Envisillan Epilogue

Questionable honor acquired in questionable means.

Watcher has awoken, and Caramanca, Undulantele, Biliouli and Watcrifice enter the chambers below.

First turn reveals that there is already trap waiting in the first three hit locations. Caramanca decides to concentrate anyway.

Biliouli lobs a Founding Stone at Watcher and Watcrifice shoots Clawhead Arrow at Watcher, aided by two retinues. This hits and scores a wound, but he had to use his once-in-a-lifetime reroll to achieve this. Anyway, two wounds.

Then I mess up by not reading Vortex status correctly. Watcher nearly butchers Undulantele. I had hoped his evasion +5, block and phoenix plackart and dodge would protect him from Voidwarp, which undoubtedly would have happened. But before that he had to endure four accuracy 2+ attacks. Ten damage sank in and had spiral fracture for Undulantele.

Round 2. Undulantele fishes out the Blackout and survives. Caramanca finishes caratosis and deals four wounds. Then Caramanca dashes to back arc of Watcher and surges two extra attacks that hit automatically, yet again dealing two wounds. This results Watcher stepping over Undulantele and Caramanca, who are sent sprawling to the board edge.

Then Watcher makes basic attack and then purifies Caramanca, who survives beyond all expectations. Watcher did get his +1 damage token, though. Watcher has six wounds remaining.

Round 3. Necromancer's Eye reveals Black Out and White Out coming, so Caramanca makes ultimate sacrifice and draws them both for an instant head explosion.

Undulantele dashes and then walks to take a swing at the Watcher. Two hits score two wounds, except that is tripled to six, thanks to Twilight Sword. That... that kind of makes the Watcher dead. Just like that. Just when things would have started to get tough. Next AI card would have been Stupefy, that would have automatically targeted Undulantele, who would have been scared sane - so he wouldn't have been able to use Twilight Sword.

I realize this fight could have been even easier if I had not been so focused on trying to get Beast of Caratosis to work. After all, Twilight Sword would have killed Watcher far quicker. Come to think of it, this was probably a terrible mistake. If I was to survive until Gold Smoke Knight, I would have needed that +10-14 strength. And I also sent Biliouli in for nothing. Now she just took a few looks through Cat Eye Circlet, grew another piece of regal gear and ran off into darkness as a King's Man. Perhaps she's the King's Man I'm about to face soon enough.

As I was reading about the Watcher on the internet, I found out that it's not uncommon for the fight to go this way. Your best chances seem to be on the first few rounds of the showdown.

Year 26

Well, settlement gets 5 endeavors and settlement event is Stranger in the Dark, which brings a desperate survivor covered in blood to the settlement.

Hooded Knight pays a visit and takes Undulantele away with her. So the only survivor that actually survived the Watcher was Watcrifice, whose name is truncated from words Watcher Sacrifice. Ironic.

I pass the Twilight Sword to Lebugdé.

Armor ritual is a success.

It took two attempts for Vernark to cure her broken hip.

Watcrifice ruins himself Forbidden Dance and Synrosander learns Synchronized Strike.

Then I suppose I'll go after a level 3 Screaming Antelope.

Nulpala, Lyaschura, Merdency, Synrosander, and form the hunting party in this event revealing order.

First Nulpala draws Skittish. Then she finds Tomb of Excellence, which makes everyone sad.

Lyaschura draws Baby and the Sword. Since party has no noisy gear, I decide to go for it. Baby and the sword are both grabbed, but I ditch the sword. Result brings tons of disorders to the survivors, most notably ones being Fear of the Dark for Nulpala and Enfeebled for Lyaschura.

Stampede gives a bit of courage for everyone, plus brain damage.

Merdency gets Living Stone result, which starts the showdown immediately. Right after Nulpala has her insanity reduced to 0.

Showdown itself was long and, well, boring. All on my own volition. After a few turns I managed to glitch the antelope with Chow Down. It always took a full move towards Acanthus Plant it couldn't reach, and then trampled back to the same spot where it was because of Diabolical. So, not a fun fight, but very secure. One wound at a time the Antelope was depleted of it's deck, until nearing the very end there no longer was any Hit Location card that wouldn't ruin this cowardly tactic.

But the Antelope had three cards or something. It was no match for well-equipped survivor party with 6+ survival on everyone. Though it did have it's chance at a gruesome revenge - I forget how I messed up, but the beast trampled one of the survivor to the only hit location that had no armor points on it - but results were not lethal.

Year 27

Settlement event is Acid Storm, which yields even more scrap.

I received 24 resources... is that a new record, so soon? Or, make that 26 if you count the scraps from Acid Storm and Knowledge Worm.

Settlement builds Blacksmith and raises Pulse Discoveries to level 2.

It takes two attempts for Nulpala to become Abyssal Sadist, which solves her Fear of the Dark problems.

Armor ritual is botched and gives only insanity for departing survivors next turn.

Anhednia dives to Exhausted Lantern Hoard, only to die. This gives an extra endeavor from Graves, so Lebugdé follows her. He finds two Cocoon Membranes.

I decide to hunt White Lion level 3. Haven't fought one ever before, unless we count Beast of Sorrow - who is more like a level 2.5 White Lion.

Hunt phase was catastrophic. I didn't take detailed notes during and have forgotten the results, but most survivors had lost nearly all of their armor points and insanity, thanks to Overwhelming Darkness or mud slides or whatever there are. Oh, one of the results was the dreaded 63, Feet. But at least the survivors didn't all just, well, die.

Anyway, I was hopeful.

First round survivors made 7 damage to White Lion. Next turn it was meager four or so. Two rounds were easy, but then the nightmare began. Lyaschura suffered broken rib. Survivors were busy navigating around White Lion - not to do maximum damage, but to survive somehow. Now and then Merdency the Necromancer was able to shoot an arrow to deal some damage.

Merdency took quite a few attacks in and this made him vomit blocks of iron and bloody scrap. He passed at least four or five severe injury rolls before drawing the trap, and dying because of it. Well, this was also partly because the cat had drawn Golden Eyes trait. It was either Golden Eyes or Vanish, so I thought to have a little extra reward in the end.

Anyway, Synrosander was soon to follow. Fight lasted for ages with around six cards in the AI deck. Lion had been sniffing so much that it dealt a severe injury on every hit. Thankfully Ground Fighting was one of the few cards in the diminishing deck. When it popped up, there was a moment of respite to get rid of bleed tokens and to wait long enough to get Death Die to the survivor I needed it most.

Ground Fighting was still one of the last two cards, which gave me some hope. And the best case scenario happened here - lion drew Ground Fighting, leaving only one card in the deck - which was waiting until I would deal a wound. If I dealt only one wound, Lion would draw Ground Fighting again.

But since I had to attack with Counterweighted Axe, of course both attack rolls hit. So I decided to go big or (not) go home, rolling also the Death Die. Which was also a hit.

Every attack dealt a point of wound, so Nulpala is now the slayer of White Lion level 3.

And since survivors had encountered Feet during hunt phase, nobody was able to consume Golden Eyes. Flip the table -rage kind of thingy.

But I made a record on resources again. Let's tally it all up.

Fresh Acanthus (herb gathering)
Bugfish (from sky fishing)
5 basic scrap (4 from mineral gathering and one from the beginning of settlement phase knowledge worm since necromancer died)
6 iron (4 from mineral gathering + 2 from worm trauma)
10 basic resources from Lion Cub, Dead Monster, smashing Obsidian Tower and rewards from White Lion)
10 White Lion resources (victory, one critical wound and scavenger kit)
Elder Cat Teeth

33 resources. Wow. Almost pays off for the loss of two of my best survivors.

Year 28.

Settlement receives 7 endeavors.

Settlement event is Silk Storm.

Settlement gets Lantern Research to level 3 and makes some leather.

There's enough resources to develop Beacon Shield and Lantern Cuirass, and then oxidize the Beacon Shield right away.

Nulpala uses Momento Mori and receives instant See the Truth and White Secret, with the most useless results. Rolls from Bold and Insight didn't give anything useful either.

Lyaschura cures her Broken Rib, and then settlement has to face returning Biliouli, the King's Man.

...and I'm bitter over this fight.

Brutal, cruel and dark - yet, with some hope in it.

I dedicated one of the survivors to fish out for King's Step - and she had 7 tempo tokens before she finally succeeded. It would have probably been a lost case without Necromancer's Eye + Arc Bow combo. I was able to deal at least one point of damage almost every turn.

Silent Hymn cost me Phoenix Plackart - disorder gained from that resulted in Vestiphobia.

Oxidized Beacon Shield was such an amazing piece of gear in this fight. I dare say that all because of it I nearly, so very nearly managed to win. There were only two cards left in the AI deck.

But in the end it is a full party wipe.

Year 29

Settlement event is Phantom, which makes Home innovations useless and gives Phantom Friend to someone. I choose Darstra for this.

9 endeavors.

Astarno uses Momento Mori, and gains courage & understanding of Nulpala, This gives her Sweet Battle and Peerless. What an amazing combo. She also learns Abyssal Sadist right away.

Armor ritual fails. +1 insanity to departing survivors.

It takes two attempts for Twinja to cure her intracranial hemorrhage.

Watcrifice ruins his movement in Forbidden Dance, but Darstra succeeds. Then Astarno and Darstra both learn Synchronized Strike.

Now, I know you can only hunt level 3+ monsters after defeating Watcher. However, I house ruled an exception. You can hunt level 2 Lion God - which I did. I want that monstrosity to be more accessible, and I thought this could be a good way to do it.

Thanks to my earlier success with the Lion God level 1, I was quite confident. Especially when one of the survivors learned Zero Presence during hunt phase - perfect fighting art against Relentless AI deck.

Fight was exciting for a long while. Oxidized Beacon Shield once more being the key to success - only when the wielder ran out of survival points to dash out of field of vision, the troubles began. Also, I had ground the trap to become last card in the hit location deck - and survivors had depleted it. Bow wielder took his chances and triggered trap. He got killed because of this.

Zero Presence survivor died because Lion God threw a toppled pillar on her.

Eventually the survival-less Beacon Shield wielder died, as I desperately tried to score the few remaining wounds.

There was only Astarno the Necromancer left. And Lion God had two cards in AI deck. A couple of round she stands brave.

This must be the closest battle I have ever fought and won, as Astarno dealt the killing blow when she had four bleed tokens, and Lion God was attacking her - resolving the last AI card on it's deck. Astarno had lousy evasion value, so that card most likely would have killed her, if she had failed to kill first. So, a success of sorts.

Year 30

But it's no success when settlement has only three members at the dawn of the final boss fight.

Settlement event is Slender Blight, and it makes departing survivors to switch their survival and insanity values. And then.

Hooded Knight arrives and kills the last remaining male of the population. Gold Smoke Knight will only have Twinja and Astarno to fight.

But hey, Settlement has Bugfish, Hagfish and Jowls. So, I get a new innovation! Filleting Table. Hooray. Innovation after Lantern Year 25. A hollow victory.

Armor ritual is a success.

Other than that, settlement crafts some leather and makes Lantern Gauntlets for Astarno.

The rest are pretty much spent on Shared Experience to trigger Age 1 & 2 for Twinja.

And, uh. I guess the duo will now tackle ultimate boss of this game. The Gold Smoke Knight.

And what a fight it was!

I was prepared to die, like, on turn two or something. But Oxidized Lantern Shield and Club Specialization and Diversion Tactics made the two survive for surprising number of rounds - and even deal four wounds to the knight! Two came from perfect hits from club and two were lucky criticals, all done by the peerless, quixotic and stark raving Astarno the Necromancer, who was abyssal sadist and enjoyed sweet battle.

