Grung (2024)

Grungs (pl:grung or grungs^[2][1]) were poisonous frog-like amphibious humanoids that lived in swamp or marsh^[2] forests. Their society was organized in castes determined by each grung's color.^[1]

Description[]

Adult grungs usually stood at approximately 3 feet (0.91 meters). Males were generally smaller than females. They resembled small humanoids with strong toad or frog-like legs that ended in webbed feet. Their torsos and heads were less amphibian and more humanoid. They had muscular forelimbs and their hands had opposable thumbs. These creatures stood upright erect and moved about in quick, short hops. Unlike frogs and toads, however, grung were incapable of long leaps.^[2]

The evolution of grung gave them intelligence, opposable thumbs, and ingenuity, but took away their prehensile tongues, which were common among other amphibian races. This adaptation left grung with wide, sharp teeth-filled mouths. Their bright-colored skins were kept slick and wet as they breathed through them. Grung eyes were comparatively smaller than those of frogs or toads and were crowned with hard protective ridges. Their eye color was red with black pupils.^[2]

Grungs reproduced by laying eggs, which hatched into grey tadpoles which metamorphosed into amphibious humanoids over three months, and into adults over another six to nine months^[2] by which time their skin had adopted the bright colors which would identify their castes.^[3] Grungs reproduced quickly: one chieftain named Yorb had at least one hundred and eighty children, and that was just his sons.^[4]

Abilities[]

All grungs continuously secreted a poisonous substance that was harmless to them^[1] (however they were not immune to other poisons and venoms).^[2] This secretion was quite sticky, and grungs could easily wipe their weapons on their own skin to coat them in this highly toxic substance. When exposed to air, grung venom quickly deteriorated and broke down within a minute, making it extremely hard to harvest and bottle. Their saliva contained the same but weakened poison.^[2]

While all grung poisons had similarly debilitating effects, each color of grung poison also caused unique ailments in their victims. Green grungs' poison restricted movement, blue grungs' poison caused prey to shout and yelp against their will, purple grungs' poison drove victims to desperately seek water, red grungs' poison caused ravenous hunger, orange grungs' poison caused irrational fears of one's friends, and gold grungs' poison could charm the victim as well as gift them the ability to speak the grung language.^[1]

Grungs were amphibious, but although they could survive underwater, they were better climbers than swimmers.^[1] They needed to stay wet at all times as dry skin killed them via suffocation.^[2] They needed to submerge themselves in water for at least one full hour every day or their health began to deteriorate. Six days without access to water was sufficient to kill a grung.^[1][5]

Behavior[]

Due to their size, grungs often avoided direct confrontation and preferred ambushing their prey. The most common ambush strategy was laying camouflaged and waiting for their opponents, grung from other tribes, or quarry to venture into the range of their short bows or throwing spears.^[2] In addition to their naturally poisonous nature, grungs also poisoned their weapons.^[1][2] If their prey survived the initially volleys, the grungs would flee across the tree tops so as not to leave any trail.^[6]

When unable to use their weapons of choice, grung could also deal significant amount of damage with a simple bite to deliver their less potent but still venomous saliva.^[2]

Society[]

Grung society was a rigid caste system, and each grung's place was determined by its color:^[1]

• Green: Warriors, hunters, and general laborers.^[1]
• Blue: Artisans, domestic and childcare workers.^[1] Grung crafts were traded with with other races, and could be found in the marketplaces of cities near their habitats.^[7]
• Purple: Supervisors of the green and blue grungs. They make sure that the lower castes were happy.^[1]
• Red: Scholars and magic users. Also known as grung wildlings, they were superior to purple, green and blue castes, and respected even by higher castes.^[1] Red grungs were known to fulfill the roles of tribal shamans and priests.^[8]
• Orange: Elite warriors, with authority over all lesser grungs.^[1] The orange grungs were charged with protecting the grungs' most important or sacred sites.^[8]
• Gold: Also elite warriors, with the highest leadership positions. Every tribe leader was a gold grung.^[1]

Although tadpoles were all the same color initially, they were still raised in ground pools already separated by their destined caste. Some mobility was possible between the castes, such as in cases of valuable contributions and great deeds, in which case ritual magic and herbal compounds were used to change the individual grung's color.^[1]

Grung were aggressive and territorial. They often attacked any intruders, be they adventurers or members of another tribe. Border wars were quite common among clashing grung tribes. A single tribe usually claimed area within one mile around the settlement. The territory was rigorously patrolled and, if an intruder was encountered, the grungs never engaged in negotiations.^[2] When they travelled or were otherwise away from home, they rested high in the trees by building nests—called tunulungas—which were fashioned from their own saliva and oils.^[9]

Grung tribes also made extensive use of slavery, and were always looking for new creatures to enslave.^[1] They held their slaves in crude pits covered in wooden bars,^[10] and kept them at bay by poisoning their food in order to inflict lethargy on them. Over extended periods of time, the effects of such poisoning could only be removed by magic.^[1]

