So, this week had a few surprises in store for me so far. Aside from getting rug-pulled by my favorite music app on my phone yesterday (which to a degree I actually feel scammed by), I’ve been fortunate enough to start a new People of the Stars campaign on the side!
Me and my buddy did find the time to get the next settlement going this past week, and damn, its been a rollercoaster ride so far. Not sure what the Tyrant thinks of the batch of people he’s shepherding, but it cannot be good. The first hunt saw somebody torn apart by the flesh monolith and we also got Murder (SE) on our way home to follow that up. There’s 8 people the year before our first in-person check up, and there’s no real telling how things will play out. Good times!
I’ve also noticed another batch of Golden Bat Dice on the official Kingdom Death store and ever since seeing them I’ve been trying my best to hold off from ordering some before the January sale.. which should happen at some point next week.

But despite me waffling on, we should be heading back to Bogstop, shouldn’t we?

With a pomegranate encounter scheduled for next year, and the *redacted* slowly starting to wake up the year after, the choice of what we should and would hunt in this year sat gravely on my shoulders.
Of course, clicking on this post you are already well aware that I ultimately decided to hunt a Bullfrogdog, but I still wanted to at least touch on the Dragon King and Dung Beetle Knight for a moment – the opportunities for us to hunt non-level 3 monsters are dwindling fast at this point after all.
A Dragon King level 2 would have given us easier access to the core that bestowed Sharp to nuclear weapons – something Wrath could actually benefit from – even if it only really needed the boost against our Core and Finale monsters.
And, well, I do have to admit it at some point – I ignored the beetle too much. Or, more realistically, the two dogs from the inverted mountain demanded too much attention this campaign. So I do feel like I should just leave the beetle alone for the time being, maybe try my hands at it in LY27 or so to get beaten up by its Lvl3 version and really engage with it in another campaign instead.

But with that off my chest: Onwards! To the settlement event!
Clinging Mist – erm,
When I started making notes for my campaigns, I made up my mind that I didn’t really want to get into any NG+ situations. So I nervously rolled the dice and got a 4. Somebody doused themselves in urine to dispel the mists. That sounded like a .., uhh, Fyrn thing to do? Sure.
We gained 1 more seed pattern from the decisively taken action as well – Tempered Axe – one of the last ones I had access to at the time.

Whilst Sir Hermes had already begun counting the hours until he could finally retire, we went ahead and decided to innovate. Another thing we should get gone whilst we could.
The choice we were presented with this year was between Bed, Partnership, Bloodletting and Pictograph.
A lackluster collection overall, but we would be making the best of it. Partnership was the only one I knew I would not be picking right off the bat, whilst Bed and Bloodletting would offer a bit of safety/ utility mainly for the settlement phase, I liked the idea of getting Pictograph, less for the ability to run away, more so for the interactions it has with events and other cards. But In the end I picked Bed, mainly for the additional survival limit. With it we were up to 9.

1 more endeavor was then spent to cook some gruel just in case we triggered starvation. Another endeavor got used to make leather and build a First Aid Kit with our perfect bone. We also spent the necessary time at our Shrine (I) to beseech the Feline Entity for good fortunes. Our fleeting wish was granted as we rolled a 7: + 1 armor for all departing survivors again.
With the final endeavor Glow ventured into the settlement outskirts and found another broken lantern for iron smelting in a later Lantern Year.

With our creative juices all used up, there was nothing else to do but prep for the hunt!

This year’s Hunters:
Glow (Wrath, leather set)
Sir Hermes (bone club, dragon set)
Calys (lantern glaive, frogdog set)
Ruby (lance of longinus, rawhide set)

This was as good as it got. Three people with 5 armor in each spot and all the damage in the world. We could only hope for the best, whilst we were certain to have at least 3 survival going into the fight (or so I thought).

