So I've been sort of pondering / dreading my next Sengoku installment. Do I bring another hunter along? Do I do a 'quick and easy' hunt with my shaman and his followers or what? Feel that my current playing surface is pretty good for two hunters plus followers, and I fear it'll get crowded in the future with 3 hunters and the 12+ monster markers I'll have to dish out. Instead I choose to spend my Shamans one remaining CP from previous hunt on a Spirit Hound follower. The hound aids its master in combat and helps keep him safe. Thematically I've decided that discovering all the unexpected Oni in the haunted village, my Shaman has now set off to cut off the source - a vicious Oni Shaman residing in a nearby cave where she brews demons and curses to set upon mankind.
As with last time, I pre-determine a part of the marker pool. We will have the shaman herself, a lantern ghost with a stand-in maker since I forgot to make one, the Gate and an unknown marker. Because this is her lair the shaman have of course taken actions to protect herself, in this case represented by the Gate. Think of it as a reincarnation site, when monsters are slain they will simply reappear at the Gate until you disrupt it.
Early game was easy and laid back as spirits were subdued, and my shaman could divine what the closest markers were. The top left one is he lantern ghost, and the bottom one turned out to be my quarry.
I slinked up into position to fight the shaman, but she didn't take any shit, immediately charging in and killing my one armoured escort. Getting within 6cm of my shaman also gave him the willies, as he realised "Oh yeah, there's a reason I fear Oni"
And then in a turn of absolute tactical idiocy I decided to charge in to dog-pile the shaman. You see quite like my own shaman, the Oni one also messes with markers, but makes them more likely to roll low, so with my ability to affect them prevented by melee combat, her allies started stirring. Pair that with my shamans waning resolve and weaker attacks and well, yikes.
So things are becoming bad here, the top left marker was revealed to be the lantern ghost plus something else, the top one near the cave was revealed to be the Gate, so any kills now will be kind of moot. And on top of that an unknown threat is also creeping closer now. So at this point I do what any idiot with a shovel would - dig myself an even deeper hole.
I try to have my escort occupy the Oni as I dont wanna risk my shaman running out of resolve, and my shaman runs towards the gate, revealing all sorts of nastiness on the way. First and foremost we had the one unknown turn out to be my defense 8 pal the Kamaitachi, well within range to attack my shaman and his dog. The second unknown is the Eritategoromo or Spirit of the Kimono, a powerful tengu spirit. Quite to my surprise and delight I had a lot of effects to roll up for monster reactions, since both the lantern and kimono spirit are manipulators rather than fighters.
A blast of despair hits my shaman as he strides towards the summoning circle, hounded by razor winds. His resolve is dissipated, and because the kimono spirit is the cause it becomes his new Fear, replacing his old one the Oni race. You can fortunately go on with 0 resolve, but you become liklely to break down. Furthermore more foulness was a foot, the lantern ghost could lure him astray and prevent him from disrupting the summoning circle....
Instead the lantern fades from view, lying in wait. But in the seeming despair there is a ray of light - along with a rules question. My armoured follower manages to kill the Shaman, and not just kill, but score a Trophy Kill - something that takes scoring an obscene amount of hits, and cures you of your fear plus giving you permanent bonuses against this kind of monster in the future. Which is sweet right?! But.... The Gate. I wasn't exactly sure from the rulebook how to resolve this, so I went with the logic of the narrative - the Oni wasn't just wounded, but massacred, so its wounds were to grave to return from.
Meanwhile my shaman has removed the Gate and approached the lantern to get a shot at some easy CP when it re-appears. But of course it chooses to stay hidden and invulnerable. During the following turn the Kamaitachi then proceeds to slaughter my armoured follower. I am again not entirely sure how the rules are on vulentarily retreating but I figured at this point it was a question of cutting losses. So I treated it as my hunter suffering Panic and fleeing the field with a -1 to post game recovery.
So the lay of the land is a little drab right now. My shaman has only 2 CP, my archer has none and I have some recoveries to roll and some training to figure out. My shaman easily recovers his 3 resolve. His 2 CP is spent on training +1 Combat and on hiring more guards. And due to having been resting, my archer fully recovers her 2 lost wounds and her 2 lost resolve as well.
So next hunt will be my two heroes, my two armoured followers (non experienced this time sadly) as well as both spirit animals.
Comments
Post a Comment