As the wait for my orders from the most recent sale continues, its time to head back to Bogstop. I’ve been both been dreading this upcoming fight and strangely also eagerly expecting it, although that is mainly due to Wrath.

When last we’ve seen the survivors, they had just beaten back the next Killennium for a final time this campaign and were on their way back to the settlement.

We did have 3 events to get through this Lantern Year so lets get started on that Settlement Event: It Rang!
Somebody had rung the bell a little early. GNOG! The Bell rang backwards! We was a great event for us. We gained an additional endeavor and +1 armor upon departure!

There is also the Third Challenge that awaited us this year. As the Squires approached under the strange “gnalc” we had created, they struck the bell as well. This Lantern Year it was upon us to make an offering and it would need to be the most insane survivor. Amongst those able to depart, currently that was Jerryn, at 14 insanity.

And finally we had to deal with the consequences of our Barbaric nature – Hands of Heat. Half our resources needed to go. Time to party!
We had 42 resources in storage at the time, so 21 needed to go. What a feast this was going to be!
At this stage I fully gave up on Dark Water.
In the end we kept 9 Broken Lanterns, 1 iron, 5 Black Lichen, 2 ???, 1 Prime Tusk, 1 Spindly Paw, 1 Aquateous Eye and the Cold Living Flesh. Weed was the one nominated for the Branding and he got +1STR.. once again, not really that worth it.

Free to develop we get the obvious stuff out of the way first and we trade the Forsaker Mask for the Maskmaker location. We might end up fighting one of these monsters in the remaining Lantern Years – the legendary lope perhaps?

We started on our endeavors by smelting scrap. We did that twice, for 1 iron each. Celestine, with Legendary Lungs (SFA) was sent beneath the Exhausted Lantern Hoard and she brought 6 more broken lanterns back to the surface.
The third smelting did fail unfortunately, but we still had enough to get one thing built at least.
As we made some leather we could build the Marchioness Gorget, with the ??? and a few Black Lichen substituting for various resources. The final endeavor was used for praying at the Shrine – a 5 was 1 more armor.

Finally I considered using the Cold Living Flesh.
Celestine didn’t really need it, and Ruby, who could use it, only has a few hunts left anyhow. Jerryn was an option as well, as he had lost an eye at some point and so we could get is ACC back to +0.

Whether sensible or not, I ultimately decided to do it. He rolled a 4 and survived the flesh being forced into his skull. Healing his broken leg would also been nice, but I faintly recalled additional EVA for the monster. And should he/we survive, Jerryn still had a lot of hunts left he could go on.

With that the time to assemble the departing survivors had come.
Jerryn (Wrath, Marchioness bits)
Cleavelette (2 Killennium Cleavers, Dragon Armor)
Ruby (Lantern Glaive, Frogdog Armor)
Celestine (Bullfrog Mace, Bullfrogdog Armor)

Jerryn did not quite have as much LCK as other sword wielders due to his Eproctophilia (D) forcing him to take the Monster Grease along, but more survivability wasn’t the worst trade off. Aside from that we would definitely find out if our Cleaver-run ended for this settlement as Cleavelette got to take both Killennium Cleavers along to the fight.
Wrath was still going to be a hard-counter to the dog, so we should have a decent chance overall if we managed to land an early critical hit.

The Mountain Ascent:
Jerryn gained -1ACC and lost 3 survival whilst Ruby found the rocking of the basket elevator calming (rolled a 1 and a 3 for these two).
Celestine was freezing with her 5, taking a -1EVA-token as Cleavelette was taken by the Squires’ devotion and she gained Largesse.

As we arrived at the Citadel we sang the bad tokens away als everyone gained 5 more survival from the combo of both the First Aid Kit and the Marchioness Gorget.

Whilst the Level 3 Black Knight only gains +1DMG and +1SPD, the dog has 8 +1TGH-tokens and a +1ACC-token.
Its only new trait at this level is Seasoned Duelist, which adds 3EVA to the monster when the attacker is not in the blind spot. These are NOT tokens though.
Still, any initial crit with Wrath would make the fight a lot easier, potentially taking out almost half its HP pool in a single swing. At this point I thought that the real danger came from the 3 legendary AI cards in the deck as this dog was finally playing with all its tricks. Whilst gravity will always remain the grand equalizer – I have since found an A card that seems just as terrifying as the L cards.

It being a nemesis, we activated first. A first free hit, the dog would come to regret: Jerryn, staring down the monster began the fight. And he saw a legendary AI right on top. Fueled with both panic and fervor he used the horripilation dice to ultimately hit twice.
He struck the monster’s Polished Gorget first – there was only room for 1 dog-themed gorget around – and an 8 was an easy crit (on 7+). We did not gain the additional Iron from the crit effect but 10 wounds was a hell of a prize for a first strike.

