Before I get to the Nukealope, err.., fight.., a little housekeeping because of how quiet the site felt this month:
First off, today I finally got my January order, which I was quite happy about as you can imagine, but it did not contain anything newly released. Sadly I got another Radiant Kabayaki, so no “new” recipe card for me this time.
Meanwhile Preacher is still not available from any of the reginal warehouses, and at this point, with February almost over, I’d expect them to wait till this month’s sale for that.

I did manage to only get a little bit of painting done over the last couple of weeks and just finished up Aeneas a little while ago.

As for playing the game, besides Season 3, I did find the opportunity for a couple of KD:M session with my friend, which whilst the settlement we played for most of the last 2 months ultimately failed, we made it to the Red Witches Lvl3 encounter at least.
Seer remains best girl and supremely mystical for what its worth.
The addition of Pariah to a campaign also has one more pretty random quirk as I found out pretty recently: thanks to One-Two, sometimes losing fights now produces more than 4 deaths for my collection of stats.

But I’ve stalled long enough at this point, let the collection of tragedies that made up this Lantern Year commence!

***

As we rejoin the settlement, they are nearing the first pivotal moment of the Lantern Year.

We still only gained 4 endeavors this time because the Tinker had to get PTSD last year (2 survivors, Cooking and 19 pop).
And to round out the start of the Lantern Year the random event we drew had to be .. Glossolalia.
Urgh.
I chose for Frogmorton to roll and I got a little lucky as he rolled a 4 – Endless Babble. This represented a mobile +1 Insanity on departure and I think its something nice to have, even if it cost us his ability to encourage.
No science or education endeavors also didn’t do that much at the time – it merely disabled Cooking and Round Stone Training for the Lantern Year – not exactly hot spots in our community.

But then came the big one: Principle Conviction.
I didn’t even know which side to pick at the time. Whilst the LCK from the possible feast would be great from going Romantic (really almost anything related to Romantic is just flat out better), I felt like I needed that extra STR Barbaric provided this time around more than ever.
I took a pretty long break at this point (about an hour) and as I came back to the game I still didn’t really know what I wanted, but, there was no point in delaying it any longer, so I ended up picking Romantic.
I don’t usually go down this path as I prefer the additional certainty to dealing my wounds (you know, unga-bunga), but the additional Fighting Arts might do the trick as well. And of course the roll.
A 3.
Without a reroll to prevent it, those gluttons ate 7 Iron and a copper!
27 resources were eaten in total that day.

With 4 endeavors left and no resources to work with, the question turned to “what to even do?” as I also started to wonder about who to send out this year as hunters.
Candy would be able to come along this Lantern Year, but was the extra +1LCK wasted on her? All the interesting nodes came with a Vermin Patch and 2 of my more promising looking survivors had Vermin Obsession (D). Which funnily enough, Nukealope didn’t. At least not guaranteed.
So I figured I might as well try.

I started our meager develop step by using Sculpture (I) to keep Agility Fighter around. Whilst not the “ideal” choice by any means, it represented (the fun choice) both offense and defense in one for roughly 50% of my current gear grids. And I figured that the worst case scenario I’d be looking at with this Sculpture would be being forced into using more swords.
I also spent 1 endeavor on Frogmorton to lean the Fighting Art, which thankfully only took him 1 attempt.

The final 2 endeavors were spent to add 2 insanity to Naya and Frogmorton as a puffer for the incoming Prey (D) affliction.

The Hunters:
Naya – green (Frogdog Armor, Sharpened Heel)
Frogmorton – blue (Black&Red bits, Hyperelastic Sword)
Rustica – red (Leather Armor, Bone Axe)
Morticus – yellow (Screaming Armor, Bone Club)

Speaking from admittedly meager experience, but hunting Nukealopes can take quite long, but with no resources in storage we were immune to starvation if nothing else, I had figured.

