We have officially made it into the month of November which means one thing for KD:M most of all: Black Friday is approaching and with it the annual discounts!
As more people are starting to have more and more questions about this biggest sale of the KD:M year, I will be doing another “check-in” at the end of the week, giving my opinion on what to expect in general as well as what to potentially get expansion-wise, similar to what I did last year.

But for today we are stuck with another Spidicules hunt and it’s a short one as well. Not only did I regress in terms of monster power – yes that is not a typo, we are fighting a Lvl1 again – but we are also not getting a settlement phase as this is still happening in Lantern Year 8.
So, in an attempt to make up for this, here – have a picture of the Feline Entity playing in her pile of KD:M wrapping paper!

But time’s a-wasting, and I do still have one more doozy of another spooder hunt in my back-pocket, so let’s get this filler-episode out of the way!

***

With our survivors more or less returned to us in one piece after a .. successful(?) performance in the Lion Knight’s play, we were ready to take on the second, fairly short half of the settlement phase as well as the actual hunt of Lantern Year 8.
And, yes, according to the newer rules on the Node page of the official KD:M website, the Lion Knight would be played as a regular showdown in all 3 of its encounter, but, as mentioned last time, I wanted to play it as the monster’s rulebook intended for this first time using it (which all the problems and second guessing that it brought along).

Of course, without any new endeavors there wasn’t much left to do for us at home in the Gormpital and we started making preparations to head out and go on a hunt immediately!

Also, with most of our best survivors currently out of action due to the pelting rain conjured up by the passing herd of Gorm before we had been abducted for the performance of a life-time, I was willing to go backwards and kill a Lvl1 Spooder again this Lantern Year.
My reasoning was that we needed to get Kigorm back into the fold, and that we REALLY needed surge for another Lvl2 fight. I really wanted to avoid having to head into another 3+ hour-hunt.
Also, with 1 more Web Silk, 1 bone and a hide we would be able to build the 4th non-Lvl3 piece of Silk Armor anyway. So we’d still be making progress even with this Lvl1 monster. if admittedly, not as much as was possible.

Oh! And this was some extra hunt xp should we go after a Gorm Lvl2 as well – to avoid the worst bit of the Gorm Den!

The Hunters:
Gormward – blue (silk bits, Bone Blade)
Gormecca – green (Rib Blade, Amber Edge)
Gormvoc – red (Rawhide Armor, Greater Gaxe)
Magorm – yellow (Rawhide Armor, Riot Mace)

Gormward still had to come along, but he was keen on gaining another point of sword spec at least!

The Huntphase:
As the group set out to find and rescue Kigorm, the hunters soon found themselves in a network of shallow tunnels which equally soon collapsed in on themselves in a gigantic Cave-in! This was overall great news for the courageous Gormvoc who immediately went out exploring the underground Crystal Lake they had crashed into. And in a series of extremes he first found a pathway to yet another even deeper hold (10), then almost got eaten by a group of suspicious individuals (1) but thanks to his lifetime reroll he managed to escape their “invitation” and instead found a giant blacksmith toiling away. The huge one-eyed monster was even willing to hear his request (10) and forged him a shiny new helmet!

Most pieces of Lantern Armor would have been a decent choice here at this point, even as they tore one of our Rawhide Armor sets apart for this hunt, but I picked the helmet so I could use it together with the silk bits in a grid until we managed to kill a Lvl3 spooder for the turban.
As the group continued along their path through the treacherous darkness, they stopped in front of another Lonely Bridge. Even with a +7 to the roll, a 1 was still low enough to keep the group from crossing and they had to take the long way around yet again!
As Gormward continued to lead the party along the edge of the ravine, he suddenly came Face-to-Face (basic HE17) with a stone face that reminded him of Gormwry! And whilst he finally found the courage to say his goodbyes to her for now, he suffered deeply for it.
Pushing onwards, tears still welling up, Gormward found a group of Refugees (basic HE51) fleeing from the Spidicules’ territory. Without a Leader (FA) in the group, I didn’t see the need to communicate with them and just left them be without giving away a piece of gear.
Getting closer to this Spidicules’ nest the survivors got briefly distracted by another Space Between the Rocks (basic HE62). Though only Magorm, who was our straggler, lost herself staring into the pitch-black abyss. And whatever she had seen in there had left her Traumatized (D) – this did however remove her Megalophobia (D). So I cosidered it a win as well!

What a great hunt! Whilst it cost us a reroll, getting a free piece of Lantern Armor is always great (outside of PotSun maybe)!

As the survivors approached the Spidicules’ nest, they spotted an Ore Vein and a Perfect Lantern close to the monster – our random terrain!

9 (10) cards in the deck, the monster came rushing at the survivors with a basic action immediately, caused by the mood Caustic Pheromones entering play.
Each attack made by the Spidicules was set to apply the Priority Target token via an After Damage effect from then on and Magorm was the first to get hit by it. 2 hits for 1DMG each found their mark, and Magorm dodged the attack to her head, but still was left marked for the next turn.

Starting off our counter-attack, Magorm immediately tried to return the favor. She took one step to be underneath the monster and attacked it with only 1SPD due to her broken rib.. and she missed on a 3+.
Gormecca then attempted to gather the Iron from the Ore Vein but failed miserably on a 2 – there was absolutely nothing in there!
Meanwhile, Gormward tore into the closer of the 2 Egg Sacs and exposed an unfinished Spiderling, which died instantly. Finally he Hoarder (D) Gormvoc failed to collect the Perfect Lantern despite his +2 bonus to the roll!

