlet anyway.

Noitatsaved was also missing all her Rib Blade attacks. So an unlikely hero appears. Fatalia with one missing eye actually scores most wounds to the monster with Counter-Weighted Axe. But Tyypi and Moldonial want to steal their share of glory, when Moldonial finally arrives at the scene and delivers three wounds, leaving the tree with one AI card remaining. Tyypi activates, walks next to the tree and uses Heroic fighting art with Bone Axe, which was a proper thing to do. 

Fatalia did six wounds, Tyypi four, Moldonial three and the tree itself had two moods in play. 

Settlement receives five resources from the fruits, as well as Blistering Plasma Fruit. 

Lantern Year 15 hunt & showdown - Screaming Antelope level 2

Noitatsaved, Tyypi, Fatalia and Twyllaria are the nominated hunters. During hunt Twyllaria continuously loses all her survival. Hunt isn't very exciting as most results just boil down to "and then nothing happened", except that Twyllaria also finds Oda from path of brave during overwhelming darkness.

Showdown started horrendously. After first Vespertine Bow attack from Tyypi, all survivors were knocked down. Now and then Antelope makes for some scary traps. Next few rounds Antelope spends trampling and biting Fatalia, but fortunately she survives with only collapsed lung and being disemboweled.

Fight took far longer than it was supposed to - and this was all because of Infested trait that came up early. The amount of missing-to-wound-by-one was staggering. Also three or four traps wasn't much for help either.

Twyllaria was our dedicated tank, so it was her who wasn't attacked even once, or even trampled over even just one time.

But once survivors got their stuff together and quit the habit of failing hard at everything, the showdown was a pushover.

Lantern Year 16: Weird Dream

We had Hands of Heat on timeline, and since we received 17 resources and had equal amount in storage, we pretty much just got to shuffle around our resources. At least Weird Dream gave a few endeavors for us.

Settlement develops the final missing piece from Screaming armor and Leather Shield.

1: Settlement innovated Bloodletting
2: Love Juice and Augury gives settlement two new babies, Maxaria and Sibmux.
3-4: Failed Forbidden Dances for Sibyllaria and Oda
5-6: Synchronized Strike for Maxaria and Twyllaria
7: Leather for shield crafting.

Next we have Manhunter level 3 coming up. 

End of a chapter

I was visiting family and friends back in Kuhmo, and there we had an "epic" conclusion to our Touch of Evil campaign.

 It's been seven and a half years since the campaign began. 

Our mission was to fight and win every villain there is - from all the expansion as well as the web exclusives. If heroes died in showdowns, they were out for the rest of the campaign.

So, Shadow Witch it was with our last remaining heroes, Abigail the occultist and Captain Hawkins.

And then, after two turns Shadow Track was already almost half gone. Way to end a seven year campaign. Or?

Once more elders were dying left and right, spawning Spectres as they went. Situation would have been hopeless if it wasn't for the loyal militia of Captain Hawkins. Many a lives were lost... but at least Spectres disappeared as fast as they emerged.

Heroes also seemed to figure out themselves how to "game" Shadow Witch. Subsequent two draws from mystery deck were Traitor's Blood, which has a hero kill off an elder. I guess it went something like "You can't believe how sorry I am, but this is for the best for the community."

Soon enough there were only two elders left that had highest honor, so that was a lot of pressure off from the shoulder of heroes.

Once Captain got the militia engine running, and Abigail got Sacred Chalice, Shadow Track stopped in its... well, tracks. It was as if heroes had some hope. Captain even managed to buy musket and silver bullets. 

It wasn't all fun and games, though, because constant struggling against the odds kept heroes away from securing clues against the final showdown.

Which soon had to happen. When Sacred Chalice emptied, Shadow Track was at it again.

Heroes barely got to start the showdown. Shadow track was at one.

Strangely enough, Captain Hawkins blows half of Shadow Witch's wounds away with first attack - and survived the 13 or so fight dice attack. Abigail scored no wounds, but was saved by Hawkins with Honorable Gesture.

Then Captain shoots the villain down to one wound remaining, but was KO'd after his feat. Just one wound, Abigal, please! She was able to do five dices worth of attacks, none of which was a 5+.

Next something miraculous happened. Shadow Witch failed to KO Abigail, so she still had the chance to make this a victory. But that needed a 5+ on two dice.

...

Throughout the showdown, Abigail had made 10 dice worth of attacks. None of which was a 5+.

Maybe Abigail was the Shadow Witch all along...

Thus ended the Touch of Evil campaign.

The Dreaded Harvester

 Lantern Year 14 hunt & showdown - Screaming Antelope level 2

Moldonial, Tyypi, Twix and Fatalia hunt for an antelope as planned back in May. I'm not sure if I have ever naturally rolled 10 on the random hunt events, but this time it did come up. The Harvester. And it gifted Fatalia with the most mysterious disorder of all - Spiral Ganglia. Moldonial received Vermin Obsession, and Tyypi became a Hoarder. Twix, on the other hand, became instantly useless when he got Apathetic. Otherwise hunt was uneventful, except Tyypi, our Vespertine Bow user, losing all survival to carpet of ticks after we had triggered Reverberating Lantern.

Showdown started with Fatalia speeding to remove Bug Patch from the board. She got a Lonely Ant from the patch - what a wonderful treasure for our Hoarder.

Vespertine Bow and Moldonial's Metal Maw were doing steady damage to Screaming Antelope, and even apathetic Twix happened to stand passively with Rib Blade somewhere in Antelope's general direction, dealing random wounds. Although survivors' defenses were lacking, only one survivor was truly suffering despite all his apathy - Twix was continously ran over by the monster, resulting in dismembered arm and double contracture. 

