When in doubt, hunt a lope.

If it hasn’t been evident so far, I am currently trying to finally push this settlement to its rightful conclusion in the month of July. So, today we are headed into Lantern Year 27 .. with all the people we have left and an additional lingering problem:
It’s 4 dudes.
There is currently no way to secure our lasting legacy anymore. This settlement can’t have any babies as it is now.

So, yeah, this is a serious problem. Of course, just adding Flower Knight to the current Lantern Year would be the easiest solution, but I can’t say that I am a fan of that idea so far into a campaign.
We’ll just have to try and get by.., save somebody from moths and whatnot.., and we’ll start that process by hunting a lope.
And if we die off .. then that is how its going to be!

But one step after another.
As the final 4 survivors gathered around the Exhausted Lantern Hoard, we gained 1 lone endeavor for knowing the basics of Cooking (I).
The random event I drew was kind, though not overly helpful:
The Plant and the Stone.. and who would have guessed it .. we still couldn’t read.
But that wasn’t actually the whole of it!
There was one more issue to resolve: the Hooded Knight had arrived to check in with us as well. But, thankfully, he left immediately as he saw what had just happened to us. He didn’t even consider giving the sword on his back to anybody.

Giving our stockpile of resources a once-over, we still had a ton of hide and elastomer lying around, but unfortunately not a single Perfect Bone. I would have killed for a First Aid Kit at this point. It would have seriously helped with getting extra population from Overwhelming Darkness!

In the end, I did not bother to set up the whole settlement this time around and just rolled on Shrine (I) instead – a 5 – that’s +1armor.

The potentially last Hunters sent out by the Bloody Shallows:
Rasputin – purple (Dragon Armor, Piercing Claws)
Copperfish – green (Black Armor, Speaker Cult Knife)
Daniel – red (Alpha bits, Vandal Broadaxe)
Oak – yellow (Leather Armor, Vandal Sledge)

These felt like the best set-ups I could manage to come up with given the circumstances. 2 of these gear grids should be able to inflict some serious hurt, with a 3rd grid relegated to basically only being able to crit. But to be fair, those would come on 6+.
I did entertain the idea of taking the full Black&Red Armor set as well and hope for the Seer’s Chamber event, but ultimately I decided against it. That event wouldn’t actually help us all that much with the issues we were facing, and it would also require me to roll a perfect Lantern 10 to trigger it to begin with.
Not to mention the 30% chance of death even if all the other things worked out.

The Huntphase:
Fairly certain that this would be a long hunt, the 4 remaining survivors capable of sustaining the settlement set out into the unbroken darkness.
To our surprise we found the carcass of a Dead Antelope almost immediately. I paused for a second, but felt a Lvl4 White Lion wouldn’t be that much more of a threat compared to its Lvl3 version and rolled on the event. A 6 was too low for it to still be around, so we picked the scraps clean and moved on.
Looking for a different trail Copperfish found himself Face-to-Face (basic HE17) with a stone face that perfectly resembled his own. He was dumbstruck and reduced his 0 understanding to 0.
Initially drawn in by the noise, the group spent a while carefully watching a Stampede cross the plains ahead of them, but instead of trying to catch up to the mass of antelopes, they let it pass.
At this point I was growing unsure if the group had done the right thing just then as the temperature shifted drastically from one moment to the next. Before they knew it, the survivors were walking through a Grim and Frostbitten (basic HE95) landscape. It wasn’t pleasant but their armor provided insulation enough.
As Daniel kept leading the party we heard the one thing we were desperate for: a voice calling out from the darkness. Caked in mud a person called for help from a Gibbet (basic HE50)! Daniel ignored all the obvious warning signs (and the fact that the book says a “man” was calling out) and freed them from their captivity. Daniel – the most persuasive and true hero pulled through for us and gave us another chance to reach LY30! The person was willing to follow us home after the showdown – because he had rolled a 10!
Gibbralta needed to stay out of sight until we beat up that lope though!

With possibly the single most important roll of the Lantern Year a success, the hunting party arrived at Overwhelming Darkness their minds a little more at ease.
And as it turned out, we actually needed that earlier success! Rasputin and Daniel each took a point of arms damage, whilst Oak and Copperfish saw the flying Whale and vomited.
No survivors covered in moths to be found this time!

