So, it’s been a minute, and I was hoping to maybe get my January order delivered before I post this but, well, I should have known better, really. It was naive in all honesty.
But, anyways, I’ve spent some time over the last week preparing for a session of Call of Cthulhu, got sucked back into Elden Ring for a spell and began painting up my Slenderman mini. So, at least I can pretend that I’ve been keeping busy as I pushed Bogstop to the back of my list.
I did also get my first little premium KD:M upgrade from a third party, mainly to increase the readability of the pictures I take for the game. Yep. I got me some colored rings for my minis to use in the future!

As we last left our survivors, they were just about to return from their fight against the pomegranate, their home stirring in growing panic as slowly the light of the Lantern Hoard began to dwindle.

There were quite a few Settlement Events to go through this time:
First up: Stranger in the Dark – I rolled a 7. That was a new result on this event for me – I tend to get the Lamplighter ALOT. Apparently this survivor we suddenly found in our settlement had always been around, despite none of us remembering him. (I know it references the White Lion SFA Zero Presence, but isn’t that some neat emergent narrative with the Slenderman?) I quickly named him something forgettable like Daniel and welcomed him to the community.., again.
I then moved on to the “big” one.
Watched – one by one lanterns all around our settlement slowly flickered out. An ill omen of yet unfathomable meaning to my survivors, in an attempt to find answers to this occurrence, carefully a hand full of the bravest of them ventured into a newly discovered cavern that waited below the center of the lantern hoard.
In a great, big cocoon the Watcher stirred in its slumber, ready to awaken at any time now. Shaken in their beliefs, the Barbaric people of Bogstop saw only one way to secure their future – by creating the Ultimate Weapon!
And like any Barbaric tribe, upon this revelation we decided we should party! Hands of Heat was subsequently added to Lantern Year 24.

The Hooded Knight also made a stop at the settlement this year – wanting to have one more sparing match with Selen. She rolled a 3 (+5) – this meant she would all her survival to gain 1 more proficiency for the Twilight Sword.
This also meant that Selen would be unable to gain any survival this Lantern Year, and so this further cemented my decision to not fight the Watcher immediately.
Having Ultimate Weapon gave us an opportunity to fight another Bullfrogdog and guarantee at least 1 resource from its deck that we really needed to finish as much gear from the frog as possible. Or, if nothing else, it would at least guarantee us an Iron.

But before I get too far ahead of myself, we still needed to finish all events first, so after the Feline Entity had also demanded a quick cuddle break, it was finally time for our first Metamorphosis Festival!
I had a bit of a misunderstanding in regards to this event which was part of the reason why I did not attempt too hard to have it on the time-line any earlier.
As the survivors began working the swamp, we were able to nominate UP TO 3 survivors with the most hunt xp, and UP TO 3 survivors with the least hunt xp. Especially the side for the “young” survivors was able to offer some juicy results. Of course, being able to potentially reactivate a retired survivor was also nothing to sneer at, especially given Sir Hermes had retired just a little earlier.

For highest xp we had Sir Hermes at maximum and we could further add Calys and/or Ruby, but I quickly decided that I would hold off on either of the two.
As for the youngest survivors: Fyrn, Renna and the newly discovered Daniel (I won’t consider him a new-born for Clan of Death and Saga) had 0 hunt xp to their name and were sent into the shallows. Non of those 3 had a dedicated survivor sheet at the time.

Sir Hermes – he rolled a 2. This gave him +1STR and the Extra Long Arms ability – his F&T had gained Reach 2. Wooh?
Fyrn: A 5 – Pubescent Vestment: 1 armor to each hit location for each xp milestone. Severe injuries he suffered in the future would also trigger brain trauma.
Renna: A 1 – She gained a flat 8 hunt xp (Phantom Friend FA and +1STR for age milestones) but she lost her reroll and turned unable to use fighting arts anymore.
Rounding out the group, Daniel: Another 1 – he also gained 8 hunt xp .. Both he and Renna would have lost their rerolls anyway due to the result, so both used them. At least Daniel’s result got marginally better – a 2. He was our second survivor with Pubescent Vestment.

It would seem that we got exactly none of the really good results.

Done with events, we were finally on to develop.
With all the stuff we had in storage, I was confident we could safely ignore starvation for this Lantern Year. I did want to hunt at least 1 more Bullfrogdog to get the set together and actually make use of Ultimate Weapon for once to guarantee us an Ironclad Spine along the way whilst we have it.
At this stage the fight against the Watcher should be mainly about Selen not dying anyhow. And it having 1 more TGH should not mean too much for her either with 2 retinues at her back supporting her during the fight.

