As general excitement rises towards the Screaming God’s expected arrival hopefully at the end of March or start of April, I have spent a lot less time writing about the game over the last 3-ish weeks than playing it. Which in theory at least, should be a good thing.
I am currently still trying to finish up my second campaign featuring Aeneas, so I can give an more informed opinion on her and I’m pretty sure my regular game session picks up again this weekend as well, but today we will be headed back to the Bloody Shallows for a bit.
Season 3 has been crawling along, and at this point I have circled back around to wanting to include the Screaming Goat and engage with it over the DBK. I’m sure I’ll face-plant into a wall.

But to focus on matters more closely at hand: we are currently looking at a settlement flooded with hide and starved for organs in particular, without the stat-cussion certain Principle choices would have provided or any notable achievements in regards to weapon mastery.
In addition to the Pariah and Red Witches, which have proven to be far from unbeatable, but tough opponents still, we will direct our attention towards a pair of Dragon King hunts for these 2 free years before the Pariah comes a’knocking again.
Dragon Armor should provide us with a decent boost to the reliability of our potential DMG-output if we manage to complete the set.

***

With the Black Knight defeated for now, the survivors got back home to 6 endeavors (2 returning, 2 Tinker, Cooking (I) and 13 pop).
As for the random event: we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by Lights in the Sky!
The pitch black heavens were looking favorable upon our quest towards honor!

As for development, thanks to Cannibalize giving us a Monster Organ in the prior Lantern Year we were able to innovate still.
Pottery, Pictograph, Bed or Partnership.
Its just that the choices I was given weren’t all too helpful here. It certainly was no Song of the Brave (I).
I ended up picking Pottery and moved on with the phase.

And so I quickly circled back around to Light’s in the Sky. We did desperately need some better weapons at this point, so I chose to spend the endeavor on the Inner Lantern interaction on the settlement event.
I nominated Lucky and he did indeed get lucky – a 5 was just low enough still!
Berserker isn’t exactly a Fighting Art you would be seeking out regularly, but with the Black Knight expansion added to your campaign it enables us to build a really nice katar via one of the included seed patterns.

Therefor, one more endeavor was used to turn all the hide we had in storage (4) into Leather and we then built the Piercing Claws. At 2/5+/7 with barbed 2 and paired, these would serve nicely as an upgrade to the Beast Knuckles.

All the remaining endeavors were spent on Frogdos and Flare as I send them both to our Sculpture (I) and within 3 rolls, both managed to gain Agility Fighter (FA).

With that the final thing left to do was to use the Love Juice we had retrieved from Migi’s corpse.
Copperfish and Flare were chosen to be the expecting parents and I rolled a 5 and a 9, which meant twins!
We were running out of men at the time, so the two brothers were called Stalker and Flatfish. Yeah, I don’t know either why I called them that.

With that we were ready to prepare the hunting squad.
No matter how much progress we’d be able to make for the Dragon Armor, even just heading into the Elastomer Mines would be great.
Let’s not mention copper for the time being. It scares the fish away.

The Hunters:
Flare – green (Frogdog Armor, Sharpened Heel)
Frogdos – blue (Black&Red bits, Hyperelastic Sword)
Stalker – red (Leather Armor, Piercing Claws)
Copperhead – yellow (Screaming Armor, Bone Club)

Whilst a part of me would have liked to take Candy along for this hunt, Eproctophilia (D) proved much more of a hurdle than I would have initially expected.
On the other hand, at this stage, I was already considering taking her along for the upcoming Nemesis fights as well: Pariah Lvl2 in Lantern Year 16 or Black Knight Lvl2 in Lantern Year 17.
She is noticeably more powerful than your average survivor and I am sure she’d be a great help against the Pariah.

The Huntphase:
We started this hunt by piling up all the extra hunt events we could place on the first space and picking Red Incursion first. Frogdos proved to be somewhat of a natural at this as he managed to get into the mines (6) without any isusues. After collecting 1 Red Thread and 3 Black Resin he could have even entered the Heartwyrm Tunnels, but as he only had 2 armor at the arms, so I instead decide to back out and not risk dying to the giant mollusk.

We made another stop shortly afterwards for some casual Noodling of Death followed by some relaxing Mineral Gathering. Stalker ended up catching a Cyclops Fly before we found a Broken Lantern in the rocks – hey, it wasn’t the blood-rock, so I was satisfied with the outcome.
As for the first real event: we stumbled into a group of still smoldering Settlement Ruins. So close to our own home, finding these was a bit troubling. As we searched the ruins Frogdos had a coughing fit so bad he started bleeding.
Stalker took the lead afterwards and things started escalating even more. We followed a trail of Bloody Eyes (basic HE98) under his lead and it took us straight to the mutilated Flare!? She took 3 bleed and the rest of us we terrified (3 brain damage) having not even realized that she had gone missing earlier.
As we circled back around to the outskirts of our settlement the group was elated at the prospect of a good rest before they had to head out again, but unbeknownst to most in the party, this place turned out to be a Doppel Den! As they rested Stalker found out and was replaced by his evil doppelganger, the rest of the team none the wiser.
As the hunt commenced the next day the site of a grand Ornate Temple left us speechless but somehow we were never able to reach the place. Something inside of Flare snapped as she was tormented by this distortion but she found some solace in a Lovelorn Rock (basic HE80) coming to her rescue. She gladly traded her Rawhide Whip for lasting companionship.
With that the monster was in sight.

Can’t say I’m looking forward to that extra Murder event next year in particular – but I guess you can tempt fate only so often, and, all things considered, this was still a fairly amicable Dragon King hunt.

