Please Ninja dot.
You are goblins of the Licktoad Tribe. Or at least you will be someday. For now, though, you’re whelps—ravenous, amoral, grumpy goblin children who learned to stop eating rocks only a few months ago. But with every day that passes, your whelping cage seems smaller and smaller. The outside world increasingly beckons to your goblin curiosity (and appetite), but the hateful cage bars holds you at bay.
A few other whelps flourish in the cage, even as the smaller and weaker ones are thinned out. Kettlehead stands literally head and shoulders above the competition, being a goblin of impeccable flatulence and having already fashioned himself an impressive hat from a teapot left lying too close to the cages. Even adult goblins—legendary Chief Rendwattle Gutwad among them— have taken note of Kettlehead and his advanced skills of poking the rest of you with sticks and delivering bruise-inducing noogies.
But today is special. Today, instead of a bucket of fish heads, whelp-wrangler Loptop brought a key and unlocked the door to your cage, spilling you sorry lot into the world for the first time. Other Licktoads gather around, eyeballing you and chewing on the fish heads that should have been yours. “You all are too big for cages,” Loptop snorts. “But you’re not Licktoads yet. Licktoads gotta be useful. Licktoads gotta be tough! Licktoads gotta earn their places in the tribe. And that’s what you’re gonna do now!
Show us where you belong, even if that ends being the boneyard!”
The goblin then chuffles you into a line with well placed shoves and kicks to various rumps and other body parts. Once he is satisfied, she calls out. "Yous not got to do this stuffs, but you not like it if you don't! You get chance to earn Licktoad Badges! You strong enough, you mean enough, you smart enough.. you get badge. If not.. You fail and no get shiney!!"
[b]"First!! Licktoad goblins good with pets. We have pets here we use against longshanks! WE NO EAT PETS! Go put leash on pet spidey over there! No get bite. Bite hurts!" With this last bit of helpful information, the female points over to a small paddock where a very large (to you) spider skitters around. You see on the fence a couple of leashes that must be used to lead the creature about.
As you approach the fence, the spider looms over you (About head high, really) and skitters to the side nervously keeping you in sight.
Bold May Post
Poog
Chuffy
Mogmurch
Rita
Poog flails and kicks ineffectually, failing miserably to dislodge Kettlehead, who is sitting comfortably on his back and pummeling the back of his head. Granted, with the hard head of goblins, the punches are not doing much damage. But it's embarassing! Me 'pposed to ride whelps. No me get ridden! No, no, no! Deep down, he is less embarassed over the other laughing whelps than what Zarongel, demi-god of mounted combat, might be thinking watching all this. "You Poopyhead! You no ride me! Git off!"
He continues to buckle and struggle, but that only amuses Kettlehead who cackles in glee and continues his assault. Poog gets desperate, when an image of Zarongel's cleric, Nasty Grammel comes to his mind. Without thinking further (not that he usually thinks much), he apes the complicated hand gestures he saw once, while smearing some of his copious sweat on his hand, and calls out, "Zarongel smite you!" His hand glows a sickly green as he reaches back towards Kettlehead.
No one notices, however, as all attention is on Loptop. In fact, Kettlehead forgets about Poog altogether as he gets up and walks towards the door, narrowly escaping Poog's touch.
“You all are too big for cages,” Loptop snorts. “But you’re not Licktoads yet. Licktoads gotta be useful. Licktoads gotta be tough! Licktoads gotta earn their places in the tribe. And that’s what you’re gonna do now! Show us where you belong, even if that ends being the boneyard!”
Poog snorts as he gets up, joining the other whelps at the back of the group. "Hmmph, that showed him," he mutters but not too loud in case Kettlehead hears.
As the group approaches the fence, he suddenly feels a shove from behind and he flies forward, crashing onto the ground. He hears some sniggers behind him, but when he turns around, all the faces are deadpan as ever. Poog realises that he has just been "volunteered" to face the spider first.
He brushes himself off and gets up with some trepidation. But as he continues to stare as the spider, a (rare) thought strikes him. Me can ride it! Me show Zarongel! With a sudden confidence descending upon him born from the fannish wish to show off to his hero, Poog quick grabs one of the leash off the fence, and almost immediately charges the spider!
