There’s still no info on potential pre-orders going down, so whilst I’m going to chance it by writing this to tell the universe to do something about that, we will continue with the story of Azure Pond.
And this Lantern Year, destined to be an intermission, turned out to be a doozy.

As I was sitting there, preparing for the Lantern Year, looking at my settlement record sheet I just noticed something. PotSun might be the only campaign that could actually offer you a (sensible) path to your Lantern Oven (I) via picking Barbaric (I) as a conviction.

Anyways, with that revelation out of the way, time for the random settlement event!
Clinging Mist.
I rolled a 5 and we had somebody take a dunk in the pee bucket to dispel the phenomenon. I quickly nominated Squobble (+1 card when innovating this LY) and started shouting.
Guys! He’s being weird again!

And of course, the big one: Principle Conviction.
If you’ve been around before, you might know I am a fan of Barbaric and I’m not ashamed to admit that. There is something about the simplicity of raw stats that just speaks to me. I also prefer Ultimate Weapon to Ultimate Fighting Art.
I was looking at the page for the principle choice and whilst I still wondered about why the general mindset favored Romantic so much, I do think I started to finally get it.
Having to not only go through a 50/50 chance of losing a full set of resources for the choice itself, Hands of Heat the following year taxes half your resources guaranteed. Together with the added utility of getting to choose between 3 Fighting Arts instead of a flat +1STR, there is also the +1SPD vs +1LCK on 4 people for the event table should you lose all your resources.
No philo in the GCE is just extra at that point.
Typing it out now, it is indeed VERY stacked towards one side. Ultimate Weapon for a hand-full of years won’t off-set that either.

But for Azure Pond I tried to put my biases for the simplicity of unga-bunga aside and I had the Feline Entity pick. I sadly did not get a good picture of it, but she did pick a card and it was Barbaric.
I added Hands of Heat to the next Lantern Year, after Sun Dipping, and, whilst fully prepared to spend re-rolls on saving my resources, I rolled a 7 on the table.
At least the re-rolls were safe!
After some deliberation I picked Helios (+1 endeavor) to gain Stormcaller. Whilst I would have been able to push Alissa or Reef to max courage with this, they both only had a handful of hunts left in them and it felt like a waste.

With 7 endeavors we moved on into develop. With 5 draws we were looking at a prime opportunity to innovate right out of the gate.
I spent some time looking at my options in regards to maybe special innovating Scrap Smelting, but it wasn’t really feasible for the cost. We would need a harvest ritual to deliver us the goods and then we would likely not be able innovate regularly afterwards either. So I resolved myself to try and just get it normally.
Pictograph, Sculpture, Heart Flute, Scrap Smelting and Sauna Shrine.
Ask and ye shall receive.
Whilst I wanted that shrine as well, I was equally locked in on taking Scrap Smelting. We were, in a way, in between projects, so pushing our tech-level up to Blacksmith weapons seemed like a sensible thing to do.

Hm.., because of the Second Heart being both BONE and organ, we were only 1 bone shy of immediately building the Blacksmith. And we also still had 5 scrap in storage, so.. we are 1 good hit on the Harvest Ritual away from already building the settlement location!

We did not get lucky with the Harvest Ritual, trading 2 Pelt and a Beast Steak for a Monster Hide, Monster Organ and a Perfect Organ.
You can’t win them all.
But that left us with a plan B – the B standing for Barber Surgeon.

The next endeavor was spent on match making Basalt and Celestine.
We got a 6, so another healthy child named Asteroid (Backstabber FA, +1 endeavor) was born.
And as the parents could still also drink the Sacred Water, we did that as well, which resulted in the birth of a girl, Emerald (Ambidextrous FA, +1STR).

We were up to 9 Life String in storage, and it just occurred to me, that we could have the weirdest Hands of Heat feast I have ever had …

With 3 endeavors left, I sent Helios to get some brain surgery done. He rolled a 3 which was just enough to cure a disorder. With Aichmophobia (D) gone, he was usable again! Hurray!
Helios, on the other hand, did not care.

The final 2 endeavors were spent to purify Squobble. He rolled an 8 and took the +1LCK to offset the -1LCK from the pee bucket.

As I got stuff prepped for the hunt, I took a moment to reconsider what I actually wanted to do this year. Originally, I was set on hunting a Lvl3 lion or lope, or a Lvl2 birb with my shiny new Axe Master – she wasn’t going to be around forever after all, but I realized what a gigantic waste it would be, doing so when going into a Hands of Heat event.
Therefor, Calys was going to stay home whilst the rest of the group would be going to schreck another Antelope.
Hopefully our spiritual leader Alissa would be able to get her last point for Sword Mastery from this fight, checking off another milestone for the settlement.

I did also quickly turn 1 Fresh Acanthus into Dried Acanthus and gave it to Sol, before I stashed the remaining resources for next year.

