With GenCon just around the corner – only 1 more week as of writing this – the Bloody Shallows is finally nearing its conclusion.
With how things are looking right now I will likely finish this settlement first, then will do my somewhat chaotic GenCon coverage and write up the Epilogue for this campaign afterwards.

I did also get my last order – which came just in time for me to not be able to draw/build the new weapon! But maybe next time.

Also, more dice!
I think I might be able to fit 1 more set into my allocated dice-box.

***

After our last, mostly successful hunt felling the exploding antelope, we returned to the settlement with 3 victorious survivors and a pile of resources.

With a grand total of 7 population to work with, we were set to get 4 endeavors this Lantern Year (3 returning and Cooking I).
As for our random settlement event I was praying to the Feline Entity to not get anything but Heat Wave again .. and whilst the Feline Entity actually showed up a few moments later, I drew:
Glossolalia.
Dammit! I should have been more specific!
This prevented us from using Scrap Smelting (I) to make more Iron!
Yes.., it actually took me a moment to remember that I’d not taken the time to innovate that yet. Considering how often I had mentioned that particular innovation over the past couple of Lantern Years, you’d think I knew that by heart at this point.
But alas, even without the ability to smelt Iron conceptualized by my survivors, they also found themselves unable to even make the Leather for a First Aid Kit!
So, with several more or less important activities blocked this Lantern Year, I put my faith into Oak as I nominated him for the roll .. and he gained the Endless Babble impairment. *sighs*

So much for the main plan I had made for this settlement phase. Getting some Nightmare Training in with Daniel would also have been a nice alternative.
With no other event scheduled for the Lantern Year, I moved on to the develop step.

The settlement was still in full-on survival mode so I decided to start this Lantern Year’s developments by using the Love Juice we had looted.
It took a moment for the Feline Entity to stop lounging in the middle of.., well, everything.., but eventually Farra and Daniel got to roll on the table as the expecting parents:
A 7 & 8 meant that a healthy boy had been born. I called him Ash (think Evil Dead, not Pokémon) and he got +1STR from us having Bed (I).
He also gained the Nullifying Antibodies ability from his mother.

I then also spent 1 endeavor at Pottery (I) to make another Love Juice – which got used by the same parents.
A 2 and a 9 gave me a bit of a scare for a second, but in the end they had twins: Pine (boy) and Lilly (girl) were welcomed by the settlement with open arms.
With these children we should be able to guarantee that we make it all the way to next Lantern Year’s Finale fight, unless something absolutely horrific happens during our last settlement phase.

With the future of the settlement secured, I then crafted the Atomic Lance. This spent the Fissile Pancreas, 2 Iron and the Lance of Longinus we built last Lantern Year.
The Atomic Lance is essentially a nuclear upgrade to the Lance of Longinus applying three -1TGH-tokens per round that get removed each turn instead of a single lasting token per showdown. Add to that a 2/5+/8 stat line and any power cores you can get your hands on and you are already looking at a very powerful spear. But that’s not even all of it: unlike the Lance of Longinus the Atomic Lance does not get archived when it its wielder dies and it also gains Devastating 1 if the wielder has the Irradiated impairment!
And due to using the Fissile Pancreas you also have to nominate a survivor to get the Irradiated impairment to begin with, setting you up for success – at least for 1 fight before the 50:50’s start kicking in each Lantern Year.
In our particular case, this was, without a second of doubt, going to be young Ash.

And after some fairly lengthy considerations I then also made a Nuclear Knuckle – a weapon I would have liked to have around the mid-game .. ideally with a Red Power Core at the time.
But, at this point in the campaign, I had figured that the activation even without a Red Power Core to spare could give me a chance to wound the Parasite Queen at least once with the +1000STR it added.
Besides.., it’s a cheap enough weapon to build, especially when compared to all the other nuclear gear!

As for our remaining endeavors I first had to check what I could still actually spend them on – thanks, Glossolalia – and then decided to start with Shrine (I), my beloved – a 3 – +1 insanity on departure.
That’s not very “unga-bunga protects”!

The third endeavor was then used to send Copperfish to the Sculpture (I) which he understood immediately. A 6 rolled meant that he learned Agility Fighter (FA) real quick.
Apparently Copperfish could do it all: art, gardening, stone working, motivational speaking – he was a man of many talents!

I spent our final endeavor to activate Deep Listen on Glossolalia.
Spending 2 Shank Bones for it, all departing survivors were set to receive a +1MOV-token for this Lantern Year’s hunt.
And that sure sounded great with our Screaming God gear!

Before I started deciding who would be sent out to hunt this settlement’s final quarry monster I had another good long look at what we still had in storage and let me tell you.. it’s lots.

