Today, as I await my most recent order from the shop – set to be delivered soon, actually – we are headed back to the Gormpital, the Feline Entity lingering close by in the darkness.
As a prolific hunter of Spidiculi – they are crunchy! – the Feline Entity does typically display heightened levels of interest whenever this monster hits the table. And this time was certainly no exception.

***

With the Butcher successfully held at bay last time, not only have all our faces been saved from getting stretched over lanterns, but we had also managed to preserve a grand total of 4 Broken Lanterns and 1 Fresh Acanthus from getting destroyed!
..
Stuff that would now get eaten instead.

Arriving back home, the survivors gained 6 endeavors (3 returning survivors, 2 for the single death and 1 from Cooking I) and I readied myself to draw our random settlement event for the Lantern Year:
Smoke Break.
That’s one of the new Screaming God events – we drew it in S3 as well!
A 2 felt like a great result to roll into as it would just give 2 insanity to 8 people and remove a random disorder from each of them! The downside to that was that if any of them departed this Lantern Year they would suffer the Collapsed Lung severe injury.
In the end I nominated Gormward, Gormwry, Gormde and Prigorm because the needed the insanity; and Gormvoc, Magorm, Kigorm and Gormco to remove disorders. Unfortunately, Magorm removed Quixotic (D) instead of the much more troublesome Megalophobia (D).
I should also mention that at this point in time I was still thinking about hunting another Gorm this Lantern Year – a consideration that changed later on.

We then moved on to Hands of Heat.. why, would you look at that .. we already had a Lantern Oven (I) .. which sent us to the Lantern Branding table immediately.
After eating (?) 2 Broken Lanterns, Shaogorm rolled a 4 and had her feet branded for another +1SPD.

Finally, Gorm Climate:
A 6 – for a settlement still without Hovel (I), Kigorm, Magorm and Shaogorm had their insanity zero’d and were forced to skip this Lantern Year’s hunt.
So we’re going to have to put together a completely new team .. again.

After marking the death of Gormst we were ready to develop. Which looked like a bunch of augury mostly. We had no other means to use endeavors without spending resources as well and, well, 2 more children would give us our society principle, so this felt like the best plan we could come up with.

Kigorm was the one sent to augur again as he had a decent track record of rolling an 8+ from previous Lantern Years.
#1 – a 7 – 1 survival
#2 – an 8 – babies! Gormly and Mrs. Gorm continued to expand their family-bush. It wasn’t without issues though as I rolled a 1 and a 10. Naturally, Gormly used his reroll to get a 4 instead of a 1 .. which was a baby after all. Thus the girl Gormecca was born.
#3 – a 4 – 1 survival
#4 – a 5 – 1 survival
#5 – a 1 – we had to spend 1 of the 2 remaining Broken Lanterns from storage which gave Kigorm an understanding! This triggered his Insight! He rolled a 6 for an additional endeavor and we gained the Tempered Spear pattern on top of him gaining the Tinker ability.

Trying to get the understanding spread out a little I sent Gormnina to use the final endeavor instead of Kigorm, and she rolled an 8!
One more roll for babies! Another 10 and 4 – so 1 more child .. which was our 15th population!

I named the girl Gorm and as we started noticing a strangely glowing bulb emerge from her forehead we exiled her into the darkness immediately! Maybe it was just a skin rash .. but why take the chance?
In case it wasn’t obvious: I picked Collective Toil.
I added Bone Witch (potentially the fate of young Gorm) to the timeline and then rolled a 7 on the table: this meant that 3 new people arrived on the outskirts of the Gormpital bearing bits of a White Lion. The Strange Hand they brought would be used to make the last missing part of our 2nd Rawhide Armor Set and let’s be honest – that should be more than enough reason for them to be allowed to stay.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
With the formalities dealt with, Moth, Mothra and Warblette were welcomed to the settlement and they were obviously not from around here.

I ended up also making a Dried Acanthus and a Monster Tooth Necklace with what little resources we had left, keeping only the Skull in storage for the time being.

Overall, it seemed, the game really wasn’t too keen on me departing with the same survivors several Lantern Years in a row this campaign.
We were also steadily losing that leg up we had had by getting so many innovations for free early on, and we REALLY needed Paint (I) and/or Inner Lantern (I) at this point.

