Kingdom Death Monster - Episode 5

New Camera Setup

New camera angle - hopefully you can see better now. Same terrain setup: big face card, bugs, grass. The face lets us climb on top for more range and accuracy.

The Strategy

Ground fighting again like last time. Feeling more prepared - strategies forming in my head.

The plan:

1. Use Cat Eye Circlet to see top 3 hit locations
2. Stack the deck to avoid traps
3. Knock the lion down with crits
4. Pile on wounds while it’s vulnerable

The Fight Goes South

Started strong - archer crits with the catgut bow, knocking the lion down. But then Sophia can’t hit anything. She’s “Sophia the Inaccurate” today.

Disaster strikes:

• Sophia fails a fist and tooth attack
• Lion gets a reaction - basic action with +2 damage
• Both hits land on head and waist
• Heavy wound to head, knocked down
• She gets 4 bleeding tokens

She’s one more bleed from death and already knocked down. Can only take one more wound.

Learning the Hard Way

I’ve been forgetting several things:

• Evasion - need to look up what it actually does
• Dodging with survival - could have avoided that head hit
• Surge - apparently I can’t do it now due to an injury (didn’t even know what it was)
• Everyone has -1 speed from an earlier event - would have been huge

The Lick Wounds Problem

Drew Lick Wounds - if the monster has no wounds in its AI deck, it heals one and the card goes to the top of the deck. We have to get a wound in to clear it.

The lion keeps healing while we struggle to land hits.

Pulling It Together

Finally remembered to use survival abilities. Dodged a head hit that would have killed our archer. Started using the Cat Eye Circlet to stack the hit location deck properly.

Key crits:

• Archer lands fractured shoulder (-1 movement token)
• Clinestra keeps rolling natural crits
• Sophia finally wounds with the bone club - fleshy gut crit gives +3 insanity and a free resource

The Kill

Clinestra finishes it by critting the beast tail - we get the lion tail resource AND it’s the killing wound.

Loot: Perfect hide, three monster hides, golden whiskers, shimmering mane, gray cat bones, sinew, and the tail.

Settlement Event: Nickname

Everyone rolls on the nickname tables. We’re all Dingles apparently:

• Sophia: Dingle Hero of the Antelope (+1 strength!)
• Others: Various Dingle titles

The Confession

I’ve been cheating. I don’t have the Encourage survival skill unlocked - you need it from innovations. Also forgot Kip can only move 4 spaces.

Fixing it going forward. The game is hard enough without my mistakes working in my favor.

Next Steps

• Settlement at 7 population (used intimacy with Clinestra’s Matchmaker ability)
• Unlocked Screaming Antelope hunting
• Built ammonia innovation
• Crafting whisker harp, lion headdress, bandages, and last rawhide armor set

Decision time: fight the lion again to get more claws and fur for cat armor, or jump into the Screaming Antelope blind?