Dirge for Burkstad

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

Lantern Year 22 hunt was against Sunstalker level 2.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We had lost two survivors on the first round. 

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

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

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

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

Phew.

Burkstad was a unique settlement in many ways.

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

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

And we hunted Screaming Antelope only once!

Let's do a little re-cap.

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

Burkstad Renaissance (Gwendor Thrice Cursed and Twice Lived)

 Lantern Year 21 hunt was a level 2 Gorm. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lantern Year 22

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fortunately the critics had already left the settlement.

Next, Sunstalker level 2.

Population: 9

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric + Ultimate Weapon


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

Nightmare Training

Song of the Brave

Sculpture, Albedo, Guidepost


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

Plumery

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

Hours Ring

Lantern Halberd



Resources:
3x Monster Bone

3x monster hide
2x Skull
1x Broken Lantern

Dense Bone

Meaty Rib (organ, bone)

Jiggling Lard (organ, hide)

Milky Eye (organ)

Stout Hide

2x crab spider

1x nightmare tick

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

3x small feathers

1x tail feathers

1x pustules (organ)

1x black skull

Gwendor the Thrice Cursed

 Burkstad does another lantern year. The year 20. 

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

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

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

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

And what a showdown it was.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lantern Year 21

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

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

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

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

Settlement develops Hours ring and Hollowpoint armor. 

Next quarry is most likely Gorm level 2.

Population: 10

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric + Ultimate Weapon


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

Nightmare Training

Song of the Brave


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

Plumery

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

Hours Ring

Lantern Halberd



Resources:
3x Monster Bone

2x monster hide
Skull
1x Broken Lantern

2x crab spider

1x lonely ant

1x nightmare tick

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

3x small feathers

1x tail feathers

1x pustules (organ)

1x black skull

Burkstad year 19

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cohenia does one final pounce, and scores one wound.

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

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

Death & vanish count is now 36.

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

 Burkstad

Population: 10

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric + Ultimate Weapon


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

Nightmare Training

+Guidepost


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

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



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


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

Saddest Lion

Few days ago Burkstad continued its saga.

On lantern year 18, Nestor, Lascia, Rigor and Mortis hunted for a level 2 White Lion.

First event was Prowling Lion, which is generally good news. Scratching Grounds wasn't too bad either, but it wasn't until Lion Cub that the survivors began to feel almost blessed by the hunt phase.

Until people started getting afflicted by post-traumatic stress disorders, evasion penalties and losing all of their survival during Overwhelming Darkness.

Bone pick also snapped during iron excavation, and Rigor's foot had to be immediately amputated not to lose any more limbs to flesh-eating disease from Flesh Fields.


Oh well, at the cost of one limb we had four basic resources, three lion resources and iron resource from hunt phase alone.

And showdown begins.

Nestor is wielding the Catgut Bow and Death Mask, and Lascia is blue savior, and Mortis had the deadly Greater Gaxe. Technically even Rigor had deadly Rib Blade, but movement of 3 and not being able to dash made Rigor pretty much stay away from the fight and use Cat Eye Circlet.

However, since the Lion began with Ground Fighting, survivors could pick two Iron from the board via Ore Vein and Obsidian Tower.

And then the slaughter began.

I don't think I've ever seen a more pitiable White Lion in Kingdom Death. Most of the turns it wasn't able to catch anyone with it's attacks. In fact, most of the actual attacks it did was through reactions and traps.

Clawhead Arrow gives the cat a -1 evasion token. And then the critical hits started pouring in.

In the end, even Rigor with one foot was able to hop in the same pace as the feline beast. The White Lion received a total of four -1 movement tokens, but that was not all. It also had -1 accuracy token and -1 toughness token. And also broken foot, so that it no longer even grabbed anyone.

And the survivors had even killed it's baby lion.

This hunt and showdown was far from ethical treatment of monstrous animals. At least next lantern year we are facing the King's Man we don't want, but one that we deserve.

Settlement event was Nickname, and Gorm Climate robbed us of Petal Spiral. Settlement innovates Scrap Smelting, and crafts leather shield, completes white lion armor and even develops a Whisker Harp.


Burkstad

Population: 11

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric


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

+Guidepost


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

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



Resources:
3x Monster Bone
Skull
2x Monster Organ
2x Broken Lantern
1x Leather

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

Burkstad, Anno Homicidi 17

Rollercoaster continues.

Cohenia, Ghentavi, Melvin and Nestor hunted for White Lion level 2, and hunt phase was extraordinarily positive experience. There was no Overwhelming Darkness because the beast jumped one space forward on the hunt board, and each survivor gained +2 courage and understanding, and some even more than this. Only questionable outcoming was the Madflies bursting from the mouth of Ghentavi, who frenzied. And frenzy at least has positive sides to it.

Melvin received Hyperactive disorder, which was bothersome as he had cumbersome bow.

Showdown had its danger moments, like Nestor receiving Maul (three damage base) when he had both Monster Controller tile and controlophobia disorder, which did end up in one of the first times of successfully using Healing Potion.

