Frog Fractions 2/Characters

The Frog Fractions 2 ARG has had several major characters come into play for the ARG.

Jim Crawford

This section will only discuss the game developer Jim Crawford's involvement as a character in the ARG's main story and not the developer himself.

Jim Crawford was notably absent from the Frog Fractions 2 Kickstarter video and first entered the ARG during the Berkeley Event. At this event, he led a group of ARG participants on a walk. After a while, he was arrested by members of the Chrono-Imperium "for [his[ time-crimes against the chrono-imperium, for [his] distribution and production of bug porn, for [his] association with agents of Bug Mars, for [his] fraternizing with frogs, and for [his] other crimes", according to the arresting officer who called Jim by his full name of "James Crawford". During the arrest, he tossed a brown paper bag full of floppy disks. A man on a motorcycle told the crowd that he wasn't the real Jim Crawford, at least not yet.

In May of 2015, Jim began Train Hot Dog. Through this podcast, many ARG clues were found in these podcasts but this is probably the developer Jim talking for the most part as opposed to the character Jim. Though in THD 23: Nightcore Night Court, a voice says "Attention Passengers: Don't believe his lies. Find the truth about the decay. Thank you", linking some THDs to the ARG persona.

In January of 2016, a package containing a pound of quartz was picked up from an Amazon locker. The package was addressed to James Crawford.

In July of 2016, Pontiff Zagmar invaded the twitter of The Resistance. Jim was spotted as prisoner who joined Zagmar's cause in exchange for freedom and was referred to as prisoner JC101-B by The Resistance. JC101-B claimed to have been captive for years, giving the assumption that the prisoner is the arrested Jim from the Berkeley Event.

The Resistance

This group is fighting sparkles and the decay. They appear to be organized and are the owners of time-travel.club and the @Resist_Decay twitter account.

Samuel

Samuel has a login on time-travel.club and through it, his rank in the Resistance is revealed. Samuel is a science officer. He has also played a major role in direct communication to both Gustav's email and Number Six's email. His login was unlocked via an ad placed on the Polygon article. It contained a number that, once dialed, led to a message from Lt. Samuel:

This is Resistance Agent 3764, Lt. Samuel. I'm probably out on a mission protecting the remnants of our species or maybe training new recruits, but leave a message and I'll get back to you if I'm not dead or enslaved!

A recording of the message can be found here.

Callers were phoned in January of 2016 by the Bug Mars Travel Agency that insisted the passcode was "caravanserai", which worked for Samuel's login. In lieu of the Operations list, Samuel has a list of current and former scientific experiments

Following the discovery of the Gustav email, several messages were exchanged between Samuel and Gustav to deliver the package of quartz as well as to confirm the location of the Museum of Jurassic Technology event. The email he uses is [email protected]. This has been seen as similar enough to the preview of the email for the @Resist_Decay twitter to likely be the owner.

The following are the emails Samuel sent for the events. The emails related to the Indicade event are:

Hey Buddy

You should be getting notification of a delivery of goods pretty soon. Central hopes to have it out within a week. Let me know if anything goes wrong.

Stay frosty,

Samuel

PS: Tell Dwayne he still owes me a rematch on the court and that this time I'm bringing a ref to make sure he doesn't commit any personal fouls.

Hey chum,

Here's your requisition order information. Hope you can put this to better use than the folks in the labs have been. Some weird stuff going on, but anything's worth it for the cause. We'll send you an update when the order ships out.

Details

Arriving: Wednesday, January 20
Ship to: Amazon Locker - Cerrito, El Cerrito Plaza

Good luck out there,

Samuel

Dear chum,

You should have your locker code soon. Wait for the code. You have a three day window.

Stay frosty,
Samuel

Emails for the Museum of Jurassic Technology event contained only the following map:

Samuel stayed quiet for about six months, until he contacted Gustav again on August 27 to discuss recent events found elsewhere in the ARG:

Howdy partner, 
I just let No. 6 know that the suits worked out great, and we need like 20 more fabbed asap. I put a work order in so you should see that coming through on your terminal, but thumbs-up on the new metamaterial. Works great. 
Stay frosty, 
Samuel 
PS: Did you hear about the crazy portal accident down in Research? Those clowns almost compromised the entire base. Nuts.