Before he gets near, though, the dangling leash inadvertently coils around his feet. His next running step is cut short unexpectedly and he face-plants into the ground. A chorus of screeching laughter burst out among the whelps, with Loptop the loudest. The spider skittles to the other side of the pen, and even its chittering sounds like laughter to Poog.
For the third time within a few minutes, Poog picks himself up and again brushes himself off. Fiery anger descends upon him but he ignores the laughing goblins and glares intently at the spider. You dumb! How show Zarongel like this! This time he gets a good grip on the leash, and take a while to study the spider. Suddenly, he feints to the left but as soon as the spider moves to the right, Poog turns and dashes after it. With a quick toss, the leash falls around the spider's head. Poog then dives under the spider, grabs the loose end of the leash, and while being dragged under the spider, quickly with a few twists ties a dead knot. The spider continues dragging Poog along with it for a distance but eventually realising it was secured, finally gives up.
Poog once again gets up from the ground, but this time with a triumphant glint in his eyes. "Heehee, me good. Poog best!" See, Zarongel! See, see! Then, before any of the adult goblins can stop him, he holds tight to the leash and leaps up on the back of the spider!
The watching crowd hurls jeers and insults at Poog as he spectacularly fails his first attempt! However, the hoots and hollers of derision quickly change to gasps of amazement and words of admiration as the wiley little goblin whelp manages to out think and out move the spider. The knot cinched, Poog leads the spider on a victory lap around the paddock before turning it loose and scooting quickly away and back to the waiting crowd.
Lop top meets him at the gate, holding out a tattered and stained scrap of cloth in the shape of a spider! "Yous do good! You get animal badge!" Turning back to the rest of the whelps, she screams out "What you waiting for? Next to go!"
His chewed on ears perk up as he tries to listen to Loptop's speech. Mogmurch begins bouncing up and down, practically vibrating to hear better past the thick heads of the other, taller whelps.
"Me can'ts hear! Gets out of da way you muds heads!", he shouts as he tries to push his way to the front. He quickly receives an elbow to the head from Kettlehead, which knocks him flat.
Scrambling to get up, he decides upon a better idea and just rolls over onto his belly and quickly crawls under the legs of the bigger whelps. Propping his head on his hands, Mogmurch cricks his little neck to the left and to the right, stretching now that he is away from the crush of the whelping cage.
As Loptop continues, Mogmurch shrieks , "Mogmurch be uesful! Mogmurch be tough! Mogmurch earn his place in the tribe!"
Mogmurch chuckles with glee upon seeing the spider. Much better than stoopid butterfly. Spiders eat butterflies. Me hate stoopid headmark. Spider make others forget stoopid headmark.
"Mogmurch want spider! Mogmurch love spider!" he says loudly as he charges ahead to the fence to quickly grab a leash. He stuffs the leash in his mouth for a moment and chews on it a bit, just to be sure it is strong enough, before going after the spider. "Yup. Tastes strong. Now me catch spider! Show how useful Mogmurch is!"
After all the abuse from the bigger whelps, Mogmurch seems to have learned a thing or two as he easily slides under the spider, looping the leash around the things head as he does.
He spins and bends in a way that none expected from the littlest of the whelps. "See! Spider love Mogmurch too!" and with that he cinches the leash tight, pulling the spider close and leading it around the pen. Me wonder if me puts dis on the Rita, would she love me like spider does? His eyes dart to Rita and linger for a moment, a strange glint plain for all to see.
With much more confidence and skill than any whelp should have, Mogmurch steps into the ring and wrangles the spider with an unnatural skill that leaves the half of the tribe muttering and whispering of magic, and the other half cheering like the maniacal little psychopaths that they are..
Lop top stands at the gate and grunts at the whelp as he returns from his victory. "Ok. No boneyard for yous.. yet!" she says, handing him another cloth spider.
Rita spent her time in the whelping cage keeping other whelps of her great stuff by beating them with a stick, and yelling loudly. 'WHY YOU CRY SO MUCH? I ONLY POKED YOU LITTLE BIT. IT'S A REALLY SMALL BRUISE REALLY. YOU BIG BABY."
"HELMETHEAD YOU LEAVE ME ALONE. I'M AS MEAN AS YOU." She swings the club at him whenever he gets close enough to reach. "GO BOTHER OTHER WHELPS."