Abyssal Sadist and Peerless combine unbelievable well. This time I truly saw it in action. Astarno was able to use Oxidized Lantern Shield during her own act and then have free surge from Sweet Battle. When she scored some lucky wounds, they gave her +2 survival and +1 insanity from Abyssal Sadist / Peerless interaction. So until the end she was able to deflect + dodge most of attacks, especially when Twinja was still around with Diversion Tactics. Oh, not to mention the Tall Grass terrain, which combined with Astarno's gear gave the knight -5 accuracy.

It was a good last stand.

Rest in peace, Astarno. And the entire memory of Envisillan.

Before I give myself permission to start a new solo campaign, I will need to have Flower Knight and Manhunter painted, one extra survivor ready and have some progress on the wings of Phoenix.

Envisillan, years 20-25

When things appear to be going too well, you're not looking close enough.

That's what happened. As I was skimming through rule book glossary, I noticed this teeny weeny detail: Secret fighting arts count towards the maximum of three fighting arts. And I've played as if they didn't. This assumption was based on the fact that Sculpture innovation describes Secret Fighting Arts as not being Fighting Arts.

Oh well.

This misplay has had a major impact in current settlement, as Mursonus should have been far less useful. He's existence is an abomination now, unreal, performing dream-like feats of killing monsters as well as enduring their attacks.

It's far too late to revert effects of this misplay, but to make at least some kind of amends with my conscience, Mursonus ceases to exist right now, right here. He was a secret savior all along.

I also noticed I've been playing hunt phase wrong - as a solo player I don't get to pick who's the event revealer. This has probably given me quite an edge, perhaps saved from a few deaths, even.

But at least I've also been playing brain damage wrong to my disadvantage - I didn't know the actual brain symbol there is one damage level. I've been rolling for brain trauma immediately as first point of damage has soaked in through insanity. Also I did not know that you actually retain your weapon mastery even if you switch to another weapon.

But let's get 2018 Kingdom Death started.

I want a new Sleeping Virus Flower, so I'm going after Flower Knight level 3.

Departing survivors are getting +2 Survival, +4 Insanity, +1 armor.

Team consists of: Fabenta, Anhemio, Niamur and Sacronicus, which is also the turn order for being event revealer.

First we get 69, Time Lapse. As settlement has fought the Phoenix, everyone gets a little understanding, but feel a strange change in their personality.

Looks like team consists now of:
Lyaschura, who is Traumatized.
Undulantele, who has Performance Anxiety.
Draemolo, who is Unrelenting and has Anxiety. This is troublesome, as he has no stinky gear and next to no armor either, as he was supposed to be mostly for support.
Valherdence, with Coprolalia. Her re-roll is also re-set.

Next Undulantele picks 43, fresh kill. Not surprising that the prizes go to Undulantele.

Draemolo reveals 09, but the golden light is soothing for him. Perhaps it reminded him of the place where his personality should exist right now.

Valherdence reveals Dead Warrior and decides to investigate right away, gaining the Black Guard Style which does nothing for her.

Lyaschura rolls 82, Consuming Grass. Both Lyaschura and Undulantele become stragglers and have to archive a gear.

Party arrives at the forest gate. Roll of 4 means everyone gets a bleeding token, thus starting showdown with two of those.

Herb Gathering gives fresh acanthus and some survival. Everyone is now at maximum survival. Though the bushwhacking came with a price: everyone took a point of head damage from Sudden Life flower knight hunt event.

Choking Heat gives +1 Movement token for a couple of survivors, and Whispering Leaves left Valherdence without insanity to protect from brain damage.

Fight in itself went surprisingly well. I got accuracy penalty for Flower Knight, and danced with the bird with high evasion survivors. Fight might have been on the easy side, but again it seemed like I drew the trap every other round.

In the end every survivor had their defenses devastated thanks to the Perfect Aim card or what it was. But nobody died. Let's go home from a hunt well done!

Year 21

Event is Cracks in the Ground, which yields a founding stone.

Settlement finally innovates Drums.

Sense Memory gives two Vespertine Arrows and Otherworldy luck for Valherdence.

I plant a new survivor from Warbling Bloom who eats Lantern Bud right away. This means a total of eight Endeavors.

I notice I have what it takes to cook a dish for the first time ever. And what a dish! +1 permanent evasion for Paraske. I will probably cry or something if he dies to some randomness after he will be resurrected via Sleeping Virus Flower.

Valherdence and Flont (the new flower face) use a little face painting techniques and drink two Love Juices right away. Valherdence forms a deep bond with Flont. How am I to convince Flont to eat Lonely Fruit, now? I'd be a monster to do that. Flont did lose his re-roll in this baby-making process.

Valherdence also found the time to pray at the shrine. Departing survivors are getting +1 armor to all locations.

Biliouli cures some leather and makes an extra love juice, which is put to use immediately. Finally the result I have been craving: Birth of a Special Child.

Settlement develops Bone Pickaxe, Almanac and Hunter Whip

With last endeavor Paraske attempts to learn Abyssal Sadist from statue, and succeeds in doing so.

I decide to hunt level 2 Sunstalker, as the level 3 fight with Flower Knight was so promising. But, yeah. Sunstalker is no joke. I don't know how you should fight it effectively. So much of the damage ignores high defenses altogether.

Paraske, Valherdence, Lebugdé and Pelastra is the revealing order.

Paraske draws Baby and the Sword, but as Paraske has no re-roll I dare not to risk it. After all there was this sailor-mouthed Valherdence within party. Got 82 instead. Consuming grass again. Luckily there's a whip in party now. Lebugdé lost rawhide gloves, and one point of evasion because of that.

Valherdence draws Perfect Meadow and everyone feels a little sleepy-headed. First roll is 66, Forbidden Word. Understanding the word gives Paraske some Insight, and Indecision disorder for Valherdence. Next roll is 16, Night Terrors. There is indeed a savior in the party right now. She gets Purpose from age story event, as well as her savior abilities unlocked.

Next Lebugdé rolls 100. I'm worried that I have to start showdown with next to no insanity now, but I suppose I should not complain when the cyclopean knight gifted the survivors with Steel Sword and Steel Shield. At the cost of draining Lebugdé's re-roll.

Crippling Misery breaks Pelastra's foot.

Paraske rolls a Nightmare, so he gets -1 evasion and some (8) insanity.

Overwhelming Darkness gives +1 population from Paraske's path of the brave. Then we got some events that dissolves both Almanac and a Monster Grease.

Fight is a disaster.

Very early in the game Paraske dies to some unlucky rolls from Sun Dial damage shenanigans. He was supposed to be my main damage dealer.

This has me panicking, so Pelastra uses her savior criticals, giving her a lot of hunt XP in not-so-good context.

For a little while fight goes a little better, but then Valherdence dies, too, and I'm left with two most inexperienced and undergeared survivors I had. With Pelastra even carrying the Steel Shield, slowing her down massively.

But there is only a couple of cards in the deck. Some of them nicely bubble moods. Soon situation is that there is one card left in AI deck, two on sun dial and two moods in play.

AI card is one of these that rotate sun dial and deal damage twice to survivors in light. Both survivors are reeling, so I assume I have only one chance to win this - surge an attack that hits and kills when the last AI card is resolving.

So Lebugdé raises his Steel Sword and strikes. And it's a miss. Quite a sinking feeling.

But then I realize that I got Pelastra left - and she does have a strength 6 weapon with only one attack (two hits would have brought trap) and I dash & surge her.

Such relief when Sunstalker dies, slapped dead with a shield!

Home, finally home, victorious!

Year 22

Event is Nickname. Lebugdé, also known as Foolish Sneak of Darkness, has thus became rather useless survivor. Savior got a nickname too, which I didn't bother to roll, because of next story event.

Which is Murder. Biliouli murders our heroic savior who dealt the killing blow to level 2 Sunstalker. Was she envious? Anyway, she received +3 hunt xp, Quixotic and Otherworldly Luck. Though it may not be a very wise choice, as seems like giving Otherworldly Luck to someone is a death sentence. Oh well.

So all that was left from the glorified hunting party is the Foolish Sneak of Darkness (-1 accuracy and speed) that has intracranial hemorrhage. Of course one of them is coming back rather soon, but still an aggravating situation.

Then Hooded Knight pays a visit and gives +1 weapon proficiency for Undulantele.

And lastly, as Paraske died during showdown, the settlement is visited by a Guest.

Departing survivors will gain +1 to all armor levels, +5 insanity and a random fighting art.

And then I'm left wondering what to do with eight endeavors.

Yearly innovation is Forbidden Dance. Shrine ritual is a success, thanks to Biliouli.

Settlement develops Dried Acanthus, Almanac, Monster Grease, Rawhide Drum, Cycloid Scale Shoes and Skirt, Sky Harpoon and Sun Lure & Hook.

A whopping 4 endeavors is spent at shared experience to make Paraske and Vadramanten ready for a Phoenix fight. Because that's what I plan to do. Level 2 Phoenix.

I was not taking notes during the hunt phase nor writing here, so details have been lost. But it was a good thing I gave two points of hunt experience for two new survivors - that particular hunt event ended showing up that would have erased them from existence otherwise.

Extra annoyance came from recurring nightmare, that made hunting party having to face Overwhelming Darkness twice. This results in having two survivors with Post-Traumatic Stress, and quite a few negative attribute tokens that Vadramenten spent whole fight removing with First Aid Kit.

I wasn't very happy when first card drawn was Gouge & Feast. This caused arm and body severe damage rolls for Vadramanten, who thankfully survived despite getting -3 on the rolls because of Top of the Food Chain. Would have been quite depressing to lose a survivor to first drawn card in a showdown.

Paraske managed to cause a critical wound the bird's liver, which helped immensely and made fight go relatively smooth.

Getting Phoenix down to last card remaining wasn't all that painful, but that's where table-flip inducing rage started to build up. Last card was Excrete, so it was a very safe card indeed. There was also Death Blow location coming next. So I attempted to wait until Phoenix was preparing for a poop and then have Paraske surge a lethal shot. He was hitting on 2+ and wounding on 2+, with re-rolls on missed attacks.

Hitting was no problem, but wounding was obviously the "1", that I even tried to re-roll with Paraske's once-in-a-lifetime. Bad choice, because re-roll was also "1".

And three next rounds it stayed the same. Paraske even received destroyed genitals injury during this terrible streak of nothing but 1's on wounds.

I suppose the story here is: "never interrupt a Phoenix on it's poop."

But Phoenix went down without other casualties than some permanent injuries.

Two Post-Traumatic stresses caused me to have only three endeavors.

Year 23:

Settlement event is Elder Council which further reduced available endeavors.

After innovating Momento Mori, I'm left with just one endeavor. Innovation choices were absolutely terrible, but this will at least give me mask maker if I'll actually win Butcher level 3.

Butcher fight is coming next, and Paraske had to receive Post Traumatic Stress.

This gives an evil plan, though.

Some Lonely Fruit for the flower-head ought to give me one endeavor from losing survivors during settlement phase. And if there were survivors who perish against the tree, I'd gain even more endeavors. Maybe I might even get to cure Paraske with those.

Except now when I'm searching for some details over skipping next hunt, I notice that I've been playing even that wrong. I won't be able to get Paraske to fight Lonely Tree, but he will be available if I go fight the tree. It just feels so very much more difficult without a bow master.

Settlement develops Brain Mint, Hollowpoint Arrow, 2x Dried Acanthus, Phoenix Helm, Arc Bow and Monster Grease.

And then I try to fight the Lonely Tree level 3.

