Althanas Plays - Kingdom Death: Monster [Mature]

[Revenant]

Year 1: Settlement Phase

The four survivors gather together and I get to do The First Day event, which will start my settlement. The survivors stumble upon a massive pile of lantern softly glowing in the darkness, around which other survivors are huddled in fear. Instinctively they sense that this is a safe place and decide to settle here. I roll the die to see how many survivors I find huddled around the lantern horde and get an 8, the max. That gives me 10 + the returning survivors population for a total of 14 survivors.

I have to decide their genders now, but can hold off on naming them until I need them. There is only one real differences between gender in Kingdom Death aside from some events target men or women specifically. The big difference is that when rolling for Intimacy to have children, the female will die on a 1 - 3 where the male will only die on a 1. That means that more females are likely to die in my settlement so I should have numbers weighted in their favor. Of the fourteen, I decide that six are male and eight are female.

The First Day event is over so I progress down the settlement track. Four survivors returned from the hunt so I gain four endeavor. Then we proceed to timeline events and Returning Survivors event happens. One of the survivors at the lantern horde approaches and utters the first words to us. That gives us the Language innovation and starts the innovation deck for the settlement. It also teaches the survivors how to speak so I can now use the Encourage survival action during hunts. I choose a woman from the settlement pool of survivors to issue the first words.

I name the survivor Pella and she gains +1 courage for stepping forward to speak. After the innovation deck is built, Pella sits in front of the lantern horde to meditate on it and gains +1 understanding. She has to miss the next hunt, but that's ok because I want to take my initial survivors out again so they can gain a second Hunt XP and level up. Pella names the settlement Stonevale because this is an Althanas-related play through and also because it seems flavorful for the game setting.

Now it is time for the development phase. I spend three of my endeavor right away to build the three locations that I can from the Lantern Horde, giving me the Bonesmith, the Organ Grinder, and the Skinnery. That leaves me with 1 endeavor which I can use to either do an Augury in the hopes that I can get an Intimacy roll, or to spend the endeavor along with 1 bone, 1 hide, and 1 organ to Innovate and gain a new technology. I decide to go with innovation.

The innovation deck currently has six techs in them and when I innovate I shuffle and draw two of them. I get to pick one of them and put the other back. From the innovation I draw, there will be other techs unlocked and added to the deck. I draw Inner Lantern and Drums. Drums allows me to spend endeavor during the settlement phase with the hopes of removing disorders from a survivor while Inner Lantern gives me the Surge survival action, which allows me to spend survival during hunts to take a second action during the turn. I decide to go with Inner Lantern so that I have more options during a fight. I put drums back in the innovation deck along with the new inner lantern tech cards.

Now it's time to see what I can build at my new buildings using the resources I got from the first lion.

Alright the first thing to do is to get some weapons. I go to the bonesmith and buy a bone axe for the cost of a bone and an organ. Then I buy a set of bone dart so that I have a ranged attack. That uses all my bones so now let's look at armor. I have enough hide for a rawhide head and chest piece, which when combined with either the axe or the darts gives me some extra perks. Equipment in this game has different colored affinities and some items will give you bonuses if set right in your gear inventory and if you have the right affinities. With the rawhide headband, rawhide chest, and a bone dart I get +1 evasion, making it harder for the monster to hit me, and I gain the ability to look at the monster's two two AI cards and rearrange them meaning I know what action the monster will take on its turn. Finally, I spend an organ at the organ grinder to make some monster grease, which gives a survivor +1 evasion because he's slippery. That leaves me with one White Fur hide from the lion, but I'm going to save that in my supply until I come back from the next hunt.

Finally, before I go out on the next hunt I need to decide who gets what gear. Most gear can be switched between survivors during the settlement phase as is needed. And even if a survivor dies their gear comes back to the settlement. Even if ALL survivors die the gear comes back. Thank the lanterns for that small mercy. I decide to give the rawhide gear, monster grease, and axe all-in-one to Sierra because she was awesome in the first fight and I've grown fond of her. Stacking the items like that also gives her more chance for survival. Sierra is officially the tank now. That also means I can take her Founding Stone and give it to Derro, which with his extra strength means he'll have a better chance of wounding the next Lion.

Which is good because it's time for the next hunt and this time it's a full Level 1 White Lion.

