I really want to get to the Pariah Lvl1 fight next Lantern Year, so lets not waste any more time than necessary and just get rolling with this one!

***

After working through such a long settlement phase in Lantern Year 2, featuring all 3 available principles, I was a little fearful of the possibility that meeting the fiend might not be much faster. And whilst it took me decent a while, partially thanks to the Feline Entity, there wasn’t nearly as much for me to actually do this time around.
It came down more to my lengthy deliberations.

Despite Alyssa’s sudden death, we still got 4 endeavors in total, due to Collective Toil and 16 population in the settlement.

First I drew the random settlement event: The Dark Dentist had come to town!
Distracted by the glimmer of her/its perfect teeth, it was already too late when we noticed the presence of the Fiend.
Elvis had gotten himself eaten (and we joined in for a ??? as a collective), as Frogdos flinched in presence of the Pariah, gaining Codependent (D).
As for recompense for making it feel bad about itself and the indulgence on non-White Speaker grey matter, we archived 2 of our 4 Broken Lanterns and its was happy enough to impart its gifts to us. What a swell guy.. thing!
Choosing a Precious Fragment[s] was pretty difficult though. I was (and still am) torn between Seer’s Eye and Braal’s Locks and the Feline Entity refused to help me out again beyond sitting on a gear grid.
After about 25 minutes of considering I ended up taking Braal’s keepsake, just to keep thing rolling. Should I manage to defeat the Lvl2 Pariah handily I can come back to this moment and regret my choice. But considering this is my first time playing either of the 2 new monster expansions, I ended up taking the option that guarantees the campaign to go on for possibly longer. (What a sentence…)
I will say, I do hope Nico’s keepsake gets a great interaction with a different expansion (Gryphon perhaps?) later down the line. The fletching feather feels like the worst choice by far.
After all this deliberation, Calys was the one to dip her knuckles into the bowl for +1STR, +1 understanding and Rageholic (D).
As a final departing gift for the year we get the 5 scab weapon patterns and as I began pondering whether or not I should make one of them, the Hooded Knight arrived as well.
One more high roll later and Marduk was handed the Twilight Sword. Just as planned.

With that we could move on to marking Elvis and Alyssa on our death count and developing our settlement.
We started, as usual, by innovating: Pictograph, Ammonia, Face Painting or Inner Lantern
No Hovel again was disappointing. Whilst Inner Lantern would have been a nice pick as well, as we didn’t have ANY survival gain from the settlement yet, I took Ammonia, partially for that reason, partially to open up the path towards Leather.

Next on the list was the Love Juice we had looted last hunt. Froggex and Ellaine were once again going to be the parents and I almost did a spit-take laughing. I had rolled a 1 and a 10. I picked the 10 and that unlocked a Strain Milestone!
Colluded Birth unlocks the Beginner’s Luck Fighting Art!
That was one of my main motivations to even pick Protect the Young! The twin boys Migi (右) and Hidari (左) joined the settlement, blessed by the Gambler.

As for crafting I was thinking about building the Maul Scab. The scab weapon patterns you get from the Pariah intro event all cost a varying number of population (between 1 and 3) and an organ or two.
Building this particular weapon would keep our population at exactly 15 overall. We did also still have 3 people from the initial 8 extra that had yet to be named.
I was also looking at trying the Turbo Tonic, but this did not feel like the right year for it, we did need to be somewhat particular about what we were going to spend our resources on. Building a Bone Club on the other hand would be a fairly easy addition to our growing arsenal, and would incentivize hunting a lope for the (chest piece of the) Screaming Armor set. (I will say, at the time I was only thinking about the chest piece, which was a misconception on my part. I misremembered what Slam did, which will change once we build the item.)
So, as I hadn’t been able to get a Spindly Paw for a Long Club, this would have to do. In memory of Ser Hermes (from Season 1) the big-early-bonk has been acquired!
We were also going to need a Bandages in the not too distant future, but I had the hope that we’d be fine for 1 more Lantern Year.
And whilst I’d rather not just build another rawhide set, options were a little slim.
Ultimately I veered off slightly and built a Rawhide Whip and some gloves. Whips don’t get enough love as tool during the hunt – though it feels like people are starting to come around to them a little more with the addition of more viable whips as weapon option.
I should also mention that the hide we looted from last Lantern Year’s Frogdog did not match at all with the requirements for the missing armor parts of that set.

