Moly cow

Lantern Year 4 Showdown - Butcher Level 1

Senaus, Chybele, Theus and Omena set out to defend the settlement. With great struggle survivors did a point of damage in to Butcher on first turn, and I believe it was second Butcher turn when the nemesis disemboweled Chybele. 

But that was the extent of Butcher's threat. Despite mauling Chybele almost turn after turn, he wasn't able to kill the disemboweled survivor. Survivors got their act together and were able to score two to four wounds per turn. 

It looked like Devour Lantern might become one of the cards left in deck, which certainly could have made things difficult... but even that threat didn't turn real. Relatively clean showdown, if we discount one meager disembowelment.

 Lantern Year 5: Stranger in the Dark

We thought we had a population of fourteen, but there had been a guy who responded to the name of Incognito, all along.

Chybele was nominated for Hands of Heat, and eventually her feet were branded. She really tried to form a tradition, but other people felt more like using branding irons.

Gorm Climate took off some re-rolls, too. We were not keen on losing innovations.

Benoira took the Sleeping Virus Flower.

Endeavors: 

1: Settlement innovates Face Painting
2-3: Face Painting by Gravemind and Hoki
4: Senaus makes a match out of the painted people, Grachio is born.
5: Chybele does the same, and a green savior, Fortuna, is born!
6: Theus attempts augury with no results. 

Lantern Year 5 Hunt & Showdown: Gorm level 1:

Senaus, Fortuna, Omena and Theus hunt the beast. Hunt is uneventful. Survivors manage to ambush Gorm, which already carved four wounds off from the quarry before it had drawn a single AI card. A couple of retches did some heavy injury levels, but that's it. Gorm was a total pushover. However, gained resources matched the challenge.

Lantern Year 6: Open Maw, again!

Returning survivors forget their name with Memory Haze. 

1: We had four survivors with no name, and one guy called Incognito. That was almost 33% of the population, so settlement innovated Family to better structure their names that seemed to get lost.
2: Polly jumps into Open Maw, returning courageous and with Hissing Cockroach and Cyclops Fly. Omena places the fly into her empty eye socket, and doesn't die.
3: Settlement special innovates Citrinitas.
4: Face-Painting for Intimacy
5: Nameless guy did some matchmaking anyhow, Tumbo and Hoki becoming the first family, Fifaly. They were blessed with a baby girl named Yalcapallo.

Lantern Year 6 Hunt & Showdown: Gorm level 1

First two showdowns were played with Tabletop Simulator, but what comes next was live games. Nameless guy with Twilight Sword, Incognito, nameless woman and Theuvo begin hunt. This whole thing was nothing but an appetizer. Gorm chips munch munch.

Lantern Year 7: Slender Blight

Slender Blight was to invert the survival and insanity of departing survivors.

Hooded knight paid a visit, dueling now nameless Twilight Sword wielder. Duel was lop-sided, and ended up with a gaping chest wound for the wielder.

1: Settlement innovates Clan of Death
2-3: Face Painting for Manda and Theus Bo.
4:  Matchmaker for Manda and Theus, Manaus Bo is born.
5: Augury for Manaus Bo, giving her +1 understanding.

Settlement develops Bone Axe and Manda and Theus drink a love potion to give Manaus a little brother, Pentska Bo.

Lantern Year 7 hunt & showdown: Gorm level 1

We just didn't want to give up on Gorm just yet, wanting those sweet pieces of armor instead. So, 

nameless Twilight Sword, Chybele, nameless daggerist and Theus begin hunt. Hunt wasn't big of a deal, but thanks to Slender Blight and a couple of advanced AI cards that got stuck in the last few cards gave an actual challenge no-one expected at this point. 

Lantern Year 8: Gorm Climate out of deck

Gorm Climate took a bunch of re-rolls, because it threatened the loss of innovations.

While Benoira watches the meteor flying up high, Manaus gazes at the dung ball rolling around in the distance.  Not sure if that leads to any sort of camaraderie, though.