Vernark, Anhednia, Undulantele and Vadramenten try to crack the shell of the tree.

First round is amazing. Survivors deal seven points of damage to the tree - along with a less useful critical effect (iron bark loses super dense.)

Clawhead Arrow hits and damages, and then Arc Bow does the same.

Axe master deals two points of damage, and twilight sword deals three. Of course this required quite a bit of surging.

Tree draws Dreamer's Fruit, which in itself does not cause direct attacks.

Second round is far more meager, with only two points of damage to the tree, one of which came from Sky Harpoon's special ability. Two survivors were dragged to farthest Tall Grass, and Vernark takes Broken Hip.

Next the tree draws Absorbing Roots. Again not an attack.

Undulantele and Vadramenten take their time to trek back to the tree. During this time tree grows quite few moods that Vadramenten tries to play off with Whisker Harp. I start to feel rather secure - being extra careful seems to be the "thing" with Lonely Tree. Slowly move and stalk the tree. Do not let it notice you're there. (Of course it knows you're there...)

Many turns pass when Lonely Tree has only five life points remaining. And I had slowly grinded with the aid of Cat Eye Circlet the trap card to be the only card left in the hit location deck.

I wasn't worried at all about any regular attack tree was making. Diversion Tactics, Evasion +4 and one block and one hit ignored from Phoenix Plackart and survival for dodge and Dried Acanthus made me feel invulnerable with Undulantele. Four dice for attacks from the tree hitting on 7+ seemed like a joke. But then I had to pop the trap.

Suddenly it would be around ten attacks from Basic Action or whatever AI cards would do. Many of the hit locations makes attacker suffer Basic Action. Generally I managed to get one location that didn't trigger attack, and that wound was done with Arc Bow.

Soon the tree was at one life point remaining. (I figured it would still require two wounds to actually kill it, since you can wound the monster "normally" after all life points have been drained.)

Next AI cards were Blood Lure and Handed Roots, with Lure being completely out of question, and Handed Roots denying possibility to hug the tree and gain benefits of diversion tactics.

So the axe master Vadramenten takes a swing, with +1 speed token, and every attack hits.

Still, Vadramenten was only scoring wounds on 8+. Which would also be critical hits. Anyway, Vadramenten scored a critical wound and gained a point of strength. Next wound roll is abysmal, which I re-roll with Axe Proficiency. It's a second 9.

I did not expect the tree to fall this "easily", though the fight did not feel easy. Well, I spent around four hours at it.

Undulantele, who started the fight with insanity 18 had only nine points left after the showdown - most of the brain damage coming from Phoenix Plackart. It took that long both in-game and outside of it.

One Fresh Acanthus was found during play and Scavenger kit gives ??? and that's about it. There were no fruits on the ground during aftermath.

But the guaranteed rewards, oh my. Highly coveted Drifting Dream Fruit and Porous Flesh Fruit. And Super-Hair ability for the whole group.

Paraske and Lyaschura have now recovered from their Post Traumatic Stress disorder. Paraske eats Porous Flesh fruit.

Settlement develops another Hollowpoint Arrow, makes some leather to construct Phoenix Greaves, and then special innovate Scrap Smelting.

I plan on cheesing Butcher3 with -2 movement and hope that he doesn't draw this +3 movement card any time soon.

So. Might as well. Die.

Random terrain is Egg Sacs, which isn't very helpful.

Flower Knight Badge gives Diversion Tactics. I randomize the tactic card by placing all of them in a row, then rolling a d3 to see which one is what I get. And I believe I have had this tactic at least in 50% of showdowns when I've brought the badge. Or perhaps even more.

... and it was a full wipe. Kind of. Terrible loss, at least.

After so much carefulness and preparations.

For many turns I humiliated Butcher, who couldn't do much, running around with his movement of 3. Now and then he landed an attack, but generally they didn't have me scared. Then Butcher sped up with Lantern Frenzy. He picked Paraske as his target, which could have made me giggle a little. Paraske had movement 8. Butcher had only 5, even with all the tokens from Lantern Frenzy.

I was overconfident, I admit. Right next Butcher began to spam his teleportation attack. There weren't that many AI cards left in his deck, so it turned up quite often. Paraske, last one of the starting four and stat-wise and amazing survivor. He gave us the language we speak. His arrows would strike true even if he were blindfolded. And then this Butcher teleport from over half the board away and does the thing that gave him his name.

Then the fight started to fall to pieces.

Caramanca, the red savior, was the only one who managed to run off with Pictographs. Everyone else - my A-team - dead.


Year 24

Settlement event is Phantom. Departing survivors will lose one point of armor randomly, and +2 to storytelling endeavors.

Hands of Heat becomes a tradition... right before Watcher fight on year 25. Not that I would have needed resources.

Nine endeavors, though. Better make them count, except with no resources it's going to be difficult.

And I realized I actually cannot nominate Biliouli for Intimacy, thanks to this regal plate covering her waist.

But I need new survivors. First Biliouli scavenges a broken lantern, and then starts doing Augury. It takes three attempts, but in the meantime this triggers Insight, which gave an extra endeavor. Oh well.

Undulantele and Lyaschura make a baby, and they don't even have to waste any re-rolls.

Biliouli prays armor ritual.

The new baby, Merdency, visits Momento Mori and gains instant Bold and Insight. This does mainly nothing, extra card when innovating and +1 endeavor, again.

So there are five endeavors left.

It takes three attempts for Merdency to learn Abyssal Sadist.

Lebugdé manages to cure his Anxiety, but intracranial hemorrhage is there to stay.

If I would have fared a little better against Butcher (meaning: I would have won at least Paraske and Vadramente still alive), I would have tried to hunt Lion God.

Now? I don't know. Maybe I'll try it anyway if I try some weird Vespertine Arrow + Death Mask shenanigans with +9 to luck.

Trailblazer makes the first hunt event a Lion God event. It's Geodes, which yields a little insanity for survivors and three (3) Iron. Only three venture to Worm Tunnels, though. And as sort of an achievement, Twinkare even descends to Crystal Lake and could have gone to Lantern City. He chose not to.

Next Lyaschura rolls 72, Something to pass the time. She doesn't have as good games as Livia had, so no-one is on the mood for one.

Undulantele receives Stark Raving from Lion God event White Pillar, but he had the almanac to protect him.

Merdency picks up a fresh acanthus from Herb Gathering, and then Jowls bites his nose off during Sky Fishing.

Then Twinkare gets 58, Scent on the Wind. And rolls 10. Skip next space. I take it that I still have to roll for Overwhelming Darkness, but ambush the monster.

Twinkare takes a -1 evasion token.

Undulantele is scared sane, but I could not take it. Had to re-roll, and gained a crab spider instead. (Undulantele has Twilight Sword. Being sane would have had quite serious repercussions - he would not have been able to attack at all, if he was sane!)

Same happened with Lyaschura, but I let it go. She has no sentient weapons.

Merdency gets insanity and courage.

And here we are. At the dawn of fight with Lion God. Ambush is going to help me immensely - the set-up in book looks suicidal. And I can get the bow-user on top of giant face and what else, oh my.

Honestly I did not expect Twinkare to survive, though I gave him Dried Acanthus. But against the odds - he did it. This also triggered Age for him. I rolled +3 permanent strength for him. Getting Post-Traumatic Stress and losing two levels of proficiency didn't feel that terrible any longer.

Then I proceed to rewards, and excited I read The Knowledge Worm story event. Roll 4.

If you want to call it intuition, then it was right. Twinkare did not survive. There went my Death Mask. But maybe I shouldn't feel bad because of it, as the showdown went exceedingly well. Monster giveth and monster taketh, I guess... when we take look at how Butcher fight went.

Fight itself was interesting. Ambush made it sure I had cover where survivors needed it. I tried to fish for some nice critical effects from hit locations before committing Twinkare. And I got the hematosis effect and -1 toughness token for Lion God.

Lyaschura gets frenzy from some brain trauma, which makes me hide her for most of the game. Merdency had his hands full at manipulating both AI and hit location deck, so most damage came from Undulantele and Twinkare.

Lion God completely wrecked two or three terrain pieces, one of which revealed the sinkhole.

Lyaschura had the time to study Lion Statues and eventually went to take the dive, when Undulantele was standing next to sinkhole in the blind spot of Lion God. I was quite afraid there as I didn't know how much there were knockback effects in the AI deck. But Lyaschura found Old Blue Box and the Urn thanks to some good rolls. Lion God had been slowly reduced to one AI card remaining, which was a heft effect. It was easy to navigate around as long as Undulantele had survival.

Eventually Lion God killed itself by hefting too many times.

Year 25

Settlement event is Haunted. Roll of 4 is annoying, losing insanity and an endeavor hurts.

Them there is some lantern branding. Hands of Heat continues to be a tradition, but next time settlement sees it on year 34. Loss of resources was troublesome, even if survivors received probably my all time high resources.

Settlement innovates Bed, which is kind of hilarious. Just before they encounter the ultimate predator, everyone goes to bed. It was just a bad dream all along.

I realized that I got zero re-rolls available, which makes Intimacy quite risky. But it's the Watcher fight. I need a bigger settlement.

Anhednia and Identula paint the founder's eye, and drink Love Juice. It's a healthy pair of twins. But since I had a matchmaker in returning survivors, I spent endeavor for Anhednia and Identula to have another moment of intimacy. This time only one extra population, and not even with +1 bonus strength from bed. But hey, +3 population.

Then I got only one endeavor left.

Biliouli opens Old Blue Box and receives Ancient Lion Claws and Lantern Mehndi.

She also tries to pray at the shrine, but this time departing survivors are only getting a little extra insanity.

It's a terrible thing to notice that all of your shining stars have dimmed as you wake up the Watcher. I have any hope at all in Undulantele and Caramanca, and I suppose a little in Biliouli. What does it matter if I lose my only King's Stepper on this fight, because there won't be another King's Man encounter if I lose?

So, next comes The Watcher. I just don't know when.