I did briefly consider building a second pair of Frogdoggles, but as I didn’t make it a priority, I ultimately held off in the end. I did not build anything this settlement phase at all, storing what I had left.
Instead, I prayed at our Shrine and rolled a 6 – 1 armor additional for everyone. And we sent Celestine with her 7 survival to do some Nightmare Train. Instantly rolling an 8, she gets the desired result and some more club proficiency!
Just 1 more point to go for her to gain club mastery as well.

Holding true to myself, we innovated this year as well. What an array of choices.
Partnership, Bloodletting, Scarification or Forbidden Dance.
I took Forbidden Dance as I saw the chance that it might still help us with gaining scrap or any of the perfect resources at the Stone Circle in the years to come.

The final 2 endeavors were used by Ghurt to go scrap scavenging (1 broken lantern and 1 spent survival).

Heading out for another Bullfrogdog Celestine couldn’t come along because of her Chimeric Delusion (D) (as it prevents you from hunting Frogdogs), so Ruby would be filling in for her instead.
The other departing survivors remained the same from the years before.

The Hunters:
Ghurt (Wrath, leather set)
Beastia (F&T, Dragon set)
Calys (lantern glaive, frogdog set)
Ruby (lance of longinus, bullfrogdog bits)

None of these hunters needed to be stinky, which would prove helpful in the cesspond. We took 1 sickle, 1 pickaxe and the noodling lantern along as well, hoping for a chance to bring a good mix of resources back home.

The Huntphase:
As was tradition: we began by going noodling! Beastia was not fazed by the prospect of taking bleeding tokens and yanked out the glistening brain of a passing fish in one quick pull.
This quick triumph did not protect her from having Night Terrors (basic HE16). Everybody gained a disorder because of how horrible their dreams were: Ghurt (Maladroit D), Beastia (Aichmophobia D), Calys (Honorable D), Ruby (Arithmophilia D – her movement is locked to 3). Calys and Ghurt (+1STR) both had Extra Sense (FA) and thus disappeared into their dream, gaining a resource each before waking up from this impossibly long side quest. This also meant that Calys was definitely going to retire after the hunt..

Once again we found a strange Skeletal Bloom, this time it was Ruby who found the eerie growth. She quickly ate the offending flower, gaining +1STR-token, losing her ability to shout. The only proper way to react, really.
At this point a sort of theme for this hunt was emerging – we had a quick triumph which was then followed by a Nightmare (basic HE41). Ghurt gained 3 insanity and the -1EVA-token. Nothing some first aid or singing won’t fix though!
Another prodigious roll followed: a 100. I wasn’t too happy with this roll at first. But as I was settling in to accepting my fate, I noticed that nobody in the group had 3+ understanding! We were just going to harvest all the dead monsters! I’d rather have these than lose gear to the Cyclops Knight at this point, so I was quite happy with this result.

Venturing onwards we stumbled upon another valley of Belching Mouths. As Beastia began lagging behind, she had a migraine from the stink, losing her all insanity and gaining her Spiral Ganglia (D).

We had successfully reached Overwhelming Darkness – we were half way! The rolls for the event were a little more spread out this time. Most notably, Calys emerged from the experience a Leader (FA).

Leaving the suffocating barrier behind, we had a chance at both Mineral Gathering and Herb Gathering.
Calys swung her pickaxe and rolled a 9, gaining a scrap for the team. Ghurt, who was carrying a sickle headed into the tunnels below the loosened rocks but he only emerged a little more insane that he was before. The same happened to Beastia. Ruby on the other hand lost 4 survival to gain Quixotic (D), whilst Calys got a Spiral Ganglia (D) infection. Most importantly.., we found no iron.
A little disappointed we moved on to herb gathering. Ghurt (doubles – 0), Beastia (23), Calys (doubles – 0) and Ruby (16) all did their best with 4 dice each. A total of 49 meant we would be be gaining 2 fresh acanthus, a vermin (Crab Spider) and 3 survival from the event.
Moving on we were soon surrounded by Fits of Laughter sounding from nowhere. 4 insanity for each of us quickly soured the mood as both Calys and Ruby lost all their survival because they refused to leave this giggling glade.
Beset be Crippling Misery (basic HE34) because we forced her to move on, Calys stumbled down a hill breaking her leg. She did gain some insight from this, regaining 3 survival (and 3 more insanity – up to 19) from the understanding event.
Needing to rest before the approaching encounter.., we were again beset by Night Terrors (basic HE16). Beastia gained an understanding from them this time as the rest had to gain another batch of disorders. Ghurt (Hyperactive D), Calys (Traumatized D) and Ruby (Delirium D) got the worst of it. And just like before, Ghurt (Rhythm Chaser FA) and Calys (+1LCK) disappeared into the dream, returning with more resources.
Huh, Rhythm Chaser (FA) was a lucky addition to his kit. If Ghurt were to kill the Frogdog, he would be able to unlock a strain for us!
One more event to go before we were at the monster! Soggy Prints for Ghurt. After deliberating for a bit if it was worth the risk, he took the chance of rolling on the table and he fell in, taking 3 damage to the body.