If you are interested – at the time, the Bloody Shallows was sitting on 61 resources in storage. 15 of those were Black Resin, which I really should have spent at some point to get the Innovation out if only for the +1 Survival Limit. But I never found the time to spend 2 endeavors for that. Not to mention the idea of actually trying to play with 2 of the Black & Red Armor sets.
There were also 16 hide, 12 bones, 1 single expensive organ (a Pituitary Gland), a pile of 5 scrap, 2 stones and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff.
Stockist (FA) could have gone real hard here .. but we’d need a bow for that one.
Just generally speaking this would have been a nice stockpile to build Lantern Armor from. The frequent lack of organs wasn’t helping with that endeavor though (ignoring the 6 I had spent to craft the Lance of Longinus in the last Lantern Year).

In the end I used 1 more hide to rebuild the Bandages Copperfish had thrown away during the last hunt and made a Dried Acanthus (or 2.., I’m honestly not sure anymore).
Aside from these support items we couldn’t really build anything else that would actually help us either for this upcoming fight or the Finale.

Originally I had planned to fight a Screaming God Lvl3 this Lantern Year to act as a cap stone for our accomplishments, but looking at the overall state of my survivors and gear, I felt like I was just looking at a monumental loss if I stuck to that plan and I figured I would rather have the chance to actually get something out of this last hunt.
Thus I pivoted to hunting a Dragon King Lvl3 instead.

The Chosen Hunters:
Bravada – purple (Dragon Armor, Piercing Claws)
Copperfish – green (Black Armor, Speaker Cult Knife)
Daniel – red (Alpha bits, Vandal Broadaxe)
Farra – yellow (Leather Armor, Vandal Sledge)

This was the exact same team as last time with the slight change that Copperfish got an extra 5STR effectively due to EVA adding to his attacks as well with Agility Fighter(FA).
Of course, the deciding factor for today’s success wouldn’t necessarily be how well my 4th most important gear grid could deal damage, but if we could survive the Dragon King’s passive damage from Irradiate.
This was also the reason for why I would not have brought the Atomic Lance even if I could have fielded it with a Red Power Core.
I’ve done that before and let me tell you, the only thing that does is trigger meltdown on command.
Imagine inserting extra fuel rods into a reactor whilst it’s overheating.

The Huntphase:
One last hunt! One last Huntphase!
The group set out with baited breath and found themselves immediately under a Majestic Shadow! Daniel, leading the group, had 0 courage and started running without giving it a second thought. As the group followed his lead blindly, they only came to a stop as they reached a Broken Lantern Oven (basic HE35).
Suddenly finding themselves in this forlorn ruins of a fallen settlement the survivors only had cursory glances for the eerie lost structures and did not linger – Daniel hadn’t rolled high enough the first time and wasn’t keen on doing the table.
Farra took the lead for the next leg of the journey and as she suddenly stopped, she was intrigued by a rhythmic clanging (Finale – basic HE100) coming from afar. The survivors followed the metallic crashing until they stumbled upon a trail of monster corpses rich with resources. The team harvested a Love Juice and 2 more Monster Hides for the pile before they backed off unable to guess the meaning of this trail into the darkness.
Not far off the group found themselves inside of yet another gathering of Settlement Ruins. With all the corpses burnt to a crisp, a feeling of dread stuck to the survivors as they passed through, suffering some brain event damage.
As it had come time for Copperfish to take charge of the group he was certainly happy to only stumble upon an aged crone. As she introduced herself as the Lorekeeper, Copperfish felt like he had found his soul mate.. he gained Arithmophilia (D) setting his MOV to 3 as the 2 of them kept going on and on about numbers.
Delighted he continued to press on, but the group was startled to hear a Forbidden Word (basic HE66) booming through the darkness. With only Daniel still insane after those first few events he suffered a random disorder .. and it was Fear of the Dark (D).
Uh oh…Thanks, Lorekeeper!

Overwhelming Darkness forced -1ACC-tokens upon both Farra and Bravada, whilst Daniel saw the Nightmare Whale and Copperfish took 1DMG to his arms as he wouldn’t lower his lantern even despite the pain.

Beyond the viscous barrier a Thespian Troupe had set up their enormous rickshaw. I wondered for a bit if I should attempt the event, and ultimately figured it wouldn’t be too bad for Copperfish to lose an arm, so I sent him inside. And he had the time of his life! Emerging after half an eternity he was wearing a strange mask and had gained the Unbreakable Fighting Art.
Strangely the temperature dropped again afterwards, like it had done in so many hunts before, until the terrain had turned Grim and Frostbitten (basic HE95). But as all survivors were fully kitted out with armor, nobody lost any survival this time either.
Drawing closer to the monster, the survivors found a Dead Weed (basic HE18 – a jump scare for what its worth). Farra rolled with the help of Copperfish and his sickle and as we managed to pull the weed free, we had no severe injuries to heal! Oh, the tragedy!
The final event set up on the hunt board was an Ornate Temple:

That which lives can never replace that which was glorious!

