With October already winding down again and both posts for Hollow as well as the Survivors of Death 3 finally on the site, we return to the Gormpital for a spell, trying to finally innovate either Paint or Inner Lantern!

As the survivors approached the outskirts of their home I removed a total of 8 bleeding tokens spread out across the 4 of then before they gained their allotment of endeavors: 7 (4 returning, 1 Tinker, 17 population & Cooking I).

It was only as I first updated the timeline for Lantern Year 7 that I realized just how much we’d have to do this settlement phase – we were looking at a grand total of 5 events!

With no time to lose, the random settlement event started us off:
The Dark Dentist!

But before we could get too caught up in deliberations about achieving the perfect smile, a Phoenix Feather silently descended from the heavens.

Gormvoc was the first to make it to the foreign object and greedily stuffed it in his pocket exclaiming wildly about this feather’s miraculous beauty (10). This did also trigger his bold (+1 endeavor) streak and turned him into a confident Matchmaker even despite his leprosy.
Whilst I generally like to keep the Tail Feathers resource from this event, it is REALLY hard to actually keep the card if your settlement has Survival of the Fittest, so it was never that likely to begin with.

With a light rain already falling, the settlement was beginning to try and prepare for the approaching storm(s) to flare up again. However, preparations came to a halt as a stranger entered the settlement accompanied by a belly rumble resembling a wild beast.
It is Lantern Year 07 – our chosen Wanderer: Aeneas had arrived with an unrivaled hunger stirring in her innards.

Setting up her survivor sheet, she already had 1ACC, 2STR and 2EVA to begin with, which had meant that she’d already outclassed the majority of the Gormpital’s population by a smidge, but in truth, it will be her Endless Hunger that will make or break her stay with us.
As she came stumbling from the darkness, the Gormpital quickly prepared a lavish meal for the stranger consisting of 2 Broken Lanterns and a Monster Hide. No questions asked, Aeneas wolfed the offerings down, burping with satisfaction.
The settlement immediately knew that she’d eat anything after that meal!

So, I rolled a Lantern 10 for her introductory event and added 3 to the result for spending the 3 resources.., which meant that we were so far above the 9+ result that I could have spent a lot less on her.
Oh well. More importantly she started off her time with us at +1 disposition and Content .. that’s +5STR and +1LCK!
Of course, like other Wanderers she also had the Veteran ability (+1 hunt xp) and a piece of rare gear: the Moonwolf Charm which gained us (her?) an extra resource (an extra snack?) each hunt if Aeneas came along.
But all her stat-based power does come at a cost – namely 1D5 resources after each hunt – if we want to feed her and get her Disposition up!
Hopefully we can low-roll her a bunch!

Oh, and she also can’t run away from fights, not that that is going to be much of a factor without even having Paint (I).

With Aeneas now a part of the settlement we had to brace for the first of 2 storms: an Acid Storm.
The acidic rain made a Broken Lantern tumble off the Lantern Hoard and into storage, whilst it also made our Drums (I) unusable.

Afterwards this Lantern Year’s Gorm Climate had the settlement huddle up together and I gave Aeneas the +1 courage whilst she still was a 0 hunt xp.

With the worst of the weather having passed, we could finally move towards the develop step. Admittedly, it felt a little weird that nobody had to skip the upcoming hunt. I’ve gotten just so used it at this point.

There was a bunch of Spidicules gear I wanted to build, but there was something much more important to attend to first: innovating.
For a moment I had actually felt good about my odds of hitting at least 1 of the many things we were really starting to need to make some headway with the campaign. However..:
..
These draws were a little upsetting: Nightmare Training, Storytelling, Albedo or Scrap Smelting.
Yikes!
In the end I chose Nightmare Training because of it not adding a consequence to the deck and how much survival everyone still had at the time.

Afterwards I went on to building gear.
First I made the Silk Robes with the Web Silk looted during the last showdown and then the Amber Edge, mainly because I wanted to try it out for once.
Also, it not having a weapon type that had a proficiency yet was potentially a moot point with Aeneas.

With that done, I sent people to do some Nightmare Training!
Kigorm gained +1 proficiency and grand weapon specialist on his first roll.
Shaogorm gained +1 proficiency and axe specialist after spending 5 survival.

And finally, Magorm had to spend all 8 of her remaining survival to only gain +1STR.

