Hey, you there! Freeze! 

You've been caught by a Banished Court patrol. Nothing else for it: you'll have to fight your way out of this one. 

Easier said than done. You've got pistols, shotguns and flamethrowers pointed right at your face, and that's not all: a four-legged creature looms just behind the patrol, its gaping eel-like jaw bristling with craggy teeth. It isn't interested in the Court soldiers—the only blood it wants is yours. 

Think it can't get worse? Behind the squadron of soldiers and monsters is a man with Hollywood hair and a mechanical suit that looks straight out of a pulp sci-fi magazine. In his hand is a long, sharp rifle that crackles with blue sparks. 

"Don't be shy," says Trace Marteau.  "Come, witness my genius up close!" 

Soldiers, monsters, and a Scion, one of the three fearsome leaders of the Banished Court? Who do you have to thank for this mess you're in?

Well, allow me to introduce you. Back again for your reading pleasure, I'm Lead Narrative Designer Jill Scharr, but the real stars of today's show are Senior Gameplay Engineer Brad Kraeling and Senior AI Engineer Allie McNulty. 

As a Gameplay Engineer, Brad arms our enemy combatants with weapons, abilities and passives. Then Allie steps in and teaches the combatants what to do with the tools Brad gave 'em. Did I mention she also helped build our conversation system, so the combatants know what to say and when to say it?

Today the three of us are going to show you just some of the enemies you'll face in The Lamplighters League. But first, let's set the stage…

Monsters and Men

The Banished Court has no shortage of recruits for its mercenary army.  But humans are fragile things. The Great War proved that. So the Banished Court's three factions each bolstered its army with creatures whose strength and ferocity far outstrip human reckoning. 

House Strum harnessed an ancient curse—one the ancient Egyptians sealed away 5000 years ago— to raise an army of Infernals. Burning with the curse's flames, these shambling corpses can set an entire battlefield ablaze.

Trace Marteau discovered his engines of industrial progress had an unexpected side effect: spectral bleedthrough better known as Shades, the unhappy denizens of a desolate afterlife. He's now the proud employer of both the living and the dead.

Today we're going to delve into the depths of the third faction, House Nicastro. Led by its scion, Lady Nicastro, high priestess of a millennia-old cult dedicated to an undersea god, this eldritch faction commands packs of deep-sea monsters called Tidespawn.

Tidespawn 

Able to chase its prey even on dry land, Tidespawn wreak close-range havoc with their bristly teeth and claws. If a Tidespawn decides to make you its next meal, the best thing you can do is keep your distance—if you can.

Abilities: Teeth & Claws

Hello Lamplighters! My name is Brad and I’d love to break down the Abilities the Tidespawn has and what to expect from these deadly creatures on the field.

When the team designed the Tidespawn, one desire became clear: we wanted these creatures to be brutal. Big nasty claws and terrible teeth—if one of these things got close enough it would not be a good time at all. They can also take more hits than most human Court enemies—so be wary! Let’s tear into what makes these Tidespawn so vicious…

House Nicastro Passive: The Ravenous Salt - Every time a Tidespawn Crits, the target will gain an additional point of Stress damage.

Rend - The Tidespawn tears into its target, dealing damage and inflicting the Poisoned status effect. This is the go-to basic attack of the Tidespawn, and it helps set itself up for Mutilate.— POISONED: Poisoned units will receive damage and Stress every turn until they are no longer affected. 

Mutilate - When targets are poisoned, the teeth come out! The beast uses Mutilate to bite a Poisoned target. But watch out! If another Poisoned target is nearby the Tidespawn can use this ability on them for free. This makes Tidespawn incredibly dangerous to fight against if your Agents are all Poisoned and grouped together. It also makes fighting more than one Tidespawn a dangerous effort—because they can frenzy and get a lot of attacks out!

Horrid Roar - When the Tidespawn roars in a direction, any of their enemies caught in the area will suffer Stress Damage. The roar also displaces any target it affects. Be careful around obstacles when the Tidespawn is near, because a loud roar could Knock Down your Agents, which can be devastating for your strategies. 