Settlement storage:

3x Iron

2x Monster Hide


Equipment:
2x Lion Beast Katar, 2x Bandages
Ancient Lantern, Dormant Twilight Cloak
Catgut Bow, Clawhead Arrow, 2x Hollowpoint Arrow
Arc Bow
2x Skull Helm
Bone Darts, Bone Dagger, Bone Blade, Bone Club
Scrap Dagger, Scrap Sword
Skullcap Hammer
Hunter Whip
Counterweight Axe
2x Full Rawhide Set, Rawhide Boots
Cycloid Scale Set
Sky Harpoon + Lure & Hook
Leather Armor Set + Leather Boots, 2x Shield
Phoenix Plackart, Helm, Faulds + Feather Shield
Sickle, Pickaxe
2x Monster Grease, 1x Lucky Charm and Fecal Salve.
Monster Tooth Necklace
Flower Knight Badge
Regal Helm, Plackart, Boots and Skirt (on Biliouli)
Steel Shield, Steel Sword
Butcher Axe
Twilight Sword (on Undulantele)
Necromancer's Eye, Cat's Eye Circlet
Lantern Mehndi, Ancient Lion Claw
3x Dried Acanthus
Almanac
Brain Mint
Satchel, Scavenger Kit, First Aid Kit
Vespertine Cello, Whisker Harp, Rawhide Drum
1x Vespertine Arrow
1x founding stone


Locations:
Organ Grinder, Skinnery, Bone Smith, Leather Worker, Weapon Crafter, Barber Surgeon, Skyreef Sanctuary, Plumery

Sculpture: Abyssal Sadist

Innovations:
Language, Paint, Symposium, Lantern Oven, Inner Lantern, Face Painting, Ammonia, Sculpture, Pottery, Cooking, Shrine, Hovel, Family, Sacrifice, Clan of Death, Pictographs, Bloodletting, Storytelling, Ultimate Weapon, Drums, Forbidden Dance, Momento Mori, Scrap Smelting, Bed, The Knowledge Worm
Mastery: Fist & Tooth, Katar, Bow

Principles:
Life: Survival of the Fittest
Death: Graves
Conviction: Barbaric
Society: Accept Darkness

Population 14:



Astarno Meyhope (F) hunt xp 6, strength +4, evasion +1, Insanity 5
Courage 1, Understanding 1
Club proficiency 2
Ruthless
Hemophobia, Vestiphobia, Stark Raving
Has no re-roll

Biliouli (F) hunt xp 9, strength +7, evasion +1, Insanity 5
Courage 2, Understanding 2
Dagger proficiency 4
Sneak Attack, Otherwordly Luck, King's Step
Megalophobia, Secretive, Quixotic
King's Curse (head, body, waist, legs)
Fated vs King's Man
Marrow Hunger
Has no re-roll


Twinja Meyhope (F) hunt xp 1, strength +2, evasion +1, insanity 3
Courage 1, Understanding 1
Club proficiency 1
Sneak Attack
Emotionless, Shallow Lungs
No reroll


Anhednia Newlinga (F) hunt xp 1, strength +2, evasion +1, insanity 1
Understanding 1
Club proficiency 1
SUPER HAIR
No reroll

Undulantele Forgamn (M) hunt xp 13, movement -1, accuracy +1, strength +5, evasion +2, insanity 0
Courage 5 (stalwart), Understanding 5 (explore)
Twilight Sword proficiency 6
Ruthless, Tough, Trailblazer
Performance Anxiety
SUPER HAIR
Has no re-roll

Identula (M) Newlinga, hunt xp 0, accuracy +1, strength +3, evasion +2
Understanding 1
Sword proficiency 1
No Reroll

Lyaschura Forgamn (F) xp 7, accuracy +1, strength +4, evasion +2, insanity 0
Understanding 3
Sword proficiency 3
Defender, Swordman's Promise, Synchronized Strike
Traumatized, Recovering from Post-Traumatic Stress
Has no re-roll

Merdency Forgamn (M), xp 1, accuracy +1, strength +3, evasion +2, insanity 0
Courage 7 (matchmaker), understanding 4 (tinker)
Abyssal Sadist
Has no nose (jowls bit it off)
Has no re-roll


Lebugdé, Foolish Sneak of Darkness, (M) hunt xp 1, strength +3, evasion +2, speed -1, insanity 6
Courage 1, Understanding 3
Axe proficiency 2
Quixotic, Anxiety
Intracranial Hemorrhage
No Reroll

Vernark (F) xp 1, movement -1, strength +3, evasion +2, insanity 0
Understanding 1
Broken hip
SUPER HAIR
No reroll

Caramanca (M), xp 6, accuracy +1, strength +4, evasion +2, insanity 1
Courage 2, Understanding 1
Sneak Attack, Caratosis
Quixotic, Indecision
Gaping Chest Wound
No reroll

Unnamed Survivor (M) accuracy +1, strength +3, evasion +2
Understanding 1

Unnamed Survivor (M) accuracy +1, strength +3, evasion +2
Understanding 1

Unnamed Survivor (F) accuracy +1, strength +3, evasion +2
Understanding 1


Upcoming events:

Hooded Knight on Lantern Year 26

Envisillan, years 15-20

Lantern Year 15 hunt
Sunstalker level 1
Twinja, Twinkare, Sacronicus and Frumio were chosen for the party.

Hunt phase was uneventful. Though it could have been game changing. I had no old survivors in the party, so I did not dare to try and snatch Muramasa. Showdown, however, was distressing. Once again trap was within the first five hit location. Luckily I had the Cat's Eye Circlet, or three out of four survivors would have taken the kaleidoscopic vomit all over them.

Both Twinja and Twinkare lost their once-in-a-lifetime rerolls in this fight. And I didn't have time to get to mine any salt, either. Sacronicus took a blow in the kidneys, which was annoying as I had planned to take her to upcoming Butcher fight.

Twinja had intracranial hemorrhage instead of being decapitated, and Twinkare was fleeing for a while instead of dying to mortal terror.

But Sunstalker was stalking no more, and survivors even managed to strike it dead at the Death Blow location.

Year 16:
Settlement Event is... Bone Eater. Ech. There must be some correlation in using Axes and getting either this event, or Murder. I'm afraid to use Axes from now on. Anyway, Biliouli had to be nominated for this because of her Marrow Hunger. Her actions went unnoticed, and a new Murder is coming up right next year.

This time I'm not too bummed about upcoming murder. I plan to throw Mursonus at Butcher, and if he survives he will have the highest hunt experience. And he has the Virus Flower, so it's kind of a win/win. If Mursonus survives. If not, well, it means Mursonus had died and Paraske would be next in line...

Settlement innovates Clan of Death and makes some leathers for extra shield and completing Leather Armor set. Settlement also uses Armor Ritual and makes Love Juice at Pottery. Last endeavor is Linieve learning Abyssal Sadist.

Year 16 showdown versus level 2 Butcher.
I choose Paraske, Mursonus, Linieve and Twinkare for this job. Linieve even eats the Blistering Plasma Fruit. All but Twinkare have +4-5 Evasion from base stats and gear, so I feel really confident.

Clawhead arrow misses, how else.

Also, last card Butcher draws on his turn is Lantern Frenzy and he targets Linieve. I let loose a heavy sigh, but it could be worse as Linieve has shield and +4 evasion, and the ability that gives armor for each bleeding token. For a while I actually think that damn, Butcher went into easy mode now. He wouldn't be able to crack through Linieve's armor and I had two bandages and first aid kit to remove bleed tokens.

That was until Butcher decided to roll all hit results to Linieve's body location.

Linieve had something like 8+ armor at every other location until she died to bleed tokens, caused by severe injury rolls.

Also I drew a couple of traps in quick succession.

I could not wake any optimism in me, I was sure that I had lost.

But much to my amazement, nobody else died.

And on top of that, survivors scored another Death Blow kill. Two times in a row. And never have I ever succeeded at Death Blows before. I was especially giddy over Mursonus' evasion +3, and him dying to Murder.

But it bothers me how I lost the super ability of blood plasma fruit thing from Lonely Tree, and Lantern Halberd as well. But when the time is right I believe I can take the Guidepost from ground - survival points aren't going to be a huge trouble from now on.

Year 17
Settlement event is Haunted, and all returning survivors lose their Insanity and settlement gets one less Endeavor. That isn't a big deal as I had eight of them.

Biliouli continues her killing spree, and is going to do so right next year. Nope. Anhednia re-roll Murder to year 22 instead.

Settlement innovates Pictographs.

Anhednia and Frumio both get Founder's Eye, and choose a new surname, to create a line of super babies. I mean, they get +1 accuracy, +3 strength and +2 evasion each.

Pottery makes Love Juice, and then two Love Juices give two infants, but this places me only back to earlier population.

Sacronicus goes do some augury, and it takes three attempts to get Intimacy. And this Intimacy gives blessed twins to the settlement. Population of 12. Highest I've had.

Year 17 hunt against level 2 Screaming Antelope
Sacronicus, Anhemio, Frudnia and Twinkare take care of the Antelope.

Even with a relatively fresh party the hunt did not pose too much of a problem. If it wouldn't have been for some unfortunate tramples and brain traumas, I think I might have even tried a level 3 Antelope instead.

Most notable thing here was that I drew Lonely Tree again, though the hunt event has been archived. This place is very lonely as these trees seem to pop up all the time.

Year 18
Settlement Event is Elder Council, and the senile senior is rambling again about the Beast of Sorrow... that has already been killed.

Then Hooded Knight promises to train some fighting arts. But it's a heavy price for Mighty Strike, three resources. Armored Strangers proceed to slaughter five population, which is unacceptable. One of the new survivors expends his re-roll, and settlement loses Inner Lantern instead.

Then Mursonus, the Dingle Sneak of the Antelope is back, and Frumio Meyhope is no more. Sure Mursonus is but a shadow of his former self - he lost Fencing, King's Step and Red Fist, Bitter Frenzy and Thundercaller plus all the abilities associated with Courage and Understanding in this transition process.

Settlement manages to innovate Inner Lantern right back, which is a little bit of a boring thing.

Mursonus and Anhednia paint Founder's Eye and get twins. I'm so close to society principle now that I make Love Juice with Pottery.

Paraske even plucked Guidepost from ground until I remembered that he, the eldest of the settlement, was too busy with the story about the Beast of Sorrow. (I did not have the Endeavor to pick the Guidepost.)


Year 18 hunt
Mursonus, Anhemio, Frudnia and Twinkare set out to hunt Phoenix.

Hunt event is 41, Nightmare. Anhemio archives King Spear and picks up the cursed sword.

Fertile Field + 18, Dead Weeds. Anhemio cures his broken leg, which (at least to my understanding) is bad thing, as it doesn't heal the permanent penalty.

Next is Sickening Mess, which I re-roll via Anhemio's Insight hunt epiphany result.

Next event is Bird Brained, and Phoenix ambushes the survivors.

Party was too sane to fight Phoenix effectively, and acquired quite a few Age tokens. Blue Lantern made this fight rather easy, though, as Time Stop wasn't that near the top of deck. But to me "a little over half-way" feels like "near the bottom."

Phoenix had no AI decks remaining and there was Inner Face death blow location coming up. Last couple of rounds survivors were toying with the bird, but people started to be out of survival point. It was too hazardous to try to fish the Death Blow, so the monster was vanquished traditional way.

Year 19
Settlement event is the dreaded Plague.

At least I had Ammonia innovated, so effects of plague were heavy, sinking heart and apathetic dice rolling. But essentially it took away three of my five endeavors.

One endeavor goes to innovation, and there it is. Mocking me. Bloodletting, when it could have made all the difference during Plague. Settlement innovates it anyway.

Second endeavor is some leathers, and settlement builds Feather Shield, Phoenix Plackart and Phoenix Faulds and a couple of extra Dried Acanthuses.

Year 19 fight
Mursonus, Sacronicus, Frudnia and Niamur start the hopeless fight against level 2 King's Man.

I lucked out by drawing Tall Grass. With proper placement King's Man was hitting Mursonus only on 10's, and Mursonus had Block from feather shield and Hyper Sensitive disorder.

Fight went amazingly easily, though it took a really long time to finish.

But I would have gotten a completely wrong picture about the lethality of this fight. Once I made a mistake in positioning. Well, actually it was because of "all-out" attempt to kill the King's Man that only had one AI card left, Coupe de Grace. Flower Knight badge had given Spiral Formation for this fight, and there were couple of "perform basic attack" reactions coming next from King's Man, so.

Survivors took the formation, and failed to kill.

I didn't think this would be too bad, but then King's Man started dancing with it's "first target a survivor in blind spot" basic action and Out-Fighting.

Mursonus didn't care, and Biliouli had been mostly uninjured during fight, so she survived just fine. But poor Frudnia had to take a total of eight accuracy 3+, damage 4 attacks, so she was a deader in the blink of an eye. And because of one (1) slight positioning mistake. Frudnia had Blue Lantern, so I lost far greater asset here than just a human life.

But I managed to lure King's Man into fighting Mursonus again for an indefinite period of time so that Biliouli was able to score the kill strike - I really wanted that on her so that King's Curse would not spread.

Year 20

Settlement event is Weird Dream, and there were 7 endeavors.