The Hunters:
Gormnina – blue (Greater Gaxe)
Greegorm – blue (Rib Blade)
Gormward – red (Rawhide Armor, Bone Blade)
Gormecca – yellow (Rawhide Armor, Riot Mace)

This was probably the first time that I considered just running Lvl1 Gorm hunts for the full campaign and calling it a troll/meme. But for the sake of having a little bit of diversity here I am going to actually hunt something else for a change: a Spidicules.

Musth (a trait from the Lvl2 Gorm fight) could also prove to be a real problem for my league of low-hunt xp survivors – especially as I had issues hitting the monster already.
Gormward was our slightly risky inclusion here, as he HAS TO hunt Spidicules, considering he will gain the collapsed lung severe injury.
(I did confuse the severe injury for something else at the time of first writing this though – a -1MOV-token wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be, I’d say)
This also meant that I last-minute-built a Bone Blade for Gormward so that he could keep on pushing his sword spec.

The Huntphase:
On the way to hunt a different quarry than what we had grown used to in the Gormpital, Gormnina took point and lead us straight into a chasm. The Way [was] Narrow and Gormnina instantly got kidnapped by the monster’s children!
Aware of Gormnina’s disappearance Greegorm found a grouping of huge Cocoons but nobody was courageous enough to attempt to open any of them! The group instead fled the area and tried tro track the Spidicules again, seemingly giving up on saving Gormnina. They did, however, find some Monster Droppings (basic HE11 – and a minor heart attack for the double 1s). In the spirit of the character.. Greegorm ate it for +1 courage and a 7 – both a +1STR and +1SPD-token.

But the high of this delicious “meal” didn’t last too long. In a bout of Crippling Misery (basic HE34) Greegorm tumbled down a hill. And whilst he did gain +1 understanding as he reflected on what had just happened, I doubt a broken leg was truly a worthwhile trade.
Shortly afterwards the monster and Gormnina were found!

The Spidicules is a bit of a weird monster in quite a few regards.
It does not have a base – the blind spot is under this lanky model – it does not cause collision and it can’t be knocked down. Not to mention that the monster’s legs do tend to get into the way of handling the survivor models a lot. And whilst I wouldn’t call it impossible to manage, it certainly can get annoying at times.
It’s fight also largely revolves around the minions it can spawn as all of its A cards are moods that affect mainly the little Spiderlings is can put into play.

For its Lvl1 fight the Spidicules has 11MOV and a fairly standard 8TGH.
As for traits, this monster starts with 3 of them in play.
Spawn, which explains the keyword of the same name – it puts a Spiderling into play adjacent to the Silk Nest (T).
Spiderling Action, which is exactly that and only that – MOV values and the information that the Spiderlings share the same TGH as the monster is found only in the rule book.
And the Twitching Leg Pile. There are several cards in the hit location deck that can cause the monster to lose a leg if wounded .. up to 8. Each lost limb will be placed under this card and reduce its MOV by 1 for the remainder of the fight. And should you manage to hack off all 8 legs during the same showdown, a special event will be triggered during the aftermath.

The Spidicules fight also starts with a mood in play, which will be different depending on the Level of the monster.
For Lvl1 it is the Frantic Spinning mood, which prevents survivors from spending their “move” whilst next to a Spiderling.

Furthermore, a Spidicules will also start with special terrain in play in addition to 2 random draws from the deck.
The Silk Nest is always in the centre of the showdown board and Spiderlings will typically spawn around it.
Beyond that the Spidicules has several Egg Sacs in play as well (Monster Lvl times 2) set up in an area – I place these randomly like I do with the Acanthus Plants for the lope fight. These are your main way to get your hands on Web Silk. If they are left unattended for too long though, the spooder might hatch them during combat and you will lose out on these important resources – so you need to be reasonably quick when attempting to gather them for the silk. However, if you do get lucky, Egg Sacs can spawn in other fights as well, but only half as many.

For this fight I also drew a Survivor Corpse and Debris as our random terrain.

After this lengthy explanation we are finally set to start the showdown!

