Episode 22: Bonk Bonk Swamp (Part 2)
The Story
The party rejoin at the inn, Mal and Drūdlin are exhausted, but Juan said he had the Frog Bucks so the party head back towards Christopher Frogkin's palace. Met at the bridge again, where the same guards block the path, demanding payment. Juan tries to talk and intimidate his way through, but the frog while intimidated still refuses entry without payment. After Juan summons creatures to be even more intimidating, Drūdlin offers 500 Frog Bucks to pass, the guard accepts it and lets them past.
The party approach the palace, and Bookt advises Juan that he approved of his approach at the bridge, and urges him to attack the palace and take what they want. Juan elects not to do this exactly, but instructs Craw to go into the palace, find Christopher Frogkin and bring him back.
Drūdlin suggests Juan trade information for information, with the potential uprising. Meanwhile Methven Willowshine wonders if maybe Christopher Frogkin would leave the information lying around somewhere.
Mal curious to see if maybe there was a lot of frog bucks left lying around, stealthily sneaks into the palace, and looks around to see if he could find anything of value. Due to his exhaustion from the previous nights work is fairly ineffective at observing anything, and the locks on the doors all seem to be of an unknowable lock style he cannot figure out.
He makes his way to the main antechamber, and picks the pocket of an aristocrat retrieving 1000 Frog Bucks and a key with the number 13 on it. Remembering that the doors all had numbers on them, he makes his way to room 13, and unlocks it with the key. Searching the room he comes across a leather bound book, and a golden monkey / frog statue.
Returning to the antechamber, the rest of the party have also arrived there, and Drūdlin is hob-nobbing with the aristocrats. She learns that they are waiting for Christopher Frogkin to arrive with the Croacaine so the party can get started.
The party then notice that Craw is standing intently before the giant doors on the other side of the room. Which suddenly open with a herald coming out and announcing Christopher Frogkin, Craw immediately grabs his hand and drags him in front of Juan who demands the information, and refuses to part with any money, so Christopher Frogkin declines, and turns away. Mal intercepts him with a wad of 250 Frog Bucks, he looks at it with a derisive sneer, peeling off the top bill, rolling it up into a tube and heads off to a platter piled high with Croacaine. Aginiars apes him with a rolled up bill, and approaches the platter. Christopher Frogkin says the Croacaine goes well with the bluebell caviar pointing to another plate piled high with maggots, flicking out his tongue and picking one out. Aginiars follows suit, picking up a maggot and eating it. Christopher Frogkin then cuts a couple of lines of Croacaine, and snorts it then offers the second line to Aginiars who snorts it instantly feeling a major buzz. After a brief discussion Christopher Frogkin runs off in search of girls. Juan runs up to him, and demands information, Christopher Frogkin begins mocking Juan as he talks, so Juan grabs his cheeks, and demands the information. Getting over the buzzkill, Christopher Frogkin sends a messenger to retrieve something from the throne room. The messenger returns with a scroll with an image of a temple, and Christopher Frogkin relays the story that Hlin Battlehammer arrived looking for a tattoo artist, to tattoo on a map. But the tattoo artist had to be disappeared at the temple.
The party then head to town to find out where the temple is, while Mal heads to the arcade to purchase the flaming sword. The party head down to the temple in the south, there is a massive staircase leading up to an altar at the top. Aginiars high off his face runs all the way to the top, shouting and letting off an accidental eldritch blast. He then settles down to do a manic drug induced ritual to detect magic in the altar.
Aginiars completes his ritual faster than naturally possible, and detects primal magic coming from the alter. Juan, Drūdlin and Mal head off to find the tattoo parlour to see if there was an assistant, to the tattoo artist. On searching the parlour, they found 900 Frog Bucks and a note mentioning an unusual tattoo, and that his debt will be repaid soon. Looking through the paper on the light they are able to see what appears to be the imprint from a map fragment on the back, with the letters OUTLA visible at the bottom.
Drūdlin goes in search of Frog Spawn, asking around the market for Frog Spawn, they received a variety of responses from various people, until they came across one who advised them that they have encountered some Bonk Bonk Dialect, and shared a couple of examples.
| Name | Dialect |
|---|---|
| Shoes | Swamps |
| Socks | Snows |
| Pants | Sunups |
| Top | Shivers |
| Frog Bucks | Spawn |
| Sunglasses | Sunshines |
Knowing this, they head back to the temple and Juan heads up with 500 Frog bucks in hand. Clouds appear swirling around, with blue lightning sparking until he deposits the cash in the bowl. At this point a glowing blue frog appears, arms spread and looks at the Frog Bucks, but then seeing how much is in it frowns and arms drop to his side and he starts rubbing his fingers together. Juan puts in his remaining 400 Frog Bucks in the bowl, the frog smiles, but still rubs his fingers together, Mal ascends and places another 600 Frog Bucks in the bowl. The celestial frog bows down and takes the money and disappears leaving a portal in place.
The party head through the portal, and find themselves in a catacomb piled with bodies, and a voice from behind the bodies fearfully calls out to them asking who they are. Juan explains who they are and he agrees to help them if they get him out of there. They lead him out, and the portal disappears. After discussing, they head back to his studio so he can sketch out the map again from memory. The party with this information try to gather more information from Spawn Bean about the destination of Hlin Battlehammer.
They search around asking townsfolk where the World Tree Port could be, but noone seems to know where it could be.
They head to the tavern to see if Frognald Trump knows anything, he doesn't so the party rest for the night.
Heading Out
The next morning the party try to figure out where they should go, Drūdlin tries to contact Zanelin The Tinkerer asking about the World Tree, but she get's his answerphone, and leaves a message. After a discussion they decide to head back to Atalasta and to tend to the Uncaller issue. As they travel, Zanelin responds and they learn that he knows where the World tree is, and they should stop in to see him when they're back in Atalasta.
Business is Bodies, and business is good.
As the party head back to Atalasta they start seeing carts of bodies and wounded soldiers. streaming out of the city. They ask a cart driver what is happening but he doesn't know beyond knowing that business is bodies and business is good.
They continue in to Atalasta seeing a lot of chaos and carnage, with people running backwards and forwards with what little posessions they have. They also identify an ornate tent in the middle, so the party entered. They see a red dragonborn, and a bunch of generals discussing Uncaller about to take over the town, having grown in strength, and the red dragonburn turns out to be Tes Tay Kuulz who is extremely angry with the party for not waiting for him to arrive.
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