Would you look at that. People are getting shipping charges.
The Witches and Wanderers will (decently) soon(ish) be upon us! Gencon is also only a week and a half away and whilst I am not attending, I am very much looking forward the pictures and videos that will eventually emerge from the event.
It’ll be a good time for new KD:M stuff!
You have 10 more days to speculate what new releases we will see this year. Survivors of Death 2 doesn’t count, we know we are getting one of those.

But before we will be able to dive head first into any of the new stuff, not only does it need to be shipping out to non-backers/non-attendees first, Azure Pond will also need to progress some more. We are not quite half-way through the campaign, and there are Lvl3s to be hunted!
Which seems like a tall order, considering what happened last Lantern Year in what should have been a routine lope hunt. But we will continue to look forward and push ahead into this Lantern Year’s story events!

It’s festival season in Azure Pond!

Despite the sudden 2 deaths during the last hunt the settlement we came home to was bustling with activity! And as we began getting into the spirit as well we drew our settlement event for the year: Murder.
Yeah.., I kinda saw that one coming.
Alissa had the most hunt xp, almost ready to retire at age 4, and she also had the highest insanity with 11 as she took the +1 from drawing the Skull after I drew resources.
Uhm, viewer/reader discretion advised(?):
This did feel like a self-afflicted action fueled by depression, not gonna lie.

And just like that, the leader of the settlement was no more! Gone out not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Bad stuff seemed to just be happening in the Sun Dipping and Vomit Festival years.
Nothing to get festival season going like a Murder event.

The mood sufficiently dampened, for Sun Dipping, I din’t feel comfortable risking Calys, so the only real pair we could nominate were Basalt and Celestine.
Brimming with confidence they stepped into one of the light pillars and rolled another 10.
As they became partners bound by The Sun they were supercharged and gained Sun Eater (SFA).

Next up: Hands of Heat – Lantern Branding and a grand feast.
At the time we had 44 resources, so we needed to discard 22. In an effort to realize everything I wanted to do later this year, we caved and used 6 Life Strings, as they seemed like one of the most easily renewable resources we had.
I nominated Helios for the branding ceremony and he, despite not caring, he wanted to turn this into a repeating tradition. We did the only thing appropriate: we booed him vigorously and rerolled (with the help of Meteor and Cynthia) the result into +1SPD. Not great, but better than having to do this again.
The remaining 22 resources in storage were:
3 scrap
6 bones – enough for the Blacksmith
1 ???, Muscly Gums and Pelt to innovate
1 Iron
1 Pyrolotic Lantern
3 phoenix resources
1 Golden Whiskers
3 Life String
And 1 more Pelt.

Finally at the develop step, we pooled the necessary resources and built the Blacksmith. This was all prep-work for LY15! And for maybe a Lantern Sword or Lantern Glaive in a year or two.

Next up: Innovating!
Hovel, Storytelling, Heart Flute or Sauna Shrine.
I liked the idea of Hovel, though Sauna Shrine was tempting as well.
In the end the thought of moving away from communal housing prevailed and we made an effort to construct a Hovel for everyone living in Azure Pond!
This was mainly so we had Family (I) in the deck finally as a stepping stone towards Clan of Death. Of course, the increased Survival Limit and Survival on Departure would help as well – unless we got the odd 4 person frenzy event again.

To more or less finish crafting in this VERY expensive Lantern Year I used the remaining Small Feathers, Muculent Droppings, an Iron and a Leather made from the last remaining Pelt, to build Phoenix Greaves for my growing Phoenix Armor Set.

With all that done, we were down to 3 Life String, 1 Golden Whiskers, 1 Phoenix Whiskers and the Pyrolitic Lantern.
Sadly there was still no real reason to go Phoenix hunting again just yet, with another resource hungry event waiting for us next Lantern Year. And whilst White Lion also felt bad for us, because Mineral Gathering could only be reliably used before Overwhelming Darkness, I was set to dig my heels in on not fighting another lope.
So (as the title of the post suggests), I did not let myself get deterred this time!