"ME NEXT. I CAN ROPE. YOU SURE I CAN'T KILL. I HAVE SPIDER I DID KILL SEE." She pulls out a small spider with only four legs left on it, and then quickly puts it back in her pocket. "ME READY."
Rita enters the coral and grabs a leash. "YOU PET ME NO EAT. ME PUT LEASH ON YOU. IF YOU NO COOPERATE ME PULL OFF YOUR LEG JUST LIKE HIM." She pulls out the small spider with four legs from her pocket and waves it in front of the spider.
Convinced the spider is cowed by theat. Rita runs over to it, and slip the leash around it's neck with ease. "I DO GO GIVE ME CLOTH THING. DO YOU HAVE A RED ONE? ME LIKE RED." She drags the spider on the leash back over to the gate.
Loptop admonishes Rita as she offers to kill the Spider with a sharp rap to the noggin. "Me said NO KILL! Me meant no kill!! Now get in and get spider leashed!"
A swift goblin foot is then liberally applied to Ritas hind end, encouraging her to move forward. And move forward she does! She darts into the paddock, dives under the spiders legs and cinches it tightly!
Sauntering out of the paddock, Rita expresses her deep desire for a red cloth and then is sent back to wait with the rest of the whelps.
Chuffy watched from the rear, always keeping to the shadows of larger goblins like Rita and Kettlehead while they were busy with other whelps. It was there that he listened to the whispers of King Bubble and planned their revenge on everyone... 'When I get outta cage, I goings to sticks you in eye while sleep, Dumb Kettlebrain. They I see what inside that kettle...'
Chuffy licks his sores while he watches the others triumphantly snare their spider. When it was his turn, he timidly walks over to the cage with the leash and he eyes the spider briefly until Loptop suddenly shoves him into the cage and crashes to the ground with a grunt, sending the spider skittering away! Some of his pustules throbbing with anger as the roaring laughter behind him. 'Laugh now... I be laughing last...'
He gets back up and dusts himself off with a vicious glare. He rushes at the spider quickly with the rope in hand and grabs hold, but before he hold on long enough he is bucked off to the dust, rolling several times.
With his eyes and face burning with rage, Chuffy climbs to his feet and lets out a scream of fury as he launches himself onto the spider's back, this time only barely holding onto the massive insect from all the sticky pus oozing from his several open sores! He then loops the rope around the spider and pulls it into submission. "Spider, I sticks you over and over if you get loose." He whispers to the insect. "Chuffy gets spider. Now you give Chuffy token." He starts licking his wounds while waiting for his reward. "Yes, King Bubble. They will pay for laughing at Chuffy. They all will..." He mutters to himself quietly...
With an astonishing show of perseverance, Chuffy fails once. Then twice, but finally manages to lasso the damn spider and tie the knot!! He stalks over to the fence line with his chest heaving and his face still red with anger and exertion. Loptop hands him the last peice of tattered cloth in the shape of a spider with a snarl. "About time yous get finish playing with spidey! We not take all day wrangling spiders! Lets go!"
With that, she leads the gaggle of goblins over to a large circular arena used for wrestling and fighting. "We no hurt yous anymore.. YOUS hurt yous now!!" she declares with relish as the confuseded goblins look to each other.. She sits back on a chair and proceeds with her instructions. "For the next test, you show how entertaining you be! Licktoads must be smart. Licktoads must be funny! Licktoads must entertain chieftain!! Yous now take turrns hurting yourself and make it funny! We all laugh, you get a badge! We not laugh, you just be stoopid and go away!"
Looking back and forth among the whelps, Pooog sees no one stepping forward. Hurt self? Ow... Pooog himself hesitates initially, until he reminds himself what Zarongel will think if he should see Pooog being so cowardly. Me no 'fraidy cat. Me brave! No ow!
Taking a deep breath, Pooog hops forward, standing out proud with his (tiny) chest out. "Me Pooog! Me first!" he calls out with the widest grin he can muster.
Without much thought, Pooog crouches and leaps, flipping over while in the air, landing on his hands. Balancing precariously, he intends to start a routine of acrobatic tumbles but almost immediately, his weak arms buckle and he smashes his face straight on dusty ground.
OW! OW! OW! OW! ... Pooog grasp his hands on his nose and they come away bloody. The pain fades eventually, but the shame from the complete silence from the audience is almost too much to bear. No! Me try 'gain!