The Huntphase:
As always, we began by noodling the shit out of the nearest pond. We didn’t get any copper from the event this time, in a stroke of luck I’d say, and just got a Crab Spider for Glow instead. Not having to take the 2 bleed on the bearer of Wrath felt a lot better overall.

As we then attempted to move on, Glow got Face to Face (basic HE17) with a stone face in the ground. Nobody really understood what was happening, but she couldn’t help but investigate and triggered bold (+1 understanding) before she lost herself to memories for a moment. With her survival at 6 and insanity at 8 she moved on quickly, unshaken by that spark of recognition.
Stumbling on a Skeletal Bloom, we were unsure what to do for a moment, but ultimately Calys ate it. Defying death she rolled a 2, gave me a good fright, and removed her ability to encourage for the fight, all for a +1STR-token.
Strange encounters abound all around us, Ruby took charge of the group for the next part of the journey. Confidently she led us to a Fresh Kill (basic HE43)of some unknown monstrosity. Sir Hermes relished in the challenge presented by the mountain of ticks on the carcass and he got right in there, claiming a Perfect Hide and a Nightmare Tick as spoils for his own.
Following the trail of the monster we came upon a place we had already visited once before, many, many Lantern Years ago: a collection of Putrid Tunnels (basic HE86). Sir Hermes and Ruby managed to find their way to the people living in the tunnels and contracted leprosy from their hospitality as they swapped stories of Ragnar.
Prize in hand, we ventured on happily, just before Sir Hermes found another area filled with Soggy Prints. For a brief moment I considered not to investigate at all, but ultimately decide the 1D5 damage to one hit location should be fine for Sir Hermes. But we did roll an 8, gaining us a Tatty Hide .. and another random hunt event. Close the edge of the area we found a weird Corpse (basic HE02), frozen and perfectly pristine. We all lost 3 survival each as the temperature sharply dropped around us in an eerie reminder of the last Killennium.

Finally we were able to breach the barrier of Overwhelming Darkness and the rolls were just hilarious.
Sir Hermes was the only one to not find somebody else beset by moths in the darkness. Wanting to not lose all their survival to the event, the other 3 all lost a courage instead and we moved on, vowing to never mention what we saw in that unrelenting fissure of gloom.

We have made it to mineral gathering! Our one chance at iron – and Calys rolled a 4, on the one hand she found a broken lantern for the group, but she also took a sudden rock slide to the legs.
Pressing on we were soon surrounded by Wet Ground, each step more treacherous than the one before. Glow lost all armor to her leg hit location with just one wrong footfall. Sir Hermes turned out to be Squeamish (D).., again, losing him all his survival.., again. Calys gained 1 insanity and 1 understanding and Ruby got the best result of +1MOV. A mixed bag all around, I can’t imagine I’ll start liking this event any time soon.
Quickly moving on we found a patch of Rotten Faces (basic HE30). Calys lost 3 survival so she did not have to give up her leg armor.
We were so close now, just one last Interloper. We murder the small Frogdog, taking a frogboob as a prize.

Long hunts can be rough. I do like finding new and interesting events, but I can’t help but feel nervous about rolling those dice. This time we lost loads of survival and leg armor on our way to the croaking menace.., but at least we made it without any more tangible losses.

The Bullfrogdog adds a few new cards to the Frogdog’s armaments, like the 3 exclusive hit locations, representing the 2 tusks and large chinsack of the monster.
It also has 5 new AI cards representing the more aggressive nature of the monster, whilst trait-wise it gains Bullish Charge, replacing the effects of Leap with a charge that potentially deals large amounts of damage to survivors caught in its approach.
Aside from the +1LCK-token, the monster is a level 3 Frogdog otherwise, legendary farts and all.

23 (24) cards remaining, the monster began the fight by putting Snatch and Squash into play. With this set up the monster would be charging around liberally until we could eventually crit it with Wrath. Ruby was picked as the first target to get snatched, before the Frogdog ran off towards the back-leaf, instead of going through us head on ahead. A mistake that surely will cost the creature.