1: Settlement innovates Bloodletting
2: Settlement builds Leather Crafter
3: Settlement cures leather
4:Matchmaker, Tumbo and Hoki receive Volibala, little brother to Yalcapallo.
5: Stone Noses.

Settlement develops Leather Cuirass, Dried Acanthus and Rib Blade

Lantern Year 8 hunt & showdown: Flower Knight level 1

Twilight Sword, Benoira, nameless daggerist and Theus begin the hunt.

Which was an emotional rollercoaster of sorts, as twilight sword guy was constantly losing and gaining access to use Twilight Sword. 

Benoira, our luck machine, got the Unlucky disorder just to eventually lose it.

 Flower Knight opened the showdown with an advanced card that pulled two survivors inside the fairy ring, and incidentally those were the worst armored. The knight lopped off Twilight Sword wielder's inner ears, making him deaf.

Although exciting in other ways, that was the most severe setback of the showdown. Eventually the knight calmed down a bit, and became much easier to handle.

Lantern Year 9: Dark Seamstress

Well there sure seems to be a few endeavors this time around. 

1: Settlement innovates Bed.
2: Nameless daggerist sleeps in bed, healing broken rib. 
3: Matchmaker for Mossman and Yalcapallo forms a new family and receives Vega Greenery. 
4-5: Round-Stone Training for Pentska and Benoira, both gain Tumble
6-7:  Shared Experience for Pentska and Benoira
8: Twilight Sword does augury intimacy for Mossman and Yalcapallo - both die despite Mossman's re-roll.
9: Twilight Sword does augury for +1 Understanding.
 10: Twilight Sword does augury for +1 survival.

Settlement develops Skull Helm. 

Lantern Year 9 showdown: Slenderman level 1

Benoira, Chybele, Pentska and Theus defend the settlement from this unknown threat.

It's been a long time since I was against the Slenderman, and I had... almost forgotten how distressing showdown that is. Those dmg 4 hits are scary, and the feeling of powerlessness and futility that comes from not being able to really fight back until the posse is together. It certainly only added to this theme, when the Slenderman opened with the advanced card that pushes everyone to a corner and attempts to ensnare. Survivors had started by tossing a Founding Stone at a location that inflicted two wounds on a critical.

Survivors got only two Dark Water from pod imprisonment thing, and one of those had to be used to clear Benoira's disorders so that she was able to pull Pentska or Theus back from the darkness, because they had three bleed tokens already. Benoira suffered a few nonpermanent injuries, one of which has her skip next hunt.

Slowly survivors grinded through Slenderman's AI cards and were victorious. Reward check was not that thrilling, though, because a one dropped.

Lantern Year 10: Cracks in the Ground

After a few re-rolls, settlement regained the lost Founding Stone.

1: Settlement uses Light Forging to craft gloom arrows. 
2-3: Failed auguries
4: Shared Experience for Incognito

Next it's going to be a level 2 something. Lacking Surge be damned.

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. 

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

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.

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

Wow it broke

Finally the last few lantern years of Enerva settlement of Kingdom Death.

 Lantern Year 28 - King's Man level 3

Menoloromias, Laifuseuskaja, Syllogi and Voxanius all go through a cycle of brain traumas. Without that particular mechanic King's Man would not have offered any real challenge, but now there was at least a sense of urgency - only available re-roll was on Laifuseuskaja and he would have to save it for himself in any case. 

Laifuseuskaja took a permanent evasion from a hit location.

Menoloromias tossed a Founding Stone when the King's Man was at last remaining wound, thus getting afflicted with the King's Curse. But he is close to retirement anyway.

Lantern Year 29 - Open Maw

Settlement event was Open Maw. Lepuri, thinking he was immortal, went to check the opening. Soon enough the mouth chomped on him not once but twice - on the five dice I rolled, there were two pairs of double.

1: Lepuri jumps into the Open Maw in search of the lamplighter.
2-3: Voxanius investigates two cocoon membranes and two broken lanterns beneath Exhausted Lantern Hoard.
4-6: Scrap smelting for five iron.
7-8: Face painting for battle. 
9: Nightmare training x3, ends in 1.
10: Petal Spiral for Naoran, fails.
11: War Room plan is made.
12: Shrine Ritual is success. 

