The first full week of the new year has just begun trucking along nicely and I have finally been delivered both my Black Friday order from HQ (including a recipe I did not yet have) as well as my after-Christmas-money-splurge. So, I do need to get this Frogdog fight out into the world on the double.
When this was played it was still last year, but I need to get past this trilogy of Frogdogs to not only finally finish that Frogdog Armor, but to also move on to Braal.

So.., will we be able to build the boots this time?

***

Arriving back home, we first gained our endeavors for the year – 5 in total -because Manus had gotten Posttraumatic Stress (D). Luckily Candy as a Tinker and us as a whole having exactly 20 people in the settlement offset that loss.

Moving on to our random event for the Lantern Year, we got to witness a sudden light show! Lights in the Sky streaked across the horizon and offered a welcome sight for a weary settlement!

With no other story events set up for the year, we added a notch to our death count for Marduk and moved on to develop.
Candy was still Secretive (D) and would have to skip a hunt, nevertheless, she got to advance her story again. She rolled a 9 and added 1 for her disposition for a 10 in total as she shared a story of her distant home, an incomprehensible world away.
Frogmagog, Hidari and Emerald met her gaze with unshakable determination and all 3 of them become fast friends with Candy. This did trigger Bold for Frogmagog (+1STR). Maybe he had been too shy to look at girls directly before.

Reading Candy’s booklet again, I just noticed that in the fight against the Screaming Antelope she should have gotten a unique soda gear, so I decided to add a random one to settlement storage: Emerald Dewdrop.

As for developing the settlement, there were a few things that I really wanted to do this year, innovating, naturally, being the first.
As a copper-apologist, it did hurt my soul to spend the Bioluminescent Tonsils on this, but we didn’t have any scrap to make the lantern right now anyhow. I guess, I shouldn’t have given all the scrap to Pariah.., now its hoarding all the Broken Lanterns because it knows I need them!

Face Painting, Sculpture, Hovel or Bloodletting
I had wanted Hovel for so long at this point and I figured, I might as well take it.
This innovation deck was going to be thick! This also meant that I could draw Partnership (I) every time from then on. And nothing else felt quite like home as that.

Next up: building the Leather Worker location. Of course I would have rather finished the Frogdog Armor first, but with these resource draws we were simply being pushed towards Leather – so much hide! We were also missing the frog-boob, so there’s that.
Of course, without scrap we also weren’t able to build a full Leather Armor set either, sadly. But there were a few other things possible with a potential 7 hide at least.
After long deliberation I ended up building a Round Leather Shield, Leather Boots, a Frogdog Suit and a Bone Blade for Frogmagog.
I was thinking about keeping 1 Tatty Hide because of the missing boots, but ultimately I wanted to make the most of the endeavor spent on making leather this year. *foreshadowing*
A 2nd shield had also been up for debate, as well as the Crest Axe, but either would have meant that Frogmagog couldn’t get a sword, and ultimately I valued the shot a weapon proficiency more.

2 endeavors remaining, I started looking at augury, but then something else caught my eye.
I used Frogmagog to roll on the Inner Lantern interaction on Lights in the Sky. There were a lot of great Fighting Arts to get, and the +1 understanding also seemed nice if we didn’t land between 1 and 5. Nothing bad ever came from having a Skull Eater around, right?
A lantern 10 was rolled and a deep sigh escaped me.
He did trigger Insight off of this, but rolled a 1 on that table. The highs and lows of KD:M. He also drew the Piercing Claws seed pattern, so that was something to work towards as well. We were only missing a survivor with Berserker (FA) to build them – and they are nice!

Finally, for the last roll we did do some augury, which triggered intimacy on a 9.
A 1 and a 5 were rolled and to nobody’s surprise we picked the 5. A baby boy was born to Migi and Bastet, called Ferrus (with no naming scheme to be found far or wide).

Realistically speaking, at this point we should either head out to hunt another Frogdog or a regular lope at lvl2. Our overall damage did go down a bit without Candy and/or Red Fist (SFA) available anymore, but we have gotten a lot sturdier with almost everyone in terms of armor.
The lengthy hunt without Song of the Brave was probably the most daunting thing about the year, I felt, especially if we were to pick a Skittish lope.
But, yeah, you know we picked Frogdog.