The Hunters:
Moon – green (Leather Armor, Beast Knuckles)
Alissa – blue (Rawhide Armor, Bone Blade)
Sol – red (Screaming Armor, Sonic Tomahawk)
Reef – yellow (Rawhide Armor, Sunring Bow)

One of the main reasons why we headed out to hunt another lope instead of switching things up again was how the lvl2 lion did not give you a chance to go resource gathering after Overwhelming Darkness.
Of course. as with any Screaming Antelope, it might have still turned out that we were actually heading out to fight a lion.

The Huntphase:
As we set out, our initial clue that we were actually hunting a lope was the large Teething fields, covered in jagged stone edges. Moon quickly found a lost Large Flat Tooth in the debris, as Sol and Alissa clumsily cut themselves.
As we crested the next hill, we laid eyes on a beautiful structure: a Tomb of Excellence (basic HE70). Sol had lead us here and he was bent on investigating. And he rolled a 10! We saw an ancient mural that reminded me of the GCE Gambler, and my survivors all gained 1 understanding for glimpsing the scene. Sol (+3 insanity/survival) even had a moment of insight and reflection.
Lacking the ability to read, we were eager to move on and spent some quality time rummaging in the Vomit Pile outside instead of investigating the derelict structure any further. Moon was great at this as well! She found a Pelt in the filthy mess. Alissa and Reef were inspired to also try their luck as well, but they found nothing but half digested sludge.
The next landmark on our path was a Jagged Valley (basic HE45). Yikes. 1 damage to the body and 2 bleed all around. What a harsh event! As an upside, we could try to get an Iron here, but the Hissing Cockroach attached to it (and an extra event) soured that idea pretty much immediately.
Bleeding profusely we came across the Flesh Fields (basic HE05). Before long Sol started screaming, believing he was being attacked. This spread like a wildfire amongst my group and in the end all took a hit of damage somehow. A lot of groin punching was going on it seems.

Pushing through Overwhelming Darkness: Moon and Sol took the -1ACC-token, Reef vomited at the sight of a Nightmare Whale and Alissa became a Leader (FA). (Which she can, despite the Leader FA not being in the deck.)

Shaken but far from broken, we continued on to Mineral Gathering. Reef managed to find an entry to the Worm Tunnels but he almost lost himself in the darkness. The same also happened to Sol. However, Alissa was lucky enough to stumble upon a layer of crystals. She did not go deeper, but took the singular Iron instead.
And of course, the lope had turned Skittish in the time we took below the surface.
In a moment of unawareness we got jumped by a group of Cleaner Birds (basicHE89). Sol was the straggler- he had to roll off 3 times with Reef! – and he got mangled by the bird. -1SPD and +1LCK. With the Sonic Tomahawk equipped to him, that didn’t sound bad at all!.
Finally (hopefully) we stumbled into a nest of Madlies (basic HE52). The rolls were ridiculous and terrible. All 9s and 10s. Everybody suffered frenzy. Alissa and Moon did have the Berserker (FA), so they got two hits of the brain trauma!
That was horrible!
What an unlikely outcome. With Survival turned off for all 4 survivors in that last event, after such a quaint hunt, this suddenly felt like it could end very badly very quickly.

With the lope cornered and the survivors frothing with rage, we had no other option but to hope we could burst it to bits before it did the same to us.
As for terrain we got a Giant Stone Face and a useless Lion Statue.

15 cards in the deck. The lope attempted to Back Kick a Cyclops Fly that got too close. The sudden movement exhausting it was sure it was time for a quick snack! It gobbled up the first Fresh Acanthus in its path and then Diabolical’d its way towards the group.

Moon started the fight by attacking with 4SPD but she hit the Restless Eye. Insane, she canceled her attack. This also took out the super-dense hit location, so Alissa would not have to hold back later down the line.
Sol decided to go next. Hitting only twice he at least got a chance to wound. And he crit the monster on the first attempt – 2 wounds in 1 from savage! The second hit was yet another crit – of course, savage triggers only once per attack though. Still, we got a Bladder and the monster lost a TGH from the dire hit.

Alissa had 4SPD and 3STR-tokens, so if she was ever going to get a wound in, it would be at this point: 4 hits, no trap, praise the Feline Entity! 4 wounds were cleanly dealt – so if she survived the fight she was going to be a sword master!
Finally Reef attacked as well. 4SPD again, 4 more hits. Pulling cards from the hit location deck felt a little like gambling already. But we didn’t get the trap! WoW! Landing crits on 8+, he did get 2 of them for 2 resources and -1ACC on the monster, and wounded the other 2 hits! A clean sweep!

Had Moon not been forced to abandon her attacks, the lope could have been down to 0 cards in 1 turn!

