Summer and the accompanying heat have been rough both for me and my survivors, but much like the people of Azure Pond, I will push on to the best of my abilities!
I did spend some time over the last few days (weeks) doing a bit of painting, and honestly, I am a little proud of how Lunar Aya and Jackel turned out.
As always, I added all the figures I did recently to “Painted Stuff” up top.

Last time we hunted a Screaming Antelope Lvl2 to finish the lope set, and what can I say – we had a good time of it. It was a hungry creature, but we successfully avoided getting munched on.
Today we are looking at the other Lvl2 Quarry monster we can realistically take – the White Lion.
I won’t make any predictions at this time, as I’d probably just go on about how scared I am at low armor levels. You know the drill by now. So let’s just get into it.

But before we can start properly thinking about what we wanted to do this settlement phase, we still needed to deal with this Lantern Year’s settlement event:
Haunted.
The previously unnamed Nashandra was convinced the settlement was Haunted and broke into a wailing song in the middle of the night. Not only did the people at home lose sleep, collectively we lost an endeavor and the returning people all their insanity.
Good for the lope, not so great for future Phoenix fights. I sincerely hope she scared the Spidicules away and this wasn’t all for nothing.

Annoyed but alive, we made our way to the settlement’s center and focused on the future. I did have a good idea of what I wanted to do though.

Step 1 – Innovate
Pictograph, Storytelling, Ammonia and Heart Flute. That wasn’t really a choice either – we had to pick Ammonia! We needed to get the science stuff going. Not that I wouldn’t mind Hovel, Hands of the Sun or Song of the Brave either, mind you. But with this innovation we finally had our first departing survival from the settlement and theoretically access to Leather. If we had more than 3 hide at least..
At this stage I first realized we didn’t actually have enough hide to make both lope set pieces. Which would ultimately lead us to:

Step 2 – Harvest Ritual
We were offering up a slew of lope resources (3 of 4 Shank Bones and 2 Beast Steaks) to draw 5 more basic resources. This got us exactly 1 extra hide.
Not a lot, but enough for:

Step 3 – Build Shit
With the lot of repurposed resources the survivors channel their industrious side and finish building the Screaming Antelope Armor.
We finish off the step by making the third Scrap Lantern of the settlement with the freshly drawn Perfect Organ and a Luck Charm from the remaining Screaming Brain.
Rounding out this settlement phase:

Step 5 – Purify
With everything that we wanted built, we spent the last 2 endeavors to purify Calys. And she did high-roll it. And whilst it may be seen as a waste (or downright dangerous) but I disliked the -1SPD on her. Being down from 2 to 1 attacks.., that’s just not the life for me. I’d rather live a little more on the edge.

The chosen Hunters:
Helios – green (Rawhide Armor, Bone Knuckles)
Alissa – blue (Rawhide Armor, Bone Blade)
Luna – red (Screaming Armor, Bone Axe)
Reef – yellow (Cat Gut Bow)

As we got ready to depart I noticed that this would be a family affair.

The Huntphase:
This hunt wasn’t off to a good start. The incessant yowling of the Lion in Heat cost the hunters sleep, dealing 1 brain event damage, ticking the brain box for everyone!
Even worse, we soon knew this area in its entirety was all Marked Territory. So, turns out, we could have gained Ammonia (I) for free this year. But understanding the smell at that point, the survivors instead pressed on until they found some Clean Water (basic HE23). Reef took a deep gulp and rolled an 8, removing Delicious (D).
Moving on we are soon caught in a surprise Mudslide (basic HE55). Reef (3) saw the worst of it, taking a veritable beating to the chest. The other three all came out fine (9+), with Alissa even miraculously being found outside the muddy area not sure what had even happened.
Pressing on another boom preludes the announcement of a Forbidden Word (basic HE66). The brain damage from this forbidden knowledge did nothing at this point, but Alissa was approaching White Secret – only missing 1 more.
Just before we reached Overwhelming Darkness we found another White Lion Cub. Secretly salivating at the opportunity, we did what had to be done and collected a small bounty of basic resources, before we were surprised by the cub’s father. Mildly annoyed it engaged us.

