Swamp Stew Part 2

Description
The Team confronts both lizards and frogs as they fight to recover the wagon. Flak picks up a new title, Zabbas makes a friend (sort of), and Juno uses a metaphor.

Dinner
Continued... Veggie stew in homemade bread bowls that Graessle made himself. Joel tells Graessle that he’s better than Panera which the others agree with. Graessle originally wanted to make sourdough bread but discovered how long it would take and went with regular bread instead. Beth manages to sneak a compliment to Graessle’s dish into the campaign when Juno asked Margarine what she likes to eat, answering she likes a good vegetable stew.

Campaign
With the lizardmen’s ambush on the frogpeople begun, Juno takes a moment to decide who to go after. Deciding to attack the frogs, he moves halfway down the bank and uses his longbow but misses, drawing the attention of one of the nearby lizardmen. Fletch steps up and using his longbow fires at the lizardman who took notice to them. Flak approaches the Croak Lord and with the help of the small frogs around and introduces himself as the Swamp Lord while the Croak Lord introduces himself as Norm Bogman, The Croak Lord of the Bullywogs. Margarine throws her dagger at the injured lizardman, damaging him more. The injured lizardman, confused as to where all these attacks were coming from focuses his attacks on one of the frogmen, killing him. The other lizard men throw their javelins at more of the frog people, hitting two. Zabbas uses his crossbow and hits one of the lizardmen. The Croad Lord lets out a loud croak, calling more frogmen as reinforcements. Fletch targets one of the unharmed lizardmen with his Ensnaring Strike, who unfortunately breaks free of the magic but still takes damage from his arrow. Margarine, using her supplies, starts to make a molotov cocktail, spilling a bit of oil in the process. The lizardmen go to attack the frogmen but all of them miss. The frogmen respond by attacking back, killing the most injured of the lizardmen. Calling out to the Swamp the frogmen summon the giant toad from before, sending Flak into a PTSD (Post Toad Stress Disorder) flashback. Juno uses Ensnaring Strike at the nearest lizardman, causing magical thorny vines to erupt from his arrow and wrap themselves around the lizardman, squeezing tighter and tighter. Fletch uses his longbow and hits one of the unensnared lizardmen, Flak hurls a spear at the ensnared lizardman, and Margarine Sneak Attack hits one of the injured lizardmen with her dagger before hiding. Two of the unhurt lizardmen rush into the woods in the direction Fletch and Juno’s arrows came from, finding the two rangers hitting them with their clubs. Zabbas tries to cast Ray of Frost but instead sparks four giant bolts of lightning, killing two lizardmen by Fletch and Juno and two frogmen. The surviving lizardman freaks out and begins to bow to Zabbas. Seeing Zabbas take out two of their men, the frogmen and giant toad attack him. Juno moves down towards the wagon and focuses on the frogmen who attacked Zabbas but misses. Fletch goes to shoot the blind toad but instead hits the frogman riding it, knocking him off and killing him. Flak gets the Croak Lord to call off the frogmen and then gives the Croak Lord a shoulder rub.

With the battle over Flak tells the Croak Lord that in exchange of their service of ending the battle they wish to take the lilypad log and be on their way along with taking the lizardman off their hands. The frogmen agree, having not wanted them in their Swamp in the first place. The lizardman, enamored, follows Zabbas. Flak talks to some lizards and finds out that magic is most revered amongst the lizardpeople and wants to take Zabbas to meet his king. The Team agrees to go with the lizardman, who the Team deems Pizza, to get lizardmen to help them with the wagon. Stepping into the lizardpeople’s territory the fog in the Swamp becomes denser and thicker and the air starts to feel more acidic. The Pizza tells the other lizardpeople about Zabbas’ power. Flak gives Zabbas the gator teeth necklace he took from one of the dead frogmen, telling the sorcerer to give it to Pizza. Zabbas follows his advice, pumping Pizza up. Leading them to the center Pizza presents Zabbas to a lizardman in bronze scale armor, the Lizard King. Zabbas gives the Lizard King a thumbs up before casting Dancing Lights, creating colors the Swamp hasn’t seen before, causing the lizardmen to lose their minds. Amazed by Zabbas’ display of power the Lizard King asks if he is a wizard to which Zabbas informs that he is a sorcerer, impressing the Lizard King even more. The Lizard King tells Zabbas that magic is rare for lizardmen, that their god needs magic, and asks if he could give them magic. Zabbas teaches the Lizard King how to make a coin appear from behind someone’s ear. The Lizard King, Throck, gives favor to Zabbas, asking if there is anything the lizardpeople could do for him. Taking advantage of the situation, Zabbas asks if they could help the Team get the wagon, saying that it’s for magic studies, and says he’ll teach him how to turn one ball into three and then back into one in return. Throck agrees, creating a lizardman posse to aid the Team, who they’ve deemed the group of lizards The Pizza Party.

Traveling to the wagon the lizardmen get the wagon out, unstuck from the Swamp. With the wagon out, Throck asks Zabbas to show them more magic. Taking out the paintbrush from his watercolor set Zabbas does the rubber pencil trick. The lizardmen go on guard, saying they won’t give the Team the wagon unless he gives them the magic paintbrush. Zabbas easily compiles but goes one to teach Throck how to do the trick, causing the lizardmen to bow to the paintbrush. Throck thanks Zabbas reveals that Toumbrog, the master of the lizard people and who the Team suspect to be a black dragon, will love the magic paintbrush. As the majority of the lizardmen leave, Zabbas tosses Throck a coin to which he tells them that they are a friend of Toumbrog. Turning their attention to the wagon the team finds: Margarine pockets the gems and bone dice, getting called out by Juno and Flak but doesn’t choose to divvy them up just yet. With the help of the lizardmen, the Team take the wagon and travel out of the Swamp. The lizardmen bid the Team ado when they reach the edge of the Swamp. Remembering the robe had a horse patch on it, Zabbas flings the robe around him, tears the patch of the horse off and tosses it, creating a living breathing horse. Doing this Zabbas recognizes the robe as a Robe of Many Things. The Team deems the horse Butter and travels back to Knight’s Pass.
 * two opaque, white gemstones
 * a pale blue-green gemstone
 * a red and black striped gem
 * two quartz
 * a set of bone dice
 * a mirror set
 * three bolts of silk
 * a potion of Animal Friendship
 * a red potion
 * a couple magic scrolls
 * a robe with all kinds of patches sewn on it.

Returning to the Wizard’s Academy the Team asks for Kif when an old wizard answers the door. The wizard informs them that Kif is appreciative that they brought him to the Academy where he is excelling and says that he doesn’t need the wagon and that they can sell it. The wizard also gives the Team a bag of gold from Kif as a thank you. Juno is suspicious as to whether what the wizard is saying is true and demands to speak to Kif. Margarine, using some old people speak, convinces the wizard to go get Kif so that Juno can talk to him. As the wizard closes the door Kif magically appears behind the Team and vomits, still drunk. Kif tells them that he’s happy being a wizard and that the Team can keep the wagon and the bag of gold. They wish each other well and Kif goes to teleport but doesn’t go anywhere, having to go through the door.

With their mission accomplished, Margarine leads them to the Black Oak Inn where they can rest.

Trivia

 * Chelsea is not only the first one to roll a nat 20 this season, but manages to roll 2 nat 20s in this episode.
 * This episode was Zabbas’ first display of Wild Magic.
 * In the cover art, you can spot the bone dice and some of the jewels that Margarine pocketed along with the horse patch from the Robe of Many Things.