The same day, Samuel sent the following message to Number Six:

Speaking in my capacity as military liason to science, I want to let you know that the latest anti-sparkle suits are a rousing success.  I'll have an official report on your desk by Tuesday, but yesterday's field operation allowed us to directly take full exposure for half an hour with no adverse effects.  Tell the boys in the lab great work, and look out for the report soon.  
-Lt. Samuel

Gustav

Gustav Klimt is an painter from Austria who lived from 1862 to 1918. He is also apparently a time traveling agent of the Resistance. He was first brought into the ARG via Red Pages Extrasode 3. The ID3 tags say "Woman in Gold" and contains Klimt's Woman in Gold painting, but altered so the woman is a cyborg. Within the images corruption is the code:

     eng www.gustavklimptuplink.com; TCOM   Z   01100100 01101001 01110011 01110000 01100001 01110100 01100011 01101000 00100000 00110001TDRL       2015-06-25PCST   �      APIC X8@   image/png   ‰PNG

The binary translates to "dispatch 1" and the link references Gustav with his last name a bit off.

Borgified Woman in Gold by Gustav Klimt

Following the Indiecade event, [email protected] was found.The password reset question was "What is your mother's maiden name?" Finster, the maiden name of Gustav Klimt's mother, worked and entry was gained. He has received several messages from several but has not sent anything other than a "Note to self" that says "Butts".

A recent message from Samuel to Gustav refers to a terminal:

Howdy partner, 
 I just let No. 6 know that the suits worked out great, and we need like 20 more fabbed asap. I put a work order in so you should see that coming through on your terminal, but thumbs-up on the new metamaterial. Works great. 
Stay frosty, 
Samuel 
PS: Did you hear about the crazy portal accident down in Research? Those clowns almost compromised the entire base. Nuts.

This suggest Gustav has a login on the terminal and possibly accesslevelbeta but neither have been found.

Dwayne

Dwayne is listed as the commanding officer for Gadsby. He also was originally on the rotating roster of available operatives but disappeared some time in January and has yet to return.

On August 13, 2015, in THD 14:Discharge mentions time travel attempts by a man named Dwayne in Tunisia with ridermail saying:

"Stardate 1982: just a little joke. Research proceeds as planned on the Chrono Temporal Flux Fusion Engine. We were encouraged when a rice cake appeared in the machine's primary servo dock informing us that several minutes later we would succeed in transporting a rice cake backwards in time. This is a step forward as we previously have only been able to transport inorganic matter. Dwayne and I celebrated with drinks and a viewing of Blade Runner. Rutger Hauer's final speech is brilliant, especially five drinks in. Tomorrow we plan to attempt to transport a living insect, our first test of a live specimen. Wish us luck!" 

In an email to Gustav from Samuel, Dwayne apparently owes him a rematch:

PS: Tell Dwayne he still owes me a rematch on the court and that this time I'm bringing a ref to make sure he doesn't commit any personal fouls.

Despite Dwayne being a commanding officer to Gadsby and receiving other mentions, no login information for him has ever been found. Some believe there should be one but there's no evidence either way.

The Original Six

The Original Six are the apparent founders of the Resistance and have a few sources of Lore surrounding them.

From Justin Bortnick's business card at GDC2016:

"They arrived at dusk. The experiments had been wildly successful, more so than we could have hoped or feared. At first, we welcomed them. The people of Tunisia are friendly and, generally, we expected that our visitors would treat us with the same wonder and amazement with which we regarded them. That could not have been further from the truth. They did not care about our presence, or lives, or cities, or us. They went about their brutal business as if we were ants in their path: with a complete disregard for our existence. Their capability for warfare thwarted our greatest weaponry, and their unearthly abilities countered the strategies of our greatest military and scientific leaders. As the decay radiated out like a cancer from the Tunisian coast, those in power around the world watched in helplessness, knowing that soon their nations would suffer the same fate as ours. There are at this point in history few of us remaining. Those who survived have banded together under the guidance of we original six, though at this point only four remain. Our numbers are smaller by the day, and our enemy has all but forgotten us. Their victory was total, an[d] our defeat pushed our species to the brink of extinction. We now resist the decay. We hide. We w[a]it. And we plan. -Excerpt from An Oral History of the Decay, Interview 8674-B" 

In the source code of the Party Lounge accessible via Number Six's login:

"This seems like a secure place to hide information, so here goes: watch out!  You may be using this Party Lounge to take your mind off of the grueling reality outside this base.  You may be secure in your position as a high-ranking resistance officer. Be warned: danger lurks in even the safest of places.  Do you know what relationship Numbers 1, 3, 5 and 6 have to the decay?  Have you never wondered what happened to Numbers 2 and 4?  Have you questioned the abductions of individuals from prior eras, or the futures you are trying to prevent?  Stay alert.  I'll be in touch as I am able, but do not look for me - it may be some time until my next communication is able to get through to you." 

