As the 3 remaining survivors returned to the Bloody Shallows, Sapphire got to clear a whopping 8 injury boxes as I made note of our very first Omen.
To quickly get house-keeping over with: we gained 5 endeavors (3 survivors, Cooking (I) and 12 population) for fighting that Frogdog and drew our random event for the year.

Spurred by our newest triumph, the settlement decided to hold a Jousting competition!
The 1 hunt-xp requirement was a little unfortunate, but as I couldn’t just chose the little ones, Lucky was eager to fight against Goldenglow. This was a chance for club mastery after all!
And in the immortal words of Ser Hermes Bonk: No Fear!

Goldenglow did emerge as the clear victor from this bout but it was not in any way as overwhelming as we would have needed it for her to be. Still, she gained +1ACC from this experience – another boon for the pile.
As Lucky got back to his feet he not only dreaded the notion of having to do a rematch but also whatever was out there in the darkness that had created the monstrous Goldenglow as she was now – he gained Fear of the Dark (D).

But before we were able to enjoy the rest of the festivities we had had planned, Nico had already arrived and she had found herself a victim to play with.
The people of the Bloody Shallows had never been a courageous lot, thus Sapphire was nominated as her 4 courage was the most by far.
The sadistic Red Witch left her behind even more damaged and even more broken than the Frogdog, with PTSD and -1STR.

But we were still not done! Oh no, we were not! The Hooded Knight came to visit as well. And I’d be lying if I said that I remembered about them before I looked at the time-line just a couple moments before rolling.
I rolled a 2 and that fiend of a man struck down 2 more survivors! Froggex and Aya were found dead behind the hovels. (Which was probably better than having to deal with a Twilight Sword on Goldenglow.) And with those 2 losses we were back down to 10 people.
The game itself had come to cull more of us!

Trying to develop our settlement, I started with the ol’ reliable: innovating.
Partnership, Pictograph, Bloodletting or Scarification
A selection of all-stars, for sure. And not a single one of them offered Survival Limit either.
I ended up choosing Bloodletting here, both for its relative all-round utility and that a victory against the Nico & Braal duo has a special interaction with it.

Using the massive pile of resources we got last year was much more difficult then I had at first anticipated. We did not nearly have an actually definite answer to question “what to build?” besides 2 standouts.
With this in mind I ended up making and unmaking a couple of things all over this settlement phase, before I ultimately threw quite a few resources into storage for later.

But there were 2 (3) things that were pretty much a given, despite my inability to make lasting decisions otherwise.
First off: I spent 1 endeavor to make Leather out of all the hides to help build the Grimacing Guillotine and have a (small) stockpile for later.
Next up: we finally built a Barber Surgeon! We used the 2 bland Monster Organs from storage for this alongside a few more Frogdog bits.
And we built Frogdoggles – Hit Location scouting? In my campaign?!

At this point I got overwhelmed by the many other options we had for a bit. For instance, I was thinking that I would like to innovate Trick Transport (I) for a while, but that would cost us 2 more endeavors besides the 6 Black Resin.
I also saw an approach where we could throw all caution to the wind and special innovate Scrap Smelting with just about any and all resources we had left.
I also had a long look at all the patterns we currently had available in the settlement – and the Earl Armor set, amongst other things, was looking kinda juicy as well – 7 iron though.
Or that we could build a Zanbato. Which felt kinda bad for Lantern Year 19.

In the end I did use one of the 2 Perfect Hides in storage to build a Green Charm, 2 more leather for a Almanach and 2 frogdog organs for a Monster Grease.
I also built that Zanbato.

To not lose sight of it, I spent the Love Juice at this point as well.
Frogdos and Hollow got to be the parents, and they had twins!
We were due for 2 girls: Celestia and Serena, who were both going to learn Sword (2) from their father.
Those were 2 promising new recruits for the upcoming fight right there!

As for the 2 remaining endeavors: indigo was sent to the Bell of Challenge (I) to learn a code of conduct whilst fighting a.k.a. Honorable (D) to replace her Eproctophilia (D).
And afterwards Serena rolled for Sculpture (I) and quickly picked up Agility Fighter (FA) from it – perfect!

I did spend quite some more time going over our gear grids until I felt that they were “good enough” to move on.
All in all this was a very long settlement phase on my end.

The Chosen Defenders:
Indigo – purple (Dragon Armor, Piercing Claws)
Serena – blue (Black&Red Armor, Hyperelastic Sword)
Celestia – red (Leather Armor, Zanbato)
Goldenglow – yellow (Outcast gear, Grimacing Guillotine, Bone Club)

Serena had a mighty +6EVA which got converted to an equally mighty +6STR when attacking. And with 4 insanity Celestia’s Frogdoggles were going to hopefully give us some helpful insights into what the Red Witches were plotting.
I almost forgot about the remaining Pariah innovation, which triggered insight for Goldenglow (+1ACC) and she just kept on high-rolling!
We also got the Feral Zanbato as a pattern from this.