Pushing onwards to our quarry, the survivors found a large area of carved up stone faces, ravaged by Teething antelopes. Oak scavenged a Large Flat Tooth from the uneven terrain, whilst Daniel got dealt some more negligible arms DMG.
As this point Cooperfish took the lead and he brought us to a group of Refugees (basic HE51)!? This event didn’t actually matter all that much as we didn’t have a Leader (FA) in our group, so we could not gain population from it. I did however archive 1 of the 2 Shank Bones we got from the Dead Antelope earlier to hear their tale of how a Screaming Antelope had destroyed their home. Maybe I could wound off Crush and Devour early like this.
But the hunt wasn’t over just yet – we got another good scare: a Carpet of Ticks stretched out around us after the group had taken a longer rest.. and none of these 4 had the nerves to smash enough in one go! Luckily the highest roll for the ticks was a 7 and nobody lost STR from this event either!
For our, hopefully, final event the group found themselves before a gathering of Banquet Trees (basic HE47). Daniel, Rasputin and Copperfish all spent the 1 survival to skip the roll, but Oak was eager to dig in. 2 rolls later he walked away sated and satisfied

Not long after we found the Screaming Antelope, grazing amidst several Acanthus Plants.

As most people know, the Screaming Antelope Lvl3 encounter is a little bit of a trap. Whilst it looks like a monster with 12TGH, 8MOV, the typical +2/+2 and a +1EVA-token, you will soon find out that the new traits alter these numbers fairly significantly.
Besides Trample and Diabolical, which you have already come to know during Lvl1 and Lvl2 fights respectively, this monster gets 2 (3) more traits for Lvl3.
Hypermetabolism adds a +1SPD-token to the monster every time it consumes a pieces of terrain or gear during the showdown.
But it is the other trait, Legendary Horns, that will probably throw you off the most. Not only does it deal ☆ brain damage to any survivor with less than 5 courage that stops their act next to the monster, but it also adds 4 +1TGH-tokens and a +1SPD-token to the monster!
And then there’s Indomitable as well, as you might have already expected.
Overall reliably hitting the monster’s 16TGH shouldn’t be much of an issue at this point for our gear grids .. or at least not for most of them.

Before the monster got the first activation, first Daniel gained 8 extra insanity upon arrival from his gear, spreading +1MOV to the entire party via the Alpha Galea. And afterwards we put the information we got from the refugees to good use and took a peak at the top 5 AI cards rearanging them as I saw fit.
Whilst there was none of the top-priority cards to wound off amongst this batch (healing and/or C&D) I was faced with a L attack and the Infested trait – both things that I would rather have not see play.

With 22 AI cards in the deck, the monster drew its first AI card: Stomp & Snort .. as had been foretold!
Nobody was in range, which did trigger the monster’s instinct: Graze. The lope shuffled over and ate the closest acanthus.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t planned for it changing the direction it was facing. So.., without a target in the zone for Diabolical, the lope ran off towards the lower board edge.
It would appear that I probably could have planned that out better.

We began our turn with Oak dashing towards the monster. 6MOV carried him far enough to get into the blind spot and activate the +5STR of the Vandal Sledge‘s ability. This way he easily dealt 2 wounds by rolling a 5 (which also inflicted a -1MOV-token upon the monster). Unfortunately the second attack was canceled by the monster’s Restless Eye, as Oak was pretty insane and started empathizing with the Screaming Antelope.
Daniel saw the next Hit Location card with his Frogdoggles and it was the Ferocious Spasm… great… 1 of the 2 not crit-able cards in the entirety of the deck!
This did dampen our first turn quite a lot. Ultimately, the remaining survivors moved either towards the monster or close terrain.
Rasputin even managed to pick a Fresh Acanthus on the way over.

20 AI cards remaining, the next card in the monster’s deck was Great Kick. With nobody in the blind spot, the monster rushed towards Daniel as the furthest threat in range, but he dashed away from the monster to avoid the attack altogether.
With no target in the Diabolical zone again, the lope rushed straight into the corner, stopping right next to Daniel – which also wasn’t ideal with the Ferocious Spasm still on top of the deck.

