As a heads up: when I first played this Lantern Year I was incredibly unsure of what to hunt and I was constantly flip-flopping between going for either a Frogdog Lvl 1 or 2.
It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do and thus I am trying to remove that part of my deliberations from the settlement phase.

In “short”:
On the one hand, I was feeling emboldened after my victory against the Pariah.
On the other, I was longing for a feeling of safety.., and a Lvl1 Frogdog would surely provide that. Combined with the fact that the Lvl2 version wouldn’t actually add that much more in terms of guaranteed rewards, I was more or less set, in my mind, to hunt another easy monster. And I even took the time to add a long paragraph to my notes as to why would be doing this.
Well.., turns out that idea didn’t last all that long.
I convinced myself to shoot for the stars! Candy would carry me! We needed something more interesting than a Frogdog Lvl1 next! We had so much survival! Dealing wounds shouldn’t be an issue! Yadda yadda yadda.
And then I began flip-flopping AGAIN.
This basically happened twice over.

***

With the Pariah beaten up, and its lunch money taken away by those evil bully survivors, we returned to our day to day activities as the monster lay defeated in the middle of the settlement sulking (but NOT Sulking SE).

Despite this grandiose victory, we did take a sizeable chunk of indirect damage from the encounter – Migi getting joyless was unfortunate to say the least (meaning he couldn’t use surge anymore), the Sword Scab, well, exploded on impact, which, whilst expected, could be considered a death, and Hidari got a permanent -1EVA.
And there was also the matter of that broken rib on my axe trainee.
What’s up with my axe people breaking their ribs consistently?

On the flipside, with 1 returning Tinker in the group and 16 survivors in total we got 6 endeavors to play with this year – which feels like a lot.

But, as always, events were up first, and we had to get through 3 of them this time.
As always, the random settlement event came first: Gathering Emissions.
The Frogdogs were gathering too close to the settlement!
A 7 rolled meant all returning survivors needed to skip the next hunt, which was fair enough! Nobody gained survival off the event as nobody had Eproctophilia (D) at the time.
That could have been a lot worse overall.
It was a clear sign that we needed to thin the Frogdog-heard though.

Next on the list was the coveted Hands of Heat!
Rex was nominated to Experiment with Lanterns and he rolled a little too well. We gained Lantern Oven (I) for the settlement, he learned Red Fist (SFA) and unfortunately, we also had to roll on Lantern Branding for him – another 8 – another +1STR for young Rex.
It cost us a Broken Lantern, but at least we didn’t have to repeat the event in a couple of years.

And finally: the Bone Witch came to visit.
Calys had the most insanity (a whopping 20) and was drawn in by the witch who we had exiled a few Lantern Years past. She rolled another 8 and was taught a tantalizing secret. She learned Bone Whisperer (SFA), which is a fun Secret Fighting Art that I have yet to make truly work for me.

With little to do but augur, we got going on rolling those bones to divine the future:
1st endeavor: intimacy (4&8) 1 child – girl, Goldenglow
2nd endeavor: intimacy (9&10) 2 children – 2 girls, Ruby & Emerald
3rd endeavor: intimacy (10&10) 2 children – 2 boys, Malleus & Morticus
4th endeavor: 1 understanding for Candy, she became a Tinker at the cost of our last Broken Lantern. She also drew Plated Shield as a pattern.
5th & 6th endeavor: +1 survival for Hidari

We these incredible rolls we were up to 21 population, and looking forward to heading out to hunt a Frogdog, hopeful to get all we needed to build the Frogdog boots and/or the lantern to go noodling with.

This is when my great internal debate began, which lasted entirely too long and spilled over far too much into real-space. Have a part of what I had written down as to why I would only hunt a Lvl1 this year as an example:
Damage-wise we should be fine to hunt a Lvl2, our defense does feel quite lackluster though. So.., as its only LY05, we will go for another Lvl1. Lvl 2 only gives 2 additional Frogdog draws (and the noodling requirement), so besides critical wounds, there isn’t that much more to gain right now. We would also have to cross Overwhelming Darkness and face 3 Frogdog events in total. [..] The amount of variables seems too high to make it worthwhile.

