The huge heads of bullywugs resembled those of frogs, with big, bulbous eyes, wide mouths,[4][11] and long, flicking tongues. Said tongues were barely capable of navigating a stunted variant of Common, and they typically spoke in thick, sloppy accents.[3][9]
Bullywugs were foul inhabitants of the natural world both in smell and company,[2] constantly hungry savages[1] often completely lacking in higher emotions and feelings.[4] Unlike many other creatures of the wild, bullywugs either didn't understand or didn't care about the effect they had on their own ecosystems.[13] They hunted and killed for sport without the intelligence or discrimination to allow environmental recovery, and so systematically depleted the natural resources of their own habitats.[3]
Bullywug D
Rather than fill any ecological niche, these habits made bullywugs a disruption and threat to the fragile balance they themselves relied upon, and after exhausting other food sources, they would either move on to greener pastures or turn to cannibalism (although some were cannibals by choice). While they didn't permanently poison the land like the undead, the effects of bullywugs left to their reckless practices was nothing short of disastrous for a few years, as they stripped acres of land bare[4][2][14] and left behind a despoiled morass of mud, a mere echo of a once fertile swamp.[2]
The bullywugs were not unaware of this phenomenon, the difference in environment before and after they entered being so noticeable that even they viewed their own presence as "off" somehow. This sense of something being wrong manifested as paranoia, the sense that everything was out to get them somehow, although this feeling was not exactly untrue. Those that struck the scourge bullywugs with particular precision or power sometimes felt a moment of renewed strength or clarity, as if the natural world itself was thanking them for their service.[2]
Bullywugs were, appropriately enough, bullies,[3] and often their greatest joy came from lording over trespassers in their domains.[1] They believed themselves to be the true lords of the swamp and behaved as such,[1][15] being known to laze and loaf even as others worked.[16][17] They prized coins, jewels, and other treasures, although as individuals they lacked the same kind of greed and megalomania found in marauders like orcs. Infighting within the same group almost never occurred, though some would suggest this was due to a lack of brainpower rather than malice.[4] Regardless of the truth of that idea, bullywugs were easily confused,[15] the smartest of them normally being of about average human intelligence.[4]
Despite their tendencies towards chaotic and evil behavior, bullywugs were capable of adopting other behaviors. They often remained individualistic, but sometimes shed their more despicable traits when trying to find a place in the outside world.[18] Curiosity could drive them to explore,[19] and those that met success were the ones that learned to work with and rely on others, with most stray bullywugs being neutral and, on rare occasion, creatures of good.[18]
Bullywugs also wore crude armor and donned shields when available despite these things slowing them down when underwater, trying to equip themselves with at least leather armor as a point of pride.[3][4][18] This highlighted an oddity when it came to bullywugs, their illogical approach to battle. Bullywugs were fierce, aggressive creatures known to display fanatical loyalty to their tribes, and yet had little stomach for protracted fighting, which combined with their lacking minds made them somewhat unpredictable as far as combat went. Bullywugs were just as likely to fight to the death no matter how obviously doomed they were as they were to run for the hills after only a few of them fell, melting away into the swamp even if they easily could have won.[3][9][20]
Bullywugs did not favor fair fights, and were skilled in the construction and use of nets and snares.[4] They preferred to fight in or near water,[3] and given their camouflage and ability to suddenly spring into action, they were adept ambushers.[4][5] Bullywugs were emboldened by superior numbers and always tried to overwhelm the enemy by surrounding them. They hated humans and attacked adventurers on sight whenever their own groups were larger, but against serious threats, they normally left in search of easier prey.[1][15][4] Fittingly, bullywugs usually tried to summon monsters as the first part of any attack whenever possible, but given their issues with that art, there was a 1/8 chance they would accidentally summon more creatures than expected, lose control, and then waste their efforts fighting their would-be aid.[3]
Most bullywugs outside of their homes trained as warriors while some became barbarians, the tribe's biggest bullywug often doing the latter.[3] Some bullywugs had specific strategies; those known as muckers were strong and stout foes that jumped at their victims to knock them prone before kicking them while they were down, while others known as twitchers erratically spasmed around the battlefield, making them difficult to hit and difficult to avoid.[2]
