Bullywug

Bullywugs were a primitive race of frog-like humanoids found throughout the bogs and marshes of Toril, the self-proclaimed lords of the swamp. Savage and self-destructive, the bullywugs regularly tampered with forces beyond their understanding, threatening the safety of others and their own brutish, noisome, and wet lives.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Bullywugs were amphibious humanoids with webbed digits that stood between 5′4″‒6′ (1.6‒1.8 m) and weighed 150 to 240 pounds (68 to 110 kilograms) on average, although they could vary in body type from 4 to 7 feet (1.2 to 2.1 meters) and 100 to 300 pounds (45 to 140 kilograms).
Their hides were smooth and reasonably tough, with mottled coloration ranging from emerald or olive green, yellow, brown, and gray. Bullywug skin was chameleon-like, so if they remained motionless in swampy terrain, they would shift through different hues and shades of their normal color range to match their surroundings. The creatures were noxious to be around, for they carried with them the rancid reek of the bog.
The huge heads of bullywugs resembled those of frogs, with big, bulbous eyes, wide mouths, and long, flicking tongues. Said tongues were barely capable of navigating a stunted variant of Common, and they typically spoke in thick, sloppy accents.
Puncturing a bullywug's throat pouch without killing it would cause it to suck and noisily dribble whenever they breathed heavily.

Genetics and Reproduction

Bullywugs were not known to bond in the long-term. Females would lay a clutch of 200 or so eggs once a year, which would be watched over by the collective tribe in a breeding pond.
There were rumors that (despite their hatred of humanity) bullywug-human hybrids were viable. Such degenerate humans certainly dwelled in mixed communities, serving unnamed things deep below the earth.

Growth Rate & Stages

The non-intelligent spawn that hatched resembled large tadpoles and would feed upon insects and small amphibians (including each other) until they were large enough to leave the breeding pool, usually after about six to eight weeks. Following their emergence, the juvenile bullywugs were forced to fend for themselves, with nothing to rely upon but luck and their own strength against their larger kin. Unfortunately for them, this brutal "parenting" meant that less than one percent of bullywugs reached adulthood.

Ecology and Habitats

Bullywugs preferred to inhabit dark, dank places isolated far from human beings, wet locations like rainforests, damp caves, swamps, meres, or virtually any other warm but shady region with abundant water. They had adapted for easy movement among the trees, with soft, suction-cupped fingers, and had no difficultly moving through mud and wetlands on their webbed feet. Bullywugs had to routinely soak their entire bodies to keep their skin moist, at least three times a day with an average waterskin's worth of water. If unable to regularly hydrate, they would slowly weaken and die, hence why bullywugs feared dry heat and areas with little standing water.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Bullywugs were mainly carnivorous and preferred a diet of meat. They lived primarily off of fish and any other game (being skilled hunters and fisherman) and would supplement a diet of fruit and insects with flesh whenever possible. Extremely young salt dragons, which dwelt in salt flats, lakes, and marshes, were cautiously hunted for food as well.
A particular point of interest regarding bullywugs, as discovered by Brother Twick of Verdusk, a Halfling Cleric of Chauntea, was that they were irresistibly drawn to human liquor. After consuming large quantities, they would begin to convulse, helplessly falling prone on the ground for several minutes. The contractions ended with the bullywugs either dying or lapsing into a deep coma, depending on the amount of the alcoholic beverage they consumed. Bullywug attacks had become increasingly rare in the lands surrounding territories where settlements kept an ale or two in case of bullywug raids.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Bullywug society was savage, primitive, and tribal, one of the most petty-minded and mindlessly destructive of all humanoid organizations. Bullywugs had learned to cooperate for the sake of mutual survival and hunting benefit with practically zero infighting, 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.
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. Only when the previous leader was too old to rule would the next dominant male kill and usurp (and possibly consume) him.

Civilization and Culture

Average Technological Level

Animal Taming

Bullywug language allowed for the communication of simple concepts with amphibians, a capability bullywugs used to form strong bonds with giant frogs and toads. They trained them to serve as guardians, hunters, and in the case of larger varieties, mounts, and used their ability to swallow creatures whole to carry prey back to their villages. They were known to raise such creatures as tadpoles, and weren't bothered by them. Furthermore, they were the undisputed masters of capturing and training wild frogs, and while swamp-dwelling kobolds and goblins had managed to learn from them, only the bullywugs had learned to truly domesticate them, using them like dogs. Sometimes trained war frogs were offered as gifts to set up trade relations with other tribes.
Bullywugs were also known to ride giant leeches.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Bullywugs had access to the Batrachian Common tongue (a language used by frog-like humanoids), and the more intelligent ones could speak a fractured form of Common with limited vocabulary, but they had a primitive language of their own. The bullywug tongue consisted of a series of croaks, staccato notes, and clicks, and though crude, it allowed them to communicate over large distances, spreading news quickly across the swamps.

Common Etiquette Rules

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. 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. 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.
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.

Common Dress Code

Bullywug royals were sneering and demanding, donning robes of leather, rough cloth, and marsh plants even as most bullywugs wore no clothes. 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. 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. 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.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Bullywugs had difficulties allying with other beings, but when they did it was universally with the foul and the feral. While there was no open hostility between the two, Lizardfolk rarely associated with them, and bullywugs were known to boss them around if given the chance. The sahuagin held them in contempt and occasionally raided their lairs out of hateful malice before eating captives alive. They fancied wemic claws as shield and armor decorations.
Bullywugs were normally around the same size and color as gripplis, were known to abuse this fact to set ambushes, and in some cases were ancient enemies. The bullywugs that lived within the Marsh of Chelimber believed they were in a never-ending battle with the sivs over control of the edge of the wetlands. In truth, the sivs emerged victorious in the conflict and allowed the ravenous amphibians to live within their realm, serving as a buffer between them outsiders from beyond the marsh. Only in places throughout the Realms too small for the sivs' desired isolation could the bullywugs truly lord over their sinkholes without interference from their more organized cousins.
While most bullywugs hated humans and most humans (and other humanoids) feared and hated them in return, bullywugs would readily serve wicked masters, even Human ones. Those that grew accustomed to working with others and seeing others of different races consistently pass, at the very least didn't attack on sight. Most bullywugs lived out in the open, with loose territorial boundaries that they inefficiently enforced, though intruders often ended up killed and eaten. They reportedly had no sense of privacy or personal space, and when they did have specific living spaces (such as huts) they were not known to be assigned to specific areas.

Average Height

4​ to ​7 feet (1.2​ to ​2.1 meters)

Average Weight

100​ to ​300 pounds (45​ to ​140 kilograms)

Geographic Distribution

• Mere of Dead Men