Watched event puts Hands of Heat to Lantern Year 24.

Settlement innovates Storytelling.

Paraske takes the Lantern Halberd off the ground, but then I figured it was probably a mistake. Armored Strangers were gone, so there was no chance to gain another.

It takes two endeavors to a successful face painting, this time for a bonus to departing survivors. Armor ritual is a success also.

Sacronicus learned Abyssal Sadist and Twinja tried to cure her intracranial hemorrhage, but got Shallow Lungs disorder instead, and Sneak Attack fighting art.

Departing survivors are getting +2 Survival, +4 Insanity, +1 armor

I'm starting to get a little anxious over upcoming Watcher fight. I also need to find a way for to survive upcoming murder. Well... I got that one covered up. But it'll be during next five year span.

But I guess that will start the 2018.


Settlement storage:

1x Fresh Acanthus
Elder Cat Teeth
Jagged Marrow Fruit
Lonely Fruit


2x Great Cat Bones
1x Lion Claw


3x Pelt
3x Shank Bone
2x Large flat tooth
1x Beast Steak
Bladder
Screaming Brain

2x Love Juive
4x Broken Lantern

Pustules
Small Hand Parasites
Phoenix Whiskers

2x Sunstones

3x Small Sunteeth
2x Huge Sunteeth
Shadow Ink Gland

Equipment:
Dried Acanthus
2x Lion Beast Katar, 2x Bandages
Ancient Lantern
Dormant Twilight Cloak
Catgut Bow, Clawhead Arrow
2x Skull Helm
Bone Darts, Bone Dagger, Bone Blade, Bone Club
Scrap Dagger, Scrap Sword
Skullcap Hammer
Counterweight Axe
2x Full Rawhide Set, Rawhide Boots
Cycloid Scale Jacket + gloves + helm
Leather Armor Set + Leather Boots, 2x Shield
Phoenix Plackart, Faulds + Feather Shield
Sickle
2x Monster Grease, 2x Lucky Charm and Fecal Salve.
Monster Tooth Necklace
Flower Knight Badge
Regal Helm, Plackart, Boots and Skirt (on Biliouli)
Butcher Axe
Lantern Halberd
Twilight Sword (on Anhemio)
Death Mask
Cat's Eye Circlet
Satchel
Scavenger Kit
First Aid Kit
Vespertine Cello, Whisker Harp


Locations:
Organ Grinder, Skinnery, Bone Smith, Leather Worker, Weapon Crafter, Barber Surgeon, Skyreef Sanctuary, Plumery

Sculpture: Abyssal Sadist

Innovations:
Language, Paint, Symposium, Lantern Oven, Inner Lantern, Face Painting, Ammonia, Sculpture, Pottery, Shrine, Hovel, Family, Sacrifice, Clan of Death, Pictographs, Bloodletting, Storytelling, Ultimate Weapon
Mastery: Fist & Tooth, Katar, Bow

Principles:
Life: Survival of the Fittest
Death: Graves
Conviction: Barbaric
Society: Accept Darkness

Population 14:

Paraske, Dingle Savior of the Antelope (M) hunt xp 15, movement +1, accuracy +2, strength +6, evasion +3, luck +1 Insanity 0.
Courage 7 (Prepared), understanding 2.
Bow Mastery
Unrelenting
Fencing
Fated vs King's Man
Has no re-roll

Astarno Meyhope (F) hunt xp 6, strength +4, evasion +1, Insanity 5
Courage 1, Understanding 1
Club proficiency 2
Ruthless
Hemophobia, Vestiphobia, Stark Raving
Has no re-roll

Biliouli (F) hunt xp 6, strength +7, evasion +1, Insanity 5
Courage 2, Understanding 2
Dagger proficiency 4
Sneak Attack, Ruthless
Megalophobia, Secretive, Binge Eating
King's Step
King's Curse (head, body, waist, legs)
Fated vs King's Man
Marrow Hunger
Has no re-roll

Mursonus Newlinga, Dingle Sneak of the Antelope (M) hunt xp 15, accuracy +2, strength +5, evasion +3, luck +2, speed +2, insanity 8.
Courage 1, Understand 3 (Analyze)
Sword Proficiency 5
Harvestman
Hypersensitivity

Sacronicus Dingle savior of the Lion (F) hunt xp 8, strength +5, evasion +1, speed +1, Insanity 3
Courage 4 (Prepared), Understanding 6 (Explore)
Axe Proficiency 4
Crazed, Abyssal Sadist
Has no re-roll


Twinkare Meyhope (M) hunt xp 9,accuracy +1, strength +2, evasion +1, insanity 2
Courage 3 (prepared) Understanding 3 (Analyze)
Club proficiency 4
Harvestman, Unrelenting
Ghostly Beauty, Monster Panic
No reroll

Twinja Meyhope (F) hunt xp 1, strength +2, evasion +1, insanity 3
Courage 1, Understanding 1
Club proficiency 1
Sneak Attack
Emotionless, Shallow Lungs
No reroll


Anhednia Newlinga (F) hunt xp 0, strength +2, evasion +1
Understanding 1
Club proficiency 1
No reroll

Anhemio (M) Newlinga (M) hunt xp 7, -1 movement, +1 accuracy, +4 strength, +2 evasion, insanity 10
Courage 1, Understanding 4 (explore)
Twilight Sword proficiency 2
Ruthless, Rhythm Chaser


**Identula (M) Newlinga, hunt xp 0, accuracy +1, strength +3, evasion +2
Understanding 1
Sword proficiency 1
No Reroll

Fabenta (F) Newlingahunt xp 0, accuracy +1, strength +3, evasion +2, insanity 10
Understanding 1
Sword proficiency 1
Swordman's Promise


Niamur (M), hutn xp 1, accuracy +1, strength +3, evasion +2, insanity 8
Understanding 1
Spear proficiency 2
Clutch Fighter
Weak Spot (arms)
King's Step

** Unnamed Survivor (F) hunt xp 0, accuracy +1, strength +3, evasion +2
Understanding 1
Sword proficiency 1

** Unnamed Survivor(M) hunt xp 0, accuracy +1, strength +3, evasion +2
Understanding 1
Sword proficiency 1

Upcoming events:
Hooded Knight and Murder on Lantern Year 22.

Hands of Heat on Lantern Year 24

Envisillan: years 10-15

Year 11 hunt for level 2 Screaming Antelope:

Starring:
Paraske, Dingle Savior of the Antelope
Astalonia and her twin Katars
Werno with the last re-roll
Astarno (hard clubber)

Again first hunt space is Grazing Field. But this time I got a sickle, so at least there's Fresh Acanthus in for Astarno. Roll result is 96, Cloaked Stranger. Paraske gets a bleeding token and forgets he ever had Burning Ambition.

Next space is 12, Destiny Bound. Might skip as well I suppose. Werno gets Bold and rolls five.

Fourth space is 61 and Astarno is struck by frozen lightning. Good thing sickles lost Fragile keyword.

Fifth space is 91, The Beginning. Sadly settlement has neither Saga nor Storytelling.

Then it's Overwhelming Darkness.

Paraske lost all survival. Astarno develops hemophobia, and Astalonia's anxiety deepens into Post-Traumatic Stress. Werno takes some damage to head, body and waist. Not too bad, since herb gathering is coming next.

Last space before showdown is Stampede. No amount of shuffling actually randomizes these decks, it seems. Result is 1, which I deem too big price and use re-roll on Werno. Comes up as a four.

Showdown starts with Flower Patches and Dead Monster. Tactics is again Diversion tactics.

Trap within a trap within a trap means that Paraske did manage to hit with Clawhead Arrow and even wound, but next attack by Astalonia was immediately Wailing Slide.

Vespertine Arrow also misses completely, and generally everything just missed. Even Screaming Antelope just missed.

This seemed to go on for quite a while. I almost got angry at the number of 1's I rolled when attempting to wound. However, with Evasion this high I was fairly safe from Antelope's attacks. Diabolical was the problem here, and eventually caused Werno to die. A few severe injuries and brain traumas were rolled, but nothing really permanent happened. Oh, though Astarno received Vestiphobia and tore my precious White Lion Coat to pieces.

But it's a victory, though a somewhat frustrating one at that.

Settlement Event is Dark Trader. Third time in the campaign. Quite persistent fellow. Maybe I need to buy something to get rid of him/her/it.

The Hand pays a visit and denies settlement from using endeavors. Not too bad, since every living member got +1 strength.

Settlement makes Scavenger Kit, Brain Mint, Counterweighted Axe, Skullcap Hammer, Skull Helm, 3x Dried Acanthus.

I'm in an annoying position. Either I eat Lonely Fruit now, and lose a survivor and won't gain benefits from Grave principle, as well as have one less re-roll available for upcoming breeding. Or then I won't eat the fruit and will either have to fight level two tree, or risk losing the fruit anyway to feast from conviction principle.

Here, Warbliana. Have an apple. Stuck in your throat? Oh look at her, suffocated like that.

Special showdown with level 1 Lonely Tree begun. Turns out risk was far more than reward.

Well, I did draw the trap twice - during first two rounds. But the only severe injury roll I had to make of course turned out as "1", so I actually lost two survivors for a lousy nightmare fruit that I don't even want to eat.

Acropia is dead. Astalonia gained Mighty Strike fighting art and Paraske got +1 movement.

What am I to do.

I want to experience expansion content more, so I suppose it will be Sunstalker next... but I cannot lose any more survivors. I cannot lose any resources. Especially not the Love Juice. I cannot lose the re-roll I need on conviction principle.

But Sunstalker it shall be anyway. Paraske, Mursonus, Astarno and Biliouli attempt to overcome way too bright light.

First hunt space rolls 56, Dead Monster. Mursonus has 3+ Understanding, so it's going to be a second ambush in a row.

Paraske finds Small Sunteeth from cuddling skeletons, and finally before showdown survivors encounter Trollbird. There went my Brainmint. Getting to ambush Sunstalker meant some easy salt. I was a bit sorry for not having reach weapons, as there was an annoying number of these hit locations that reflect Sunstalker one space away. But Solar Track secured a dead Sunstalker just before people started dying.

Settlement event is Elder Council, and now I will be able to hunt the Beast of Sorrow. This loses me one endeavor, which is troublesome.

I choose Barbaric conviction, which rolls 3. Sacronicus uses her re-roll and turns it to 7.

Settlement innovates cooking and builds Leather Bracers, Leather Cuirass, Cycloid Scale Jacket & Sleeves, plus extra Lucky Charm.

It's here when I realized that all this time I've played one very, very basic thing very, very wrong. Since start I've somehow thought that Lantern Year ends with Settlement Phase instead of starting with it. As a consequence, I've always "skipped" one year to my hindrance. As there is no good way to fix this, I'm starting to play "correctly" from now on. This means that I kind of play one extra hunt right now, which feels a bit of a cheat.

But since I'm all out of re-roll and endeavors again, I decide to hunt level 2 Flower Knight once more. I need those Warbling Blooms. Much more than a warm Hand shake.

Paraske, Mursonus, Astalonia and Sacronicus take a hike to the forest.

We got 71, Found Relic, but Mursonus finds only insanity.

Then 98, Bloody Eyes. Mursonus rolls 5, and I'm overjoyed by the sudden boom of +1 Population. Except. Mursonus has Explore, which makes the result into instant Showdown. I've got mixed emotions about this. I mean, I would really have needed that +1 Population, but skipping so many hunt spaces is a mighty boon indeed.

