Tell us your stories

[Storytime]

I had finally gotten a fairly safe outpost established with a steady income. Still, I hadn't ventured past Heng and the Great Desert. I wondered what sights awaited out there. So, I packed up my fastest scout and a trusty garru and headed southeast.

Along the way, I saw great hulks in the desert from a past forgotten age. I passed several groups of outlaw farmers, but stayed below the ridgelines and passed them by without event. Walking further, darkness fell. I would have to trust to my scout's nimble speed. Soon enough, in the distance I spotted several lights, indicating a settlement of some sort. Going further, I could see several low hanging tents and mats laying on the ground with clusters of peasants. I was able to glean a few spoiled pieces of meat for the garru at no cost. Even better, one of the peasants decided to join me. I named him "Peasant".

I had noticed that in the past, usually where there were tent encampments, there would be a city nearby as well. I scanned the horizon, and sure enough, noticed at the top of a nearby hill a small cluster of buildings surrounded by a meager fence. As we strode into the cluster's center, the buildings stood dark. I sent Peasant in after having him give up his valuables to the garru (I'd had early experience with giant striders taking up residence in abandoned buildings and ambushing me, taking the feet from a previous scout). I was pleasantly surprised by a low lit but welcoming interior with a barman, mercenaries and tech hunters as well as the odd drifter seated around nearby tables. I took the opportunity to rest, waiting until morning to set out again. I hadn't money to hire mercenaries or the two drifters who offered their services.

Morning came, and I ventured further east. As the sun rose above the mountaintops, I chanced upon a slaver camp and decided to investigate. These slavers were especially cruel and continuously spoke of selling their slaves for bone meal. During one of these exchanges, yelling voices split the air outside the gate and the clang of metal sounded. I rushed out with my companions to observe the battle. Black clad bandits were suiciding against superior numbers. Even as I came out of the gate, three were already lying on the ground getting looted by the defenders. Two more came in, only to also be cut down. I and Peasant scooped up two even as they were being picked over. We looted the remaining items from their packs and sold them inside the camp.

Moving on. Further east, the ground split into canyons and very strange rock formations with blue outcroppings. I chose a likely looking path and sped up the party. I didn't like the looks of things. Peasant was the slowest of us, still respectably quick, but noticeably slowing the party down. I pushed myself and the garru to our limits and let Peasant begin to hang back. No sooner had we gotten to the middle of the canyon, a bandit stepped out from behind a rock behind us. I sized him up and let Peasant keep coming to draw him closer as I pulled out my crossbow. As I drew a bead however, more began to pour out from behind the outcropping and I could sense an oncoming rush of yet more from a side branch of the canyon, swooping down to meet us. There was no time to lose! We all stampeded headlong toward the other side of the canyon, the direction we were originally going, with no less than 10-15 bandits running full speed behind us.

As we poured out into the valley, I began to split the party members to draw them into separate groups. It turned out to be a mistake however. While we had the speed to keep our distance, the valley came alive with an ancient threat. Long necked beak things running twice as fast noticed our entrance. It was all we could do to stay alive! I drew the beak things into the bandit mob, hoping the two groups would engage with each other. All along, two massive creatures kept swiping at my garru and Peasant. I was able to have the third distracted into a fight with the bandits. He made short work of two of them. Unluckily however, another group of bandits knocked me unconscious and I began to bleed out. The garru and Peasant were able to escape and hide in some bushes. Peasant then watched as I slowly succombed to my fate, my life draining onto the valley floor. The beak things were picking apart several bandit victims and the rest had fled. As night fell, the beak things withdrew further into the valley, missing my body in the darkness. Peasant slowly ventured forth to attempt to save me, who knows why, given how I'd used him earlier. Near miss! A beak thing noticed movement and came running, Peasant barely made it to the canyon. It seems beak things stay out of that.