So, I needed a bunch of bones for finishing my first ever lantern armor set. Gigalion is likely the best bet because of various guaranteed teeth and claws.

Lantern Year 29 hunt & showdown - Gigalion level 3:

Laifuseuskaja, Hovelina, Chanial and Tranaree start the hunt. 

First Laifuseuskaja encounters aromatic breeze, which actually was a Gregalope. Next the showdown begins with Ground Fighting in play. And then... a time lapse.

Showdown begins!

Because of Ground Fighting in play, the smart cat was on top of the deck but never drawn... did I just encounter a glitch? 

And to make matters worse, there was testicles coming up in hit location deck, so Laifuseuskaja was able to get a non-stop priority token. Sheesh. At least random terrain offered only debris and toppled pillars. 

The cat got nine wounds and two persistent injuries in before it sprinted to table edge. I felt sorry for it. But I really need those bones...

The showdown was a sad joke with the only damage being brain damage from Golden Eyes and once from Size Up. But the lion had its way of punishing me still.

The resource haul was gravely less than ideal. I received only five organs from random decks and a whopping nine hides. Bones, on the other hand... I got only four of those when I sorely needed them. Fortunately the total bone count is seven, but I'm anxious if they'll be enough.

Lantern Year 30 - Rivalry

The blame game began whose fault it was that settlement received so few bones. 

Hovelina and Tranaree come to blows. Hovelina gets the gaping chest wound, which feels wrong since she has the Manhunter's secret fighting art... oh well. This settlement has been a power trip anyway.

But it turned out I had been screwed over by the resource decks. I did not have enough resources for oxidizing lantern glaive and to complete lantern armor set. I was missing one bone.

Rarely if ever I have used harvest ritual. This time I did, from five resources. And my eyes must have been bulging from their sockets when I drew two monster organs, love juice and two monster hides. 

So, another desperate harvest ritual from four remaining non-bone lion resources. What a weird curse this must be because I still didn't draw even a single monster bone - although I did get two ???'s.

1: Harvest ritual from five monster resources.
2: Another harvest ritual from four monster resources.
3-5: A total of two successful battle paints.
6: Oxidized lantern glaive.
7: Bloodletting to relieve Hovelina from emotionlessness.
8: Hovelina drums for some survival.
9-10: Hovelina gets +1 strength from Nightmare Training.
11: Bloodletting for Laifuseuskaja to remove Motion Sickness.
12: Voxanius gets +1 strength from Nightmare Training.
13: Shrine ritual is a success.

Lantern Year 30 showdown: Gold Smoke Knight

Laifuseuskaja, Hovelina, Menoloromias and Tranaree are the chosen champions to save Enerva. 

Random terrain picks were Acanthus Plants, Resin Dung Ball and Ore Vein. 

Fight starts with Gold Smoke Knight charging at Laifuseuskaja, whom he hits only on 10's. Survivor turn starts nicely with the trap coming up in first four cards. Lucky me I didn't go in blind. Only two wounds were scored, and both came from a single founding stone. Critical location gave Tranaree option to pay eight survival to deal an additional wound.

As is usual, careful management of where survivors stand was key. I was able to make Gold Smoke Knight always target Laifuseuskaja, who was able to surge two deflect tokens and dodge twice thanks to hyper-sensitivity disorder. Nearly every attack Gold Smoke Knight made there were annoyingly one or two lanterns, so it took a heavy toll on Laifuseuskaja's survival. At least he had the manhunter pistol slowly trickling in more of those. 

As long as Laifuseuskaja was able to get behind Gold Smoke Knight, he was wounding on 7+ with two dice. Remaining survivors had it a little harder, Hovelina was scoring wounds with 7+ with only a single die and Voxanius on 16+ with two dice. Yeah, he didn't attack that often at least without the extra dice from horripilation. But once he did - when hit location deck had been emptied and there was only the trap left. 

