With Deno slaughtering Lantern Years left and right – that man is a machine – I felt hard pressed to get this out as soon as possible.

Also, real quick, in other news, we also got a first peek at the Stone Wrecker character card and it is an ability (giving the person a 6+ chance to daze the monster, once per round, if wounding with a heavy weapon) – yay!
We still need quite a few more abilities on character cards until we can build a character deck without the GCE – but we are getting there – slowly.., ever so slowly!

But back to us hunting a Screaming God.
Yes!
We are going for it!
A PotStars campaign died rather pitifully last week to fuel my luck for all of what you are about to read.

***

With the Red Witches defeated, the survivors returned home to a cheerful settlement. We gained 7 endeavors (4 survivors, 1 tinker, Cooking (I) and 12 population) for the Lantern Year and were prepared to draw our random event.
Stranger in the Dark..?
This meant that we’d be going to be short one event! We already had this on the timeline for this Lantern Year!
And .. it’s Daniel! Much better than my endless encounters with the Lamplighter!
He has Zero Presence (SFA) and nothing else. Usually I’d argue for the base stats of the settlement but we’ve not had Clan of Death (I) for that long and I’m sure he’s been around for longer. I mean, its frikken Daniel!

But this Lantern Year was to be one of unofficial omens: as the Lanterns around the settlement were suddenly starting to go out, one by one, spreading a growing darkness across the Lantern Hoard. The Watcher had slowly begun to awaken.
As the settlement was reeling against this newfound reality, I was just sitting here, thinking that Ultimate Weapon would have been incredible when hunting Screaming Goats and that I still missed my base stats.
..
But as a Romantic settlement, the people of the Bloody Shallows felt differently. They came up with the Final Fighting Art instead! It offered +1 Survival Limit if nothing else – as I tend to forget this ability a lot!
And whilst Barbaric settlements found solace in partying, those romantically inclined .. prayed to the darkness? Whatever they did, the Bone Witch was coming to town to share her secrets in a couple of Lantern Years!

And then, when we had just found our footing again, Braal and Nico returned accusing us of fraternizing with the Fiend! The amount of proof they had for this was fairly underwhelming as they imposed only 2 trials upon us.
The Red Witch Trials had begun!
Lucky had to stand accused first – and I was immediately wondering if he should just confess. Then again.., we were only rolling twice on the table and we didn’t do anything wrong!
Braal picked up Lucky and broke his hip with a single squeeze – which lowered his MOV by 1 and prevented him from ever dodging again. Ouch.
For the 2nd trial, Nico got a turn and she applied Hamstrung to him.
So yeah, whilst he ultimately survived – and gained +2STR from the ordeal – he was pretty much done. Hamstrung, Ruptured Muscle, joyless, Fear of the Dark (D), no dodge. Sure. What a list of impairments to have!
Satisfied the Red Witches departed again, ready to report their findings to Seer.

And I do have to admit, they did have a good eye in a sense, Lucky did get joyless from fighting the Pariah after all.

With all the events done, we moved on towards developing.
We were definitely going to innovate as we had a bunch of resources left from that Lvl3 Frogdog still.
Pictograph, Shrine, Scrap Smelting or Heart Flute.
I think I would have preferred Bed here. Shrine is an all-time comfort-pick of mine, though both Pictograph and Scrap Smelting looked appealing as well. To be fair, Heart Flute wasn’t bad either, but I felt like I wasn’t leaning enough into Synch Strike for that.

Afterwards I was thinking about what to do for a while and a couple of rolls came up that decided what we would do and what we would hunt. Ultimately we:
– rolled on Shrine (I)(9): +1armor
– had Celestia learn Agility Fighter (FA) from the Sculpture (I)
– gave Celestia +2 survival with Drums (I)
– sent several people to do Bloodletting (I) (Celestia: +6 Insanity, Serena: +3 Insanity & Sapphire: +1 understanding which triggered Dark Secret – Heart Strings ability)

With these results (not necessarily in that order) we had begun actively considering Screaming God as our quarry and quickly locked it in as well!

