Now that another weekend with a holiday is done and dealt with, and all 8 Nightlords have been defeated at least once and I’ve seen most of the character stories, its time for me to focus a little on KD:M again.
I have been trying to paint up my Butcher and Lunar Aya in the spare moments I had, yet there wasn’t any chance to play the game since the Tyrant lost its flock.
But this isn’t a place of Tyrants and Dragons, but for the warm embrace of the Sun and a myriad of colors instead! So, back to Azure Pond we head – eager to not only build some lope stuff, but also “ready” to face our first Lvl2 monster.

Last Lantern Year Calys got beat up quite heavily, but aside from that, we returned home, all survivors intact, with loot and 5 endeavors.
First the settlement event came calling:

Plague.

Have we been forsaken by the Sun? Have we not shown our faith? Has our devotion to the cause been lacking even as we singed our flesh in its powerful rays?

As the infected survivors needed to have at least 1 hunt xp if possible, Granite, Noctos, Lionar and Felis were the ones stricken by illness. The growing sense of community was strong and as we did our best to comfort those ailing individuals. None of them stole off to outright die in the Sacred Pool, from where the infection could have proliferated into years to come. On the flipside, none of them did outright recover either.
We’d just have to see if we were able to innovate Ammonia (I) this Lantern Year or not.

It seemed the Sun did hear our pleas, and decided it would bestow a gift on its struggling subjects, as water (*doubt*) flowed freely from above into the pool, as we saw a chance to scramble and improve the Sacred Pool of Azure Pond.
Which of course, we did!
So, yeah, this IS the event that allows us to improve the location for 6 resources (or 9 in year 13 – we’ll keep a lookout for that).
Whilst the Sky Vomit Festival had been damped by the Plague, we did still try our best to enjoy it given the circumstances.
Reef spotted a shape in the stream and boldly claimed the Hagfish swimming upstream. He triggered Bold (+1STR) and gained Matchmaker.
Looking up to our leader, Alissa (Berserker FA) led the settlement in an effort to expand the pool spending 6 resources (2 Broken Lantern, Beast Steak, Shank Bone, Fresh Acanthus and a Screaming Brain – seemed like largely a matter of provisions for the builders) giving us the chance to make our official vestments in future. For those threads we would have to go Phoenix hunting though.

We chose to begin the develop step proper by innovating to find out how we would be spending our remaining endeavors.
Forbidden Dance, Pictograph, Storytelling and Face Painting came up, so.., no Ammonia, go figure. Too bad, but sometimes you just get unlucky.
My comfort Pick would have been Face Painting from amongst these, and I figured that I might as well just take it, however:
I was feeling spicy that day, so I ended up taking Forbidden Dance for a change up.

Knowing there was nothing we could do for the sick people we would just have to do the rest normally.
So we built Screaming Bracers with the fish next, turns out we didn’t have a lot of hide, and I made another Scrap Lantern after last hunt’s ACC problems.
My survivors were still fairly fresh, they just didn’t know that hitting the monster was an essential part to killing it.

For our endeavors we were definitely having Alissa and Reef partake from the Sacred Water again with the set loss of 4 people at the end of the phase.
Well.. at +2.. an 8 and a 9 also yielded a 10. That’s twins!
Luna and Celestine were born under the sun as the little sisters to Helios. We further spent 2 more endeavors to purify somebody, but before that.. little Luna got a chance to eat a juicy Nightmare Tick – a special treat for her collected by her very own mother.
A 4. Nothing happened, it tasted kinda funky though.
The moment kinda fizzled out and so I just moved on to purifying her for +1ACC.

With 1 final endeavor left, I did consider using Forbidden Dance with Celestine for a moment. But ultimately, instead, I spend it to have Calys augur, hoping for +1 understanding. She got a survival instead.

At the end of the phase the 4 plague victims died (I didn’t want those endeavors anyway *silently wishing I had Cannibalize*). Thanks to the newborn twins we were still at 15 population at least as we set out into the darkness to hunt our next quarry.