These outcomes had still left us with 4 more endeavors before we had to figure out what to actually hunt this Lantern Year. Not picking up either of the survival actions again whilst innovating did put me in a rough spot at the time, and had me consider ALL available options several times over.

Eventually, I used 1 of the remaining endeavors for the Cooking (I) interaction on Acid Storm to gain a Founding Stone.
Then we spent 2 more to have both Magorm and Gormvoc each pray to the Stoic Statue (I). This did give Gormvoc +1understanding and all departing survivors +1survival.

The final endeavor of the Lantern Year was used to collect a few more Stone Noses.

The Hunters:
Gormward – blue (silk bits, Bone Blade)
Kigorm – green (Rib Blade)
Shaogorm – red (Rawhide Armor, Greater Gaxe)
Aeneas – purple (Rawhide Armor, Amber Edge)

With the gear grids set up I had my .. third (?) .. longer pause trying to figure out what to hunt this Lantern Year. Between not getting surge or dash again, I felt really reluctant to head out to either of the Lvl2 monsters. Getting stuck in the vomit zone of a Gorm without dash can spell just as much danger as getting swarmed by Spiderlings that just keep on amassing.
And I had said that with Aeneas in the settlement I’d strive for something more difficult than yet another Lvl1. Especially as I did want to make use of the power-spike her presence brings to us and not just have her bully a baby Gorm.

Of course, I could have also challenged a Phoenix as well this Lantern Year, but between common birb-shenanigans (you just know Aeneas would de-age out of existence!) and the tiny 4/4 resource spread, I felt getting something extra would be equally important. Especially as we were very likely heading towards a feast next time.
Sure, I could prevent that loss by not taking Aeneas along .. but I’ve already had to talk myself into taking her along, I’m not spending another 40 minutes doing that again!
So, as you have known all this time, I decided to just give spooder 2 a go at this point, even without surge, fully aware of what I was doing.

From my notes: “This will probably take a hot minute.”

The Huntphase:
Headed for our first Lvl2 monster, Kigorm was proud to take charge of the group and lead us towards our first point if interest. It did not take long for the group to arrive at a bunch of Cocoons, but we soon found that nobody was brave enough to burst open the off-white balls, thus we quickly left the small outcropping amongst the rocks.
Instead the hunting party braved a long streak of Dry Lands (basic HE20 – after also passing on a pall of gold-flecked smoke coming from a Golden Ember – basic HE73 – as well). Down 1 survival (to 7 for everyone) and a little disheartened by this being only our first step of the journey, Gormward stopped dead in his tracks at the end of a Lonely Bridge. We have already established that this was not the bravest bunch, with 5 courage spread between the 4 .. but even so the first roll vanished underneath the Feline Entity.

The 2nd roll came up as a 4 .. which was not enough and we had to take the long detour around the ravine! 2 more extra hunt events to go!
Turning around the hunting party quickly arrive at the gold-flecked smoke again, streaming off the same Golden Ember (basic HE73) we had passed on before. The group declined again to venture into the smoke and instead travels along its edges until they eventually found a Dead Monster (basic HE56).
Luckily, Kigorm was smart enough to make use of this find as the team slathered themselves in rotten blood to be set up to ambush the Spidicules should we ever arrive at the fight.
But we were still not past the gorge that the Lonely Bridge well, bridged. Further along the edge the survivors came across a Corpse (basic HE02) frozen and perfectly preserved. The group lost 2 more survival before Gormward gained +1 courage and understanding from examining the body.
Finally on the other side we stumbled upon a collection of holes in the ground that revealed themselves to be Putrid Tunnels (basic HE86). The survivors sheepishly called out into the darkness below, but got no response.
As Aeneas took the lead of the group for the first time she was immediately stopped by an approaching figure – the Dark Blacksmith (basic HE29) stared at the group from its single unblinking eye.., and what can I say? The team had not gotten noticeably braver on this hunt. They took off running – fleeing towards the gleaming Forest Gate.
But we still weren’t quite there yet .. suddenly Surrounded by countless Spiderlings, no matter how hard the hunters tried to fight back, Gormward was dragged into the darkness. And he would have died from this (a 1!) had he not had the Dried Acanthus to prevent the severe injury.