But the showdown went relatively fine. Twix was already ruined in the hunt phase if we're being accurate. It was a victory. One of the terrain cards was Lonely Tree, so settlement received the Lonely Fruit, too.

Lantern Year 15 - Acid Storm

Acid Storm gave settlement some scrap. Twix and Sibyllaria drank some love juice and received intimacy through Augury. As a result, Maurala's population was a lot more secure eleven than prior eight. 

Settlement endeavors:

1: Settlement innovated Bed.
2: Settlement used Augury for intimacy
3-4:  Synchronized Strike for Noitatsaved and Fatalia. 

Developments included Screaming helmet and waist armor, plus Counter-weighted Axe.

Next we might actually try Lonely Tree since it's the last year we can fight a level 2 tree. But that happens when it happens.

The end is nigh

Shadowbrook and the nearby areas are nearing a total extinction of heroes, as our Touch of Evil campaign continues with one additional game via Tabletop Simulator. 

Game was Heinrich the Cartwright and Victor Danforth versus The Ghost Ship.

For once the shadow track took a slow and steady decline into darkness, which would have given heroes time to gear up. In theory, at least. As it turned out there were sporadic Ghost Pirate sprees, getting almost all of their counters on the map. Heroes needed to react to them, but the fights against those damnable pirates were awfully unlucky. 

Victor spent a whole lot of time in spewing out events, most of which were sub-par. 

Heinrich at least manages to find two pieces of cursed gold, and enough weapons and assorted gear to equal nine fight dice. Victor had cunning 6 and tools of science.

Suddenly shadow track was in its last stage to darkness, and heroes had to start the showdown way too early. Fortunately there was only one evil elder, although he did have the darkest secret.

Heroes had to assemble hunting party blindly, and we took Reverend Harding. And look at that. A second darkest secret, plus accompanied betrayal.

Ghost Ship had 32 wounds, and heroes managed to remove only thirteen out of them.

Good night, Heinrich and Victor.

Campaign Statistics:

Villains defeated: Spectral Horseman, Vampire, Siren, Bog Fiend, Volgovian Nutcracker, Delion Dryad, Scarecrow, Krampus, Sunken Seven, Gargoyle, Banshee, Reaper, Dreamweaver, Werewolf, Unspeakable Horror, Necromancer

Villains still to be defeated: 2, +2 investigation vs Shadow Witch

Heroes dead: Katarina the Outlaw, Frederic Leon Brother Marcus, Anne-Marie, Lucy Hanbrook, Harlow Morgan, Scarlet Shadow, Maria de la Rosa, Thomas the Courier, Adrianna, Valeria, Jack Fellows, Argot Blackwell, Inspector Cooke, Isabella von Took & Liliana, Lost Soul, Karl, Eliza, Dr. Edwards, Sara the Bright Witch, Heinrich Cartwright, Victor Danforth
Heroes remaining: 2

Stashed investigation: 3

Fastest Road to Darkness

During my visit to Kuhmo I continued a Touch of  Evil campaign with a friend. 

We were against Shadow Witch. We got Sara the Bright Witch and Karl the Soldier as our heroes. Rather decent characters, I must say.

But they did not help much. 

Oh gods, the game was horrible. The game took a total of five or six rounds to lose, with Shadow Track falling for one whole stage on every turn. 

We were drawing two mystery cards from the first turn, and four to five mystery cards from thereafter. Murders just kept coming, and I don't think we had over two mystery cards that did not force shadow track down. 

Since it was such a short and terrifying game, we played another game right after against the same villain.

Game 2

Second game we had Dr. Edwards and Eliza the Witch Hunter going on.

This time we actually had a game. Eliza with old maps was good enough spectre-remover for a long time until she started getting knocked down in the mystery phase while getting ambushed by trees and 18 fight dice Shadow Witch. 

Seven out of nine town elders lay dead or as tormented spirits on the board.

We had seven Remains in Play cards, and Dr. Edwards did manage to get Sacred Chalice. But when the situation called for many a 3+ roll, none were made and the chalice got ditched after the first try. 

In the end we did not even get to showdown, as shadow track fell to darkness thanks to Eliza getting knocked down every turn while there was this "each time a hero is KO'd, shadow track falls by two" mystery card online.

Oh well. Still four more heroes left in this campaign.

Campaign Statistics:

Villains defeated: Spectral Horseman, Vampire, Siren, Bog Fiend, Volgovian Nutcracker, Delion Dryad, Scarecrow, Krampus, Sunken Seven, Gargoyle, Banshee, Reaper, Dreamweaver, Werewolf, Unspeakable Horror, Necromancer

Villains still to be defeated: 2, +2 investigation vs Shadow Witch

Heroes dead: Katarina the Outlaw, Frederic Leon Brother Marcus, Anne-Marie, Lucy Hanbrook, Harlow Morgan, Scarlet Shadow, Maria de la Rosa, Thomas the Courier, Adrianna, Valeria, Jack Fellows, Argot Blackwell, Inspector Cooke, Isabella von Took & Liliana, Lost Soul, Karl, Eliza, Dr. Edwards, Sara the Bright Witch
Heroes remaining: 4

Stashed investigation: 3

Purgatorio settlement

 A friend visited me, and look! A sudden new Kingdom Death settlement.

Prologue almost gave us death principle via ill-placed Maul while Enraged was on. Kohtats, the sorry target, took a total of three severe injuries, but survived showdown with four bleed tokens and no permanent injuries. 

Settlement was named Purgatorio. and population became steady 14. Kohtats spoke (or perhaps her spleen did?) the first words. Endeavors were spent on basic infrastructure and stone noses. No innovation, because we had so few bones at our disposal.

Lantern Year 1 hunt & showdown - Gorm level 1

First hunt was against Gorm. Vangel the evasion tank became Prima Donna during the hunt, but otherwise hunt went fine. 