Total resources Burkstad were 5 basic resources, 6 white lion resources, iron strange resource and two flower resources from Flower Patches.

That was before Armored Strangers paid a visit. Add +6 basic resources for a grand total of twenty resources.

Settlement event was Season of the Spiderling, which nearly ended the settlement, but instead gave the returning survivors +1 strength.

Two love juices gave a blue savior and twins, and Burkstad was back at a population of nine. Settlement developed Bone Pickaxe, White Lion helm and waist, and innovated Momento Mori.

We are going to hunt another White Lion level 2 to complete the armor set. This year had gone far too well. Let's see how many head explosions we get next year.




Burkstad

Population: 9

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric


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

+Guidepost


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

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



Resources:
3x Monster Bone
Skull
Monster Organ
Broken Lantern

Cat Eye
Sinew

28 and counting

The Lantern Year 15 hunt, for the survivors of Burkstad, was Sunstalker.

It was almost like different settlement altogether. Although hunt phase made us lose both monster greases, we gained Death Mask for the price of one cloth.

And the showdown with Sunstalker itself. Not a single severe injury roll had to be taken. We even had secure enough of a position to take some basic actions from the Sunstalker who had no AI cards left to gather salt. Two critical hits gave extra resources we desperately needed.

Settlement event was Glossolalia, which robbed most of our endeavors. Gorm Climate also had the settlement make a protective barrier against the harsh weather from Partnership innovation. This was a terrible omen...

However, this was second year in a row when no survivors died, and first year in the whole history of Burkstad when no-one was even crippled for the rest of their life. Had the tide turned for the better? Oh wait, we forgot about Hooded Knight, so that might be two dead survivors right there. Roll was lantern 10.

Definitely seemed slightly better. Surrelia received a cursed, sentient sword as her burden, but that's not a death. Whole hunt and showdown didn't take too long, so we decided to play for another year. Settlement innovated Drums and enacted hunt ritual with success. Settlement developed Cycloid Scale vest and helmet.

Lantern Year 16, come Butcher level 2.

Random terrain was Dead Monster, so it was a good start. First survivor turn shaved off four wounds from Butcher, so it was a terrific start, in fact. Curse of anything named Burk was finally lifted. At least for a moment.

At least before Butcher had its first turn.

Then it did, and we were down to three survivors. On first turn. Against nemesis that only gets stronger from each survivor it kills. Good game. Well played.

Some three turns later no-one had died, and Butcher was down to three AI cards remaining. Situation was tense - Surrelia had lost one of her legs, but had two stacks of Frenzy. But she had Catgut Bow, so if we only managed to keep Butcher close enough...

Igorina, long timer of Burkstad (four hunt xp was second highest xp we had), had been doing most of the job until Butcher devoured her lantern and gave three -1 accuracy tokens. But if she was able to pounce to Butcher's blind spot, she still had realistic odds to hit.

Then Butcher killed her, which made such chances... not so realistic.

Surrelia removed all of Butcher's AI cards with a single shot from her bow. We still had her and a supporting character with Scrap Sword.

Gosh it looked promising, when Butcher rolled zero hits against the support character, and then second attack resulted in only one hit which made the survivor deaf. However, last attack did three hits and then it was a duel between level 2 nemesis and a legless archer, who was too far to shoot with cumbersome weapon.

Had my character (the supporting one) died to second attack, Butcher would have been close enough for Surrelia to shoot. If only... if only Surrelia had two feet. She could have outrun Butcher and only take one basic action attack.

None of these conditions applied, though, and Butcher had two basic actions worth of attacks against our only hope.

We had the horror that is Butcher level 2 down to no AI cards remaining. What an anticlimax. And no, it did not "even out" our earlier astonishing success - once again we lost all of our settlement's characters who had some degree of progression.

Also, Cohenia lost her partner. Just as the partners had reflected the Emotionless disorder from one to the other, Cohenia received Enfeebled disorder which makes her die easier to bleed tokens. And her partner, Surrelia, had died to exactly them. They certainly shared a strong bond. Perhaps we did wrong to dismantle Partnership.

Well. Butcher had us lose every scrap of resources we still had, and Haunted had us lose one endeavor and have returning survivors set their insanity to 0. For narration, add a hollow giggle somewhere in here.

With eight endeavors we got two more survivors, Nestor and Purvina, shrine ritual success and Synchronized Strike for Nestor and Cohenia.

Next we'll see how well almost fresh survivors manage against a level 2 White Lion.

Considering our losses so far, we're doing surprisingly fine. As in the meme "this is fine". With death/vanished count of 28, Burkstad nearly averages two deaths per lantern year. Sure, the Watcher will most likely wipe the settlement if King's Man level 2 doesn't do that already.



Burkstad

Population: 6

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric


Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Lantern Oven
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking
Sculpture
Shrine
Petal Spiral
Pictographs
Drums

+Guidepost


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

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



Resources:
None. Thanks, Butcher.

Establishing Sanctuary

Yet another year in Burkstad.

Brave group of Ennhilde, Igorina, Cohenia and Surrelia... oh, who am I kidding. They were not brave at all. Two survivors had one point of courage and that's it.