He leaps to his feet, and again without hesitation, flips once again on his hands, and almost immediately pushes off to land on his feet, executing a near-perfect tumble. He then continues with a series of acrobatic leaps and somersaults across the floor. This time, he feels the attention of the crowd drawn to him. For his finale, he launches himself spread-eagle into the air in his final leap, and allows himself to belly-flop onto the hard floor. Lifting up his bloodied and dusty face, he gives the audience a wide grin.
At Poogs first attempt, there are a few scattered and half hearted whoops and applause, but at his second attempt the crowd goes wild. As he face plants in a spectacular manner, Loptop comes over to help the nearly unconscious Pook of the ground. "Very good! Poog good enough for Chieftain! You get badge!!" She hands him a badge that looks like a goblin head with a big "X" sewn over it!
"Who next? Who else gonna try and please the tribe?"
Inspired by Poog's faceplantarama, Mogmurch rushes forward shouting and waving his arms like the little psycho he is, "Me very bouncy! Watch Mogmurch bounce!" and he runs straight at Kettlehead, headfirst.
The bigger goblin, very used to bullying the other whelps around, is barely caught off guard by the littlest goblin's sudden motion. As Mogmurch crashes into Kettleheads belly, knocking the wind out of the larger of the two, Kettleheads elbow comes crashing down onto Mogmurches skull with a wicked *CRACK!* that reverberates throughout the cavern. The enraged Kettlehead proceeds to poke, bash, kick and bite the littlest goblin, for what seems like a terrible amount of time.
"Dat funny?" says Mogmurch from under Kettlehead... "NO!" says the bigger whelp.
"How 'bout now?" says the little goblin again, this time through rapidly swelling lips. "NO!!" says the bigger goblin, his fists getting sore from all the punching.
"I has to be funny by now!" the little goblin spits blood as he tries to talk. "Nope! Still not funny, but I'm tired." says the worn out larger whelp.
Mogmurch's lies broken and bleeding and his neck is twisted at a most unnatural angle.
He lays still for a few quiet moments as the elders start to wonder, with whispers of "Is he deads?" circling among the group, when suddenly Mogmurch smiles, showing most of his needle like teeth bloody and chipped. "SEE! BOUNCY!" he says weakly and then eyes roll back in his head and he passes out.
Somehow he murmurs aloud, "Funnest way to hurt self is to poke Kettlehead." <hehehe!>
Chuffy lets out an exasperated sigh at the irritation and watches the others give a fairly decent display of hilarity. He looks around and stomps hard on his foot, eliciting a yelp of pain, but not even a smile from the tribe. He glares at the elders, whispering promises of a fiery death upon all that mock him...
This time he has a fantastic idea... he looks for his second favorite boil, Green Gusher, and locates a nearby burning stick. 'Chuffy will miss you, Green Gusher.' He brandishes the stick for all to see as he puts out the flames. He then grins and jabs the smoldering embers into the massive green boil on his elbow! The pain is excruciating and he cries out in pain and sadness as Green Gusher suddenly bursts and sprays ichor into the air! Chuffy collapses onto his backside and watches as little sparkly stars burst all around his darkening vision. He lay there for a moment as the darkness recedes and he jumps back to feet. He notices that some of the green ichor splattered onto Kettlehead and he cannot help but giggle like a maniac!
The whole tribe is aghast, watching Mogmurch take the beating of his life in pursuit of cackles of glee. Finally, as the young whelp passes out through pain and injury, his is able to just barely hear the crowd raring through his badly twisted and mashed ears. Loptop saunters over with a considering look, then kicks Kettlehead off of the smaller goblin. She pins the badge to Mogmurchs chest before opening a vial and pouring it down his throat. With a slap to the face, she wakes Mogmurch with the words "Get up lazy boneses! You make crowd laugh, you get badge! Now, go see medicine woman.. you look icky!"
Once Mogmurch clears out and heads for some stitches, Chuffy steps up to the middle of the ring. His first attempt at amusement of the masses doesn't go so well.. it seems that stomping on your foot is something any goblin would expect from a half grown whelp. However, the absolute spectacle of self branding and the explosive quality of puss that Mogmurch is able to produce evokes the necessary shouts of glee and applause. It seems that most members here find this to be an extremely suitable talent for the dinner table of the chief!! Loptop congratulates you as well, gifting you another badge before turning towards Rita. "Your turn to make us laugh.. make it squishy!! just like your friends!"
