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.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Bullywugs were amphibious humanoids with webbed digits[4] that stood between 5′4″‒6′ (1.6‒1.8 m) and weighed 150​ to ​240 pounds (68​ to ​110 kilograms) on average,[8] 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).[3][9]
Their hides were smooth and reasonably tough, with mottled coloration ranging from emerald or olive green, yellow, brown, and gray.[1][10][3][5] 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.[1][3][4][5] The creatures were noxious to be around, for they carried with them the rancid reek of the bog.[2][9]
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.

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. 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.[10]
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.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Bullywugs were mainly carnivorous and preferred a diet of meat.[4] 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.[4][24] Extremely young salt dragons, which dwelt in salt flats, lakes, and marshes, were cautiously hunted for food as well.[34]
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.

Behaviour

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. 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]
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.