We got so many disorders from that hunt.., not to mention 8 hunt xp on both Ghurt and Calys.

We sang our hearts out and dealt with the most obvious debuffs as we set up for the fight. Both Ghurt and Beastia were at our cap of 10 survival. The unga-bunga might be with us again this time. Rounding out the prep, Ruby gained a -1EVA-token and -1SPD-token from Delirium (D).

23 (24) cards in the deck, the monster began the showdown by drawing Origin Dream. Preparing its first fart, a miasma creped up upon us. Ghurt and Calys suffered the worst of it as each of them had to take a -1MOV-token .

With 2 farts on the stack, Ghurt activated. He shuffled over slightly and attacked. He hit the monster, but failed to wound it on a 1! Immediately surging, he hit again but did not crit on a 5. The monster then charged off to a distant mammoth leaf, readying more farts. Before the reaction would be play out, the rest of the survivors made use of their survival opportunity to dash out of the monster’s possible pathways.

Beastia was the next tone to act as she had the chance to head for the heinous origin. She attacked furiously, yet hitting only once. Still she was lucky enough to crit on a Lantern 10 thanks to f&t being deadly! With savage from Monster Claw Style (FA) that was 2 wounds right off the bat! Trying to get lucky again, she surged for one more hit – the Left Tusk was revealed from the deck, at -1LCK for the hit location she would be unable to crit it, so she was flung away by the beast, taking 5 damage to her chest.
This did open the monster up to being poked in the butt by Ruby. She hit once, but the Carbuncles shrugged off any damage. She surged – as we typically did. And this time she was able to wound the Twitching Coarse Crest of the monster, applying her debuff and preventing the last fart.

Calys might as well attack as well, I said to myself as I moved her into range. Being honorable (D) she couldn’t attack from the back, so she had to sit in the monster’s flank.
Hitting 3 times on 6+, early iron did not trigger. Most of the reaction that came from the deck did mess with Ruby instead of Calys. The first wound knocked Ruby over, the second gave her a stink token. And the third wound merely prevented the monster from running off.
Overall we dealt some decent damage even without a crit from Wrath.

15 (16) cards remaining, the monster prepared for its retaliation. Snatch and Squash again – this card is turning into a bit of an evergreen for the Frogdogs I’m fighting.
It loaded up a fart and charged over to another mammoth leaf, taking Calys along. As the Bullfrogdog barreled through half of the group, Ruby took 5 damage to the chest (still 5 armor left), whilst Ghurt lost his EVA-token as he fell over and suffered a light wound to his arms.

As our turn began, Ruby tanked 1 stank damage to her legs before Beastia encouraged Ghurt, who would begin the turn for us proper. With his Frogdoggles we saw that the next card on the deck was going to be Metamorphosis, and as it paired up with a safe hit location as well, Ghurt headed into the heinous origin to hopefully strike true!
A hit – a crit!
5 wounds from the effect of Wrath! Snatch and Grab was discarded along with all the tokens on the monster.

Whilst a little tougher again, we could crit it more easily now. I can only guess at how much I am going to miss Wrath in future campaigns. But that also meant that I needed to make the best of it right now whilst I have it!
Ghurt quickly took the time to encourage Calys before he surged for another attack. Another quick wound later Beastia was up next. She dashed into range to jump with her armor! She landed a single perfect hit, which turned into a wound due to the STR bonus from Armored Fist (FA).

Calys was up next, but the first bunch of attacks faltered due to early iron (cancel all hits if you roll any 1 during the attack). She did surge as well, hitting twice more. Two more quick wounds were dealt to safe hit locations without reflexes. Ruby moved up and used her rawhide headband. Slough or Bullish Posture. If the latter ended up on top, both would be resolving, so I put Slough on top of the deck.