The Huntphase:
We started the hunt in a promising fashion, by heading to our favorite spot to noodle. Rustica seemed to have a decent idea of what she needed to do to catch the copperfish’s attention, as she deftly pulled out a copper from the waterlogged hole.
Next up I wanted to attempt entering the Elastomer mines but the Feline Entity put a stop to that by sitting on the rulebook for a while and only after I managed to retrieve the Red Witches book another 10 minutes later Frogmorton got his chance to descend deep into the mines after almost getting hit by Braal on the teleport event.
I had some Feline intervention on that one.
As Frogmorton returned to the group he had 3 bleeding tokens and a -1ACC-token, but also a Red Thread and 4 Elastomer.

Our first “real” event was a gathering of Banquet Trees (basic HE47). As I no longer had a sickle all my survivors were forced to partake of the fruit. Only Frogmorton and Morticus overindulged and even that only sparingly, losing just 1 survival each.
Content, the group moved on, stopping briefly at a trail of blood – yet another chance at becoming Opportunists (basic HE44). At the time I did not think I wanted to take this, so the group moved on.
After such a long lead up to start the hunt, of course the Skittish monster had backed off a little. As we tried to make up for lost time in turn, a Forbidden Word (basic HE66) echoed through the heavens. This triggered a moment of insight for Rustica (+3survival/insanity) and Frogmorton (reroll), but also left Rustica and Morticus Traumatized (D) – yes, I managed to draw the same disorder for both of them. But the actual worst part was the 1 brain event damage the event dealt.
Before long a sudden Heavy Mist (basic HE39) had enveloped the survivors. Morticus took charge and we pressed on slowly, making our way out in the right direction!
With this crisis avoided, it would have been just one more event before Overwhelming Darkness and it was .. oh .. oh no .. a 10! *REDACTED*!!! With Prey (D) on them, neither Frogmorton, nor Naya were able to spend survival as neither of them were insane, and they got instantly devoured! Seeing this Rustica developed Arithmophilia (D) set to 3MOV, and Morticus had to take on Ptophobia (D).
What a blow to the team!

At Overwhelming Darkness, both remaining survivors traveled the Path of the Insane. Morticus made a new friend in form of a Crab Spider and Rustica had a nervous breakdown, dealing 1DMG to each of their arms. The ups and downs of a hunt, right there.
Left no choice but to press on, Morticus found a scrap while Mineral Gathering, but does not feel safe enough to head any deeper into the tunnels.
Shortly afterwards a traveling Surgeon (basic HE42) passes us by, but none of my survivors were brave enough to take the opportunity.
Moving on we discovered a Vomit Pile, Rustica (reroll) turned bold, but discovered nothing in the stinking pile, meanwhile Morticus managed to scavenge a Spiral Horn.
For the final event we discovered the remains of an ancient settlement – a Tomb of Excellence (basic HE70) standing in the midst of ruined hovels. Inspired by this display of lasting architecture, both survivors gained another courage, which ignited the bold streak in Morticus(+1MOV) as well!

What a hunt.
As the 2 remaining survivors cornered the Nukealope, I couldn’t help but hope for the insta-kill crit to happen!
But what can I say, at this point I felt pretty defeated already.

The Screaming Nukealope not only has 2 traps in its deck, but also a whole new bag of tricks in the form of 3 unique traits.
It will deal 2DMG to ☆HL in a radius every time it collides with somebody because of Critical Mass, it has an additional grab into the blind spot on every attack due to Prehensile Tail and if it ever manages to eat stuff Atomic Vigor will flip a random one of these 3 traits to its more powerful side!
As for its stats, it has 16AI cards, 9MOV and 11TGH, and worst of all +2SPD instead of the typical +1SPD/DMG. Which did not sound nearly as bad to me at first as it does now.

16 cards in the deck, the monster attempted to Gore Rustica immediately.
She dashed 3 steps away and surprisingly the monster couldn’t reach her anymore.

Morticus wasted no time and slamed into the monster .. but missed twice!
With no point in dragging this out any longer than it had to be, Rustica unga-bunga’d in as well. Ready to surge if need be, over 2 attacks 3 hits connected, all of which resulted in wounds. She did draw the insta-kill crit as well amongst these hits, but her 1LCK just wasn’t enough to save us this time around.

