Horrid Shrieker

Deep within the heart of the Weald stands a gigantic tree that towers above all other trees, and hidden within the gnarled and twisted branches of this tree is The Nest of the Shrieker. Like the Noble Raven depicted on our family’s Coat of Arms this poor creature has seen better days, for the corruption that plagues the estate has twisted this feathered bird into feathered fiend. Despite being corrupted, this feathered fiend is still a Raven at heart and has an eye for everything that glitters and shines. The Nest of the Shrieker is decorated with all the shiny and glittering Trinkets it has stolen from our Trinkets Chest or taken from the dead bodies of our fallen heroes. Reclaiming these items will not be easy, for the Shrieker will defend its Nest from any intruders. But if Shrieker feels that it not worth its life to protect his hoard of treasures, it will abandon its nest and escapes to live another day, free to steal more of our rare and valuable Trinkets.

Behaviour
The Shrieker is fought alongside its Nest, both of which take up two slots. The Shrieker has attacks that move it forward and backwards, meaning you're going to need to switch between attacking the front line and attacking the back.

For the Shrieker's last turn in Round 4 uses Shrieking Flight, dealing 50 stress damage to all heroes and flying away, ending the battle.

Strategies
The fight starts as soon as you enter the zone, making buying Items used outside of battle, such as food, shovels and keys useless. As the Shrieker afflicts your heroes with Bleed and Debuffs, buying Bandages and Herbs to cure them is recommended, as is buying Holy Water as it can be used in battle. Also radiant light bonuses (such as sun rings or Quirks like Photomania) are worthwhile as your torch won't go down at all unless you douse it yourself.

It is recommended to ignore the Shrieker and instead focus on destroying its nest. The Shrieker drops no loot upon dying, but the nest will drop up to 7 Puzzling Trapezohedrons, worth 5000 gold each. If you have the mission from "A Thief in the Night" town event you will recover your lost trinkets regardless of whether you kill the Shrieker or not.

The nest is immune to damage over time effects and debuffs so you should focus on pure damage attacks.

The Shrieker has very high dodge, making it incredibly hard to hit. Even with accuracy boosts from trinkets or the Jester you'll likely only have between 40-60% chances of hitting it.

With the exception of Peck and CRITS, the Shrieker's attacks only deal 2 damage. Because of this buffing PROT isn't very helpful, and it would be better to buff DODGE instead. His one offensive move, Peck, deals 13-19 damage and can cause bleed with a strength of 4.

The Man at Arms in 4th position is a viable strategy, giving both your team high dodge, and being able to buff your own team's accuracy.

The Occultist in 3rd is very valuable for 2 reasons: it lowers the enemy dodge with his move Vulnerability Hex, and he does bonus damage to the Shrieker with his Sacrificial Stab (+15% DMG vs. Eldritch)

Corvid's Quirks
Heroes who survive the battle with the Horrid Shrieker may contract one of several new quirks. The following list are the discovered quirks and what they affect:

Abilities
* Only used as its last action during round 4.

Trivia

 * While the battle itself remains unchanged for the quest you fight it in, the music for the battle does. If the quest is Shrieker's Prize it is the Mournweald Encounter, the normal battle music for the Weald. If the quest is A Thief in the Night or recovering lost trinkets from fallen heroes, the music is Town in Chaos, the battle music from Wolves at the Door.