The Hunters:
Indigo – purple (Dragon Armor, Piercing Claws)
Serena – blue (Black&Red Armor, Hyperelastic Sword)
Celestia – red (Leather Armor, Speaker Cult Knife)
Goldenglow – yellow (Outcast gear, Grimacing Guillotine)

Thanks to me putting Agility Fighter (FA) onto our Sculpture (I) we were actually looking at being able to reliably wound 18TGH with every grid all of a sudden!
I did also notice that Goldenglow could actually make use of the God Mask – which would be almost infinite survival for her! Especially with Thrill Seeker (FA)!

That’s a lot of special hunt events for Screaming God on the hunt track…

The Huntphase:
The first card we drew of the new quarry was a Fathomless Song. Ancient music snuck a rhythm into our steps and Celestia, who did have exactly 8 insanity was the most susceptible and thus gained the a new disorder Gerascophobia (+1hunt xp during the aftermath & -1STR each time they age) and 88 insanity. She was immediately able to feel how she was getting older – oh no!
As Indigo took the lead over the group, Serena attempted to visit the Elastomer Mines but only switched places with a scouting Red Initiate. The group tore them to pieces in an act of disassociate violence and vowed to never speak of this moment ever again. As Serena returned with insights of what lay ahead, the group had gained a way to skip the next space on the hunt track at the cost of becoming Secretive (D), but as far as I understand it, they needed to still first resolve the current one:
A River of Blood (basic HE46)! As indigo was busy freaking out at the sight of it, the rest of the team was already fishing out resources (luckily nobody was wearing any heavy gear). Unfortunately, they had also lost their way and needed to roll again!

Following the river had been a bad idea, they actually were completely Lost (basic HE37) by then! This effectively returned the hunting party back to the starting space on the board.
As the group tried to make haste to recover lost time, they came across a wandering Surgeon (basic HE42). But, of course, nobody was courageous enough to attempt entering the cart, thus we quickly moved on.
The group suddenly found themselves before a Splendid Depiction of what they were hunting painted onto the pupil of a giant stone face .. and they were horrified by it! All 4 of them gained Dystychiphobia (D), which would inflict a little bit of extra damage (2) whenever they collided with things. Surely that is not going to be a problem in a showdown all about not trying to collide with things.
Heads low the group crept onwards and found a trail of Bloody Eyes (basic HE98)- and we followed a pristine trail of fresh blood right into the labyrinth – the monster was running for its life, bleeding heavily! That’s a free wound!
I’ll take it!
We got that on another roll of 8 as well!

And then the time had come to rearrange everything!

For Lvl 1 the Screaming God is only a little different to when you are fighting it in the introductory Vignette.
There is no L AI card but 1 more of each A and B to make up for it.
Aside from this small change – and of course the fact that it has a randomly constructed deck now – the framework stays completely the same:
18TGH and infinite MOV without any tokens.

The monster also has the same 4 traits.
Stampede, representing the stampede of antelopes chasing you throughout the fight, trampling (and killing) everything that come too close.
Endless Horizon, which not only draws a Horizon Card at the start of every monster turn, but also gives knockback and knock down immunity to the Screaming Goat.
Grasping Undermaw, which will see any survivor suffer the Devour status effect should the monster collide with them.
And Withering Blast, which is the parasite fueled “lazor” it can fire that deals 5DMG to monster level hit locations to everyone in a cone 7 spaces wide in front of the monster.

As the group triggered a couple of arrival effects the monster suffered its first wound thanks to hunt event 98.

16 cards left in the deck. The first Horizon card was drawn. We were off to a cramped start. And the monster was just getting started – it kept running – Withering Momentum came up as the first AI!
As the group entered the first proper line of Labyrinth structures, the monster slowed down ever so slightly, ready to deal with its pursuers!

Thrash and Devour was played as the second AI – this card wanted the furthest threat by column – which was still everybody, so I chose Celestia and had her dash into the small opening between the Labyrinth tiles closest to her where the monster could not actually reach her!

Indigo with her katar spec was be the one to start off our turn – she dashed towards the monster and used Leap: 3 hits on 2+ found their mark!
Indigo had 17STR (7 weapon, +1STR-token, +2 from her Monster Tooth Necklace, +2base, +5 from Leap), critting on 8+: 1 wound with a reflex canceled, the 2nd wound caused a Withering Blast towards Indigo, which she just tanked with her 7 armor before she used “Lucernae 2″ to up her chance at a crit against the Tattered Tail, and it worked! 1 more wound was dealt and a Divine Fragment came off the monster and a likely transient -1DMG-token was applied to it as well! So many things at once!
Next up Celestia tried to loot the Screaming bits but fell over in all the hectic movement!
In between, Indigo quickly surged, hit the monster only once and dealt a nice, extra wound (fueled by tokens from Battle Drunk D).