Showdown itself was a breeze, although we did have to use our last Founding Stone. This gimped the Gorm, which had the monster lose three turns total. Random points of damage were done by the mammoth-baby, even some heavy injury levels, but we pulled it through before severes started piling up. The only real casualty was the Bone Axe that shattered on Super-Dense location. Gorm had Posturing Piss going on, so we got the Ammonia.

Lantern Year 2 - Elder Council

Settlement innovated Hovel and tried to make some babies, failing at that. 

Lantern Year 2 hunt & showdown - Spidicules level 1

Foolhardy to take on Spidicules this early? Maybe, but I let my friend to make the decisions. 

Hunt went well enough, yielding even some resources. 

Showdown was odd. This must be one of the most immobile Spidicules I've seen, and least dangerous too. This was probably mostly due to one of the easier intimidate cards making multiple appearances throughout the game.

Fight wasn't without it's dangers though. When showdown ended in easy victory for the survivors, each had at least two bleed tokens. Kohtats was taken away by Spidicules. 

Lantern Year 3 - Dark Trader

Settlement innovates Paint, and gains the Silk Refining from slaying a Spidicules. Two auguries more give us finally an aichmophobic super-child Hilima and Survival of the Fittest. This triggered society principle, which was Collective Toil. 

It's all looking very good now even if this campaign might never see additional play. 

Year of Utter Devastation and Misery

 A friend with whom we have an ongoing Kingdom Death campaign visited, and this is what happened.

Lantern Year 11 hunt: Sunstalker level 1

What's the worst that could happen when you begin a showdown? Would it be something like losing your Vespertine Bow user on the first attack he - himself - makes? Because that's what happened.

It didn't even take that many rounds until Padoral the Twilight Sword user died, too. 

A team wipe looked certain when remaining Baby of Silence had two bleed tokens and Moldonial with destroyed back had five (with unconscious fighter) and there were still around four AI cards to chew through. Baby of Silence frenzied and as a consequence was soon killed. 

But Moldonial had bitten in two wounds, which meant that Sunstalker would fade away to solar track. Moldonial only had to tank through 9+ hitting basic actions while having zero armor and plenty of heavy damage levels. 

But hey. We don't need Vespertine Bows here in Maurala. It was a win, after all. Finally things are looking... well...

Lantern Year 12 - Gorm Climate

Aaaaugh. Gorm Climate ate Round Stone Training, because we didn't want to lose our hoarded resources. Now we need to hunt Gorm again. And at least Gorm Climate isn't Murder...

Conviction - Barbaric Principle ate away our resources anyway.

Necrotoxic Mistletoe killed four survivors.

WHEN WILL THIS MISERY END??

From a healthy population of fifteen, down to eight, lost one innovation and all resources. Gg wp. Table flip. Sob in corner. 

At least our two (2) endeavors gave Intimacy with Augury, and gave us twins. 

Moldonial ate the Hunter's Heart to cure his broken rib and destroyed back, and Sibyllaria cured her back with the leftovers.

Well hello Gorm level 1, some bitter and angry survivors are coming for you next.

Lantern Year 12 hunt - Gorm level 1 

Twix, Noitatsaved, Fatalia and Tyypi engage in Gorm Hunt, and hunt phase was more lethal than the actual showdown - all survivors received a few disorders along the way. Aichmophobia on King Spear using Twix was perhaps the most annoying.

Showdown itself was no big deal, although most of our wound rolls were 2-3... fortunately that was enough to actually wound a level 1 Gorm. Easy victory.

Lantern Year 13 - Dark Dentist

Dark Dentist pays a visit to check how Moldonial's operation has gone - which is very well indeed. Hands of Heat starve our settlement of resources even further - and we're having another go at it on the same year as Butcher level 2. 

Settlement innovates Heart Flute, breeds Twillaria and gives Synchronized Strike for a few survivors.

Lantern Year 13 Showdown - The Hand level 1

Twillaria, Butrifice, Moldonial and Fatalia challenge the Hand once more. 

We had the Diversion Tactics, which made the showdown even more of a breeze. If by breeze you mean a blood tornado.

Twillaria receives Apathetic disorder from Soft Chuckle, and because of this dies to Line Up via head explosion.

Then, The Hand has had its fun and starts to applaud. Butrifice just can't take it, and dies.

At least Moldonial, the shining star of Maurala, received the best result of +1 accuracy, strength and evasion,

Lantern Year 14 - Haunted

Moldonial and Fatalia sing a little song with the chorus of the dead. Twix finds the silver city and becomes stark raving as a result. 

Settlement innovates Petal Spiral, which was deemed the least trash of a rubbish pile of choices. The another endeavor was to put Synchronized Strike back to Moldonial.

Moldonial, Tyypi, Twix and Fatalia set out to hunt for level 2 antelope... somewhere in the future.

Dirge for Burkstad

 Twenty three years of anguish and misery is finally over. Incidentally, it took two years and one thirds of a year to complete. 

Lantern Year 22 hunt was against Sunstalker level 2.

We had green savior acting as our evasion tank, and two survivors wounding on 3+ and bow survivor critting on 6+, so we had rather decent chances I would say - considering how terribly Burkstad has fared over their course of existence. 

First hunt space 63, Feet. Fortunately we had one survivor with no insanity, so it wasn't a total party kill, but almost. The three extra events caused us to lose two survivors to the Gambler. 

It's been almost four months since we had our last game, and game set-up had taken longer than our game until that point. That was a little too harsh, so we ended up fudging the results into severe injury rolls, which were adequately punishing - broken leg and dismembered leg. Our entire hunt party was now movement 4 or below.  

Hunt phase also offered us extra disorders - and our legless evasion tank with Rawhide armor got Ghostly Beauty.