The Hunters:
Emerald – green (Rawhide Armor, Vertabrayonet)
Candy – purple (frogdog bits, Sharpened Heel)
Marduk – red (Twilight Sword)
Rex – yellow (screaming bits, Bone Club)

I was not bringing the Maul Scab, as it was much too easy to lose a soluble weapon by falling into a puddle. Still, I wanted to try and make the most of our situation, and thus we had Marduk come along to hopefully deal a wound with the Twilight Sword and get ready for the Hooded Knight visiting in 2 Lantern Years.

The Huntphase:
Leaving the settlement, the group followed the edge of the swamp for a while and found their way directly to the Beginning (basic HE91) where Marduk, Frogmagog, Ellaine and Alyssa first fought the foul Frogdog that lead to the founding of Bloody Shallows. Marduk knew exactly what he was doing it would seem.
The path forward from then on, led us straight into the sprawling mire, and trying to make the best of it, the group crossed a cluster of Bouncing Leaves. Luckily only Marduk took a tumble into the waters below, his Maleadroit (D) nature coming through at an inopportune time.
As we continued on, we stumbled upon a traveling Mask Salesman (basic HE53) who had set up shop on a dry island. Rex, intrigued by the wares stepped up to them and, to nobody’s surprise, came back with a Phoenix Mask at the cost of his name. As I considered how almost all the masks I had ever gotten from this event were either of the Phoenix or Antelope, I renamed Rex to Manus.
Moving on, our path lead us back into the shallow waters where Marduk disturbed a nest of Madflies (basic HE52)! To my horror Emerald suffered frenzy from the incessant buzzing of the insect swarm, whilst Manus kept on throwing up bug corpses (-1EVA-token) long after we had fled the area.
Frustrated, Manus took the lead and fell straight into a bunch of deep Soggy Prints, luckily taking only a single damage to his chest.

Hurting only slightly we arrived at Overwhelming Darkness. Candy (PotI) managed to make a Crab Spider (V) friend, Manus (PotD) suffered PTSD, Marduk (PotI) lost all of his survival to not die, and Emerald (PotD) gained an insanity and a courage.
The final hunt event we drew afterwards was an Interloper – we had found a lone dogpole out in the marsh, and if course attacked it immediately.

Overall, not the worst hunt phase. I would have hoped for the Drums (I) event, but it is what it is.
At least due to Red Fist (SFA) on Manus we would be able to off-set some of the inability to use survival we were suddenly faced with.

The 11TGH of the Lvl2 Frogdog should not be that much of a problem for us, especially with both Red Fist (SFA) and the Mammoth Leaf terrain to help out. But in regards to being able to deal wounds to the monster, I never really doubted our abilities that much to begin with.
The bigger issues we might run into would be the A-farts and the constant damage dealt by the Mature trait, scaling with the amount of stink-tokens on the survivors.

Before the fight could actually get going, we still had to do a couple more things:
Red Fist (SFA), of course, spread +1STR-tokens to all survivors and Candy had to gain a random disorder (Coprolalia D) from her neurosis: Compound Grief, which in turn leveled up Reframe from 1 to 2, giving her the ability to spend 2 survival during her act to remove a disorder (which we would have to do 8 times to reach Reframe III).
Candy also started the fight with 1 stink token due to the (active) Monster Grease in her gear grid.

14 cards in the deck, the Froddog started the fight with a Twitching Kick (again?). Candy was ready and waiting in its blind spot, hoping it would turn to her, but it just stood still for a second and kicked her – time for the Monster Grease to do its thing.
She was hit once on 7+, and she decided to take the 2 damage to her arms.

As the survivor turn began, Candy took 1 more stank-damage to her arms, which quickly had me regretting to take that kick.
Manus, who could set up freely due to one of the hunt events, was in a position to use Slam and push the monster around – which he did, lowering the Frogdog’s TGH by 1 for the rest of the round.
Candy then started our offensive push. First off, she did spend 2 survival to remove Coprolalia (D) to make an early observation before she attacked – this was a costly investment, but at the time I felt confident about it. She hit the monster once and trying to avoid the wound reaction, she took a bleed-token to turn the wound into a crit. Overall a great choice, with the heel being savage, and we got a Tatty Hide as well for hacking off the Festering Spindly Toe. I considered briefly if I should feed the resourse to Cola but held off.
A great start, all in all, that sadly failed to continue basically immediately. Candy surged, hit twice but failed to wound either hit on 4+!
You probably know by now that I frequently do dumb things in moments like these, but as I keep getting rewarded…
So, Marduk dashed in with his sole survival to swing the Twilight Sword and he actually managed to hit! Presented with the opportunity, I wanted to secure the damage and used Fated Blow (FA) as well for the additional wound from Devastating 1.
Finally, the frenzied Emerald struck from the front, hitting once, wounding the soft Festering Exposed Gums. (That hit gave me a bit of a fright to be honest. I did not expect it and her STR is quite low compared to the rest of the group.)

