The first 5 days of the new year are already behind us and Bogstop and I are ready to go! I hope the start to the new year has been a good one for you so far!

Bogstop is closing in on the half-way mark of the campaign, so its high time we got moving again, especially as there is a high level Frogdog in our immediate future – go figure.

With the newest addition to our settlement – the incredibly powerful nuclear sword Wrath – I knew early on that I wanted to try my hand at a Frogdog Level 3. This did still make me incredibly nervous, but I also wanted to conquer that fear.
So, what’s the worst that could happen, right?

But, as always, we had to deal with the settlement event first: Weird Dream – another one of those “not the worst one” type of draws. I was playing the game alone so I stuck to taking the 3 insanity one everyone. Maybe I’ll write something up in the future, but I didn’t prep anything for this event right now.

With that out of the way we were free to develop. And whilst I could innovate, there was also the chance of building 2 more pieces of dragon armor – if I managed to get my hands on 2 more broken lanterns at least. Despite the amounts of “if”s in that, I went ahead and tried to get it done.
Initially I wanted to send out Mars, but him being hamstrung also meant he couldn’t use match maker so, as it suddenly seemed pointless to take him, his father Jerryn had to go instead.
First attempt was an instant broken lantern, whilst attempts 2 and 3 almost killed the man. For attempt 4.. I came to the conclusion to back off. I’d rather get some buffs for the upcoming hunt.
So we made some fresh gruel with the endeavor instead. I spent the fifth and final endeavor rolling on Shrine – getting a 9 and thus some extra armor for all departing survivors. That would hopefully help against the big ol’ fergderg.
Finally I put together the Dragon Boots.

I did also finally remember to draw that seed pattern for the 3 understanding milestone Sir Hermes gained against the Black Knight in the lantern year prior.

I couldn’t help but feel nervous going out to hunt a level 3, surely that was due to general unfamiliarity with this level of the beast (and also the 2 brutal failures in the coop settlement at the end of last year). But, with Wrath in hand .., what else was there to do but be brave and give it our all?

The Hunters:
Sir Hermes (bone club, frogdog set)
Mars (Wrath, leather set)
Lelia (blast shield, dragon/screaming armor bits)
Ragnar (lantern dagger, rawhide set)

I did forget about Eproctophilia (D) on both Lelia and Ragnar as I took these pictures, but added Monster Grease to each of them before the hunt, replacing the Stone Noses each of them had.

Lelia would – hopefully – be our tank, whilst the other 3 unga-bunga’d the beast to bits. Whilst Mars remained hamstrung, he still should able to proficiently wield a sword. With deadly 3 and a luck charm, he’d hit a crit on 6+. And that just sounded incredible.
I also kept away from the Black Knight Badge, because a 50% chance of getting honorable for a single fight on each of my survivors would end up getting us killed against a Frogdog, no doubt. Having it on both Lelia and Sir Hermes was a big enough problem already (that I also did not pick up on quick enough).At the time, all 4 survivors missing their reroll seemed like the biggest issue we had.

The Hunt:
As tradition dictated, we began our hunt by noodling. Whilst Lelia was just a beginner at the sport, having prodigy Mars with us to guide her she immediately pulled the copper brain matter free with bleeding fingers. Now we “just” needed to ambush the monster.
Lost (basic HE37) we wandered aimlessly for a while instead. That was probably the best time we could have gotten this event.. not being able to move any further back.
Annoyed Ragnar took the lead and we stumbled upon a Faceless Statue (basic HE06). We did have Sculpture (I) so we gained 1 understanding in addition to a couple of survival each, this triggered Insight on Lelia (+1ACC), Mars (reroll) and Ragnar (+1EVA). We also gained 3 more seed patterns.
Moving on we found ourselves in a field of Belching Mouths. Ragnar fell behind as the straggler. But, him having the dreaded eproctophilia (D) meant he was jsut enjoying himself maybe a bit too much.
Suddenly surrounded by Heavy Mist (basic HE39) we got turned around and wandered backwards, before stumbling upon Titans in the Dark (basic HE25). Of all people, Mars had to be the one to get snatched up and chewed on violently 5 times. This put severe dents into his body and head armor, but at least he managed to escape alive.

The event was harrowing and it all just grew too much for Mars, caught in Crippling Misery (basic HE34) he fell down a hill, breaking a leg!
Even worse a small frogdog approached hearing Mars’ cries of pain. Knowing what the misshapen creature was, we attacked the Interloper on sight. Rolling an 8 we beat it down, gaining a Spindly Paw.
Pushing through Overwhelming Darkness, both Lelia and Sir Hermes saw a whale above them, whilst Ragnar and Mars emerged as changed men, both having gained Leader (FA).
From here on we found us wading through an even deeper bog – Wet Ground all around us. Mars was almost swallowed by the waters, his foot armor in ruins now as well, Sir Hermes gained squeamish (D) and Ragnar witnessed an omen. What a horrible event all around.
Trying to escape these waters we clambered up hill only to find the ground even worse – a Mudslide (basic HE55) caught us off guard. Tumbling, Mars took even more damage to his legs, both of them primed to come clean off now (on a heavy injury). The rest somehow managed to make it down mostly unscathed.
Morale was at an all-time low, but somehow our sullen steps reverberated underground and caused an Euphony of sounds. Carried to the monster by the sudden spring in our steps we have finally made it.
It had been a rough hunt for Mars, for sure, and we needed to hope he would be able to avoid leg damage entirely.
Or, well, if nothing else, we needed him to land that initial critical early on.

