With the new timeline info out there it is high time Bogstop gets wrapped up. With July and August mentioned as the target fulfillment timeframe for Pariah and Red Witches, there might be enough time for a S2 and a few other minor shenanigans in between, before I can get my hands on the new bundle of Nemesis monsters probably at around September.
So, let’s get right to it:

For our Settlement Event this year we drew Nickname, and we did get a few choice creations.
Weed “Dingle Sneak of the Lantern” Cutter
Cairne “Dingle Hero of the Lion” Axtolotl (+1STR)
Calystea “Shining Savior of the Lion” Axtolotl (+1ACC)
Velocity “Foolish Savior of the Lion” Bonk (-1ACC)

That last one hurt my soul.
I guess these results also showcase that my survivors thought that the last monster, a Dragon King, was a .. lion?

I was still very focused on the Marchioness boots so we started the year by using the first of our 5 endeavors sending someone beneath the Exhausted Lantern Hoard once again.
Möff was once more the one chosen for the dangerous trip. She rolled badly though and would die, but as we were also bound quite rigorously by our endeavor count, we spent our Mere Navi’s – Milton’s – reroll to yell directions down into the chamber and she promptly returned with 5 extra Broken Lanterns in hand to the surface. With these we were mostly set. Now we “just” needed to smelt them.
Or so I thought. The first attempt failed miserably. After two more attempts (hoping for that elusive 10) we only managed to smelt 2 iron this year, and there really wasn’t much reason to go for the third.

So for our fifth and final endeavor we decided to use 3 of the 6 remaining omens we had witnessed to set up a Metamorphosis Festival for next lantern year. I wanted to at least try and reactivate some of our 4 retired powerhouses for the final fight, and there is nothing like a good party before heading out to a life-or-death fight.
Aside from the plans I had made, for the sollerets you know, at this point, I really didn’t know what I would need the other gathered resources for. At least without spending any of our precious iron there wasn’t much that felt necessary to go after. So, shrugging my shoulders, I just piled them into our storage space for now and prepared to head out again.
Iron was the true bottleneck all along..

I did wonder for a bit if I should have built a Bone Pickaxe, but the reality of things was that aside from building more weapons, at this stage, any additional armor would need such large amounts of iron that it felt unattainable. But I was likely being pessimistic.

Something else I feel like I should also mention (again). Wrath is a nuclear weapon so it would profit from power cores. However, the Lvl3 Dragon King only gives us the Shining Liver (SR) upon defeat which would build into a Blue Core.., which adds Deadly 2 to a nuclear weapon. Whilst a great boost for nuclear daggers and scythes… utterly useless on Wrath.
Therefore, not having fought a Lvl2 Dragon King might come back to bite us in the finale, as having sharp would definitely help against the *redacted*’s high TGH.

The chosen Hunters:
Weed (Wrath, Marchioness bits)
Cairne (Oxidized Lantern Glaive, Dragon Armor)
Calystea (Killennium Cleaver, Frogdog Armor)
Velocity (Bullfrog Mace, Bullfrogdog Armor)

Yep, we were using the same 4 people again. And just like last hunt, Velocity was carrying the Final Lantern as we set off. I do generally tend to omit that information.

The Huntphase:
Eager the hunters left the settlement. Visions of the last hunt had followed us on our path as we were immediately presented with an Ornate Temple in the distance. The illusion quickly dissipated though, and we were left standing before the Portcullis (basic HE99). We did not have a key for it, so we pressed on blindly yet again, finding our footing suddenly wanting.
Like Living Stone (basic HE97) the ground rose beneath our feet.
The gigantic creature carried us towards the tall Dragon King and we were able to avoid a possibly grueling hunt basically in its entirety. (And just like that, even if I had built a pickaxe or two, they would have done nothing for us at all. Clearly we dodged a bullet on that one.)

Whilst we avoided the hunt, missing out on defiling the crypt was going to slow the fight down a bit compared to last year. It wouldn’t be by a meaningful amount though.

19 cards in the deck, the Dragon King began with Smolder triggering Irradiate. Nuclear Blast was the first card played and the Dragon King turned towards Weed and Calystea.
They both dashed out of the blast zone to avoid its intense radiation.

Weed activated first, and we revealed a crit-able hit location. Like clockwork, he moved in, attacked and added an extra attack roll via Horripilation to make sure he had the best chances to activate Wrath.
As a sword specialist he rolled first and then determined the hit location. A lantern 10 dealt 3 wounds as it removed the +1LCK and -1TGH-tokens. He also gained a Husk and placed a Lava Pool (T) as the monster’s boiling blood hit the stone ground from carving out a chunk of the Serpent Wings.
The second attack also managed to deal a critical wound as it already crits on 6+ (Wrath’s deadly 3 and +1LCK on Weed).