9 cards left in the deck, the still fart-less Frogdog was ready to put its martial prowess to the test! Reeking Headbutt was going to target Candy again!
She got hit twice, in her hands and head, but she managed to dodge just in time! She also took a second bleed-token to ignore the other hit with her Gladiator Garb!

As our turn rolled around Candy took 1 stank-damage to her head, eating away at the fabric of her hood.
Emerald jumped at the monster, a flurry of blows, messy and missing all hits.
Candy moved in as well, hitting only once, but she ultimately failed her attack against the impervious Carbucles.
Marduk contemplated throwing the Founding Stone for a moment, but only moved onto a Mammoth Leaf and fell over instead.
Finally Manus jumped in as well (so much jumping around on those gigantic leaves) and he at least got a good clobbering in! 2 wounds with the Bone Club!
This did trigger a leap/bloat from the monster, as it jumpt right over Emerald and Manus.
I also had the brilliant idea to move Candy over to the monster’s blindspot with a dash before our turn was over, hoping I could prevent it running over other survivors and to be ready to attack next round.

7 cards remaining. The fart was released and the pressure that had built up inside the Frogdog had created an electric current! Oh my Feline Entity!
A Static Emission rushed to Manus in the midst of the newly formed row of 3 people.
Manus was electrocuted and hit the floor hard, having taken 2 damage to EACH hit location, as Candy and Emerald both took heavy wounds to the legs! This was probably the worst case scenario – and the gasmask did nothing for Candy either! (I am not entirely sure the mask would have helped her in this case to begin with.)
The Frogdog tried to play Abrasive Lick as a follow-up, but without threats, it just hopped back to the center of the board, the dogpoles emerging from under it marking everything with their scent.
Emerald and Manus both suffered -1EVA-tokens as the dogpoles swarmed them mercilessly.

Stank-damage spread once more and caused a severe wound for Manus! His Achilles tendon tore as the microbes in the overwhelming filth went to work on his insides.
Marduk was the only one that stood up at the start of our turn and he used his only +1STR-token to encourage Manus.
Manus swung at the Frogdog and wounded it once but he popped a foul smelling pimple, spreading even more stink to the three of the survivors in a row! Oh no!

Next to be encouraged was Candy, and whilst she was able to reliably wound, it was only one hit, yet again! After failing the crit on the Twitching Coarse Crest, which is always a tragedy, she backed off onto a Mammoth Leaf in preparation for next round.
Afterwards Marduk finally jumped in again. Using his Founding Stone as a weapon to strike, he was able to penetrate the thick hide to deal another wound, but was kicked into the stomach hard by the monster as it ran away!

4 cards left in the monster’s deck. It was back to not having a fart in play, the final unknown cards in the deck was Phantasmagoria.
Candy and Manus were both equally far away, but Candy had more insanity. So she was chosen as the target. She hit the floor, twitching like she was having a seizure.

Stank-damage hit us hard again, and it was still mainly targeting legs!
Candy had to archive her Dried Acanthus to avoid the severe injury, whilst Manus’ leg swelled and began bubbling as it grew oozing boils, before it eventually popped and fell off entirely, the flesh liquified.

Marduk and Emerald got up, the latter spending one of her tokens to stand up Manus as well.
He jumped in with his one remaining leg and hit the Frogboobs for another wound with his Bone Club.
Wincing the monster was an easy target for Candy as she flung herself at the Frogdog’s side, her heel ready to carve away. (NB. I am unsure at this point who had encouraged Candy.) Again only 1 hit! But with another bleed-token (up to 3), she was able to turn the attack into a crit! 2 wounds dealt, and another Waxy Dermis gathered, Emerald spent her last STR-token to dash.
She hit the monster’s Festering Heel for another wound, discarding the final AI card!

With the monster down to 0 AI cards left, Marduk was set to minimize our chance at dying – and he threw the Founding Stone to put an end to this fight and the stank-damage!

And then he hit the trap!?

Our triumph felt rather short lived, as the monster ran towards Marduk, slapped him in the face and his head came clean off.

Not to mention the fart that had just been freshly charged up as well.