As for the remaining 6 endeavors:
2 were spent to purify Stardust (+1LCK).
1 was used for Squobble and Stardust to drink the Sacred Waters. At +2 the 4 turned into a 6 to no further effect but the birth of a healthy boy.
Sunspot was our 4th (useless) Backstabber (FA) but his parents loved him anyhow. I probably should invest on building a Lantern Dagger just so I never draw this Fighting Art again during this campaign.
Sunspot regained his endeavor via Insight.

With the Matchmakers having died on the last hunt we still had 4 endeavors and no more easy intimacy triggers at our disposal.
Oh, and, as Gwyn had also reached Insight, I remembered the seed patterns we had. As I really need to make an effort to not ignore/forget the patterns as much, at this point, we had pulled all 9 for me currently available patterns for this campaign.
And whilst there were a couple of good ones in there, like the Spinal Sickle or Vivid Bian Pao, I did not resolve myself to chase any of them for the time being.
The Tempered Axe is the most achievable and surely a sensible build given the chance.

But, about those endeavors we still had left: I spent all 4 on Helios doing brain surgery and he got every result once (2/8/10/5). He got and subsequently cured Intracranial Hemorrhage, gained Burning Ambition (FA) and Hyperactive (D), and finally he forgot Emotionless (D).

The Hunters:
Moon – green (Leather Armor, Beast Knuckles)
Squobble – blue (Rawhide/Phoenix bits, Bone Axe)
Gwyn – red (Screaming Armor, Sonic Tomahawk)
Stardust – yellow (Rawhide Armor, Sunring Bow)

This hunt was not worth Calys’ time. So I kept her at home, exposing her “only” to the risk of her getting murdered next year. And how likely is that was going to happen? Heh.. heh.. hrm..

The Huntphase:
Whilst there was some risk of the monster backing off, the White Lion Lvl2 starts the hunt right behind Overwhelming Darkness, so we might as well start with Mineral Gathering right away I figured. Stardust rolled a quick Lantern 10 and we gained a Broken Lantern. A bit wasted, but a scrap is a scrap, I guess.
Afterwards she led the group into a patch of Golden Light (basic HE09), reminiscent of home. This did trigger Bold for her (a measly +1SPD-token). Investigating yielded nothing but her chest armor slowly falling away – as she took 2DMG to her body.
Meanwhile, as we discovered signs of another monster, we understood that we were actually hunting a Prowling Lion on the hunt for something else (Ground Fighting would start in play).
Faced with a Sea of Golden Grass, we did not tarry and in a bid to make good time, we headed straight through. But our insecurities got the better of us and the survivors were not bold enough to actually go straight and stuck mostly to the outer edges of the area. And to our great surprise, as we moved along these fringe patches of grass, we came across The Beginning (basic HE91) of our little society. Empowered by the sight of the place that marked our first, existential triumph, we gained courage and Gwyn also triggered Bold (another measly +1SPD-token).
Moving on the survivors felt they needed Something to Pass the Time (basic HE72). Whatever word-game Gwyn had come up with for them, enthralled the survivors and, by the looks and sounds of it, they had the time of their lives! 3 of them could have cured disorders, if they had had any..
Finally, just before we reached the meta-physical barrier that is Overwhelming Darkness, we found what appeared to be a Scratching Grounds of the monster. Squobble was the last in the group to gain Bold (+1MOV) and by that point every single one of them was Tinker and Prepared. We didn’t find any Lion Claws, but Stardust injured her hands. So that’s something, I guess..

Crossing the threshold of Overwhelming Darkness Moon gained -1ACC, Squobble turned into a Leader (FA), Gwyn took 1DMG to his arms and Stardust saw the Nightmare Whale.
We were so close to the monster now! We could almost feel it!
There was still a field of Saliva Pools (basic HE67) we needed to cross, and despite our best efforts, it was an arduous journey. Only Squobble was unaffected by the gases the pools emitted, as most of the group threw up bloody chunks. A painful experience all around.
Hurt, we entered the Lion’s den.

