New Camera test drive, Kingdom Death Surprise Hunt, Augusta and the Void Elves

 Taking a new camera for a test drive.  I'm still having trouble with lighting and focus but, overall, a big improvement.  Next week I'm slated to go get some hands on help with getting the results I want from the photography side of things.

Today was just messing around with the camera and some lights.  I'm still figuring out what all the settings do... or even most of them!

I think I'm going to have to run the steamer on this backdrop to de-wrinkle it.

 I've been taking some more pictures of Augusta, Mother Superior (Raging Heroes) because I wand to get a good read on the yellow metal.  It seems to have survived the sealer reasonable intact. Sealing metallics often damages the final result and I sometimes end up retouching them afterwards.  I could, of course, not seal them... but these are primarily for tabletop use and not dedicated display pieces so I tend to want them sealed against frequent handling.

 Some experiments with wider focus areas as the Mother Superior faces down a pack of Void Elf Hunters.

 A size comparison for the current batch of Kingdom Death Monsters that our settlement is hunting... or being hunted by...

 In anticipation of this weekend's game I quickly painted up the Screaming Antelope and laminated some character and settlement record sheets.  The tactical board getting set up... I'm going to do some 3D terrain elements for the board soon as the card terrain just doesn't show well alongside the miniatures.

 A party of inexperienced survivors set out to hunt the Screaming Antelope led by "Lucky" Amelia.  Amelia at least had one hunt under her belt and performed so well during it that she earned her moniker "Lucky"

The rest of the party were novice hunters although two of them, Yang and Herc were born in the settlement and had some skill/stat upgrades based on that.  One, Flayh, was a survivor that had previously managed to avoid encountering the malicious wildlife of the area and was a straight up newb..

 During the first Hunt event the group stumbled upon the corpse of a Screaming Antelope... did a little scavenging.. and were then interrupted by the monster that had killed it in the first place... a Mature (level 2) White Lion.

This party had been hunting a juvenile Screaming Antelope and was not at all prepared for a Mature White Lion... perhaps Amelia's famous luck had run out?

A couple of pictures of the Screaming Antelope that did not make an appearance in this week's session....

The fight was pretty epic however with Flayh... our group goldbricker getting immediately knocked down and drug off by the Lion, who seemed to be enraged by the group's looting of it's kill... DoH!

Yang managed to sooth the mood of the beast by playing her cat-whisker harp. Yang later proved to be more than just a budding musician when she sliced the lower jaw of the beast clean off!  This early crit helped the party to survive what would otherwise have been a nightmare encounter.

Amelia's famous luck returned almost as quickly as it had abandoned them and she scored a crit on the Lion's brow... damaging it's eye and reducing its accuracy.

The big cat had been charging around the area to either drag Flayh off for a private snack or to escape the incessant rescue attempts by the rest of the group. Yang finally put a stop to this with a precision attack that hamstrung the lion leaving and it nearly dead.

Herc finished the monster off from a safe distance with a well aimed arrow.

All in all a great reinforcement of Lucky Amelia's reputation as the group returned with a pile of resources well in excess of those anticipated. 

Yang turned out to be a competent bard and a very strong combatant to boot.  Some members of the settlement are calling her Yang the Lion Tamer.

Herc calmly wielded his bow throughout the fight and took a couple of opportunities to land big hits with a Zanbato which really sped up the fight. He's taken to referring to himself as "The Tactician" which has not been as well received by the rest of the settlement as he had imagined...

As for poor Flayh... He was grabbed so often by the Lion during the fight... and subsequently rescued by his companions at great risk to themselves... that he's being referred to as "Catnip"

Time to go paint some stuff! The Phoenix has been added to the Quarry list.... and the Knights of the Chalice just came out of the sonic cleaner!