Gormward’s leg torn up and bleeding the survivors quickly rushed towards the Forest Gate!
Aeneas was the one to attempt to push the Gate open with all her might and a perfect Lantern 10 meant that the Forest was quite willing to come in this time!
To have the forest truly welcome us in, Aeneas took a -1STR-token (still at 11STR), Kigorm a -1SPD-token (the Rib Blade had slow) and Gormward took a bleeding token.
With exactly 13 each member of the Hunting Party gained 1 understanding as they stepped over the threshold and 2 insanity each. This did also trigger insight for Shaogorm (+3survival/insanity and the Stone Macuahuitl pattern).

On the other side of the Forest Gate, we quickly spotted the unaware Spidicules and prepared for the attack!

This was actually still going to be an ambush!

For the Lvl2 encounter with a Spidicules there are a couple of differences going beyond it just gaining the typical +1DMG/SPD.
It now has 14MOV (up from 11) and 10TGH for the mommy-spider, whilst the Spiderlings also gain a point of SPD (2/4+/1). Spiderlings share their TGH with the monster, so they are up to 10TGH as well.
And this fight is very likely going to be all about the little ones, as the new trait Hivemind will trigger Spawn at the start of every monster turn .. i.e. putting a fresh Spiderling into play each and every turn.
The monster also starts with a different mood in play, depending on its Lvl – for Lvl2 this is Feeding Time, which gives all Spiderling attacks Grab as an After Damage effect.

For random terrain I drew a Bug Patch and just on queue: a Dead Monster as well.
Due to this being an ambush, terrain will be set up according to the rules on the cards overruling set-up instructions from the monster. This won’t change that much besides, giving me a chance to move the 4 Egg Sacs out of the middle.
All in all there are a bunch of resources on the field to be gathered, and these will certainly be a priority throughout, whilst I do also want to steadily deal damage to the monster as well.

With 13 (14) cards in the monster’s deck, the ambush commenced!
Kigorm was the first to reveal our presence to the Spidicules by popping open one of the Egg Sacs to collect the Web Silk they are made of. This meant he would gain the Priority Target token before Gormward quickly killed off the Spiderling that spawned.

With the monster made aware of us, Shaogorm was in Go-mode and swung her Greater Gaxe in the widest arc she could! 3 perfect hits that did exactly nothing (due to missing affinities) and she .. drew .. 4 leg cards!? I must have given that deck a terrible shuffle!? What a ridicules roll & attack!
Wounding on 4+, axe spec was used on the very first wound attempt but she managed to cut off all 4 legs in one fell swoop!

What a start!
She then moved to stand besides the Bug Patch ready to start searching for a friend.
Finally, it was Aeneas’ turn. She was ready to swing the Amber Edge but I felt the chance of triggering a crit with the Riot Mace was just too good to pass up, so she used the club!
Only 1 hit and it did not have a crit, sadly. And it would have been one as well! But Aeneas now had a Spiderling at her side spawned by the reflex.

8 (9) cards left in the deck, 4 legs already removed, a second Spiderling spawned right next to Aeneas before the monster was ready to try and return the favor: Pulverize was drawn.
The Spidicules rushed over to Kigorm who had the Priority Target token and tried to flatten him. Thanks to his 2EVA he was only hits twice, but without armor at any of his hit locations, anything besides the waist was going to cause a severe injury – and he was hit in the body twice!
He rolled a 3 for his severe – the best worst outcome: 2 bleed, and was punted away, with no parasite stirring.
The Spidicules then made another Spiderling and ran away before the tiny monsters could swarm Aeneas.

She was hit twice over four 7+ attacks and despite dodging the first hit, the second Spiderling dragged her off and away to single her out.

As our turn started, Shaogorm yelled at Aeneas to get up, who in turn yelled at Kigorm.
Kigorm the opened up the next Egg Sac, drawing more ire from the Spidicules. As Kigorm tried to create some distance to the monster, Gormward killed off the Spiderling left behind.

Aeneas equally quickly smashed up the little Spiderling that had dragged her away, whilst Shaogorm needed all 4 hits and axe spec to kill another ending a full turn of crowd-control.

8 (9) cards remaining, 4 legs cut off, 2 Spiderlings in play, the next card was another mood to replace the old one: Caustic Pheromones replaced Feeding Time.
This meant that all of the Spidicules’ attacks would now also apply the Priority Target token via an After Damage effect. The follow up basic targeted Kigorm again due him already having the Priority Target token, as well but due to its 3 missing legs, the monster couldn’t quite reach him anymore!

