With my May-order seemingly getting passed around customs quite a bit over the weekend – for dramatic effect no doubt – today we will be fighting the third entry into the most recent trilogy of monster hunts: another Screaming God Lvl1!
Lantern Years are starting to run out and this will be the last chance for us to hunt any quarry at a lower level than 3, so I decided we were going to try and make the most of it given our current means.
Hopefully we can get some valuable loot to build something to help us with the upcoming gauntlet that is Black Knight Lvl3 into Watcher into Red Witches Lvl3!
Or, well, maybe we can at least get the bits we need to finish the armor set!

***

But as always, we still had to get home first:
Bent but not broken, Goldenglow returned to the settlement alone. Her comrades had been lost, but they had achieved what they had set out to do: the Pariah’s ruinous influence was gone as well. Freedom from the Fiend – a prize hard won and well kept!
She collected her endeavors for the Lantern Year: 4 in total (1 returning survivor who was a tinker, Cooking (I) and 14 population) which meant she was basically a whole team by herself as she walked back into town.

Next there were a couple of events we had to deal with before we could get those creative juices flowing.
First off – the random settlement event: Smoke Break – a new one! I rolled a 2 which allowed 8 survivors to remove a disorder each.
We didn’t have that many survivors with disorders and as you had to nominate a full 8 you generally didn’t want to nominate people who were set to go on the hunt this Lantern Year as they’d suffer the collapsed lung severe injury (1 bleed, -1MOV token) unless they had Legendary Lungs (SFA).
Goldenglow, Lucky, Sapphire, Chrysanthemum and Frogdos were chosen to each remove a disorder, whilst Star, Copperfish and Hollow were allowed to also take part. All 8 of them gained 2 Insanity as well.

Despite us cutting ties with the Pariah, there was this niggling feeling at the back of our minds still. Something that set the hair on our collective necks on edge if you were looking in a certain direction – a Creeping Longing that just would not cease.
Lucky felt it strongest this Lantern Year and he could not contain himself any longer! He was last seen running blindly into the darkness, his face alight with glee.
This also meant that the Creeping Longing persisted into the next Lantern Year

Finally the Hooded Knight arrived once more. Goldenglow did not seem like a fitting wielder for the weapon they brought but this time they were willing to help us out at the very least – this Twilight Knight offered to train us (3 resources to learn Mighty Strike FA).
And we declined.

With more notches added to the death count we moved on to developing.
As mentioned earlier, this was the last Lantern Year in which we could hunt anything that was not a Lvl3. Which basically reserved it for the Screaming God in my opinion.
We could also awaken the Watcher too, but I did not think 25TGH would be that big of an issue with Retinues to help out during that fight.
On the other hand, whilst I wanted to make the most of the Lantern Year a Lvl2 Screaming God felt still a little out of reach for this settlement. Or, to put it differently: for the group we could put together 21TGH and another trait felt a little much.

We did innovate with the bits and pieces of our fallen comrades first.
Scarification, Pictograph, Records or Sacrifice.
These draws, damn.., these draws .. From the other 7 cards in the deck there were 6(!!!) innovations I would have liked to have and Partnership .. which wasn’t bad to have either at this stage of the game!
I considered Pictograph for a bit (I do generally like adding all those interactions, its less about running away) but I ultimately chose Sacrifice. It represented a chance for us to maybe take Goldenglow on a couple of extra hunts once she had retired (if she survived the doggo next Lantern Year).
We then activated Shrine (with an 8 – ominous – 1 armor) and Purple spent both remaining endeavors to learn Agility Fighter (FA).

The Hunters:
Ansgar – green (Dragon Armor, Piercing Claws)
Purple – purple (Black&Red Armor, Hyperelastic Sword)
Morbius – Red (Leather Armor, Vandal Sledge)
Violet – yellow (Alpha bits, Speaker Cult Knife)

I was a little unsure whether or not I should bring a Bone Pickaxe along but opted to do so just before departing.
Overall it felt like the power-level we were bringing to these fights has slowly been decreasing each time we attempted it, but we’d still give it our best shot!

