Welcome back to Bogstop – it’s almost been another week already and Christmas is approaching steadily. I hope most of your Black Friday orders have arrived by this point – at least if your living outside the EU – as I guess the EU warehouse is committed to winding down shipments as the holidays are approaching (as opposed to sending them out), but who knows. One universal truth of the world is: complaining to the aether always helps, so I’m just trying to put the universe on the right track right now.

In other news, the other settlement I’m playing with a friend survived another 3 lantern years today, and whilst it is not exactly thriving, it would seem that it might just manage to crawl its way all the way to the Gold Smoke Knight. If nothing else that place is going to make my statistics look a little worse for the late game.
Today we got rinsed by the Black Knight Lvl3, had a fight fizzle out against a Lope Lvl3 and somehow managed to enter an infinite loop against the Beast of Sorrow (the legendary White Lion Lvl4 unlocked by Elder Council SE), effectively killing it with our last survivor. The lion had severely limited movement, was unable to use Grab and all attacks never targeted anything in its blind spot, together with a survivor in the frogdog set able to pump armor endlessly as the monster stacked +1ACC endlessly.. we called it a technical K.O. Good times.

Just don’t think too hard about why that fight in particular was so difficult for those people to begin with.
They are really only still around because of a dedicated (read: retired) couple of a man without legs and a blind woman in the settlement that somehow manages to hit intimacy on augury reliably and has sired all of the settlements children for the last 20(!) Lantern Years.

But back to Bogstop.
Bloodied and partially beat up – Mars being hamstrung now, we returned to the settlement with our hard earned spoils in hand.

This year would be a big one in many ways, so I got started on the events right away.
First up, the settlement event. I shuffled the deck, rolled a dice, discarded 8 cards and got..: The Plant and the Stone.
Hm. Skrelle was really trying here, but we still couldn’t read. It is always weird to draw the same thing twice in a row, but oh well. It was going to happen eventually.
Anyways, onwards to the actual important one: Principle Conviction. This was going to be the second controversial choice for what I had planned for the settlement from the very beginning, but I am a simple man and thus I chose Barbaric. This got us a Survival Limit increase of +1 as well as +1STR to all current and future survivors. With that our base stat-line increased to 1ACC 3STR 2EVA.
The roll on the table that followed was what worried me a little though. Anything of 5 or less would take up ALL the resources we currently had. I’ll just go ahead and say that I would like to pass on that. So, the only real choice was to spend rerolls if I had to.
We rolled once and got a 6.
Our fears alleviated, Sir Hermes’ prime protégé, Thalas was nominated to gain Thundercaller. Oh, and he also gained Matchmaker. Of course, I also shouldn’t forget about the party (Hands of Heat) next year.., which is probably one of the worst – or at least most annoying – aspects of Barbaric.

And finally, to round out the year’s events, the Hooded Knight was also back for a visit.
Selen now wielded the Twilight Sword with 3 proficiency, and she at least couldn’t die from sparing any more. With high spirits I rolled one more dice and she got a 9. She was a natural with the blade! She gained 2 ranks of proficiency and would even need to back off a bit, or she might leave the town in pilgrimage before her big day came. Suffering from success, truly.

With all that out of the way, we were finally able to move on to develop.
I made note of the copper and stashed it with the rest before taking stock of what I could do. At the time we only had 1 iron in form of a Frogdog spine.., and only a single other broken lantern, so the Lantern Glaive, whilst not impossible, would be incredibly hard to make. I also did not want to smelt the copper into iron (it is scrap after all) as I was (and am) still more interested in getting to the Bullfrogdog to try out the dedicated gear. For that I would need to still innovate though.

Counting it out, I began by innovating. Spirits were high and the game gave me the choice between Partnership and Shrine. Wow. Both regulars from the last few years and finally I can give in and get Shrine. The only real reason to take Partnership right now would be to thin out the deck or go for a strain..

Taking into account the feast next year – which would force us to discard half our total resources, I begin building just a few items. The Mage’s Hood from Glow’s items, a Crest Axe from the frogdog for Hysteria and the big one – a Lantern Dagger for Ragnar. I just kinda figured it would perform better than the bone dagger he had been using so far.

In all likelihood it would not be the best idea, but surely not the worst either – I wanted to fight another Dragon King. The level 2 was too scary though, so I wanted to pick on another “small” one first. I wanted to build a few more parts to the armor, or at least get the iron for a blacksmith weapon from it first.
Looking over my survivors, yeah, that wouldn’t work for a level 2 just yet. I shouldn’t forget that it is a Node 3. The fairly hard hunt for the Dragon King also didn’t help with my assessment.

