Witchlight Part 6: A Game of Toads

The group had made it to Downfall—a bullywug town built around a misty lake. They had just helped put out a fire in the hot air balloon factory, and Johan had found a broken pen that gave him back his ability to write. Then he stepped through a circle of mushrooms and returned home.

Date: June 6, 2026

Characters present

• Farvex Dusk: human warlock
• Lionidas: leonin monk
• Shadow Claw: tabaxi cleric
• Philomena Gainsborough: satyr/centaur wizard

Character level: 3

A Parody of Society

Where there had been a circle of mushrooms on the floor, there was now just Lionidas, pushed there by Vex who wanted to send him back to the Prime Material. He had been too late. The group stood in silence for a moment, processing what Johan had just done.

“I’m going to miss him,” said Philomena.

“Me too,” said Vex. “I mean, not his voice. But the rest of him.”

“I’m gonna miss his potatoes,” Philomena added.

The bullywug who had been screaming for help thanked them. He gave the group a golden brooch shaped like a fly, and told them to show it to the king when they met him. Philomena took it. Bloff, whom it was decided would be their guide in Downfall, suggested they take a moment to rest on the building’s porch. They did just that, and drank some of the Witchlight wine that Vex had won at the carnival. The bottle played a carnival waltz when uncorked. Bloff got drunk from a single glass.

Once they had recovered from their unexpected firefighting, Bloff, stumbling, brought them along to meet the king. On the way, they walked across a wooden bridge over the water, on which stood a row of pikes with bullywug heads on them. Much like in Vex’s vision, they were talking—talking to a scarecrow who sat dangling his legs off the bridge. He had a gourd for a head and giant crab claws for hands. The party greeted him and introduced themselves.

“And you must be Clapperclaw,” said Vex. “Jingle Jangle mentioned you.”

That’s right!" said Clapperclaw. “Oh, Jingle Jangle, she’s so lovely. Nice to meet you!”

“I heard you know how to get to Thither,” said Vex. “We’ll need your help with that later.”

“Oh, yes, it’s not far from here. I can help you get there if you can help me find my head in return. I’m not normally this hideous.” He pointed to his gourd head. “I used to have a beautiful deer heard, but that awful Agdon Longscarf took it from me. He stole it when he came to Downfall, but he left without it. It must still be around here somewhere.”

“Deal!” said Vex. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he brought it to Bavlorna. We have some business with her before we’re off to Thither.”

Clapperclaw decided to tag along with the party, though he wouldn’t come with them to see Bavlorna. On the way to the king, whose court was just on the other side of the bridge, he explained that the heads on the pikes were the heads of former kings of the Soggy Court. There had to be at least fifty of them. As they crossed, they overheard some of the heads speculating that King Gullop XIX would be joining them soon.

On the other side of the bridge was a mushy piece of land in the lake. A marble floor, stained with green, covered most of it. On it was a throne where the bullywug king sat, surrounded by his servants, guards, and his pet crocodile. The king was reading a large book and didn’t even look up when they arrived.

“Well? Don’t you have any servant who can announce you?” asked the king.

Vex elbowed Bloff, but Bloff was too nervous to speak. Eventually, the king shut the book and looked up. Finally, Bloff managed to say something.

“My lord, here is, uhm, Lionidas the brave; Shadow, the err… sneaky; Vex the—”

“The magnificent,” Vex added.

“And Philomena, the, erm, horse,” finished Bloff.

“Philomena Gainsborough,” said Philomena Gainsborough.

The king noticed the fly brooch that Philomena wore. His eyes went wide and he pointed at it.

“What is that?!”

Philomena removed it and held it up so the king could see.

“Thieves! Thieves!” he shouted.

Bloff hurried to explain that they were given it for helping put out the fire in the balloon factory. The king looked embarrassed and quickly moved the conversation along. The group told him that they had come to Downfall because they needed to speak with Bavlorna.

“Oh, that’s great,” said the king. “You see, I have this book. I didn’t steal it. I bought it at Wondrous Wares. But it’s Bavlorna’s book. It says so right on the cover—‘Bavlorna’s Big Book of Bad Blood’. So really, I just stole it back. For her. Because it had been stolen. By someone else, not me. So if you’re going to her anyway, perhaps you could return it?”

The party agreed to take the book. Mostly because they wanted to read it and possibly learn something new about Bavlorna.

“Wonderful,” croaked the king. I will name you my royal envoys. But you can’t go dressed like that! You’ll need proper royal clothing!"

Shadow and Vex both cast spells that made them appear to be wearing the same kind of clothing as the frogs.

“No, no!” said the king. You’ll need to get some proper clothes from the royal tailor! The toads began to laugh.

“Of course, of course! What a silly mistake,” said Vex. “I feel like a clown.” Casting the spell again, he turned himself into a clown. One of the servants laughed until the king gave him a stern look.

“Let’s have some wine,” said the king, “and then Bloff can take you to the tailor.”

