Here I was just checking my youtube feed and then I see it:
Deno is at it again!
Whilst I was trying to enjoy my weekend, the madlad went ahead and started a campaign and he’s all the way to Lantern Year 12 already? I’ve got to say, at this pace, even with him painting it before he uses the Screaming God, he’ll likely be quicker than me. Wow!
Not unexpected .. but, still – wow!

That means time’s-a-wasting. So, here we go!

***

After the Outcast had returned to our midst, spinning tales of infinity and the deafening music made by beating hooves and age-old machinery, the settlement phase continued quietly with a beckoning call of unknown origin.

I nominated Morbius to be the first to feel the Creeping Longing.. which inadvertently created a time-paradox that obliterated this universe.
Or, wait a moment. It seems we got lucky – the Feline Entity did not care enough.
Little Morbius would only be born a little later during this Lantern Year, so the longing to return back .. home .. had to have been extraordinarily strong in the womb already. This meant that surely his mother had woken up lying strangely rotated in her bed from time to time, or that she was orientated into a certain direction for no discernable reason.
You know.., as one does.
Either way, Morbius heard the call and started moving quicker (+1MOV & the Possessed impairment).

Overall, I’ve had a lot of time to spend on figuring out “what to hunt next?” over these past weeks and whilst I had held out hope that we might be able to jump onto the infinite racetrack immediately, reality said otherwise.
Whilst I do still want to hunt the Screaming God as soon as possible, I do also want to win the fight. And I can’t say I see us having much of a chance with our current set-ups. And funnily enough almost everything else I could hunt instead this Lantern Year seemed to offer something that would help us:
A Frogdog Lvl3 “high-roll” could give us the Jaw Saw for our blue savior or Goldenglow, or at least some extra Iron for us to collect.
The normal lope has the 9STR Lance of Longius available for crafting afer a Lvl3 kill, whilst Nukealope adds more nuclear weapons – and we only needed a singular iron to build a Red Power Core to give any of them sharp.
And Dragon King.., well, that is even more nuclear stuff.
Of course, there is also the Blacksmith, but we’d need at least 14 bones, more around 16 to 18 to make that worth our while. And all quarry options we have provide between 7 and 10.., sooo.. you do the math.
At the time, our storage was filled to the brim with hide (6), a couple of organs (3) and not much else.

So, after much deliberation I think I want to hunt the Screaming God in LY20 or LY21 depending on how this Lantern Year’s hunt goes and what we get and try to prepare until then.
And today I am trying for a Frogdog Indom weapon.
And, of course, this will also unlock the Bullfrogdog for our convenience as well.

But, back to the time-paradox: I had originally finished this settlement phase last time I played the settlement, and I didn’t see a reason to change most of what I did back then.
The one thing of note would be that I did redraw innovations after adding Taxidermy (I) to the deck, and I think I got lucky on that new line-up.

As we arrived back in the pastent the path we needed to take had become a little clearer.
First we wanted to innovate!
We got to choose between Clan of Death, Nightmare Training, Heart Flute or Saga. And that sure was an easy one! Clan of Death all day!
Baseline stats – my favorite flavor!

Next up, I finally built the Weapon Crafter. I do like my Scrap Lanterns, not to mention that it created a path towards the Blacksmith.
I then rebuilt a Bone Pickaxe and made one of the aforementioned Scrap Lanterns.

As for the remaining 4 endeavors, the first was used on Sapphire to gain Honorable (D) which replaced Binge Eating (D).

Afterwards Lucky got sent to augur with the rest.
Thanks to Lights in the Sky and his 3 understanding we managed to trigger intimacy every single time! And as low on weapon spec as we were in this settlement, Lucky got the chance to add several members to the Claw family. 3 children were born (8, 6, 6) Felicia, Rasputin and Morbius, each with Katar (1) to their name and the new Clan of Death stats!
The settlement was up to 13 population and we began setting up for this Lantern Year’s hunt.

The Hunters:

Indigo – purple (Dragon Armor, Piercing Claws)
Sapphire – blue (Black&Red Armor, Hyperelastic Sword)
Felicia – red (Leather Armor, Beast Knuckles, Maul Scab)
Goldenglow – yellow (outcast gear, Bone Club)

Most of these gear grids will be able to wound the monster fairly easily (~5+) thanks to the Mammoth Leaf terrain and its +3STR, with only Felicia getting the short end of the stick.
Overall, that should really be enough to win us the fight.