This year’s Hunters:
Mars (rawhide set, scrap sword)
Hysteria (frogdog set, crest axe)
Ragnar (leather set, lantern dagger)
Lelia (dragon/lope bits, blast shield)

Huntphase:
Cautiously we set out. Biggest change was probably the addition of the mage’s hood, so at least Lelia should be able just tank the radiation somewhat reliably. Lost in thought, an old woman approached Lelia, calling herself the Lorekeeper. We were able to choose who to nominate, and it felt like Mars was the set choice for stuff like this thanks to him being Hamstrung. And apparently that was the correct choice – a Lantern 10! We learned Cooking (I) for free!

We were so caught up in this success that we almost forgot to noodle. But, ever attentive, Mars lowered the lantern into the depths of a random pool of black water and instantly got pulled under again. You’d think he was enjoying himself getting nearly drowned. He did wriggle his hands free and not trying to overextend he came back to the surface rather quickly, another copper in hand.
Blessed we find us considering being Opportunists (basic HE44). We found a second track of.. a smaller Dragon King crawling about? Taking the easier fight would cut the resources we could gain in half, so we passed on the weaker foe.
Suddenly we found ourselves in a Majestic Shadow. Panicking, the survivors ran! They ran until fully out of breath, and as they stumbled and stopped, their eyes fell upon an extremely nostalgic sight: The Beginning (basic HE91) of our journey. Ragnar quickly told the younger ones all about the first Frogdog they slew in this very spot – a rousing tale indeed!
This new found fervor was crushed nearly instantly though as we also found the smoldering corpses of survivors amongst Settlement Ruins nearby that had not been as lucky as us. Solemn we pass through these charred remains, our quarry waiting just a little further away. We found the monster!

A nice quick hunt with a decent amount of upsides!

12 cards in the deck. The Dragon King drew its first strike: Rough Smack. It targeted Mars and immediately pummeled him thrice, all hitting his arms. He tried his best and dodged 1 of these hits before he fell to the floor heavily wounded. A rough opener for one of the best damage dealers from the last few Lantern Years.

The central mind-set of the settlement at heart – unga-b.., errr, – No Fear – Lelia moved in to start off the fight, but missed with her shield. She surged boldly, but once more, scored only misses. Hysteria ran up with her new axe, attacked and hit the Serpent Wing Talon. She wounded without any trouble, but her +1LCK was not quite enough to secure the critical hit. Another surge followed, getting 1 more hit, but that time it was enough – a crit! She carved out a piece of the huge wing, just as the monster wanted to jump away.

As the Lava Pools formed, Mars was helped up and he dashed in. He’d rather burn out in a blaze of fury. Two hits, the Dragon King began glowing – the first Irradiate trigger of the fight – and again Mars took it on the hands. Thankfully he had that dried acanthus to prevent the worst of it. The second strike landed, knocking Mars away as the monster backed off, with more lava splattering the floor.

This put Ragnar close enough to reach the gargantuan serpent! He ran in, the Serpent Tail in front of him, a wound was dealt thanks to sharp (+1D10 to wound attempts) and with 6 courage, he even jumped the monster swinging its appendage towards him! Emboldened by his own prowess, he surged, but the strikes did not hit on this second attempt.

8 cards remaining. -1TGH Pitying us already, a Mournful Swipe targeted Lelia – one of the better survivors it could have picked to go after. She did get hit twice, but there was also a 1 adding armor back on after dodging 1 of the hits – thank you Mage’s Hood. The monster then stared at her as if it knew her.

Unfazed Lelia prepared a counter attack, but again, failed. And even Ragnar’s swings faltered due to early iron (if an attack roll is a 1, cancel the attack). At least Hysteria got a chance to deal some damage. The first wound attempt failed with a 1, irradiating the lot of them, whilst the 2nd strike managed to find the hidden Heartface underneath the monster, forcing it to reflexively smash shut. This discarded all -1TGH-tokens and added +4TGH for the rest of the turn, so there was little point in further attacks.

7 cards remaining. 0 -1TGH, Heated Strike – radiation flooded from the monster again. The Dragon King turned to Ragnar, hitting him once, but Ragnar nimbly dodged.

Nipping at its heels, Lelia missed another strike. Ragnar followed that up with a perfect hit as more radiation started pouring out of the monster. Early iron prevented a second attack after that first wound.
Hysteria was up next. Double 1’s. A surge, and she got rewarded for her aggression with the trap. But the Dragon King fumbled! On 5+ she was not hit once! But then the next wave of radiation hit – the silent killer, eating away at armor and health. Ragnar was fortunate to be just out of range. Mars tried to runs over afterwards but was too far out.