We did get to skip Overwhelming Darkness, so that was nice of the game.
Also, funnily enough, we drew Dead Monster again. I’ve not seen that terrain for at least 4 months and now it came up twice, back to back.

Aside from the typical +1DMG/SPD, as well as 7MOV and 8TGH, the White Lion gets a single new trait at level 2 .
Cunning will have the monster Grab a random adjacent survivor to single out and run away with at the end of every monster turn. This is one of the big reasons why you need, or at least want to have Dash to fight LVl2. Without Encourage for the People of the Sun, Dash felt even more mandatory to me.

15 cards in the deck, we thought the lion had shown up for the cub, but really it must have just been returning to its stashed meal.
Reef was trying to do his standard opener again, as in ‘stab the lion with an arrow and run’. A fool-proof method that had yet to work for him.
And he missed again today – better luck next time, Reef!
Helios didn’t care though, at 3+ to hit, Emboldened, 2 of his 3 hits connected. With 2 7s he wounded the monster twice before backing off. That’s how it’s done, Reef! Make sure to take notes!

With the White Lion distracted from these initial wounds, Luna made use of her new armor set and slammed hard into the lion from the side, knocking him 1 place to the side before swinging at +2STR. Like Helios she also hit the monster twice. She wounded only once, because she missed her chance to Embolden. The second hit was basically just a slap on the monster’s ass and it ran off and out of Alissa’s range.
With no chance to attack, instead Alissa made use of her Rawhide Headband to take a peek at what was to come.

12 cards still in the deck, the White Lion played Chomp, targeting Luna. It hit her twice, of which Luna at least dodged 1 hit. A scary moment, but she narrowly avoided getting her face chewed off.
Before the White Lion could grab anyone, Luna had dashed away already.

As our turn started, Alissa ran out of facing, emboldened and attacked from the flank only to miss completely.
After having dealt an early axe-wound, I decided Luna would make use of her Screaming Bracers to activate the Dead Monster with a +2. Rolling a 10 (8), I picked a card from the Lion deck (I wanted fish out the Mane if possible) and we got a Lion Claw.
Still tucked into the Tall Grass, Reef emboldened and took a cheeky shot, and to my great surprise he actually hit the Beast’s Femur. Sadly the wound failed on another 1. He was adamant of remaining true to himself.
Helios still didn’t care as he ran in again, hitting the monster twice .. and he drew the trap. The lion missed 1 hit as Helios was forced to take the other two. Not a single wound was dealt this round.

12 cards remaining still, Size Up came up next. The lion randomly picked Luna as its target. She hit the floor hard, suffering a brain trauma. 8 (6) – that’s Lunacy. Prey (D) could be bad – only being able to spend survival while insane. The 4 insanity from Lunacy did help with that for now though.

Helios was at it again. Running in behind the Lion he attacked for 3 hits this time. And before I could start doubting him, the Beast Knuckles took the White Lion to town – dealing 3 wounds, ultimately sending it running across the board.

Reef took a few steps towards the monster and he used his Cat Eye Circlet to take a look at the next 3 hit locations before Alissa sprinted over into the blind spot to attack.
She hit twice this time and as a Sword Specialist she was able to make her wound attempt first and then determine what spot she would assign the result to and… she had done it again! A lantern 10! She chose to crit the Beast’s Ribs giving the monster a permanent -1TGH!
Invigorated, she then proceeded to fail the next wound. Naturally.

8 cards left in the deck. The White Lion turned Bloodthirsty. In a way this was a wound, as this mood wouldn’t ever leave the game on its own, but we’d have to be extra careful about taking damage from that point on.
We also had to draw a second AI card which turned out to be Ground Fighting. We got lucky on that one.

