Grammel looks Jugdaz up and down, then pulls out a mean-looking dagger. "You steal Grammel's job, I stab you in eye. The blade disappears into her dress. "For now though, use big magic to make patches. They help whelps on great adventure tomorrow.
There really aren't any rules for creating the magic patches. They're mostly created by accident. She'll get you cutting out squares of cloth, and muttering 'magic' words. Eventually, you'll have 12 extra patches (1 of each kind for each party member.)
-----
Ribnutz looks at Guel's scythe, and shakes his head. "We find you real goblin weapon." He starts off into the swamp, expecting you to follow. Eventually you come to a small pile of animal bones. Ribnutz pushes the bones aside, revealing a small cache of weapons. "No tell Licktoads," he says, inviting you to choose a weapon.
You can stick with the scythe if you want, finding one which isn't broken.
-----
Beaknose finds himself in a standoff with a pig. The pig has been rooting around in the muck, and has revealed a small metal box, and is now guarding it. If only there was something g to distract it with.
You can either use something in your gear to lure it away, or can find something--within reason--in the muck.
Loptop directs Guel across the fetid water of the pond. On the other side of the pond, you see a goblin standing on a tree stump, swinging a meat cleaver around with practised efficiency.
DC 5 Swim check to float across--with the dice roller, that MAY be an accomplishment. :)
----
Beaknose is sent to the pigpen (#3 on the map), where he finds Tumm, a gangly goblin wearing coveralls. "You no get poo shield," Tumm cryptically says.
"Get clean grass dirty," he tells Beaknose, handing over a pitchfork.
----
Jugdaz finds himself standing in the doorway of a hut filled to the roof with scraps of cloth, glass jars, potted plants, and an assortment of smooth, shiny rocks.
From the bottom of one of the piles of cloth, you see two legs kicking, and hear muffled screams for help.
Loptop swings her staff wildly at Beaknose, and misses spectacularly. She twirls herself around, and winds up getting tossed to the ground, trampled under dozens of goblin feet.
The drumming stops as Chief Gutwad comes waddling over like a diseased penguin.
His assistant, Slorb, stops to pluck Loptop out of the mud. The whelp wrangler swoons on her feet for a momwnt, then joins the chief.
"Whelps greatest seen for many moons," Gutwad says, a malicious grin on his face. Drool drips from his filed fangs, a piece of a dead squirrel lodged between his teeth.
"Whelps rest in big-big shack tonight." He indicates the largest structure, which is his den.
"But first do chores," he finishes. "Loptop give job."
The chief turns away, with Slorb in tow.
The crowd quickly disperses, and you're left with your whelp wrangler.
Loptop looks over at Guel and his sickle, then steps back to her assistant.
"Next you whelps do happy beat."
Suddenly a scrawny goblin steps out of the crowd, carrying a drum. He starts thumping out a tribal dance beat, and the rest of the tribe goes crazy.
Hooting and hollering, Loptop indicates that you should start.
Happy Beat:
The whelps must injure themselves in creative ways for
the tribe’s delight. Each whelp’s attempt deals 1d3 points
of nonlethal damage to himself. The whelp can make the injury entertaining with a successful DC 15 Bluff or
Charisma check, gaining a circumstance bonus to this check equal to the amount of nonlethal damage sustained. Whelps can retry this challenge so long as they remain conscious.
Loptop goes over to Guel, and smashes him on the head with her club.
"You not smart goblin. Put you on bones job, if you survive tribe challenge."
Looking over the remainder of the whelps, she stops in front of the larger Kettlehead.
"Brave Kettlehead warrior no baby. You take friends and start toad adventure.
Kettlehead cuffs two nearby whelps, and drags them along by the leashes he's made for them. "Largest toad belong to Kettlehead! Leaving the pond area, Kettlehead is showered with gifts as he makes his way out of the village.
Chief Rendwattle Gutwad takes a seat at the edge of the muddy clearing, formally announcing that the whelp challenge will commence.
Loptop steps forward, motioning to one of her assistants, who carries over a cage with a large spider in it.
"First challenge for whelps, tie rope around spider, and keep tight. Each get one try."
Everyone can roll their attempt, no particular order. Read the spoiler below.
Challenge 1 Mechanics:
Wrangling the head-sized scarlet spider requires a successful DC 9 combat maneuver check, followed by a successful DC 12 Dexterity check to tie a secure knot.
You are the newest members of the Licktoad Tribe. Or at least hope to be. For now, though, you're whelps-ravenous, amoral, grumpy goblin children who learned to stop eating rocks and mud 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 hold you at bay.
There are whelps who 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 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!”
Rempty drops the bow, and runs forward to Kettlehead. "Great job your Kettleness! I love the way you yelled and then slashed at him. It was also great when you tapped your magical helmet. I think I see it glowing..." The whelp reaches up like he's going to take it...