Actual showdown started rather nicely, despite our troubles with movement. First and second round gave four and three wounds in to the Sunstalker. We probably could have gotten in a few more if it wasn't for annoyances from ambient lightening - sun was shining always from the wrong direction.

Around third turn, however, our evasion tank fell to mortal terror brain trauma. The savior wasn't able to utter Dormenatus even once. 

Then the game started to quickly fall apart. Next one to go was our death mask wearing bow user, thanks to him being in shadow when he shouldn't have. 

Purvina and Mortis still tried their best, but Purvina couldn't take two Vomit Kaleidoscopes in a row, and Mortis wasn't able to stand the incoming heat from solar track. Heroic efforts only amounted to just over half of Sunstalker's AI deck converted into wounds. 

Along with the survivors we lost: Rawhide boots, 2x founding stone, monster grease, stone noses, white lion coat, lantern halberd and death mask. 

Lantern year 23 had Butcher on the timeline, but since our campaign had been desperate crawling right from the start, I thought it best to permit triggering The Watcher now. Well, I also thought we'd have better chances against The Watcher than Butcher level 3...

And we certainly did wounds in to the cosmic devourer! Three, in fact. 

Three, that The Watcher healed many, many, many times over.

We had lost two survivors on the first round. 

The remaining survivors stood for a bit longer, but that was mostly because of The Watcher not being so interested over knocked down survivors. 

Last survivor to live wielded the Whisker Harp. At this point, the game was more about if Mawilina would get the melody going successfully even once.

And a turn before she died, she did. Despite around her seven -1 strength tokens. Still enough strength left to strum a harp!

Burkstad goes down in style, with a single note that was played in tune.

Phew.

Burkstad was a unique settlement in many ways.

There were many times when the settlement hanged on the verge of oblivion, but somehow it always managed to cling to life. Death count illustrates this point quite well: we lost 39 survivors in total, plus six saviors who vanished. There's two records here, on highest death and savior count. 

Also, it was probably a record-holder for innovations lost to Gorm Climate.

And we hunted Screaming Antelope only once!

Let's do a little re-cap.

-Prologue was one of the toughest so far.
-White Lion year 1 made a total party wipe.
- Year 2 lion and year 3 gorm went fine.
- Loss of equipment and resources to year 4 Butcher, who was thwarted by luring it to the darkness.
- Year 5 lion is a smashing success with only Rib Blade and 3x fist & tooth!
- Year 6 Flower Knight is a struggle.
- Year 7 Gorm explodes the heads of two survivors on the second turn. And still survivors somehow win.
- Year 8 Antelope goes well.
- Year 9 King's Man is a disaster.
- Year 10 White Lion and year 11 Gorm do good enough.
- Year 12 Flower Knight level 2 is barely a victory.
-Year 13 The Hand applauses people dead.
-Year 14 Sunstalker level 1 is a difficult victory, but another Sunstalker next year is an easy one.
-Year 16 Butcher level 2 we manage to bring down to one AI card remaining.
-Year 17 and 18 White Lion level 2's aren't much of a trouble, but yeah... it's year 17 & 18.
-Year 19 King's Man level 2 is brought down to one AI card remaining.
-Year 20 Phoenix level 1 gives Hour's Ring that is immediately scrapped the next hunt phase...
-Year 21 Gorm level 2 is scary but manageable.
-Year 22 Sunstalker level 2 is a total party wipe.
-Year 23 Watcher is a total settlement wipe. 

Ten

 Whoa, hey! It didn't take a year since Maurala settlement in the world of Kingdom Death got updated with additional misery. And we can thank Tabletop Simulator for that. It was clunky and tiresome and you couldn't play around with nifty miniatures, but at least lantern years pass.

Residents of Maurala wanted to cure Moldonial of his flower addiction, so we hunted for Flower Knight level 2 for lantern year 10. 

Hunt phase showered Moldonial, Padoral, Sibylla and... Pudge with courage and understanding and major boosts from triggered insights This was until Forest Wants What It Wants. Then, just about all survivors lost all leg armor and took a point of damage to head that ignored armor. 

Fight itself was carefully executed and it ended up with Flower Knight executed. We managed without a single severe injury roll, but only barely. Pudge and Sibylla would have started getting them on most hit locations. 

Showdown would have, again, been far more difficult if it wasn't for the almightiness of the Vespertine Bow. I'll probably house rule it as Cumbersome in my future solo playthroughs.

Anyway, survivors were victorious.

Lantern Year 11: Nickname.

Settlement event gave us a division of sorts. All my friends survivors had their name end with ... of the Antelope, and both of mine were that of the Lion. Go figure. A short moment of merriment like that was soon abolished when The Hand came and was about to carve four survivors plus Lantern Oven in two. Next session will begin with a showdown against the Hand.

Since the showdown was so successful, settlement phase was much less so. Maurala did erect Weapon Crafter, and settlement innovated Forbidden Dance and gave Synchronized Strike to Padoral and Moldonial. One augury gave us an intimacy right away, which gave us a dead mother right away. 

UPDATE:

We played The Hand showdown already, so I'm tacking it on to this blog post. It was standard procedure how you handle The Hand. Nohaus, Maximus, Baby of Silence and Moldonial challenged the godlike monster, and each survived until (and past) the applause. Maximus was left psychically scarred with Controlophobia, and Nohaus was left physically scarred with gaping chest wound, but other than that it was only success for Maurala. Baby of Silence gained +1 strength, accuracy and evasion, while Moldonial and Nohaus gained only +1 strength. Maximus was content with only surviving the clapping of applause and not dying. 

Cornered Locations

One quick game of A Touch of Evil via Tabletop Simulator.

It was a continuation of our long running campaign with a friend.

This time we were up against the Necromancer, which I consider one of the more if not the most difficult encounters of the game. Especially with only two players. Because of this we took two extra investigation per hero from our campaign stash, and spent one investigation to draw two heroes and choose either one. 