Anyway, these four poor souls tried to tackle a Sunstalker - mightiest monster we've hunted to date. Ennhilde took four points of damage to two hit locations right off the settlement, so it was a promising start. I guess. Surrelia and Cohenia were both females, and they were Partners thanks to Rivalry. Now, when Cohenia found some cuddling skeletons, perhaps she realized she'd never feel the blessings of motherhood. She became emotionless. Igorina dreamed a point of courage for herself. Hooray.

Showdown started. We got an easy start, since Sunstalker did absolutely nothing. All survivors were in the light, and it targeted all survivors in shadow. Cohenia knew how to use Attack Pattern tactics, and all in all survivors orchestrated a fine turn, giving three wounds in. Wow. With some luck, the monster could be dead on turn three...!

Nope.

Two or three complete rounds later, survivors still hadn't had done even one additional wound, and had drawn trap twice and two out of three survivors had Black Blood. Ennhilde had had Black Blood too, but she was already dead at that point.

Using my unsurpassed gifts of premonition, I knew this was the last showdown for Burkstad. Heck, even Shade minions outnumbered the survivors almost two to one. On top of her emotionlessness, Cohenia had received warped pelvis and destroyed genitals. Igorina had suffered broken ribs. Surrelia, who was wielding cumbersome bow, had been continuously tossed twelve spaces away from action.

But then, somehow, the miracle of Burkstad started to trickle in. Showdown called for at least ten severe injuries, and nobody died to those. Ennhilde died to a Shade stacking bleed tokens on her.

Only one trait/mood rose up from AI deck during game, and even this wasn't enough to stop the bleeding, mauled and broken ragtag group of survivors from lucking out a victory. When Sunstalker was finally slain, there were two survivors with Black Blood and four bleeding tokena. Cohenia with destroyed genitals and warped pelvis was also emotionless and became megalophobic. And as they say how people in long relationship start to resemble each other... well, Surrelia became emotionless, too.

But hey, victory. Igorina even triggered Bold and became stalwart.

For resources we gained nothing useful - from our newly gained Skyreef Sanctuary, we could have only built the lure & hook.

Settlement event was at least Weird Dream, where Surrelia dreamed of delicious food, hunting another survivor and realizing that she is the delicious food.

Igorina slept off her broken rib and Cohenia gained enough understanding from auguries to become Tinker. I suppose emotions somehow cloud your understanding.

A total of two Intimacies were rolled, and here Burkstad was again. Going strong at a "steady" population of eight. Settlement innovated Pictographs, because our choices were Pictographs, Face Painting, Sacrifice and Scarification.

We decided to hunt for another Sunstalker next to get access either to cycloid hat or vest or harpoon or at least something else other than lure & hook. Hunt ritual was a success.


Burkstad

Population: 8

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric


Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking
Sculpture
Partnership
Shrine
Petal Spiral
Pictographs

+Guidepost


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

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



Resources:
Sun Stones
Black Lens
Sunshark Blubber
Shadow Tentacles
Prismatic Gills

Monster Organ
Skull
???

Hand Giveth Hand Taketh

It's been a while, but the settlement of Burkstad has not been forgotten.

Yesterday our group continued this sorry tale, which ended up in The Hand giving the finger.

Somehow that makes sense.

Vladimirana, Igorina, Ennhilde and Gummi were to face the god-like entity known as The Hand.

Though Gummi wasn't exactly a promising survivor with his gaping chest wounds and all, he did have Last Man Standing fighting art. So he might actually be a fine candidate to survive rude slaps or full-powered flicks.

But the showdown itself. What a fight.

We were trying to arrange most of Hand's attacks to Gummi, who had been stacked with all evasion we could muster. On hindsight, why would we stack evasion or enduring capabilities on the survivor who would shine when there's no-one left but him? But in the end it worked fine.

Because despite being served severe injuries and brain traumas left and right, survivors put a miserable enough show for The Hand to appreciate. Shattered Jaw and something else on Vladimirana were the only permanent injuries for survivors, unless we count Disorders as such.

When situation looked right, we tried to injure The Hand. A total of three tokens were placed on Impossible Eyes, so when there were only three cards left in AI deck we just decided not to resist.

Hand is a theatrical fellow. Third last card was "Take Your Best Shot" and second last was the ominous chuckle that dealt five brain damage to all non-deaf survivors. I see that quite climactic and evil mastermind villain-y thing to do. And of course last card was a jump scare in the form of Bullet Jabs.

Nobody died. Would Burkstad finally play a one full Lantern Year without nobody dying?

Gummi rolls for The Hand's applause rewards. It came out as "1", which is unpreventable instant death. Nope, we didn't break the chain of death following Burk's spirit.

And literally ALL remaining survivors rolled a natural lantern 10 for applause rewards. Perhaps Gummi, the second last male of Burkstad, was the sacrifice.

Whoops, a little spoiler there. Because we did have Tourneghulle and Vladimir in the settlement at the time, too.

The player who had played Gummi drew us a settlement event and said jokingly that obviously it's going to be Murder.

It was Murder.