Leaders were always the strongest fighters^[2] of the gold caste in the tribe,^[1] and as females tended to be larger than males, most tribes were matriarchal and led by female war chiefs,^[2] however some were led by a male king or chief.^[11] One way of reaching a position of power was via dueling to the death for the title. Each tribe also had a female shaman.^[2]

Language[]

Grungs spoke their own frog-like language, called "grung," and most did not learn additional languages.^[1][11] Grung made use of chirrs,^[12] croaks (transcribed as "roook"), and ribbits or chirps (e.g., "erp"). It further made distinctions based on the length of croaks (e.g., "roook" versus "rooooook").^[8]

Ecology[]

Grungs tended to live in jungles or other tropical forests and swamps.^[1][2] They dwelt in or near trees, preferring to live in shady areas, and needed to remain in constant proximity to water.^[1] On the ground, their settlements resembled ramshackle, cobbled together groups of crude shelters occasionally hidden within giant dead trees.^[2] The shelters themselves tended to be circular and squat with round windows and small chimneys all made of moss, vines, or reeds mortared with mud.^[10][6] Grung homes generally held members of the same caste in groups of eight to eighteen.^[10] A single tribe could include as many as a hundred grung with about a quarter of them being adolescents and children.^[2] Grung often denoted their territories by hanging the bodies of their enemies in clear view to any would-be trespassers.^[6]

Waters that were found within grung territory were contaminated with their skin sections. Even though it was highly diluted, it caused severe nausea if ingested.^[2]

Food Chain[]

Grungs' carnivorous diet consisted of local mammals found within their territory, such as rats.^[2] However, they were also known to eat travelers^[11] and members of other grung tribes.^[2] Due to their highly toxic skin, grungs had very few natural predators aside from each other. Giant snakes, however, were immune to grung toxins, and freely hunted these humanoids.^[2] Tabaxi were also said to hunt grungs, although for unknown purposes.^[6]

Uses[]

Yuan-ti considered grung eggs to be a delicacy when candied.^[13]

While grung skin secretions lost their potency as poisons almost immediately,^[1] this substance could be harvested to produce fabulously colorful dyes. These could in turn be used to create colorants with magical properties when applied to the hair of humanoids:

• Blue grung dye massively amplified the sound of hair, causing it to rustle loudly as the treated creature moved, and producing a deafening shockwave if the hair was shaken vigorously.
• Green grung dye caused the creature's hands and feet to also turn green, and granted enhanced jumping and climbing abilities, although engaging in these behaviors was quite painful.
• Purple grung dye caused the creature's hair to become sopping wet and to continuously generate purple-dyed water that stained anything it soaked into.^[12]

Homelands[]

Grungs were common in Chult, and were known to occupy the jungle's rivers and flooded ruins.^[6] The village of Dungrunglung, south of the River Tiryki,^[6] and the ruins of Omu both hosted grung settlements.^[14]

Beyond Toril, grungs were known to exist on the planet of Oerth.^[15]

History[]

When the people of Omu began worshiping the Nine Trickster Gods after Ubtao abandoned them in the 13^th century DR, one of these Tricksters was a grung called Nangnang. Subsequently, Nangnang and the rest of the Tricksters Gods would be slain by Acererak and sealed in the Tomb of the Nine Gods during the late 14^th century DR,^[16] but worship of Nangnang would continue among the grung of Chult.^[11][14] The grung would end up occupying Nangnang's Shrine in the Omuan ruins, and in the century to come would war with local yuan-ti and vegepygmies in order to maintain their hold on the Shrine.^[14]

In the late 15^th century DR, the despotic grung King Groak of Dungrunglung demanded that his subjects erect a 60‑foot (18‑meter) tall shrine to the dead goddess, and that his priestess Krr'ook attempt to summon her so that the king could mate her.^[11] Knowing the scheme would fail and that she would be blamed, Krr'ook devised a plan to use a set of Nolzur's marvelous pigments to create a life-like facsimile of the goddess to fool her king.^[10]

Notable Grungs[]

Leaders

• Groak, the gold grung king of Dungrunglung in the late 15^th century DR.^[11]
• Yorb, the gold grung chieftain who occupied the temple of Nangnang in the city of Omu in the late 15^th century DR..^[17]

Religious Figures

• Nangnang, one of the Nine Trickster Gods of Chult.^[18]
• Krr'ook, a red grung priestess of Dungrunglung in the late 15^th century DR.^[8]

Others

• Imbok, a grung of unspecified color who was the one hundred and eightieth son of Yorb in the late 15^th century DR..^[4]
• Roark, an orange grung warrior who was fiercely devoted to protecting Dungrunglung in the late 15^th century DR..^[8]
• Wadumu Who-Would-Be-Blue, a red grung of the Grudge-gill tribe of Chult in the late 15^th century DR who was known for his treacherous nature.^[19]

Appendix[]

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Appearances[]

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