We had some luck to receive Karl the Zombie Killer in our pool of heroes. Karl is especially good against the most frequent spawn of the Necromancer, the Walking Dead. They have four combat dice, but hit only on 6+, and Karl ignores first hit during every fight round.

Another character was Sara the Bright Witch. Initial plan was to make Karl invulnerable with her Aura of Protection.

But the very first zombie the heroes faced must have been an ancient warlord or something. It took over five fight rounds for Karl to carve through it, and he went to one wound remaining with Aura of Protection. I guess campaign rules caused bad karma, and game wanted to rob us of our resources right from the start.

Sara single-handedly beat her first zombie. She visited Manor and entered the Forgotten Island via secret passage. She drew a +3 combat pistol she couldn't use. But at least she'd be able to carry it for Karl, right? Right??

Yes and no. She managed to get knocked down as she tried to grind some investigation points to get Sacred Chalice. But the zombie guarding the Monastery was a cousin of the first zombie, and ate through Sara's Aura of Protection, leaving Sara knocked down with just one investigation point, a horse, and the pistol. 

On mystery phase she rolled 2 for lost investigation. She had lost it all, except for the magic pistol.

Karl visited Abandoned Keep, and after losing one investigation from a collapse, he found the Rogue's Rapier. 

These two visits to corner locations were the only times heroes were able to do it in this game. 

Such is the nature of the Necromancer.

But thanks to some lucky events and courses of action, Karl was able to afford silver bullets and pistol. He did receive -1 combat Devil's Mark. Coupled with the magic pistol from Sara and Magistrate Kroft, Karl sported ten fight dice once we started showdown. He had also managed to train his Spirit & Cunning to 8, unlike Sara. 

Sara's most accomplished deed over the course of the game was to bring magic pistol for Karl. In the showdown she also prevented a total of four wounds from Karl, so her contribution wasn't negligible. But she scored no wounds to the villain, and didn't succeed to kill Mayor Carver, the Shadow's Puppet, first time she tried with three dice and a re-roll. Second time with four dice and a re-roll she got through with her spell of death. 

Karl, however, did the dirty work. It was toughest showdown in a while - for two rounds victory hinged solely on a roll of 5+ if Necromancer killed Magistrate Kroft and brought Shadow Track to 0. He didn't, so heroes saved Shadowbrook from the most oppressive of villains. 

Campaign Statistics:

Villains defeated: Spectral Horseman, Vampire, Siren, Bog Fiend, Volgovian Nutcracker, Delion Dryad, Scarecrow, Krampus, Sunken Seven, Gargoyle, Banshee, Reaper, Dreamweaver, Werewolf, Unspeakable Horror, Necromancer

Villains still to be defeated: 2, +1 investigation vs Shadow Witch

Heroes dead: Katarina the Outlaw, Frederic Leon Brother Marcus, Anne-Marie, Lucy Hanbrook, Harlow Morgan, Scarlet Shadow, Maria de la Rosa, Thomas the Courier, Adrianna, Valeria, Jack Fellows, Argot Blackwell, Inspector Cooke, Isabella von Took & Liliana, Lost Soul
Heroes remaining: 8

Stashed investigation: 4

It's Golden

Fifty games of A Touch of Evil in this blog after this update. 

Which continues the long-running (currently at six years) campaign. And starts to look like it might one day be over.

Villain was Unspeakable Horror, to whom we had lost Katarina the Outlaw and Frederic Leon earlier. Was it to devour the souls of Heinrich Cartwright and Eliza the Witch Hunter?

Maybe, because on round two there was already one dead town elder and three (3) evil elders. All the elders of the coastal town had revealed their rotten core right from the start.

Early in the game the heroes had to suffer At Mightnight, They Come and the game saw at least the appearance of The Heretic, Matriach of Silence and The Outcast. 

Fallen demons were sprouting all over the countryside of Shadowbrook, and their 4+ to ignore a wound was a nuisance that caused a few greedy knock outs. But other than that the fight against Unspeakable Horror was rather steady. Shadow Track was surprisingly stable - probably again thanks to not too many Murders being committed. 

Doctor Manning was struck dead by the villain, then revived by Eliza, only to be killed again by her. Just wondering who's the real villain here.  

Sophie and Magistrate Kroft went mad from encountering the ancient demon, and Lady Hanbrook was seen running all around the locations until she was betrayed by, well, a Betrayer. 

Turning point for the game was when Eliza found Cross of Kandor, Family Bible, Sacred Stone and even had the Sacred Chalice - that was +8 fight dice on command. Heinrich had been keeping a collection of your everyday tools such as hatchets, axes and pitchforks - all the while being possessed by perhaps another demon, rival to Unspeakable Horror.

Half of the board was filled with summoning circles, but the rolls of 3+ were merciful. And the procession of cultists was sluggish at best, which was perhaps suggesting the heroes were hunting a greater demon of sloth after all.

This all culminated in a 30 fight dice attack with silver bullets against the villain when showdown began. The Ancient Evil stood no chance, and Katarina and Frederic Leon were avenged.

 Campaign statistics

Villains defeated: Spectral Horseman, Vampire, Siren, Bog Fiend, Volgovian Nutcracker, Delion Dryad, Scarecrow, Krampus, Sunken Seven, Gargoyle, Banshee, Reaper, Dreamweaver, Werewolf, Unspeakable Horror
Villains still to be defeated: 3, +1 investigation vs Shadow Witch

Heroes dead: Katarina the Outlaw, Frederic Leon Brother Marcus, Anne-Marie, Lucy Hanbrook, Harlow Morgan, Scarlet Shadow, Maria de la Rosa, Thomas the Courier, Adrianna, Valeria, Jack Fellows, Argot Blackwell, Inspector Cooke, Isabella von Took & Liliana, Lost Soul
Heroes remaining: 8

Stashed investigation: 8

Burkstad Renaissance (Gwendor Thrice Cursed and Twice Lived)

 Lantern Year 21 hunt was a level 2 Gorm. 