The Huntphase:
The survivors set out into the darkness once more, leaving both the safety and familiarity of the swamp surrounding the Bloody Shallows behind. Next to a trail of running footsteps, the group found an Illuminated Corpse. My survivors couldn’t seem to see anything but a fresh meal and this naiveté was punished swiftly. They looted a Monster Bone from the corpse, stealing bites here and there in between the harvest, before they all began throwing up violently, losing 4 survival each! Ouch. That put Violet to 1! And Purple to 0!?
Stumbling through the darkness to continue our journey, a Trollbird (basic HE28) caught sight of my survivors. Not wanting to feed the terrible creature it followed us with its mocking curses. But no less than a Lantern 10 empowered the shouting match between Morbius and the vile bird-thing! Unbeknownst to it, we were glad it had taken an interest in the group – it would be the distraction we so desperately needed to ambush the Screaming God as we eventually entered the infinite machine.
Our attempt at Red Incursion started off well enough as well, but after 2 bleed for only 1 Red Thread & 6 brain damage, Purple left the mines as soon as she could.

A little later Purple led the group down a Strange Path (basic HE31) littered with lanterns. Whilst I was hoping for her to find a short cut to the monster, she ventured ahead but did not return for hours upon hours. When she finally returned back to the group she had no memory of what had happened and was exhausted! (She had no more survival to lose to begin with.. so losing 1D10 was fine, I guess?)
In the rest that followed Violet had a Running Dream. She woke up exhausted (-1STR) as well but had learned Parkour (FA) from the dream, which would allow her to move through impassable terrain and monsters – an incredible ability for the upcoming fight!
The next stretch of the hunt was mostly empty. At one point the group stood in front of large stone face, lava pouring from its eyes, but nobody wanted to attempt this Test of Courage (basic HE85).
But the survivor knew that they were still on the right track wenn they found a Splendid Depiction of what lay ahead. None of them had imagined the dread depicted in this mural to actually be quite as vivid as the descriptions they had heard by people who had been here before. All 4 survivors gained Dystychiphobia (D) (+2DMG when colliding with something) for not believing in their predecessors’ words strongly enough.
Shook the survivors ventured off track for a little and found themselves atop a gigantic beast of Living Stone (basic HE97)!
Purple spied the endless darkness ahead to no effect, but before long the group had been carried to the ancient ruins housing the thrumming machinery.

Missing out on 2 other hunt events was likely for the better, but Overwhelming Darkness would have probably helped with our survival issues.
Oh. and we missed a chance at Mineral Gathering as well.

As we took position and the first Labyrinth tiles came into view, the trollbird was trampled by the Screaming God and we ambushed the monster in return!

Violet was set up to uses Slam to apply a -1TGH token to the monster for the round and she opted to block as she stopped next to the beast. She did have the effect of the Alpha Gambeson active, so every time she spent a move to do anything she got to roll a dice and on an 8+ she would gain 1 survival .. which did not work right off the bat. This did activate over once or twice across the fight, but I failed to keep any notes on it.
Purple then started off the offensive by hitting twice. She dealt 1 wound avoiding a severe injury before she was hit with a Withering Blast to the chest.
I also almost forgot about her Hyperelastic Sword‘s effect and she crits the Ceaseless Abductor to spread some survival and insanity to herself and her twin sister!

Next up was Ansgar with his katar spec: 4 hits gave him quite a few chances to deal damage: but after only 2 wounds he was already kicked away towards the Stampede anyhow.
Finally Morbius made his way up to the monster and as he swung the mighty Vandal Sledge, prepped to deal some major damage .. he got quickly swallowed up by the trap!

As a final action I used Violet to encourage Ansgar before the round was over.

13 cards remaining – the chase had officiallly begun.
After the Labyrinth tiles had been placed the monster started choking again aleady?! Much like my Sage from the Vignette should have stopped smoking, my Screaming God clearly needed to stop eating on the run!
Morbius was spat out onto the floor by Aspirating Smash, which inflicted a body severe – a 3 meant he had gotten lucky – just 2 bleed, before the monster started stomping on him.
Double hits to both the legs and his body took out his 6 armor and set him to heavily wounded in each.