The Red Witches Lvl2 fight adds Nico to the mix, complete with her own AI and Hit Location cards.
Whilst this sadistic member of the Red Witches will be a constant drain on our survival, Braal’s temper has been reigned in by her presence and we are not subject to the 5 minute timer any more.
As the focus switches away from the frantic “all out brawl” of the Lvl1 encounter, Red Initiates may appear from the Red Cloaks as well from now on, which will lead to a potential position-nightmare and extra basic actions due to them switching with their teachers.
It’s a new type of “frantic” if you will.

Whilst Braal’s stats remain unchanged – 11TGH, 7MOV and 10 Life, the new witch is slightly more powerful – 13TGH, 7MOV but has only 8 Life.
And whilst she may appear more fragile due to her lower life total, she is quite prone to parrying your attacks to make up for it.
We do need to also pay attention to Braal’s Intimidating Presence trait, limiting encourage survival actions to only be performed during the survivor’s act.

In a perfect world, we’d kill off Nico really quickly and have a nice, slow fight against Braal. Here’s hoping!

Braal (10 Life), Nico (8 Life) – in typical nemesis-fashion they let the survivors go first! Braal needed them to get a few good licks in to make it even!
Indigo was already positioned to jumps in via Leap and she did just that. But she was off to a rocky start: only 2 hits at 2+? And Nico’s parry & impervious on the first 2 cards put a quick end to our attempt at decisive wounds. Ouch!
Indigo was not impressed and she surged, not missing a beat hitting all of her strikes on 5+ this time! Sadly Nico was prepared for her yet again. Indigo managed to deal 2 wounds before Nico shot her hands and ended the attack.

Celestia was next to activate and she revealed a glimpse into the future for us, for Nico that would be another parry location. Still, Celestia did approach and attack! A perfect hit into a crit (after paying the 1 survival for extra LCK) did do it! 2 wounds dealt. Showing Indigo how it’s done!
Eager for even more she dashed around Nico and surged, but the swing went wide.
Goldenglow then came running up as well and she used the Grimacing Guillotine to attack for the first time this campaign – but she flipped the trap! People were knocked over and lost 2 survival because Nico got so hot and bothered that she had to jump away, shooting Goldenglow in the waist for good measure. Her Iron Will did keep her standing this time.

Finally Serena approached Braal for a 1 on 1 duel. Due to her 6EVA she was starting at 11STR with her Hyperelastic Sword and should be able to put up a good fight!
And then she proceeded to swiftly deal a critical wound to the Meteoric Thigh Belt?
At first I really didn’t know whether I should feel happy or sad about this outcome: we got the Cult Speaker Knife from this crit – a REALLY powerful weapon .. but needed to archive the Green Charm because of that.
Kinda funny how we had the charm for all of half a turn.

Braal (9 Life), Nico (4 Life), after an acceptable first turn for the survivors, the Red Witches prepared their own counter attack.
Braal played Rain of Blows and targeted Serena. As she was hitting only on Lantern 10s (4+ base and 6EVA) it was no surprise that the attack missed completely – though not for a lack of trying.
Nico’s first card following that was a Horrifying Shot. First she switched spots with Braal before she shot at Serena as well. Nico hit on 9+, but the singular successful hit was canceled by the effect of the Black&Red Cuirass.

The survivor turn began with Celestia getting us an idea of what would be happening next round. She saw the upcoming switch between Braal and Nico and decided she would merely move into position without attacking.
Goldenglow activated next, with her special gear switching to +8EVA she tried to cause the switch. Foolhardy she took the extra attempt to wound here and it worked out – a truly blessed survivor! Nico appeared from Braal’s Red Cloak and attacked, taking 2 survival away as she hit Goldenglow but once.

Indigo leaped back in and the line up of parries and bloodmagic brought her down to 1 survival remaining. But Nico was reduced down to 2 life as well during the flurry!
Meanwhile Serena attempted to hit Braal again, but failed.

Braal (8), Nico (2) – as Braal drew the revealed Spinning Lariat, Celestia tried her best to finish off Nico before she could summon Red Initiates into the fight. She hit the Red Witch on 5 .. but failed her wound of 6+! Quickly I checked survival opportunities again and before the reflex went into effect, Indigo also surged from the side-line! 3 more hits were added to the chain of events – which drew another 2 parries! But the blue savior prevailed this time – 2 crits were enough to reduce the monster’s Life to 0! Nico departed with a sadistic grin after she spat .. into Indigo’s mouth as a good-bye?

All this happened in an instant before Braal started to spin furiously! She missed again.

Celestia revealed the next AI card in Braal’s deck as all members of the group besides Serena slowly made their approach.
Honor-bound, Serena attacked and wounded the Red Witch, but was run over for the privilege.

Braal (7) drew her Bone Crunch Punch.. as was pre-ordained! Indigo had gotten too close and was walloped for it. She flew FAR!