First attempt to hunt was a miserable failure. Cat Eye Circlet wielding Vladimir got Tunnel Vision disorder, and Mortis decided to never show up in the showdown in the first place. With three underleveled survivors our forecast of winning wasn't looking all bright and sunshine. Also, it would have been a tad boring session for one of the players had we actually tried that showdown.

No, we fed Gwendor to Gorm to proc Hours Ring. 

Oh, the irony of having to use this rare item right after we built it last year. But hey, it's Burkstad after all.

Second attempt went a little better, except if it wasn't for our inept hunters Gwendor, Vladimir, Purvina and Mortis who somehow got around five extra events during hunt phase. Fortunately nothing excessively punishing showed up, since it's not like Dash is the only thing keeping survivors alive against level 2 Gorm, and Madflies giving Frenzy to Mortis locked away her survival actions. She was also the one who had +5 evasion and Rawhide Armor.

Oh well. Maybe we'd manage with 25% of our number frenzied.

In the end survivors found a strange path that had the hunters ambush Gorm.

Fetid Grotto gave also Gwendor frenzy. Half of the team without survival actions. Oh, and Gwendor had also donned Death Mask, so that was -4 to severe injuries with no possibility to dodge.

When Mortis crawled back to settlement on the first hunt attempt before Hours Ring, she obviously had seen this coming and knew what'd be best for everyone involved.

Thanks to ambush, survivors at least got some wounds in to the beast. Four, in fact, on the ambush turn. Might have been a good start, but it ended up with Gorm retching on three survivors. Miraculously no-one rolled head location, and game continued with heavy injury levels only.

Gorm does Body Check, which is almost beneficial if it damages survivors - at least it pushes you away from the end-of-turn retch. Nice in theory, but Gorm failed to score any hits. All four of us had now received a baptism of vomit. 

So, any accidental retches could prove fatal from now on, so Vladimir - now with less Tunnel Vision in this parallel universe - starts checking hit locations rigorously every turn.

Next, Gorm draws it's duration card that gives adjacent survivors severe injuries when it lands down.

For the heck of it, Purvina wounds the beast despite its +5 toughness tokens. 

Gorm wallops Purvina around a bit with a large trout, but deals no serious damage.

It was a showdown that had the potential to go south without a moment's notice - but this time that note never came. Purvina with her Lantern Halberd dealt half of the wounds, and the remaining survivors did the rest. 

Lantern Year 22

Finally the oppressive Gorm Climate subsides. Inspired by this heroic showdown, a new age of arts, sciences and strange ideas began in Burkstad. First, survivors perform a magnificent theatrical masterpiece called "The Hunt of Gorm level 2" in hunt re-enactment. Gwendor is nominated as the favorite survivor, and Lefasu was the least favorite survivor. 

Gwendor, being the Prima Donna he is, overdoes his part and slays Gorm again. Because that's what happened, right? Too bad it was played by Lefasu.

The rumors about this play had reached far, and Armored Strangers had come to silently spectate the stage play. Their review had some mixed signals though, as they impaled a survivor to a lantern halberd guidepost and left it on the outskirts of the settlement.

Settlement innovates Sculpture, so that's another category of fine arts altogether. And also groundbreaking new science was made in the form of special innovating Albedo via gormchymy. 

But what would a renaissance be without it's l'uomo universale? Love Juice blessed the settlement with it's sixth savior.

Gwendor becomes a tinker with Augury and shrine ritual is a success. Mortis hones her proficiency with grand weapons in Nightmare Training. Vladimir learn Synchronized Strike and to leave her impact to this new and wondrous age, Purvina dances the Forbidden Dance. 

Fortunately the critics had already left the settlement.

Next, Sunstalker level 2.

Population: 9

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric + Ultimate Weapon


Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Lantern Oven
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking
Shrine
Drums
Momento Mori
Scrap Smelting

Nightmare Training

Song of the Brave

Sculpture, Albedo, Guidepost


Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Bone Smith
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Catarium
Gormchymist
Gormery
Weapon Crafter
Leather Worker
Skyreef Sanctuary

Plumery

Gear:
1x Cloth
3x Stone Noses
Full Rawhide Set
1x rawhide vest, 1x Rawhide Gloves, 1x Rawhide Headband
Gorment Boots
2x Skull Helm
Bone Dagger
Bone Darts
Rib Blade
Greater Gaxe
2x Leather Shield
Cat Eye Circlet
3x Monster Grease
Lucky Charm
Monster Tooth Necklace
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow + Hollowpoint Arrow
Full White Lion Suit
Scrap Sword
Flower Knight Badge
Cycloid helm + vest
Death Mask
Whisker Harp

Hours Ring

Lantern Halberd



Resources:
3x Monster Bone

3x monster hide
2x Skull
1x Broken Lantern

Dense Bone

Meaty Rib (organ, bone)

Jiggling Lard (organ, hide)

Milky Eye (organ)

Stout Hide

2x crab spider

1x nightmare tick

Sinew
2x Lion Claw
2x Great Cat Bones
4x Iron

3x small feathers

1x tail feathers

1x pustules (organ)

1x black skull

Overconfidence is a sudden and insidious killer

Alright, time to tackle this one. This one is a few years of Kingdom Death from the start of this month when a friend visited. Fortunately I made some notes about what happened.

Year 8 hunt: Snellana, Ursa, Sven and Pudge took off to hunt for a Gorm level 1 to get rid of Gorm Climate. Hunt phase was a challenge when survivors got stuck in a never-ending mudslide. We lost monster grease and skull helm that way.

