It’s that time again. That moment rich with anticipation. The start of something new and possibly great.., or possibly dread filled.
The start of a new campaign!

The start of Season 2!

Something something Squire Campaign

I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I got my Sunstalker after Black Friday last year and whilst I have had the chance to hunt a few of them with a group of People of the Stars, I am eager to try out the campaign it features in for the very first time!
As with my first PotStars run, I know a handful of things about what I am getting into, but not too much. Stuff like ‘no heavy armor’, ‘no encourage’ or how all nemesis encounters are at the end of the campaign and that you can’t lose to any of them.
The things that are, you know, mostly obvious after handling the general campaign set-up.

Something something EU warehouse. #wheremygormat?

But before the Sun can arrive, it will need a small flock of caring morsels ready for their maternal duties. And for that we will have to survive the prologue.
Since Bogstop aka Season 1, I have added a set of colored rings and gear grids to my game to make distinguishing survivors in the pictures perhaps a little easier.

Somewhere in the place of stone faces..
Lionar (green), Alissa (blue), Calys (red) and Bjorn (yellow) wake as the White Lion ravages other sleepers. They will have to struggle to survive.

We are facing the typical White Lion Prologue this time. There is also a Survivor Corpse terrain on the field right behind Alissa.

I was quite happy to see the Feline Entity display some interest in the new campaign. But I should soon find out it wasn’t a blessing for my first stab at the prologue today.

Attempt 1 – Ouch! This was the first time I actually failed a Prologue fight!
For a quick run-down:
Alissa was the first to die to an Enrage-d lion that one-shot her with a hit to the head right after the mood was drawn.
Lionar died shortly afterwards to Brain Trauma triggered by Terrifying Roar..; and my friends keep wondering why I like Accept Darkness so much. Bjorn died to trauma after a roar as well, as if to prove a point.
Finally, Calys died after several looping rounds of roar and Claw to a loss of her arms.
I had managed to crit the monster giving it a -1MOV-token, which meant the follow up basic on the roar did not reach anymore, and with the 6 knockback she was unable to reach the lion once it was down to 2 cards. I got looped!

Attempt 2 – second time’s the charm!

8 cards in the deck, the White Lion started the fight with Claw – as was preordained – hitting Bjorn twice, he dodged the hit to the head to not fall over.

As our turn rolled around, Calys threw her Founding Stone to auto-crit the Strange Hand and gain +1STR at the cost of her 1 survival – as was preordained as well.
Bjorn ran to the Survivor Corpse and activated it for 2 insanity and a random resource.., which turned out to be a Skull funnily enough.
Lionar then rushed into the monster’s blind spot for his attack, hitting twice. Although he strength seemed to be somewhat lacking – he wounded only once.
Alissa did almost the same thing, also wounding once only, thankfully not critically hitting the Lion’s balls in the process.

5 cards remaining. The White Lion wanted to get a taste of Bjorn and bit him straight in the face – Chomp. 1 damage was enough and he got knocked down, unable to dodge this time.

Alissa rushed back in for another hit from the blind spot, wounding the Beast’s Triceps. She was ferocious this time – as if to make up for a lost life-time.
Calys found a spot next to her and hit the lion once as well, but her attack failed to wound, the monster bounding away out of reflex as she slapped it on the ass, snatching up Bjorn, dragging him along.
Finally, as the lion hadn’t gotten too far away, Lionar attacked again, but he flinched at the sight of the impending retaliation as he struck the Beast’s Brow, but as luck would have it – he rolled a crit! -1ACC for the White Lion!

3 cards remaining, down to the last card in the deck already. Size up! After the failed first attempt, this was a much better card spread for us! The monster stared at Alissa but she was not impressed in the slightest!

I shouldn’t have said anything though, going by the first 2 activations. Calys missed outright, whilst Lionar hit once and just about failed the wound yet again. He has them noodle-arms it seems.
Thankfully Alissa could turn the trend around. She hit and wounded, preventing the White Lion from running away, before Bjorn came in with the big hit of the round – critically injuring the Beast’s Paw, giving it -1MOV, gaining a Lion Claw and turning off grab for the remainder of the fight!

1 card left in the deck. Size up again. The White Lion still stared down Alissa – yet she could not care any less!
We had the beast surrounded!

Frothing at the mouth, Alissa ran to the monster’s flank and attempted to wound first thing, but now she failed, sending the monster running for the hills, knocking over Bjorn.
Lionar was the only one with a clear path to the monster, so he ran after it, hitting once again, this time successfully wounding. We had it right where we wanted it – down to basic action!
Or so I thought.

0 cards remaining. The basic action targeted closest in field of view.. and that’s Bjorn. Knocking Lionar out of the way, the Lion attacked the already prone survivor and hit his head again for a third time. And that’s a severe injury!
Just like that – he was dead – cleanly decapitated.
His sacrifice will be remembered.

Calys tried her best to end the fight, but she missed again. So it was up to Alissa. Jumping at the White Lion, her blows landed and we fell right for the monster’s trap! She was pummeled twice in return but seemed fine for the time being. This did give the monster another turn though.

0 cards remaining, basic action again, targeting Alissa again. 2 more hits, 2 light wounds.

I didn’t want to use a 2nd Founding Stone, but it was really tempting for a second, and it would only be more tempting after this round.. Calys and Alissa missed all their attacks, whilst Lionar took a basic on a reaction, because his noodle arms failed to wound yet again!

0 cards still.., another basic action. It targeted Lionar this time, hitting his body twice. Despite dodging, he still hit the floor heavily injured.

At this point I’ve had it. I gave Calys one more chance for her to finish the fight on her terms.., but she missed again.
A little annoyed I threw the 2nd Founding Stone of the fight, crossing my fingers we’d get another resource from this at least. The stone severed the Lion’s Tail and supposedly it died to blood loss shortly afterwards.

We got a decent spread of resources for that and we’ll get our death principle as well in Lantern Year 1 – things could be worse, couldn’t it? *glancing over to attempt 1*
As we collect our bearings (and loot), 10 more people emerge huddled up, from the darkness.

With this, the first hurdle has been taken. Next time we will be setting up our settlement and hunt our first proper lion. The resources we got lend themselves to quite a few things as well. Innovating or a full rawhide set perhaps, as well as quite a few bone weapons.
But we will tackle that next time!

For now, as always, thank you very much for your time, don’t get roar-looped by your cat when its feeding time,
Amathul