13 cards in the deck, the monster was right next to us. And as my survivors got a good look at it from up close they noticed that it was Infested with huge ticks! That +1TGH felt pretty rough.
And it wasn’t done just yet either – It struggled against Rustica before it Bolted away having dealt some damage to her.

Morticus spent the time to encourage Rustica before he continued his line of attack with another Slam into the monster’s side, with desperate energy he hit it twice, but then failed to wound both attempts!
Rustica was too far away at this point to contribute and tried to gather an acanthus instead, but the plant was too sickly and pale to be useful!
This was turning dire for us!

12 (13) cards remaining, the Lone Rampage of the Nukealope was signaled by a terrible wail – Rustica managed to dash out of the zone towards more acanthus just in time, but Morticus took the brunt of it.

For our turn, all I could do was have Rustica try and collect another acanthus plant, which she ate on the spot for +1survival.

12 (13) cards remaining, the monster set itself up to Run Down one of these last 2 .. and to my surprise Morticus was still 1 space closer to the Nukealope. It rushed over and pummeled him with 5 hits on 6SPD, tearing out chunks of his armor with muzzle and tail.

Morticus got up and desperation lead to another attack. 2 hits, and there it was – the first trap. Just the 1 as well, unfortunately. Critical Mass was the first trait flipped to its active side, which meant that the monster would run down a survivor at the end of each of its turns from this point onwards. But the trap wasn’t done just yet – as the monster still had a bone to pick with Morticus it ran him over, causing, you guessed it, an explosion.
Rustica headed on in and found another 2 hits and – as this fight just kept getting worse – it was the Giant Teeth. She managed to deal 1 wound and her axe shattered.

11 (12) cards left, Crush and Devour was probably the last card I still needed to see at the time. Rustica was easily Gobbled up, but, contrary to me, she wasn’t done just yet. Fighting back she ripped the monster’s Second Heart out and got thrown up instantly!
This may not have been the best result though. The Nukealope collided with Morticus and both survivors were caught in the resulting explosion.

As Morticus got up again, his armor in shambles, close to severes in almost every spot, he encouraged Rustica before attacking. 2 hits connected and 2 wounds were dealt yet again, 1 of which was a critical hit, ruining the monster’s horns!
Then Rustica moved in, dishing out crits on 8+ was somewhat fine and well, but who would have guessed it.., she hit the trap again instead.
Atomic Vigor got flipped – all 3 trait were active at that point – and the monster exploded into her.
Her chest armor was obliterated and Morticus’ jaw shattered.

8 (9) cards left, the Nukealope drew Stomp and made it a point to deal with Rustica. She was hit 3 times in the chest, inflicting 3 severe injuries – 2 3s and a 4, that was 5 bleed right there. Dead.

With Atomic Vigor flipped a 2nd AI card would be played each round and Chow Down was the final straw for us. The Nukealope dashed over to the closest acanthus and healed for 5, putting the final nail into the coffin.
As it came running back towards us with infinite movement, it collided with Morticus one more time and his arm came clean off for the kill.

The Screaming Nukealope had managed to restore peace to its territory, as all survivors lay dead and defeated. It continued to Chow Down in its victory.

Before long the choking ash began to fall in our settlement, which would mean that we wouldn’t get any endeavors next year!!
(-2 endeavors for losing)

If all 4 survivors would have reached the fight, I think we would have had a decent chance of winning this – before it began eating acanthus we did almost deal 50% of its wounds after all!

But I am probably the most sad about losing 4 resin and a copper.
But that was a rookie mistake on my part, of course – got eaten by a *REDACTED*.

***

And that’s just how it goes at times.
And whilst I do regret having picked Romantic now that all the extra LCK is gone – this was just an unfortunate set of circumstances aligning to deliver that 1-2 punch for the k.o.

Hopefully our fight against the Black Knight plays out differently!

That will be all for today though, keep an eye open for the upcoming sale at the end of the week or the start of the next one as we are supposedly getting T-shirts this time around, which always sell out REALLY quickly!

As always, thank you very much for your time, get some painting done and play the game to be ready for when the Screaming Goat arrives!
Amathul