It’s just a couple more days until GenCon, I have been painting again, we have not had an extra update appear last week and the first few people seemingly have gotten their packages!
Exciting times!

We are not yet a point where the info-floodgates have been opened, which will likely happen post-GenCon, but a few lucky individuals at the top of the queue have already had their packages delivered and subsequently both artwork and info are slowly leaking out into the world.
And it should also be kept in mind as well that posting full-on info-dumps on the new content is against the established “etiquette”. (Otherwise the Pariah is going to get you!)
The most important take away is, of course, this:
Its happening!
Stuff is being sent out and delivered!

Big Deno also got his items and as of writing this, about half an hour ago he gave us a not-too spoilery live unboxing. I will link the stream as soon as it is made available.
HERE you go!
He did a great job at not showing too much, but increasing the hype – again, from my point of view. (More Seer hype! Let’s go! Anybody ready for infinite damage? And the artwork for those story events! A Dragon King vaporizing somebody? A Watcher in the Library? Itty bitty little Pariah munching on stuff in your storage?)

And before we get back to Azure Pond and this Lantern Year’s fun diversion, which I’m sure you have picked up on due to the post’s title, here’s a couple of figures I’ve painted or touched up recently.

But, yeah, with the first few Red Witches successfully transposing into settlements, we need to get going on the double!

Arms filled with birb-bits we were just heading home, when this Lantern Year’s singular event jump-scared us. Heaving noisily a gigantic stone face close to the settlement slowly opened its mouth with an incessant drone.
Open Maw.
All in all a fairly passive event, I tend to be happy when I draw this in any campaign.

We only had 6 endeavors to work with this Lantern Year due to both a lack of Tinkers and deaths (suffering from success) during the last fight, but I was confident that we should be able to make up for that by getting a lot of crafting done.

And indeed, we were able to make a decent amount of progress, largely thanks to the ridiculous 4 Iron we had gained from 2 people almost finding the Lantern City during that single Mineral Gathering hunt event last Lantern Year.
To start things off, we made some Leather, 2 pieces for the time being, and then we got right into making armor parts. The Phoenix Helm, Phoenix Gauntlets and the Phoenix Plackart were all built.

And, as we had the chance to do so, we also built the Arc Bow – a first for me, because the birbs had always been stingy with their beard hair in my settlements.
Furthermore, with the extra Phoenix Whiskers, the Small Hand Parasites and a Hollow Wing Bone we innovated.
Storytelling, Face Painting, Heart Flute or Cooking.
That was an expensive innovate to get not-so-great innovations to chose from. Ultimately I took Cooking for the Survival Limit increase and the extra endeavor per Lantern Year.

With most of the things done that had held my immediate focus, we still had 5 endeavors to spend and whether or not it was a good call – oh boy, it would be – I came to the conclusion that I might as well send young Emerald into the Open Maw.
Using 5 dice was a risky proposition, but I did want the Lantern Sword hidden deep down the stony throat or the special ability if anything. 4 dice would be the absolute minimum and we would need to roll on the high end for that, so I chose to roll 5 dice to have some added “safety” in regards to variance. Any doubles would kill, so that was always one of the most likely things to happen.
10, 6, 4 and a double 8.
Uhm. That was a great roll to start us off and it instantly felt like I should use Emerald’s re-roll. One of the two 8s is turned into a 9 and that is a grand total of 37 – without any doubles left: that’s a Lantern Sword!?
That was the first time I managed to get that!

The sword came with a stipulation though, that Emerald had to go on the next hunt if able and, well, I didn’t really want to take her, so I spent 2 endeavors to purify her (+1STR), trapping her at home, forced to recover from the procedure.
Stardust’s Fear of the Dark (D) would also force her to stay home for now as well so maybe they could become friends or something.

For our final endeavor I knew I would have somebody partake of the Sacred Waters again.
After looking around a bit I had Squobble and Stardust try for a child, and at +2 they got a 4.The boy was named something strange, after his father – Alpaca – and he learned Bow (1) from his mother. The Trusight Clan had thus been established (with a stylish misspelling!)
He also learned Rhythm Chaser (FA) and added a card to our innovation draws. That one is a bit late, but it seems to only happen on the regular if I already innovated for the year.