I still did not want to get Daniel hit by the reflex, so he spent his act moving away again – not at all what I had envisioned for him for this fight so far!
But Oak was close enough to dash back over anyhow and keep the pressure building on the monster! Making use of Reach 2 on his club with 17STR before rolling, he found 1 hit and 2 wounds upon rolling a 7. The monster spasmed without hitting anybody!
Following this by surging, Oak scored a perfect hit, doubling the attacks STR to 38 for another 2 wounds.

In the meantime Copperfish looted a Skull from the Survivor Corpse close to the upper board edge and Rasputin gathered another Fresh Acanthus.

16 cards remaining, the monster drew it’s first unknown card. And it was Crush and Devour.
Sure.
Why does it always have to be that one?! Don’t mind me as I scream into a pillow real quick.
Oak was going to be the target.., so I figured he might as well surge into the flow considering he was staring at a lost limb or even death!
He hit the Furry Throat with +2LCK, and critically wounded the lope with an 8. It coughed up a Bladder (weird) but didn’t die instantly (5).

With 5 of 6 hits, Oak was quickly Gobbled Up. And as he was being chewed on, his arm slipped out of the mouth and was severed with a crunch. A most unfortunate loss as he could no longer use the Vandal Sledge like this!
I did wonder if I could have used Endure at this point to prevent this loss of limb – but the text of that particular survival action makes it sound like it only works on random severe injuries. Feel free to let me know if you have any insights on that!
Anyhow, Diabolical sent the monster forward again.

Daniel was ready and willing to try his best to free Oak from the monster’s belly! So he moved to the monster’s side. Due to Zero Presence SFA he was always considered to be in the blind spot whilst attacking anyway. He hit it twice, ready to crit on 6s. 2 successful critical hits dealt 3 wounds in total and the debilitated Oak was regurgitated. As the monster was knocked down as well, I wondered if I should spend the 5 survival for +1MOV. If Oak hadn’t just lost an arm, I think I might have taken this opportunity.

Instead Daniel spent just a single survival to surge, finding 1 more hit, dealing 1 more crit for 2 more wounds, cutting of a chunk of Pelt as the Indomitable Lope got right back up.
Rasputin quickly encouraged Oak so he could move a step away from the monster. Oak tried to activate the Bug Patch close by but an insect with with the same face as him scared him sane!

Rasputin then dashed a few steps and leapt at the monster. 4 hits removed the +1EVA-token and he did, of course, find the trap.
He was knocked back, triggering lunacy (Arithmophilia D at 5 – lucky!) and the lope bounded off, sliding along the board edge and out of reach.
Finally, Copperfish, who was still far away from the actual fight, tried picking an acanthus for himself but just ended up eating it instead.

10 cards left in the deck, the monster wanted to Bite a chunk out of Daniel. He dashed away from it (I didn’t trust his “low” body armor and he still had 6 survival) and the monster followed blindly.

This way it did finally get a chance to trample somebody with Diabolical though! 3DMG to the legs of Rasputin.

Rasputin did get up and dash/leapt at the lope in return. 4 hits removed the +1SPD-token it got for consuming at the very start of the fight and 2 perfect hits triggered a +4STR bonus! He could only crit with Lantern 10s, but 4 wounds later the monster ran away from him anyhow!
With everyone besides Copperfish out of range to attack, I spent the rest of the turn having both him and Oak remove the last 2 Acanthus Plants to limit the monster’s chance to heal.

6 cards remaining, the next card was Ravenous! This lope’s appetite was running rampant! Almost every card had been about food and eating so far!
Copperfish had a Monster Grease in his grid and was in range of the monster, so he took off running with a dash, to prevent the lope from attacking him.
Diabolical trampled over Daniel this time.

Oak encouraged Daniel before scavenging through the Bug Patch again – this time he found a ???. Not a bad haul!
Daniel ran a little lap and attacked the monster, but failed the crit against the Restless Hoof, kicking his axe away. He immediately surged to pick the weapon back up and dashed a few steps away.
So it was once again up to Rasputin to keep the damage coming. He dash/leapt at the monster for 4 hits on 2+ and, thankfully, did NOT find the trap this time! Starting at 18STR with all bonuses, he was looking good to wound all of them. He did actually crit the Furry Throat but, again, it did not kill the lope outright.
With only 2 cards left in the AI deck, he surged without leaping in, hitting twice. This time his starting STR was only at 11, so he needed 5+ to wound. A 1 and a 4 meant 2 failures! Worse yet: the Legendary Horns had Rasputin suffer another bout of Lunacy (Hoarder D).