Tourneghulle, the red savior, had most hunt experience so he was the victim. He was the fourth savior Burkstad lost. So far settlement has been more of a lethal place to saviors than actual showdowns.

The Hand's legacy isn't ending here, because aftermath rewards killed yet another survivor from settlement.

However, The Hand had a retinue of King's Men with him, and these Armored Strangers gave some compensation for the playful little holiday trip of The Hand.

So, here's one more example of the weird way how random element sometimes just clicks so well in Kingdom Death. I find fascination in the full catalog of unlikely events this game offers.

Before showdown population was nine. And nobody died during showdown, so our population was still nine. Armored Strangers take destructive action on population of 8+. So in a way, the poor rolls on rewards and Murder settlement event were actually good things.

Because Burkstad was blessed with some resources we could innovate. Choices weren't that special, so we decided to try Petal Spiral.

As we have been continuously losing our highest experienced survivors, we used Shared Experience to get a couple of survivors to first Age milestone.

Augury gave some intimacy, so population was at seven. Which is terrible, but at least a step for the better.

Armor ritual was success and one Rawhide Headband was crafted. Petal Spiral was put to use right away, so we have an aspiring swordmaster coming up with zero hunt experience.

Coming up next is the Sunstalker. Which I need to start painting, I suppose.


Burkstad

Population: 7

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric


Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking
Sculpture
Partnership
Shrine
Petal Spiral


+Guidepost

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

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



Resources:
2x broken lantern
2x organ
Skull

A riddle: what does Burk and Bob have in common?

It's lantern year twelve, and people of Burkstad set out to hunt a level 2 Flower Knight.

Since we've had a tendency of losing our most promising survivors, we pretty much had only Bob II with any character progression at all. Surrelia Cohen had a little experience and accuracy, so she wielded bow. So she could start mastering it. Tourneghulle the red savior and Cohenia Cohen were the remaining party members.

Hunt went fine enough. Survivors chased Gregalope successfully, lost a piece of clothing and suffer a heat exhaustion and listen to a wailing smoke. Nothing definitely good happened, but there were no catastrophes either.

Flower Knight starts with Nature's Reflection, which gives survivors opportunity to lure the knight out of the ring.

Surrelia manages to shoot Clawhead Arrow in, and nearly for the remainder of showdown she had to patch up bleeding survivors - sometimes spending both act and surge to use bandages. Now and then she did take a look at hit location deck with Cat Eye Circlet.

Bob makes impressive effort with his bare fist. Only one bare fist, since he had tried to pick something from the bottom of a pool he had found during hunt. Turned out it was the pool that picked his hand as a trophy instead.

It was the Flower Knight that gained insanity every time Bob picked it as a target.

But I reveal the solution to riddle now.

Answer is: both of them are dead.

Double hit to head location with two damage from monster reaction. Any other location and only a heavy injury level would've been caused, but this called for a severe injury roll. Which was a head explosion.

But once again when The Ultimate Sacrifice had been made, confusing things started to happen. I mean, they were benefiting survivors. Tourneghulle and Cohenia started to injure Flower Knight fairly reliably, and Tourneghulle even got Fencing secret fighting art on first try. Surrelia also shot a wound in, making her eligible for weapon proficiency.

Cohenia had, what, three hit locations at heavy injury levels and had also chewed some Dried Acanthus.

All survivors had only one point or less survival left.

But we did it. Survivors were victorious.

Cohenia had dealt the killing blow. Surrelia had spent at least 90% of her time using bandages. Who had actually done more for the victory? Who was to be praised? It was time for some rivalry. Surrelia and Cohenia beat each other witless. Neither would depart this lantern year. So it was perfect time to set up a duel.

Which results in Surrelia and Cohenia to become partners. Well, they did have the same family name anyway.

So, settlement also gained Partnership innovation.

Hands of Heat makes every resource count - but we did pull out a leather shield, skull helm and innovated Shrine.

Vladimir and Igorina make a baby whom they name Vladimirana.

Population is back to nine.

Now we only need a firm Hand shake. It's rather unfortunate we lost our Extra Sense survivor.

Since only Tourneghulle has the strength to injury The Hand, and only if he picks far too many hunt experience in the process, we'll probably try to survive Hand's visit. Is it an utter slaughter, or a chance to get +1 permanent accuracy, strength and evasion?

We'll see some other time.


Burkstad

Population: 9

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric


Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking
Sculpture
Partnership
Shrine


+Guidepost

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

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



Resources:
12x Nope.

Burkstad 10-11

Two more years of Burkstad, and I bet everyone is suspicious because things actually went fine.

Worst threats for the survivors were survivors themselves.

After a successful White Lion hunt settlement started suffering from Rivalry. Newborn Bob suffered a Gaping Chest Wound. The Hand takes one survivor away during his regal visit, which isn't that consequential. But then when settlement needs some new blood, only corpses seem to pile up. Gummi Cohen mourns the loss and receives Prima Donna disorder as a result.

Next we hunt for Gorm who, too, had been mourning the loss of a mate. Turn out this Gorm bull is also a Prima Donna, as it ambushes survivors.