During Zagmar's twitter takeover, Number 1 and Number 3, Brown, were present.

Number Six

Number Six, who is named Roth, first appeared as a login with the password revolution. The login only said:

USER:NUMBER SIX
RANK:XXXXXXX
COMMANDING OFFICER:N/A

Greetings Number Six. Your login is currently being prepped - please continue to use Corporal Herbie's login for the time being.

Number six also is mentioned on the calendar regarding the Museum of Jurassic Technology event. It had the message "Don't be late. -No. 6"

The calendar

Later, the login would become active like the others. The message in the Party Lounge is from an unknown sender who seems to be trying to warn Number Six of something but it is not known what.

Number Six's login unlocked the terminal with the ability to receive emails. Number Six has received the following communications:

$ read E51420813
Roth, 
 We've lost contact with Brown down in portal experimentation.  There's something going on down there.  Do you know  anything? 
-Croft
$ read E51420815
Roth, 
 The boys downstairs have really stuck their foot in it this time.  A routine resource run went sideways and some crazy followed them back with a small army.  That's the reason for the communications outage yesterday.
We've contained the extradimensional intruders in a lower level for now but may require military backup.  Will update you soon.  
-Hearn
$ read E51420820
Roth, 
 You're so lucky being located upstairs.  It's been a real crapshow down here over the past five days.  We managed to starve the crazies out and they retreated through the portal, but we can't seem to get the thing closed.  They took the prisoner with them.  The crazy one that appears to be their leader screamed some nonsense about returning soon with more forces, so we need to get this shut down before we have an army in our base.  We can't fight a war on two fronts and the soldiers don't need this distraction from the true enemy. 
  I think we may have bitten off more than we can chew with this stuff - again.  This time we can't let it turn out as badly because we won't get a third chance.  Any support the boys upstairs can provide would be greatly appreciated. 
-Hearn
$ read E51420827
No. 6, 
 Speaking in my capacity as military liason to science, I want to let you know that the latest anti-sparkle suits are a rousing success.  I'll have an official report on your desk by Tuesday, but yesterday's field operation allowed us to directly take full exposure for half an hour with no adverse effects.  Tell the boys in the lab great work, and look out for the report soon.  
-Lt. Samuel

Brown

Brown's name came to light during the twitter invasion by Zagmar. He is Number One in the Original Six.

#1: Uh-oh
How did you all get in here? This is a secure area. Leave at o
#3: Are you there Brown? Respond? What happened?

And later stated:

This is... compromised... send assist... #1 out..

He was then mentioned by name in an email to Number Six.

Roth, 
 We've lost contact with Brown down in portal experimentation.  There's something going on down there.  Do you know  anything? 
-Croft

It appears Brown may be taking some of the blame for the incursion but there is no mention of Brown perishing in the invasion so they are assumed to be alive.

Number 3

Number 3 has only been mentioned once during the twitter conversation with Brown.

#3: Are you there Brown? Respond? What happened?

It is guessed Number 3 is one of the other named people in the emails sent to Number Six but it is not confirmed.

Other named Resistance members

Resistance members tend to be named after people within the Alien franchise.

Here is a list of members with logins:

• Sgm. Vasquez
• Recr. Gadsby
• Colonel Clemens
• Joshua

Here is a list of members that have only appeared on the rotating operatives list:

• Recr. Brett
• Pvt. Lambert
• Cpl. Apone
• Sgt. Kane
• Maj. Drake
• Sgm. Jorden.
• Sgt. William
• Cpl. Parker
• Recr. Arthur

Vickers is listed at the commanding officer of Clemens but neither has a login nor is on the rotating list.

Zagmar

Pontiff/Pope Zagmar is a religious figurehead from a place that contains the Styrgian Empire, that seems to exist in some other dimension. Through client emails received after the fact, we learned that he followed a few resistance members on a "resource run" through a portal back to the the Resistance. He immediately took an antagonistic role to the Resistance and wanted to rule over them, and any others that might cross his path. It's known that he uses magic and he wasn't aware of the cyborg technology the Resistance utilizes.

Zagmar's profile picture

The first encounter with the name Zagmar came on the decayed Joshua login. This login contained several historical text, three of which mention Zagmar by name.