It’s at this time that I usually make up my mind what I actually wanted to hunt – which for these posts, well, let’s say it loses a lot of the drama.
I had mentioned hunting a White Lion lvl3 before, but another birb lvl2 was also up for consideration to finish the Phoenix set. In the same vein lvl3 also looked juicy – but I’m a scared lil guy.
But then the idea of fighting a Lion God Lvl1 popped up. And I do like me some diversity in my hunts (which seems like my biggest gripe with Frogdog right now – I’ve yet to complete a Frogdog set before LY8 even when I was hunting it non-stop).
Worst case scenario – 4 people died. That’s 9 endeavors (with Cooking) to work with next year! That would probably still count as a win in some cases.
And as a best case scenarios we were looking at us coming back home with some extra Iron and what ever else we might loot from the dead city.
We would also not be taking Calys along for this fight though, but her daughter, Calystea. She should prove to be a sufficient replacement and we could keep her (much more important) mother safe at home, preparing for the inevitable Phoenix fight.

The Hunters:
Gwyn – green (Leather Armor, Tempered Axe)
Moon – blue (Phoenix bits, Arc Bow/Lantern Sword)
Calystea – red (Screaming Armor, Sonic Tomahawk)
Cynthia – yellow (Rawhide Armor, Sunring Bow)

So, last time – the singular time – I fought a Lion God before, it opened the fight by smashing a survivor into the closest wall, pulverizing several body parts instantly. I was curious the see if it happened again to say the least. But first we needed to find it, of course:

The Huntphase:
With the monster lurking right behind OD (even at Lvl1!), we started the hunt by going Mineral Gathering. And it already seemed like all the rolls we made this settlement would either be below 3 or above 7 – she rolled an 8 and gathered a Broken Lantern.

Freeing the scrap from the stony ground was a lengthy progress though, and before we were able to leave, the group was surrounded by Wailing Smoke (basic HE08). In the commotion of the survivors suddenly trying move on, Cynthia was left behind. Always the innovator, she stuck her thumbs into her ears to block out the noise and just ran for it.
She only stopped as she heard the thundering smashes of Distant Destruction despite her make-shift ear plugs. Both Cynthia and Calystea lacked the courage to just openly continue and they lost 1 survival each, frozen in place, quivering. And unbeknownst to the rest of the group Calystea had ever since tried to know exactly where to run to, she had the compulsory need to know in which direction home was, if she ever needed to flee: she learned Homing Instinct (+5 to the Run Away story event).
Her home at her back, she took the lead for the next stretch of the journey. Feeling Destiny Bound (basic HE12), the group surged ahead, as Calystea (+1 understanding) discovered a Bold stroke within her.
The way ahead turned pock-marked and weird as we were approaching Overwhelming Darkness. Saliva Pools (basic HE67) dotted the landscape giving off dizzying fumes. Gwyn couldn’t hold back the vomit, but straining he moved on eventually.

As we crossed Overwhelming Darkness: Moon and Calystea both took arms damage, whilst Cynthia and Gwyn each gained Leader (FA). I could only hope they’d be able to cooperate.
But putting my concerns aside, we had managed to reach the monster!

Thematically the Lion God is a fight against an incredibly old, nigh-immortal being of tremendous power. Survivors are very likely to die as you struggle against the beast, especially if you take the time to interact with one of the main gimmicks of the fight – the exploration of the Silver City below the arena.
Whilst the monster is best avoided during the fight due to how high its raw damage output is, I like the concept of it implying you should be running after you have gathered loot from below. Of course we can’t do that – we lack the technology of spacial awareness. Therefore, like most fights, we’ll probably have to turn this into a damage race.
At 14TGH, most of the team should have a decently easy time of wounding the monster (whilst Emboldened: Gwyn: 4+, Moon: 2+, Calystea: 2+, Cynthia: 5+).

As for traits, the Lion God Lvl1 starts with 3.
Whiplash marks a huge zone around the monster – 3 space away in all directions. If a survivor attacks from any spot besides the blind spot within the zone, they suffer a bleed. If they surge its 2 even!
Heft will move the monster to the closest impassable terrain (which the area is littered with) and have it pick the terrain up to potentially use as a weapon or throw it!
And finally Hollow Earth will put a 3×3 Sinkhole terrain into play on a 6+, if an impassable terrain is archived (though not by Heft).This Sinkhole will let players delve into the depths below with some assistance from another survivor. This is, in theory, the main draw of the fight but also comes at some risk as the Lion God will continue its rampage as you go spelunking.