But since it's a fight between two Prima Donna's, Gorm ambush is negated by Monster Corpse terrain.

Gorm receives a staggering amount of six wounds on first round.

Showdown is such a breeze that it might be time to dial up the monster levels. But maybe we had to pay for it via not receiving even one hide resource. So no innovation for that year.

Rivalry nets Gaping Chest Wound for Gummi.

Heat Wave prevents Gummi and Surrelia from departing this lantern year.

Settlement chooses Barbaric as their conviction principle. Bob is now Thundercaller.

Confused from the heat stroke, Gummi and Surrelia first get twins, and then another survivor who receives +1 permanent strength.

It's going better. Settlement still doesn't have even a single shield, though. And The Hand seems to be waving in the distance...



Burkstad

Population: 9

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric


Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking
Sculpture


+Guidepost

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

Gear:
3x Cloth
3x Stone Noses
Full Rawhide Set
1x rawhide vest, 1x Rawhide Gloves
Gorment Boots
Skull Helm
Bone Dagger
Bone Darts
Rib Blade
Greater Gaxe
Cat Eye Circlet
2x Monster Grease
Lucky Charm
Dried Acanthus
Monster Tooth Necklace
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow
White Lion Coat, White Lion Gloves
Scrap Sword
Flower Knight Badge



Resources:
Acid Gland
Dense Bone
Meaty Rib

Burkstad 8-9

...

Maybe I can leave this like that?

These two lantern years were, once again, extreme to say at least. There seemed to be no safeish middle ground. It was all either things going horribly worse way possible, or amazing performance beyond all expectations.

Year 8 hunt is a Screaming Antelope. Hunt phase went fine, though survivors had their identities re-written by a Phoenix flying overhead above the clouds. But actual showdown went exceptionally. Antelope did next to no actual attacks against survivors - targets were always able to dash away. Most attacks made by survivors hit, and it was somewhere around sixth wound attempt when it failed for the first time.

If memory serves, only one point of damage was taken by the survivors, and that came via trample.

Victorious, survivors return to settlement. Only that the last survivor from the original four - Trevor (or Greyvor after getting renamed) got too curious about what's inside of saviors. He poked a hole to our savior's head and the savior just disappeared. Shocked, settlement murders the murderer.

Now isn't that nice. It wasn't like we needed a savior in the upcoming fight against King's Man.

Bob orders people to breed, and we received another savior. Well then. We decided to get a green one. Augury gives one additional moment of intimacy, and hey. A second savior. Too bad there can be only one, but at least we got twins. Population is brought to ten.

Settlement innovates Inner Lantern, which also is a major boon. But then to the next challenge...

King's Man. People of Burkstad aren't going down that easily!

But... they sure are going down.

Bob, Hecu, Tournebulle the Dormenatus savior and former Gwennyth confronted armored stranger.

It starts pretty well. Except that Cat's Eye Circlet revealed trap to be there within first three cards. But Claw Head Arrow hits, and then former Gwennyth lobs a bone dart to lure off the trap.

First turn King's Man did no damage at all.

Bob scores a critical wound against the nemesis monster and lowers it's speed by one. Hooray. He scores a second wound, too, but it had reflex that did basic action against attacker.

It's two hits. Two leg locations. Severe injury roll of 2.

Our best survivor down.

And still ten or eleven wounds to be done. Game over.

Or is it?

Hecu scores a critical wound that gives King's Man another -1 speed for the rest of combat. Then on the second attempt she gains King's Step.

Greater Gaxe was also doing damage here and there. Even Tournebulle does some, and looked like after losing Bob we stood an actual chance.

But then survivor luck ran out. Might be because they also ran out of survival.

Whenever Hecu tried to flush out Battle Pressures, she picked a card that one way or another returned all Battle Pressures on top of hit location deck.

This could not go on forever, and random hits were taken by the survivors here and there. Eventually Hecu bled to death.

That's when Tournebulle and former Gwennyth started dancing. Gwennyth had a head start since she had tried it a couple of times. But once leg location went to heavy damage levels, she had no courage to continue. She managed to get a total of five battle tempo tokens before... dying.

And it was not a pretty death either. She already had no jaw. She also got gaping chest wound, broken back and broken arm. She was mangled beyond recognition.

Now it was a duel between green savior and King's Man. This took an exhausting length of time, since King's Man was quite adept at missing him, and when he did hit, Tournebulle was able to get some armor back via dormenatus.

Tournebulle held his own and managed to trigger Age 4. King's Man had four cards in it's AI deck. With a little bit of luck perhaps showdown could still have been won, but Tournebulle beat even former Gwennyth in amount of tempo tokens. He got six of them.

Bleed tokens were also his downfall.

There are no survivors to return to settlement. Only a blood-quenched executor that's thirsty for more.

Glossolalia has Tiberius babbling endlessly. Gorm Climate gives such a storm that it pulls out Guidepost that had been erected by King's Men on lantern year six.

King's Man takes notice of this and lodges another halberd into the ground. And since it has no longer a halberd, he has to go and fetch a new one before executing whole Burkstad. Casually it tosses three random basic resources to settlement. Considering one survivor just disappeared from being, the origin of these resources was dubious.