  A History of the Styrgin Empire (p23)
It was not for many years yet that those individuals who would rebel against the Church's corruption would be born, for in this period the Church remained benevolent. In 542, Pontiff Urzarath II ascended to the popehood, and began a program of wealth redistribution that was widely popular with the peasant and merchant classes. Based upon his philosophy of universal access to basic resources, heavy taxes were placed upon the nobility of all nations controlled by the Church, and though the aristocrats grumbled and when intoxicated were known to drunkenly rail against the church, it cannot be denied that at this point the lunacy of Zagmar and resulting rift between Church and Empire was unthinkable. Despite differences of opinion between the papacy and the imperial house, both maintained cordial relations. When Urzarath II died in 558, he left behind a legacy of stewardship that future Emperors took to heart, and ultimately led to the (next page) 

The Testament of Zagmar (p68)
This world is untempered steel, and we shall be the hammer that shapes it.
Our Divine Master has shown us a new path forward, forged in flame and darkness.
We shall release those suffering from their bondage, and show them the new path forward.
The whispers of our Lord shall become a mighty roar, and incarnations shall walk the earth.
It will be a joy and an honor to surrender to his touch, to give ourselves in totality.
(next page) 

Wrack and Ruin: The Final Years of the Celulitte Church (p347)
last, the Empire's armies surrounded the grand cathedral of Amour Lardo. From his chambers at the cathedral's apex, Zagmar paced and glared down at the gathered armies before his gates, gnashing his teeth in insane fury. The cathedral of the gods had never been breached, and had already survived many hails of explosives, and he was secure that the heathen forces would be driven before his faith. Church officials, realizing that the war was lost, were furtively abandoning their posts, surrendering to the Emperor himself, who stood at the head of the host. Zagmar, however, had a final trick left: a (read more) (next page)

Zagmar would not be mentioned again until his invasion of the @Resist_Decay twitter. The profile picture changed to Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X by Francis Bacon and the banner changed to a picture from Dark Souls 3 of a cathedral. The tweets are as follows:

#1: Uh-oh
How did you all get in here? This is a secure area. Leave at o
#3: Are you there Brown? Respond? What happened?
At last, a new world to which the light may be spread...
Quickly, bring more through the portal!
These strange metal creatures are no match for our sorcery!
Do not falter before their counterassault! This world is ours for the plucking!
They are as wheat before the scythe! Burn them all!
Useless curs! Do not retreat!
Fah, fortify this position and wait for reinforcements! They will not contain our fury for long...
This is... compromised... send assist... #1 out..
Open their holding cells! Turn their prisoners against them!
Bishop, retrieve the explosive metal tube from that corpse. I would examine this weaponry.
What is this necromancy? We killed that one before, but he has returned to bedevil the faith again!
These soldiers possess strange metal skin on parts of their body... more than passing curious. We must take some alive.
Their enchantments may bolster our own in the crusade against the Empire!
This prisoner has offered to join our cause in exchange for freedom... he claims he has been imprisoned for years.
The prisoner has told us much... of many possible worlds to which we may bring the holy fire!
So speaks your Pontiff: Once we finish with this world, we will move to the next, and the next!
The intruders have been contained in sublevel C. We have reclaimed communications channels.
Intruders are recieving assistance from prisoner JC101-B. Contain and eliminate if necessary.
Casualties are limited. Our superior technology has triumphed.

He was then referred to in an email on the time-travel.club client:

Roth, 
The boys downstairs have really stuck their foot in it this time.  A routine resource run went sideways and some crazy followed them back with a small army.  That's the reason for the communications outage yesterday.
We've contained the extradimensional intruders in a lower level for now but may require military backup.  Will update you soon.  
-Hearn

Roth, 
You're so lucky being located upstairs.  It's been a real crapshow down here over the past five days.  We managed to starve the crazies out and they retreated through the portal, but we can't seem to get the thing closed.  They took the prisoner with them.  The crazy one that appears to be their leader screamed some nonsense about returning soon with more forces, so we need to get this shut down before we have an army in our base.  We can't fight a war on two fronts and the soldiers don't need this distraction from the true enemy. 
 I think we may have bitten off more than we can chew with this stuff - again.  This time we can't let it turn out as badly because we won't get a third chance.  Any support the boys upstairs can provide would be greatly appreciated. 
-Hearn

The invasion was also noted by Samuel in a message to Gustav:

PS: Did you hear about the crazy portal accident down in Research? Those clowns almost compromised the entire base. Nuts.

Zagmar lost the invasion but his location is currently unknown.