0 cards remaining. The sudden fart was an Inviting Emission, which called Candy back over to the fight! (The gas mask did nothing for us, yet again.)
She gained Eproctophilia (D) as well for the trouble and to make things even worse, the Frogdog also randomly targeted her with its basic attack!
It did miss all its hits on 7+, so at least that worked out for us!
In another attempt to cut the fight short, before it could charge up another fart, Candy wanted to surge by spending her last +1STR-token to stand up by using the Brain Mint in her possession.
This did remove ALL tokens from her – which meant stink and bleed tokens as well!

Stank-damage just would not grant us any succor – Manus’ got hit in the leg(s) again and it was broken from the inside, the gnarled bone sticking out! This almost set off Emerald as well, but she was able to barely hold it together.
But that should be all – we were finally able to end the fight now – Candy just needed to not fail her attack!

Guess what? She failed her attack.

And that after Emerald only moved out of the way for her to be able to attack from the blind spot!

0 cards remaining. The fart went off and it was a Choking Emission – that is the large aoe fart! But finally – the Frogdog Mask worked! Candy – the only target, was able to ignore a fart card!
The Frogdog jumped at Emerald for a change and only hits her once, tearing through her chest armor.

With 1 more fart charged up, Stank-damage came in yet again, and whilst Emerald might not have been suffering too badly, Manus took ANOTHER severe leg injury!
His other leg fell off! The flesh-eating bacteria of the cesspond were eating good that day. This set him to 1MOV and forced him into retirement!
He did get up first, as far as one could call it that, and he bounced on the Mammoth Leaf with his booty and the last bit of his strength .. and he missed both his hits.

Understandable.

Candy walked up to the monster and into the blind spot but she missed all her hits again as well! What is going on?!
Dispirited, Emerald bounced on the spot and – oh my Feline Entity – she hit it twice directly in the face! Could this be it?
The reactions were terrible but if she could wound the monster, they wouldn’t matter!

She did it!

Finally!

Bruised and partially broken we gathered our rewards for the fight, fleeing the bacteria rich environment we had been fighting in, before another of our legs could swell up and burst like a boil.
All remaining survivors aged up from the fight. Emerald (Agility Fighter FA – what a draw!) and Manus (Cross Counter FA) reached age 1 respectively, whilst Candy would be able to ponder her next story bit when we were back in the settlement.

We drew what felt like a million hide (11 in total), but no scrap for the lantern and even worse: no Frogboob for the shoes to complete the set.

Leather here we come…

***

Whilst a part of me would want to put the blame on the Feline Entity for buffing the Frogdog a little too much before the game, in reality the Lvl 2’s damage output just shouldn’t be taken too lightly thanks to the Mature trait, and well, we are still only in Lantern Year 5.
Overall, the fight had been a fairly stable one, with us able to deal 3 to 4 wounds each round, so we were fighting at a decent pace. We also saw very few farts all around, which kept the guaranteed stank-damage fairly minimal for the most part.., until it wasn’t.
Stuff only really entered panic-mode after we hit the trap with the Founding Stone. That was the turning point from a fairly breezy fight into an expensive affair.

The stank-damage almost exclusively hitting the legs location for some people didn’t help either. 4(!) severe leg injuries for Manus – it is actually a little surprising he survived that!

Luckily, Candy had remained unharmed throughout the fight, so I was fairly certain we would be fine overall. Agility Fighter (+EVA counts as +STR for attacks with daggers and swords, if a dagger or sword is in your gear grid gain a +1EVA-token on departure) was also a great Fighting Art for Emerald to get! If you got put into the frogbits set-up with the Monster Grease she would be looking at +3STR to all her attacks!
Of course, losing both the Twilight Sword in its infancy and our Red Fist (SFA) survivor to being leg-less is tough/annoying.

Next Lantern Year we will be heading to another Frogdog I believe, blame it on my inability to finish the Frogdog Armor set before LY08.
I somehow just can’t do it.

***

With Christmas around the corner I will try to get the next Lantern Year up at the start of next week, followed by the update for the Deathmas Sale on the … uhm, 25th (?).

I am also getting more painting done in the meantime and hopefully all of the Red Witches will hit the table fully painted.

For now, enjoy the upcoming weekend, play some KD:M if you can and get those final Christmas preparations in.
As always, thank you very much for your time, would a Kingdom Death Mistletoe mean that you have to eat the other person? Asking for a friend.
Amathul