Ansgar started the survivors’ turn by encouraging Morbius.
Purple took a couple of steps away from the monster, to hopefully not get run over by a reflex – the Screaming God just loved to run towards the Horizon.
I already had a feeling that Morbius might not be long for this world after that last monster turn. Thanks to his 6MOV he could just organically activate the +5STR on the Vandal Sledge, so I wanted to deal as much damage as I could with him, hitting on 3+, wounding on 3+, critting on 9+ and dealing double wounds on 8+, he felt quite powerful all around, so we needed to try and make use of him whilst we still could! He swung his mighty club .. got a hit .. rolled an 8 – ominous! – for Surpass 5 and took a Withering Blast straight to his face.
Not letting up he surged .. hit the monster again .. rolled another 8 – still ominous! – for Surpass 5 and took another Withering Blast to his waist.

After all that, he had exactly 4 armor left, spread across 3 different spots.
Ansgar dashed to Leap at the monster next! 4 hits, but 3 reactions that had the monster race towards the Horizon prevented him from dealing more than 2 wounds.
Violet spent her turn blocking and standing on the spot, not gaining any more survival.

7 cards left in the monster’s deck, the chase continued.
Dashing and weaving between the Labyrinth tiles, the Ai card, Pounding Host targeted Violet. She used her new skills to Parkour (FA) over the Labyrinth tile and hide from the attack in a crevice, with Morbius having to dash as well to not get run over.
No hits were rolled but Violet got clipped by the violent thrashing of hooves and horns that followed and was flung towards the Stampede, stopping just inches before it.

Morbius tried for another double wound .. but a 2 was not enough for even a singular one!
The monster ran back towards the Horizon and the rest of our team was far too far away to do anything useful this turn.

Still 7 cards remaining, we continued running for our lives.

Incendiary Breath was put into play once again, before the monster decided it has had enough of shields in my group – Hammering Flat.
Whilst it would run over Morbius, Violet was chosen as the target and she just ran back into the small space between 2 Labyrinth tiles behind her.
Morbius was cleanly decapitated as the monster rushed over him.
At least Violet remained out of reach in her hidey-hole.

With our best damage dealer dead, Violet felt the need to attempt an attack, even with the Stampede right at her back, but she missed all 3 of her swings! Which honestly, had been for the best, as I came to see just moments later.
Ansgar dashed and Leapt towards the monster, dealing 2 wounds before he was kicked away to the side.
And Purple could do little more than encourage Ansgar this turn with what little survival she had gotten from that critical hit.

4 (5) cards remaining, we continued running! The Labyrinth tiles that were coming out seemed to be getting more and more restrictive!
The last unknown AI card in the monster’s deck was Crush of Ages, targeting Purple!
With 6EVA I felt safe enough here, but despite getting hit only on 8+ the monster went to town on her! 3 hits! The Black & Red Cuirass prevented 1 of them, before she was flung towards the Horizon anyhow. Thankfully it did not break through her waist armor with the attack.

With our survivors spread out across the full length of the board and a status card, our turn passed by without any progress happening.

4 (5) cards remaining. I continued to not be a fan of the Labyrinth tiles being put into play!
Ansgar was quickly thrown up and trampled on by Aspirating Smash, dealing 2 body severes to him (8 & 9) in total!

Violet encouraged Ansgar and Purple got up and dashed out of his way.
It felt like his end was approaching as well, so I wanted to try and make the most of him whilst I still could – much like with Morbius.
So, Ansgar dashed and Leapt behind the monster again: 2 perfect hits added +4STR and he leans in it for the first strike – he managed to get all 3 wounds! But the monster swung around for a Withering Blast to his legs! Another severe even without the “ignore armor”-effect applied! Torn Muscle – he could no longer dash for the rest of the fight! That’s terrible!