Just when it looked like I would certainly bleed to death on the valley floor as the moon rose, a contingent of United Cities soldiers burst into the valley and challenged Peasant "Halt - don't move! Don't move a muscle!" As he froze, the sergeant ran closer, then realizing Peasant was not a threat, moved on. The soldiers engaged and slaughtered three beak things. As my blood dripped, I could hear many more resonating in the night. Peasant used the opportunity to run in and bandage my sides. One of the soldier medics even helped. Then, as quickly as they came, the United soldiers disappeared into the night. Finishing the bandaging, we had lost them and had no idea which direction they went into the fog. Going back up through the canyon was not an option in our reduced state, but the beak things were also a daunting prospect.

As I attempted to get up, I noticed that my legs were not responding. In the heat of the battle, I had lost full use of both of my legs. At a loss for what to do, I had Peasant pick me up and we snuck to a high rock outcropping in the middle of the valley. With the light of the moon, we could see long necks everywhere around us below. Crickets serenaded our doom. It seemed that half of the valley was in fact a swamp. Nasty acidic looking vapors rose from half the ground. Then, we noticed to our right and among the islands, a lone light. Pointing the garru at it, Peasant and I hunkered down and hid among the rocks at the top of that tall hill.

Bravely going, the garru snuck amongst groups of massive beasts, his little light making it seem impossible they would miss him. I don't know what I thought sending the garru would accomplish. Maybe there was something of worth out there, salvation even? As luck would have it, a bandit with a deadeye with a cross bow inconceivably out in the islands hit the garru in the head twice, knocking him out as he swam. Two dinosaur beak things swam from the other side of the island to meet his floating body and began to feed. We watched in horror as his limbs were slowly consumed and his unconscious body was thrown about in the water.

As the next dawn came, we knew, the beak things once again ran playfully through the valley, and we with half their speed had little hope of making it out. It appears the canyon really is our only hope. Peasant may not make it with me. Will I send him on alone? Attempt to find another branch out of the canyon and chance the nearby village I thought I spotted in the mad rush into the valley? Only time will tell. I do not expect to make it out of here alive.

[Felklaw]

I don't have a best story yet since my first game in Kenshi was nearly 7 years ago.
I do recall absolutely loving the concept, and I bought it straight away (Nov, 2011)
I recall playing for a while and having a blast of a time (learning how to run away, I think those Monty Python guys were onto something...) but my older machine struggled and when I upgraded I forgot to install Kenshi again.

Time warp forward to today and I see Kenshi showing up in Steam ! Congrats, and I immediately installed it again and will be making new stories as soon as the download finishes.
Just wanted to post to say that I believed in Chris and his vision back then, without a second's hesitation, and he has proven why those of us that supported Kenshi so long ago and supported Chris were onto something amazing.

Bloody brilliant mate, and here's to at least another 7 years of Kenshi!

[DeathKnyte]

Wanderer Start. The concept was playing a solo pacifist. I turned on Block and Passive orders and never touched them again.

Was running a trade route between the Rebel Base, Squin, Way Station (South of Squin), and The Hub. Mostly alcohol and sundry low cost items.

I'm on the leg of coming out of the Way Station and heading for The Hub. Spent all my cats on goods and two pieces of dried meat. Shortly I encounter a female Shek, who states something like "I will prove myself against you, flatskin!". I said; "Really?" - let me verify my stats. I bring up the window and besides a few points in strength and maybe 20 in athletics, the remaining ones are all either 1, 0, or -1. To top it all off, this Shek is wielding the jagged edged elongated cricket bat, you know, the weapon that lops off limbs. I said; "My my, you certainly are a courageous one, proving yourself against the likes of me!"

I immediately turn around and head for the confines of the Way Station, and surprisingly, the Shek follows me inside. Wow, I didn't think that she would, so I run into the bar, then up to the roof and position myself between four of the guards. If you are familiar with this particular Way Station, the guards all like to sleep on the bed rolls in the short section of the "L" on the roof. This was my position, and being in the day light, meant that they were all standing around me. Now I yell at the Shek below; "Whatcha gonna do now, big stupid Shek? You're brave enough to prove yourself against me, but not against real warriors, like these guards, eh?"

