Finally! A new campaign!

I had been postponing this moment for a while now, partially because I wanted to finish the Squire campaign beforehand (which I did not manage), and because I figured I might as well go for the Frogdog N1 start. Thus I waited with baited breath for the time and the stink-themed monster to come.

I do hope this campaign does not crash and burn too hard, but you never know. Worstcase scenario – we are going to learn something about the Frogdog and start again. The full rundown of what I want to use node-wise will follow at the start of Lantern Year 1.., just in case the prologue takes a turn for the worse.

Much like I did on Insta for my first attempt at the PotStars campaign, I’ll usually start these posts with settlement and hunt-phase and transition into the showdown. There will be play-by-play, just let me know if it is too much or too little detail all in all. For now, as I still try to retain some suspense, we’ll just get going.

Our four survivors for the day will be Ragnar (Zac’s mini), Beni (Alistar), Lucille (Lucy) and Calys (Erza) who are stalked by a very short-lived White Lion. Just as the beast was about to make its move it got devoured by the much larger Frogdog. Turns out that grizzly, hopping beast of unnameable odors was equally interested in the squirming morsels it just randomly found right before it.

The Frogdog starts the fight with a number of traits in play, most of them just explain some keyword thankfully, like Leap – which sees the Frogdog jumping on the Mammoth Leaves strewn around the fight. It will also perform Gaseous Bloat ever so often on other cards, which puts Fart cards onto Double Sphincter – which in turn activates these cards at the start of the monster’s turn. Obviously, we do not what that. Luckily wounds dealt to the Frogdog from the Heinous Origin – the center space of its blind spot – remove Fart cards in line for activation. Finally Foul Stench gives you Stink-tokens for stinky gear.

Early on I knew I wanted to throw a quick Founding Stone to see what the critical hit on the curated hit location for the Prologdog would do, so I at least had some sort of plan going into the fight. And just as the monster was about to draw its first AI card – Wet Slap – the Feline Entity showed up and everything came to sudden halt. And she only departed after trying to bite Ragnar, which was a sign, a first unofficial omen if you will.

Thus the Frogdog targeted Ragnar. All 3 hits connected despite the relatively high bar of 5+ .. yikes. Ragnar dodged the hit to his head and was already out of survival with the first action. And a fart was added as well for next turn. What a start.
To retaliate Calys threw her Founding Stone – a persistent injury nerfing AI cards. And that’s all. Well. Can’t say I’m not a little disappointed, but it would come to help me in the end eventually.

The rest of the turn was a whole load of nothing. Beni whiffed in the Heinous Origin and thus the fart would definitely go off and Lucille was much too far away to do anything.

Beni took the full brunt of the fart to the head and was knocked down as the Frogdog drew its mood, Snatch and Squash and proceeded to do just that. It grabbed Lucille with its tongue and jumped right onto Ragnar. 3 people knocked down in a single monster turn. Calys had no real options so she instead looted the survivor corpse for 2 insanity and a Monsterorgan.

Next up for the Frogdog: Soaring Boney Punch. At least the first Founding Stone wasn’t for nothing. This card got modified by the persistent injury, reducing its damage from 2 to 1. It leapt first though, taking Ragnar along to another leaf and pummeled him twice. His light wounds were all filled up at this point, and it even leapt again with Ragnar in tow to a new leaf.
As all four survivors got up, Ragnar decided to throw his Founding Stone as well. The leaping mood gets discarded on a critical wound, which played a big part in that decision. He got a Frogdog tongue for the crit as well.

And whilst Lucille failing to wound the ominous +1 Luck location did not feel great, things were about to turn into our favor for a moment. Beni attacked and managed to wound the beast twice!
Naturally the Frogdog gave Ragnar an Abrasive Lick in response, quickly tasting its food. A horrible experience, leaving him stumped, his arms heavily wounded and with a -1 EVA token.

Leveraging the Mammoth Leaves helped deal another wound, but the Frogdog was not quite done with beating us up just yet. A reactive kick almost broke Beni’s arms as it ran away, just before starting to leap around again on its next turn.
Meanwhile Lucille had not done anything so far this whole fight as she failed to wound again and again. Thankfully Beni could step up to the challenge and wounded the Frogdog once more.
At this point there was only 1 card left in the deck and the mood in play.

The last card in the Frogdog deck turned out to be Wet Slap – which seemed fortunate at first. Well.., then it targeted Beni.., and hit 3 times and .., all 3 hit the arms. We were able to dodge 1 of them, but were faced with 2 severe injuries remaining. A 9 and a 10. We got extra lucky on that one.

Lucille has finally had enough. She ran in and critically wounded the beasts shoulder from the Heinous Origin (that must have taken some effort to do), which drew out the fight even more as the mood was discarded from receiving the crit. She did prevent the fart and got herself a Waxy Dermis as well. Fortunately the mood did not come into play again as Ragnar wounded it off the deck on his turn – he did draw the death blow. We missed it by a single wound.

The Frogdog lashed out wildly in response. It targeted Ragnar and hit him in the arms again. Another severe injury roll. Is this it? No. Another 9. Deep breaths. We’re almost done. Then it leapt onto Beni. Another hit to the arms! Another severe! And a 6. Not as good as the other ones. Permanently -1 ACC. Well, he lived.

The last turn came down to the wire. Ragnar misses all attacks and blocks the Heinous Origin, Lucille got knocked down by the leap and Calys was too far away. Freshly injured, Beni was the one who had to deal the killing blow – and he did it! We managed to evade the trap entirely – but as I checked afterwards – it was the next card on the deck.

The Feline Entity blessed the survivors with her presence once more as we were preparing to draw our resources for the fight. You do not get the Froskrafter from the prologue, which would have been incredible with this haul, but we will make it work with the standard gear. There’s enough hide in these rewards to build a full rawhide set right out the gate.
Also a love juice. So, we are going to be able to trigger at least 1 milestone.

The prologdog felt a lot more vicious than the White Lions I’ve faced so far. That 5+ 3 hit baseline has potential to just pile on the hurt. Together with farts going off, well, that’s a lot of damage. Beni was ultimately our MVP for the fight, dealing most of the wounds and, albeit injured, he lived to tell the tale.

Finally we set up Bogstop’s settlement sheet and rolled to see 8 other survivors approach the Lantern Hoard.

And that’s it. I’ll probably tone it down on the play-by-play for the longer fights later on and focus on the highlights, We got really lucky on all those severes. Or, maybe even unlucky? Having a death principle would have also been nice.

Thank you very much for your time and may your lantern shine brightly,
Amathul