Frog Head Bounty

Kalleth and Tahu were wanting occupation, and they went with Dryali to Arnari to find out what was available.  Arnari told them:

• The leader of House Aldous is looking for people to find hippogryph eggs, to expand his breeding lines.  He is offering 100 gp/egg or a trained hippogryph gelding for 10 eggs.
• There's a bounty of 100gp / giant frog head in Lakeview;  they are having a problem with giant frogs attacking fishermen.
• Keep trying to track down Jamie.

Kalleth asked, "What is the first option?"  Arnari repeated, "Hippogryph eggs."  After a moment, Kalleth said, "Ok.  That's been there."

Dryali leaned back, thinking about Jamie, then explained to the room about trying to track down Jamie in the previous two days; how they'd found out where he was picking up day labourers; how they were spotted by his pseudodragon familiar.  His conclusion from the affair was that disguises would be needed, to go to the day labour market, and meet Jamie in person.  Perhaps only one; Dryali could disguise self and the others could watch?

Kalleth did not want to deal with animals, but instead go after Jamie.

Tahu asked Arnari, "What if there's not a lot of giant frogs?"  Arnari shuffled papers, and peered at one.  "They've seen at least 4 frogs at the same time."

After a short discussion on disguises, the three of them decided the frogs would be best; Jamie would then be lulled.

Dryali made sure he had enough rope for snare, and Kalleth grabbed his bear trap.  Then, they all stopped by Nyls' office to find out more about the giant frogs.

Nyls told them giant frogs were medium sized creatures, and can eat small creatures.  Dryali said sarcastically, "So, no halflings left in Lakeview."  Nyls' reply was very serious:  "Apparently, halflings and kids are terrified."  Then again, Nyls was always serious.

The trip to Lakeview was uneventful, and they arrived in the evening of their third day of travel, after passing through green fields with grazing cows.  They got rooms at The Biting Badger, and decided to check in with the Mayor of Lakeview in the morning.

The next morning, Dryali, Kalleth, and Tahu sought out the Mayor of Lakeview, an unremarkable Wind sagani named Popoki who himself ran a couple fishing boats in the lake.

Popoki:  O yah, the giant frogs so bad.  They attack the boats.  There's a nest of them on the north lakeshore, about a mile or two beyond.
Tahu:  Are there any patterns to the attacks?
Popoki:  Random boats
Dryali:  When did this start?
Popoki:  Come t' think of it, halfway through Periastron.
Kalleth:  Anything unusual about the frogs?
Popoki: No; but we've not managed to kill any
Dryali: hmmm, the rowdy trees.
Kalleth:  Maybe nature out of balance.
Popoki:  Maybe Pembroke.
Dryali:  They rained down from Pembroke?
Popoki:  Always had 'em
Kalleth:  Let's head over there.
Dryali:  What about nets?
Popoki:  Stick it with something pointy, and bring its head back!
Dryali:  A net might hold it still, while we're sticking it!   ...hmmm, I bet the legs are delicious.
Popoki:  We'll arrange for a feast!   Then we can go fishing again!
Tahu:  No fishing?
Popoki:  Many boats have to encircle the one actually fishing.

Despite his idea of the nets, Dryali hadn't the skill to use one, so the mayor loaned Tahu and Kalleth nets before they left to walk along the northern lakeshore.

The weather was very pleasant, despite the stormy season, and they soon found what looked like a sheltered impression near the water, with 6 giant frogs basking in the warmth of the Daystar.  That would be a respectable bounty!

They skirted around to the other side, where the shoreline narrowed as some trees approached the water.  Then, Dryali placed a snare, and Kalleth placed the bear trap.  They ducked behind the trees.  Dryali assembled a force ballista, and then used his Dark elf abilities to make little dancing lights like fireflies to lure the frogs into the traps.

Two of the frogs noticed.

Tahu pulled out his light crossbow, ready to shoot any frogs that jumped over the traps.  Kalleth called down the blessings of Toka upon the Freelancers.  Dryali, getting a little warm from standing in the daylight in all black, moved into the shade, and also was ready to shoot any frogs jumping over the traps with his hand crossbow.

The first frog got to the hunting trap, and easily avoided it.  Tahu and Dryali shot it.  The other frog was just on the other side of the snare.   Tahu shot the first frog again, killing it[1].  <narrator voice:  Casey rolled a nat 20>

Kalleth moved up and used his boomerang on the frog near the snare.  The force ballista shot it, then Dryali shot it.  It moved towards Kalleth, triggering the snare, but avoided the rope.  Waste of a spell, Dryali thought.

Tahu shot this frog with his light crossbow, and Kalleth moved up and swung his battleaxe at it, slow enough that the frog avoided the swing.  Kalleth, up close, noted the frog was ugly.

Dryali killed it[2] with his hand crossbow, but since the snare was expended, he moved the dancing lights to be more likely to lure the frogs into the waiting trap.

A third frog took this bait, and moved next to the trap, but also avoided setting it off.  It mouthed at Kalleth ineffectually.

Then, 3 more giant frogs hopped out of the water, and – to the Freelancers' horror – a very large giant TOAD.

Tahu drew a shortsword and attacked the closest of these new frogs, slashing it fatally[3].  Kalleth struck another frog near him with the battleaxe, then moved towards the toad.  The frog snapped at him but missed.  Then Dryali moved up and cast thunderwave, the boom echoing across the lake; the injured frog died[4], and two other frogs were hurt by it.  The force ballista shot one of the dead frogs.  <narrator voice:  it was supposed to shoot the toad, but Shari rolled a 1>

An injured frog attacked Tahu, but Kalleth intercepted the attack.  Another frog hopped up, but got stuck in the trap.  The frog closest to the force ballista tried to eat it, damaging it; but it held together in the frog's mouth.  Unfortunately, the toad did the same thing to Kalleth!  Apparently Toka did not approve, and his blessing dissipated off the Freelancers.