It's been an annoying trend for me to get Trap card during first three rounds. Trend continues, and the beginning of the fight is a terrible mess - mostly due to my own rolls. Survivors got a little levity from AI cards like Cocoon - no lethal attacks while in Cocoon, and Toughness isn't the problem with Knight.

It was a nice fight. Challenging, though not that despair-inducing. Though nothing wrong with despair-inducing showdowns, but...

Settlement Event is Heat Wave, which means Astalonia or Sacronicus are not going to depart to fight the Hand. Well, Astalonia would've had too much to deal with anyway, thanks to her Post-Traumatic Stress.

Settlement makes Vespertine Cello with Sense Memory.

Settlement innovates Hovel and plants the seventh member of the family. I got only one Warbling Bloom, but considering Armored Strangers are paying a visit next year again, I decide to wait with the re-population attempts.

Mursonus yanks the Lantern Halberd from the ground on the first try, and Shrine gives extra armor that will come Handy later this year.

Face Painting is also a success, giving extra survival for departing survivors.

Mursonus, Paraske, Astarno and Biliouli are the only ones that can depart this year. And as I do not have Cat's Eye Circlet, there's no other option than to try and endure the rude slaps.

But turns out I had overpowering set-up for the Hand. Only real damage the Hand did was his soft chuckle, but other than that I don't think he ever actually got to even punch at armor, let alone through it. Mursonus has become insane dodge tank. Also Diversion Tactics was great help again, especially during Line Up attack.

Biliouli even found Scrap Sword from pile of debris, and a Broken Lantern with Scavenger Kit.

Settlement also gained an extra Broken Lantern, when the Hand tossed it towards Mursonus. I had prepared for the worst and was already considering best ways to reduce survivor sheet to ashes. But roll was eight, and Mursonus got Hyper Sensitivity disorder, which on his character is actually a great boon!

Settlement event is the dreaded Skull Eater. I suppose shouldn't complain when I could redirect Biliouli to have Binge Eating Disorder instead, but how am I to make new survivors now?

Armored Strangers give a few resources. Hooded Knight duels Astalonia, who rolls 10. But I don't want her to gain any other specializations other than Katar.

Settlement innovates Family. Astarno and Warbspawn choose a surname Meyhope, and a new child is born; Linieve Meyhope.

And before people start to retire, I decide to take on Beast of Sorrow!

Astalonia, Mursonus, Linieve and Sacronicus begin hunt.

First event is Marked Territory.
78, Dead Game Hunte.r Mursonus investigates and receives Dismembered Arm and tastes bitter death. I replaced Monster Claw Style with the newly acquired Berserker, as I changed Mursonus to use swords.

Next is Lion's Sculpture, which triggers Insight for Astalonia. She receives +1 Accuracy. Roll is 93, Lost Survivor, but settlement doesn't have Pictographs.

Third space, 74, Antler Gouged. Mursonus tears his muscle. Not being able to dash againt White Lion. Hmm. Sacronicus finds Founding Stone.

Fourth space is Lonely Tree. Mursonus investigates and rolls 5.

Then is Prowling Lion.

Overwhelming Darkness removes all insanity from Astalonia and Mursonus, gives -3 luck tokens for Sacronicus and +1 evasion token for Linieve.

Sacronicus finds nothing with Herb Gather. As a result we get 77, sinkhole, and of course straggler rolls 1. There goes Linieve's re-roll. Then is 16, Night Terrors. Doesn't feel that bad losing all insanity on two damage dealers now. This triggers Insight for Linieve and Sacronicus. Linieve gains permanent evasion and Sacronicus may re-roll a hunt event. I would've needed that a little earlier...

Sea of Golden Grass gets everyone a little Courage and moves White Lion back where it was at the start of hunt phase.

Last White Lion hunt event is Scratching grounds. Well well. Everyone on team has Explore, so let's investigate away! This yields two Lion Claws. Astalonia is one Courage away from See the Truth, which has me worried a little bit.

Last space before showdown is 99, Portcullis. No key, so have to walk around a bit, to event 53. Mask Salesman. Linieve receives Death Mask for the price of Rawhide Gloves.

That was a long and arduous trek survivors had to take. I really would have liked some of these instant-showdown events I've been rolling earlier, but what can you do.

Having Beast of Sorrow in Ground Fighting mood at the start was a great bonus. I got to remove priority token from Mursonus, as well as get Iron from Ore Vein, make Mursonus go berserk and remove bleeding tokens from hunt phase - everything before White Lion started to act.

Astalonia scored a critical hit on fuzzy groin. Well it was easy to lure lion now from Mursonus, who wasn't able to dash.

There was an amazing amount of critical hits in this fight. Lion got a total of -1 evasion, -1 accuracy, -1 toughness and -2 movement. Well, the evasion penalty came from Clawhead Arrow, but still rather impressive. Beast went down surprisingly easily. Beast of Sorrow is more like level 2.5 white lion instead of a level 4 one! But why should I bicker about this one.

Amount of resources was staggering. All combined I received 20 resources, hunt phase and criticals and Ore Vein combined. And finally the Cat's Eye!

Anyway, settlement event was nickname.

So, Astalonia, Dingle Sneak of the Phoenix.
Mursonus, Dingle Sneak of the Antelope.
Sacronicus, Dingle Savior of the Lion
Linieve, Wise Sneak of the Lion.

Settlement innovates Sacrifice. I will soon start to get some retired survivors, and I need to have a way to kill Mursonus! (He has the Sleeping Virus Flower and killer stats)

Founder's Eye takes last remaining three endeavors to give +2 to Intimacy. Warbspawn and Astarno have a healthy pair of twins, but Warbspawn loses re-roll in the process. One result was "1".

Settlement crafts Whisker Harp and rawhide gloves that went to the Mask Salesman earlier. Oh, and the Cat's Eye Circlet. My beloved Cat's Eye Circlet. Though I think I have fared pretty well without it.

As lantern year is 15 now, it's last time to fight a level 2 Lonely Tree.

Warbspawn eats Lonely Fruit. Yeah, he had Flower Addiction. I tried to make it into a fruit addiction instead. Oh well. With the Endeavor from Graves two newborn survivors make a baby of their own. Let's not think about this in too much detail. Now I'm all out of Love Juice, though.

A special showdown against level 2 Lonely Tree begun.

And I suppose I was being far too greedy and got punished for it.

Otherwise Lonely Tree wasn't too much of a problem. With Cat's Eye Circlet it was quite thrilling, actually. Without it, well, there would have been at least one fatal trap.

But the only time Lonely Tree had to attack against someone other than Mursonus, it was Astalonia. And it dealt one attack to the only location with no armor. And the severe injury was no else than "1". There went at least second best survivor in the settlement. Sigh. At least her legacy is passed on in the form of katar mastery innovation.

Since I got the tree to no cards remaining, I decided to milk some fruits. With Mursonus next to the tree, Tree wouldn't be able to get through his defenses as long as he had at least two survival remaining - and tree was hitting only on 7+.

Paraske shot tree dead with an arrow. Seven basic resources (six from fruits and one from Scavenger kit) got me one Love Juice, so Frumio Meyhope and Astarno Meyhope make a kid. Let's not think about this either.

I realized I cannot hunt Phoenix with zero hunt experience survivors, so next quarry is going to be level 1 Sunstalker with nearly zero experience party. What could go wrong? But that won't happen until next blog entry.

I will probably have to start making some kind of separation between lantern years. I was a bit of a mess for me trying to figure out what year I was talking about when I later checked this draft. But last time I started to make some detailed settlement inventories.


Settlement storage:

2x Iron
Elder Cat Teeth
Lonely Fruit
Jagged Marrow Fruit
Blistering Plasma Fruit

2x Great Cat Bones
2x Lion Claws
2x White Fur
Shimmering Mane
Sinew
Lion Testes
Lion Tail

2x Monster Bones
2x Monster Organ
???
Broken Lantern

Sunstones
Shark Tongue

Equipment:
2x Lion Beast Katar, 2x Bandages
Ancient Lantern
Blue Lantern
Dormant Twilight Cloak
Catgut Bow, Clawhead Arrow and King Spear
Skull Helm
Bone Darts, Bone Dagger, Bone Blade, Bone Club
Scrap Dagger, Scrap Sword
Skullcap Hammer
Counterweight Axe
2x Full Rawhide Set, Rawhide Boots
Cycloid Scale Jacket + gloves
Leather Mask, Skirt, Cuirass, Bracers + Shield
Sickle
2x Monster Grease, 2x Lucky Charm and Fecal Salve.
Monster Tooth Necklace
Flower Knight Badge
Sleeping Virus Flower (On Mursonus)
Regal Helm, Plackart and Skirt (on Biliouli)
Lantern Halberd
Death Mask
Cat's Eye Circlet
Satchel
Scavenger Kit
Vespertine Cello, Whisker Harp


Locations:
Organ Grinder, Skinnery, Bone Smith, Leather Worker, Weapon Crafter, Barber Surgeon, Skyreef Sanctuary

Sculpture: Abyssal Sadist

Innovations:
Language, Paint, Symposium, Lantern Oven, Inner Lantern, Face Painting, Ammonia, Sculpture, Pottery, Shrine, Hovel, Family, Sacrifice, Guidepost
Mastery: Fist & Tooth, Katar, Bow

Principles:
Life: Survival of the Fittest
Death: Graves
Conviction: Barbaric

Population 10:

Paraske, Dingle Savior of the Antelope (M) hunt xp 14, movement +1, accuracy +2, strength +6, evasion +1, Insanity 5.
Courage 5 (Prepared), understanding 2.
Bow Mastery
Unrelenting
Fencing
Fated vs King's Man
Has no re-roll

Mursonus, Dingle Sneak of the Antelope (M) hunt xp 15, accuracy +2, strength +5, evasion +2, luck +2, Insanity 11.
Courage 9 (stalwart) Understanding 5 (explore)
Sword Proficiency 2
Berserker, Abyssal Sadist, Leader
Red Fist, Fencing, King's Step
Blinded (in one eye)
Dismembered Arm
Thundercaller
Bitter Frenzy
Has no re-roll

Astarno Meyhope (F) hunt xp 6, strength +4, evasion +1, Insanity 5
Courage 1, Understanding 1
Club proficiency 2
Ruthless
Hemophobia, Vestiphobia, Stark Raving
Has no re-roll

Biliouli (F) hunt xp 5, strength +4, evasion +1, Insanity 7
Understanding 1
Dagger proficiency 3
Sneak Attack
Hemophobia, Secretive, Binge Eating
King's Step
King's Curse (head, body, waist)
Fated vs King's Man
Marrow Hunger
Has no re-roll

Sacronicus Dingle savior of the Lion (F) hunt xp 5, strength +4, evasion +1, speed +1, Insanity 3
Courage 2, Understanding 3 (Explore)
Axe Proficiency 2
Crazed
Has no re-roll

Linieve "Wise Sneak of the Lion" Meyhope (F), hunt xp 2, strength +2, evasion +2, insanity 6
Courage 2, Understanding 3 (explore)
Spear Proficiency: 1
Crossarm Block

Twinkare Meyhope (M) hunt xp 0, strength +2, evasion +1
Understanding 1
Club proficiency 1

Twinja Meyhope (F) hunt xp 0, strength +2, evasion +1
Understanding 1
Club proficiency 1

Frumio Meyhope (M) hunt xp 0, strength +2, evasion +1
Understanding 1

Anhednia Meyhope (F) hunt xp 0, strength +2, evasion +1
Understanding 1
Club proficiency 1


Upcoming events:
Armored Strangers & Hooded Knight on Lantern Year 18.

Envisillan: Years 6-10

Lantern Year six begins with a hunt.