9 (10) cards in the deck, as per usual, the Spidicules activated first: Feed.
Closest survivor in facing was Gormecca, so the spooder ran up to the group and lunged at her with this fierce AI card.
And it missed 1 of the 2 hits! This gave Gormecca the opportunity to prevent not only the 2DMG hit by dodging, but also getting grabbed and dragged away from the group!

Left to her own devices, Gormnina stood up at the start of the survivors’ turn and ran over to the closest Egg Sac to pop it open. She gained a Web Silk for the team, the monster’s attention via Priority Target token and a Spiderling spawned right next to her.
Continuing to collect resources, Gormward looted the Survivor Corpse and gained a Monster Organ as he scooped up a few of the soft bits.

Greegorm considered looting the Debris as well, but instead moved him into the Spidicules’ blind spot to make use of the opportunity of having the monster close to us .. but he missed his attack thanks to to his +1SPD-token not applying to the slow Rib Blade.
Gormecca took a step under the spooder as well, and hit the Segmented Jaw with the powerful Riot Mace.. but a 1 failed the wound! Tragic!

9 (10) cards in the deck, Hallucinogenic Fangs was drawn – a mood! This triggered a basic action from the Spidicules and also replaced all other moods currently in play.
Frantic Spinning was discarded and whilst survivors were now able to run away from Spiderlings once more, all minions’ attacks now caused a random disorder instead – which I did not like the sound of one bit, let me tell you! Gormnina was targeted by the attached basic action thanks to the Priority Target token and she got hit twice in the chest .. one of which she dodged.
The Spiderling then jumped up and hit her straight in the face as well, causing her to fall over and gain Prey (D).
A fitting outcome, really.

With the Spidicules having skittered all the way back to Gormnina, Greegorm was too far away to reach the monster or even the Egg Sacs during this turn, so he spent his time searching the Debris next to him. He found a Bone Blade.
Afterwards, Gormecca encouraged Gormnina, who swung her Greater Gaxe at the Spiderling, killing it with 1 hit and a wound on 3+.
Gormward stepped into the blind spot under the monster and hit the Segmented Knee Joint for our first successful wound!

Gormecca then moved up, but as she was also too far away to attack still, I had her use the Rawhide Headband instead, putting the next mood on top, rather than an AI that removed the 2nd Egg Sacs.

8 (9) cards remaining, Jumping Spiders was played .. as was pre-ordained! This mood gave all Spiderlings a flat +4MOV, effectively doubling their range.
The basic action targeted Gormnina again because she was the only one in the monster’s facing still and she took 1DMG to her arms.

Greegorm opened up the final remaining Egg Sacs but got tangled in the sticky silk and was knocked over.
Gormward attacked the Spidicules again from the blind spot and managed to achieved 1 more wound for the team before he and Gormnina were knocked away by the reflex.

Gormecca encouraged Gormnina so she could finally retaliate against the big spooder. Driven by her desire for revenge, she did find 2 more hits with the Greater Gaxe, including a Tricky Foreleg, and she even managed to wound both of then with 4s on 2+!
Gormecca then killed the Spiderling next to her to keep the overall number low.

5 (6) cards remaining, 1 leg removed. Eighty Angry Legs was drawn next: yet another mood! This one added +1DMG to all spiderlings .. uh oh. Especially with such low armor values, this was one of the worst ones to draw!
The basic action hit Gormnina again, twice this time. and she would have suffered a severe head wound due to being too sane to dodge, had the Dried Acanthus not saved her.
Meanwhile, Greegorm rolled around on the ground, dodging the Spiderling’s hit for 2DMG.

As Gormward got back up he cheered on Gormnina to get her licks in. And she did indeed! Stepping under the spooder she swung the Greater Gaxe once more – scored one more hit, taking out one more leg.
Greegorm missed the counter attack against the small spider and it needed Gormecca to help him out to kill it.
Finally Gormward stepped back into the monster’s blind spot as well and hit twice more for 2 more wounds!

2 (3) cards remaining, 3 legs removed, Jumping Spiders re-entered play after shuffling the AI deck, re-applying +4MOV to all Spiderlings. With Gormnina in the blind spot this time, the basic action targeted Gormecca for a change! She was hit twice but her armor soaked the damage.
The Spiderling facing Gormward missed.