For the remaining endeavors I sent Calys to go augur twice (+2 survival) and used the last one to have Marduk teach Hidari a bit (+1 hunt xp).

The Hunters:
Frogmagog – green (Rawhide Armor, Bone Blade)
Candy – purple (frogdog bits, Sharpened Heel)
Calys – red (Bone Axe)
Hidari – yellow (Bone Club, Maul Scab)

After adding the +1 understanding I had missed as I took the pictures, I set up the Lvl1 lope.
I am, overall, more interested in the Nukealope for this campaign, but for the sake of the Pariah-fight, we shall try to get a few parts of the set beforehand.

The Huntphase:
Close to the settlement we found the remains of a Vomit Pile. Sifting through the stinking mess was not a task suited for everybody, but young Hidari felt up for it. And he was well-suited indeed, rolling a 9 he found a Large Flat Tooth for us! I did have Frogmagog search as well, but he just threw up, adding to the pile.
Heading onwards we stumbled on what remained of a Dead Great Game Hunter (basic HE78). Just like that, bringing the whip had already payed off! At +4 there were no bad rolls to get anymore! This did trigger Bold for Calys (+1 understanding, +1EVA) which also lead to Insight, somewhat unfortunately. Luckily the +1EVA made up for missing out on Tinker. Finally we rolled for the actual event – a 6, which got upped to a 10: we gained a Frenzy Drink.
The potential final event we had to deal with was Stampede, however, I would rather not have Prepared on Candy, thus I did not roll on the table.
Instead we were faced with Crippling Misery (basic HE34). Frogmagog turned out to be the straggler and he fell down that hill. He broke his leg (-1MOV) in a semi-comical fashion as he cornered the monster on accident.

Again, I only realized much later that I did not draw a Seed Pattern for Calys – she got the Frogdog’s Spite Balm.

Also, before we get to the showdown, quickly about Candy and her gear: her Gladiator Garb is an item that lets you take 1 bleed token to ignore a hit, whilst the Sharpened Heel comes in as a 3/7+/3 dagger with Savage that lets you increase a roll-result (!!!) by 2 for a bleed token.
Both items are quite powerful and will be decent tools, probably until the late game. For the time being, only Candy can use them though, which does limit them a bit.

Setting up the fight I was really happy at the prospect of random terrain, but then I drew a Mammoth Leaf and a Lava Pool.
So.., it’s not exactly a Nukealope, but it threw up lava?

10 cards in the deck, the always surprisingly slow Lvl1 lope started the fight by eating an acanthus as Slam triggered the Instinct.

Frogmagog got a little jealous and wanted to grab a Fresh Acanthus of his own. And whilst I did originally forget about his newly reduced MOV, I had him dash to get to the plant as soon as I noticed it at the end of the survivor turn, not rolling for the Rawhide Armor set bonus to make up for it.
Candy just moved forward regularly and then I sent in Hidari full-throttle! He dashed onto the Mammoth Leaf and jumped to the the monster’s side.., and he missed both his attacks with the Maul Scab – probably smashing a stone face in the ground.
Calys was the last survivor to act and she took position on the leaf for next round.

10 cards remained in the deck. The monster was getting skittish at our presence and wanted to Ram Candy away! It was able to just about reach her, and, of course, she dodged the incoming 7DMG hit to her hands.

Candy was eager to return the favor, so she moved to the monster’s flank and attacked. Hitting just once, she wounded on 3+ thanks to the extra STR she got from her intro event.
Frogmagog and Hidari both ate an acanthus on the fly each, before Calys jumped in with the Mammoth Leaf. She, too, missed both her attacks, cleaving another stone face in the ground in two. This terrain was not marsh-y enough for us to be using the Mammoth Leaf, it seemed. But I guess, it made us feel .. uhm, .. more at home?

9 cards in the deck, just like Hidari and Frogmagog, the lope wanted to Chow Down as well. It ate the closest Fresh Acanthus and was promptly healed back to full.