You must injure yourself in a creative way for the tribes delight. Each whelp's attempt will deal 1d3 points of nonlethal damage to yourself, with especially creative injuries dealing an additional 1 or 2 points of NL. The whelp can make the injury entertaining with a DC 15 bluff or Charisma check, gaining a circumstantial bonus to the check equal to the amount of nonlethal damage sustained. Whelps can retry this challenge so long as they remain conscious. Remember, you DO have an option of refusing a test, with consequences to be explained if that happens.
Rita has been thinking, and watching. I like hurting people not hurting me. How do this? Poog did acrobats, Mog-murch used Kettlehead, Chuffy did I'm not sure, but it was funny when the green hit Kettlehead. What do?
Rita runs out into the middle of the ring. On the way she grabs two fist sized stones. "ME ENTERTAIN." She starts hopping on one foot tossing the rocks high in the air, and trying to catch them with her HEAD.
Up goes one, and down it comes on her round noggin.
She tosses the other rock in the air right afterwords, and sees how many times she can spin before the rock hits her.
Not hearing much response she tries again, picking up both rocks. This time she flings them both in the air. When they come down she meets them with her head and sends them flying into the crowd, and her backwards. One of the rocks hits Kettlehead in the fac.
She staggers out of the arena her head spinning.
Loptop slaps Rita on the back as she stumbles by. "Good jobs, whelps. You may be fit for Licktoads after all! No boneyards yet!!" She gives Rita the last badge before gathering everyone up again. The various whelps look well abused, and Loptop cackles at the worn and damaged look they collectively have.
"Ok, no more hurts!! Licktoads strong! Licktoads funny! Now, Licktoads SMART!! Yous hold hot pebble in mouth, and think of GOOD insult! You tells insult to each other. Not real Licktoads yet, so you no make mean with REAL licktoads!"
She moves over to a campfire where she uses sticks to entice four red hot pebbles out of the fire and onto a flat rock. Returning to the group, she holds out the rock expectantly.
Rita decides to go first this time. She rushes forward pushing everyone out of the way. "ME FIRST."
She takes up the hot stone, and puts it in her mouth.
"Other whelps are dumb. They don't have round heads, and rounds heads best. Make good sounds in head when talk."
She walks over to Loptop, and spits out the stone at her feet.
Taking aim at Rita, just because she went first, Mogmurch tosses the burning hot rock in his mouth...Hmm.. rock not that hot. Kinda yummy too. and mumbles out, "Yoush weren't born...a bird crapped on a rock and the sun hatched you."
With his distraction from the deliciousness of the hot rock in his mouth, his insult fails to impress anyone... but then his eyes light up as he gets a wicked little thought in his wicked little brain...
"Me wish me could see things like you Rita. Me just can't seem to get my head that far up my butt."
Rita steps over and fearlessly pops a hot rock into her maw, then immediately turns and insults the whole of the whelping party! Her words bring guffaws from the adults and a few shaken fists from the rest of the group as she proudly spits out her rock and rushes over to Loptop for her reward. Loptop hands her a cloth badge and is about to congratulate her, when Mogmurch jumps in with his insult. Unfortunately, his insult is not so good do to the distraction. Loptop chastises him, "Rock for burning, not tasting!! Get it right or you not in Licktoads!"
With this admonishment in mind, he turns and hurls a insult at Rita, earning another round of guffaws and hoots from the crowd. Loptop hands him a badge as well, saying "You twos good to go. You twos make good Licktoads so far!"
As soon as Poog pops the hot stone in his mouth, it sears one of his many ulcers on his gums. The pain is too excruciating and he spits it right out again. Only after the stone has left his mouth did he realise what he has done, and he hangs his head in shame.
Chuffy takes the hot rock into his mouth like a pro and cackles when Poog spits his out. He tries to come up with a crushing insult to his fellow whelp, but he comes up with nothing and simply says. "Poog, soft like poo."
Chuffy flinches at the collective boos and rotten food thrown at him! He takes a deep breath to try and come up with another brutal insult, but the heat from the rock catches in his throat and he reflexively coughs out the rock. He looks up in shame and horror. 'What we do know, King Bubble?'