As we set up for the fight, Copperhead drew a tactics card and we got Black Guard Tactics, which did give all 4 of my survivors Honorable (D) for the duration of the fight in addition to any other disorder(s) they may have, but, once per round, if we attacked the monster from its facing we could gain 1 survival. Against the Dragon King, I figured this tactics card to be a decent draw.

12 cards in the deck, the Dragon King was not one for ceremony and it started the battle with a Heated Strike. It’s rugged hide shedding already, the monster triggered Irradiate before even moving towards Frogdos.
With a 1 and a 10 rolled to hit, Frogdos dodged the 5DMG to his arms.

Frogdos was ready and waiting to lead the attack, bandaging first to get rid of 2 of his bleed tokens, he surged (regaining the survival via the tactics card) and he hit the Dragon King square in the mouth! Even dealing a critical wound to it! What an important first attack! -1DMG on the monster and a resource!
As Frogdos backed off, Flare headed towards him to get bandaged next turn.
Copperhead dashed a few spaces to line up properly before she Slammed into the monster unimpeded. 2 hits with 10STR before rolls should be able to deal some damage here – and she easily did: 2 more wounds were dealt, which also knocked her away at the end by on another reflex.
With Lava Pools splashing onto the ground (Evil) Stalker also got his chance to attack, landing another blow against the Heartface, securing 1 final wound for the round and removing the -1TGH-token(s) from the monster.

8 cards left, the monster’s Molten Strike hit Stalker for a negligible 1DMG before the attached Irradiate also mostly fizzled out for only 1DMG.

Using the opportunity as it presented itself, Stalker attempted a counter attack and as he wounded the monster he was picked up and thrown across the board.
Frogdos then spent the turn bandaging up Flare, who in turn tried to attack the Dragon King after a dash, but it was no use. She was much too weak to break through the monster’s tough hide.
To end our turn Copperhead came running back in for another Slam, dealing 1 more wound.

6 cards remaining, -1TGH. After the hit to its Serpent Foot just then, the Dragon King stomped down hard – Crisis Crater.
Both Copperhead and Flare managed to dashed out of the impact zone, but the monster wasn’t done that easily: a basic attack followed.
The random threat chosen was Copperhead. Whilst the attack only did 1DMG per hit, Irradiate dealt 2 more damage, withering the rest of her armor away at her feet.

In a risky move Copperhead started the round of acts by just straight up attacking the monster head on, dealing 2 more wounds, getting evacuated by a reaction no less.
It was getting a bit eerie at this point that we had yet to see an Irradiate reaction on a hit location card.
Stalker ran up next, missing his first 2 swings and failing to wound on the second 2.
Frogdos and Flare could only move up to be closer to the monster at this point. With little achieved this turn, the monster got to attack again.

4 cards left, -2TGH in play, the Dragon King tried to switch up its tactics, moving towards Frogdos again, landing a Rough Smack. And whilst the attack failed to do any damage, Frogdos was flung to the furthest edge of the board.
Which he shouldn’t have – I forgot Iron Will again – I guess I’m not used to having this ability. But this changed very little for the year overall.

Whilst not confident in her abilities, I sent in Flare to try and attack the monster again, and despite me not believing in her, she managed to beat the odds and crit the Serpent Tail for 2 wounds thanks to savage! Great job!
Frogdos then spent 1 survival to dash towards the monster (which he wouldn’t have needed to), and as he struck the Dragon King he found the monster’s trap before we ever triggered an Irradiate on a hit location. He was sent up into the heavens for the privilege.
Stalker stepped up next, unga-bunga and such, and the monster, leaving behind a large pool of lava flew away after its wing got cut.
This did put the Dragon King closer to Copperhead and she was ready and waiting to dash/slam into its side!
But her attacks missed.

1 cards left, -3TGH, Heated Strike!
Irradiate removed Copperhead’s waist armor even eating away at her flesh a little, but the strike itself was fumbled, giving her the chance to dodge the remaining damage.

As our turn began, Frogdos hit the ground hard next to the Dragon King, taking 4 damage to his body.
Stalker did encourages Frogdos so he could act, whilst Copperhead spent her dash to get out of the monster’s facing – there was still a possibility for it to trigger Meltdown.
The subsequent crit dealt by Frogdos against the Serpent Tail Vertebra flung Copperhead away again, which proved to be a boon in some sense. Set up perfectly she used slam to move back towards the monster and attacked. In a moment of potential hubris she actually broke the Serpent Horns before felling the monster!

Nobody aged from this fight and only 1 point of sword proficiency was given out, so not much happened at all in that regard.
As for rewards, I was considering what I wanted the most, and I began hoping for some Dragon Iron because that would also give me the option to build a 2nd Piercing Claws (it’s a paired weapon!)

We got a decent haul overall, I would say, and we should be able to make a bit of progress here.

Looking ahead a little: we will be visited by the Hooded Knight and there will be a Murder happening as well, so.. next year is looking lethal again.

***

Bullying a Dragon King Lvl1 in Lantern Year 14 isn’t all that surprising, I do have to say. And whilst a part of me would just like to do this again, we will be looking at a Lvl2 version instead as we are running out of time at this point. And there is a real possibility that if that hunt goes badly, the campaign might be doomed with the next nemesis encounters coming up as well.
But, unga-bunga protects!

15TGH is looking a little scary though – even with Irradiate helping out with that number.

Either way, we will have to risk something next Lantern Year.

And I will leave it at that. For what it’s worth, I’ll be trying to put something together on Aeneas over the upcoming weekend.
Until then, have a good week.
As always, thank you very much for your time, take some time off if you have radiation head ache!
Amathul