Dealing a critical wound to the monster had just turned into the most important thing we could do. So, Glow activated first. She began by dashing onto the closest mammoth leaf, her Frogdoggles seeing a less than stellar first hit location to go after, but with her turn already started, I figured she might as well try her hand at it. Because of the monster’s +1 LCK-token she would “only” crit the monster on a 7+, whilst she still wounded on a 2+.
A 9 dispelled all concerns we ever had!
Wrath did not disappoint once again! Fart and charge-mood got discarded as well, whilst the monster suffered 4 wounds and we gained a gaseous bladder from the.. toenail?

At that point I realized that I got ahead of myself again. I remembered both the stank damage we had to take coming into our turn as well as the +3 survival each survivor gained from the first aid kit Sir Hermes was lugging around.

Sir Hermes had 8MOV and a dream, unable to attack from his spot he just moved to the side, trying to find a good place to jump in from during the next turn. Meanwhile Glow spent 1 more survival to pick up Ruby giving her a chance to attack in turn.
1 hit, against the monsters tusk. At -1LCK against the hit location, sadly she wasn’t able to ever critically hit it, but at least her spear kept her at range and safe from the reflex. She wounded on a 9 applying her -1TGH debuff for Wrath later on.
We had one more attacker to go still. Calys moved in but rolled two 1s to hit, early iron ending the attack immediately. Tempted by the surge, she considered possible consequences for a second but ultimately swung anyhow. No Fear!
From her 3 successful attacks, hitting the Carbuncles did nothing for us. The second wound failed as well, the reflex only prevented because of her being in the blind spot. Finally we managed to score a wound on the third hit and only because of the 2 +1STR-tokens she had. Taken in by the unga bunga, Ruby followed suit and surged as well, wounding but also triggering a charge on the reflex. It ran right into Calys and Ruby, dealing 5 damage and a bleed to each of them before preparing a fart as well.

16 (17) cards remaining, the monster farted – and a legendary one even! The Disrupting Emission, dealing very high single hit damage to a survivor in the emission zone – but we were all safe! The charge over to the leaf actually saved us in a way!
It then moved on to draw its card for the turn – Bullish Temper – gaining stat tokens if our combined courage was lower than 15.. we had 17 in total thanks to the Butcher. Disgruntled, but not strengthened it drew another AI – Soaring Smash, targeting Sir Hermes as the only stinky survivor of the group.
The monster charged to the last untouched mammoth leaf, in theory only hitting on 8+ and just as expected.., it rolled 4 hits .. .. .. what?

Calys and Ruby got up as Sir Hermes suffered his stank damage in silence. Glow moved up, but did not quite manage to reach the heinous origin, still she attacked and just barely wounded the monster on a 2. Surging, she dealt another singular wound.

Calys then ran up to the heinous origin and began swinging wildly, hitting only once, the Gular Sac came up, a wound dealt, but sadly not a crit. -1LCK on the monster would have been incredible. I couldn’t help but unga-bunga on. Calys attacked again for two more hits, wounding the Twitching Abdominis and getting a clutch crit on the Festering Maw, preventing the spread of more stank! The loosened tooth knocking her upside the head, she learned something from the stinging pain and was up to +2SPD at that point.

The time had come! Sir Hermes was ready for an attack of his own! A master at work, he cleanly got a perfect hit! Hitting for a whopping 34, he dealt 2 damage in one swing! There was a charge reaction to this however. Before the reaction could fire, Glow, Ruby and Calys, all 3 of them dashed out of any possible paths they could get hit in.

With a new fart primed and ready, Ruby was the only one still able to prevent it. Without fear she ran up and attacked the heinous origin. From her two hits, the first attack easily wounded, but spread the deadly stink to Ruby. Being firmly insane she didn’t gain the dreaded eproctophilia (D) either. Curiously that opened up the crit effect on the second hit for her and she got it! She turned into a dog-mom! +1LCK for her!

