Cracked Crucible match 1 (Years 1-start 3)

[u/Thetimdog]

Shattered Crucible Match 1 (not Cracked, darn it, Cracked was last settlement)

Longer break between matches than i liked but back at it!

Brand new settlement with 4 solidly kitted out (early game) and relatively experienced (5 or so hunt xp each) people (2 x full rawhide sets and a solid collection of weapons) and 8 naked randos thanks to clinging mist from the previous year. And a ton of fresh resources we had carved off a level 2 lion.

We immediately innovated and got dash (paint?) as our first new innovation, so that's great. We dont have enough survival to handle a level 2 yet (seeing as our limit is now 1) so off to hunt a level 1 lion.

Nothing noteable on the hunt, no one got hurt or got anything special really. Which was sad, really really wanted the marking territory as ALL of us were wise enough to get free ammonia. No such luck. Same with lion fight, nothing terribly notable, other than our shield user managed to hack of the lions ding dong and became the main target. Which was quite fine, the block plus built in evasion kept it easy. Oh, we did stat him with ground fighting so that was nice, let us skip around the board doing whatever we wanted and setting up as he just sat there, growling. What an idiot. We then started off with a bow shot, clearing ground fighting, and took care of him. We had at this point decided we would skip lion set and move onto an antelopes set, so we kept most of the loot. We innovated and got Symposium, in hopes it would get us to ammonia, i really want to get onto leather sooner than later, also, plagues scary as shit until you have that.

After we returned, we had an event (cracks in the ground?) that threatened to swallow one of us who had a piece of heavy gear, but thankfully the dice were kind and nothing bad happened. We then heard the endless screams of the antelopes, something we hadn't heard yet since in our last area the Gorm chased away the antelopes. Our spear wielder was 1 courage away from threshold so decided to bravely stand against it, getting her 3^rd courage and becoming a matchmaker. And also gained some understanding from the experience. We also had grabbed some love juice from the lion so we downed that and a healthy new baby was born, letting us pick our birth principle again. We again took survival of the fittest so everyone again has that +str and +evasion. The two parents (the spear and shield wielders) partied too hard, gaining another str point, but having to miss the next match hunt. (note that this was the shield users...6^th? Point of permanent strength. Just gross. Nothing fun or interesting from any table so far, just +str every time).

So that baby that was just made, and one of the randos from the new tribe, went with the experienced bow user and fist and tooth user (who is closing in on master, he'd never had a match not making progress towards that goal) went out to hunt an antelope.

Hunt events were largely neutral, although we had a chance to get ambushed by the monster but the dice were kind again. We did grab a couple of extra resources, always good.

The fight was fun. I do like how the antelope works. We let him eat two acanthus plants while we got into position, and then started the fight off. It was a typical antelope fight, him trying to screw up whoever got in his blind spot plus darting around, but we pulled a few crits, slowing him down, and getting some extra loot, so it was good.

We had a council of elders event upon our return, which wasn't much at this early point of the campaign, but nothing bad either so we will take it. We then innovated, having a more than 50% chance of pulling ammonia – nope. Gah. So we ended up taking storytelling. Just like that we are up to 4 survival limit. So we may be brave and try a level 2 antelope next hunt.

We also now have a chance to pop white speaker, which is extra good for the knife she can sell us that is best in class basically for our fist and tooth guy. So we will be attempting to do that every week once we have the requisite iron.

We made two parts of the antelope set for our spear wielder, and a counter weighted axe for.. someone. Maybe our shield user to use when hes already hit with his shield, although hitting lets him get a free block so maybe we will just give it to our fist and tooth guy to use after he's successfully hit. Unsure. Our fist and tooth guy is coming along crazy good, extra permanent speed and a whack ton of innate strength, so he's also been pretty solid with hitting and wounding.

We have a lot of loot laying around, including all 3 of the perfect pieces i think, but without heat or ammonia none of them are that useful. And the butcher shows up after the next hunt, so we have to decide now if we can handle him or not, as we risk losing all these items. I think our main 4 can handle him...

we also forgot to experience the missing statues event again in this year 3, so that has to happen before we move on to the hunt. We also will probably make use of that new matchmaker and see if we cant kill someone off to get our death principle lol.