Acropia, Astalonia, Werno and Candice set off for Screaming Antelope level 1.

First hunt event is Grazing Fields. Sadly, though, as it isn't very useful when there has been no injuries yet. Roll came out as 94, Sickening Mess. Astalonia is the only insane one, so she takes -1 Strength token. The rest of survivors get a resource and hits to random locations.

Hunt space two is 89, Cleaner Birds. Candice is the straggler, so she gains +1 Luck. Her nickname bonus and the penalty from this result cancel each other out.

Last space before showdown is Stampede. Courage gains don't trigger any Bold events. Stampede causes some brain damage, but then showdown starts. Once more fight itself is uneventful - it's more about me trying to get Candice killed than Antelope causing me much trouble. I succeeded in this questionable action. Now I'd have only seven survivors in the settlement once Armored Strangers show up.

But this quarry feels like such a loot bag.

I got:
Sword Beetle, Fresh Acanthus
3x Monster Hide, Broken Lantern, Skull, ??? and Love Juice
2x Pelt, Bladder, Muscly gums

Event is Dark Trader again. And it cannot have been caused by shuffling the deck lousily. I shuffled deck, rolled two d10 and took the event, counting from top.

And now we get Armored Strangers. Gosh, the eight member of settlement just happened to die during showdown. After counting people Armored Strangers decide upon supportive action. Roll is 4, giving me extra Monster Hide, Monster Bone and Monster Organ. Also, Guidepost. Also, Hooded Knight. Also, Hooded Knight rolls 1 on the table. Acropia uses his lifetime roll on this one, getting a desperate 4.

I use the resources right away to innovate. From the choices I figured I'd need Face Painting the most. Since I got Love Juice, why not try to have a healthy pair of twins. What could go wrong? I use one Endeavor on Face Painting, which gets +1 on Intimacy rolls.

Then Astalonia and Werno make a baby, Astarno (F), who instantly matures to Age by listening to Livia. I don't know what Astarno heard, but as a consequence she gained Ruthless fighting art. Phew, making babies with Survival of the Fittest feels stressful.

I still have one endeavor left. I decide to trigger a challenge scenario, the "free partnership" one. It results rapidly in a fail, when Clever Ploy scored two hits on the same location against Adam, who then rolled "2" on Body severe injury table.

I make Lucky Charm, Bone Sword and a second set of Bandages and Rawhide Boots. Before I get to level 2 quarries, it's time to get rid of this Flower Addiction once but not for all. Flower Knight, here we come! Livia, Paraske, Astalonia and Mursonus depart.

First roll is 72. Livia rolls 8 on the table - which isn't much of a surprise. I mean, nearly all other survivors in the settlement have been taught and instructed by her. Of course she knows the best games around to pass the time. I'm not saying she has brainwashed the whole settlement. Or am I?

Anyway, this triggers Bold for Paraske and Astalonia. Paraske gains a Speed token for next showdown, Astalonia gets a little Understanding.

Next space is 47, Banquet Trees. All of the survivors here are insane, so everyone takes a bite. Only Paraske thinks it's worth a second round.

Last space before Forest Wants What it Wants is 68, a familiar face of a friend long since passed - on the ceiling. Mursonus loses all insanity and gains +1 Understanding.

Party rolls 6 on the Forest table. Astalonia and Livia take extra bleed tokens to make it into a forced entry.

Hunt Event is Watched. Everybody just lost all of their insanity.

This fight was the most exciting one in this particular campaign until now. I managed quite often to have Flower Knight fight so that no-one was in the Fairy Ring. Good thing I did, because my attack rolls were absolute rubbish. Mursonus eventually gets Fencing secret fighting art and starts to get job done. Livia had taken injuries so that she wasn't able to dodge, which made me hesitant in bringing her into action. So it was a weird dance with Mursonus most often there in the ring, with Astalonia taking walking to-and-fro to make some futile attacks that yield nothing.

But in the end nobody died or had crippling severe injuries.

I received:
Sighing Bloom, Lantern Bloom, 4x Osseous Bloom. I would have needed Warbling Bloom quite desperately, but what can you do.
Monster Hide, Monster Organ, ??? and Broken Lantern

Settlement Event is once more Weird Dream. Again it cannot be because of poor shuffling, as I randomized it with dice. But of course I take Dark Traders and Weird Dreams any day of the week rather than, say, duplicates of Murder.

Livia breaks the silence of the passing by from Phoenix. This triggers settlement phase Bold and Insight, neither of them yielding permanent stat bonuses. But as I did have Survival of the Fittest, Livia has now impressive +2 permanent evasion.

Settlement innovates sculpture. Still no Ammonia, still no leather gear. I had five choices from Symposium + Insight. Sigh.

Acropia makes Abyssal Sadist into a sculpture right away. I just wonder how that sculpture looks like.

Paraske and Mursonus try to learn this new fighting art, but only Mursonus succeeds.

With last endeavor I use face painting, but there were no other effects except for being a laughingstock.

Settlement builds Bone Club, Monster Tooth Necklace, Monster Grease and Rawhide Pants.

So now I am supposed to be ready for level 2 quarries. Maybe I am, and start to hunt for a lion to finally get the Cat's Eye Circlet. Livia, Paraske, Pepleh and Mursonus are testing their wits against Cunning level two lion.

And first hunt event is Lion Cub, who triggers showdown right away. I got mixed feelings about this.

White Lion got a few penalties to Accuracy in early game, which helped the fight immensely. There's just something impervious in a survivor in Tall Grass that the White Lion hits only on 9+. But dashing because of Cunning quickly ate through Survival, especially when Rawhide rolls to gain back the survival point were unlucky.

All in all the party managed to pull off a victory just a turn before real damage would have started - with most survivors having zero Survival and many hit locations at heavy damage. Livia takes a couple of nasty severe injuries - she's at -1 Accuracy, -1 Strength after this fight. So maybe she'll be the one who tries to soak up attacks, not bothering with actual damage dealing herself.

Party got quite a few resources, but still no Cat's Eye.

However, I feel like I somehow jinxed the game when I talked about murders earlier. Because that's what happened - Settlement event: Murder.

Livia is murdered, Pepleh is the culprit. Both die. Probably because I didn't have axe user in training. That stuff is dangerous, as shown by earlier settlements. Livia had a special part in the story of this settlement, so I was a little sad when I had to, so to say, pull the trigger.

I had hoped I'd have the hunt event that would have given free Ammonia innovation. It wasn't to be, but at least I had the option to innovate it in settlement.

Then it's time again for a little face-painting. Losing two from seven survivors has the settlement on the brink of destruction.

Love Juice gets one new survivor - not nearly enough, but at least parents didn't lose their mind and wander off into darkness.

Settlement made Leather Shield, Leather Mask, White Lion Coat, Lion Beast Katar, Bone Sickle

Since I got many endeavors now, new survivor matures instantly and gets Sneak Attack from Age. Again right before Nemesis encounter. Is it an omen?

She fails to learn Abyssal Sadist from sculpture, though.

Next we'll see if the settlement is erased from the nightmare world. King's Man knocks on the door.

Mursonus, Biliouli, Astalonia and Acropia start to dance. First turn, before Battle Tempo cards are placed on top of King's Man deck, I try to cause a little damage. I throw my last Founding Stone at the nemesis. And oh my. Critical gives King's Man -1 speed token. Acropia manages to hit with the Claw Head Arrow, but doesn't cause a wound.

Mursonus with shield, fencing and Flower Knight badge giving Diversion Tactics, combined with -1 Speed actually made me rather hopeful. But there were something like five complete rounds before I was able to make another damage to King's Man. Many survival points had been spent by then, but neither side did any real damage.

Once Mursonus finally succeeds learning King's Step, damage actually start to slowly seep into the King's Man. Now Mursonus has Red Fist, Fencing and King's Step. I will probably cry if he would die.

Astalonia gets destroyed genitalia at some point, and Biliouli has to spend her re-roll to not die from brain trauma. She gets secretive instead.

It took every single resource survivors had at their disposal - even the +1 strength tokens had to be used for survival. But much to my amazement - I won King's Man with zero survivors dying. I had bad luck at so many different points during showdown that without that -1 speed token on King's Man I wouldn't have stood a chance.

Settlement event is Open Maw. No one dares to enter.

Hands of Heat makes Mursonus blinded, which bothers me quite a bit. Accuracy feels so important for this brawler. At least he gained +1 Luck, and there is no longer Hands of Heat tradition.

Next year I somehow will need to start breeding more survivors after Armored Strangers have made their second visit.

Astalonia learns Abyssal Sadist on second try. Someone tries to pick up guidepost from ground but fails. Shame, since supportive Armored Strangers would have given me new Guidepost next year.

Settlement innovates Pottery. I feel like I don't have enough strength capable of cracking Screaming Antelope level 2 just yet. Now, if there only were a level 2 quarry with toughness on the lower side, and that would be vulnerable to Luck... Alrighty, then. Off we go to hunt Level 2 Flower Knight!

First hunt event comes up as Pus Fields. I want to play it safe, so survivors slug carefully across the oozing puddles. At the end of the fields there were Dead Weeds, but even with a sickle nobody managed to pull out the weeds.

Next survivors come up with a Corpse, and losing survival hurts a bit. But it triggers Insight for Mursonus, who gains +1 permanent Evasion. He's not on his way to becoming an amazing Evasion tank - he is that right now. Permanent evasion +2, gear to make that at least +4 or even +5. Shield and Fencing secret fighting art, with Abyssal Sadist to keep a steady supply of Survival. He might actually tackle even Hand himself.

Then we get Madflies. I may have very well lost the battle now, when Mursonus and Astalonia both get Frenzy. The inability to dodge or use Monster Claw fighting art wrecked all of my planned tactics. But if I read the rules correctly, Secret Fighting Arts are not Fighting Arts (at least that applies in new Sculpture innovation) so I assume that Mursonus can still use his impressive set of Secret Arts.

From Herb Gathering the survivors get a little bit Survival back (and a fresh acanthus.) Last hunt event is once again an exciting game. But since there is no Livia making up the rules, Flower Knight himself appears as the fifth player. It's a showdown just before Forest Wants. Flower Knight felt insulted because it wasn't invited to last game.

Clawhead Arrow misses, which is terrible news for Mursonus.

Once again it was a really exciting fight - every wound felt like a glimmer of hope, and every failed attack felt like it spelled an inevitable doom. It was a exhilarating triumph when Astalonia scored a critical wound that gave accuracy penalty for Flower Knight. Its badge had once again blessed me with Diversion tactics, which combines so astonishingly well with Fencing.

After a long and dragging (but definitely not lacking) battle, survivors are victorious with no crippling permanent injuries. Survivors receive a stunning amount of resources, four basics and eight flowery ones.

Settlement Event is Hunt Re-enactment. Turns out settlement is so bewildered at their victory over King's Man that they want to make a play out of it. Well, roll is 3. Paraske re-rolls that into a desperate 4. Otherwise he would have died.

Armored Strangers toss six extra resources, which feels like an unbelievable boon in addition to the hunt results.
Hooded Stranger rolls once again 1, which is rerolled into 8. Thanks, Astarno. Astalonia is now cursed with Twilight Sword. And I won't start training her until she gets Katar mastery. It's so close now. Settlement has these once-in-a-life-time rerolls only on one survivor... for a little while.

Two Warbling Blooms are planted into nutritious soil, bringing total population to nine. Here we come, Society principle! (Well... actually I plan on forcing one of the stupid-faces to eat the Lonely Fruit I picked quite a while ago...)

Sense Memory makes me Vespertine Arrow and Satchel. Additional gear I make are Leather Skirt and Scrap Dagger

Oh, and settlement builds Weapon Crafter, too.