At this point a familiar rhythm was emerging. You know the one. It happens every time you can check the decks!
Celestia activated first again .. and she revealed both the trap and Meteoric Warrior!
This gave us a round to position and figure out who’d be best to take the trap with.

So.., Braal (7) wanted to get into gear to play one of her Legendary AI cards this turn, Meteoric Warrior, but was left feeling dejected as survivors were keeping their distance to her.
It is quite the brutal AI card if it ever goes off, playing several AI cards one after the other – however: it fizzles out completely is nobody is adjacent to Braal! And whilst I figured that the token probably wouldn’t be sticking around for long, we had likely managed to dodge a bullet here.

As our turn restarted I sent Serena in to trigger the trap but I did not watch out for the brain damage attached to it!?
Thankfully she only triggered flee, bumping into the muscle-witch but she got kicked away by Braal after, only for her to stomp on Serena as she came to a stop again. This did also heal Braal for 1 back up to 8.
Celestia tried to quickly deal 2 wounds after all of this but she failed to even hit – Braal was much more imposing than Nico!
Goldenglow rushed in at this point. When using the Grimacing Guillotine with 16STR, 2 hits meant 2 wounds.
Getting maybe a little ahead of ourselves, she also surged and found a wound that caused a Red Initiate to appear.

After Braal got done hitting Goldenglow, Indigo arrived ready to attack as well! Thanks to Katar spec she managed to deal 2 more wounds before the round ended.

Braal (3) was finally enjoying herself! Knuckle Cracking, she picked a new target to go for. The random threat chosen was Celestia. Of course, she had 0 courage and started screaming for dear life. Luckily the Almanach prevented her from gaining Prey (D), but the Red Initiate was still on their way to tap her on the shoulder real quick.
Surprise!
It’s Braal!
And Celestia got hit a bunch of times.

Without the Frogdoggles active Celestia attacked the initiate for safety – wouldn’t want to break the Zanbato on a target with several super dense hit locations. She hit them, but the wound failed – it bounced right off!
Indigo moved towards Goldenglow and removed 2 of her 3 bleed (stacked up from the Hollow Heart status she had gained by hitting Nico’s trap).
Goldenglow then immediately dashed a single step to Braal’s side as she still needed that wound with her Bone Club! 2 hits were achieved – one of which even being perfect! Against 9TGH 5STR doubled wasn’t that bad a proposition.. but she rolled a 1?! A beautiful fumble netted her a -1SPD-token, which wasn’t all that bad, especially after the 2nd wound landed, securing her the point towards club mastery she had needed so badly.
Braal also dashed through her, but neither I nor Goldenglow really cared much about that bit.

Serena followed her chosen opponent, trying her best to put an end to this fight!
She hit once, wounding easily against 12TGH, which gave her the confidence to surge to hopefully deal the final wound we needed!
Her sword almost bounced off the rippling muscles of Braals stomach, but found an opening in her Meteoric Lats knocking her down with a crit!

As the left behind Red Initiate ran to flee from the battle field, we had done it! We had repelled the Red Witches and defeated another nemesis encounter!
..
For now.

The survivors returned victorious!
Only Indigo (+1STR) aged, notably gaining Lucernae’s Lantern (SFA). She’d only be able to do that once and I was quite unsure how many blue affinities we’d even be able to get with the gear we had.
Besides, would at max 3 guaranteed crits really help that much with the Screaming God? I can’t say I recall it having truly crippling persistent injuries.
Anyways, more importantly – Club Mastery! The Path of the Bonk!
This one, more or less, got gifted to us by the Screaming God events. But what can I say? We kinda needed that to keep going!

Only Serena and Goldenglow learned Thrill Seeker (FA) from the rewards section and we did get the bonus +1EVA for activating Bloodletting (I) next Lantern Year as well!
Oh, and we secured 2 Red Thread as well.

***

Little do my survivors know that Braal and Nico are just making a quick report to Seer before it the time for another, slightly more intense, trial would come.
All in all, I’d say we got decently lucky with hit locations for the fight, especially as Nico did not manage to get away from us for too long.
So many parries! Which might still be better than the alternative: as a lot of her hit locations will just flat out drain 2 survival!

With the Speaker Cult Knife in our possession, I also began wondering about our Screaming God chances again.
Especially with our easy access to Agility Fighter (FA) we should be able to push this even higher. Though as a sharp weapon it might be good enough already.

***

Now, I will let you in on a little secret – I have already played the next Lantern Year .. and we are indeed going to hunt a Screaming God next!
Finally! Took me long enough!
I will try to have the post out by Saturday or Sunday!
Though, don’t get your hopes up too much .. such attempts at speed hardly ever work out for me. Life tends to intervene .. but Deno has been crushing too many Lantern Years too quickly!

As always, thank you very much for your time, would you bring a bloody knife to a goat-fight?
Amathul