Bullywug society was savage, primitive, and tribal, one of the most petty-minded and mindlessly destructive of all humanoid organizations.[2][4] Bullywugs had learned to cooperate for the sake of mutual survival and hunting benefit with practically zero infighting,[18][4] but murder was still one of the two primary methods for getting ahead. The killing of one's rivals had to be performed secretly however, since bullywugs who witlessly did away with their opposition were likely to be executed by the others. Bullywug politics were typically more "subtle" than killing whoever was in front on the social ladder.[1]
Aside from their gods, bullywugs only ever showed respect to their leaders, for their organized (or at least semi-organized) societies were socially fascist and so tyrannical as to be totalitarian. Absolute authority was vested to subleaders led by a male chieftain, a self-styled lord of the muck who could treat all his subjects as possessions and freely kill (and eat if he chose) his followers if they did not instantly follow his whims.[1][18][4] Only when the previous leader was too old to rule would the next dominant male kill and usurp (and possibly consume) him.[4]
This foul aristocracy formed the basis of bullywug "etiquette", both amongst themselves and outsiders. Bullywugs introduced themselves with grand titles while groveling and kowtowing before their superiors, ceaselessly competing to win their favor.[1] It was in this sycophantic competition that the bullywug love and hoarding of treasure became important despite its lack of actual use in their societal system.[18] Instead of killing each other, bullywugs could advance by finding treasures and trinkets (including magical items) to present to their lord as tokens of deference or loyalty.[1]
It was for this reason that bullywugs raided caravans and settlements, obtaining baubles and knickknacks to impress and win over their masters. Even if this succeeded and a bullywug got into the good graces of their leaders, the careless abuse and neglect that they so commonly showed their own property invariably meant that the fine items they acquired would become broken and dirty, whereupon the bullywug lord would invariably demand even more. Capturing intruders was favorable to just killing them because they could be dragged before the bullywug kings and their queens and forced to beg for mercy.[1]
Bullywug royals were sneering and demanding, donning robes of leather, rough cloth, and marsh plants[1][21] even as most bullywugs wore no clothes.[4] Through bribery and flattery they could be convinced to release their captive audience, but not before trying to impress them with the majesty of their realm and the grandeur of their treasures.[1] Despite claims of being the masters of the marshes, bullywugs recognized their adverse environmental influence and perceived themselves negatively because of it, and that attitude extended to the bullywug lords.[1][2] Behind their pretensions to nobility and fanciful posturing was a deep inferiority complex, a desperate desire for legitimacy in the eyes of outsiders as beings worthy of not only fear, but respect.[1]
Bullywugs normally appeared in groups somewhere between ten to eighty individuals,[4] although they traveled in their tribal groups in numbers somewhere below fifty.[10] A grouping of four bullywugs was known as a "pad", a pair of pads was called a "float", and between two to six floats was a "pond".[3] Bullywug bands always had large leaders, with communities of thirty or more possessing five subleaders and groups of sixty or more having a great chieftain and five subchieftans.[4][5]
The presence of advanced bullywugs was one of the few times that bullywugs fought. Normal bullywugs hated their larger, more intelligent kin with a passion, going to war with them every chance they got.[4][18][5] Advanced bullywugs reciprocated the feeling, viewing all outsiders, bullywugs or otherwise, as either threats or food sources. Despite this hatred,[4] it was the largest and smartest bullywugs that invariably led bullywug kind,[21] the kings and queens of their race normally being of unusual stature.[1] On the other side of the coin, it was the advanced bullywugs that most frequently broke away from their kind and took up the adventuring lifestyle.[18][11]
Often it was the females of bullywug society that decided to leave their lairs. Despite the fact that females and young made up about half of a given tribe, neither was given much weight in the social order, for their culture was heavily patriarchal. Females were looked down upon as nothing more than egg bearers, and these extremely limited options for advancement pushed them to a life of adventure.[4][18]
Bullywugs had difficulties allying with other beings, but when they did it was universally with the foul and the feral.[2] While there was no open hostility between the two, lizardfolk rarely associated with them,[5] and bullywugs were known to boss them around if given the chance.[15] The sahuagin held them in contempt and occasionally raided their lairs out of hateful malice before eating captives alive.[5] They fancied wemic claws as shield and armor decorations.[23] 2ff7e9595c
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