AI Behaviors: An Appetite for Destruction

Hi everyone! My name is Allie McNulty and I'm here to talk to you about the AI behaviors driving some of our enemies. The Tidespawn is one of our first enemies to really take the capabilities of our AI systems and let it stretch its legs. It informed how some of our more intense enemies, like the Scions, could work.

Unlike the common Banished Court goon, Tidespawn are melee attackers that prefer to be up close and personal. They have been tuned for more aggressive movements, foregoing cover of any kind in order to close distance to their target. This allows them to unleash their full potential and provide pressure to the player's front lines.

The enhancements over regular troops don't end there. Tidespawn also take advantage of the way their abilities combine through some uniquely customized AI behavior. This allows them to chain abilities together for devastating results. When this opportunity presents itself, the Tidespawn can be seen attacking one player after another without burning down their AP by making use of stacking bonuses and extra actions.

Watch out for packs of these creatures; they thrive off Poisoned targets… Scary stuff!

Narrative: What the Tide Brought In

What are the Tidespawn? Where do they come from? The priests of the Devouring King's cult have spilled an ocean of ink advancing one theory or another. Those in the innermost circle, of Nicastro blood or married into it, don't wonder. They know. But that secret is not for undrowned ears. 

Affectionately nicknamed "mermen" during pre-production, the Tidespawn began with a vision: part hound, part moray eel.

During the course of The Lamplighters League, the Agents may find letters, diaries and reports about the Tidespawn, inscribed by both their handlers and their victims. Collect enough lore and you may penetrate the murky depths of their terrible existence—if your mind can bear to comprehend the truth.

Scions

The Agents of The Lamplighters League are a rough and tumble bunch. Be it ghosts or mummies or horrors of the deep, they can usually fight their way out of just about any scrape they find themselves in, even if they only make it out by the skin of their teeth. 

The Scions are a different challenge to face. When one of them appears on the field the Agents may have no choice but to run—or die.

Over the course of the game, you'll encounter all 3 leaders of the Banished Court, each the heir to a powerful family or fortune. There's Lord Strum, a militant aristocrat and former explorer with a private museum full of artifacts he "found" in his travels. And don't forget Trace Marteau, a celebrity industrialist and founder of the worldwide manufacturer Marteau Industries. 

A Fight For Your Life Against Lady Zorana Nicastro

The first Scion you'll encounter in the campaign is Lady Nicastro, the Scion of the ancient and dreaded House Nicastro. Wielding twin rapiers and an array of dark powers bestowed upon her by a dead and dreaming god, Lady Nicastro loves nothing more than the thrill of the hunt—and the rush of the kill. 

Abilities: A Superior Threat

Hello it’s Brad again—this time with some secrets about Scions and Lady Nicastro specifically. Be careful! These are dangerous secrets and gathering this information has been exceptionally dangerous.

For the combat design of the Scions we approached it with a goal: “What would it look like if an Enemy had a full kit of abilities and passives just like an upgraded player Agent? What if they had a strong strategy and knew how to use it?”

For Lady Nicastro, we really wanted to make fighting against her scary, so we thought of a kit that blended precise blade slices and movement with the power of the occult. Additionally, she can deal out a lot of Stress to her targets, and can capitalize off Stressed minds. Here is a breakdown of her main passives and abilities to look out for if you ever dare to fight against her...

Passive: En Garde - When Lady Nicastro’s turn starts she gains Evade. — EVADE: If a target has Evade, incoming attacks will automatically miss, consuming a stack of Evade.

Passive: Momentum - Whenever Lady Nicastro attacks, she gains a Free Movement.

House Nicastro Passive: The Ravenous Salt - Every time Lady Nicastro Crits, the target will gain an additional point of Stress damage.

Slash - Lady Nicastro's Basic Attack. Deals damage and inflicts Bleeding on her target. — BLEEDING: Units that are Bleeding take damage every time they move.