9 (10) cards still remaining, the Spidicules moved a single space backwards to get an angle on its Priority Target: Magorm, trying to Puncture her from above! Only 1 hit landed, which meant she was able to dodge the Priority Target token this time but not the follow up bleed as the spear-like legs kept on slamming down onto her and the larger area.

Keeping it simple, Magorm stepped back under the monster and struck its Auxiliary Eyes, which she successfully managed to wound but was bashed away as a Spiderling crawled out of the large nest nearby. I do like for my survivors to get evacuated like this, to be honest.
Meanwhile, Gormecca continued rolling terribly as she approached the remaining Egg Sacs and got a 1, knocking her knocked down with a Spiderling right next to her!

Gormward on the other hand kept his cool and just snagged the Pyrolytic Light off of its pedestal.
Last but not least .. or so I thought .. Gormvoc swung his Greater Gaxe and failed to wound the Cunning Forelegs! He too, was bashed away as our turn ended.

8(9) cards remaining, 2 Spiderlings in play and the Spidicules turned up the heat by drawing Eighty Angry Legs – the mood giving all Spiderlings +1DMG!
The Spidicules was still attacking Magorm even with her knocked down, but it missed both hits this time (4+)!

Both Gormward and Gormecca then were hit by their respective Spiderlings and they each dodged the 2 incoming DMG.

Finally attacking something, Gormecca managed to smush the Spiderling next to her without much effort, just as Magorm took another quick step forward again and broke one of the monster’s Cunning Forelegs.

2nd time’s the charm for Gormvoc as well! He approached the Spidicules and hit it twice more and even dealt a critical hit to the Forehead Stalk, causing the last remaining Spiderling to explode!
Freed up from fighting the minion all of a sudden, Gormward joined the other two under the monster and attacked as well! Hitting on 3s and wounding on 2+ he found 2 more easy wounds!

3 (4) cards remaining, 1 leg removed, the monster was already down to 2 moods and only 1 attack left in its entire deck! It re-drew Caustic Pheromones, and with 3 people under the monster it could only see Gormecca! Thus it rushed over to her for the basic attack.
She dodged the hit to her exposed head but took 1DMG to her equally unarmored legs, and thus the Priority Target token as well.

With a Perfect Hit, Gormecca returned the favor, inflicting a wound as well, but the Spidicules ran away from her afterwards, leaving the rest of the team stranded and only able to reposition.

2 (3) cards left in the deck, 1 leg removed, the Priority Target token drew the monster back in! Pulverize was drawn and both Gormecca and Gormvoc suffered under the sharp appendages of the Spidicules.
Gormecca also took 2 hits from the attack, dodging 1 as usual.

Gormecca turned around and hit the monster for 1 more wound before Gormward wanted to be cute and activated the Silk Nest for his act because I saw the opportunity to gain a Skull (which we needed for the Stone Macathuitl seed pattern)! Well.., he found 2 more Spiderlings instead!

Gormvoc then missed his attack entirely before Magorm crushed the Segmented Arms. This was only 1 additional wound, which meant that the monster was still alive!

0 (1) card remaining, 1 leg removed, 3 Spiderlings suddenly on the field, the Spidicules was down to only its basic action left, and it continued attacking Gormecca.
She did take the 1 hit on purpose to keep the Priority Target token on her and draw the attention of the Spiderlings away from Gormward. The minions then had to run around the clumped up survivors and only 1 of them managed to even reach Gormecca!

In an attempt to actually get that Skull, I had both Magorm and Gormvoc also activate the Silk Nest but they were only horrified by what they found – taking some brain damage.

After a quick moment of deliberation I sent in Gormecca as well and she did it! She actually high-rolled and found a Skull for us with a perfect Lantern 10!

With all resources gathered, Gormward was eager to finally finish off the monster and with 1 hit .. he drew into a super-dense hit location – because of course he did!
Whilst Gormward managed to deal the killing blow, another of his many Bone Blades shattered under the weight of his lasting grudge.

6 Spiderlings scattered all at once as we started collecting our rewards.
Gormvoc (Tough FA, which he already had) and Gormecca (Beginner’s Luck FA, the 2nd strain FA for the campaign) reached age 1 picking axe and grand spec respectively.
Magorm finally achieved club specialization as all 4 survivors gained 1 point of weapon spec.
We then searched the nest for Kigorm. We did find him but he was a shell of his former self – he had turned Apathetic (D)in his time away from the settlement, because I had only rolled a 4.

At least the resources I drew (and had gathered during the fight) looked very promising for us!

As the survivors wrap up this quick fight against a tiny, basically the smallest of spooders, we end this filler-episode with another chance to innovate next Lantern Year.

Please, game, please just give me surge – I don’t want to spend 3+ hours in another Spidicules Lvl2 fight!

***

At this point I have done my due diligence and we are back on track to continue with Lantern Year 9 soon. Both Shaogorm and Aeneas will be ready to head out again next time as well so we should aim for something bigger!
But before we continue with the Gormpital we’ll have a quick chat about Black Friday first, as mentioned at the very start of this post.

And I’ll leave it at that for today.
As always, thank you very much for your time, how many more spiders will it take?
Amathul