As for Terrain, the area is littered with it in all directions, with no added randomness. Aside from all manner of different pillars, the fight also features the 4 Lion Statues. And for this fight they actually have a usable effect, potentially granting you a reroll as you explore the Necropolis event.

But enough delaying the fight!

The time to get clobbered had come!
Oh and I should mention – I am treating the direction the humanoid face is looking as its facing and the other side as the blind spot. Side-facing monsters like the Lion God can be tricky like that.

15 cards in the deck.
The monster issued us a Challenge. Bemused by the small creatures entering its crumbling den, this AI card put the trap on top of the Hit Location deck. The card itself prevents any AI draws whilst in play and will archive itself upon the first wound taken – that was kinda awesome! Would you look at that – its a more intense version of Ground Fighting!

With the monster waiting on us to take the first swing I took a moment (more than a single turn) to prepare. Gwyn would (probably) be able to take the trap, so he was picked to spring it. And he sure did. With the fury of an inverted-color-stare, the monster retaliated hard, shredding his body and arms for 6DMG each! That was a heavy body injury right off the bat for him, despite his full Leather Armor and shield. The Giant Stone Face he was smashed into crumbled from the force of the impact and left a gaping Sinkhole behind.

The Challenge still stood though. So.., could we take the chance to go spelunking?
I re-read the cards again a couple of times and didn’t seem like anything was preventing this, so yeah, it sure looked like we could.
Which in a way meant that I had to do it.
As the monster took a break, radiating grand calm hostility from the center of the board, Moon quickly read the side of one of the Lion Statues (12) and prepared to plunge into the depths.
The first thing she touched crumbled and came loose – an Old Blue Box, which she took along. But she tumbled into a pit right afterwards, and even the reroll didn’t help from then on out. Not the greatest first attempt, but she did get something.
Glancing over at the monster, the survivors did not trust the calmness, but continued with another attempt at delving into the the depths anyhow. If I didn’t do it now, I probably wouldn’t explore this event further this time… so, down into the hole for a second round with somebody else.
Gwyn, holding his bruised ribcage wanted to try his luck. And he got instantly trapped in a pit, luckily he too had had the time to activate the Lion Statues up top for a reroll and he got at least a little deeper into the structure below. As he escaped his erstwhile confinement he held an ancient Triptych in his hands.

With the monster still seemingly taking a nap, we positioned ourselves and got ready to kick the fight off properly.
I guess I could have gone delving 2 more times, but it felt weird at that point and strangely tense with the Lion God standing in the center of the board doing nothing at all. My cave-man instincts got the better of me and I defaulted back to unga-bunga, rather than have it ask us for a souvenir if we took too long.
Gwyn was chosen once again to break the mood, he attacked hitting once but it got soaked by the impervious Divine Crown. Laughing, I chose to wait for the next round and try again with Gwyn.
The second attempt saw him getting 2 hits. The first wound was dealt with an 8 on 8+, this archived Challenge and the fight would be a real one from that moment onwards. And for the second hit.. he opted for the Lantern 10 critical wound! Yeah! Which dealt an additional wound via the effect!
Good job!

With Gwyn rooted into place from wounding the Petrified Hands, hot-headed Calystea was next in line. She used Overcharge, dashed up to the monster and slammed into it! 2 hits only but with the first attack having Devastating 1 and easily wounding (on 2+ with an 8) she dealt 3 wounds in total very quickly. It came to her just as easily as it did for her mother!
On the back-end of Calystea’s attack, Cynthia shot with the Sunring Bow and managed to get 1 more hit in, even wounding on top of it!

Finally, to round out our turn, Moon shot the Arc Bow and disaster struck immediately – she might have dealt a wound with the hit, but the Lion God’s reflex bashed Calystea away.. right into the Sinkhole!?
I had a feeling something like that might happen when I placed her in that spot for the attack. Just like that, the heir of the Axtolotl clan got killed – with the swish of a paw and a tumble into a dark abyss.

7 cards left in the deck, the Lion God finally broke from its lethargic apathy and activated. Ragdoll targeted Cynthia. She was be able to run away from this to a degree. With a single space apart, she still got knocked down and bled for 1 though.

This did attract another predator though. A being from a higher realm, ready to stall the fight even further.