Settlement also innovated Cooking. Hmm. Tastes like chicken.
There was also Bob's last matchmaking gift. His corpse was probably the Love Juice. That's nice, since population of six carries a promise of losing settlement to darkness.

Well, it's a miscarriage that kills both mother and the baby. Down to five.

Tiberius starts doing auguries, which yield intimacies surprisingly easily.

Population is down to four. Tiberius, you're reading the portents upside down.

Then it gets better. Intimacies bring two survivors with +1 permanent strength, one survivor with no specific anything and...

A savior.

Also, Bob came back as a withered husk and offered flower to a survivor who became Bob again.

Once again Burkstad emerges from the brink of utter annihilation.

It's tenth lantern year, and death count is nineteen. Plus three vanished saviors.

Burkstad is absurd. With other hand it's giving sweetest cake, and with another hand it stabs you with a poisoned knife. It gently pats you on the head with sole of a feet and with another foot it kicks you in the tummy. Head bashes you down, then gives a lapdance.




Burkstad

Population: 8

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves

Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking

+Guidepost

Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Bone Smith
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Catarium
Gormchymist
Gormery
Weapon Crafter

Gear:
3x Cloth
3x Stone Noses
Full Rawhide Set
1x rawhide vest, 1x Rawhide Gloves
Gorment Boots
Skull Helm
Bone Dagger
Bone Darts
Rib Blade
Greater Gaxe
Cat Eye Circlet
2x Monster Grease
Lucky Charm
Monster Tooth Necklace
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow
White Lion Coat
Bone Dagger
Flower Knight Badge



Resources:
Phoenix Small Feather
Pelt

Burkstad 6-7

We got a couple of extra players, so Burkstad continues with four players.

Tarantinho the blue savior proved to be a true savior as survivors proceeded to hunt Flower Knight.

First step he ever takes outside of settlement has him break down in emotional overload.

This gives him a disorder, which hilariously enough is Unlucky. So. We got a savior specializing in critical strikes that cannot critically wound.

Then the cyclopean knight severs our savior's ear and gives steel shield and sword for survivors. Bloody Eyes start showdown immediately.

Fight went fine enough. It took many rounds and all of the survivors had started to accumulate light and heavy injury levels, and almost all survival had been expended when Flower Knight disappeared, leaving survivors to pick up flowers. Showdown might have turned serious if it dragged on for a few rounds more. But it didn't.

Clinging Mist has Gwennyth douse herself in urine and running through the settlement, scaring away the mist.

Bob used his sterling matchmaking skills to cause the death of Gheb. Yes, with Protect the Young.

Clarita on the other hand managed to convince Trevor to try once more, and Burkstad got an extra survivors to replace the fallen, maintaining status quo.

Settlement had innovated Family and built Weapon Crafter.

Then survivors begin to hunt for a Gorm.

One of the first hunt results is Acid Rain, which was terrible news against Gorm. Survivors had very little armor points. Bob and Gwennyth were all but depleted from their armor points, and Clarita and Untavi were crippled. Heavy injury level to head was especially worrying.

Showdown starts, and first Gorm charges. I had to double check that card. Speed 4 attack, accuracy 2+ with two damage? And extra effects? Well, at least Gwennyth was able to dash away from range.

Survivors deal two damage or so to Gorm. Turn 2 begins.

Infrasonic roar.

It's turn two of combat, and two survivors suffer head explosion.

Game over, man. Game over.

But still the survivors push on till the bitter end. Bob and Gwennyth actually do impressive damage from then on, but finally Gwennyth draws trap. By now Gwennyth also had heavy head injury. Injury roll comes out as 9, meaning crushed jaw.

Gorm starts hiccuping and walloping, not doing anything too menacing. And survivors poured in wounds. Were Gwennyth and Bob really going to beat that elephant-sized monster together?

We had two Tall Grass terrain cards, which helped remaining survivors quite a bit. They even survived extra Charge attacks that were bound to come.

It was a thrilling situation. Survivors managed to bring Gorm down to no cards remaining in AI deck, and Gwennyth had either light or heavy injury level in all of her hit locations, and Bob had no survival any more.

With Bone Dagger in front, Gwennyth lunges forward and scores two hits. No traps. First hit location fails to wound.

Last chance.

And it's a wound. Hooray!

Settlement even is Slender Blight, and survivors have to switch insanity and survival values after departing.

It's seven endeavors, though.

And settlement innovates Bloodletting.

Three attempts later Tarantinho is freed from his unluckiness. Bob's matchmaking gives twins for settlement, and an augury gives a moment of intimacy on the first attempt. Population is now 9.

Next Burkstad's Burkguard prepares to hunt for a screaming antelope. But that's for later.