Poog pops the rock into his mouth, but to the surprise of all the goblin spectators, spits it right back out again. Loptop can't even get a word in edgewise over the booing and catcalling from the crowd, then she immediately has to take shelter as Chuffy is at first unable to come up with a witty insult, then follows Poogs example and spits the pebble through the air. Both Goblins are led from the arena in shame as they are pelted with trash and refuse. Loptop just stares in disgust, shaking her head.
Finally she calls out to the crowd, and after trading a few insults of her own, she gets everyone calmed down enough to lead the whelps over to a recently made mud pile. "Ok, YOUS two do good until that.. we will give one more chance to make sure you Licktoads or you go to boneyards!" she growls at Poog and Chuffy, holding up three fingers.
Turning to the rest of the group, she continues. "Licktoads strongest tummies of all. We gnash and bite, and we not gets sick either! We the bestest!!" she says, puffing out her small chest. "You eat dirt, but not the worm! And no using hands or feet! Use teeth! Goblins real weapon! Show big appetite! Eat lots, spit out worm. You understand?" With that, she points to the mud pile writhing with worms and kicks you in the rear to get going.
Mogmurch eagerly begins to chow down on what has often been his meal of choice while in the whelping cage. Not his choice mind you, but being the smallest of the whelps meant the only choice was rarely his own.
After a little while of not finding a worm he begins to wonder Hmm... was that worm or rock?? Worm! Too tasty! Me find another later. Nom, nom, nom. and his little stomach begins to fill.
After yet more munching on mud Hmm... was that worm or rock?? Must be rock. Nom, nom, nom.
And finally just as his stomach is about to explode, he finds another worm, and with a monumental amount of restraint, he spits it out at the feet of the Lotop with a loud *PWTAH!*
Loptop begins to glower at the whelps as Mogmurch scarfs the dirt by the mouthful, heedless of the worms that he is supposed to be spitting out. An angry retort on her lips and her hand raised for a good smack are both halted when the littlest whelp finally spits out a worm. She looks at him in distrust before saying "Ok.. you get badge.. but you NOT supposed to eat worms, spit them out. Food later, test now!" she says to the others.
Rita dives into the pile of mud. Yummy. I like worms. No eat worms right now.
Rita takes a big bite of mud. She wallows it around in her mouth. Nothing there.[/b]
She takes the second bite, and finds a worm. [i]No eat worm now. She spits it out.
The third bite fills her up. No worm in this bite. Too bad.
She stands up her face covered in mud with a big smile.
Loptop starts to congratulate Rita after she spits out the worm from her second mouthful, but stops in amazement as she scoops up a third mouthful, seeming for the fun of it. She claps both hands to her face in exasperation, then cries out "For the love all good goblins!! Meal time later! Test time NOW!! Here badge. Quite eating dirt. Eat food later." With a sigh and a shake of her head, she turns to Poog and Chuffy. 'Well? Yous two go now. Not make Loptop mad again!"
Wishing deep down to redeem himself from the shame of the previous challenge, Poog dives down into the mud with great gusto. In his mind, he calls out to Zarongel, whom he views as a big brother who lives in his mind, for help. The mud, however, splashes all over his eyes, and being completely blinded, he chows down randomly. Finding nothing at first, he starts to swallow when he feels a faint tickle at the back of his throat. Can it be?
He quickly activates his gag reflex, a latent talent in all goblins, and vomits out the brown sticky contents of his stomach. He sticks his hand into the mix and stirs through the contents of the regurgitation. Sure enough, his fingers close around the squirmy worm. Lifting it triumphantly over his head, he calls out, "Pooog is best! Pooog find one mouth!" Thank Zarongel! Praise Zarongel!
Chuffy looks at the mud with trepidation, the failure of his last test making him feel meek. However, if as much gusto as he can summon he dives face-first into the muck and as he swallows it down, he finds no wriggly wormies. He glares angrily at the dirt.
He does not waste anymore time as Poog suddenly spits a worm out on his first mouthful. Not wanting to be seen as the weakest of the whelps, he shoves his face even further into the mud and chomps, chomps, chomps... he suddenly chokes on a twig! After a moment of hacking and gasping, he manages to cough it out onto the ground. Now he's starting to look a little frightened as Rita spits out her worm... "Give me wormies, mud, or I sticks you!" He snarls at the ground and then shoves his entire head into the muck!