Settlement innovates Shrine and uses it right away. Departing survivors will gain +1 Insanity, which is the less ideal result.

Next I will be hunting level 2 Screaming Antelope, but those will take a new blog entry.

Perhaps I try to get some structure to these entries about Kingdom Death by putting a little bit more details about the settlement and survivors to the end of these five year spans.

Settlement storage:
Bladder
Muscly gums
2x Monster Organ
Monster Hide
Skull
2x Broken Lantern
Love Juice

Equipment:
2x Lion Beast Katar, 2x Bandages
Ancient Lantern
Blue Lantern
Dormant Twilight Cloak
Catgut Bow, Clawhead Arrow and King Spear
Bone Darts, Bone Dagger, Bone Blade, Bone Club
Scrap Dagger
2x Full Rawhide Set
White Lion Coat
Leather Mask, Skirt + Shield
Sickle
2x Monster Grease, Lucky Charm and Fecal Salve.
Monster Tooth Necklace
Flower Knight Badge
Sleeping Virus Flower (On Mursonus)
Regal Helm (on Biliouli)
Twilight Sword (on Astalonia)
Satchel
Vespertine Arrow

Locations:
Organ Grinder, Skinnery, Bone Smith, Leather Worker, Weapon Crafter

Sculpture: Abyssal Sadist

Innovations:
Language, Paint, Symposium, Lantern Oven, Inner Lantern, Face Painting, Ammonia, Sculpture, Pottery, Shrine, Guidepost

Principles:
Life: Survival of the Fittest
Death: Graves

Population 9:

Paraske (M) hunt xp 7, strength +3, evasion +1, Insanity 10.
Courage 3 (Prepared), understanding 2.
Bow proficiency 4.
Burning Ambition, Fated vs King's Man
Has no re-roll

Astalonia (F) hunt xp 7, strength +3, evasion +1, Insanity 5.
Courage 5 (prepared), understanding 2.
Katar proficiency 5
Abyssal Sadist
Anxiety
Destroyed genitals
Twilight Sword (cursed)
Has no re-roll.

Mursonus (M) hunt xp 8, accuracy -1, strength +1, evasion +2, luck +1, Insanity 15.
Courage 4 (stalwart) Understanding 3 (explorer)
Fist & Tooth proficiency 5
Monster Claw Style, Abyssal Sadist, Combo Master
Red Fist, Fencing, King's Steå
Blinded (in one eye)
Has no re-roll

Astarno (F) hunt xp 3, strength +1, evasion +1, Insanity 0
Understanding 1
Club proficiency 1
Ruthless
Has no re-roll

Biliouli (F) hunt xp 3, strength +1, evasion +1, Insanity 4
Understanding 1
Dagger proficiency 1
Sneak Attack
Hemophobia, Secretive
King's Curse (head)
Fated vs King's Man
Has no re-roll

Acropia (M), hunt xp 4, strength +1, evasion +1, Insanity 3
Courage 2
Spear Proficiency 2
Has no re-roll

Werno (M), hunt xp 3, +2 strength, +1 evasion, Insanity 1
Courage 2, Understanding 1
Dagger proficiency 1

Warbliana (F) hunt xp 0, strength +1, evasion +1, Insanity 0
Understanding 1

Sacronicus (F) hunt xp 0, strength +1, evasion +1, Insanity 0
Understanding 1

Upcoming events:
Armored Strangers & Hooded Knight on Lantern Year 14.

Envisillan: First five years

Recently I started my third settlement of Kingdom Death.

This time I had extra unfortunate beginning. Only two survivors were left alive from prologue, and neither was the one who took +1 Strength from first critical hit.

I did go to quite lengths to save these particular two survivors, Paraske and Livia.

Prologue got one critical hit that gave extra basic resource and made Livia insane.

Resources were:
2x White Fur, Sinew, Great Cat Bones

Monster Hide, Monster Organ, Monster Bone, 2x Love Juice

First Day got me lowest number of survivors, again. So that's a ten, then.

Paraske utters the First Words, and Skinnery + Bone Smith are built with endeavors.

Love Juice rolls 4, which is just enough to get me New Life principle. I'm going to try the new and improved Survival of the Fittest. Life principle rolled 3. Oh boy, super parents.(+1 strength, +2 insanity)

Death Principle: Graves rolled 2.

I make Bone Darts, Rawhide Headband, Vest and Gloves.

Settlement is named Envisillan, and I start to hunt for a White Lion.

First event is Aromatic Breeze with roll of 66, Forbidden Word. Everyone is now just one dot away from triggering Insight. Oh, and Lion is one step closer also.

Next we get White Lion Cub, and as greedy as ever, I choose to kill the cub for extra resources. Of course I roll the angry mother lion. I use one of the re-rolls from Survival of the Fittest, because this early Enraged might pretty much wreck entire team. Re-roll came out as 9, so nothing happened.

Lion was there on the next space, so showdown started anyway. Random terrains are Salt Sculptures and Ore Vein.

First Lion gets Size Up, but fails in it's 4+ roll. I'm in a little bit awkward position now. Do I want to leave Tall Grass to attack the beast, or should I wait one round? I decide to wait.

Datral lobs a Bone Dart at Lion and scores a wound.

Next White Lion sizes up again, and fails again. This is getting a little bit awkward. I mean. It's just standing there, starting at the survivors? Why isn't it doing anything?

Third turn Lion comes to Chomp at Livia, who dodges. Livia scores a wound against the Lion, but reflex grabs two survivors.

Fourth turn Lion picks Alert. I'm contemplating on using one Founding Stone for an automatic critical hit, but I'm afraid of either trap or glorious mane. But anyway, the guy who already lost once-in-a-lifetime reroll throws the stone at the beast. It gets a -1 Toughness token, which is not a knockdown, but still useful. One extra hit is scored, but now it's the glorious mane.

Lion uses Combo-Claw, but scores no hits thanks to accuracy 4+ and Livia's evasion from Survival of the Fittest and fully linked Rawhide Vest. Then she punches a stone to beast's maw, causing a wound.

Pepleh, the survivor without reroll or weapons, tries to score a critical wound with his bare hands. Doesn't happen, but he inflicts a regular wound instead.

Lion switches to Vicious Claw against Pepleh. I suppose the beast didn't like how he pulled it's tail. One hit, which was dodges. I'm already ecstatic with this Survival of the Fittest.

Now the discard pile is shuffled, so at least I have the information now that the Lion isn't going to start licking it's wounds. Next attack is Size Up, and now Pepleh is singled out as it's target. Pepleh becomes Squeamish and gains one point of insanity.

Last unactivated survivor fails to wound the lion, who then jumps back - right on top of Livia. She suffers collision and knockback. Now this got troublesome with the Alert mood.

Combo-Claw misses one attack, and the other one is dodged.

Fast-forward from now on, eventually survivors win without any real casualties. Even with sub-par equipment the new New Life principle is astonishing - I counted at least three misses thanks to evasion gained from it. Though it was also because of that lucky -1 Toughness token. At least three times I scored a wound that otherwise would have been a failure.

Livia gains Last Man Standing fighting art from Age.

Welp, rewards gave me no Cat's Eye. No Circlet yet. Four Endeavors, though, and the most dreaded part of the settlement phase: Event.

Thankfully it's Acid Storm. I roll 1, so that's -4 Cloth armor for Settlement. At least nobody died.

I choose one of the returning survivors, Dartal, to become the Voice of Reason. She rolls 4, which triggers Insight. From Insight she rolls 1, an extra card for innovating this phase.

Five endeavors, thanks to this newly found Tinkerer.

Settlement innovates Paint and builds Organ Grinder.

Catgut Bow, Clawhead Arrow and King Spear are the first items to construct.
Next settlement completes the Rawhide set with Pants and Boots.
Monster Grease and Fecal Salve.


I do Candice & Ancient Lantern challenge scenario next since I got plenty of endeavors.

Random terrain were Giant Stone Face and Toppled Pillar. Fight was so easy I actually felt bad about it. At least I got lousy resources: 4x Monster Hide, 3x White Fur, Lion Claw. Can't make any weapons out of these.

Settlement event was Nickname.

Settlement innovates Symposium and makes Leather Worker.

So, we have:
Paraske, the Dingle Savior of the Antelope. (also got permanent Strength from Age)
Livia, the Wise Sneak of the Antelope
Dartal, Foolish Sneak of the Lantern (-1 permanent accuracy) (Also got Extra Sense from Age)
Candice, Foolish Savior of the Phoenix (-1 permanent accuracy, +1 permanent speed)

Parentesire uses Symposium twice and gets Rhythm Chaser from Age. Boo.
Vinkuliu Viliu uses Symposium once and gets Sneak Attack. Woohoo! Butcher killer coming right up.

I make Lion Beast Katar, Bandages and Rawhide Boots.

I actually feel quite confident about the Butcher now. Just a shame that I may have to wait for quite a while before I can continue as I don't know how much Butcher has changed.

Turns out confidence wasn't that off. However, it was a full team wipe anyway. I got Butcher down to one AI card remaining. But there were too many traps. Also, the survivor that had Bandages received Tunnel Vision disorder - she could activate only weapons. In fact the last remaining survivors died to bleed tokens.

Settlement event was Weird Dream. Since this is solo campaign, departing survivors will get +3 insanity instead of a storytelling moment.

Oh well. I got eight endeavors now. I spend every single one of them on Shared Experience - that's quite a mouthful for Livia.

Since I got so few survivors alive any more, let's make a complete list here, starting from the fresh faces that trigger Age:
Acropia (M) receives Abyssal Sadist
Astalonia (F) receives +1 permanent Strength
Mursonus (M) receives Monster Claw Style, which makes relatively likely that this one tries to level up Fist & Tooth.
Werno (M) receives +1 permanent Strength (also has +1 Understanding from being born under Graves.)

Then we got oldies:
Livia (F) has Last Man Standing and a little Spear proficiency.
Paraske (M) has +1 courage and understanding from being the first speaker, and +1 permanent strength.
Pepleh (M) has used his once-in-a-lifetime reroll, is Squeamish and has +2 understanding.
Candice (F) came from the outside, so I didn't think she'd gain Survival of the Fittest strength and evasion. She has +1 Movement, -1 Accuracy, +1 Speed and Hyperactive disorder.

Now we're going somewhere on year five.

I decide to try and fetch Cat's Eye Circlet once more before moving on with quarry.

First hunt event is Lion's Sculpture. This triggers Insight for Pepleh, who maxes out on survival. Event roll is 03, Cancer Pigeons. Mursonus manages to shake the creature off.

Second event is Sea of Golden Grass. Of course I check what's in the grass. Free courage, kind of. But the monster ambushes survivors anyway.

Random terrain cards are even more Tall Grass and the Lonely Tree. This time I will play the tree correctly.

Fight was a breeze.

Settlement event is Dark Trader, so pretty much useless.

Mursonus experiments with Hands of Heat, and rolls 7+ result. Not going to have all that many resources for crafting again. I also nominate Mursonus for Crone's Tale. Next we'll see him when I hunt Flower Knight.

I get Lantern Oven innovation. Finally I can start to spend endeavors. One goes into innovation, which may have been a bad choice since I got so few resources anyway. I take Inner Lantern. Hands of Heat tradition continues on Lantern Year 9.

Settlement builds Rawhide Vest and Headband, plus Bone Dagger. Yay.

But these were the first five years of Envisillan settlement. Since I got eight remaining survivors at the end of Lantern Year 5, I get this horrible evil plan in preparation for Armored Strangers...