Burkstad

Population: 9

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves

Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Paint
Family
Bloodletting

Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Bone Smith
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Catarium
Gormchymist
Gormery
Weapon Crafter

Gear:
3x Cloth
3x Stone Noses
Full Rawhide Set
1x Rawhide Gloves
Gorment Boots
Skull Helm
Rib Blade
Greater Gaxe
Cat Eye Circlet
2x Monster Grease
Lucky Charm
Monster Tooth Necklace
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow
White Lion Coat
Bone Dagger
Sleeping Virus Bob
Flower Knight Badge



Resources:
Phoenix Small Feather

Burkstad 4-5

Misery continues to flourish and grow in Burkstad.

Butcher arrived, and survivors were somehow, well, surviving for quite a while in this fight. It did not seem impossible at first, but then settlement's murderous champion (named Murderer) got Controlophobia disorder. Which often is a non-disorder that does not affect anything at all.

Murderer was even hiding behind Butcher's back when it was his turn being monster controller. The amount of bad luck here was absurd. I mean, Controlophobia is active only on one turn in four. Then, Murderer draws Lantern Frenzy, and one out of four random possibilities, target was him. So now he was receiving double damage and was priority target that cannot be removed for any reason.

But hey, he had our best armor and +2 evasion from gear. This battle might still be doable if next AI card would be some of the nicer ones. But it was Hack City on the turn when he received double damage.

At least Murderer did not have to suffer for long, because he rolled 1 on the first severe injury roll he had to make.

By this time we had whittled Butcher to about five or four AI cards remaining. We had our chances to remove Hack City and Lantern Frenzy from the deck, but that would have been too easy, now wouldn't it?

In fact, Hack City got drawn again on the very next turn. Our Catgut Bow wielding survivor endured through the attack, but coming next was Lantern Frenzy. And it targeted the bow wielder.

That's it. Abort mission. She makes the sacrifice and lures Butcher into darkness, dying in the process and making settlement lose Catgut Bow and associated arrows.

Settlement event is Stranger in the Dark.

Dhilhe, with the Twilight Sword, approaches this stranger. And dies instantly. Come on, Butcher. We can all see through your disguise. You can leave now. You had your harvest.

Population is down to three survivors remaining. But at least we had six endeavors to spend on auguries, and Bob had become a matchmaker so we had at least one guaranteed intimacy.

Bob is quickly becoming the hero of Burkstad. Not only through his advice and practical tips were twins Trevor and Gheb are born, but he also gains Red Fist secret fighting art from Hands of Heat.

One successful augury also blessed settlement with Gwen, who had +1 permanent strength. So at least Burkstad was back to population of six.

Since we had lost Catgut Bow, next quarry was White Lion.

There was also this fact that, when counting gear, we noticed that settlement had no weapons other than Rib Blade. Bone Blade had been smashed during Butcher fight, Catgut Bow disappeared into darkness along with the sacrifice and Twilight Sword disappeared when Dhilhe's lantern was extinguished.

Hunt Phase was surprisingly positive. Survivors gained a total of +2 understanding during it, and cancer pigeons did not reach anyone.

And after the utter devastation that had happened during Butcher fight was a fading memory, when survivors perform - with pretty much only fist and tooth - the most successful turn in this campaign until now. A total of four wounds were inflicted on second or third turn of the game.

Even AI deck had been warded from any of the scarier cards. Both Size Ups were there and Terrifying Roar, too, when White Lion could not reach any survivors after bellowing.

In fact the Hit Location reactions were more threatening. Threatening to the point where they killed survivors. Lion slapped three damage points to Gwen on naked location, and severe injury roll was a 2. And she had had Rib Blade.

Remaining three did not have any weapons.

However, Bob's fist was red enough to win the day. We even received resources to re-build the lost bow.

Settlement event is Glossolalia, and Trevor invents new language.

Armored Strangers offer some pity for Burkstad, which is again down to population of five.

A crone offers Warm Virus Flower for Bob, so we may soon see a fight against Flower Knight. Especially when we luck out many times in rapid succession - Finally we receive Paint from innovation deck. Love Juice makes one Gwennyth, and Bob's matchmaking abilities lead to Ghentavi being born.

Clarita spends quite a few endeavors at Augury to receive third Understanding to become a tinker. This eventually succeeds, but not before Burkstad gains another blue savior called Tarantinho.

Population had bloomed back to eight, which had not been the case since day 1.

Year six hunt is probably going to be the Flower Knight, because that's how much Burkstad needs Bob. Or at least his fist.

Burkstad

Population: 8

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves

Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Paint

Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Bone Smith
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Catarium
Gormchymist
Gormery

Gear:
3x Cloth
3x Stone Noses
Full Rawhide Set
1x Rawhide Gloves
Skull Helm
Rib Blade
Cat Eye Circlet
2x Monster Grease
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow
White Lion Coat
Bone Dagger
Sleeping Virus Bob


Resources:
???

Burkstad, take two.

Legend continues.

As it's a bit difficult to arrange time for Kingdom Death, the brutal beginning of this doomed settlement was rectified a little.

We removed the Murder from timeline. Yeah, it's a cheat. But the point here is to have a little fun and not have a dead settlement on third lantern year.

Second year has our blue savior, murderer and a couple of inconsequential survivors hunting White Lion.

