Kingdom Death: Monster – Gorm Expansion Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Upgrade the Core Game
• Current Campaign
• New Campaign
• Gorm Rules
  • Monster Level Symbol
  • Retch
  • Flank Bonus
  • Gorment Gear & Gorment Armor Set
• The Approaching Storm
  • Brave the Storm
• Fetid Grotto
  • Approach the Cave
  • Blind Exit
• Final March
  • Digested
  • Timid Entrance
• Showdown: Gorm
  • Encounter Levels
  • Instinct: Illuminate
  • Terrain & Deployment
  • Aftermath
  • Rewards
• Melting Horror
  • Witness

Upgrade the Core Game

• Add the Gorm Card Divider, AI, Hit Location, Hunt, and Resource cards to the monster section of the core game box.
• Add the new disorders to the Disorders deck.
• Add the new fighting arts to the Fighting Arts deck.
• Add the new secret fighting art to the Secret Fighting Arts deck.
• Add the new gear and Armor Set bonus card to the game box.
• Add the new Innovations to the innovation cards in the game box (not your settlement's deck).
• Add the new settlement event to the Settlement Event deck.

Use the following story events in this book in addition to the Kingdom Death: Monster core game story events:

The Approaching Storm, Showdown: Gorm, Fetid Grotto, Final March, and Melting Horror

When a story event in this book is triggered, it is denoted by the monster and book icon preceding the event name.

Current Campaign

To add the Gorm to your current campaign, add the story event The Approaching Storm (a story event found in this book) to the next lantern year on the timeline. When you trigger it, read the story and follow it through to the resolution of the event.

New Campaign

To add the Gorm to a new campaign, add the story event The Approaching Storm to the settlement's record sheet during Lantern Year 1 on the timeline. Trigger this event after the Returning Survivors event.

Gorm Rules

Monster Level Symbol

The ★ symbol on all game cards and events refers to the monster's level. For example, the Gorm's Infrasonic Roar AI card instructs all survivors to suffer ★ brain damage. In a showdown against a level 2 Gorm, this would be 2 brain damage.

Retch

Some of the Gorm's AI and Hit Location cards direct it to perform Retch. This action causes damage to all survivors in the indicated zone. Terrain, survivors or other effects on the board will not modify this zone.

Flank Bonus

Some of the Gorm's Hit Location cards grant a strength bonus for survivors attacking from certain spaces. When one of these locations is selected, if the attacker is adjacent but not in the monster's facing or blind spot, gain that bonus.

The Mammoth Hunting fighting art uses the same positioning rules to determine when a strength bonus is granted. If a survivor with Mammoth Hunting attempts to wound a hit location with a flank bonus, apply both strength bonuses if appropriate.

Gorment Gear & Gorment Armor Set

The Gorment Suit gear in this expansion provides armor levels to more than one survivor hit location. The survivor is considered to be wearing armor at all listed hit locations.

A survivor wearing the Gorment Suit would also need to have the Gorment Mask, Gorment Sleeves, and Gorment Boots gear cards in their grid to gain the Gorment Armor full set bonus.

The Gorment Armor full set bonus lists two different possible bonuses. Use the first bonus, unshaded, when using the 4 gear cards listed above. Use the second bonus, shaded, for a survivor with those 4 cards in their grid as well as the Regeneration Suit gear. Note that this bonus differs from, and adds to, the listed effects of that gear.

The Approaching Storm

Story Event. The settlement's weather takes a turn for the worse.

[Narrative text omitted: the opening paragraph describing the approaching storm clouds and rain.]

You may now hunt the Gorm. Add it to the quarry list on the settlement record sheet.

Add the Gorm Climate to the next lantern year on the timeline.

Nominate a survivor. They gain +1 insanity and Brave the Storm.

Brave the Storm

Roll 1d10.

• 1-2: The nominated survivor braces themselves against the wind, struggling against the storm. A sudden bolt of blazing-green lightning strikes them down. They gain the Absent Seizures disorder.
• 3-6: The survivor stands in the torrent. Pulsing, psychedelic lights strike them, bringing them to their knees. In a flash of morbid inspiration, the nominated survivor takes a stone to their own eyes. They suffer the blind severe head injury and gain +1 permanent speed.
• 7-10: The resolute survivor stands strong in the face of the oncoming storm. Struggling against the mighty winds, he gathers the settlement together to build a shelter against the sickening storms. If they have not innovated it yet, the settlement gains the Hovel innovation. Returning survivors gain +1 survival.

Fetid Grotto

Story Event. Approaching their quarry, the survivors are overcome by a sickening miasma.