[Revenant]

Year 1: Showdown with White Lion - Level 1

So the level 1 lion is tougher and has more wounds than the prologue lion, which will make this tough. But on the plus side there is now terrain that I can use to help me out. All lions have Tall Grass terrain on their showdown. Tall grass gives me +2 evasion if I'm standing in it, making me harder to hit. Also I can use an action to hide in the grass and be marked as not a threat for the lion's next attack. Useful for channeling the lion somewhere else.

I also draw two extra terrain cards and both are Acanthus Plants. Acanthus plants come with two plants per card, so I have four plants on the board. Acanthus are healing plants and if I spend an action to harvest it and roll high enough I can get a fresh acanthus resource that I can use to heal during the fight or to turn into dried acanthus at the organ grinder. Pretty useful stuff. Hopefully I get some.

I park Sierra in some tall grass directly in front of the lion to act as bait. With her extra evasion from the gear and the grass she's got the best chance of survival. Everyone else takes a ready position to try to get into the lion's blind spot or in Krahl's case to throw a dart.

First turn and the lion goes first. He draws a power swat which is strong but only has a speed of 1 so he only rolls one die. With the extra evasion the lion needs a 6+ on a d10 to hit. He rolls a 6. Damn. The hit does two damage and if I can roll a spot where she has armor I can tough it our. Roll the foot. No armor. Damn again. To keep Sierra from taking a heavy wound and being knocked over I have to spend the one survival she got back to dodge, leaving her with nothing. Survival doesn't naturally come back so you need events and gear to restore it, stuff like dried acanthus. Hopefully I can get some.

Sierra activates next and attacks. She hits twice with the axe, one hit being in the lion's groin! Not this again. But she fails to wound both times. Yay? Krahl throws his dart and misses. Derro moves into the blind spot and hits twice. His first wound is a failure and the monster roars at him but I roll low and Derro doesn't panic. His second hit is a wound though. First blood on the lion. Only 10 more to go. Finally Jaqueline moves up and hits twice. Her first hit is also a fail to wound but the second is a crit on the beast's knee. It shatters, dropping the lion to only 5 movement. He's now just as fast as my survivors.

The lion starts the second turn, only slightly wounded. The lion pulls grasp and tries to grab Sierra, who is still taunting him from in front of his face. He only rolls 1 die for the attack but if he hits he grabs her and runs away from everyone, doing extra damage. This time it's a 4. No hit thanks to the tall grass.

Jacqueline starts off and gets a hit and a miss. This hit turns into a wound and she moves away to allow someone else to get in the lion's blind spot. Derro, also in the blind spot rolls his attack and hits only once. It's the lion's Strange Hand again. If only I could roll a crit on this. Roll a 10!?! Well there we go. Derro spends a survival and for the second time tears a lion's hand off. Derro the lion hand ripper-offer. And now he's +2 permanent strength. Damn that was lucky. But that also means that Derro is out of survival now, so he stays in the monster's blind spot so that he won't be an easy target. Krahl moves into the tall grass for some defense and misses with his dart. Good job, Krahl. Sierra has to decide if she wants to move into the blind spot and attack, stay in front to keep tanking and attack, or grab that acanthus. Since the lion still has over half its wound left she decides to tough it out and attack. Sierra's a tough broad. She hits and wounds, dropping the lion to half its AI cards.

Third turn and the lion draws Ground Fighting. This is a lucky break. It means the lion flops over and tries to snatch anyone nearby. If I spend an action while next to the cat, it will do a super attack against me before I can make the attack. Ground fighting only goes away once the lion has killed someone or until it takes a wound. This is why I brought those darts. Also, the lion won't draw any more action cards until Ground Fighting is discarded. That means I'm free to run around and grab those four Acanthus plants now. Taking advantage of the rules for the win.

Jacqueline grabs at the acanthus next to her but find nothing. Remove that plant. Sierra moves out of the lion's zone of death and searches the plant next to her. She finds something tasty and gains 1 survival back. Nice. Krahl the winner moves over and searches a plant to find nothing inside because he's Krahl. I'm sensing a pattern here. And finally Derro runs over to hit plant and rolls an 8! He manages to harvest a fresh acanthus. Derro seems to have taken all of Krahl's good rolls. I'm ok with this.