The Hunters:
Helios – green (Rawhide Armor, Beast Knuckle)
Alissa – blue (Rawhide Armor, Bone Blade)
Calys – red (screaming armor bits, Bone Axe)
Reef – yellow (Cat Gut Bow)

Well I promised .. Lope Lvl 2 it is.

The Huntphase:
Even the Feline Entity arrived to see the survivors off for the hunt this time.

Great.. we started off this year’s hunt by discovering a Carpet of Ticks. Yuck! The survivors all seemed to manage at first glance.. all except for Helios. He got overwhelmed and sucked dry, losing him a STR as well – oh no!
We soon found other things we did not expect, like a group of Refugees (basic HE51). I didn’t want to offer up gear for an AI scout and we just moved on, despite being able to communicate. They surely would not have been able to comply with our ways!
As we focused on finding the Antelope again we stumbled upon a Grazing Field filled with beautiful fresh acanthus, yet we didn’t have a sickle to gather any. Leaving the bounty behind, we were forced to move on, which led us to a Strange Path (basic HE31) in between the stone faces. It was Alissa’s choice to make and we followed the path (she had 7 understanding at this point, so she got a +7 to her roll.) 11 – the path took a few winding turns and lead us straight to the monster! Nobody in the group was Honorable (D), so it ended up being an ambush as well!

A hunt that is cut short is usually a great hunt! I’ll gladly take not having to roll on Overwhelming Darkness!

The level 2 lope, of course, has both Trample and Diabolical in play, as well as 15 cards and 10TGH.

I set on trying to keep a lookout for a suitable crit for 1 of our Founding Stones, but the overall plan was to wait and just see how the fight went.

15 cards in the deck, the survivors ambushed the monster.

Reef had once again snuck up to the monster and was ready to plunge the arrow deep into its rump. And yet again, on 5+ he rolled a 1 and missed.
Calys did not intend to wait around against the higher level monster and decisively moved up to attack. Hitting twice she drew the bad reflex where it attacked all space adjacent, but first off, she wounded her first hit .. and the second shortly afterwards. The monster bucked, hitting her chest twice! The one unarmored bit! JRPG-armor-rules did nothing for us!
She had to use her Dried Acanthus to not take a severe injury on turn 0.5.

Not that Helios cared. Emboldened, he attacked from the other side with 3SPD, hitting twice, dealing 2 more quick wounds, even adding a -1MOV debuff to the monster.
Alissa then took a few steps and used her Rawhide Headband to see what the lope wanted to do next. Back Kick or Bite.

11 cards in the deck. The Antelope tried to Bite Helios – how unexpected. It hit only once on 4+, which Helios dodged of course. The Antelope still got a few points of chest damage in as it trampled over Helios in frustration.

Calys quickly got back up as Reef took aim to shoot his bow. The 7+ he did hit, naturally, but he failed the wound on a 1 though, immediately curbing my enthusiasm.
Calys followed up with an attacks of her own for 1 more wound before Alissa tried to be strategic and looked at the AI deck again.

10 cards remaining, Stomp & Snort revealed from the top of the deck – the monster intimidated Reef. He suffered a quick Brain Trauma – Danger Seizure, with 1 damage to his body from a chest bump of death with the ground, also gaining Delicious (D) – making him a threat even whilst knocked down.
And finally the monster trampled over Calys, hitting her chest .. again, breaking a rib, leaving lasting damage (-1SPD)!
What’s with all the chest-damage?!

Helios didn’t care. He got up and attacked, dealing 2 more wounds. Notably taking out the Super Dense hit location, this gave the people with Frail gear some safety. Helios dashed a few steps away afterwards, before Alissa made her own mad dash into close combat.
She only hit once.. but she crit! A resource and -1DMG on the lope were the payback for the broken rib on our comrade!

7 cards remaining, the follow up coming from the lope was unknown to us this time – Ravenous. The only consumable remaining was a Dried Acanthus with Reef. Alissa got trampled in the head as the lope ran over to its target.
2 hits to Reef, as the lope ate the Acanthus, crunching down on Reef’s arms pretty much on mistake. As soon as it was done, it rushed back over to trample Alissa again!