6 cards remaining, 3 -1TGH the Dragon King attempted to bite down on Mars – Gnash. 1 hit, 1 dodge.

Lelia took a step backwards and blocked before Mars attacked. 1 hit dealt, radiation washing over him – the Dragon King was up to 4 -1TGH-tokens. And of course it hit his arms again – that’s a severe! A spiral fracture. Mars did not get knocked over though! So he might as well strike again, I told myself. Another double 1. Hysteria pumped up her armor and surged to block as well just to be safe.
Considering the levels of unga-bunga we were bringing to the table, the amount of wounds dealt per turn had been quite lacking so far.

5 cards remaining, 4 -1TGH, Nuclear Blast was the next card. The monster turned to Ragnar and Lelia, attempting to level the area. Both had to dash to get to safety, placing them in decent spots for what was to come as an upside to this line of events.

With a meltdown imminent, Hysteria moved up and around the lava pools as she continued pumping up her armor before Ragnar got chosen to move in and perhaps trigger it. As Ragnar failed all of his attack rolls, it was up to Mars. Even hamstrung and his strength noticeably reduced he could still do it!
2 hits for him. And on the first wound already the meltdown occured! As the core overflooded the area in front of the Dragon King with death, it only incinerated the 1 toppled pillar in the corner. The second strike failed to wound afterwards.

Another surge from Mars, and once again the Dragon King was Engulfed in Light. The radiation did not let up as the wound failed due to impervious. We were able to deal 1 wound on the 2nd attack. Finally Mars was thrown across the board into a corner, which would likely work out to his benefit.

Knowing fully well that she would not hit, Lelia blocked again and we spent Ragnar’s final survival to surge. 2 more hits were scored and as he avoided drawing the trap he was free to go for the wounds. First hit cut the thigh of the beast, and the second into the foot.

1 card remaining, -1TGH, the final card of the monster was Heated Strike. Not the best one to go on continuous rotation. Radiation poured from the monster again as it readied its attack.
With the flow coming up I tried to end the fight in that moment. As a hail Mary, Lelia swung at the beast, but failed to connect yet again. With no other candidate to go for it, the attack continued. The Dragon King turned around and hit Lelia once, which she blocked, gaining priority target for next round from the effect of the blast shield.

Ragnar saw his chance and went for it. Ideally this would end the fight. First hit on the attack – a crit! He gained another bit of dragon wing and the monster’s husk, 2 for 1 – awesome! But.., of course.., he missed the second attack! With the end to the fight so close we could almost grasp it, Hysteria used the frogdog set bonus (moving the survivor via knockback as many spaces as it had armor points and adding the same amount of STR to the attack) deflating her helmet as she charged in with +4STR! She hit twice and.., and did not draw the trap! 1 more husk on a final critical wound as the Dragon King crumbled into a heap!

Complaining always helps!

No weapon proficiency for Lelia again after this fight. Mars (+1STR) aged, and Ragnar was now 1 point away from Dagger Mastery. So, whilst we did not get the iron we wanted, we came out of the fight with a solid 9 Dragon King resources. Not to mention getting Cooking for free!

Ah – I just remembered leprosy on Ragnar. He should have taken a good bit less radiation damage throughout.

The incoming damage from irradiate feels just so intense that level 2 just has to be rough when it is dealt to 2 hit locations at once. I will acknowledge that the main threat this time around came from me rolling the same spots again and again. And I am probably too risk averse still when it comes to upscaling the monsters as well.., oh well.
But just to make the point, Ragnar had 4 armor in all hit locations when we started the hunt, much like Hysteria and after only a couple of rounds – maybe 2 or 3 turns, both of them had had hardly any armor left. I contemplated taking pictures of the character sheets as well, but with them being laminated the glare made it next to impossible.

I also did not really put much emphasis on the lava pools, Hysteria spent a lot of the time pumping her armor also running around the new terrain, trying to not be in too bad a spot when the eventual meltdown was going to hit.

But in the end it was well worth it! The resources we got are incredible – I only really noticed why at the start of the next lantern year so I’m not going to get into why just yet but maybe you have already figured it out.
Next year we are looking at our first encounter with the Black Knight, after Hands of Heat has been dealt with, and what can I say? I am looking forward to that fight.

As always thank you very much for your time, and enjoy the days leading up the holidays,
Amathul

Edit: complaining to the aether does indeed help – both my packages from the US seem to have cleared customs today after putting together this post.. no word on the EU one though