For level 3 the Frogdog gains “only” Indigestion, a A-level mood that guarantees a gaseous bloat trigger at the end of each of its turns. Of course it is also Indomitable, mostly negating knock down for the monster by having it stand up at the end of every attack it receives as well.
Biggest change by far is the fart deck now only consisting of A and L farts, making it smaller and far far deadlier than ever before.
Negating the farts had always been important, but with this change it was pretty much mandatory.
There were 2 +1ACC we could (and needed to) crit off for extra damage. Worst thing about this start was Sir Hermes being sqeamish (D), he lost all his survival.

For now 19 (20) cards remaining, the Frogdog began the fight by drawing Confusion. It targeted non-adjacent threats, so both Ragnar and Sir Hermes. Both suffered 3 brain damage – a negligible amount for both of them at the time, left with 7 and 8 sanity respectively after the dog was done, they remained standing as well.

After our first round of stank-damage, the time to unga and bunga had come!
Mars moved to the heinous origin and attacked. And just like that: a perfect hit into a lantern 10 critical hit! 3 wounds dealt right off the bat! And it lost the 2 +1ACC, the upcoming fart and gained a persistent injury nerfing the damage of some attacks – a decent opener!

Mars surged and rolled a 4, only getting a regular wound on his follow up. Which I felt like it was a good thing, if I was remembering correctly the event leading to Sad Frogdog Song would offer a reasonably high chance of killing him. Finally, Mars used his leather boots to take a step away.
Without survival Sir Hermes just stepped onto the closest mammoth leaf and pumped his armor up by 1. Lelia took her turn blocking and standing her ground, before Ragnar jumped in with a dash! 1 hit from the lantern dagger – and 1 more wound dealt to finish the first round!

14 (15) cards remaining, the Frogdog drew Origin Dream. A toxic miasma spread throughout the battle ground, threatening to sap the movement capabilities away from the survivors. Whilst most of them were able to fend off the gasses.., not Mars, he was down to 3MOV after he stopped chocking. Worryingly we were also up to 2 farts.

Mars dragged himself back over to the heinous origin and attacked! Rolling a 2 he still wounded but did not crit. Another surge, but he missed outright! As Mars stepped away again with his leather boots, Ragnar moved into the heinous origin next because he could still dash out in case of a failure (a flawed plan at best.., thanks to honorable D). He managed to hit once, trying to strike the Double Blinking Eye, he overextended and just missed. Another surge, another single hit. Early iron not bothering him thus far. And – luckily – 1 more wound as well.

Sir Hermes then jumped in as well, and I finally remembered that with his honorable (D) he would not really be an option to deal with farts… But anyway, the jump attack missed. Lelia just continued to block.

12 (13) cards remaining, Tongue-tied comes off the deck. The Frogdog took to opportunity to show us how to jump! It took Sir Hermes along for the Ride before starting its onslaught. Hitting only on 8+, it missed all its attacks!

Ragnar started off this round, but only got a hit on the impervious Carbuncles. And as he prayed to the unga and the bunga, surging he found the trap. He took 2 hits for 3 damage each.

The worst thing about this development was our inability to get rid of the farts this turn outside of any lucky crits. But I figured I might as well try. Lelia blocked and picked up Sir Hermes so he could.., err.., continue pumping his armor. His honorable (D) nature was really getting in the way quite noticeably.., and the missing survival didn’t help either.
Mars, whilst slow on foot, did not have these preconceptions of right or wrong and hit the frogdog right in the frog-boob, but again no crit. That one… not sure if that would have helped or made it much too dangerous if it had been a crit. Maybe we were getting lucky with our normal wounds.
Another surge followed.., and a crit! Finally! Not a helpful one, but it at least prevented the stink spread from the reaction.

10 (11) cards remaining, 2 farts were going to go off. Sir Hermes was wearing the frogdog headpiece, aka the gasmask, so there was a 50% chance for him to just ignore them. The first fart was Static Emission. Thanks to Mars’ leather boots we were all spread out, so the double hit had been avoided and Lelia, with her minimum of 6 armor across her hit locations, just tanked the 3 damage to all. The 2nd fart turned out to be the Inviting Emission, also targeting Lelia because she was the furthest away. Huh. She stumbled up close to the monster and gained priority target for the upcoming attack!