The Hunters:
Frogmagog – green (Rawhide Armor, Bone Blade)
Emerald – blue (frogdog bits, Vertabrayonet)
Calys – red (Bone Axe, Round Leather Shield)
Hidari – yellow (screaming bits, Bone Club)

The core of the hunting party had been working out well, so I wasn’t going to switch it up unnecessarily.
Even having just a bit of armor on Calys felt a lot more comfortable, I must say.

The Huntphase:
As the survivors ventured into the dark uncertainty beyond the Lantern Hoard’s light, they were met by a Test of Courage (basic HE85) not far out. The highest courage amongst the group was 3 (Frogmagog and Calys) thus they just moved on, vowing to never speak of this again.
Luckily they quickly found the monster’s trail to distract themselves – Soggy Prints littered the mud everywhere! Hidari spotted something in the collecting muck though and deftly pulled a Golden Frog from the shallow waters collecting in these prints.
This water-logged trail did take a strange turn however, as it lead us into Dry Lands (basic HE20)? As we suffered in the intense heat, we wondered just what could have driven a Frogdog to head into this place?
Still contemplating, the scenery changed into a Field of Arms (basic HE81). Sadly I did not build that Bone Sickle I had been thinking about earlier, but we did at least cross this giant’s back without incident. Beyond, on the other side we had made it back into the swamp.
Belching Mouths were the first thing announcing this change in biome. Like pock marks they covered the landscape just beyond a hill and Frogmagog got lost in the dense and stinking fog for a while as we crossed through. He emerged with a Migraine setting his insanity to 0, gaining him Chimeric Delusion (D) as well.
Oh, Feline Entity, he thinks he is a Frogdog!?

At Overwhelming Darkness, Frogmagog (PotB) emerged reforged by the path he had taken, rising to the challenge as a Leader (FA), Emerald (PotD), lost 2 survival and got a -1EVA-token, Calys (PotB) saw the Nightmare Whale and Hidari (PotI) got scared sane and took PTSD.
Not again!
The final hunt event was a Skeletal Bloom out in a field which Calys ate, as she usually would do. She gained a +1STR-token from it.
One day the head of one of my survivors is going to explode from this .. and it will be a sad day indeed.

But we have made it back to the Lvl2 Frogdog pretty much unscathed.
On arrival Emerald gained a +1EVA-token from Agility Fighter (FA), cancelling out the negative one and a bunch of people regained survival and insanity.
Hidari also got a +1LCK-token because it is his first Frogdog Lvl2 (Beginner’s Luck FA).
Finally, Emerald also got a stink token and then we were ready to kick things off.

14 cards in the deck, the Frogdog instantly went for a Big Mouth Bite. Emerald, the only stinky survivor sure seemed delicious to the monster, but she would only be hit on 7+, and thus fully evaded the chomp!

Emerald did take 1 stank damage to her waist, but this hardly fazed her.
Hidari was first to attack with his cumbersome weapon. He hit the monster once, but his club bounced right off the Carbuncles. At least we got rid of that hit location for this cycle of the deck, which wasn’t too bad.
Calys dashed onto the Mammoth Leaf behind her and jumped in, also only hitting once despite the +1SPD from Dishonorable (D) and being in the blind spot, and she hit the death blow. But “a wound is a wound”, as the proverb goes.
She did follow up her attack with a surge: 2 more hits, but the reactions were pretty bad this time. Another wound was dealt and the Frogdog leap/bloated away to the far side of the board

Emerald dashes onto the Mammoth Leaf as well and jumped straight to the Heinous Origin. One hit actually wounded, disarming the fart in the butt, but the monster leap/bloated again, undoing this small success!
So, in the end, Frogmagog did the exact same as the two before him. Two hits, but only 1 wound, he was able to prevent the next leap/bloat at least, taking out the fart as well! But he got the stink on him for doing so.

10 cards in the deck, the monster drew Slurp. Eww.
Without a stinkiest threat, Emerald would be the closest threat the monster could see. I wasn’t going to risk the dagger getting eaten so I had her dash away. If she ran in a straight line she would be just quick enough to outrun the Frogdog.