As I used all my scooping ability to at least get the Feline Entity off the AI deck, Gwyn used Overcharge and moved into the monster’s blind spot.
2 hits, the Expressionless Face almost ended the attack, but he had the 5 courage to continue exactly. He did also wound, but the monster ran off, grabbing Cynthia in its path, bleeding her further.

Moon wanted to repent for triggering the reaction that killed Calystea and took a risk, possibly burning the candle from both ends, but she dashed in and with Overcharge active, to attack with her Lantern Sword.
She, thankfully, did not roll a 1, and drew 3 hit locations.
Thanks to sword spec from having the mastery at home we got to deal 2 (3) more wounds, as the Lion God charged further into the Feline Entity.

2 cards remaining. Meteor Shower. That title sounded horrendous, but the card was a little more manageable than it would at first suggest.
As the Quantum Lion God’s agitated state calmed and it re-emerged from the space partially inhabited by the Feline Entity, it picked up the Stone Pillar close by and threw it at Gwyn.
Luckily he in turn was just far enough away for Moon to be safe from the impact.
After dashing out of the Impact Zone, Gwyn kept on moving to the monster as our next turn began.

Whilst he was unable to get to the blind spot (not only because of the Feline Entity), I came to the conclusion that he would just attack anyway after spending his last survival on a +1STR-token.
1 hit, 1 wound dealt at the cost of 1 bleed.
Moon could be able to end it here. She used the Lantern Sword again as I felt the safety the bow granted was off-set by the comparatively low ACC. She just needed to not find the trap! Easy-peasy.
2 survival were spent on using Embolden and Overcharge, which brought her down to 0 as well. 3 hits was a lot. I nervously drew the cards, but the important bit held true: we did not drawn the trap! She only needed a +6 on 2 dice to wound, and she could roll before assigning the attack on top of that.
With confidence restored, she ended the fight by cracking the monster’s toenails!

As for rewards we carefully sifted through the debris and rubble, hoping to maybe find Calystea, or what was left of her, but it was to no avail.
Nobody aged from the fight, but Gwyn and Cynthia gained proficiency with axe and bow respectively.
And then we made a startling discovery! We found the .. uhm.. tardigrade? Gwyn approaches the child-sized “worm”, and decided the settlement would adopt it. What seemed like a questionable whim, soon was a celebrated decision by all 3 survivors.
Azure Pond now officially had a(nother) parasite problem.

As for resources we gained 8 basic and an Iron, and that was a pretty decent haul, I’d say right now.

For what its worth, that was largely a success. I had a feeling the Sinkhole could be in a bad spot and spell trouble when I placed it down.., and again when I moved Calystea in to attack.., but, its what happens at times.
You fall onto rocks and are dead.

All in all, when it comes to damage output the Lion God is a beast. Together with the potential insta-kill AI card hidden in its AI card pile and the Relentless keyword on cards which we did not draw at all thus I didn’t mention even once during the fight, this monster is not a prime opponent for the average settlement.
On the other hand it is also not too offensive with its added Disorders, and I think it has a few great Fighting Arts to add to the deck, so, for me at least, it is an easy addition to most campaigns even if you don’t end up hunting it.

That being said, this was only my second time ever fighting this monster, and if I should have been more or less comfortable with burning it down like I did, especially after the death of one of my more reliable up-and-coming survivors, the designated heir to the Axtolotl-clan, I don’t know.
Let me know.
Dumb luck and unga-bunga are definitely a strategy here!

Just one more thing to add: much like with Slenderman, I really like how the AI gives the “advanced” White Lion impression throughout the fight. Of course it is hard to say whether or not CoD will keep it that way, as you could argue that it diminishes the singular grandios identity of this monster.
I, as somebody who does enjoy the stylistic aspect of the combat, enjoy it being like this.
But that’s enough for today, I shall take my win and leave, preparing for.. another birb? Probably.
It’s about time that we take the fight to the real enemy.

But that will happen on another day.
For now, it’s 2 more days-ish until GenCon and with that the next wave of content-previews dropping – mainly for what will be the post-GenCon releases at the end of August.
So, with all that, as always, thank you very much for your time, be mindful with your spoilers, but do enjoy yourselves with the new content! By the time I get my stuff I’m sure a lot will have been shown already and I will high-light a few choice bits before we get to see whatever it is we see in Season 3.
Amathul