Tahu swung and entirely missed the frog that was still attacking Kalleth <narrator voice: because Casey rolled a 1> but Tahu had another shortsword in his offhand, and slew it[5] with that.  Dryali shot the toad with his hand crossbow, trying to free Kalleth; but despite his excellent shot, <narrator voice: Shari rolled a nat 20> Kalleth freed himself.

The frog in the hunting trap tried to get out, but the trap only clamped harder for its troubles.  The frog behind it hopped over and tried to bite Tahu, but missed.  The frog that was already next to Tahu tried to bite him and also failed.  The toad, still viewing Kalleth as a tasty morsel, tried to eat him again, but did not succeed on this second try.

Tahu attacked the frog next to the toad, hitting it with both his shortswords.  Kalleth, calling on Toka, used divine smite to strike the toad with his suddenly painfully glowing battleaxe.  The toad was injured and burned by the radiance.  The force ballista shot the toad as well, and then Dryali killed it with his hand crossbow.  Dryali was sad, as there was no bounty on toad heads.

A frog stepped on the toad's corpse to bite Kalleth <narrator voice: the GM rolled a nat 20> as the frog on Tahu bit him again.  Kalleth, despite being bit, intervened in the attack on Tahu.  Tahu killed it[6], then slew the other frog[7] that had just bit Kalleth.  He wondered if the others noticed, and struck a charismatic pose.

Kalleth moved toward the last unrestrained frog and hit it with his battleaxe, which was no longer glowing.  Dryali shot it with his hand crossbow, then the force ballista killed it[8].

That left only the frog in the trap.  Quite a few of the dead frogs were piled on top of each other.  Tahu climbed on top of them and posed again, then completely failed to touch the frog in the trap with his shortswords.  <narrator voice:  Casey rolled a nat 1 for one of the rolls>  Chastened, he moved off the pile of frogs for better footing.

Kalleth, not amused with Tahu's antics, walked up to the trapped frog and also completely failed to hit it with his axe.  <narrator voice:  Matt also rolled a nat 1>  The force ballista hit it, but Dryali also missed with his hand crossbow.  Finally, Tahu stuck it with his shortsword.

In one short, brutal battle, the Freelancers had laid waste to 9 giant frogs and 1 giant toad.

Dryali put out the dancing lights, and looked around.  "Would it be prudent to check where that toad came from?"

Tahu pointed out he could look underwater, having no problem holding his breath, but he lacked any darkvision.  Dryali pulled out a hand crossbow bolt and his jeweler's tools, and used magical tinkering to turn the bolt into a handheld light.  He handed the bolt to Tahu.

Tahu dived in the water, and checked around where the toad came from, while Dryali and Kalleth waited.  He found fish, and normal frogs, and a small chest!  He brought that up.

It was locked.  Dryali brought out his thieves' tools, and tried to pick the lock, explaining what he was doing to the others (i.e. casting guidance on himself).  He failed, to his embarrassment.  Tahu took the tools in hand and also tried and failed.  Kalleth wondered if he should try, even though he did not know what he was doing.  Dryali handed him the tools a bit reluctantly, and explained (cast guidance) again.  It worked!  The chest sprang open.

It had 4 potions:  2 healing potions, 1 greater healing potion, and 1 potion of climbing.

They considered the 10 corpses, and their bounty which was a good hike away.  How best to get them back to Lakeview?  Tahu offered somewhat diffidently, "I can levitate up to 500 lbs."  Dryali replied, "Oh my gosh, I did not know it was that much."

So even though the nets had not proven useful during the fight with the frogs, they turned out useful for this purpose.  They beheaded the corpses, and butchered the legs, then headed back to Lakeview with their gruesome largess.  Tahu's levitate did not last the entire time, but they were able to get back mid-afternoon with it.

The Mayor met them in the town square, in front of The Biting Badger.  Some of the townspeople turned out as well, including the innkeeper.  When he saw the bundle in the net, he exclaimed, "O yah!  That's some good frogs!  We'll have a great feast tonight!"

The innkeeper got his chef, and as they undid the net, they carried off the frog legs to prepare the feast.  The mayor, meanwhile, was inspecting the heads.

"Oh my gosh, what's this?!" he exclaimed upon sight of the toad head.  Others also came up and exclaimed in surprise.  The Mayor declared he would pay a 200gp bounty for that one.

He produced 100 plat, 100 gp as the promised bounty.   As Popoki was paying this out, the Freelancers, in mind of where Lakeview was on the skylith map, asked if they had been having troubles with either kobolds or grblins.  And, as an afterthought, if they'd seen a pseudodragon lurking about.

Popoki told them, "Lakeview – no grblins, but for sure, Three Rivers has, yah.  We've had no kobolds."

The feast of frog legs that evening was indeed delicious.

Large as the frog slaughter was, the Freelancers did not have a high confidence they had taken care of the problem.  So the next morning, they volunteered to go out on the boats with the fisherman, in case there were more attacks.

They split up and each went out on a different fishing boat, keeping watch for any giant frogs or toads.  Fortunately there were none, because Kalleth, having never been on a boat before, was utterly fascinated by the entire experience.

The morning after that, the Freelancers took their leave.  Tahu told Popoki, "We are happy to come back, if you have any more trouble!"  After some resupply, they headed back to Cliffshadow.

While travelling, they decided

• Greater healing potion:  Kalleth
• Healing potions:  Dryali, Tahu
• Potion of climbing:  Dryali