He chomps and chomps. 'King Bubble, me needs your help!' As he fills his cheeks to near bursting, he suddenly feels a tickle at the back of his throat, a wiggly tickle! 'Wormies!!!!!' He snags the little bugger with his tongue and presses it against his cheek while swallowing down the massive amount of mud... His stomach churns, but he whips his head back up, slinging mud all over and spits his worm onto Loptop's foot instead of the ground in front of her. "Hah! King Bubble and Chuffy are best chompers!" Mud flies from his lips as he shouts triumphantly!
Lop top in in the middle of congratulating Poog when chuffed spits his worm on her foot. "Good Poog! You win... Uck! Chuffy, you watch aim!! You no spit on me!!" she raises her hand for a stinging slap when the mass on her foot begins to wriggle. "You found worm.. god. But worm goes on ground, not me!" she hands out two more badges before send the whelps on.
"You all win badges, so you gets to stay out of boneyard for now. Eat and rest tonight! You have big big day tomorrow!" with that, lop top sends you off to heal up and enjoy your first evening as free whelps!
-Posted with Wayfinder
Rita tucks away her badges carefully, and stumbles to her brand new bed area. No more locked up with whelps. I can pick bed. She finds one with lots of leaves piled up and looks comfy.
Chuffy greedily grabs his badges and immediately shoves them into his meager rags. He shoots a narrowed-eye look at the others. "Me shinies. You touch, I sticks!" He finds a suitable place to bed down and spends sometime looking over his badges like a dragon hoarding its treasure. "King Bubble, we does it. We Licktoads now! Soon we get shiny knifes to sticks with. Oh the surprises we shall have!" He whispers to himself and his boils...
The next morning, the four whelps are kicked awake by Loptop. "Yous meet in arena now. Last part of Whelping test to come! Hope yous rested!"
Once everyone has assembled, you notice that some of the larger and uglier goblin whelps from the cages are not present, Kettlehead the most notable of the absences. Loptop glares around to make sure she has your full attention before launching into her next set of orders. “You maybe think you be tough because you got out of your baby cage, whelps? Psht! You no be goblins. The only real goblins are Licktoads, and a Licktoad without a toad is just… lick. So. If you want be Licktoads, you need to catch a toad at Tadpole Bog and also not die. Then you take the toad to Cave of Darkfear and also not die. Then you show your toad to the Darkfear spirit, and maybe if you really are a goblin, then you also not die. Get toad. Show spirit. Kill anything that wants to stop you. Don’t die. That last part is very important. Here. I show you how to go, you remember. Then go!”
She brings all the goblin whelps in close before sketching a very crude map into the dirt at your feet. She points out Tadpole Bog and the Cave of Darkfear, then shoos you away.
Chuffy wonders where the other whelps are, but grins wickedly. 'I bets they fail tests and Loptop squishy their balloon heads.' Chuffy nods at Loptop's very sage advice about not dying. "Chuffy sticks and burn! Goblin way!" He memorizes the map as best as he can before pulling his sharpened rock out. He's too preoccupied with waving his sharpened rock around to notice anything.
Why only 1 and 1 and 1 and 1 whelp? Where rest? Too preoccupied thinking his thoughts, Pooog does not notice anything much around him. He looks at the map together with the other three before being shooed out.
Standing outside, no longer locked in the pen, with no big goblins, just three other whelps, fills Pooog with excitement and trepidation as he grasps tight his club. "Chuffy, why you think only me and you and him and her?" Pooog asks, pointing to each of the 4 goblin whelps in turn.
Rita is carefully looking around as she and the other three whelps head out. She notices something. She moves over, and takes her prize. She straps on the shield. "Here you take some." She shows the darts to the other three, and hands over two to everyone except Poog. She hands him one.
"Me think the big whelps are hiding to get us later. Or Maybe Loptop ate them. Me not know. Me pass test, will be Licktoad." she grins with all her teeth showing.
Chuffy's eyes grow large at the offered darts and he greedily grabs them from Rita. "Hah! Silly Poog only get one!" 'Maybe not sticks Rita with rock..'