Looking over at the hit location deck, we’ve only seen about half the hit locations up until this point and so she went for the surge! 2 more hits were landed. A wound on 5 and a wound on 6, the second one knocking Ruby down.

Only 5 (6) cards remaining after that turn. We are beating this Bullfrogdog up like no tomorrow! No farts to its name, only a Wet Slap! The Frogdog moved all the way back over to Sir Hermes. Hitting him on 8+ again, only 1 hit managed to land this time. If nothing else, the monster bloated up significantly from that turn i.e. twice.

Ruby slowly got up, the stink eating away at the same spot she took the brunt of the charge on. The same applied also to Sir Hermes. Fueled by hope and an end in sight, Sir Hermes swung his club again, a 9, not quite perfect. But his wound failed with a 15 on 16+.

Glow then went ahead and activated next. Her Frogdoggles showed her the last AI card in the deck – the legendary Dog Doom. That one needed to go! She hit the Bullfrogdog right in the Frogboobs, dealing a critical wound.., as she would. Well, that wasn’t great, neither was it terrible, I guess. Archiving the -1TGH-token to deal a second wound before applying 2 more -1TGH-tokens. Starting next to the monster would from now on deal 3 damage to the survivor’s legs though. Hopefully at this point the fight wouldn’t last long enough for this to matter though.

With 2 more tokens on the monster, Glow saw her chance to end it and surged to hit the Left Tusk. A 5 was only a wound though, forcing her to take the reflex. The 5 damage went to her legs of all places and she had to takes a severe injury as she was flung backwards 7 spaces.
Without a reroll left.., she died in a geyser of blood.

Just like that, she was gone. That was quick and sudden.
Ruby moved up seeking revenge. She just about hit the monster twice. An 8 was an easy wound, but not a crit. A 10 on the other hand would do it! The monster was just knocked over though.. Ruby surged, the monster deck empty – she only hit once – not the trap – great!… another 8! Thats it! The final wound!

I felt real safe for a while there. Oof. One bad roll is all it takes sometimes. That did end our progression along Glow’s character card sadly, but, having to spend even more iron probably wouldn’t have been too helpful either. So, this might be good in a bad kind of way..?

Unga-bunga protects.. to a limited degree at least.

Sullen we moved on to collect our rewards.
Gaining 2 Hunt xp, Sir Hermes (+1SPD) retired, whilst Calys (Extra Sense FA) reached age 3 and Ruby (+1STR) reached age 2. Ruby also gained Spear specialist from weapon prof. Not to forget, she also also gained the ability Bullfrog Neck (+1 to head severes, double courage when relevant for rolls) for dealing the killing blow to the monster.

With all the character stuff done, we added the Tuskworks to our settlement. We would be able to make use of our copper come the start of next year! We also got 4 basic, and 8 frogdog resources, a black lichen, a prime tusk and gular sac.
To round things out we harvested Glow for some love juice, scavenged an elastic tongue (I wanted that iron spine), and gained a Gilled Fungus as our Indomitable Resource.

That is a bunch of stuff to be fair. On first glance, it does look like we are 1 Gular Sac short of being able to build the whole armor set.. And we are also still missing the Ironclad Spine for the mace.
So, this already feels very much like another Bullfrogdog is coming up in LY20.

Anyway I’m going to have to take a good look at my options next Lantern Year.

Once again, we seem to have all the damage in the world at this point. Wrath is carrying decently well, but the Lantern Glaive and Lance of Longinus are also coming into their own, doing their part.
Losing Glow like we did is rough, but to be fair, we haven’t lost a lot of people so far anyways.
I also had my props ready!
I wanted to remove the tusks from the model if I crit any, but alas, it was not to be.

As always, thank you very much for your time and get out of that Bullfrog-charge,
Amathul