4 cards left, this lope has been through the ringer already! The monster got up, clearly panicking, it wanted to Ram Moon. It trampled over Sol and only hit Moon once, but without the ability to dodge this, 6 damage to the head still lay her flat on her back even with Moon’s full set of Leather Armor and the Small Round Shield.
And then finished its turn by jumping onto Alissa as well, hitting her head as she got flung away.

With Reef the only one standing, I returned to the old mantra: unga-bunga protects!
If we were to draw the trap, the lope would run over Alissa, so it was a calculated risk, if nothing else. But all my considerations meant nothing – he hit only once and failed to wound on top of that.

4 cards left. Chow Down. I frowned once upon drawing the card and again as I understood that it was just barely able to reach one of the Acanthus. It only healed 2 after trampling Moon’s arms on its way over.
And then Moon was trampled on again for good measure, her body armor gone as well after the monster had eaten the herb.

Moon retaliated instantly after getting up – Chow Down needed to go! 2 hits (of 4) connected. 2 wounds were dealt, but she took a kick to the legs, pushing her backwards all the way over to the Lion Statue.
Reef found himself out of range no matter what he did, so Sol rushed up to the lope first and hit it twice. Still no trap! But 1 more wound!

Alissa decided she was going to be the one to try and trigger the unseen menace. 4 hits with only 3 cards left in the deck – yup, that should do it!
The way she got knocked back had the lope crash through Sol, inflicting a heavy wound to his chest, but he was still feeling invincible – he gained Sun-Drunk (D), which prevented dash, dodge and Run Away whilst he had any +1STR-tokens. That is a harsh disorder for PotSun, not that it mattered right now.
Fortunately for us, Reef was in range again. And we might as well try to deal some more damage.
2 hits, one of them perfect, the other a critical wound.
Good job!

1 card remaining. Ram again. The furthest threat in range turned out to be Reef. 5DMG to the body was still a severe though.
And just like that he’s dead as his chest got folded inward. With no reroll left for him to use either that was the end of his journey – and a crunchy finish to our only bow user close to mastery.
With her partner’s death Alissa gained Traumatized (D) as the lope continued to barrel towards her – fitting, really.

Three people got up, angry, grieving and out for revenge! Sol moved in, hitting the monster but he got a bad spread of hit locations – including the spasm.
As he dealt a wound, hoping to get lucky on the RNG of the basic, the monster kicked his chest in without much fanfare.

That’s another instant death! His Dried Acanthus had just been spent on preventing an arm severe in the same sequence of events! It was the ol’ 1-2-into chest foldage.
The downwards spiral was real, and it was here!
Moon wanted to block, but as we were down to the monster’s basic attack only, she needed to pick a specific Fresh Acanthus to prevent graze.
She got bit in the hand for doing the only sensible thing.

0 cards remaining, the monster saw no knocked down targets and it wanted to graze. It did not reach any acanthus and ended its turn moving towards the closest one instead. With no Diabolical trigger, both Alissa and Moon were still in range.

Alissa was the first to run in and she hit the Restless Eye again, showing a moment of weakness on her part, ending the attempt before it ever really began.
This was followed by Moon hoping to not find the trap! She drew 3 and killed the monster on the first strike!

Those 2 deaths sure were sudden, and with the loss of Reef, all that bow progress was down the drain. What a hunt! Despite starting so well, it turned out to be kinda cursed with those 4 (6 actually) frenzy hits in the end!
Just goes to show quickly things can change. Not being able to spend survival was always going to be rough in any fight, and we did get quite lucky on that first shuffle of the HL deck as well on top of that and yet we still lost 2 people to bad rolls.

But there is nothing left to do but go and collect my rewards. Both Moon and Alissa had an even 10 insanity and were safe from the aftermath killing them.

Alissa officially hit Age 4 for the coveted +1LCK. Moon (+1STR) on the other hand was merely Age 2 (That’s +5STR in total!)
And the big thing: Alissa unlocked Sword Mastery for the settlement! All that with the power of a Bone Blade no less.

All in all we took a lot of monster resources back home – 12 of them!
And with the 2 tinkerers surviving we were looking at 8 endeavors as well, so the next year is looking good all things considered.
It is also basically confirmed that we get the Pyrolitic Light through the next event phase, so we are set up for getting the Wrought Ironworks as well come Lantern Year 15 should we not stupidly break the lantern before that.

Our gains off-set by tragedy the survivors will make their way back home.
As for myself I will return to waiting for the e-mails/pre-order update to pop up. Or maybe, just maybe, I’ll go back to bed. The Feline Entity is convinced I need to be awake a 4 a.m. for some reason I just can’t seem to figure out.

As always, thank you very much for your time, beware the ol’ 1-2 into chest foldage a.k.a. the monster’s version of unga-bunga.
Amathul