The Huntphase:
As usual we started the hunt by transposing into the Elastomer Mines, and it did appear like Sapphire knew these halls well. And whilst I was unsure of whether or not I should take the plunge into the Heartwyrm Tunnels for a while, my hesitation had been unfounded as luck seemed on my side again. Sapphire returned to the group dragging out a gigantic haul and the team took the time to bring 6 Black Resin and 2 Iron to the settlement before continuing on with the hunt proper.
After the initial success, the group took the next few steps with ease and had a chance to Dream the Way (basic HE76) during one of their many rests. Indigo remained connected to the dream in many ways and we chose to double up for a reroll and some spread out insanity.
As we then continued along the shores of the swamp the group passed though a gathering of Belching Mouths and Felicia got left behind during a moment of inattention. When she finally re-emerged from the noxious gas, she had become strangely Secretive (D).
Pressing onwards, Felicia took the lead an I almost had a heart attack, but the dice stopped on a 14 – Chance Encounter (basic HE14)! Instead of a giant hungry worm, we were showered with gifts! Courage and understanding for everyone! Snow also pulled Goldenglow aside to tell her a secret for +1ACC-token and the two of them just couldn’t stop giggling for a while afterwards, before the young girl ultimately disappeared without a trace.
And things just kept on looking up for us as Indigo discovered a Space Between the Rocks (basic HE62)! The pickaxe saved us here, even granting us another iron in exchange for us dodging a negative hunt event!
Just before the group reached the barrier of darkness, they discovered a patch of springy leaves creating a Euphony when stepped on. We were not carrying instruments, but 2 people had 3+ understanding. Whilst we could not gain Drums (I) for our settlement, as we already had it, I don’t believe the last paragraph triggered here. Let me know if I’m wrong!

Crossing the barrier of Overwhelming Darkness, singing a hearty song helped the group a lot: still, the actual roll could have been a little better.
A 1, and all others fell between 7 and 9 – always with the arms damage! Sadly Sapphire couldn’t spend the survival to save someone, so she lost a courage instead.

As we began the next leg of our journey by Mineral Gathering, Felicia almost hit the blood-rock, but Indigo used the Dream the Way reroll to redirect her swing in the last second. Thus, Felicia found another iron and to my surprise, even the pickaxe made it out of the event in one piece!
Meanwhile Goldenglow spent her time inspecting a patch of Soggy Prints close by and she even found a usable Tatty Hide, but would not move on afterwards for some elaborate reason, delaying the whole party. As the rest were forced to mill about, Indigo spotted A Familiar Face (basic HE68) amongst the rocks and couldn’t help but cry at the familiar sight of a lost loved one.
Not much further the group heard the desperate cries of a man in a Gibbet (basic HE50). There was a good chance for him to just steal stuff from us, so I declined to free him and the party suffered 1 brain damage instead across the board.. which really wasn’t great either.
The potential final hunt event .. was another Interloper. And – OF COURSE – Sapphire got attacked. My survivors just can’t bring themselves to kick this ugly (frog)doggling most of the time!

All in all this had been a great hunt for us. So I really shouldn’t be complaining.

For Lvl3 the Frogdog merely gets +2ACC-tokens – which Indigo can hopefully remove quickly with the effect of the Piercing Claws – the Indomitable trait and it puts the Indigestion mood into play.
Indigestion will merely trigger Gaseous Bloat at the end of every monster turn. However, farts are probably one of the highest priorities in this fight as the deck only consists of A and L ones to begin with.
Other than 17TGH the monster has the typical +2 DMG/SPD.

As we got ready for battle, Goldenglow put her Infinity token onto the Lemniscate Mitre (+8EVA) and prepared to go tank the first hit.

With 19(20) cards in the deck, Tongue-Tied was the first attack to be played and .. it targeted the survivor furthest away .. which was Felicia, the one least able to tank it. A bad start for the youngest member of the squad. After the monster had used Leap, it dragged her to it’s front with its tongue and she was beat up. Suffering 4 hits for 4DMG each (one of which she dodged), she was still okay as the damage got at least spread out.
Finally, a fart was added to Double Sphincter.

