Grung (4e Race)

Grung

By Shawn Wood

Perhaps even more vicious than bullywugs, the grung are an amphibious menace known to enslave those they conquer.

Racial Traits

Average Height: 2'5"-3'5"

Average Weight: 30-50 lbs.

Ability Scores: Dexterity +2, Constitution +2 or Wisdom +2

Size: Small

Speed: 5 squares squares

Vision: Normal vision

Languages: Common and Grung

Skill Bonuses: +2 Stealth, +2 Perception

Venomous: You have resist 5 poison. The resistance increases to 10 at 11th level and 15 at 21st level.

Amphibious: You can breathe both air and water.

Toxic Touch: You can use the toxic touch racial power.

Swamp Walk: You ignore difficult terrain that is mud or shallow water.

Toxic Touch	Grung Racial Power
You concentrate your inherent venom and utilize your weapons to extend its affliction to your enemies.
Encounter  Poison
Minor Action	Melee 1
Requirement: You must be wielding a weapon and use it for this attack
Target: One weapon
Effect: Once per round when a weapon attack hits with the target, the target of the attack also takes 5 + your Constitution modifier poison damage. This benefit lasts until the end of the encounter.
Level 11: 10 + your Constitution modifier poison damage Level 21: 15 + your Constitution modifier poison damage

From the steamy jungles and swamplands of Chult, the grung are a race of frog-like humanoids that sport brightly colored, poisonous skin. They are known for having worshipped bygone gods that were known tricksters. Living in the unforgiving jungles, the grung hold their own against savage enemies like yuan-ti by proving their own cold-blooded methods of survival. They are known for being vicious ambush hunters and have a complex social caste system in their various villages hidden among the trees and by waters. Their trademark colorful skin of poisonous secretions has earned them a spot among the groups that run Chult.

Play a grung character if you want...

• To be a domineering, relentlessly belligerent creature.
• To use the poison on your skin against enemies.
• To be a colorful, venomous dart frog that tends to be selfish.

Physical Qualities

The grung appear like poison dart frogs, except as large as a human child and with an extra finger allowing them prehensile grip. Their colorful skin is a natural warning via aposematism, advertising their poisonous nature. A telltale sign of grung is that they are not toothless like normal frogs, nor do they have long, sticky tongues. In fact, grung have a whole mouth of sharp teeth. Their eyes relative to their heads are smaller than that which would be normal for frogs. Their poisonous skin is also permeable, allowing them to breathe, and so it must be kept moist. The color of a grung determines its status in a caste system. Covering up one's colors often was impossible without great pains. Even then, it was not comfortable to cover up their skin, so grung will never wear all-concealing clothing. They prefer breathable outfits that cover only parts of their body, lending to flexibility as well. Sometimes, this can be as little as simple jewelry.

Attitudes and Beliefs

Grung are bellicose and warlike creatures in the sense that they actively patrol their territories and attack just about anything they see. Their communities are often lined with outposts like that of military posts to monitor certain areas of entry and even set up traps. They are known infamously to enslave creatures that they capture and are ruthless in battle. Dirty tactics like poisoned weapons are almost expected of grung, and sneak attacks and ganging up on one target is all fair game. Their territory is an important part of their lifestyle, and grung will do anything to hold what land they have. In history, they have held down their temples of worship against creatures like even yuan-ti in battles over territory.

Religion

Nangnang is a central figure in grung beliefs, both in Omu and Chult. She is commonly worshipped for her aspect as a goddess of death. Nangnang is one of the driving forces behind grung ruthlessness and belligerence, as she instructs them to serve only themselves. The exception to such selfish teachings is when they serve Nangnang by bringing her the best spoils and slaves to be sacrificed so she might regain power after death. Temples dedicated to Nangnang usually depict her grung form, as that is how her primal spirit usually appears. Spears are also a preferred weapon among her worshippers, as it represents the spear Nangnang stole from the goodly Shagambi. Clerics of this goddess often can serve as her vessel so she may use them as mouthpieces. Due to Nangnang currently being sealed, grung are driven to one day free their goddess.

Grung Communities

Grung are indigenous to swampy marshes and moist, warm jungles in tropical and subtropical climates. They live in houses that are near moist, still bodies of water, like bogs. Their housing tends to be camouflaged, like crude huts and such. Some of these can be in trees while others lay closer to the surface of water or in dead trees. Rope and liana pathways can string about like ladders through their communities. The caste of colors for grung dictate where they live within a village as well as what they do. Different areas are devoted to different tasks. For example, a tadpole breeding pool would be located deeper within a grung village. Perimeters would be rife with traps and even decorated with the corpses of enemies as deterrent and territorial marking. Caged pits for slaves would be kept under close watch within the village as well, but away from tadpoles and residences.