Kettlehead turns on the whelp and runs him through with the dogslicer. "No touch magic helmet."
You easily find the trail leading north to the Cave of Darkfear. As you leave the bog behind, the nasty sun is obscured by giant black clouds, which start to pelt you with refreshing, dank drizzle.
After a few minutes of slogging through the mud, you come across a rudely-shaped fallen log blocking the trail.
A weasly green-gray figure drops from the treetops onto the log--Kettlehead the goblin, his polished pot still perched upon his bulbous head. He cries out, "Stupid baby wannabe goblins!" As a pair of whelps from the cage--Culgick and Rempty--clamor up beside him.
Kettlehead waves a mean-looking dogslicer over his head. "You took toads from Kettlehead's special pond, and now you have to pay my price. Give me all your toads! And say you be stupid!"
Taking your time with the toads, you also find some treasures worthy of any goblin: two pickled corpses in the waters below, along with a second dogslicer, a javelin, a grappling hook, a symbol of Zarongel, two wooden spoons, two dead moles, and a jar of pickled fish heads
After a half hour, both Tak and Grimble are in possession of their own toads. Chuffy splashes over, a toad with a missing leg trapped in a rusty cage tucked under his arm. "Go to Cave of Darkfear now?"
The dogslicer is a little rusted from laying under the water, but is otherwise a weapon that would stand up in battle.
I was mulling over how best to get your toads...other than RL days of potentially failed dice rolls. There's nothing stopping you from making endless dice rolls until you get one each. If you want to build a trap of some sort, a DC 10 Perception check will allow you to find enough junk to build something.
Grimble swings her club around, going for one of the toads in the reeds. Make an attack roll, AC 15 to stun one of the toads. After that, a DC 15 CMB check. If you make your attack roll, you get a +2 on your CMB check.
When Tak Ventures back into the water, he comes across the glint of metal once again.
Glint of Metal:
You see a dogslicer buried in the muck. Truly a weapon worthy of a full-fledged Licktoad.
Tak, the 'stream' is more a stagnant pool of water with a big flat rock in the middle.
---------
Sorry about the late post today. One heck of a day...
Grimble swings her club around, knocking Gromer down into the muddy shoreline.
The whelp whimpers in his unconscious state, blowing small bubbles into a pool of water his head landed in.
Chuffy dances around the fallen foe. "Not so tough without big Kettlehead." He pulls on the piece of rope still tied around his waist. "See how you like being tied to log."
So are you guys going to just beat that poor whelp into a bloody pulp? I was hoping Grimble could get at least 1 hit in (sorry the dice aren't working out).
If that's the case, you guys can just do max damage and end his suffering.
Chuffy raises his rock for another attack, and hits the spy in the forehead. Blood starts dribbling down the whelps face, his cries of pain louder than Chuffy's shriek of surprise.
Talking with Chuffy, Tak fails to notice Grimble slinking around the edges of the water.
Chuffy wiggles his eyebrows, and starts chewing on his tongue.
"Gromer steal Chuffy toad and give to Kettlehead. Kettlehead and Gromer go into trees," he says, while pointing into the marshes.
"You help Chuffy get new toad?"
-----------
Grimble slinks around the edge of the water, using the reeds for cover.
She comes up behind a whelp who's watching Tak and Chuffy, scraping a sharp rock across his open palms, muttering to himself. "Gromer no want sit here and watch whelps. Me big warrior to fight monster in Cave of Dark Fear."
"Not Chuffy toads." The little whelp starts heading back to shore. "Big Kettlehead send Chuffy to get toads, then tied Chuffy to log."
The goblin stops, not realizing he's started to sink once again. "You no tie Chuffy to log?"
Back at shore, Grimble sees and hears the exchange. The new whelps words are hard to make out over the constant drone of insects around the foul-smelling bog.
Grimble:
On the far side of the bog you see anot her goblin whelps hiding in the reeds.
When Tak splashes into the water, he finds that the water only comes to his waist. The ground underneath is spongy, and would seem like it should hold his weight.
Assuming you're still swimming...
About half way to the drowning goblin, your foot gets poked by something sharp sticking up through the peat.
Still continuing....
When you get to the drowning goblin, you see a rope tied around his waist.
At the water's edge, Grimble watches as Tak slogs through the water, and the goblin whelp get dragged down.
Moving off the rough trail, you find yourselves staring down into a small pool of water. It is roughly the same size of Licktoad Village.
A ring of trees sags in the mud, all leaning away from the water, as if they were trying to get away from it.
Dozens of toads ring the water, baking on the rocks in the hot sun. The smell of the putrid water wafts over you, almost intoxicating.
At the centre of the pool sits a large rock, where the biggest, fattest toads laze in the sun. They watch with disinterest as a goblin whelp flounders in the water, struggling to stay afloat, his shrieks piercing the constant drone of insects.