6 (7) cards remaining, completely unexpectedly, we drew Slough. The monster gained its tokens +1DMG/-1TGH and prepared a fart as we saw a chance to deal devastating damage to it in return.

Ruby took 1 more stank damage to her chest before Ghurt was free to engage the creature. He did hit on a Lantern 10, and he crit on a 6 (Luck Charm and Wrath with Deadly 3)! The tokens it just gained were already gone again as it suffered another hit for 3 wounds in total, knocking it down as well!
As I have mentioned before, I will only be putting token from traits or moods onto the monster once. You could read many of these cards as them continuously putting on tokens for Wrath to remove, but that feels ridiculous.

Ruby walked over to the monster to attack, but fails her hits because of a 1. The Indomitable monster quickly got back up as she surged, spending her last 2 survival for it. She failed this attack as well because of another 1. My early iron luck was seemingly shifting away from me.
Beastia dashed away from the monster and jumped back in. She hit it twice and drew the trap! She was hit twice on 6+, no damage to the body or arms, so this was fine. Lastly Slough was discarded after the trap had been resolved. Back to its feet, Calys saw an opportunity for an attack, and she might as well attempt to make use of it. 3 hits, one of them turned out to be the Right Tusk. Thanks to her +1LCK she at least had a small chance to crit it.
She rolled a 9 – so close, but still not close enough. At least she did deal a wound before flying off, taking 4 damage to her hip (leprosy preventing 1 damage).
Weary of the upcoming fart, Ghurt dashed back a few spaces.

2 (3) cards remaining, the fart of the fight actually went off. Treacherous Emission.., that’s just.., a random severe injury!?
Ready to retire at the end of the fight, Calys would be the designated target for the hit, which meant all other survivors needed to spend 1 survival to redirect the fart to her. This spelled the end for the Crab Spider we picked up. She had to take a body severe and got an 8 – a Broken Rib. -1SPD normalized her a bit, still remaining at +1 for now. She was bleeding quite heavily at this point (3 bleed). As AI the monster re-drew Snatch and Squash again. It took Beastia along as it charged, running over Ruby.

Hoping to end the fight, Ghurt activated first, dashing and moving towards the monster. He attacked, but missed just as quickly. Ghurt then surged, and failed to hit the monster on a 1.
Well, that was unlucky.
Ruby activated next. She did hit, and would have crit on 9+, but only wounded. No +1LCK for her. Just one more wound for the monster to die -she hit it on another 8 – and she dealt the killing blow! 18STR vs 17TGH!
She did it!

I was a little unsure about when to select the resource we could get from Ultimate Weapon – especially as there were pros and cons to both ways you could do it – but going by how it is written, I did pick up the Ironclad Spine before I drew the other resources from the monster’s deck.

Quickly (I write as I am forced in an hour-long break) we claimed our rewards, ready to finish that Bullfrogdog set.

For the min-max-ing it is unfortunate that Ruby got the killing blow, both because we missed out on a strain and because she already had the Bullfrog Neck ability.

The Indomitable resource we drew was the Steele Carbuncle so we got all 3 different ones over these few fights. We also got our 4th Black Lichen, so we only need to use our Brain Mint next showdown to trigger that Strain!

Overall we gained a mountain of stuff, 12 basic resources, 11 Frogdog, 6 Strange and 1 Indomitable resource. There were 2 iron and 1 copper amongst the bunch, whilst we got neither a Wiry Crest nor a Supple Nose unfortunately. But at least we’ll be able to finish the set once we get back home.., until I draw Vestiphobia (D) that is.

Overall our armor is a little more beat up than last time as we head home, despite the Frogdog not having much of an opportunity to strike back at us. We still “lost” a person to retirement, but she is still alive at least.
The hunt was the worst part about this year. All those disorders were rough, and we got lucky for what its worth. Ruby locked to 3 movement isn’t great though.

But I am being overly complain-y again. For now we have managed to best another Bullfrogdog and got away with most resources we wanted/needed. Next time we will start the year by finishing the Bullfrogdog Armor and then we should face off against the Watcher beneath our Lantern Hoard.
That is going to depend on Selen though.

For the time being, I will try to catch up on some sleep I missed out on as I wait for my January order to ship from the EU warehouse. I’ll either be back with that next time, or with the next chapter in the story of Bogstop.

As always, thank you very much for your time, and always take that Bullfrogdog by the horns,
Amathul