So, this is a Lantern Year that happened.
If anything ever had “filler-energy” in this campaign, this one might be a top contender for that title. But a couple of things before we get to Azure Pond:

Another week is almost over and so far, sadly I still don’t know anything new in regards to either my end-of-august-order or the status on pre-orders in general, so the wait continues. It shouldn’t be too long now.., but honestly, who knows at this point. At least, according to some users on Lantern’s Reign we do have tracking and the rare package arriving now in the UK and EU regions.

Speaking of the discord community. There was a lot of discussion on the Squire campaign happening at the start of the week and how rules were misinterpreted and such and the Mountain Lion yada yada, and I felt the urge to try my hand at the 5 year campaign included with the Black Knight again after reading along for about a day.
So I set up my game yesterday and went at it. And I can now confirm that the general strategy of “just roll better” does indeed work. I had a great time and will be reporting on my experiences when we are done with Azure Pond. Whilst I did not take detailed notes, I did quite well with the help of the Feline Entity.

But that is enough stalling for today. Let’s get this over with, and make way for the main event next time.

As we were headed back home we were greeted by Lights in the Sky.
What a great event to get! The Sun must have been feeling proud of our accomplishment of defeating a Butcher Lvl3!

Our pet worm also pooped out some more scrap and we got to work in the develop step post haste. With the bonus from Lights in the Sky I immediately took a Life String over to the Sauna Shrine (I) and activated the armor bonus.

We had no reason to not drink from the Sacred Waters as well, so… Muzashi and Stardust went to have a drink. With all their bonuses the lower number to pick was an 8 that time, and the young Yuki was born with a bunch of extra stats (+1ACC and +2STR).
I realized just after the child was born, that I should have used Phoenicia to give her a chance to fill up her survival for additional Nightmare Training (I) attempts later in the Lantern Year.

Muzashi also used the Graves-locked endeavor on Lights in the Sky. He rolled a clean Lantern 10 and would be heading to the upcoming fight with 3 extra armor in every spot, which would hopefully help him with just being all out aggressiv – the ungaest of the bunga, if you will.

Finally I wanted very much to do some Nightmare Training (I) with Phoenicia. She was 2 points of proficiency away from being a master with the bow. So if we used Drums (I) with her 3 times for survival, we would still have 2 endeavors for potentially 2 sets of Nightmare Training (I).
At only 8 survival I was ready to try for the big one-two success!
She rerolled once from a 5 into a 9 on the first attempt. And with 4 survival left, she could try again. But I got distracted by another idea half-way. There was also Helios and Forbidden Dance (I) I had started to consider.
Another +1EVA or King’s Step (SFA) both seemed really enticing (or rerolls, you know what’s up).
And in the end it was the fact that I usually barely made use of Forbidden Dance (I) that tipped the scales towards it. Phoenicia was going to be a bow master after the next fight anyhow (hopefully), I figured.

Helios started dancing and rolled an 8 for +1EVA! Incredible! He was up to +4 baseline!

For this fight we needed to try our best and have Phoenicia deal the killing blow if at all possible to not double up on King’s Curse. Muzashi would be the worst person who could get it, so if all else failed we needed to at least make sure he didn’t get afflicted.

Setting up the gear grids, I noticed that Muzashi was once again locked out of Katana spec if he wanted to take a shield to ignore the trap.

So I spent about 30 minutes adjusting my set up and.., well, it might be genius or utter stupidity.

The Chosen Defenders:
Helios – green (Leather Armor, Lantern Sword)
Muzashi – blue (Phoenix Armor, Tachyon Nodachi)
Apollo – red (Screaming Armor, Sonic Tomahawk)
Phoenicia – yellow (rawhide/regal bits, Arc Bow)

With this set up Muzashi was carrying 2 shields and his Tachyon Nodachi and had 12 armor in each spot. Whilst Phoenicia had Range 9 with the Arc Bow.
This did also mean that she only had 2 armor in some spots. But surely nothing could possibly go wrong.
This had the chance to go down as one of the dumbest deaths of a mastery candidate ever (at least in my books), but I was willing to try my luck. She should be far enough away from the monster anyway.

Meanwhile Helios had a quick Nightmare Cuddle with the Worm, but again it just scuttled off after a bit. Next time we should probably just get a cat. I’m sure the survivors would be able to use the hairballs it’ll threw up for something.

Damage-wise we should also be set up to (mostly) cruise through the encounter. Helios was the odd-one-out as he had the hardest time to wound at 11+, but the sword had Sharp and he attacked 5 times. So, if anything his main task would be to take out battle pressure.
Muzashi on the other hand wounded on 2+ (8+11STR), Apollo on 4+ (6+6+2STR) and Phoenicia on 2+ (8+11+2STR and Sharp).
Phoenicia would even be able to deal regular wounds to the Lvl3 Hand with its 30TGH like this.
Oh, and non of these numbers factored in any STR-tokens either.

But enough about me and my team – (hopefully this wasn’t a eulogy.) there was a fight against a walking pile of fungus to be won!

The Level 3 King’s Man does not gain any new-new traits, only Indomitable. Aside from more AI cards, the monster has 18TGH, 6MOV and the typical +2DMG/SPD. It does get +2ACC as well, though.

For terrain we got a Vermin Patch and the Nightmare Tree, both of which we were going to simply ignore.