She starts running around in circles for a bit, like she didn't know where she was going. I thought she was caught in some kind of logic loop, or something. Then, all of a sudden, she runs up the ramp to the nearby wall, man's a turret - swivels it completely around (the game says that turrets can swivel 180 degrees, but I have now learned that it is actually 360 degrees!) - and fires at me! The bolt hits my leg, brings it to -60 life, and I immediately collapse into unconsciousness! The Shek then says something like "Worthless flatskin" and walks out of the Way Station.

I was stunned, but also sincerely impressed. She sure knew how to handle the situation with me!

Now, I'm watching my character, collapsed on the rooftop. Guards just looking at me. Large pool of blood forming around my position. Patrons moving about, stepping over me. No one cares, except to not get their feet stained by my blood. I'm wondering if I can wake up in time to save my leg, or even worse, before I bleed out.

I finally regain consciousness, and start bandaging my leg. It is now at -160. Status says it is completely destroyed, but it hasn't fallen off. I run out of bandages during the process. I crawl down the stairs to the bartender, leaving a trail of blood along my entire path. Had to sell some of my items to buy more bandages - including all my food. Finished bandaging my leg, it is now at -198, but the status now says it is in the process of healing. "Phew!" Massive relief.

I try to walk, I'm now moving at speed 1. I'll never get anywhere like this - let alone be able to run away from any dangers. I ask the bartender for a splint kit. He only has the advanced version available. If I buy it, I won't have any more things to sell further down the route. Okay, I'll sleep it off and heal that way. How much for a bed? What? This is a rip-off joint. Okay, I'll just crawl up to a sitting cushion on the roof, and wait two days for my leg to heal. Screw you guys.

I'm hungry. Oh crap, I forgot, I sold my food earlier to buy bandages...

[enderjawa75]

At iron hq, my army fought through all the skeleton bandits and attracted elder, who proceeded to destroy us. The bandit mooks carried us out of the main building and put us down. Once my skeleton Ato awoke, he knew that this was his true equal in sword ability, so he took off his samurai armor and equipped a meitou holed sabre for defence bonus. He then charged into the building at 21 kph, dispatched the weakened bandits easily, fought elder completely nude, defeated him, and cut out his AI core. This cemented Ato as a true master swordsman.

[Draxtemsklounts]

Before i write this, i will tell you i have a gratuitous amount of mods and ill try not to include things for the sake of you may not know what im talking about, but here we go.

Night 47, The Lost Boys (and girls aswell,) set out from clownsteady, after cashing in a few bounties, very hungry from the long trip, exhausted and lost her closest companion at the jailbreak of tengu's vault. Many people were lost even in the chaos of releasing every prisoner as a distraction, but the legend Luquin was convinced to join our ranks. He obviously knows of the U.C cruelty. unfortunately she drew the short straw and had to do the gathering of the fallen allies, luquin helped her. Being at war with every major faction nowhere was safe, everyone has a bounty on their head, rejected by their society, or being hunted for being a skeleton, so needing to keep our heads down and our faces behind the sedge hats, not being noticed or drawing attention is a must. As mina goes to hand in a bounty (whom should have already been in the tengu's prison, but the guards didnt know, that is until Beep takes a piece of bread from a guard's belongings and yells "beep!!!" in absolute bliss. The buzz of the conversation of the samurai guards halted, they heard of the group of outlaws who traveled with a companion that made that noise; "... an entire patrol missing, had to stop to piss, i swear i heard it... BEEP!! Screaming he was the ultimate warrior as he cut down my men" "Beep, yeah i hear he is wanted, too bad his hive didnt want him or we wouldnt have to sleep with our eyes half open."
The Samurai captain is in the back looking at some old papers overhearing all of this. He walks out after being requested for an urgent bounty reward. "Yes yes, very good, thank you for the gracious gift of bringing in the grand wizard of the cannibal plains, quite a large bounty, you must be quite skilled with your sword to bring him down. Also thank you for bringing in these other two bounties. They seem to be escaped slaves, we very much appreciate you returning us our property; i will add a nice bonus on top. Can i get you anything, you must be tired after a very long trip...Luquin?" The silence made the room feel cold. He held up a very old wanted picture, with a younger looking man on the flyer