But the showdown itself was a triumph. Execution was flawless - I think we got only one retch over us. And we got both Active Thyroid and Pure Light Bulb from death blow location. We had good feelings about the King's Man fight. 

Lantern Year 9 - Weird Dream.

So, we had a giant butt, realizing the thing from first list doesn't exist, and dying a pointless death.

Dream was about a giant, shining butt in the sky, lighting up darkness. The butt sings melodiously, enticing the survivor to follow the Devil's Symphony. Mesmerized, our dreaming survivor travels into the darkness. He doesn't pay attention to his surroundings, and on the edge of a cliff, in the middle of a step, the butt disappears and survivor realizes he had just conjured up the image from his subconscious. Too late to reverse the step, he falls down and dies. This wicked dream gave us only 1 extra endeavor.

We include Dung Beetle Knight. 

Two matchmakers give two intimacies, which came out as Sibylla and Watson.

Settlement innovated Saga,

1: innovated Saga, and a couple survivors get new fighting arts from Settlement Watch. Someone also receives Synchronized Strike.

We should be ready for King's Man level 1.

Ursa, Stratogda, Sven, Snellana and Butcher's Axe wreck the King's Man so hard that the survivors all die. Well, this particular settlement has been living the dream on Kingdom Death. Every showdown has been either a light challenge or a breeze. 

Heck, we even got Tall Grass terrain. I was certain the worst we'd get from this fight would be King's Curse. Well... maybe we needed this lesson in humility. 

We lost all of our best survivors, as well as the irreplaceable Butcher's Axe.

Lantern year 10: Hunt Re-enactment

Moldonial and Nameless Eetu play the showdown against Butcher. Both participants gain Fated: Butcher ability.

As we had only one Endeavor from Collective Toil, we spent it to innovate Storytelling.

And then right after the heavy loss against King's Man, we get this Manhunter level 2 knocking on our door.

Watson, Butrifice, Sibylla and Tyypi challenge the pro wrestler.

And on the second or third turn Sibylla dies. We had done like two wounds to Manhunter.

"Not this again" was thick in the air. 

But then something happened. It wasn't like the Manhunter didn't manage to do any damage - the fight was one of the more exciting ones in recent memory. Plenty of severe injuries were rolled. Tyypi got Broken Back and Butrifice got his arm broken. 

And yet survivors gained Manhunter Hat and Crimson Vial. However, Watson had to use Crimson Vial to get rid of his four bleed tokens. If we lost the Vespertine Bow user, fight would have been hopeless.'

Wounds trickled in to nemesis, and showdown ended in victory - Watson even scored Killing Blow. Two killing blows in three showdowns is rather good track record.

It's been a year and a half since Maurala was last played, so this campaign might take a while.

Gwendor the Thrice Cursed

 Burkstad does another lantern year. The year 20. 

We were thinking about hunting a level 2 Phoenix, but doing some quick math on our chances to wound a Toughness 12 monster had us quickly downgrade our hunt to a level 1 bird instead.

Level 1 hunt on year 20 is... less than optimal.

Vladimir, Mortis, Purvina and Gwendor equip themselves to catch a Phoenix, and the hunt phase quickly assures us that the choice to hunt a level 1 quarry was the correct one. Three quarters of the group decide to get themselves sick from sickening mess, and a -1 strength token would have had a drastic effect on our ability to wound Toughness 12. Gwendor on 8+ with her bow, Mortis on 6+ with Rib Blade, and Vladimir on 9+ with Scrap Sword. 

Hunt phase also places Lights in the Sky on the timeline for year 21, and Recurring Nightmare has two of our survivors halve their survival and one to lose them all. Mortis with his Insanity of 24 found a new crab friend from path of the insane - and then the Phoenix ambushes survivors.

And what a showdown it was.

First few rounds are a struggle-ish affair that depletes survivors of their already meager resources. Gwendor manages to break the Phoenix's beak, but the bird of prey has its revenge by killing all of Gwendor's future children.

And then Life Pattern comes up when survivors have done four wounds to the monster.

Considering we just had a permanent injury, had -1 strength tokens and a few bleed tokens to boot and Vladimir was already at zero survival ... why not let the Life Pattern kick in?

Refreshed, the fight began anew and survivors were doing damage consistently. Time Stop was a breeze. Soon, however, the Phoenix's true intentions behind Life Pattern were revealed. It pushed the "reset" button just to be able to kill all of Gwendor's future children again. 

Phoenix didn't seem to be especially aggressive, with all the Pitying Sighs, Ancient Stares, Ripples and Excrements, but last few cards left in the AI deck was the one that dooms it's target and causes 4 damage on 2+. 

When Age tokens started piling up, it became increasingly difficult to navigate through Rewind and Displacement locations. This ended up with Gwendor being last threat to wound on multiple occasions. 

Unable to escape his fate, Gwendor was ragdolled by the master of time and eventually had to take a severe injury. Which didn't combine well with his Death Mask, that gives -4 to severe injury rolls.

Location: waist. Result: 10 lowered to 6, which is... Destroyed Genitals. 

So. Gwendor had all of his children deleted from the future twice by this bird... and then it even mutilates Gwendor's physical genitalia. Seriously, Phoenix... what did Gwendor do to you? 

Showdown had been going on for a while now, and Purvina was just one disdain off from fading into nothingness. However, earlier in the fight she had one age token transformed into hunt xp, and received Transcended Masochist as her milestone. 

Well, at least she now had a way to generate survival.

Mortis in his rawhide armor spent about 20 points of survival throughout the fight, possibly even a little more. So that's a new record of sorts, at least for the unlucky survivors of Burkstad.

Finally Purvina deals the killing blow, and we got a total of 6 basic resources, 9 phoenix resources and 2 vermin resources from the fight. Impressive.