Savior almost burns himself out already, and only does two wounds to White Lion. Murderer hacks the remaining eight, or at least I don't remember Bob or Dhilhe would have done any wounds in with their bare hands.

Not even a single severe injury roll was being made. I'm not sure if any survivor received even heavy injury level - and after all they were even more poorly equipped than last year that ended in party wipe. That's Kingdom Death, I suppose.

Settlement Event was Elder Council. With our population of six, the two remaining survivors gained +1 permanent accuracy at the cost of two endeavors.

We added Gorm into campaign, and Approaching Storm had a stone replace one of Bob's eyes. Maybe it wasn't actually the Lion's Eye from which we made the Cat's Eye Circlet. It might have been Bob's.

Bob Cat Eye Circlet.

What am I talking?

Ahem. We also got Catgut Bob, I mean bow, and Claw Head Arrow.

Our inspiring murderer and savior double plus Clarita and Dhilhe proceed to hunt Gorm. Survivors find a prisoner from a gibbet during hunt phase.

Showdown went surprisingly well again. Clarita gained Ghostly Beauty disorder and savior quit from existence because he would have done so anyway at the aftermath. Better to fade out than to burn away.

Settlement event is Open Maw, and the recently freed prisoner is encouraged to go and take a look inside the great cavity. It snaps shut instantly. Well. Whatever the case, I believe it's better place to be confined in than a gibbet. But mileages may vary.

There were next to no bones in resources survivors got. One unidentifiable part was bony enough to innovate Symposium.

Dhilhe received Twilight Sword from a mysterious knight that had entered the settlement, and conveniently leaving just before Butcher arrives.

Somewhat failed gormchymistry at least gave us Dense Bone, which was sorely needed. Rib Blade should do wonders in the hands of a murderer. Considering how things went, we might have actually survived this far even with the Murder on timeline.

Next time we'll see how karma strikes back when it Butcher time.


Burkstad

Population: 6

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves

Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium

Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Bone Smith
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Catarium
Gormchymist
Gormery

Gear:
4x Cloth
4x Stone Noses
Bone Blade
Full Rawhide Set
1x Rawhide Gloves
Skull Helm
Rib Blade
Cat Eye Circlet
Twilight Sword
2x Monster Grease
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow


Resources:
None

The Tragic Birth of Burkstad

Started a new campaign of Kingdom Death with three players, with potentially fourth one joining later. (If there is anything to join...)

Prologue was one of the toughest until now.

With ease the lion disembowels two survivors and kills another.

Every survivor has been dragged, mauled and frightened to their core, having more heavy injury levels than uninjured locations in total. Yet I did not witness first full party wipe during prologue. Three founding stones were used for their special ability. With two survivors essentially out of action, I don't think we would have one had we not thrown them.

We roll minimum population for our settlement, Burkstad.

Since one survivor gained Love Juice, we were able to get both principles - Graves and Protect the Young.

Settlement innovates Hovel and crafts some armor and Bone Blade.

And off we are for real Lion fight!

Hunt phase was wonderful - The newborn survivor had triggered Insight before we encountered marked territory. That's an extra innovation for Burkstad.

Then one survivor consumes some monster droppings and gains +1 speed and strength token from this questionable act.

Exhalation of Darkness caused head injuries not for one or two stragglers - but three. Three rolled 1 for their result.

Then starts the showd...isaster.

White Lion missed it's attack around three times. During whole showdown. With most of the misses happening during last few rounds. Now if the amount of 1's being rolled had been evenly distributed between Lion and survivors, perhaps things could have gone differently.

Three criticals, one of which came from last founding stone, had given the Lion -1 movement, accuracy and toughness.

First goes our blade wielder. Instant death from severe body injury.

Second, mortal fear strikes another.

Third has his or her head explode.

And the Lion had no cards left in it's deck. It's doing nothing but basic action now, and only one more wound to kill. The last remaining survivor with four bleed tokens takes a swing at the lion. It's a hit. Hit location: Shimmering Mane.

Then Lion attacks the last survivor, who ends up with seven bleed tokens.

What a crude joke. And going to become even worse.

Settlement event is Murder. It gives +1 strength for the murderer as well as precious gear we cannot now craft, but at a heavy price. The only survivor with hunt xp is now dead, and Murder was rolled for next lantern year. Murderer is nominated to stand as the Voice of Reason, and he breaks his jaw.

With nine endeavors, survivors build Organ Grinder and four Stone Noses. Remaining endeavors are spent on Auguries, which results in one Intimacy.

... which turns out to be Birth of a Savior.

We choose the blue one. And after session I realize that we have Murder on the timeline next year and with Bone Blade as our only weapon...

Some terrible luck here. But I merely suggested the name, Burkstad. I implored no-one to accept it. Oh well. At least we effectively managed to innovate because we got Ammonia from hunt phase. That's something.

Four stone noses are also something.



Burkstad

Population: 6

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves

Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia

Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Bone Smith
Skinnery
Organ Grinder

Gear:
4x Cloth
4x Stone Noses
Bone Blade
Rawhide Headband
Rawhide Vest
2x Rawhide Gloves
Skull Helm

Resources:
None