Indigo quickly dashed into a position to Leap from towards the Heinous Origin and she attacked it with the Piercing Claws after landing for +2ACC and +5STR. She hit the monster 4 times and removed one of the 2 +1ACC-tokens. Not only did she crit the monster twice during this attack, but also dealt 1 regular wound as well, putting a persistent injury into play whilst her Battle Drunk (D) stacked 3 tokens on her each for +3STR and -3ACC in total.
Sapphire was the next one to attempt an attack, but even though she hit the Frogdog, she failed miserably by a single point. This did knock both her and Goldenglow down – which Iron Will should have prevented. (It’s slowly getting to being “on brand”, forgetting about Iron Will.)
Indigo considered encouraging her, but held off – knowing full well that she didn’t actually need to!
We missed out on Goldenglow’s attack here.., but also not really, as we’ll come to see soon.

16 (17) cards in the deck, Slough entered play. This mood gave the monster +1DMG and -1TGH and also doubled all survival costs for the survivors. Luckily resolving the trap would eventually discard this card.
Another fart was charged up and the team was up next already.

Felicia and Goldenglow each took a step back weary of eventual stink token reactions, the latter also blocking with her shield before Indigo dashed into position again to be ready to jump in for a 2nd time with Leap.
Hitting on 5+ she still found 4 hits and deftly removed the other +1ACC-token! Unfortunately she also drew the trap! She suffered a Brain Trauma from this: luckily it was lunacy. That 1 insanity came with a brand new disorder that let her age even quicker! Yikes!
She was only hit twice, but this meant we were looking at 2 farts for the upcoming turn. On the flipside, this also discarded Slough again already.
The rest of our turn was simply about repositioning after Sapphire (who couldn’t attack from the blind spot because of Honorable D) snuck to the side of the monster and cut it once.

At 15 (16) cards left, the first fart was a Treacherous Emission – a guaranteed severe – which was handed around all the way to Felicia, who suffered Disemboweled from it.
That 2nd fart however.. oof .. was a legendary fart: Disruption Emission dealt 6 damage to each hit location of Sapphire and her armor was basically gone after a single hit like this – a sole point remained due to the Red Cloak.
She did also suffer a severe injury to the waist amongst all of this, reducing her LCK to -1.

The actual AI for the turn was a Splashing Slap, pushing Indigo away whilst dealing minimal damage.

Not missing a beat, after stank-damage had ticked, Indigo leapt into an attack again, still hitting on 5+. This meant 4 more hits and 3 more wounds dealt.., and that she was up to a -4ACC across all her modifiers. Finally both she and Sapphire both gained Eproctophilia (D) from this attack as well as stink tokens had finally begun to spread.
Indigo then also surged and managed to get 1 more hit in to my surprise, and it was a crit against the Twitching Abdominis as well!

After having just lost Honorable (D), Sapphires also moved to the blindspot (she got encouraged by Goldenglow), and she managed to deal 2 wounds as well!
I surged a little reluctantly and winced as I saw the leap/bloat on a reflex.. but the Slashed Gut persistent injury came in clutch! The monster got knocked down as Sapphire kept on rolling high with those 9s and 10s!
(She needed a 7+ without the jump from the Mammoth Leaf.)

And this opened up the field for Goldenglow to finally get a chance to attack as well with the +8STR bonus! She hit the knocked down monster 3 times and with 15 base STR for the turn she was ready to go to town!
Only 2 wounds were dealt due to an unfortunate 1.

5 (6) cards left in the deck, the monster got up but was reeling after a brutal turn from the hunters. The Frogdog attempted a Dripping Backhand but was stopped because of its Busted Knuckle severe injury!
It howled in pain, spreading insanity to the group!

A fart was charged up and stank damage spread in ways that quickly had me worried. The timer was real now!

Felicia suffered 2 bleed as the stank was attacking her kidneys – putting her to 3, a.k.a. she was still fine. But Sapphire’s ovaries exploded! Oh no!
She already had Ptophobia (D), so we missed out on a chance to get rid of a worse disorder.

After getting encouraged, Sapphire quickly surged to bandage herself before Indigo still continued trying her best despite all the tokens. Jumping into the blindspot with Leap, she was somehow still hitting on 7+ (5+base, +2 from Leap, +1ACC-token, +1 base stat, +1 from blindspot vs -7ACC-tokens): 2 hits into 2 wounds – the wound against the Festering Shoulder finally knocked her down, removing a ridiculous 19 tokens in total from her!