One of the toad servants brought wine for the whole group except Vex. Instead, his cup had a note in it. He pretended to drink from the cup, and discreetly palmed the note and read it.

Find Illig, the Baron of Sumpstump. Let the revolution begin.

Vex wasn’t sure what to make of it. Once they were done drinking, Bloff brought the party past the court and across another bridge. He showed them around like a tour guide in a hurry, pointing to the prison, Wondrous Wares where the king had bought Bavlorna’s book, and finally the building where the royal tailor, Ufkug von Sumpbottom, lived. He made them custom royal Soggy Court envoy clothes and, due to the randomness of dice, the group ended up dressed as follows:

Lionidas got renaissance clothing. Nothing too strange there.

Shadow got a toga, a wool cloak, and a musketeer’s hat with an enormous feather, like some kind of roman Puss in Boots.

Vex got medieval anglo saxon clothing. He also got one of those massive Elizabethan ruff collars.

Finally, Philomena got to wear chainmail over a flapper dress, and a powdered baroque wig.

Ufkug von Sumpbottom was delighted with his work, and said that these new outfits were his masterpiece. Bloff approved as well. The party thanked Ufkug for the clothes, and headed back out. Before returning to the king, they wanted to check out Wondrous Wares. Wondrous Wares was almost like a hot air balloon, except it didn’t have any of the things that make hot air balloons hot air balloons. For one, it had a small cabin instead of a basket. For two, it had a swirling storm of rainclouds and thunder trapped in a translucent sphere instead of a balloon.

There was a hatch in the cabin wall, and when Shadow knocked on it, a small, gray, and terribly impolite goblin-like creature opened it.

“We’re closed,” it said, and slammed the hatch shut.

Another creature, much like the other one, except less obviously rude, opened the hatch again. He introduced himself and his business partner as Bauble and Trinket, with trinket being the rude one. He could barely finish speaking before bursting into laughter at their ridiculous outfits.

Vex looked dismayed. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Ufkug, but we look ridiculous. I’m tired of this place—it’s foggy everywhere, it stinks, and this frog cargo cult is like a parody of society.”

Bloff stood beside Vex and quietly told him that he agreed, because King Gullop XIX was too dumb to rule. This wasn’t at all what Vex had meant, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to get on with the shopping so they could murder Bavlorna to death and get out of there.

Bauble said they had a few limited edition items for sale today: a very nice thimble (finger not included), a bottled sigh (open at your own risk), a cooling awning (best seller, must try!), bumblebeer (with a memorable sting), a hat that always fits (someone), an umbrella for sunny nights (rain not included), a bundle of dry wood (perfect when something, or someone, needs to burn), and a moonlight monocle (to stop stumbling in the dark).

The goblin-like things, called darklings, waited until everyone had purchased what they wanted before handing the items over. Lionidas agreed to buy the umbrella in exchange for his hair color. Trinket grabbed a hair from Lionidas, and suddenly all his fur was completely white. Lionidas said he didn’t notice any difference. Shadow wasn’t deterred by the weird and very permanent cost of the umbrella, and decided to buy the thimble. He offered up some of his own fortune to pay for it, and the darkling said that for that price, he could get the bumblebeer as well. Vex bought the monocle and paid with “a moment”. Nothing seemed to change. Finally, Philomena wasn’t sure what to get, so she ended up a bargain bin item: a rumbling box (do not open near the store). She offered to pay with fortune as well, and got the bottled sigh too.

Before they left, the darklings told Vex that for the price he paid, he’d also get the awning. They handed him a popsicle and closed the hatch. He licked it once, and immediately found that he could only speak with a Finnish accent for the next few minutes. Thinking that it was a magical popsicle that might not melt, he put it in his pocket¹.

Shadow picked up his thimble, and a bullywug finger appeared and fell out of it. Other than that, it didn’t seem magical. Then he drank the bumblebeer, and a bumblebee appeared and stung him. Somehow, this boosted his immune system and gave him advantage on constitution saving throws. Feeling powerful, he ate the finger, to everyone’s disgust.

Lionidas opened his umbrella, and a torrent of rain immediately poured down on him from inside of it. A long contract written entirely in overcomplicated legalese also fell out of the umbrella. The text could be summarized as “you’re an idiot for buying this”.

Vex discovered that his monocle allowed him to see in the dark.

Vive la Révolution

The king thought the party looked wonderful when they returned, and happily handed over Bavlorna’s book to them. They opened it and found that it was essentially Bavlorna’s shit list. It was filled with pages upon pages of names of people she had a grudge on, including her hag sisters. They also found the names Wigglewog and Sir Talavar next to one called Morgort, all of them there for betraying her, stealing a balloon, and burning down the balloon factory. The gang walked away from the toads and onto a bridge to plan their next move. Vex also added the names of the party to Bavlorna’s book, with the motivation “for killing Bavlorna”.

