With Black Friday 2025 behind us, new minis have been bought, updates on the Abyssal Wood read and expansions pre-ordered.
I hope you all managed to secure whichever purchase(s) you were looking for! Or maybe you got a Core game finally – or maybe you jumped at the chance to pre-ordered it instead?
And whilst my immediate haul was fairly small-ish, I can say the curriculum for next year has been set.

The bee-expansions, Screaming God and Dead Armor – those don’t sound too shabby. And they are almost a complete campaign set-up as well (QN1, QN3, QN4 + F) looking at the list now.
“But what about CoD?” you may be wondering.
Well.., I will say again, I still just can’t quite imagine Campaigns of Death to actually come out next year. Call me a skeptic if you will.

But, even as I could talk and speculate for hours on end about upcoming content or when stuff will actually release, today, I shall return to Season 3 and the Bloody Shallows – we have a Frogdog to fight and just about every event ever to get through!
With the Nukealope unlocked as well, I am aiming to push the campaign ahead as far as I can in this month. The Pariah is already lurking somewhere close by and Braal will not be that far off either – and I am looking forward to finally engaging with both!

***

So, as I had mentioned, there were quite a few events to get through before I could start to properly develop – 4 of them .. which turned out to actually be 7.

First up: the random settlement event!
Open Maw – a decent one to start with. Its not negative!

Event number 2 – Endless Screams!
Lope, lope, lope!
Alyssa was nominated to be the Voice of Reason and she gained Orator of Death (FA) for being resolute in the face of new trials.

Event number 3 was the one I was looking forward to the most! It was the arrival of our wanderer – Candy’s introduction!
As I prepared her survivor sheet I noticed that whilst she started with 0 disposition as well as 1 Torment and 1 Systemic Pressure, she had an amazing 6MOV and 1LCK to begin with!

She came stumbling from the darkness lost and forlorn in billowing smoke – a 7 was rolled for the event and innovating LY01 had payed off immediately!!!
Not only did Candy gain 2 disposition and +2STR upon us taking her in, but she lost a Systemic Pressure (which would have made all her severe injury roles worse), AND another survivor also gained +1STR and +1 understanding because we got Symposium (I) last Lantern Year.
I wanted to spread the love a bit and had a new survivor (Frogdos) gain these bonuses. The one downside throughout all of this: Candy would have to skip the next hunt.
But who am I kidding, what is a one year delay compared to the beast she was already.

And (the expected) event number 4: A Lingering Cough had returned home to the settlement with us from the last hunt.
Sapphire could barely hold it together, and as we watched in horror as her jaw extended slightly with every bit of hacked up phlegm, the survivors unsure what to make of it , I chose for her to be our Mere Navi – if she survived the roll.
Only her nose fell off and we suddenly had ourselves s spiritual leader of questionable origin.

As we were up to 14 population thanks to “Aya” (who we found last hunt) and Candy, I looked at the Love Juice we had brought home from the hunt and saw both a chance for Birth and Society Principles.
Open Maw was also an invitation to go for an easy Death Principle, really.

So, to keep the event train rolling I gave the Love Juice to the one-legged Ellaine and the .. uhm, unburdened, .. uhm, Froggex (my mind was filled with Frog-something and puns – most of which were too good to be used this early).
With added drama the die slow-mo rolled onto an 8 at the last second – the first baby boy was born! I welcomed young Rex and got to do Principle New Life.
It had been a hot minute since last I took this, but I was set on taking Protect the Young for a change. This would also give me a shot at getting another strain besides Carnage Worms I really wanted to unlock.
I rolled a 9 on the table and Rex learned how to be a Strategist (FA). He was turning out to be a ‘shmort’ kid.

Up to 15 population and on to Principle Society:
I wanted to pick another option I don’t typically chose, Collective Toil.
Oh, and I didn’t even realize, that would be -1 population as well. Talk about slippery slope.
We banished one of the yet unnamed female survivors into the darkness for being creepy, and welcomed Bastet, Naya and Elvis to the settlement, as we rolled another 8.

And on to Principle Death as well.
I had mentioned this last Lantern Year, I would be going Cannibalize this time for the purpose of Strain hunting.
We gained an additional Founding Stone from the roll and started munching on some fresh meat.
What we were eating? Oh, don’t worry too much about that.