Against the Butcher we won because I did not let the Infectious Lunacy take over and blindly unga-bunga. This time, the plan was more or less the exact opposite.

The monster had 19 cards in its deck as the fight began and we were going first. The Silent Hymn echoing all around us was nauseating, but we were determined to push through.
Phoenicia had King’s Step (SFA) because of the Regal Plackart. She also had Range 9 and we set her up so she could shoot the monster from where she started on the board. Hitting on 3+ she landed the arrow, unfortunately it was the Halbert Spear and the discarded Battle Pressure immediately returned to the top of the deck. Still, with Overcharge active she dealt 2 wounds to open the fight.
Apollo dashed 3 steps forward before he used Overcharge and Slammed into the monster from afar. He hit it 4 times (2+), carving through the Battle Pressure once again to deal a wound! He would have crit but the hit location failed us on that part.

Staggering the King’s Man had lost 3TGH for the rest of the round and Muzashi was set to make use of that opening. He used Overcharge and dashed into a more favorable position before he Charged the monster. With an extra +7STR he hit it 4 times (none perfect). He took an easy 2 wounds onto the death blow hit location before he managed to crit the King’s Man in the Regal Gutplate, knocking it down! 1 more wound followed for a total of 4.
And with the monster knocked down, Muzashi wanted to make use of the Tachyon Nodachi’s full power for the first time – as his act ended, time slowed to a crawl as he tapped into the Phoenix’s essence to make it his own. Frozen in this moment, the Feline Entity descended on the helpless survivors.
With all reactions canceled he not only broke the monster’s Regal Knees and Halbert Handle, but also avoided being spit at.
The Indomitable King’s Man got up as Helios walked up to it, oblivious of what had just happened.
What an explosive turn 1!

Only 7 cards remaining, the monster attempted to Hook and Pull Helios – just as planned! Phoenicia was a few steps too far for the monster to be considered as a target! With the Halbert Handle cracked it would only hit on 8+!
Wow. 4 hits..?
At 5DMG each, Helios had to use Extra Sense (FA) to dodge twice. Hit with the grab as well, Helios was up to a heavy wound at the waist suddenly.
The follow up basic targeted Apollo, who dashed back towards our starting area in response, to have Phoenicia in range again for the next turn.
The monster followed blindly and attacked. Hitting Apollo 4 times as well, he dodged 1 hit before he was flung across the board.

Phoenicia remained calm and collected despite her gut twisting under the Silent Hymn. She shot her bow and wounded, the monster moving back reflexively, despite not being able to get away.
Muzashi found himself next to the monster again. The Tachyon Nodachi cutting the air – overcharged he hit 3 of the 4 attacks. He wounded twice and despite some concerns on my part I ended up spending the 5 survival with him for a permanent +1EVA. After that expenditure he was down to 2 survival left (and up to 3EVA).

Only 2 cards left in the monster’s deck, Lash Out was put into play, a mood that would trip all survivors that got too close. This played Hook and Pull as well – the last card in the deck. Phoenicia was still far enough away to be a valid target and the King’s Man turned to Muzashi. 3 of 5 hits connected with Muzashi’s chest and he had to dodge one of them to not suffer a severe.
The follow-up basic targeted Phoenicia now, the only standing survivor, and she was able to still dash just far enough away to not be in the attack’s zone.

With the King’s Man following her, the set up was near perfect. The only thing that could prevent this flawless victory was the trap.
Helios and Apollo got up and the group had to take the -1MOV from Silent Hymn.
Unperturbed Phoenicia used Embolden and Overcharge and shot an arrow.
1 clean hit! It passed through Battle Pressure and hit the Regal Gauntlet. A 7 was rolled together with 9STR on the bow, 8STR from her and 2STR from the Monster Tooth Necklace (36 total) – the monster was killed due to 2 wounds inflicted!
And no trap in sight! (It was the 2nd to last card.)

Wow.

Here I was thinking I’d lose this as I started the Lantern Year. But a brutal 2 1/2 turns later, we were set to continue our journey to fight the Hand.

Wow.

We gained 1 hunt xp for our victory and Muzashi aged up (+1STR – he is up to +9STR).
But much more importantly, Phoenicia had managed to unlock a very late game Bow Mastery! Deadly 2 and ignore Cumbersome on bows for her! A huge step up in power level for her for these last few fights!

Of course she also had to roll for King’s Curse. And as her head exploded to be replaced by the silent visage of the monster she gained .. Hyperactive (D) ..?
A weird disorder for a King’s Man.
We also got to roll on the table and each survivor got to get another random Fighting Art.
Phoenicia developed Giant’s Blood (she was also up to 9STR at the cost of an EVA). Apollo learned Timeless Eye (FA), Muzashi Tumble (FA) and Helios got Mighty Strike (FA).

Finally we rolled for the special interaction and both Apollo and Helios gained King’s Step (SFA).

With that we were set to head back home.

What a “fight”. Wow.

The next Lantern Year is going to be the tricky one, but I did have a plan for that as well. It wasn’t without its pitfalls, but we will look at that next time.

For now I will continue to remain hopeful that it won’t take the whole month for the Witches and Wanderers pre-orders to ship, but I wouldn’t mind getting SoD2 a little sooner at least. (Edit: as per usual, the universe listens. Soon after posting this I got my tracking number for my end-of-August-order.)

As always, thank you very much for your time, stomp the fungus until it stops moving!
Amathul