Goldenglow was the next to activate and she rounded the corner hoping to deal a quick wound, which worked out in a way but saw her getting gobbled up in return as the Screaming God ran her and Indigo over on its way to the Horizon.

Serena spent her turn encouraging Celestia (who encourage Indigo) and moving around the Labyrinth tiles as we tried to figure out how to best deal with the changing landscape.

11 cards remaining – the chase continues!
I did still want to get the Divine Fragment, but it was getting dangerously close to the Stampede. Still, Celestia moved along the track to follow the divine bits to a dangerous precipice in front of the Stampede.
Meanwhile the monster was plagued by a Peculiar Hunger, targeting anything that wore fur gear! With Goldenglow already in its undermaw it charged towards the next best thing: Celestia. It deftly weaved through the close corridors until it finally reached her. 2 hits for 4DMG did not really concern me though.

This turn Celestia was able to gather a few scraps of Patchy Hide before she surged to cut the monster! She did hit the great beast twice and dealt a wound before she was kicked away and sent flying.

Indigo was ready and waiting to strike again, but she only managed to trigger the trap, agitating the monster to have it leap and crash down, breaking one of the Labyrinth tiles next to her!
Serena tried to contribute to the fight as well, She dealt a wound, which had the monster cough up Goldenglow in the process. She quickly ate the strange bug she had caught inside the monster, ruining her own lungs by gaining the Illuminated Host impairment (+2 to brain trauma, but suffer collapsed lungs every time you encourage, roar or yell).

Serena surged for another attack but she could not roll above a 2 to wound..

10 cards remaining, the monster ran ahead again, leaping over the oncoming wall of Labyrinth tiles .. something Indigo should have been able to do as well, but she missed the jump! The ethereal dreamer had to intervene to save her from 2 severe injuries here as Dystychiphobia (D) came in for a double tap – a gaping chest wound (4) and a knock down (10).

The monster followed that up, targetting Celestia with its Luminous Charge. As it drifted towards her, it slowly started glowing ever more intensely! As it rounded the final corner to attack her, it fired off a Withering Blast right on its heels!

Celestia was keen to return the favor and she was quickly gobbled up because of it, but only after dealing another 2 wounds – one of which was a critical with a -1ACC-token!
The Cult Speaker Knife was definitely putting in work!

Indigo got helped up again and she was ready to launch a massive flurry of attacks. Without Leap she managed to only deal a single hit and wound on the first attempt of which I just found out that I forgot to take a picture – sorry! But she wasn’t done yet!
She surged and hit the monster 4 times and removed the freshly applied -1ACC-token because she had to, before she found her own critial wound on the first strike! Way to go! This freed Celestia as well!
Seeing our chances of surviving the fight slowly dwindle as our survival dropped lower and lower, I used “Lucernae 3″ (the highest it could go with this gear grid) and inflicted another critical wound, which dropped us a 2nd piece of Screaming God! Indigo did age from this and she picked up Double Dash (FA) for her Age 3 milestone.
Finally a third wound was dealt to the Ceaseless Horn and the monster crashed into upcoming Labyrinth tiles! Indigo was just far enough away to avoid any shrapnel.

(I am admittedly unsure if I have played this correctly. Would the reflex have destroyed both Labyrinth tiles here or does it only destroy the 1?)

As the monster steadied itself, it had just gained a flinch token for our future benefit, Goldenglow chose to go for the risky play and she proved herself correct in doing so! She just couldn’t stop rolling 8s! She got another few scraps of Patchy Hide for the team!

4 cards left, the monster was starting to get winded!
The next Horizon card was drawn and instead of only being defensive, Goldenglow encouraged Celestia (collapsing her own lung) so she could strike at the monster’s heels! Hitting it for 2 more wounds in-between the lasting chase, Celestia was flung to the far side of the map!
Luckily she had the Leather Armor Set to ignore bash and could continue running without missing a beat!
The monster ran towards Serena for its attack – Thrash and Devour – and she dashed towards the spaces between the Labyrinth tiles even as she wasn’t able to make it there, just in case she could get a couple of extra spaces for us!
Ultimately she vanished into the undermaw!