After the Feline Entity was done with her inspection of the unfolding events, I had a chance to appreciate that the monster was down to its final AI card in the deck.., which meant I saw a chance for Purple to end this!
She swiftly attacked from the blind spot to find exactly one hit and she was even able to avoid 10 brain damage to everyone by dealing a wound on exactly 6+!
With still 1 survival left, she could actually end it with a surge! And a perfect hit might just do it!
And another 6 to wound!
The monster fell! The chase was over!

Violet (Tumble FA) and Purple (Parkour FA) aged, we collected proficiency points for Ansgar (and I last-minute swapped Purple to sword).., and then we attempted the Desperate Harvest of the monster corpse.

Were were looking at 15 opportunity in total this time. As we did not get any resources from the fight, it already felt highly unlikely that we’d be able to finish our set here.
1st card: Eroded Hide -3.
2nd card: Eroded Hide -3 again, not helpful here.
3rd card: Pyritized Splinters -3.
4th card: Smoldering Molars: -4 ..
There were only 2 points of opportunity still left and we needed 2 Patchy Hide still (and coolant .. and hooves…).. so I decided to push my luck here and draw a 5th card: Patchy Hide -1.
It had worked!
But then I went a little crazy. I was rationalizing that none of these resources actually mattered at the time for what we wanted to actually build – which was true – and drew another.
6th card: Lantern Imago -0. Pretty much useless.
And a 7th: Tempered Hooves – 2.
There it was! The Stampede had gotten to us.

And somehow my greed remained (mostly) unpunished – a Lantern 10 actually saved the stuff!

It did not save my survivors though.
As the Screaming Antelopes flooded over the remainder of the group with snapping undermaws and crushing hooves, Ansgar died to a head severe (bitten off?) and Violet had her chest crushed under all the bodies.
Purple was the only one to survive the fight and the event with a Broken Hip – no more dodging – which was also not exactly great!

The dead gave us 1 Monster Bone, a Monster Hide and a ???.

***

This sort of greed should not have been rewarded, if you could call it that even. But we’d still needed to find out what we could actually even build with this assortment of resources,
None of the 2 armor parts .. that was already painfully clear. We had loads of Eroded Hide, with an additional one back home in storage, but needed a 2nd Patchy Hide instead for the chest armor, as well as a Glycol Coolant for the shoes.
No fingers also meant no spear, no antlers meant no grand weapon and no stomach meant no shield.., so the list of things we had a chance of building was depressingly short already.

Just imagine if we’ve had had Barbaric‘s Ultimate Weapon here instead of the Ultimate Fighting Art.
It allows you to pick and chose 1 resource to gain from the monster’s resource deck! You could take out the antlers before drawing to not be that afraid whilst gathering, or alternatively pick exactly what you needed to build what you wanted after ending the harvest!

I miss being Barbaric.

For now the “easy” Lantern Years of hunting are over. We are set to get dragged into a nemesis-core-nemesis gauntlet next and afterwards nothing is going to be the same.
Should the settlement survive these 3 years, I have no doubt that the first Frogdog Lvl3 or Screaming Antelope Lvl3 we pick a fight with will just explode.
In that sense, and I hope this isn’t overly premature, but I spent a bit of time thinking about those last 4 Lantern Years before the Finale and I figured it would be nice to hunt 1 of each of the quarry monsters. Ideally I’d pick the variantes for this (i.e. Bullfrogdog and Nukealope) but I’m not going to make any promises in that regard at this stage. It’ll depend on how well (or badly) these next 3 Lantern Years go and on how much population we have to spare.

The fight I’m probably least worried about right now is the Watcher.
Are those famous last words though?

And that will be all for today. We’ve had a constant 29°C that’s around 84°F indoors over the weekend, and because that wasn’t quite enough we’ve had a decorative wall collapse in our garden at some point last week, of course falling into our neighbor’s property instead of ours.
Not exactly my idea of fun, cleaning that up, but our neighbor is a nice guy and we got it sorted out for now. I’m also not a fan of summer heat.
So, all that being said, I’ll go and fall over now. Ideally in a cool spot.

As always, thank you very much for your time, and I still can’t recommend getting trampled by the Stampede,
Amathul