This round it would be Reef and Calys’ turn to get back up.
Reef spent his act to look at the upcoming hit locations and we saw the trap coming up amongst the three cards. Naturally we buried it as deeply as we could.
Calys in turn attempted another hit and she wounded despite her throbbing injury.
Helios .. began caring for a second and he spent his turn looking at AI, finding Stomp & Snort and Ram.

6 cards remaining, Stomp & Snort #2 got played on Helios. His brain trauma turned out to be Memory Loss – good for him! He did not have a proficiency yet. The lope trampled over Alissa yet again, seemingly having re-focused on arms by that point.

With the lingering issue of the trap coming up soon, Alissa tried her best to trigger it but failed as she just couldn’t hit the monster.
Reef came up next, though 7+ was a tall ask if you needed to hit twice. In the end he hit once and wounded as well. Task failed successfully.
Calys had 6 insanity, so she was up next to try and go for it. She proved once more to be reliable and the lope bolted off as Calys was knocked back in response to the trap.
This finally gave us a new opportunity to push for damage.
Helios pretended not to care again and dashed in. 1 hit and 1 wound followed. With this the last unknown card in the monster’s AI deck was gone.

4 cards remaining, this now had the potential to be a very hungry antelope. It’s excitement was already showing – Stomp & Snort. Helios got chosen as the target again: another brain trauma for him. He triggered frenzy. Not great, not terrible.., yet. He did lose the +1STR-tokens on being knocked down though.
The lope finished up its go by trampling Reef for a severe injury – back to the chest again. He got Disemboweled – as long as enough people stayed alive, this should be fine for our bow-person. As I turned around the Feline Entity had materialized as well, surveying the carnage.

Calys stood up once again.
At this point I started thinking about throwing the Founding Stone. This was one of the more questionable decisions I made that day but at least I hit a decent crit The Restless Inner Thigh triggered its Degenerative Wound! Until the end of the next round, the monster would take a wound every time it moved!
Calys wasn’t satisfied just yet though, and wanted one more wound of her own making still before she was content.

2 cards remaining, Stomp & Snort number two. That was a most unfortunate draw because it meant no movement on the side of the lope! And Helios got chosen yet again. That Antelope really wanted to eat Helios. It might just be having anxiety issues on the other hand.
It also trampled over Reef again, hitting the legs this time, and taking at least that wound for the exertion.

Not much remained to clean up!
Reef looked at Hit Locations with his Cat Eye Circlet again after getting up before he hobbled away as far as he was able to manage. (I did make a mistake here – I moved Reef the normal amount of spaces – but that would not have an impact on anything further to come.)
With nothing concerning revealed, the frenzied Helios ran up to the severely injured monster and with his 4SPD, and you know it – he was ready to rumble!
He hit 3 times and went to town, quickly dealing 2 wounds, felling the beast under a barrage of crunchy strikes!

Overall a decent fight, and I could have (arguably should have) saved the Founding Stone as well.
-1SPD on my axe wielder wasn’t great, but we’d push through. I mean, we had to, right?
Now we just needed to draw those 2 Pelt we were still missing..

For defeating the level 2 we got 2 hunt xp for the group, which aged most people. Helios (+1ACC) hit age 1 and picked katar as his proficiency, whilst Alissa (Berserker FA again) and Calys (+1STR) reached age 2. Somehow everybody managed to wound with their weapon and they all gained proficiency. Yay!

The resources came out great for what I wanted as well, but the two Pelt were the last draws. So it had me sweating!
The tooth was a nice bonus as well, giving us at least the option to consider a second Beast Knuckle.

This fight felt a lot more straight forward than the previous level 1 encounter, I do have to say. Not to mention that it was a nice pick-me-up after drawing Plague this year.
So let’s hope we don’t draw many Settlement Events like that from now on.

With the Lvl2 lope under our belts – and the resources to finish the armor set – we might try our hands at a Lvl2 lion next lantern year. What’s the worst that could happen?

As always thank you very much for your time, and remember: when life gives you vomit, you dig an extension to your pond!
Amathul