When the survivors arrive at the showdown, each survivor Approaches the Cave. During the aftermath, all victorious survivors make a Blind Exit.

Approach the Cave

Each survivor rolls 1d10.

The Gorm's den can be tracked by smell from a great distance. Your eyes water and your stomach twists in knots as you approach.

• 1-3: The weak stomach prevails. You stop at the mouth of the Gorm's den, doubled over in pain. Roll 1d10.
  • 1: You are hopelessly sickened and crawl your way back to the settlement without arriving at the showdown.
  • 2-7: Incessant coughing. Suffer the collapsed lung severe body injury.
  • 8+: You heave until you retch nothing more than bile. Suffer 1 event damage to the body location that ignores armor.
• 4-7: The entrance to the Gorm's den swims with putrid vapor. As the survivors consult among themselves in hushed, rasping tones, you decide to combat the miasma with a little ingenuity, putting your waist armor on your head. Add your current waist armor points to your head armor points and reduce your waist armor points to 0. Gain +2 insanity and +2 survival.
• 8-10: Tears streaming and lungs burning, you stumble into the den. Roll 1d10.
  • 1: Your tears obscure your vision. Gain -1 accuracy token.
  • 2-7: You fall to your knees, sinking into the muck. When you regain your footing, you find yourself clutching a clean, bleached bone. Gain 1 Monster Bone basic resource.
  • 8+: The fumes burn your brain. Suffer the frenzy brain trauma.

Blind Exit

Each victorious survivor rolls 1d10.

Sickened and exhausted, the survivors attempt to investigate the hazy Gorm den.

• 1-3: You stumble, lost and gagging in the caustic mist. The enervating effects of your surroundings take their toll. Suffer -1 permanent strength. You emerge dragging 1 random basic resource in your spasming fists.
• 4-6: You find the jiggling, delicate mass of a newborn Gorm helplessly laying in an oozing nest of debris.
  • If you have 3+ courage, you may slay the infant and gain 1 random Gorm resource. If you do, the ghostly cry of the dying Gorm shakes you to your core. Gain the Megalophobia disorder.
  • If you do not slay the infant Gorm, you stumble away from the nest, flailing wildly in the blinding mist. Gain +1 understanding and the Honorable disorder.
• 7-9: Crawling on your hands and knees to avoid the burning mists, pools of acid burn your limbs. Gain the Acid Palms ability and suffer -1 permanent movement. If you have the Legendary Lungs secret fighting art, you spend extra time exploring and emerge with an Acid Gland Gorm resource.
  • Acid Palms: Add 1d10 strength to your wound attempts when attacking with Fist & Tooth.
• 10: Gasping in the den's thick mist, you struggle to breathe. You may spend 3 survival to gain the Legendary Lungs secret fighting art.

Final March

Story Event. The survivors lay a trap to discover the elusive final resting place of the ancient Gorm.

Nominate a survivor to become the Ancient Gorm's Bait and be removed from the Hunt. During the Hunt Phase, when the Ancient Gorm's Bait would be the hunt event revealer, they are Digested instead. Move the survivors along the Hunt Board as normal. At the start of the showdown, each non-bait survivor makes a Timid Entrance and the Ancient Gorm's Bait is placed, knocked down, adjacent to the monster.

Digested

Roll 1d10.

The survivor runs wildly into the path of the lumbering ancient Gorm, wriggling its body like an ecstatic worm. The sinewy arms of the Gorm's sagging maw snatch them up. The rest of the survivors follow the bait's lantern light that shows through the ancient Gorm's distended, papery gut.

• 1: Swimming in the caustic soup of the Gorm's gut, your armor levels at a random hit location are reduced to 0 and you gain 1 bleeding token.
• 2-3: The bubbling acids of the Gorm's gut destroy your gear. Choose one piece of gear in your gear grid and archive it.
• 4-6: Heaving and choking on the sloshing fluids of the Gorm's stomach, you struggle to keep your head together. Lose 2 survival and gain a random disorder.
• 7-9: The slow, shambling motion is sickening, the smell is gut-wrenching, and the moisture makes your skin burn. Lose 1 survival and suffer 3 brain event damage.
• 10: The complex biome of the Gorm's insides wondrously affects your body. You may remove a permanent injury of your choice.

Timid Entrance

Each survivor rolls 1d10.