Abyssal Dart - Lady Nicastro throws a poisonous dart at the target, applying Poisoned and dealing damage. — POISONED: Poisoned units will receive damage and Stress every turn until they are no longer affected.

Torment - Lady Nicastro uses occult magic to cloud the area with darkness, reducing the Line of Sight Range for all player Agents, making it hard to tell where Lady Nicastro is. Additionally those Agents will receive 1 Stress Damage per turn, while this effect is in play.

Ecstatic Slaughter - This is Lady Nicastro’s most devastating move, but can only be used when Torment’s effects are active. This attack deals extra Damage per Stress to her target, and because her other attacks and passives inflict Poisoned and bonus Stress, there is a good chance your Agents will be a bit Stressed while fighting her—so even the most healthy Agent with high levels of Stress could be wiped out in a single blow. Watch out! 

AI Behaviors:  A Stressful Combination

Allie, here again, with some more AI musings. This time we take a look at one of the most fine tuned and lethal kinds of AI. Welcome to the top of the AI food chain: a House Scion. 

These terrifying characters are built around fully custom AI behaviors unique to each Scion. The behaviors specifically play to the strengths of the character and their themes.

Early concept art for a House Nicastro ceremony.

In Lady Nicastro's case, she attacks from the shadows and seeks highly Stressed targets to deliver lethal blows, only to once again escape into the darkness. To add to the confusion, she moves … a lot. She is almost always repositioning just out of visual range and constantly changing up her targets. You never know where she may come from, who she will attack or if she is waiting around a dark corner to interrupt your agents' attacks. Watch your backs!

In order to do this, Nicastro builds combos with her abilities knowing that some of her attacks result in free movements and stress (two of her driving themes). This creates the opportunity for her to build several chains of attacks. She may unleash a dark cloud of Torment over the play field, reducing the vision range of every player character and their allies. Once the darkness sets in, she might throw a wave of projectiles from the shadows to stress select targets from a completely new location, only to follow up these attacks with an Ecstatic Slaughter, which is a deadly attack that multiplies damage based on stress of the target. 

Take care to keep your most vulnerable Agents out of her reach, if you can. Lady Nicastro loves to torment the stressed. I'll let Jill tell you why. 

Narrative: The Burden of Power

Zorana Nicastro knew from birth that she was special. 

Tracing its roots back over 2000 years, her family had produced princes and prophets, clergy and kings… but in the years and decades before her birth, it seemed the bloodline had run dry. The family prayed day and night, swearing oaths of salt and seafoam that a Nicastro heir would see their god resurrected—if only He would bless them with one. 

Now the head of her House, Lady Nicastro will fulfill her family's millennia-long dream—or die trying. The Agents you array against her aren't obstacles. They're prey. And Lady Nicastro loves nothing more than the ecstatic slaughter of the hunt. 

But to raise her dead and dreaming god to His primordial glory, she needs the help of an ancient and mysterious power, one the old heroes of the Lamplighters League died to protect. 

The Banished Court has put all its energies into finding and harnessing that mysterious power—but the three Scions who lead it are of three minds on what to use it for. Lord Strum and Trace Marteau have their own plans, and they have little interest in bowing down to a waterlogged monstrosity. 

Next Time, on The Lamplighters League

House Nicastro's abyssal horrors and eldritch Scion are only a fraction of the enemies your Agents will face over the course of your tactical pulp adventure. Next Dev Diary we’ll be taking a look at some stuff y’all have been asking about: Allies, Supplies, & Customization.

To hear more about ancient curses and science gone wrong, consider adding The Lamplighters League and the Tower at the End of the World to your Wishlist on Steam, Epic, or Xbox Game Pass.

Want to keep the conversation going? People in our alternate take on the 1930s communicated via letters, telegrams and psychic visions, but most of you only have access to two out of the three, so you can drop by the Forum or the Discord to talk to Harebrained Schemes developers and other fans about The Lamplighters League. The bravest among you may even venture to follow us on Twitter.