Confounded by a second disembodied voice calling out to us, the survivors weren’t paying close enough attention to their surroundings and got surprised by Titans in the Dark (basic HE25).
With all survivors having marked their brain damage boxes at this point, Farra was determined as the straggler. Luckily she rolled a 7 and was fine – she had managed to almost dig into the stone-faced ground to avoid the attention of these titanic beings.

Whilst we didn’t get any of the really terrible Dragon King hunt events here, there sure was a lot of brain damage on this hunt to be had!

After all arrival bonuses had been applied Daniel was at 8MOV – ominous!

For its Lvl3 fight the Dragon King has 10MOV, 17TGH and the typical +2/+2. It also features a +1LCK-token which we need to get rid of asap.
Besides the familiar traits Irradiate and Unseen Agony, it also features Indomitable (mainly to draw the indom resource as it can’t get knocked down to begin with) and Smolder.
Smolder will activate the Irradiate trait at the beginning of each monster turn! This will typically lead to the monster triggering Meltdown much more often!

With only 19 cards in the AI deck, the Dragon King’s Smolder trait triggered, taking it down to 16TGH before it drew its first AI card – Atomic Conclusion!
A legendary duration card!
Without moving it Irradiated again (15TGH) and prepared for the upcoming explosion with potentially -13TGH!

With the duration card adding +4TGH to the monster for a total of 19TGH, I started by considering with who to attack here first.
With 15 base STR (whilst using leap) I still sent in Bravada first. Adding the Horripilation dice to this attack as well, she landed 5 hits, with a Perfect Hit activating barbed 2 as well.
The +1LCK-token was removed from the monster and she drew her 5 hit location cards: with no Irradiate triggers nor the trap I was left a little surprised, but in a welcome way. Only dealing critical wounds on Lantern 10s she started the fight off incredibly strongly by dealing a crit to The King’s Mouth, wounding off the Legendary duration card as well as applying a -1DMG-token!
After a wound to the Heartface had removed all -1TGH-tokens on the monster and instead added +4TGH to it until the end of the round, Bravada was flung to the far reaches of the showdown board having dealt 4 wounds in total for her opening attack!

Farra was the next to activate, her Vandal Sledge having the best chance of wounding the monster currently sitting at 21TGH. She scored a perfect hit as well and brought the hammer down onto the Serpent Wings for 46STR, easily triggering surpass 5 for 2 wounds!

As the Dragon King moved away from Farra due to the wound reaction it approached Daniel, who with the gift of the foresight granted to him by his Frogdoggles saw another chance to attack! He rolled a Lantern 10 and cleaved off a piece of Veined Wing .. from the Serpent Talon..?
Anyway – that was 2 more wounds!
He did surge as well, but did not manage to hit the monster. It was simply too large.
Finally, after Daniel had dashed away from the monster to relative safety, Copperfish attempted to harvest a Fresh Acanthus – and just about managed to do so! He then moved out of the monster’s Unseen Agony zone with his fixed 3MOV!

11 cards remaining and no -1TGH-tokens currently on the monster, the Dragon King Smoldered with nobody in range to take damage, before a Nuclear Blast erupted from the Dragon King’s chest sphincter.
It turned towards Daniel, who dashed during the flow on the card.

Daniel activated first, seeing another crit-able hit location on top of the deck. He danced around the monster and struck the Serpent Wings.
Unfortunately, this did leave him stranded in between the Dragon King, a freshly formed Lava Pool terrain and possible Irradiate triggers.
In the meantime, Copperfish slowly moved towards the other Acanthus Plant with a precise amount of pre-planned steps; and Bravada tried her best, including dashing, to get back to the fight.
Finally Farra moved in to strike the monster and hit an Irradiate trigger – a Mircrowave Heart!
A singular wound was dealt and it was an expensive one!

Both Daniel and Farra had their armor shredded by radiation, with another hit of Irradiate to come immediately afterwards!

8 cards left in the deck, two -1TGH-tokens on the monster.
Irradiate knocked down both Farra and tormented Daniel, and ultimately it even ruptured Farra’s spleen!

The Dragon King then charged up another Nuclear Blast! Bravada and Farra were in the targeted zone, but Bravada quickly encouraged Farra and dashed out of harm’s way with Farra following suit.

Daniel activated first and revealed another Microwave Heart on top of the deck. This forced him to back off out of the zone of Unseen Agony instead of attacking himself.
Bravada was still ready and willing to move in though. Whilst she couldn’t leap, she was still looking to wound on 4+.., or make that 2+ after a perfect hit had activated barbed 2 again! Hitting only twice, she couldn’t remove a token from the monster and after dealing 2 wounds, she was hit by the wave of radiation. It tore into her armor but ultimately left her standing.
At this point Copperfish dashed to the second Acanthus Plant, picking it with relative ease, before Bravada surged. A single hit was still 1 more wound before she was snatched up by the monster and thrown across the board again.