So much stuff had just happened so quickly – early game perfection one might call it! Only a good innovate could further improve this Lantern Year, but, uhm, oh?
Would you look at that:
Ammonia, Inner Lantern, Paint or Storytelling.
I’m not going to lie, I wanted Hovel really badly. But besides the obvious pick, there was also an option to push straight into Leather right then and there.
And the longer I looked at my loot from the last hunt, the less I could chose between Ammonia and Paint (we had so much hide!), so I shuffled those 2 cards face down and I had the Feline Entity decide which one to take. I was unable to take a picture of the exact moment, but she took the meta-path – she picked Paint for me.

I do have to say a Round Leather Shield in LY2 would have been real nice!

I then proceeded to make 3 pieces of Frogdog armor, a Vertebrayonet (because I wanted to try finally it – my Frogdogs typically don’t have teeth), and a Monster Grease.
After some consideration I also spent 2 more endeavors on Stone Noses. This did feel a little like overkill, admittedly, but any survival gain would be very welcome for the time being.

The final endeavor got spent on augury. A 1 triggered Insight for young Rex, making him a Tinker at the cost of one of our Broken Lanterns. The additional card during innovating evaporated – as it usually does for me. But I would say we got more then enough stuff done for one settlement phase to not be grumpy about that one.
Especially for Lantern Year 2.

I initially also forgot that this would draw a seed pattern as well, so, I did after the fight: we got Tempered Axe.
I love me my axes.

The Hunters:
Rex – green (Bone Blade, Rawhide Armor)
Alyssa – blue (Vertabrayonet, Frogdog bits)
Calys – red (Bone Axe)
Marduk – yellow (Founding Stones)

The Huntphase:
As we moved out into the fetid waters once more, we were soon assaulted by a swarm of Madflies (basic HE52). And just like my survivors, I didn’t quite know what to feel the moment the swarm suddenly dissipated without applying frenzy to anyone.
Not long after we found a strange Skeletal Bloom, and Calys felt a strong urge to eat it. And whilst I was hoping for the +1STR-token, she learned Feral Shout (FA) instead.
But hey, her head didn’t explode. Instead she’s got that dog in her!
Moving on, a growling inside of at least one of us, we found the Scribe’s Book (basic HE84) just sitting there out in the wild. None of us could read though, so we moved on, unaware of what we had just passed on. Continuing onwards any merriment in the group was stopped abruptly as Alyssa stepped into a rusted Man-trap (basic HE15). With the heavy crash of biting iron, her leg had come clean off.

With 10 cards in the deck, the Frogdog we had cornered in this part of the mire prepared its first move. Alyssa had gained 1 stink token on arrival for bringing a Monster Grease and was instantly in the running to get targeted. The grease was active though, so she should be quite slippery despite the lost limb!
Twitching Kick was the first card drawn and the Frogdog spun around to put Alyssa into its blind spot. And whilst the targeting part of my plan had worked out perfectly, she did get hammered by the attack, despite her 2EVA!

Instantly attacking on her turn, she was desperate to return the favor! She only found one hit and it was the frogboobs of all things! She would have crit on 8+ but just missed out on that.. perhaps luckily for us.
Calys then whiffed 2 strikes, before getting flung away as the monster jumped on her!
Rex followed that up by failing to wound the monster’s Sticky Tongue whilst not in the blind spot. Agitated the Frogdog took off taking him along.
Marduk scratched at the beast’s hide with futility and our turn ended on an overall pretty sour note.

9 cards in the deck, Confusion was the next move in the Frogdog’s arse(nal).
Alyssa stared too long at the Carbuncles and felt light headed, but she did not fall over just yet (4 insanity remaining).

Trying to play the odds, Alyssa jumped in to not get jumped on herself and she hit the monster once, wounding it before it got to Leap away!
Calys dashed into the Heinous Origin and her Dishonorable (D) side kicked in. Rolling a grand total of 3 “1”s in this attack, she missed utterly. I took some morale damage there.
Marduk stepped onto the closest Mammoth Leaf (T) and fell over due to his disorder.
Finally Rex moved a little closer and used the Rawhide Headband. A little disgusted by myself, I put Phantasmagoria onto the deck, over the Mood Indigestion and prepared for the fart to go off.

8 cards remaining. Calys was farted on, which inflicted a heavy body wound – ouch! Then the monster swung around to stare at Alyssa and she fell over.
Some secrets should better remain unknown!