Since he had oxidized lantern glaive, a spear and an axe,  he tried to negate the trap.

Nope.

That one resulted in first actual damage level in the match - light injury. Woah.

And that was the only injury level throughout the showdown.

Laifuseuskaja took two hits from Blacken once as Gold Smoke Knight had been lucky with lantern 10's, draining all deflect tokens and dodge actions. But that's it. 

It was over.

The aim of this campaign was to break the game and abuse rules and see if game can actually be beaten with its own rules. That Gold Smoke Knight really looked like a tough one. But min/max approach trivialized even the final boss.

The main culprit seemed to be the combination of life-time re-rolls and the Sleeping Virus Flower from Flower Knight. Once you go past a certain threshold of stats, stats seem to start accumulating on that particular survivor since they are able to get into situations where you might get them and pass whatever test they have to make. And then when that survivor finally has to die, well, reset with the already accumulated stats! And get a new re-roll too if you had to use yours already.

First level Manhunter reward is also a major game changer. Such a guaranteed source of a lot of insanity is... insane. That and Crimson Candy innovation give you at least four or five points of survival at start of showdown even if you roll that dreaded "1" in Overwhelming Darkness. 

I think I'll make a comparison campaign next with Survival of the Fittest, Graves and Collective Toil and retaining that horribly overpowered "shared re-roll for all in same phase" ruling, but leaving out Flower Knight and Manhunter.

Hilariously enough, this "speed run" settlement took over two years to finish.

Oh well. Here is a re-cap of showdowns for lantern years:

1: White Lion level 1
2: White Lion level 1
3: White Lion level 1
4: Butcher level 1
5: Manhunter level 1
5: Flower Knight level 1
6: Spidicules level 1
7: Spidicules level 1
8: Spidicules level 1
9: King's Man level 1
10: Manhunter level 2
10: Screaming Antelope level 2
11: The Hand level 1
11: Screaming Antelope level 2
12: Sunstalker level 1
13: The Hand level 1
14: Sunstalker level 1
15: Gigalion level 2
16: Manhunter level 3
16: Butcher level 2
17: Sunstalker level 2
18: Lion God level 1
19: King's Man level 2
20: Sunstalker level 2
21: Sunstalker level 2
22: Manhunter level 4
22: Flower Knight level 3
23: Butcher level 3
24: Gigalion level 3
25: The Watcher
26: Sunstalker level 3
27: Great Golden Cat
28: King's Man level 3
29: Gigalion level 3
30: Gold Smoke Knight

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...

Who Is Watching the Watcher?

Some Kingdom Death solo since the board was set up.

Lantern Year 23 showdown - Butcher level 3

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

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

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

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

Lantern Year 24 - Glossolalia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Annoyingly, there was trap coming up again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eventually the "1" would come up.

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

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

Lantern Year 25 - Triathlon of Death

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then we have it.

Lantern Year 25 showdown - The Watcher.

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

...

Yeah.

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

The Watcher dies.

ilo.avi

Lantern Year 26 - Haunted

Returning survivors join the chorus for some extra insanity. 

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

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

Lantern Year 26 hunt & showdown - Sunstalker level 3

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

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

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

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

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

Lantern Year 27 - Triathlon of WHAT

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

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

Hovelina, Menoloromias, Chanial and Agyruu begin the sports.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Settlement develops Monster Grease, Sun Lure and Hook.

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

Lantern Year 27 hunt & showdown - Great Golden Cat!

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

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

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

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

Then the showdown, yes, it began.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, another Lantern Year.

Lantern Year 28 - Weird Dream

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

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

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

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

+3 insanity for departing survivors.

Enerva settlement

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

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

Inventory:

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

2x 1000 year sunstone
3x Salt

1x Beast Steak
2x Fresh Acanthus

1x ???
21x Broken Lantern

1x Web Silk

8x Leather

6x Iron

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

1x Hooked Claw
1x Great Cat Bones

For masks:
Skull

Pelt

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.