Stank-damage hit Emerald in the body and Frogmagog in the dick this time, and overall both were fine.
Calys did not wait to see how far their armor would dissolve and took the liberty to dash and jump with the help of a Mammoth Leaf yet again, to deal 2 quick wounds!
She also surged, but her fervor was not rewarded, only getting some of stink on herself as well.
Hidari was the next in line to dash and jump with the Mammoth Leaf, hitting once, dealing a wound. Laughing hysterically at what was going on, Calys knocked herself out.
And finally Frogmagog who was keen on keeping the dash-train rolling, jumped in as well to deal 2 additional wounds. He did fail to crit the crest, despite his almost lucky roll of 9, which had Calys make fun of him for the rest of the hunt.
The final member of the team, Emerald merely moved onto the Mammoth Leaf and began pumping up her body armor to be ready for next turn.

5 cards left in the deck, the Frogdog’s carbuncles began spewing a continuous black ichor. Eww. Carbuncle Eruption came into play, preventing most attacks from the monster’s flanks (as you’d get a stink token and -3ACC for your attacks if you’d try to come at the Frogdog from an angle).
It did also perform a basic attack for good measure. The random stinky survivor turned out to be Frogmagog but thanks to the +1EVA from the Rawhide Vest, only 1 hit connected, which he dodged (spending the survival).

Stank-damage again only took out armor, and Hidari was ready to jump to the monster’s backside. 2 more hits landed and we still had not seen the trap! The first hit critically wounded the Sticky Tongue! Such a choice crit! Everyone but Emerald archived their stink tokens, he gained an Elastic Tongue, the mood that had just come into play was already discarded again, the fart got wounded off AND the Bloodied Palate persistent injury was put into play! The 2nd hit also resulted in a wound.
Second to act was Frogmagog and he had some big shoes to fill after all that. At +3STR/-3ACC from Battle Drunk (D) I did not expect him to hit at all, to be honest, but a free dash onto the Mammoth Leaf and jump in to blind spot proved me wrong real quick, he hit once and wounded a fourth time, further stacking tokens as he spread stink back onto everyone.

Undeterred, Calys continued to follow the simple game plan of dashing onto a leaf and hitting to wound. The monster leap/bloated away on a reflex because of course it would.
Unable to get all the way to the Heinous Origin, Emerald leapt after the monster anyhow, clipping its right butt cheek to wound off the last card in the AI deck.

0 cards remaining, this fart could not be prevented. A Dusty Emission.. which the mask actually ignored!
Emerald was the only stinky survivor in range now, so she got hit with the basic. 1 hits snuck through to her, which she just tanked, confident she would be fine.
This fight was in the bag!

Stank-damage ate away at our weak points, hopefully for the last time, and we got to our turn.
Hidari seemed like the one best suited to reliably kill the Frogdog, so he was chosen to activate first. After the old dash-jump, he landed at the monsters side, hitting just the once, going straight for the eyes! On 2+ .. he clobbered the monster to death with ruthless efficiency!

As we gained our 2 hunt xp, Calys (+1STR) reached age 2 and I realized a terrible mistake I had just made. Well, to be fair, it wasn’t as much a mistake, and more that I forgot about something important.., but hey. It was too late by then. I would get my reckoning for it at the start of the next Lantern Year.
On a more positive note: Hidari got to club specialist and Frogmagog sword.

The game was taunting me with those resource draws. “You should have kept that Tatty Hide!” And we missed out on scrap again as well.
It’s going to be Frogdog Armor by LY08 again, isn’t it?

How was this fight so much more chill than the last one?
We had more survival and people who could spend it, I guess? The trap also not triggering helped, though I doubt it would have been as bad a spiral as last Lantern Year if that last hit had triggered the trap for instance.

We did also get less resources overall, so that balances things a little bit as well.
Either way, time for the survivors to head home.

***

I’m sorry that this has felt like a filler-episode, but I’m sure we have all been there: when the game just refuses to give you that one resource to finish off the item you have been chasing for a while.
It would just seem the Frogdog Armor does that with some shocking regularity.
Next time we will likely hunt yet another Frogdog Lvl2, for the exact same reason as we did today, but this time we are going to keep that Mammary Gland locked up in storage!

Easy fix: just take those Leather Boots to a Phoenix!

Next Lantern Year we will also be taking Candy along for the hunt again and hopefully push her to Part III of her story.
After having seen a version of Candy die to Brain Trauma on the weekend just before she could get there, I’d love to see that part of the story soon.

One more picture of my combined haul from the last two months, and that will be all for today.

As always, thank you very much for your time, why be a frog, when you could be a Frogdog instead?
Amathul