At this point the fight had effectively barely started, with the monster at full health, I figured I might as well get rid of the remaining Fresh Acanthus on the board.
As Frogmagog just barely managed to reach the one closest to him, he found nothing, must have been eaten already by the grazing lope before we got here and Hidari went for the final one. Nothing again.
Meanwhile, the girls chose violence:
Candy attacked again, hitting once and as she rolled an 8 for the wound, I was feeling daring that day and had her take a bleed to turn the hit to a crit. Savage activated for 2 wounds! She destroyed the antelope’s hoof for a persistent injury and also got a resource from the crit (Bladder) which she fed to Cola for a +1EVA-token and 1 permanent blue affinity! (Edit: I did miss giving her a random unique soda gear entirely.)
As Candy moved 1 step back, Calys found 1 more hit, wounding on 3+ just barely as well.

7 cards left, the antelope was panicking and wanted to Bolt!
It hit Frogmagog on the way past and then just kept running for the hills.

Frogmagog followed the monster by dashing after it to keep the pressure on and even managed to sneak in a wound, but the monster just changed its direction and kept on running.
This did open up the rear for an attack by Hidari though! A quick thinker, the young’un followed and scored 2 hits with the Maul Scab, which turned into 2 very easy wounds! But the lope was full-on panicked and ran him over!
With everyone eligible for proficiency having wounded the monster, the girls stopped at the Vermin Patch and procured a Monster Organ via team work.

4 cards left, the final unknown card left in the AI deck was Great Kick – and that was incredible for us! The Destroyed Hoof gave out from under the monster and it fell over!
That was so much better than Crush and Devour!! *shudder*

After quickly re-checking the rules, both the lope and Hidari got up.
Frogmagog failed his wound attempt, but with a heavy thud Hidari landed a critical hit against the Restless Inner Thigh – one of the best crit loactions on Lvl2+!
As I saw no need to dash at the time, the girls repositioned and the lope got to take its turn.

3 cards left, Ram was drawn and the monster ran over to Candy again, taking a wound for moving before it missed the attack thanks to the +1EVA-token she gained by feeding her Phantom Friend (FA) Cola!
Don’t you just love it when all the effects come together?

Candy circled to the flank again and attacked, 1 wound, the dreaded Ferocious Spasm hitting her back. I imagined it to be like one of those cartoon fights turning into a dust-cloud. In the end they both took a little damage.
Hidari was encouraged to go and finish the fight, but he failed the 2+ to wound, tumbling backwards!
Which meant it was up to Calys. She had to dash in to do it, but that never stopped me! 3SPD in the blind spot she found 2 hits – just enough – but as the monster jumped away on a reaction it died to its persistent injuries from earlier even without a second axe-wound!

Hidari ( found a Phantom Friend FA of his own) and Candy both aged up. Arc pondering being so different we can only get to this once we are back home.
Hidari then adopted the way of the club, whilst Frogmagog and Calys approached specialist rank for sword and axe alike.

Finally, before we were allowed to draw resources we noted that Calys had “only” 10 insanity and thus nobody ran into the darkness.

With the Stone Circle settlement location to build and 11 resources to work with we were set to return back to the Bloody Shallows.
Sadly, we got exactly 1 Pelt and were left with a choice between Beast Knuckles and the Screaming Chest.
For what its worth, that felt like an easy choice to me at the time (whilst I was still incorrectly thinking about what Slam actually did).

***

We made a new friend today.., so why would he/it want to square up in the town square?
Ah, yes! Public exercise!

I am not going to make too light of the intro event for the Pariah, considering it is asking a decent amount with 1 death and 2 resources, but I would say that today has showcased that you can get out of it quite well off as well. We essentially payed 2 Broken Lanterns for a ??? and I’d say that is a pretty good trade this early in the campaign.

***

We are now primed to go against the Pariah next time.
It’s one of those fights I have both been dreading and looking forward to at the same time.
I don’t think I will be risking Candy in that fight even though she would/could be a tremendous boon when it came to dealing wounds, for sure.
Right now I am looking forward to exploring her story more deeply and I think there is too much that can go wrong with the Pariah to take her along.

I have also spent some time recently getting Braal painted, alongside Goth and Domino. In general I have been getting some painting done here and there, all featured fully on their respective pages.

It does feel like I am currently forgetting something that I did want to mention, but I can’t for the life of me figure it out, so… maybe I’ll know next time (or in the edits).

Have a good rest of your day, a great weekend and I hope your Black Friday orders are arriving soon!

As always, thank you very much for your time, do it like the lope and eat some salad!
Amathul