Today we are back in Bogstop, the settlement of Froghunters fueled by the powers of unga-bunga. It’s been far too long. Whilst I am eager to get to this lantern year, I do at least have to mention that I have had the opportunity to face my first non-squire Black Knight this week as well, and whilst fun, it was quite the rough encounter. We managed to barely eek out the win after my main damage dealer went off the cliff and could not roll a 4+ to literally save his life. We also had a portcullis key, but sadly we did not roll well enough to get Wrath.
But enough of that. We are here for Bogstop.

This lantern year saw a couple of events, unlocking all of the remaining quarries for the settlement. Glancing over to the resources we gathered from the last Frogdog, it was kinda mind-boggling just how little of what I wanted I could do with those. Also, we had only 3 endeavors.

First up, the settlement event: Clinging Mist. I rolled a 3 – all returning survivors must skip the next hunt. That was quick and easy on us.
Second event: Glowing Crater. I nominated Lucille to witness the falling star and she subsequently gained Acid Palms (+1D10 to Fist and Tooth), Destined (D) and the Husk of Destiny (which is cursed and makes her always count as insane). This added the Dragon King to our quarry list.

Third event: Rumbling in the Dark. This one was for Hysteria. She gained +1STR and Vermin Obsession (D) before she innovated Round Stone Training for the settlement. This added the Dung Beetle Knight as well. It feels a bit weird to have both of these events in the same year, and I’ve seen it get spread out a bit in other campaigns online, I chose to just go by the book this time though.
And finally, the Hooded Knight returned once again. The grand ploy to maybe get a new Twilight Sword onto Calys… failed, as I rolled too low: just a 5. They would be coming back in a few years, but this time they only had teachings for us.

Focusing on the tasks at hand I decide to innovate despite my only bone being the Ironclad Spine. We were just so far away from Song of the Brave still, it felt like a necessity.
The choice I was presented with was Shrine or Family.
Once again, whilst I like Shrine very much, I picked Family. Getting a head start on weapon proficiency with new characters would be nice AND it would add Clan of Death to the innovation deck.

After I picked up a seed pattern that I forgot last year (we got Spite Balm – which needed the same resources as the chest piece we were still missing), I had enough stuff left to build the Leather Worker, 1 more Monster Grease and 3 bit of Leather Armor (head, arms and legs).

By this point I have had one additional encounter with a Frogdog Lvl2, one that wiped the party and ate some of our gear, so I was a little more hesitant, but well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right?

In the end I chose these hunters for this year:
Lelia (Frogdog bits, spiked buckler)
Lucille (rawhide set, acid palms)
Ragnar (leather bits, bone dagger)
Hysteria (rawhide set, scrap sword, lure lantern)

Yes! We are going to noodle!

The hunt started with us finding a Corpse (Basic HE02). As we lost 2 survival each, we at least also gained a Broken Lantern from our cannibalistic nature. Not the best start, but things were about to change for the better.
The Frogdog event was Euphony, revealed by Lucille – wow! She does have the 3+ understanding we needed to awaken our inner instrument and we gained Drums (I) for the settlement! Awesome! One step closer to Song of the Brave.
This was then followed by another swarm of Cleaner Birds (Basic HE89). This time it was Hysteria who got deep cleaned – and what can I say, she was up to +3 LCK with the gear set up she had – so this felt quite good.
Of course the game needed to troll us for a bit as well. First we found a dude in a cage (Basic HE50). We let him out and as I rightfully held off with giving him a name, he stole our Broken Lantern and ran away. And then we stumbled upon some Wet Ground. Hysteria lost all her leg armor and Lucille turned Squeamish (D). Lelia witnessed an omen as Ragnar – the mad-lad – gained +1MOV.
Then it was finally time for some Noodling of Death, it was finally time to lose an arm! I rolled a 6 – 2 bleed and the highly sought after Burnished Encephalomater – a copper in short.

We were almost done with the hunt. Overwhelming Darkness had Hysteria attack everybody for 1 damage and Lucille got PTSD (D) for the 2 less fortunate survivors. As for the two brave enough souls: Ragnar threw up and Lelia took an arm damage.
Finally we found another Interloper. At this point we understood well where these dogs actually came from – attack it! Mush it to bits! Content we pulled a fresh Ironclad Spine from the corpse and moved on.
We had found our target!

The first card drawn (of 14) was Reeking Headbutt – hitting on 8+, the monster rolled two(!) Lantern 10s. Thankfully targeting Lelia, who had surged to block just in case. I was also fishing for a lucky wound from the spiked buckler‘s effect, but had no such luck on this attack.

We took the damage from Mature (1 per stink token to a random hit location) and picked our tactic for the moment: unga-bunga.
So, Hysteria wasted no time and moved into the Frogdog’s blind spot swinging wildly. She got a perfect hit with a base STR of 9, so she easily wounded the first hit location she drew before she crit the Festering Shoulder she drew with Legendary Lungs (SFA). Somehow she hacked off a Supple Nose…, from the shoulder. I keep saying it, Frogdog anatomy is weird. Shoulder-noses, butt-noses.
Naturally she would surge and whilst not getting the additional hit, she hit and crit the Festering Posterior, spreading more and more insanity amongst the group.