And there was not only a Dead Monster but also a Survivor Corpse. Yeah, thinking about it, that did make sense.

15 (16) cards in the deck. The monster flopped onto its side, so even without the Dead Monster it wouldn’t do anything on its own.

This did give us the time to pick up a few things scattered across the board. The Survivor Corpse yielded a Skull and the Dead Monster nothing at all. I would have loved a draw from the Phoenix resource deck, but that would have been too much, I get it, I get it.

Afterwards I spent a little more time to set up.
Stardust would be the one to attack first after all preparations had been completed.
She barely missed a great crit, but more importantly she hit and wounded the White Lion with her Claw Head Arrow making any further attacks easier to hit it. This did ‘activate’ the lion, but, well, you’ll see..
Gwyn was up next and he slammed into the lion’s side, unleashing a flurry of 4 blows with the Sonic Tomahawk. He only crit on 10s, but wounded reliably on 2+.., and to my pleasant surprise, he crit immediately! A wounds and 2 more crits followed! Oh, wow!

After Gwyn was done carving up the Lion, it was on the floor twitching, without a jaw.
Squobble moved up as well to attack with his axe, and – just what was going on that day!? Another crit?!
Finally Moon dashed around the monster for 1 more wound! What a beating. With the help of our savage axes that was 10 wounds in our opening round!

6 cards remaining. The lion got up, and because of the direction it was facing, it weakly tried to Claw Stardust. She was not about to let that happen and she dashed away from the White Lion, her bow ready to fire.

Her counterattack ready, Stardust let the arrows fly and she hit the monster 3 times right in the front, 2 of which were perfect hits! The final arrow almost pierced the Lion’s heart – which could have marginally shortened the fight.

Gwyn dashed into position and slammed into the monster’s side again. However, this time it was ready for this maneuver! He hit the trap and took 2 hits to the legs and face.

Still, the White Lion was on its last legs already, so Squobble dashed in next to keep the pressure on. He dealt a single wound to the monster.
Moon followed suit, dashing in as well, seeing a chance to end this fight! She used both Embolden (if you don’t have +1STR-tokens, gain 1) and Overcharge (spend all your +1STR-tokens to add Devastating 1 to your next attack) and attacked. Two hits – this could be it! And she crit the monster twice on top of it! Oh my Feline Entity! What a one-sided fight!?

As for rewards, nobody aged, but Moon became our first katar specialist!
We gained a lot of hide from this monster – including a Shimmering Mane, which we traded in for 2 more basic Monster Hide.
With all these resources, we should be fine for the next pool extension coming up.

So, I think this might have been the first time I actually used Overcharge despite getting the necessary innovation – Hands of the Sun – back in Lantern Year 8.
Having access to Devastating 1 at the cost of what amounts to 2 survival essentially is amazing, and I REALY need to be using it more often. We could have dealt a lot of extra damage over the last couple of lantern years. In general, if you were to go all-out-aggressive, this survival action should be abusable to the best of degrees, it would seem.

And you do get a lot of early Survival Limit this campaign as well for what its worth.

Now, I can assure you, that I will forget about Overcharge again, but I will also promise you that I will eventually pick up on it and at that point its all-out “Unga-bunga protects”!

For now we have killed a White Lion Lvl2 with a total of 18 attack rolls. Not attacks. Attack rolls. This was already one of the most one-sided fights I have ever played.
And with my confidence picking up, we will hunt a Phoenix Lvl2 next Lantern Year.

As of writing this, no pre-orders etc have appeared in the shop. If we do get a chance to (late) pre-order any of the Witches and Wanderers stuff (aka the Revised Wave 1) with Gencon being so close now it will likely be this week . They said it would happen “mid-month” in the last major update, but there isn’t exactly much “mid-month” left.
But maybe writing this, shouting it out into the aether, the universe will hear it and adjust accordingly. It works for getting stuff shipped, most of the time, so maybe it’ll work with this as well.

As always, thank you very much for your time, and let me know if anything you have ordered ships before Gencon. I can’t wait to see the pics going up on Lantern’s Reign and other places!
Amathul