The flaming sword was a practical effect and not CGI. It was designed and executed by stunt coordinator Bryan Forrest and accomplished in two takes. A crew member stood just out of shot with a fire extinguisher.
The entire project was written, shot, edited and scored in less than 48 hours for the 2017 San Diego 48 Hour Film Project. All entries to the competition were required to include the following: A roll of aluminum foil as a prop, a character named Jerry or Jennifer Larson (Restauranteur), and the line of dialogue "After all this time it still works.".
The stop motion miniature effects were accomplished through the tireless efforts of SFX creator Kyle Erwin, who stayed up all night designing and creating the posable monster, then photographed each motion frame by frame while the rest of the film's live action was shot nearby.
A character mentions a monster called "the thorny bog beast of Harryhausen". This is a nod to visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen, whose work directly influenced the production.
Ryan Stockstad: A drunken figure in the background of the opening scene. Since he also appeared as a corpse in the first film of the series (Francis the Brave (2012)), it could be argued that his character didn't really die in the first part, or was magically brought back to life somehow, or has an identical twin brother who is still drowning his sorrow in a tavern all these years later.