Ragnar followed up with the old dash-and-jump with the Mammoth Leaf, and even his bone dagger hit twice for 1 wound and 1 critical hit. This crit only knocked the monster down (and even gave it +2TGH until the end of the round), so our honorable (D) Lelia could not attack and instead only blocked.
Finally Lucille snuck in 1 more wound with her acid palms ability (the white die is the +1D10 from the ability for this fight, so does not crit/miss).

8 cards remaining. The Frogdog stood and drew Twitching Kick. I chose Lelia as the target and with another two(!) Lantern 10 hits the dog does its utmost best to get around the 8+ to hit. Lelia blocked 1 hit and took the other to the waist – no retaliatory wounds though.

The next round of mature-damage is dealt without real consequence, before Hysteria dashed onto the leaf behind her and jumped back into the blind spot. Yeah, that was a miss. No problem, she wanted to surge anyway… and we hit the trap. The basic would hit her on 7+ – only 1 hit is dealt, that’s still fine.

Trying to bounce back, Lucille attacked with F+T and wounded, but the reflex on that was brutal! She got hit in the chest causing a severe injury! That’s her dried acanthus gone. And the monster darted forward as well, running over Lelia and Hysteria in the process.

Ragnar still wanted to adhere to the unga-bunga, so he would ultimately dash onto the mammoth leaf and jump, but before that he encouraged Lucille who would chain it to Lelia. Afterwards Ragnar jumped in and scored 3 hits. Thankfully he did not hit the trap again immediately.
He managed to wound once, but on the second card the Frogdog already leapt away again, charging up a second fart.
Going for a hero play, Lucille charges after the beast and into the Heinous Origin with 2 farts at the ready. 1 hit and 1 wound are dealt. Not quite good enough.

5 cards remaining. It’s just a B-Level fart. We got lucky on that one. Rotten Emission. Still, Lucille goes down, takes 2 more brain damage and another stink token. Those tokens are going to be eating through our defenses eventually. The AI card is Big Mouth Bite, targeting the stinkiest threat – that was still Lelia – only 1 hit on the 8+ roll – yay, an improvement! She blocked it and again, the shield did not wound.

The mature-damage is still spreading quite nicely.
Hysteria ran to the blind spot of the monster and missed her attack again. Frantically, she surged and got two hits but between the death blow which she failed to wound and the impervious Carbuncles, she failed again to deal damage. Lelia outright missed with the shield as well and even Ragnar, jumping in again, only hit once. But what a hit it was. The fates began balancing out as he crit the monster’s Festering Heel and knocked it down. Ragnar encouraged Lucille and she dealt one more wound with her regular attack.

Lucilla had one more surge in her though. The two hits came easily enough with the beast on the ground.
Uh-oh! A crit onto the Frogboobs! This sent the dogpoles into a frenzy, they would be dealing damage to our legs when we start our act adjacent to the monster for the rest of the fight. The -2TGH would help with quickly dealing the remaining damage though.
And a crit onto the throat as well – event time!
The Sad Frogdog Song is heard. That moment when the monster starts breathing through its butt. What delightful art. As the Feline Entity started to make her presence know at this point, Lucille learned Sad Frogdog Song (SFA) and I can only say … this card just confuses me to no end. I’m not really sure why, but yeah.., something about this does not compute. (The first time you attack each round, add the value of your failed attack rolls to the strength of this attack.) Maybe the phrasing is too simple for me.. but we’ll.., I’ll figure it out.

The game then had to be stopped for 15 minutes.

1 card remaining – Big Mouth Bite. This time it would target Lucille. If I were to surge now as this card was being resolved, the monster would die because I would wound off the basic attack. So, Lelia surged to maybe get the shield proficiency hit, but barely missed. Luckily Hysteria was also able to surge one last time and she barely wounded the monster thanks to the -2TGH. But a wound is a wound, and therefore death.

The unga-bunga was strong with us again and we have dealt with another Frogdog Lvl2. I did check though, and despite of how much with just rumbled this dog, one of my newest Frogdog fears was actually present in the deck. Slurp is an advanced AI card that eats gear (or just weapons, need to re-check).

Rewards!
This time everyone aged up. Hysteria (+1STR) and Lucille (+1ACC) hit age 1, whilst Lelia (+1STR) and Ragnar (Giant’s Blood FA) hit age 2.

Could it be..?

Could I have drawn what I needed..? Finally?

Another Frogdog down and added to the books. We even managed to secure a copper. This makes Killennium more attractive to add as well as it would not wipe our storage if we lost to him, contrary to the regular Butcher. At this rate the most difficult part will be getting Song of the Brave so we can even get a Bullfrogdog for hunting and actually make use of that copper.

Oh, and this was yet another toothless doggo.

Thank you very much for your time and don’t unga-bunga too hard,
Amathul