ToA: Session 30

Mental Trauma Two: Bad Cop and somehow Worse Cop
The next morning the Squad decided to try one more time at getting information out of the captured Grung. This time, instead of Neb trying to play both roles of good and bad cop, he would try to be the bad cop and Kinlek would take on the role of good cop. The hope was that even if they could not properly communicate vocally, they could convey what they wanted enough to get something valuable from the Grung. Unfortunately, Neb was too good at being bad cop and Kinlek was too bad at being good cop. The Grung was at least properly terrified, crying out for help from his Goddess, and the squad came up with a new plan to use that. So, making sure he was good and wanting nothing moer than to just go home, they cut the ropes on his feet and let him hop off. And like any reasonable thing that values its life and has been subject to utter horrors two days in a row, the Grung leapt as far and as fast as it could. It was just too bad for it, and its people, that the Squad was following behind it.

Frog Hunting Party
With Kinlek watching from above as a bird of prey, and Fargus and Neb sprinting alongside, the Squad successfully followed the Grung to the doorstep of his home. A mass of thorny undergrowth consuming a fallen frog statue was the first sight of it, the Grung home of Dung-Grung-Lung! Just as the Grung nears the supposed safety of his homeland, he starts to call out for warriors to take up arms. A moment later he is silenced by a brutal sneak attack, showing the soon-to-be-armed warriors at the door that some mysterious force is out there, and very capable of exploding them. But of course, they have the homefield advantage and a mass of impossible to traverse thorns on their side, so nothing could go wrong. Right?

Everything Goes Horribly Wrong
This day would live on in infamy for the Grungs. Their home, cultivated to protect them from all intruders, was in an instant turned against them. Kinlek began the nightmare, turning the thorny undergrowth into a hellscape of spikes and snares that entrapped the first 20 of the grung warriors. Every movement was torment, making them scream out for help as they hunkered down, and dared not move. Another 5 manage to make it through and rush Fargus, only for one to be reduced to a cloud of red mist from a merciless blast from Neb, coating its comrades in the red spray. Kinlek turns not only the plants of the Grungs' homeland against them, but even the water that they swim and live in turns against them. Another tidal wave takes out ten of them, washing them throuhg the thorns and into the memories of the survivors. Archers attempt to fire back, but one fails and the other only gives Fargus ammo to throw the arrow right back into its shooter. Daedalus uses the concussive force of his cannon to not only blast into one of them, but to shatter them and knock them into a group of five hunkered in the thorns, shredding them through the spiky flora. All the while the Grungs, living through what can only be a truly hellish nightmare, cry out for Gru'uk to come to their aid. And as a voice calls out and disspells the thorns, their cries are finally answered.

The Priestess and the Unfortunate Goddess
Before the Squad comes a large red Grung, the High Priestess Gru'uk, flanked by a guard of six blue grungs. She calls for an end to the battle, and Daedalus takes the chance to have the squad stand down and attempt diplomacy. Being the first Grung that can speak common, the Squad agrees and convince the Grungs to take them to the Company of the Golden Coin. Gru'uk agrees to bring them to the GC, and leads the Squad through the maze of thorns towards the inner sanctum of the Grungs. Right away, they notice a hint of that same strange feeling in the air as when they were in the Feywilds. Daedalus realizes his sending stone will not work there, and the others take note of the enormous frog statue in the center of it all. As they near it, the see the king for the first time. He is a bright and shining gold color, and around his crown of sticks and mud lays a fine gold circlet. And then he says something in Grungish that equally disgusts Neb and Gru'uk. Apparently King Gruok wishes to literally marry and bed the goddess...possibly via her statue? It is a...very uncomfortable notion.

A Fistfull of Muddy Gold
The Squad is led onwards to a group of mudhuts, and there they see first an enormous stack of books, and second a Gnome roughly half the size of the stack reading them. Sivis D'Sivis, the leader of the Company of the Golden Coin, sat studying books. She greets the Squad with thinly veiled insults, which Daedalus realizes are just her trying to cover up for the fact that their group was definitely captured and forced to help the political situation of the Grungs. Of course she denies that, as if their desperate cries for help were mere misunderstandings, and that they were willingly aiding the Grungs. Neb barely manages to stay his hand assassinating the annoying little gnome, while the team gets a hand on the situation and decides what to do next.

'''Will the Squad manage to save the Golden Coin instead of mangling them for their absolute bullshit? Will they strike up an unexpected friendship with the Grungs over their mutual disgust for the king? Will Neb have to disguise himself as a royal lover again to assassinate a mad monarch and enact a coup? And just who the fuck does Sivis think she is anyway with this attitude? Find out next time on Tomb of Annhilation: Operation Wooden Nickel!'''

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