Yokai Hunt pt 1: a "Casual" Exorcism

I decided to start my morning with some Sengoku: Monster Hunter after having finished a few extra retainers. I decided to make a hunting party consisting of 2 Hunters. As far as their setup, this is how I equipped them, so feel free to copy my setup if you need inspiration or a friend of two suddenly wants to join your hunting party.

This post was sadly not sponsered by either 3i mosquito repellant or Zapp or Tordenskjold matches.

Windgrass Guild (6 CP)
Bonus Range - increase min and max range of bows by +1
Golden Arrow - once per game, +3 shooting for a single attack
Favored Foe - +1 dice when attacking Spiders or Centipedes
Fears - Ghosts

1 CP - Cat Spirit Helper
1 CP - Spearmen Followers
1 CP - Improved Shooting
2 CP - Longbow
1 CP - Sword

Spirit Shaman (6 CP)
Detect Spirits - once per turn peek at marker within 12cm (can’t have been in combat)
Pacify Spirits - roll 2d6 for marker reactions and pick one (can’t have been in combat)
Raise Spirits - a friend within 1cm regains a resolve point
Fears - Oni

1 CP - Sword
3 CP - Experienced Armoured Followers
1 CP - Basic Armor
1 CP - Improved Actions

So as you can see I have a archer with a longbow, an extra shooting dice and a spirit helper to give rerolls, so I can snipe monster from a safe distance. I also hired some spearmen as they can hold monsters at bay due to weapon reach. My shaman was pretty much a must, pacify spirits and detect spirits gives you a good control over the unknown and lets you peer into the fog of war and control encounters more at your own pace. I gave him some rudimentary equipment a group of improved followers to serve as his honor guard and an extra action each turn so he could more easily keep up, use special abilities or order followers.

Having a slight history of Sengoku Monster Hunter deciding to occasionally cream my characters, I decided to pitch myself a soft ball and actually picked out a selection of monster tokens before adding some randoms in there too.

I added two unknowns to spice things up and to fill up the size for a 2 hunter party into the grasslands. It was supposed to be a simple milk run, visit the abandoned village, shoo away some local ghosts and creepy crawlies and get some money and experience in the bag.

As you can see from the first picture, I deployed on the right-most edge, however having to spread out 2 hunters, 4 retainers and a spirit helper meant that I actually got within reveal range of both the markers from the start.

Oh yes but of course, a spider demon. Oh well, we should be able to handle that with a little luck, we just really dont wanna let it near our hunters due to its poison, webs and combat of 5. Speaking of trouble, what does that other marker say? *squints* oh mother fu-

The kamaitachi is probably not as equally vicious as the spider demon, but being a literal whirlwind of razor-claws it has a defense of 8, and a very high movement. Worst of all is that is dashes through foes in a line, slashing madly then a round later the damage is rolled. And I do not wanna be in a tight formation with this little shit around. My troops are slow, so I cant even outrun it if I tried.

After a few failed attacks my windgrass archer picks off the spider with an arrow, and I begin repositioning to prepare for the oncoming kamaitaichi, as well as the two markers on the left of us. My shaman divined that one of them was The Key, so resting a bit more easy I pulled most of my hunters towards the top. The Key isn't a monster but rather a pivotal item for the events in the location. Basically you will have to pick up The Key before you can remove any other events, so its nice to get out of the way early.

With a defense of a silly 8, most of my archers shots flew wide. I even used my once per game golden arrow to no luck. I had been able to stall the kamaitachi earlier by staying just outside its reaction range and flinging off shots, but this time it got up in my face.

I had been slashed, but would still have a round to retaliate before I had to roll the severity of the recieved hit. And hooo boy someone up there likes me, due to what was probably my most insane streak of luck I managed to score a killing shot. For reference, every dice I roll that is a 4+ scores a hit and gives me another roll. So each dice has a 50% chance of scoring a hit and giving you another one. Having score 3 hits out of my first 5 dice, and then 2 from my next 3 I was pretty sure this wasn't gonna happen. But something out there disagreed. 

Continuing onward the second token was revealed to be Good Omen, an event that restores resolve for me, and a divination revealed the last one to be a mere group of skeletons. Skeletons are rather flimsy but have various armaments that can catch you off guard. Regardless, I wasn't intimidated.