Well, Gormward missed the smaller spider as well. And Gormnina did too .. so, let’s call that fight even?
Both Gormecca and I wanted to end the fight though and she dealt 2 more wounds from underneath the Spidicules before getting ejected by it slamming its body into the ground.

Greegorm had an opportunity to kill the monster at this point .. but a 3 was just not good enough – he would have needed a 4 to hit!

0 (1) card remaining, 4 legs removed, Gormnina was the target of the basic action and as she was still too sane to spend survival thanks to Prey (D), she suffered a severe arms injury!
A 4 – the arm had come clean off! And it wasn’t enough to rouse a parasite either (3)! Whilst she didn’t get knocked down, she could no longer use the Greater Gaxe.

The Spiderling continued to miss Gormward again on a 1.

Greegorm also missed again .. on a 2 – he was actually getting worse!
As this point I had Gormnina run away from the monster to not only bandage herself, but also make space for Gormward.
It took 2 more hits from Gormward to secure the wound against the legs and the victory against the monster!

Down 5 legs of 8 the spooder-ball wasn’t quite cut up enough to take home with us – not that I ever would expect that to happen in a LVl1 fight.

Greegorm (+1ACC) was the only one to age up from this fight and whilst he chose Grand proficiency he didn’t manage to hit the Spidicules even once!
At least Gormward had managed to get a 2nd point of sword spec.
The Spidicules defeated we also learned of Silk Refining (I) and were so engrossed in this new discovery we didn’t even notice how Gormnina had been Taken by the spiders!

Taken (if not already on your timeline) removes a survivor of our choice from the hunting party and settlement and puts an event onto the timeline 4 Lantern Years from now.
This does mean that we effectively have 3 hunts to save the survivor who got Taken otherwise a Spidicules will visit the Gormpital to show off their dead body in our settlement – they are nice like that.
This also means that you will likely want to hunt Spidicules in pairs of 2 most of the time.

Finally we got to collect our resources: the typical 4 basic, 4 monster.

***

A decent haul all in all, for a Lvl1 spooder, but I wouldn’t go as far as calling it great just yet.
This is in parts due to one of the more noticeable down-sides of hunting Spidicules early on during any campaign: we still need to build the Silk Mill.
This will cost us 2 Web Silk, 1 bone and 1 organ.
So taking that into account (and that we need to innovate as well) there won’t be much left to work with after, setting us up to go and hunt another spooder right away if we want to have gained anything at all from this last fight beyond a +1 Survival Limit – which, sure, is nice to have, but if you need weapons and/or armor isn’t actually all that helpful most of the time.

So, yeah, looks like we’ll be hunting another Spidicules next Lantern Year with its level depending on the innovation we get.
Good news if you are Gormnina, I guess.

Also, regarding the model – as I have touched slightly on the usability of the large, slightly wobbly Spidicules during the introduction of the fight/monster:
I think it’s fine.
Fine in the sense of being “okay-ish” or “serviceable” and not in the sense of “great, let’s go!”
Especially with the larger scale modern models or if your survivors have high-reaching spears or halberds, getting under the spooder can be an issue, often times more because of the pointy bits hanging off the body rather than anything else. Still, unless you punch the monster in the face all the time on accident it will, in fact, be fine.
If it reaches corners or edges of the board stuff can get a little more wonky though from my experience, with limbs dangling loosely on or over stuff. Especially as when I play alone, the board has a little overhang towards the back corners due to the table being rounded .. and yeah, let’s just say the Feline Entity will be ready and waiting to leap at any Spidicules plummeting into the darkness.
Overall, playing slow will be your friend to not shuffle minions or terrain around too much as well. I’d also recommend picking up the spooder completely if stuff under the monster gets too crowded. Just make sure to remember where to put it back.

For me the Spidicules does get a pass overall, as I do really like how weird it is compared to other monsters and that you can just fight under it.
Your own mileage may wary, of course.

***

Funnily enough, whilst I was finishing up this post, my stuff got delivered – the Gen-Con plastics are finally here!

Time to take some quick pics of the boxes and then build Hollow and SoD3!

And with that we are done for the day!
As always, thank you very much for your time, a vibrating Spidicules is basically invisible, so how do we know there isn’t one hanging out, sitting in the corner of every showdown we ever play?
Amathul