Rex spent a survival to encourage Calys who then ran around the monster to deal a wound. The Frogdog was still laughing at her feeble attempts and she fell over dispirited.
Marduk saw a chance to jump at the monster and as he landed a hit, he decided to bites down with all his might, dealing a Fated Blow (FA) for 2 wounds at once!
Understandably the Frogdog panicked and kicked off a chain reaction that ended with Alyssa being flung to the leaf the monster had started our turn on.
As Marduk encouraged Alyssa, she was able to jump from the Mammoth Leaf at the monster, but she lacked any coordination after the back and forth.
Finally Rex dashed onto the bouncy leaf as well and he threw himself at the monster. This time unga-bunga did not protect, the trap came up and he suffered the immediate retaliation.

5 cards left, thanks to that late trap, a fart was ready to be played as well – Dusty Emission. Alyssa felt ready for it, but the gas mask did nothing! Breathing in deep, she took the damage to her stomach, but she did also strangely enjoy it.
Savoring the moment the Frogdog also wanted to go for a Big Mouth Bite, and it aimed at the ever more delicious appearing Alyssa. She was hit, but managed to dodge most of the remaining damage.
This Frogdog did not really care for the active (!) Monster Grease – if anything it must have felt like a condiment to the monster.

Alyssa went ahead and attacked the Frogdog, but she missed and retreated afterwards.
Calys dashed onto the closest leaf and jumped, but she missed all her attacks as well! So much missing going on!
Finally, Rex was the one to break this depressing cycle by hitting and wounding – if only once. The jumpy Frogdog took off once more and it crashed into Alyssa!
Marduk stepped onto the closest leaf and fell over again. He just could not deal with uneven terrain.

4 cards remained. This time the fart was a Forceful Emission – we had some bad luck on the fart-charge-up this time. And it hit Alyssa in the waist again. The gas mask failed her as well! That.. that was a severe injury!
And she died instantly as well!
The following Big Mouth Bite targeted Calys, but she got lucky enough on the hits she took to remain standing.

The sudden death of Alyssa seemed like the signal that it was finally go-time.
Calys jumped over the monster into its blind spot. Only 1 hit connected despite 3SPD, but at least she scored a wound for a change.
Feeling the pressure, Marduk jumped in as well and switched to the Founding Stone. 2 hits! 2 wounds! Finally some progress!
Rex dashed and jumped from the Mammoth Leaf again (he had not lost a single survival during the whole fight because of his Rawhide Armor)! 2 more hits… the reactions weren’t too bad. He barely scraped past the monster’s TGH on the first one, but then he cleanly killed it on the 2nd wound!
Who knew that the Frogdog’s weak point, its Achilles’ Heel would be its Festering Fingernail.

This did not feel like unga-bunga protects at all.
Calys (+1STR) was the only one to age up, picking axe as her weapon of choice she also gained a point of proficiency.

We did not get a single crit! But at least the resource draws weren’t too shabby!
Or so I thought.
The Frogdog-armor-bits didn’t match up at all!
I was already starting to regret not going for VERY early Leather a little.

***

Aside from Alyssa’s sudden death, this Lantern Year could have hardly gone any better. We managed to get all 3 principles really early, so, whilst we are of course missing the SotF power boost, we have about as much time as possible to get used to the PtY-life.
Candy will also help with that a lot. Between her stats and her Sharpened Heel, she will be almost guaranteed to wound where others fail. We “just” need to build enough of an advantage with her gear-wise to out-stat the missing stats.
Which should be fairly doable as well, as she doesn’t seem to have an economic downside like Goth or Aeneas have. At least I haven’t seen one at first glance.

Of course.., next Lantern Year we are about to meet another new .. “friend”.
And that will open a lot more, different avenues as well.

So far so good.
Next time we will likely have to deal with another long settlement phase and afterwards make a decision whether to hunt another Frogdog or go for our first Screaming Antelope.
I am favoring the latter for what it’s worth, to get access to the Settlement Location and maybe a few more easily assembled armor bits.
But I will leave that consideration for next time, hopefully later in the week. For right now I will get back to finishing my paint job of Braal and settling a Roman city.

As always thank you very much for your time, what is that? Is it a frog? Is it a dog? Oh, no, it’s just Henry.
Amathul