Indigo was quick to dash and Leap after the monster, and I was praying to the Feline Entity to not draw the trap!
3 hits.. uh oh… no trap! The first strike was canceled by Katar spec and we moved on to wounding! Thanks to 3 tokens from Battle Drunk (D)Indigo was up to 2+ to wound again! We did need a crit (on 8+) or the Withering Blast to hit in a good spot for the following hit locations though! A 5 on the first was not enough! We wounded but the Screaming God turned towards us – 5DMG to the chest – that was another severe! Another 10?! The whale still needed her to help us!
But what about Serena? She rolled a 6 – she was launched straight at Indigo! Both crashed into each other, but the Head is fine for Indigo! And the feet were fine for Serena as well!

Goldenglow was in a STR round and with the monster down to its basic action we saw our chance to finish this! Celestia acted first so I got to see the Hit Location card – its wasn’t the trap and I felt safe to go in.
Goldenglow activated and gained 8STR. She dashed to the monster’s side and swung for 2 hits .. that was 1 too many .. no trap please!
And we were fine!
A 5 against the Ceaseless Gullet killed the Screaming God!

Indigo aged a final time (+1LCK) – she had 1 more hunt in her before she would vanish back into the dream. Serena gained Inversion (FA) and Celestia learned to be Unbreakable (FA).
We did little in terms of Weapon Proficiency but there was still another problem we had to deal with – we needed to leave from here alive!

The Screaming God may be dead, but the Stampede was still coming!

We gained the Great Hall settlement location and 5 basic resources normally .. one might say: easily. For the actually prized resources we needed to attempt a Desperate Harvest!
There were exactly 10 spaces between the dead monster and the stampede and we got a bonus of 5 extra “opportunity” for killing the Lvl1 version.
So, 15 in total.

First card: Eroded Hide -3.
Second card: Tempered Hoof -2.
Third card: Eroded Hide -3.
Fourth card: Calcified Cataract -5!
At that point we decided we were going to run! It looked like we got stuff for the Vandal Sledge here, which I did not want to risk!(Edit: We can build it!!) There’s also the fact that the numbers in the resource deck average to something around 2.6-ish if I recall correctly, and whilst that is heavily skewered by the 10 and 5s in the deck, I’ve been plenty lucky for one day.

As long as you leave before you hit 0 “opportunity” you can safely retreat with all the monster bits and I was not about to risk all our new stuff after the first kill.

***

Canceling reactions with the katars and the higher than average crit chance from Indigo really helped us here.
On the other hand she also took most of the damage. And only survived due to some spirited intervention from beyond the veil.
Serena and Goldenglow might have been able to hold out a bit longer, but only the latter was sitting on nearly infinite survival.

All in all, the trap also seems fairly tame compared to other monsters, but, then again, you really want to be able to reliably crit the monster to get people out of the undermaw. So there’s that.
Much like with the Vignette the Screaming God is such a complex fight in terms of the amount of systems you are interacting with beyond just being a dangerous monster that can deal tremendous amounts of damage.
The map is ever changing, you need to be wary of not getting dragged into/being run over by the Stampede, make sure you pick up some extra resources during the fight, don’t collide with terrain .. or the monster, keep separated not to get everyone hit by the same Withering Blast.
And then there is the high-risk resource collecting at the end as well.
So much stuff to worry about!

Now the question becomes: should we take Indigo back to the Infinite Labyrinth or to the Pariah?
Watch her get murdered at the last second.

***

I have since spent some time with the Feline Entity looking at what we can build with these resources as well as the Screaming God gear in general.

We are likely going to hunt another Screaming Goat next time, though we will only have newbies for that attempt, because of Secretive (D) spreading and staying on 3 of my 4 party members today.

But for now, I am enjoying the fact that we managed to kill a Screaming God, as Indigo and Goldenglow continue to be hero-level survivors.

And that will be all for today.
I have been watching Deno fight his first Screaming God as I was finishing up this post and what can I say.., it went about as you’d expected it to go. So many crits!

As always, thank you very much for your time, why do whales not like goats? Or is it a moose? Or, going by horn-shape, a buffalo?
Amathul