"Me thinks Loptop squishy their dumb balloon heads! Kettletop mostest. When me gets shiny pinkskin sticker, he gets sticks first. The surprise will be the bestest! Then me sets fire to to him. Me thinks he would be very surprised by that!"
One the way out of town, Rita manages to scavenge a shield and weapons from under a table before being chased off by an older goblin particularly upset that his table is now uneven once more!
With a spring in their steps, the young whelps dive into the dark forest and leaves the village behind. Afterr a couple hours of aimlessly walking, you finally make your way to the bog. Stumbling through the brush, you almost fall in, then pull yourselves back with a shout of glee.
The occasional lazy bubble breaks the surface of this shallow, stinky pond, and a haze of insects clouds the air in every direction. Only the occasional gurp-chirp of toadsong breaks through the drone of bugs.
Riga giggles showing teeth. "This better than any bug. I have toad to play with. Bet Kettletop doesn't have toad of his own. Not going to share."
She moves out stealthily as possible moving carefully over the peat on quiet feet. She is so stealthy that even the other whelps lose sight of her for a moment.
Slipping behind one of the toads she dives for it. Water sprays everywhere as she breaks through the moss. A muddy Rita comes up for air with a huge grin. Tucked in her hat that she had removed before the leap is one of the Lick Toads. She pets it. "Me name you Toaddy. I lick you later." she whispers. She makes her way back to the others in triumph. "Me first me got bestest toad. Your turn. No more bestest toads in water." she cackles.
Pooog holds his singular dart and starts to protest. "No fair! Why me one!" Seeing everyone ignoring him, and how he is the smallest of the group, eventually keeps quiet but continues to shimmer internally as they walk to the bog.
"Lick it? Rita why lick it? It taste good?"
Pooog decides to follow Rita's lead. He spies a toad minding its own business catching flies. He creeps up slowly behind, pulling out his small square of burlap along the way. He manages to get quite close before he leaps at it, the burlap cloth opened up like a net. The toad doesn't get a chance to react before everything goes dark. Pooog triumphantly holds up the squirming make-shift bag of toad and proudly exclaims, "Me got one, too! Mine bestest!"
"Rita love me! Me got two darts! Mogmurch thinks happily.
He walks quietly along to the bog just to be like Rita. When he sees Rita dive in after a toad he wants nothing more than to dive in after her, but wondering why she jumped in causes him to hesitate.
Having no idea why she did it, but wanting very much to prove himself in her eyes, he spots a toad, and moves with surprising speed to easily snatch it up and then quickly stuff it under his arm.
With a huge grin proudly showing his many needle like teeth, Mogmurch asks, "Rita mean like this? What me do with toad now? Lick it?"
"I saw big goblins licking toads. Does good stuffs if you do that. But don't lick too much. Toad stops working after lots of licks." Rita pats her toad with a big smile.
Rita leads the group in diving into the murky and muddy waters head first in search of the biggest and bestest toad! She grabs one, declaring it her trophy!
Poog takes a different tack, expertly blending into the brush and foliage before jumping out and dropping a sack over another toad with a cry of triumph!
Not to be outdone, Mogmurch simply walks up to the waters edge, and grabs for a toad. It nearly is able to slip through his fingers, but the nimble goblin whelp shoves it into his armpit, gassing it into submission! Obviously, Mogmurch has never read the rules on humane warfare!!
Chuffy sneaks off into the swamp, returning not long after, holding his frog triumphantly. He holds it high, thinking himself special before his grin fades at the evidence of being the last to catch his.
As he turns to kick his feet into the mud, something hard and sharp stops his foot abruptly! Dancing on one foot, trying to hold his foot with one hand, keep his toad in the other, and muttering curses that would have gotten him slapped by any adult goblin, he truly is a spectacle to behold! Once he finally calms down, he limps back over to see what hurt him so badly, and finds a dogslicer sticking out of the mud just below the waters surface.
Chuffy's eyes get really wide. "Ohhhhh, shiny dogsticker... no cutter... no... dogslicer! That it... This mine!"
Once Mogmurch finishes his fit of hysterical laughter at Chuffy's sliced foot, the shiny finally registers in his brain box as something valuable. Mogmurch almost immediately dives headfirst into the mud, swishing his face back and forth in the hopes he finds his own shiny, somehow completely oblivious to the fact that the last shiny was a sharp weapon...