Next round and I reposition myself. The lion continues to wiggle on the ground, taunting me.

Fifth turn and Krahl throws a dart. Miss. Lion wiggles.

Sixth turn and Krahl throws a dart. Miss. Lion wiggles.

Seventh turn and Krahl throws a dart. Miss. Lion wiggles.

I'd like to point out that the darts have an accuracy of 7+, meaning I need to roll a seven or better to hit with them. Still, 2 out of those 3 rolls were 1's. Krahl needs to spend some time at the Stonevale Pub's dart board.

Eighth turn and Krahl throws a dart. Sigh. Miss.

Ninth turn and Krahl throws a dart. 7! A hit! Darts may not be accurate but they do have a +3 to strength, same as the axe. This hit is a wound. Everything's comin' up Krahl. Derro finally gets to attack from the blind spot and gets a hit, which turns into a wound. The end is closing in for the lion. Next, Sierra attacks from the blind spot with her axe and gets two hits. But she draws the lion's trap card!

Every monster has a trap hard in their hit deck. Drawing it cancels all hits from the attack, causes the monster to attack back in some fashion, and reshuffles the hit location deck. It is possible to shuffle from a trap and draw a trap card. I've done it more than once, it sucks.

The trap makes Sierra DOOMED, which means she can't spend that precious survival she just got. Despite her extra evasion, the lion hits both times and both of them land on the body. Sierra has to take both hits but she has her armor on the chest and ends up with only a light wound. Sierra finishes her turn by scampering back to the tall grass. That leaves Jacqueline, who moves up next to the lion and hits it twice. Both hits fail to wound and one reaction causes the lion to attack back at her. Both of those hit and Jacqueline takes a wound to her arms and legs.

Finally the lion gets to go again. I reshuffle the AI deck and draw Power Swat. Jacqueline is the target because the lion had turned to face her during its counter-attack. It hits and does heavy damage to Jacqueline's chest, knocking her down. It also knocks her back 6 squares because it was a power swat. Poor Jacqueline.

For the survivors, Krahl throws his dart and misses. Big surprise. Jacqueline is down and I could encourage her, but she is too far away to reach the lion after the power swat. Derro instead moves up and attacks, hitting once. It is a wound but the lion has a reaction and runs away after the wound, taking him away from Derro. Sierra chases it down and gets two hits but fails to wound after the first and the lion's triumphant roar knocks her over and does some brain damage. No more insanity for Sierra. That also means her second hit is wasted since you can't wound a monster when you're huddling on the ground in fear.

Monster's turn and he draws grasp, which will target the closes knocked down survivor. Both Sierra and Jacqueline are knocked down but Sierra is right next to him while Jacqueline is still one square away. Sierra it is. He rolls a 1 and misses her. Then both women stand up since they were knocked down last turn.

Sierra moves back around to the blind spot and rolls one hit, which wounds. Jacqueline moves up to the other position in the blind spot and attacks, hitting once and rolling a 10 to wound. Crit! On the beast's femur she breaks another leg, gaining a white lion resource and dropping the lion's movement again. Jacqueline hates legs. And the resource I get from the lion is ... heh ... the testicles. Women, am I right? That also means the lion is down to just 1 wound. Derro moves up and hits twice and finally finishes off this lion.

In the aftermath, the survivor's gain resources and a Hunt XP, which puts them all at 2 xp. This means that they get their first Age milestone and can now start learning weapon proficiency.

To age, I pick a survivor and roll 2d10 then add them together and see what the chart says. Krahl goes first and gains a fighting art. It's the most likely thing to get during age 1. He draws the vengance fighting art which says that he gets stronger and a bunch of survival back if someone else dies in a fight. That's ... thanks Krahl for being such a huge help.

Sierra ages next and also gets a random fighting art. She gains tough, making her harder to kill. How appropriate for my tank girl. Derro gets a fighting art as well and draws Monster Claw Fighting Style. This gives him accuracy, strength, and extra crit damage when he fights unarmed. With his +2 strength already I think we've got our unarmed fighter here. Finally Jacqueline, who also gains a fighting art (seriously there's like an 80% chance that you get a fighting art your first age) and also draws Monster Claw Style. Huh. Ok then.

With spoils in tow, the four survivors set back to return to Stonevale.