With Ground Fighting on the board we suddenly had all the time in the world. And before I would start to have Reef attack the monster, we spent a round to reposition. This gave us a chance to scout ahead again as well and we saw the trap amongst the next 3 hit locations.
Of course stuff didn’t start off all that smoothly either. Reef missed for two more rounds of attacks before he hit the monster twice in one go. He did make the most of that shot, even dealing a crit to the first hit location, applying a permanent -1ACC.
And still he didn’t manage the second wound. Damn it, Reef! Take some notes!
The trap on top of the deck was, of course, a bit of a problem, so after some consideration, Luna was chosen to be the one to activate it. The hits weren’t too bad either, with her arms taking a light wound at worst; Bloodthirsty was up to 3 tokens instantly though.

Not that Helios cared.
Hitting twice, he criticaled the Beast’s Scapular Deltoid, for -1MOV! And he dealt a second wound as well! Alissa also tried to have a slice of the (lion) pie, moving into the blind spot, but she failed her wound with another 1.

4 (5) cards left, thanks to Bloodthirsty, the monster started with a basic action to kick things off this round. Luna was the target yet again, and she would have been hit in the arms.., again, which forced her to dodge, reducing her survival to 0.
The final AI card in the deck was drawn and its.. Terrifying Roar.

Oh, by the Feline Entity.. Why?!

We all had a nervous breakdown – me included – and the survivors ALL ran away. Alissa suffered frenzy, Reef was knocked down and Helios had a seizure hitting Alissa as well as himself – the chest-bump of death, both hits to the body – Helios also got Aichmophobia (D) for his troubles, rendering him nearly useless for the rest of the fight, as he was unable to activate his katar.

But the White Lion wasn’t done just yet! The furthest survivor in range after all that was Luna yet again. She had to take 3 more hits from the follow-up basic on Terrifying Roar, one of which was a severe head injury. With that she was quickly killed as her head was cleanly liberated from her shoulders, her reroll doing nothing at all.

Scattered across the board, the survivors couldn’t do much but move up again. Of course there was the chance to stack the monster’s AI deck, and at that point, we just had to try.
And it turned out well, I’d say.

4 (5) cards remaining, Ground Fighting was on top of the deck again. The Lion was forced to give us a chance!

With a lot of the immediate pressure removed, the survivors spent the next few turns moving closer, preparing for the decisive attack. We did use our Rawhide Headbands again to put Terrifying Roar on top, aiming to wound it off for good!
After we were set up, Reef took charge and attacked, hitting AND wounding twice, surprisingly! He got the Priority Target token on the first wound, but at this stage we did not care.
Alissa found the blind spot as well, dealing 1 more wound. With only Ground Fighting left in the Lion’s deck, we let the turn tick over.

1 (2) cards left, Ground Fighting was played yet again! Technical K.O.!

I spent 1 extra turn to make sure Reef would not shoot the trap.
Ultimately he found a weak spot and felled the monster with a single well placed shot.

Not a great fight, but far from terrible as well.
Loosing Luna was unfortunate, as I would have liked to take her to an early Phoenix next Lantern Year, but we haven’t really lost anyone to hunts thus far.., soooo.
What’s probably worse was Helios getting Aichmophobia (D). That was pretty bad and calls for some light brain surgery if you ask me.

Reef (Unrelenting FA, again) aged to no effect. But if he can’t get any usable bonuses, he at least gained Bow Specialist from the fight. He earned it.

For resources we got a lot of bones, which, well, were not exactly what I wanted or needed, I think. At least not right now.

Another notch on the belt. Admittedly White Lions won’t do that much for us from a special gameplay standpoint (at least at Lvl2), but for general resources, and Leather if you get a little lucky on the hide we’ll make some headway at the very least.
Next Lantern Year is also going to be the Phoenix introduction, which has me considering quite a few things.

But for now I’ll leave it at that and preoccupy myself with trying to survive in this warm, hostile environment. Summer isn’t exactly my favorite season, can you tell?

As always, thank you very much for your time, stay hydrated!
Amathul