Chapter 2

The bullywugs that were standing further away looked invigorated, and charged at the party. Ehs, the bear, swiped his claws at the closest one coming for him, while fending attacks off the bullywug that he had earlier struck. An’gari headed for a bullywug charging from the side, while Oceanus continued fighting with the bullywug he had tried, and failed, to stab with his trident.

The rest of the party — Aldalome, Nat, and Vennoa — bent over in pain from the croaking. While regular frog croaking was annoying at best, this croaking seemed far more sinister. It dug at Vennoa’s inner ear, and she felt like her head was going to explode.

Vennoa shook her head and gathered her senses again. She quickly glanced around, and saw that Ehs had finished off one bullywug, and Oceanus had gained the upper hand in his fight. There were two more bullywugs heading for them, and were already very close, almost within striking distance.

Vennoa took a quick aim, and cast a firebolt towards the closest bullywug. The firebolt flew past the bullywug without hitting it, and kept on flying towards Ehs. Vennoa breathed a sigh of relief as the firebolt lightly singed Ehs’ fur, but he did not notice. She did not want an angry bear coming her way.

An’gari had also finished killing his bullywug, and was heading off in the direction where the croaking had been coming from. Suddenly, two more bullywugs appeared from the marshes in that direction, each holding a spear of its own.

The two bullywugs took aim at the approaching An’gari, and threw their spears at him. He deftly dodged the first, but the second spear hit him in his shoulder. A burst of blood spurted out the other side. Even from this distance, Vennoa could tell that An’gari was severely injured, but he continued limping on towards those bullywugs.

Aldalome and Nat had also regained their senses, and jointly attacked two bullywugs near them. Vennoa shot another firebolt towards the bullywugs, but this time, it was towards one of the bullywugs that had thrown the spear at An’gari. The bullywug had been watching An’gari intently, and did not notice the firebolt. The firebolt struck the bullywug in its chest, and it collapsed. The other bullywug glanced towards Vennoa, then An’gari, and hopped towards An’gari.

Vennoa readied another firebolt for that bullywug. However, before she could fire, she heard the croaking start again. She looked at the bullywug closest to An’gari but it did not appear to be croaking. In fact, the croaking seemed to come from a short distance behind it! This time, it appeared that the party was prepared for the croaking, as no one seemed to be affected, or at least no one appeared shaken, by the croaking.

“Take care of this one!” An’gari yelled to Vennoa, as he gained some speed and ran past the bullywug closest to him, side-stepping its attack and heading deeper into the marsh.

By this time, Ehs and Oceanus had finished their bullywugs, and dashed over towards An’gari. Aldalome glanced towards them, but focused his attention back on the sole remaining bullywug that he and Nat were fighting.

The croaking abruptly ceased. Immediately after, another bullywug hopped out of the marsh towards the party. This bullywug looked different from the others that they had faced. For one thing, it was wearing some hide armor, and held a shield in one hand. It also looked rather confident, even as it was retreating from An’gari’s relentless attacks.

The armored bullywug glanced to the side towards the marshes, smiled, and began croaking again. The two other remaining bullywugs appeared stronger, and attacked Aldalome and Nat with renewed enthusiasm. Aldalome leaped backwards and drew his longbow in a single swift action. He took aim at the armored bullywug, and fired an arrow at it. The arrow flew true, but lodged itself on the bullywug’s hide armor. It was unclear if the arrow actually pierced the bullywug, but it smirked and pulled the arrow out, its croaking unaffected.

An’gari swung his sword at the bullywug, but it deftly hopped away. The bullywug that had been charging towards An’gari had decided to attack Vennoa instead, and she let loose a flurry of firebolts at it, hoping to kill it before it reached her.

Most of the firebolts hit nothing but air, but finally one hit it. The bullywug seemed to shrug off the burning, and continued hopping towards Vennoa, baring its mouth and teeth menacingly.

Nat suddenly appeared in front of Vennoa, in between the approaching bullywug and her. She raised her longsword and brought it down on the bullywug once it was within range. The bullywug tried to parry it, but its spear had already been thrown, so it raised its arms instead. Nat’s arms sliced through, and the bullywug howled in pain. It stared at the stumps on its arms, and quickly turned and tried to run. Nat took the opportunity to slash again with her sword, and ended the bullywug’s life. Nat then ran towards An’gari and the armored bullywug.

The armored bullywug was still fully focused on avoiding An’gari’s attacks, and hopped towards the other side of the marsh. From that side of the marsh, a deep croaking emerged. Vennoa steadied herself for another assault on her ears, but this croaking seemed different, like it wasn’t intended for her.

The armored bullywug stood up straighter, and turned around towards An’gari. It swung its spear at An’gari, who stepped to the side to avoid the blow. However, the bullywug launched another attack from that side, biting An’gari on the shoulder where he had previously been hurt. An’gari howled in pain.