The actual AI card for the turn would be: Carbuncle Exhalation – a mood adding a +1DMG token (and knocking people back if they attack the monster from the side)! The whole card was going to get discarded on a crit though. This did pose a general the question in regards to the attribute tokens coming from moods though.
Whilst irrelevant for this particular mood, I wondered for a bit how persistent the tokens actually were. In the end I decided that for the time being I’ll remove any attribute tokens a monster gains from moods on a successful crit by Wrath and not put them back on again afterwards. The way a lot of moods are written make it seem like the token should just “respawn” afterwards, but I can’t help but feel like having the additional damage for the token on every attack would be even better than to just remove them.
Anyways.., the attack in question was a basic targeting Lelia. 4 hits. She blocked 1 of the body blows, which wound re-up the priority target on her due to her Blast Shield. And as the frogdog calms down, we are again faced with 2 farts on the pile.

Ragnar picked up Lelia so she could block yet again, just before he ran to the backside of the monster, hitting and wounding once. Finally he dashed away to make room for Mars.
Sir Hermes also moved out of the way and pumped his armor again, mainly to clear the way.
By doing it this way, Mars was just able to reach the heinous origin with a dash. The attack struck true and he even cut off the beast’s tongue! This got us the elastic tongue, 2 wounds thanks to the token and removed all stink from Lelia as well! Mars followed up with a surge – as was proper – and another crit – this time to the Festering Thigh! This added a -1MOV-token to the monster as well for next time and we had taken out both farts as well!

6 (7) cards remaining. No farts thankfully, Lelia braced herself for the attack, the monster drew Twitching Kick! It turned around, staring down at Mars and kicked Lelia hard. 3 hits on 6+. She blocked one hit to the head but was still knocked over from the remaining damage.

Mars started off the turn after stank damage – one of the first rounds it would have been relevant on (if Lelia still had any stink-tokens left), and he carved out the monster’s eye in retaliation for his friend! Another omen was witnessed in the empty socket!
Ragnar then made a mad dash for the heinous origin, but misses on his regular attack. Immediately surging he got 2 more hits, his rawhide set putting in the work to keep his survival up! The first wound failed, and whilst the 2nd wounded the reflex had the monster bounding away and charging up the next fart at a distance. Sir Hermes positioned himself on the closest leaf and pumped his armor yet again.

3 (4) cards remaining, the one fart online was the Distressing Emission. Lelia just go real lucky I think. She only suffered the flee brain trauma and everybody else took some brain damage because of her howling cries as she ran away. With everybody but Lelia sane after the fart the frogdog drew Confusion again. That, however, wasn’t exactly ideal, 3 people were the target and all of them were going to take some brain trauma. Sir Hermes rolled Frenzy, whilst Ragnar gained Chimeric Delusion (D), one of the disorders that came with the frogdog and an interesting one at that. He can no longer hunt the frogdog, encourage or participate in intimacy. Lastly, Mars gained eproctophilia (D) for good measure.

Ragnar started off this round as he was the only one able to reach the center of the butt. He hit twice, the next fart was discarded on the first wound, but the second wound just re-added a new one as it leapt away.

Mars dashed on over. A perfect hit. And a wound on 2. The last AI gone aside Indigestion. He gained a stink token and surged. Another hit. This could be it! A 3 was enough to wound! The monster fell just before I would need to shuffle the farts.

Unga-bunga protects.

Stank-damage was constant throughout the fight, but not too intense overall as we gained very little from the fight itself this time, thus it did not get a lot of mentions. Wrath carried quite hard, but that wasn’t exactly unexpected. We got lucky not to draw any L cards for either AI or farts.
You could just turn into a frogdog-human-hybrid if the game felt like it one day.

But for now… rewards!

Sir Hermes (Feral Strength FA) reached age 3 and only Mars gained weapon proficiency.
Oh my god, this dog has a tooth! That is unprecedented! The Indomitable resource for this fight is the Coated Femur – the least useful one right now? The Bully Hammer needs the Tuskworks, so.. It is a perfect copper scrap bone, I guess.

Of course the most important aspect of this victory is that the settlement now has the ability to hunt the bullfrogdog variant!

All in all, that probably went about as well as it could have. Time to head home. All 4 survivors were now addicted to the stink, one even thinking he’s going to become a frogdog outright.

So.., Bogstop seems to be thriving.

I did not have too much time over the holidays – none in fact – to prep Bogstop lantern years. I bought Stellar Blade on a whim and spent the next 4 days killing monsters and looking at android butt…, in that sense it’s very similar to Nier Automata (aside from the obvious – if you enjoy stuff like Sekiro – the game is incredibly fun. The story isn’t exactly a head scratcher though). Then there’s the time spent with the Feline Entity and family, and there was that Call of Cthulhu session as well (“how about we don’t end up on the wanted list on our first day in a new country?” – proceeds to immediately blow up the house next door) and as it would seem there is already another session of CoC on the horizon as well.
That being said, do not fret, I will be trying my best to keep the bog flowing steadily and I’m looking at increasing the frequency a little bit again as well.

As always, thank you very much for your time, please try not to turn into a frogdog after smelling something weird..,
Amathul