Whoah baby:

After extracting everything PROPER:

/dev/rsd0a had a incorrect free block count, fixed, and fs made clean;
	(this is strange. I did sync;sync;sync;reboot).

further on down the boot:

May 30 14:10:20 myname: arpresolve: can't allocate llinfo
checking for core dump...
savecore: reboot after panic: ffs_valloc; dup_alloc
savecore: system went down at Fri May 30 00:22:16 (last night)
savecore: writting core to /var/crash/netbsd.1.core

May 30 14:10:21 myname: arpresolve: can't allocate llinfo
May 30 14:10:21 myname: savecore: reboot after panic: ffs_valloc; dup_alloc

savecore: writting kernel to /var/crash/netbsd.1

and some more demons boot fine, and to the login prompt.

sigh