With Priority Target removed from Kigorm again already, the Spiderlings swarmed Shaogorm but as they only dealt 1DMG each currently they were not too dangerous .. or so I thought – they were ready for a brawl! On 6+ three of them connected!

Shaogorm started the survivor turn by killing another Spiderling before Aeneas broke with current protocol in hopes of finding a friend.
She examined the Bug Patch and returned with a delicious friend by her side: a Crab Spider!

Meanwhile Gormward triggered the next Egg Sac and unleashed another Spiderling, gaining the Priority Target token!
And, in what must have been a mistake, Kigorm hit the Spiderling on 4+ exactly (he probably hadn’t accounted for the +1ACC from grand spec) and killed it easily without missing 3 times before.

8 (9) cards left, 4 legs cut off, 2 Spiderlings in play, the monster was trying to put a stop to us by making more babies!
The Birthing Hour was played and it hit Gormward hard, including dishing out a leg severe (a 7, no more dashing, skip next hunt and 1 bleed), unfortunately I did not take a picture of the attack.

Gormward also regained Priority Target from the mood in play before the Spidicules spawned another Spiderling and ran 3 steps ahead. Our positioning might have saved us right here, keeping the big spooder in range for an attempt to wound off the AI card during out turn.
With Spiderlings also drawn to the Priority Target token all 3 of them were making their way over to Gormward as fast as their little legs could carry them.

Shaogorm yelled at Gormward to get up and stop slacking, before she took out the Spiderling behind her. As the group was slowly moving towards the monster, Aeneas killed another Spiderling in passing before the dream-team took to hitting the big monster.

Kigorm found one clean wound on exactly 3+, making another Spiderling, before Gormward took off another leg from underneath – 2 more wounds were dealt as the Spiderlings kept running towards him.

5 (6) cards left, 5 legs removed, the 3 Spiderlings on the field and they were getting faster! The mood Jumping Spiders entered play and all small spiders now had 8MOV!
The Spidicules returned to harass Gormward some more, hitting him twice in the head! And as I already saw him headless and dead in the dirt he clutched up and rolled a 9 – sticking around, his jaw shattered in turn.

Gormward clung to life with his 3 bleed, and the Spiderlings no longer had a Priority Target token to follow so they split up: 1 for each of the other 3 survivors.

As she would, Shaogorm yelled at Gormward to get up again as the survivor turn started. She then obliterated the Spiderling next to Aeneas, so she in turn could maybe draw attention away from Gormward by opening the last Egg Sacs.., but she was too good at it! The Spiderling died instantly and she didn’t get the Priority Target token!

At least the Egg Sacs were all gone and harvested now, so Kigorm could freely attack the monster from below (and he needed it .. a 3 on 3+) to cut off another leg!
Finally Gormward ducked into the monster’s shadow as well to kill off the single Spiderling in the area still left standing.

4 (5) cards remaining, 6 legs cut off, 2 Spiderlings on the board, the final unknown card was revealed to be Necrotoxins – a mood that adds bleed 1 to all Spiderlings.
Not great, not terrible for us at that point in time, but its definitely one of the moods I’d usually rather not see in play. The basic action hit Aeneas as she was closest outside of the blind spot and she got pummeled hard enough to hit the floor with a heavy leg wound.
The Spiderlings rushed towards Shaogorm their excitement.

Shaogorm took the chance to yell at somebody else for a change and got Aeneas up to her feet.
I was getting a tad paranoid about the trap at this point so I returned my focus back to killing the small spiders with Shaogorm and Aeneas.

Kigorm then attacked the big one. Another 3 on 3+ led to another wound on 3+ as well. Slow and steady progress was made, though I, once again, failed to take the picture!
Gormward then used his act to bandage himself, as both of the guys stuck to staying in the blind spot.

3 (4) cards remaining, 6 legs removed, 2 Spiderlings on the field, Pulverize was drawn for the first repeat-AI!
Aeneas was the chosen target to be punted away as she suffered a severe waist injury (a 10 – so fine all in all) .. and her leg reacted! It wanted more, the Enraptured Crus was eager to continuously draw her towards spooder-mommy!

The Spiderlings threw themselves at Shaogorm again, as they would.

Shaogorm quickly shouted at Aeneas to get up and help out. Heeding the command of the more and more frantic growing Shaogorm, Aeneas obliterated a Spiderling in passing, before her new leg moved her closer to the monster.
Shaogorm then finally looted the Dead Monster to find a Love Juice.