Ehs and Oceanus finally caught up with An’gari. Nat placed her hands over An’gari, and a warm glow surrounded him. Ehs stood in between An’gari and the bullywug, and swung his bear paws and claws in a threatening fashion. An arrow suddenly appeared on the side of that bullywug. The arrow must have been shot by Aldalome again, and this time it looked like the arrow hit the bullywug, since some blood spurted out.

The deep croaking sounded closer, and Vennoa stared in that direction. She could make out a large shadowed creature hopping towards them. Before she could sound an alarm, it became fully visible. There was a giant toad hopping at her. And seated on top of that toad was yet another bullywug. This bullywug was also dressed in hide armor and wielded a shield, but it appeared more regal somehow.

Aldalome had also noticed the toad, and quickly spun around and fired an arrow towards it. Unfortunately, the toad, although gigantic, was rather agile, and it hopped to the side to avoid the arrow.

Vennoa started walking backwards, while taking aim at the toad to cast a firebolt at it. It was almost like hitting a brick house, since the toad was gigantic. The firebolt hit the toad squarely on its face, but it simply shrugged it off. The bullywug on top of the toad pointed at Vennoa, and said something to the toad. Then, the toad jumped high into the air.

Before Vennoa could realize it, she saw the shadow surrounding her, and getting bigger every second. She glanced upwards too late, and could not avoid the huge toad landing on top of her. She could hardly breathe!

By now, the first armored bullywug had been taken care of, and the party focused their efforts on the toad and the bullywug riding it. After a few swings of their weapons, the toad made a sidewards hop and Vennoa was freed. If the bullywug was worried after seeing the rest of its kind dead on the ground around them, Vennoa couldn’t see it. The bullywug had a smirk on its face, as if it knew something the party didn’t.

The regal bullywug gestured with its hands, and croaked something at the party, but Vennoa had no idea what it was saying. The bullywug continued croaking louder, as if its volume was the reason why the party couldn’t understand it.

Then, it became clearer what the bullywug was doing. Around a dozen more bullywugs holding spears appeared in the same direction that the regal bullywug had come from. Vennoa felt a pit tighten in her stomach. Even though the party had been pretty effective at killing the bullywugs just now, over half of the party looked like they were in pretty bad shape, and a dozen bullywugs might be too many to handle, especially the one on the toad.

However, the other bullywugs stayed on the outskirts of the battle. In fact, it almost appeared that they were only watching the regal bullywug’s fight with the party. Vennoa couldn’t be sure, but she felt that the other bullywugs were too frightened to enter the battle, since the area was littered with bodies of their kind.

The regal bullywug’s expression turned into one of worry, as it realized that the other bullywugs were not going to be the reinforcements it needed. It gestured to the toad and pointed towards the bullywugs, and the toad started to turn its body.

Aldalome fired a series of two arrows, one right after the other. The arrows each hit a rear leg of the toad before it could hop off, and it ended up tripping and falling flat on its face. The bullywug fell off from the tumble, but landed on its feet. Without turning to check on the toad, it started making a run away from the party.

Ehs swiped his long bear arm, and knocked the bullywug off balance. It fell onto the wet marsh, and before it could get up, Nat swung down with her sword and the bullywug’s head was cleanly separated from its body.

There was a chill in the air, as the remaining bullywugs quickly scattered at the death of the toad and the regal bullywug. The party did not follow, and took a moment to regroup instead. Ehs transformed back from his bear form into his human form.

After patching their wounds, the party searched the corpses of the bullywugs, but didn’t find anything of value. They were mostly armed with mundane spears, and the hide armor that two of the bullywugs had been wearing was slimy, from the bullywugs themselves, and from the wet marsh. No one in the party seemed interested to hold on to those. As such, they continued on their way towards the lizardfolk lair.

The marsh sounds had returned to normal, and it appeared that the remaining bullywugs had run off with no intentions to return. A short while later, the party came across a makeshift camp area. There were no creatures nearby the camp, and Oceanus suggested that it was likely to have been the bullywugs’.

The party searched the camp, and found a pile of coins in a small leather pouch. While the rest of the party was discussing how to split the coins, Vennoa just took the pouch and attached it to her belt. The rest of the party didn’t say anything, perhaps because they thought she intended to split the contents with them after they made it back to Saltmarsh. She had no such intentions.

Beside the coin pouch, they also found a brass helmet. They were intending to leave the helmet on the ground, when Oceanus said, “That is a Helm of Underwater Action. It is magical, and will let you breathe underwater, if you cannot already do so.”

Vennoa had no intentions of going underwater, so she left the helmet where it was. Nat seemed very interested in the helmet, and tried putting it on. She said something, and Vennoa could only make out something about darkness, since the helmet muffled her speech. Even though Nat was a halfling, the helmet seemed to fit her relatively well, and she seemed happy about it. Vennoa wondered if Nat had a regular sized head on her halfling-sized body.