The stink tokens on Felicia and Sapphire remained a huge problem, but there really wasn’t anything I could do about them at this point in time.
Felicia limped away as Goldenglow merely watched the turn pass by with her +8EVA.

3 (4) cards left in the deck.Tongue-tied came up again and the stinkiest threat was our poor, poor Felicia. She was only hit twice on 6+, dodging the body meant the 4DMG to her legs was actually still fine.
Stank-damage however … also worked out?!
Well, mostly. Sapphire’s muscle ruptured in her arm and having her bandage herself was what had officially kept her alive as of this moment.

As some of my survivors got back to their feet, Sapphire bandaged again and decided to hang back now for the rest of the fight. Unable to use her Fighting Arts any more, she had lost a lot of STR when she was attacking.
Indigo however felt fresh and keen on getting the fight over with! She spent her final survival to dash into position for yet another Leap. Only managing 2 hits despite being back to full ACC was a little anemic but a perfect hit helped with my perception of the attack. And as it turned out, she didn’t even need the extra STR from Barbed 2 as she just crit the monster twice!
She did not have the 3+ courage required to continue the assault and make the most of it, sadly. Or.., well.., ..

As Goldenglow’s gear switched back over to +8STR, she dashed onto the Mammoth Leaf to jump at the Frogdog as well. I could really need 2 hits here to kill the monster!
3 hits .. 1 of them perfect! Just don’t draw the trap!

But it had already been decided that it was going to fail – the next card on top – of course it was the trap!

2 hits to the body was a severe for Goldenglow as well, which she was able to just take thanks to a decently high roll (9) and Iron Will. It had me sweating bullets though.

1 (2) cards left in the deck, first we needed to deal with the fart: Choking Emission. Yep, that’s another severe roll for poor, stinky Felicia. The muscles in her arm ruptured as well. Putting her to 4 bleed now.

Tongue-tied was the only remaining card in the deck, and the Slashed Gut ended the card early! What? The monster fell over – out of nowhere! What a roll!

But I had started celebrating just a little too early: as the Frogdog got back up, the stank damage killed Felicia! Bacteria ate through the flesh of her legs until it fell right off!
An unfortunate loss .. (she turned out to be a ???, so that’s nice at least.)

Sobering up due to the loss of our youngest fighter here, Indigo got back into gear. She was our best shot at killing the monster this round even without the ability to Leap towards it, and she did manage to score 4 hits… Even with a perfect hit amongst the rolls it was only a 7+ to wound here, but 8+ for a crit as well.
She failed the first wound and crit the 2nd.
Then failed the third again .. and killed it on the fourth!

After a sigh of relief, we quickly collected our well deserved spoils before we were eager to return home.

Only Goldenglow aged and rolled low but well: +1MOV! And she found herself 1 point away from club mastery as well! Which obviously marked her for imminent death!
Resource draws were overall quite good as well.
We did, however, not get the Gilled Fungus I so desired, but a Steel Carbuncle instead.

Finally, our victory unlocked the Bullfrogdog for us to hunt as well.
Which, with basically no copper to our name isn’t all that helpful right now to be honest.

***

Oof.

That turned out to be a more stressful fight than I’d prefer for it to be, but we managed.

Losing Felicia so late wasn’t great, but she was mainly a distraction for the monster anyway, so as far as the current Lantern Year goes, I think that loss was overall fine. Sapphire, on the other hand.., her getting beat up like this is a more significant blow even if she survived due to a lot of this gear grids current attack power being from Agility Fighter (FA).

But especially after that hunt I shouldn’t be complaining – we got a ton of resources today and even if we missed out on the Jaw Saw pattern, the Grimacing Guillotine is still an 8STR weapon with a powerful, if somewhat limited, effect.

I also think that this Lantern Year showed off that fighting the Screaming God would have been a bad call and/or that I would have needed to be insanely lucky to make it out alive.

Next Lantern Year we are forced to fight against the Braal and Nico combo, which should, at least in theory, be a little easier by comparison.

***

On a side-note: I have seen about two thirds of a Preacher campaign as well now and having her around was quite the experience.
Sadly she died to a Brain Trauma just before she could collect her tithe.

But this will be all for now – I hope everybody has been having a good week so far with Screaming Gods in hand, built and more or less alive.

As always, thank you very much for your time, if the God screams in the darkness of an old ruin and nobody is there to hear it, did it scream at all?
Amathul