Frog

Field record

Long ago the Engine society built sluices, drains, gates, and pumps to control the Mangrove Basin. It failed — roots split the pipes, tides ignored the schedules, mud swallowed the service roads. What remains is a maze of rusty ruins that only Frog treats as a sensible map. Frog is the mangrove's water-route navigator, sewer-ruin explorer, and unofficial cartographer, drawing maps in a notation that only makes sense if you think in three dimensions and don't mind getting wet.

Every flooded tunnel is an opportunity; every underwater passage is a shortcut to somewhere interesting. When the ruins began flooding, opening, and sealing in impossible sequences, Frog started by treating it as the best map puzzle in the world — then realized the routes were closing in patterns only their missing exploration partner would know.

The partner found a control passage deeper than any they'd explored and went in. The Clog is what came of them: a friend trying to make the basin safe by sealing every shortcut, so no one ever disappears into an open passage again.

Known associations

• Dog — Chaos partners with a running count of accidental adventures; the current number is disputed.
• Llama — Frog swam the shortcut, Llama walked the long way, they arrived at the same time, and both claimed victory.
• Bear — A cycle neither suggests breaking: Frog gets hurt, Bear heals Frog, Frog brings Bear something, Frog gets hurt.
• Chameleon — Frog just talks to the general area and assumes Chameleon is listening; Chameleon finds this disarmingly friendly.