Lantern Year 21

Settlement event is Open Maw, and there were Lights in the Sky and Gorm Climate on the timeline. Once again settlement had to dismantle an innovation to protect their precious resources. Burkstad has lost at four innovations this way.

Five endeavors gave Burkstad Lantern Halberd, a successful shrine ritual, and finally Song of the Brave. Gorm Climate has terrorized us long enough!

Gwendor is struck by a column of light during Lights in the Sky, thus adding a total of +4 armor points to each location when he next departs for a hunt.

Mawilina took a trip to the Open Maw, and found two extra vermin resources and some courage.

Settlement develops Hours ring and Hollowpoint armor. 

Next quarry is most likely Gorm level 2.

Population: 10

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric + Ultimate Weapon


Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Lantern Oven
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking
Shrine
Drums
Momento Mori
Scrap Smelting

Nightmare Training

Song of the Brave


Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Bone Smith
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Catarium
Gormchymist
Gormery
Weapon Crafter
Leather Worker
Skyreef Sanctuary

Plumery

Gear:
1x Cloth
3x Stone Noses
Full Rawhide Set
1x rawhide vest, 1x Rawhide Gloves, 1x Rawhide Headband
Gorment Boots
2x Skull Helm
Bone Dagger
Bone Darts
Rib Blade
Greater Gaxe
2x Leather Shield
Cat Eye Circlet
3x Monster Grease
Lucky Charm
Monster Tooth Necklace
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow + Hollowpoint Arrow
Full White Lion Suit
Scrap Sword
Flower Knight Badge
Cycloid helm + vest
Death Mask
Whisker Harp

Hours Ring

Lantern Halberd



Resources:
3x Monster Bone

2x monster hide
Skull
1x Broken Lantern

2x crab spider

1x lonely ant

1x nightmare tick

Sinew
2x Lion Claw
2x Great Cat Bones
4x Iron

3x small feathers

1x tail feathers

1x pustules (organ)

1x black skull

Burkstad year 19

It's the showdown phase of Lantern Year 19 in the unfortunate settlement of Burkstad. It is the year for King's Man level 2 encounter. I was highly sceptical of how our underleveled survivors would do, as Butcher level 2 had removed all of the promising survivors just a few year prior. We got the nemesis down to no AI cards remaining, so this can't go worse than that, right?

Random terrains were Salt Pillars and Tall Grass. Woah. That's some serious hope right there.

Lascia the blue savior, Ghentavi, Cohenia and Nestor defend the settlement with all they got. Second turn Lascia unleashes Lucernae's Lantern and scores a broken knee and -1 accuracy token for the monster. Cohenia slaps in another wound.

King's Man is knocked down almost right next, when the kneeling AI card comes around. Nestor grinds the Battle Tempos away, and Cohenia continues to wreck the knight's collar. With a pace like this we might  actually see the unlikely event of a victory.

But the pace was not kept steady. Frustrating three rounds pass with no wounds done to the King's Man, and survivors were ragdolled left and right, burning through their survival. Had there been no Tall Grass the game would've been over, but when a monster starts hitting on 10+ you are in a safe place until two or more lantern are being rolled, like that awful knight kept doing.

Survivors did score impressive amount of hits, but really... we drew the trap card at least four, maybe even five times in this fight. Our best survivors, Ghentavi and Cohenia had shields so the damage was negligible, but losing those precious chances to wound hurt.

Nestor goes down first, so there went cat's eye circlet and bandages. We ponder on if everyone should try to run away now as there was no-one to reliably get through Battle Tempo's. Survivors decide to play for one more round and see how situation looks then. And look at that. Ghentavi scores a hit with Rib Blade and tries to fish for King's Step. She gets the idea of this dance immediately. 

Wounds start pouring in again, for the nemesis as well as the survivors. Cohenia adds broken arm to her list of permanent injuries. 

There are not that many AI cards left anymore. And when Lascia draws a nother -1 accuracy on a critical wound effect, she decides it's worth it to guarantee a critical effect, pushing her into oblivion.

Heroically Ghentavi and Cohenia face the monster. Ghentavi gets broken back and disemboweled severe injuries when there is only one AI card left in the deck.

Cohenia does one final pounce, and scores one wound.

Never would I have guessed we'd get this far. However... double basic actions killed Cohenia, so we had only a fist & tooth user against the one last wound. She scores a hit, but no wound.

And despite needing 9+ to hit, King's Man is the winner. Come on! Two hard nemesis fights in a row down to no AI cards remaining!

Death & vanish count is now 36.

Event is Slender Blight, and the massive amount of endeavors nets three more survivors as well as some Synchronized Strikes and Rhythm Chasers.

 Burkstad

Population: 10

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric + Ultimate Weapon


Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Lantern Oven
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking
Sculpture
Shrine
Drums
Momento Mori
Scrap Smelting

Nightmare Training

+Guidepost


Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Bone Smith
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Catarium
Gormchymist
Gormery
Weapon Crafter
Leather Worker
Skyreef Sanctuary

Gear:
1x Cloth
3x Stone Noses
Full Rawhide Set
1x rawhide vest, 1x Rawhide Gloves, 1x Rawhide Headband
Gorment Boots
2x Skull Helm
Bone Dagger
Bone Darts
Rib Blade
Greater Gaxe
2x Leather Shield
Cat Eye Circlet
3x Monster Grease
Lucky Charm
Monster Tooth Necklace
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow
Full White Lion Suit
Scrap Sword
Flower Knight Badge
Cycloid helm + vest
Death Mask
Whisker Harp



Resources:
2x Monster Bone
Skull
1x Monster Organ
2x Broken Lantern


Cat Eye
Sinew
2x Lion Claw
2x Great Cat Bones
4x Iron