The second hit wounded as well, on a 6.
He surged and hit for a third time, dealing another crit. Without Buccal Blood Breathing (SFA) he only gained 3 insanity from it. 12 wounds dealt in the first act of the fight, Ruby and Cleavette took it a little more slowly and would spend their turn to set up Celestine.
In the fights against Black Knights Lvl2+ you cannot spend survival whilst on rubble, so survival actions need to be carefully planned.
Celestine helped by surging to reveal the tile behind her, before she dashed into place. And then she uses her regular act and move to charge forth.
She missed both hits due to the additional EVA from Seasoned Duelist (T).

10 cards remaining (of 22 initially), the dog began its counter attack with a Right Swing Ahead. This would hits Jerryn, Ruby and Celestine. Celestine used the flow to dash away and out of range again. Ruby did the same as Jerryn got hit 3 times. Dodging one of the hits, he was flung backwards and smashed through a few pots on his way.

As the survivors activated Cleavette began by helping up Jerryn. He then activated to move back in. He swung again but missed. He surged to deal a wound to the severely weakened monster, but he got hit in return with a basic attack.

He got hit twice and he was flung into the unknown as the Black Knight activated Smash. Hitting 3 more pots, Jerryn took 3 more collision damage, one of which caused a severe injury to his body: Ruptured Spleen, 2 bleed and skip next hunt. Overall he got quite lucky there.

The Black Knight had turned its back to us! Cleavette saw her chance and dashed a single step forward to find herself at the perfect spot to jump over Ruby and into the blind spot with her armor set! She began her flurry of attack and scored 4 hits.
Wounding on 2+ she quickly dealt 3 wounds, her first attack able to ignore the wound reaction thanks to cleaver spec. On the third wound the monster dashed away though.

6 cards remaining, Untrained Slice. The Black Knight turned around to return the favor as it targeted Cleavelette hitting her twice. She dodged the hit to her head but still got flung back 4 spaces.

Our turn began with Ruby moving into attack position but the game was stalled as the Feline Entity chose to sit on her gear grid and character sheet. After the enforced pause, she hit the monster twice(!) on 9+. She wounded once before the monster jumped away towards Cleavelette and Celestine, pulverizing all terrain on their tile and knocking both of them down.

Jerryn activated and began to slowly make his way back to the fight, he activated deflect and encouraged Cleavelette. She then in turn encouraged Celestine before attempting an attack. She managed 4 more hits.
First attack wounded and we ignored the wound reaction again, preventing another Smash. A second wound followed as did a crit on the third! Presented with the opportunity, she spent 1 survival to knock the monster down before dealing the 4th and final wound of the attack.

Celestine stepped up to the Black Knight, feeling good about her chance to hit. On 3+, 4 hits were scored (2 from the regular attack and 2 extra due to Legendary Lungs SFA) and that unfortunately found the trap.
Celestine was promptly flung over the edge behind her with 4 Knockback remaining. She tried desperately to hold on but only rolled a 4. With a -4 modifier she quickly vanished over the edge. Gone in an instant.
None of her gear was fragile, but she had to leave the Final Lantern with one of my remaining survivors. The scrap lantern in Jerryn’s gear grid was archived to make room for it.
That’s just how it goes some times – a certified Kingdom Death moment!

2 cards remaining, Untrained Slice against Cleavelette. Hitting on 5+ the Black Knight missed completely!

Seeking vengeance Cleavelette retaliated immediately. Hitting on 6+ she at least got 2 hits it. She got a glimpse inside the helmet, but thanks to fighting the Butcher she wasn’t phased by what she saw in the slightest.
Two wounds were dealt without much fuss, before she surged. 2 more hits were scored. The final wound dealt was a critical which sadly didn’t do anything special, you know, besides defeating the monster!

As we mourned the loss of Celestine, the rest of the group all gained 1 hunt xp and 1 weapon proficiency before they headed deeper into the Citadel to explore the vault.
No bonus box for us as we did not pick Collective Toil.
With only 1 survivor at 3+ understanding we got to roll a measly 1D10+1, and got a 5. Jerryn gained Aichmophobia (D) which meant he couldn’t use swords (or any other bladed things) whilst he had the disorder. Luckily he wasn’t forced to throw Wrath away, like stuff like Vestiphobia (D) would have him do.
We gained our 4 basic resources, 2 patterns and, as soon as we reached the foot of the mountain, we harvested a perfect bone from Celestine’s corpse.

The Count patterns won’t matter for us because we won’t be able to finish the set like this, so any two would do the job. We’d end up missing 1 piece for the full set.

Losing Celestine to gravity was a bit of a blow. Of course, losing almost any weapon master would be a blow to any settlement. But at this point we should be fine to be able and reach the campaign finale either way.
Wrath is such a powerful weapon.., the next campaign is going to feel real strange.

But we still have a few hunts to get through at this point. I am currently thinking the next one is going to be a regular Lope to get the marchioness set fully built before attempting a grouping of more interesting opponents before the finale.
I think I’ve got an idea of how we could go about the remaining Lantern Years.
But more on that next time.

For now, as always, thank you for your time, be nice to your dog today – especially if its a black one,
Amathul