With all the resources on the board collected, we could finally focus on killing the Spidicules!
Kigorm immediately moved back into the blind spot and dealt 1 more wound, calling the remaining Spiderling over as he gained the Priority Target token once again.
Finally Gormward activated .. hitting only once.. cutting off 1 more leg with his high STR, but failing to fully empty out the deck!

1 (2) cards remaining, 7 legs removed. 3 Spiderlings on the board, and we already knew Pulverize was going to hit Kigorm.
3 hits for 3DMG each. The Cloth around his waist prevented the worst of it, but he still had to take an arm severe. With his muscle ruptured he could no longer use fighting arts!

Before we could attempt to kill the monster the Spiderlings swarmed Shaogorm one more time!

Shaogorm yelled out at Kigorm to be ready, before killing another small spooder – she was so done with all these spiders in this forest!
Aeneas then aimed for the kill with the Riot Mace. She only hit the monster once though! And whilst she was knocked away, her parasitic leg had her crawl back.

Gormward was the one to play hero – he ran up the monster and found 2 more hits, one of them being the remaining leg with no trap in sight still!

He wounded easily and killed the Spidicules with a flourish!

Now, whilst I am pretty sure the leg is a “compulsory” wound reaction and cannot be prevented, the monster dies before the card even gets looked at so we miss out on the Legless Ball (I) this time.
Which, is not a big deal considering all the resources we just gained.

This took a good 3 hours, split between hunt, showdown and me taking notes, and I am not too keen on doing that again .. we REALLY need to get access to surge! Getting a 2nd attack in – just opening Egg Sacs AND killing Spiderlings that pop out with the same person in a single turn is such an improvement!

And in case you were wondering just as much as I was by the end: the trap wasn’t at the very bottom of the deck, but the third to last card.
There were still 5 cards left in the deck the moment the monster got killed.
Almost every hit we managed to get inflicted a wound ..

But on to the aftermath.
Gormward (+1STR) reached Age 2 and Aeneas was set to ponder her personal story as she gained 3 hunt xp at once.
Shaogorm, Gormward and Kigorm also gained their 1 point of weapon proficiency each.

Next up: somebody had to get Taken. I considered being cheeky and have the spooder kidnap Aeneas to prevent the resource loss we were about to be hit with, but I declined the opportunity.
I do think it’s somewhat poor form to not interact with content like her’s at all and I do both want Aeneas around for her hitting power and, to be honest, I am looking forward to the feast! So.., whilst I think Gormward would be a good choice as well, I chose to have Kigorm get abducted.
He was missing his attacks o often – I felt it appropriate.

Aeneas’s Moonwolf Charm was next on the list and we got to chose a resource from 3 randomly drawn from the monster deck.

Then we drew the 4 basics and 6 spooder resources we got as a reward for winning the fight, before Aeaneas was already back at the pile picking and choosing how much to snack on.

I rolled a 5 for her Endless Hunger, which meant she was going to eat 3 resources (1D5) right now to stay content. At first I wanted to have her eat the leg-parasite but I realized that she would be able to do that as she only removes it when she is a returning survivor.
She did gain 1 disposition for getting first pick for stuff to snack on from these resources, which will help with a bunch of her upcoming rolls.

Whilst we got a nice spread of stuff from this fight initially, I was well aware that we were very likely going to lose half of this haul next Lantern Year anyways.
If you know, you know..

***

I gotta say it again:
Surge would have made this so much easier .. or at the very least, a lot quicker.

Of course the real MVP’s for this fight were the Rawhide Armor Set on Shaogorm as well as the absence of the trap. Every trap would have been another Spiderling spawned and another line-up of attacks by these minions – that could have really gotten ugly!
Honorable mentions go out to the mood that added the Priority Target token to the Spidicules’ attack profiles. Whilst it can lead to Spiderlings dogpiling onto the same survivor, more often than not I think this mood in particular has helped me out in tight spots rather than caused problems.

As you probably can imagine I don’t recommend hunting Spidicules Lvl2 without surge but you can evidently do it. It just takes a lot of time.

And that will be all for today, fighting this spooder took a lot out of me, and writing about it was surprisingly not much different.

As always, thank you very much for your time!
Dear Feline Entity, can we please innovate surge? Or dash? Either one would be fine!
Amathul