Everybody regrouped, scooped up tokens and squared up for another battle.

As lines were getting drawn in the sand and arrows notched, my luck with keeping spirits subdued abruptly ran out. Normally the shaman lets you roll twice for marker reactions and pick the highest (ei most favorable) result, but erm... the dice gives and the dice takes away.

 

In this context a one means that I immediately reveal the marker and have it react if its a monster, plus I slap down ANOTHER hidden marker next to it. Turns out the revealed one is the boroboroton ghost, a possessed kimono trying to wrap around people and smother them. Everyone joined the combat, even my Shaman to help subdue the ghostly fabric. While it was a good plan at the time, when we got around to monster reactions, could no longer soothe spirits, and who'd have guessed....

Yep, another one. So lets flip this bad boy over and add yet another obstacle. 

Ahh but of course, an Armoured Oni. Because who doesn't love armoured, sadistic demonic ogres.... Luckily he mainly just stands around for a while, not quite getting what is going on. Giving me time to cut down skeletons, however in the struggle one of my armoured retainers are murdered by the cotton ghost.

My troops are pretty beaten up at this point, and I still have no idea what the marker next to the Oni is, so I try mustering a defensive line and pelting him with arrows, as I don't wanna charge into something crazy... as luck would have it, instead something crazy charges into me.

Having been in combat, my shaman cannot calm nearby spirits and I of course roll the 3rd 1 in a row for marker reactions, revealing that all monsters are now faster until I remove the marker up there in the corner. Oh yeah and that unknown marker next to the oni? Turns it out it was just a Nue a giant lionoid chimera with a monkey face and a serpent tail, and for its reaction I roll that it immediately gets two moves, plenty for closing distance with me.

Since the monstrous Nue actually isn't even in the rules yet, I used the closest equivelant. The Baku (illustrated below by the incredibly helpful side yokai.com). In Sengoku Baku are large tough and luckily solidary. However each turn they are in play they let out horrible howls that dismay your hunters, and the lion-headed version I went with can score additional rerolls on hits. So just yikes.

Also as it often happens, when things are the most exciting that is when you are the least focused on taking pictures. But through the magic of editing I can gloss over all the near deaths, several heavy blows my shaman put out and how I kept out resolve topped off with the Good Omen and his raise spirits ability. But somehow I made it. The bottom left marker has crept closer to us during the fight, and finally was within range. Large spiders aren't as impressive as was I just went through, so it got twanged pretty good by an arrow.

After sorting that mess out, I was one again free to divine what was lurking top left next to the monster speed bonus. It turned out to be a single Oni with a blade. Knowing that I hand plenty of time to set up my archer and next lure it out with my shaman.

Better luck next time champ. And with my shaman nicking the final token, the hunt is over and my final tally sheet looks like this. All four of my retainers are dead, my archer got 2 wounds and nearly ran out of resolve, however they earned 6 CP, while my Shaman earned 5.

So finally we reach the post game sequence, my still unnamed archer will have to make a recovery roll, and will have a penalty both for loosing all retainers and for being badly wounded. I decide to spend 2 of her CP to aid in her recovery. And I manage to roll a 1 on the recovery table. She is still recovering from the encounter and stays at 1 wound. If I leave her in bed over the next game she'll get another recovery dice, so I'll likely do that. However she does recover all her lost resolve from the run in with the Nue. After each hunt you can also spend a CP to improve a characters stats and of course I wanna do that, I wanna bump her shooting to an impressive 5. Leaving her with a cache of 3 CP left for later. [edit] Guild dues are a thing, and of course she had to pay a tithe of 3 CP.

My shaman is unwounded and has lost no resolve. And I still have his 5 CP to spend. I am gonna spend a whopping 3 of them to rehire my Experienced Armoured Followers, since they really helped out. And I spend another 1 CP on improving his attributes. I increase his movement.

And that was my first hunt with these fellas, I likely will play more games as time goes by. For now the big question is whether my Shaman will go into battle alone next hunt, or maybe bring along a new face?

Also if any of you have suggestions for names for our two protagonists, please let me know. :)