At this stage Farra was feeling especially daring and she moved towards the monster again, bringing down the hammer! She hit another Microwave Heart.
A 3 was still enough to trigger surpass 5 at this point! 18STR on the attack VS 13TGH (4 tokens)!

After the 2 wounds had been dealt a Meltdown finally occurred!

Copperfish was caught by it and not only lost an eye but also took a load of damage! 1 of his Fresh Acanthus got used up to prevent a severe arms injury.

After the meltdown had passed, the Dragon King was hit by Farra’s surge, which hit it for 1 more wound .. straight into the Microwave Heart again.
Could she aim for ANYTHING ELSE?!
Her spleen ruptured again as our turn ended.

At this point we had seen all 4 of the Microwave Heart cards in the deck, but could Farra survive the Smolder?

2 cards remaining & one -1TGH-token on the monster and we already knew it was going to be firing off a Nuclear Blast again.
Farra had to take the brunt of the radiation released by Smolder and she suffered another severe chest injury from it.
As a wise philosopher had once said: “a 3 is not a 10”. This was the end of her journey. And just in time to not be able to get an Iron from the Obsidian Pillars as well!

The following Nuclear Blast was subsequently aimed at Copperfish who got encouraged by Daniel just in time to dash out of the affected zone.

With his fixed 3MOV Copperfish also couldn’t get to the Obsidian Pillars. After a little consideration I came up with the plan to not do much of anything this turn and instead try to gather the resources from the freshly formed terrain.
Bravada did dash to the terrain and with an 8 she managed to extract a Broken Lantern from the cooling mass of rock. Daniel’s Frogdoggles then revealed the trap to us and he moved into a spot to be targeted by the next Nuclear Blast.

2 cards remaining still & two -1TGH-tokens on the monster: Unseen Agony affected no-one this time and the monster turned to Nuclear Blast Daniel in the face.
Naturally he dashed out of the path of the nuclear laser.

Copperfish had finally been able to reach the pillar and wasted no time to show his fellow survivors how it was done! He rolled a 9 and gained 1 Iron!
Copperfish – our unsung hero!
Bravada then took the chance to activate the trap as I felt she had the best chances of surviving it. The monster was hit 5 times and she removed a -1TGH-token before the trap‘s basic attack hit her back.

2 severe injuries were dished out – to her head (deaf) and legs (torn achilles tendon) and she was sent flying!

Daniel activated and revealed the next card and it was the Serpent Wing Talon again – that was his queue to go in!
2 hits drew the Heartface as well. Daniel dealt critical wounds on 5+ and with 2 clean crits he felled the mighty serpent body of the Tyrant! And he gained +1MOV from the crit effect as well!

Too bad he’s not going to be able to make use of it.
..
If you don’t already know, you’ll see next time.

But for now we focused on catching Bravada on her way down to prevent further injury.

As Copperfish (Unbreakable FA again) and Daniel (+1STR) reached Age 2, Bravada (+1STR) reached her Age 1.
Daniel also finally reached axe specialization and we got to draw a bunch of resources.

Yeah, we didn’t need more organs… more hide is fiiiine.

Bravada picked up the Radiant Heart/Core (I play it as you gain a RH/C when defeating a Lvl2+ – as per an official errata) and she died in a ball of nuclear fire.

We also did not get a Dragon Iron.. wow, that’s unfortunate!

***

Overall the fight went about as smoothly as it could, I’d say, especially after the very fist card we’d flipped was a Legendary AI card.

Loosing Farra also wasn’t ideal but getting hit with 3 severe injuries that deal out 2 bleeding tokens each rarely is.
Oh, bleed. It’s never an issue until it is.
I am curious to find out as to what we can muster up in the final Lantern Year with only 3 endeavors at our disposal.

But this outcome does mostly confirm it – we have made it to the final Lantern Year of the campaign!
And after some of the mid- and late-game set-backs we’ve had, I am happy we made it this far, even if it was mainly a crawl at times!
That made it sound much more dramatic than it actually was. The main issue the Bloody Shallows had, beyond a few poorly made decisions on my part, was that we never really managed to establish a powerful survivor on our own, or even the building blocks for them – like weapon masteries.
Even the one weapon mastery that we had managed to get was mostly gifted to us by the Outcast event chain and our outcast, Goldenglow, being an absolute powerhouse – but that was hardly due to my gameplay.

But I will be returning with my full thoughts on this settlement after the Finale in the epilogue. For now, we should just enjoy the victory over a Dragon King Lvl3 and the fact that we made it to the Finale of a campaign!

I’ll try to be back with the fight against the Parasite Queen in a couple of days.
As always, thank you very much for your time, the beckoning call has been heard!
Amathul