• 1: Despite carefully picking through the mountains of sharp bones and bubbling acrid pools, you trip, causing a noisy avalanche of debris. Suffer the broken leg severe injury and gain the priority target token.
• 2-3: The mournful howl of the approaching ancient Gorm weakens your resolve. Set your insanity to 0 and gain the Megalophobia disorder.
• 4-6: Shuffling past the debris-strewn mounds shreds your leg armor. Suffer 3 event damage to your legs location. Your hapless struggle dislodges something useful. Gain 1 random basic resource.
• 7-9: Centuries' worth of bleached bones stretch as far as the eye can see. Eerie shadows play over the gormyard from the swaying light of the approaching monster's lure. Gain the Lure Epilepsy fighting art.
• 10: Picking through rubble, you spot a gleaming black mass bobbing in the tarry depths of a nearby pool. Carefully, you fish out the stone, which is stunningly heavy. Gain 1 Gormite strange resource.
  • Shaded box: If you have no survival when you approach the pool, your exhaustion makes you stumble. As you emerge, the tar seems permanently stuck to your body, granting newfound stability. Gain 1 Gormite strange resource and the Immovable Object secret fighting art.

Showdown: Gorm

Story Event. Quarry.

[Narrative text omitted: the opening paragraph describing the giant beast and the storms.]

Select an encounter level and set up the hunt board.

The hunt board diagram is a graphic: a row of tiles marked E, and tiles marked 1, 2 and 3 with the Gorm symbol, around a central tile of the Gorm's den. The graphic is not transcribed further.

Encounter Levels

Level	B	A	L	Mov	Tgh	Spd	Dmg
1	8	2	-	6	8	-	-
2	9	5	-	9	11	+1	+1
3	10	8	2	8	15	+2	+2

• Level 1: no hunt location or named items printed.
• Level 2: If you depart to hunt the level 2 Gorm, [monster and book icon] Fetid Grotto. Printed names: Gorm's Den, Musth.
• Level 3: If you depart to hunt the level 3 Gorm, [monster and book icon] Final March. Printed names: Ancient Tusks, Gormyard. Tokens: +1 Luck.

The lettered icons B, A and L are the monster stat icons as printed. The small marker glyph before each printed name is not legible at this resolution and is omitted.

Instinct: Illuminate

The Gorm's bulb increases in intensity, suddenly making the darkness light. Until the end of the next round, all survivors are now threats, even if they are knocked down or used an effect that says otherwise. Insane survivors are thrown into wild fits. They are knocked down.

The Blind Spot diagram is a graphic showing the monster's blind spot on the grid.

Terrain & Deployment

• 1 Tall Grass terrain card, set up in the green zone.
• 2 random terrain cards, set up normally.
• Place the Gorm in the center of the board.
• Place survivors in any of the blue spaces.

A legend on the setup diagram reads: Survivors (blue), Monster (red), Tall Grass (green).

Aftermath

Victory

• +1 Hunt XP
• +1 Weapon Proficiency (if eligible)
• • Rewards

Defeat

The Gorm roots through the bodies, devouring whatever it can from the remains. Archive all consumable gear from the deceased survivors' grids.

Rewards

The first time the Gorm is defeated, add Gormery and Gormchymist to the settlement locations. If they have not innovated it yet, the settlement gains the Nigredo innovation.

The group gains the following rewards:

Level	Reward
1	4 basic, 4 Gorm resources.
2	4 basic, 6 Gorm resources.
3	4 basic, 8 Gorm resources, 1 Stomach Lining strange resource.

If the settlement innovated Song of the Brave when they defeat the Gorm:

They compose a formidable song filled with wild cries to ward off the mating Gorm herds from the settlement's vicinity. Remove Gorm Climate from the next lantern year on the timeline.

Melting Horror

Story Event. Shocked to be standing, the bitten survivor clutches their wounds in disbelief.

Before the others' eyes, the survivor's look of relief disintegrates as the toxic microbes of the Gorm's ancient bite hungrily liquefy their flesh. All other survivors on the showdown board witness the atrocity.

Witness

Each survivor rolls 1d10.

• 1-2: Your mind is melted by the scene unfolding before you. Unable to erase the afterimage of gore from your eyes, you slide away to your happy place. You are knocked down and gain the Absent Seizures disorder.

• 3-7: Light-headed, a gentle spinning sensation brings you to the ground. Heaving and drooling, you take this opportunity to steel your nerves. Gain +3 survival and the Lure Epilepsy fighting art.

  • Shaded box: If the settlement has innovated Pottery, the victorious survivors scrape the still-bubbling remains and gain 1 Life Elixir gear during the Aftermath.

• 8-10: Rooted

  In a moment of realization, you see that this is the very essence of your existence. Helplessness and terror give way to a cold, solid feeling in the pit of your stomach. As you watch your friend disintegrate, the sensation runs down your legs, rooting you in place and dissipating your desperate desire to flee. Gain -1 permanent movement and the Immovable Object fighting art.