With minimal threat currently, Velocity charged in to combat like a rabid Bullfrogdog after dashing to max distance. 2 hits turned on onslaught, but she got stopped in her tracks as she was presented with the trap right off the bat.
Blindsided by the retaliation, she got hit twice by the monster and was sent Starward, but she also gained 2 armor for the 2 misses being low enough to activate her Mage’s Hood (a 1 and a 2). She should be fine overall.

Calystea moved around, pumping her armor, before Cairne went on the offensive for his attack. 2 hits. An easy first wound was dealt on the deathblow, followed by a failed attempt due to a 1 on the second. Axe specialization did allow us to reroll the attempt and we turned it into a wound after all, archiving all current -1TGH-tokens via the reaction.
Weed could still surge, and thus ended the round by activating deflect with his sword.

13 cards remaining, radiation was pouring from the damaged bio-mechanical shell of the monster. The card drawn was Crisis Crater. Cairne and Weed both ran out of the Smash Zone, but the Dragon King wasn’t done just yet. It followed up with a basic action targeting Cairne, hitting him twice. Unseen Agony also dealt its damage but due to his acute Leprosy, the amount of damage he suffered was noticeably reduced.

As our turn started Velocity landed next to the monster with a meaty thud, stopping the fall mostly with her arms.

Cairne then went on the attack again, hitting only once, but at least he turned it into a wound. He did have to spend 2 survival not to get bitten on a reaction, but that was all it needed to keep him safe.
Weed was up next. Like clockwork, he did crit the monster, presenting him with a chance to spend 2 survival to gain permanent +1EVA. An easy choice to be sure and naturally he took the opportunity. (Compared to other crit effects of this type.. this one is exceptionally cheap, isn’t it?)

Calystea pumped her armor yet again as she repositioned, fearful not to get too close. Before our turn was about to end, she encouraged Velocity who promptly dashed into position to charge the monster.
2+ was enough for 2 hits this time, turning on onslaught yet again. She was noticeably more lucky as well, as she didn’t hit the trap first thing. instead she hit the monster for a crisp 40, the second hit further increasing to 44. 4 wounds were dealt in total from her swinging her Bullfrog Mace.
The Dragon King tried to whip her with its tail, but she deftly avoided it.

5 cards remaining, the Dragon King opted for the ol’ One-Two Punch. The target was to be Weed. At +5EVA he would only take the hits on 7+. The first set of 4 massive punches whiffed entirely, whilst only 1 connected on the second round. Weed deftly deflected the singular strike with his weapon .

As Weed activated for his turn he gained an additional activation due to having deflected a hit. The first thing he did was attack with it. He dealt merely a wound, clearly still a little shaken. This sent him backwards through a Lava Pool, evaporating his Monster Grease – which, strangely, was only sent back to our town storage.

Velocity activated next. As usual, she dashed a few steps away to charge the monster right after. 2 hits were achieved, one of which perfect.
The first hit came in as a crit, hitting for a ridiculous 92! New record! With the second still hitting for 46 as well, she dished out the hurt like its nobody’s business! The monster glowed lightly, set to Irradiate, and this did deal 2 damage via Unseen Agony to both Velocity and Cairne. This was able to eat through Velocity’s arm armor, dealing a light wound to her as the last few cards in the monster deck were added to the wound pile.

Trying to be an unlikely hero, Calystea ran in, swinging her Killennium Cleaver in an attempt to slay the Dragon King and not just uselessly run around the battlefield. And whilst she managed to hit it once .., she was only able to trigger Irradiate on Engulfed in Light. She had to hit the impervious hit location.
We were up to 3 damage per hit on Unseen Agony.
Velocity had to take a severe arm injury this time. But the unreasonably good luck on some characters continued, as she rolled a lantern 10 and was merely knocked down.
(This would turn out to be luck-on-loan eventually.)

Cairne had yet to activate, so he tried to kill the monster next. Things weren’t looking great as he missed twice. He was still able to surge but I couldn’t help but worry a little. Thankfully a single hit was achieved on the second attack.
And with it the final wound was dealt and the large body of the Dragon King crumbled!

This wasn’t quite as one-sided as last year, but still very, very much in our favor. I’m still a little surprised the grease did not get full-on archived, but I’ll take it.

Onto rewards: Cairne (+1STR) aged and we acknowledged that Velocity only needed 1 more point of weapon proficiency to become our third club master this settlement has had over the years.

We also got lucky again as we gained the most helpful resource amongst the loot we received – Dragon Iron – which meant we’d have our boots next year guaranteed!

Admittedly both this fight and Lantern Year as a whole felt a little like another filler year. It’s both business as usual for the fight and we were not able to achieve much during the settlement phase either.
But the remaining 3 years should feel a little different from here on out.
Our final nemesis encounter is up next.

In any case.., any settlement without Wrath is going to feel VERY different.

As always, thank you very much for your time, as I settle in to wait on Rubi and her Tachyon Nodachi now,
Amathul