Finally Copperfish moved in to attack as well .. and he triggered the trap again! Rasputin suffered yet another brain trauma for being too close(forgetting what little he knew about katar) before the monster ran off.

2 cards remaining – Stomp & Snort did not find a survivor in range, so it moved along the board edge towards Rasputin.
It did stomp on his face with Diabolical, pushing him away as it came to a stop right on top of him.

Getting up Rasputin vowed his revenge and dash/leapt at the monster but revealed the trap on top of the deck again!?
Rasputin has a seizure (Weak Spot D at the body) and the monster ran off into the other direction.

Stopping fairly close to Copperfish he would be the next to move in. Maybe he could get a very late F&T proficiency point with the Cult Speaker Knife?
This also marked the first time the Horripilation dice had managed to hit this showdown! It had been rolling really badly which is why I hadn’t mentioned it before!
But even with only 2 hits, the deadly knife made short work of the monster! As it tore open a Degenerating Wound in the monster’s side, the following reflex had the lope run away, killing it in the process.

Finally!

All 4 of my survivors reached age 1 and Daniel might just be the hero we needed right now – he rolled a 20 – that’s +1LCK!!!
Rasputin (Fated Blow), Copperfish (Thrill Seeker) and Oak (Tough) all gained a Fighting Art.
Each of them also gained a point of weapon proficiency.

We did get a pile of resources from this hunt and furthermore: Copperfish was our random survivor that gained the Astute ability (thanks to Pottery I)- which would allow us to set up an Acanthus Plants terrain card for any showdown if he was a part of it!

We also gained the Gnawed Gastrolith as our Indomitable Resource for the fight and seeing that we can’t use a “stone” type resource for our Trophy Wall we will likely be building the Dashing Reaper next Lantern Year – its a sickle + lantern in addition to being a dagger with savage!
This also combos nicely off of Astute, potentially giving us extra movement!

And whilst the most important part had been achieved – safely guiding Gibbralta back to our settlement – the fight could have gone more smoothly.
So much for all the talk about the lope exploding.
Then again.., we did not get hit by a single attack – we were simply too fast! Besides Crush and Devour that is. Losing that arm was pretty bad overall.
I do still wonder whether or not he could have used Endure on that, but the survival action says “before rolling”, so I do not think it would have applied here. I’ve also seen talk that a survivor can only use Endure whilst standing, which would further limit its scope quite drastically!

But with one crisis quickly averted, in the next Lantern Year we will have to deal with the follow up problem: actually making more.
We do still have 1 Love Juice sitting in storage, so that is at least going to give us a head start.

All in all a surprisingly quick, and dare I say, a somewhat anti-climactic resolution to the “only 4 guys remain” problem we had been presented with.

***

In other news, I’m still waiting on my June order to get shipped, but with Gencon fast approaching it seems like this might take a while still as its coming from the HQ because of a pack of summer dice.
Which also means it’ll definitely still be a while before I get my hands on the new Dragon King Indomitable weapon.
All in all the Pulverizing Star seems like a fun new tool to try out even if it has already seen some criticism for having fairly low base STR despite being a Node 3 Indom weapon.
The weapon’s statline is 3/6+/7 with unwieldy and barbed 4. Besides also being a whip and club (both of which can increase attack strength quite noticeably via their respective weapon proficiencies) I doubt you’d want to attack outside of this weapons special activation all that often.
For a move and act you can attack with the Pulverizing Star with +10STR, Reach 5 and the ability to ignore parry hit locations. This does come with the drawback that unwieldy will knock you down though.
In any case, I don’t think this weapon will be held back by its STR value all that much in a settlement powerful enough to kill Lvl3 Dragon Kings.
This is some very dumb math, but just for the sake of argument, this weapon could have anything between 7 and 68STR if your survivor has both weapon types at mastery level.
Curiously, it does not have the nuclear keyword.
Also, having an organ as an Indom from the Dragon King diversifies its Trophy Wall potential in a good way.

We do desperately need more indom hides, though. Like, overall.

So much for my initial 2 cents regarding Pulverizing Star Venus.

And that will be all for today.
As always, thank you very much for your time, would you rather fight 1 Screaming-Antelope-sized dude or 4 dude-sized Screaming Antelopes?
Amathul