The party’s plan was this: figure out if Bloff was down to get rid of the king and/or Bavlorna. Go find this revolutionary named Illig and see if his attitude toward Bavlorna might be negative, or at least less positive than the current king. If so, help him overthrow King Gullop. Next, kill Bavlorna and move on to Thither.

Standing just outside the reach of their vision in the mist was Clapperclaw, and he’d overheard the entire conversation. Thankfully, he wasn’t too concerned with any of it and was able to fill in the gaps: Morgort was a bullywug who, together with Wigglewog, had conspired against Bavlorna. Morgort² had done the burning of the factory while the others escaped and was now in bullywug jail. Also, if they helped put a new king on the throne, they might be able to persuade him to give them the last working balloon, which they’d likely need to get to Thither.

The party thanked Clapperclaw and continued with their plan. After heading back to the court, Vex had a quiet chat with Bloff about the king and Bavlorna. When Vex told Bloff that Bavlorna might not be around much longer, Bloff began to freak out entirely. Vex didn’t have any calming spells, so he cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter to make it look like Bloff was laughing at the world’s funniest joke, and then he dragged him out of earshot of the king and his servants. The group took Bloff to calm down at a friend of his, who was working at the jail, where they also had a conversation with Morgort. Turns out she was supposed to be the balloon pilot, which explains why Wigglewog crashed. She was upset to hear of his passing, but agreed to pilot the balloon and get the gang to hither if they could get her out.

Leaving Morgort and Bloff, the group went to the house where they’d been told they could find Illig. They had been told correctly—inside was Illig and his guards. After the party swore their loyalty to him, he described his plan by drawing it on the dirt floor. It was just a picture of the king with a knife in his eye. That was the whole plan—walk up to the king and “accidentally” stumble and plunge the knife into his eye. Philomena suggested stabbing him in the neck instead. Vex suggested stumbling into him over and over just to make sure.

From their conversation, it became clear that Illig wasn’t going to be a better king than the last one, but they still needed a king’s help to get out of there. The party agreed to help on the condition that Illig release Morgort and give them the balloon. Illig accepted.

“Well? What are we waiting for?” asked Vex.

“Nothing! We should be all ready now!” answered Illig.

And so Illig, his guards, and the Beatles walked back to the court. Illig walked in front of the king, knife in hand, and slipped, stabbing the king right in the neck. He only had to do it once for the weak king to die. Thus endeth the month-long reign King Gullop XIX, and Illig I immediately proclaimed himself the new regent. The other frogs didn’t protest, they were used to this. It probably would’ve happened a few days later even without the party’s help. After all, the party didn’t actually do anything.

King Illig knighted the members of the party, after which they decided to rest for what remained of the day in a hut that Clapperclaw showed them. On the way there, they met an elf playing a terribly sad melody on a flute. Lionidas tried to counter with a happy melody on his recorder, but it was awful. They all felt depressed and asked what the sad music was about. The elf was called Octavian Meliamne and was yet another victim of Bavlorna’s malice. He had tried to make a deal with Bavlorna to get rid of her broken heart, but Bavlorna took it a little too literally and replaced his heart with that of a goat, and now he could no longer feel emotions. He said she’d give Lionidas her magical sad flute—and a lesson in playing, which he desperately needed—if they could get his heart back.

In the cabin, the group found a mummified toad that could be used to cast a Darkness spell. Lionidas played some more recorder, poorly, and then they went to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day. It could also be a short day, if Bavlorna were to kill them all. Just about everyone they’d shared their plan with had told them that Bavlorna was terribly dangerous and that anyone who fought her would probably die. Usually, this would be followed by Vex dismissing the concerns with a “don’t worry, we know her weakness”, but now the thought was beginning to stir in the backs of their minds that Bavlorna might be too dangerous a foe for them.

The next day, Lionidas had one level of exhaustion due to nightmares of what they’d seen in the spooky Witchlight minecart ride. They got on a raft and set off to Bavlorna’s hut, which was built on top of stilts in the middle of the lake. Just as they set off, they spotted a bubbling cauldron on the shoreline. When they went close to investigate, the cauldron ran off on its little legs. The fire that had been burning underneath it got up and started talking. It was a small ember figure, and only Philomena and Vex could understand what it said after casting Comprehend Languages. It said it would give them the cauldron’s password in exchange for some firewood. Shadow ran off to Wondrous Wares and bought the firewood in exchange for some more fortune. They said he overpaid, and he told them to keep the change.

When he came back, the cauldron had returned. The flame dude gladly accepted the firewood and told them that the password was “slimespit”, which Philomena shouted at the cauldron. She wanted to bottle some of the mysterious potion inside, so she opened her bottled sigh. Not a good move, as it turned out, as they all heard a deep sigh and Philomena couldn’t help but begin crying hysterically. Lionidas drank some of the potion and turned into a giant dragonfly.

The group sat on the shoreline until both effects had worn off, and then took a boat to Bavlorna’s hut.