Grung Homes

The homes for grung are largely easy to camouflage in their surroundings. They utilize fallen, rotten trees and hollow trunks to form natural abodes where they dwell and can ambush enemies that come wandering. These homes were also always close to their source of water and were usually circular so all inhabitants in a house could squat around. Surprisingly, these abodes have windows and decorations using moss, mud, and even the bodies of enemies. Homes are segregated by caste, with each housing up to eighteen of a single color caste. A single tribe of grung can have well over a hundred members, with a quarter being elderly or tadpoles. The waters that grung dwell near will always be foul and make anyone who drinks it nauseous.

Grung Society

Grung society is defined by a rigid caste system based on the colors of one's skin:

• Golden grung are tribe leaders. They are raised as elite warriors and take various leadership roles.
• Red grung are known magic users and scholars. They are known to be respected due to their roles as tribal shamans as well as priests, able to commune with and use the arts of the gods.
• Orange grung are the warrior cast. They protect other grung, sacred sites, and other important places like tadpole pools.
• Purple grung are supervisors, specifically of the blue and green grung. They are also overseers of the the lower castes in general.
• Blue grung are artisans and tribe workers. Unlike green grung, they are relegated to tasks including taking care of tadpoles as well as markets and trading with other races.
• Green grung are laborers and one of the most common of grung colors. They do menial labor involving mundane, general work to upkeep the tribe. They are the lowest on the caste ladder

Grung are born all bearing the same color and develop additional colored markings as they change from being a tadpole to an adult. While they would be assigned to castes based on these colors, social mobility through the castes was possible through the accomplishment of recognized feats. In such events, the accomplished grung would have their color changed ceremonially through a ritual to commemorate their achievement.

Grung tribes tend to be matriarchal, being led by a female grung war chief along with a shaman. Some male-dominated tribes do exist. Tribal leaders are sometimes chosen via battles to the death between candidates.

Grung Adventurers

Grung are typically not adventurous, really. They are rooted to their groups and their territory by nature. However, some grung do get tired of their caste position never improving or become disgruntled with the same scenery. While uncommon, it is not impossible for grung to develop feelings of wanderlust or discomfort with their vicious society. Such grung would be expelled if they were revealed, or even killed, thus leaving them to flee the familiar scenery and seek a life outside.

Shaman: Grung shaman exist as staple figures of authority within grung society as is. Shamans are seen as religious authorities in particular, despite their primal power source, able to connect the grung community with their gods. Shaman grung are expected to also have doctoral roles in treating illnesses and even divining fortunes for grung, granting blessings to armies for war while cursing enemies. Grung shamans tend to invoke spirits of the protector, the watcher, and the stalker kinds. It is difficult and rare for a shaman grung to be found outside typical grung communities because they are pillars. If a shaman leaves a group, it may sometimes be for a very, very important quest for the sake of their community. Otherwise, they would be seen as deserters and be banished and killed if they return. Red grung are often shamans.

Ranger: Grung rangers compose a lot of defenses surrounding grung and their communities. As martial strikers, ranger grung have to be more physically trained than their typical fellows. You'll probably see a lot of orange grung rangers. They can diversify, however, also becoming hunters and scouts instead of original rangers. Hunters and scouts work more within the realm of roles like trapping, tailing, and upkeep of community safety during peacetimes.

Druid: Grung druids are rare since they potentially step on the toes of shamans. Sharing the same primal energy source, not all red grung are necessarily able to become the central shaman in their group. Instead, they become a druid, which is not as prestigious. This might be a cause for discomfort with their status and thus make them seek their own adventures to higher power. Grung druids tend to exclusively be the original sort, with almost no grung being protectors or sentinels.

Three sample grung adventurers are described below.

Damuark is a blue grung that tired of the daily grind as a potter condemned forever to his role in his home back in the swamps. One day, he no longer wanted to mold mud and wait for it to dry anymore and picked up a discarded spear from the orange grung before leaving his home forever. Finding his footing with the weapon as a ranger, Damuark was amazed to see how people lived without castes in other cultures and resolved to exceed the expectations given to him from birth. But he can't do it alone and was rescued by his current adventuring party after nearly dying trying to cross a desert. Now, he travels with them across the land in search of feats to which he can add under his name.

Mo'rrok is an orange grung that was born weaker than the rest in his brood. As such, he was demoted and his color changed to green. Condemned to the fate of a laborer, Mo'rrok discovered his lack of physical strength seemed to be compensated by a strong affinity to the primal energies of nature around him. Finding his calling as a druid, Mo'rrok left when he would not be missed and ventured out to the wide world to become a hermit where his past could not catch up with him. Some adventurers happening upon his doorstep made him curious about the extent of his power, so he offered to join them as a sort of test for his own mettle to prove his worth.

Iwudorb is a red grung shaman who received a call from the spirits to leave her community amid a devastating drought. The spirits told her to travel north to seek the cause and resolve the scourge before her people are doomed. She found adventurers going the same way and coyly offered her services, intending to use them as traveling shields. She keeps her companions at an arms length, never truly revealing her true intentions to them, for she is someone dedicated solely to saving her people.

Roleplaying a Grung

When creating a grung adventurer, here are a few points to consider.

Territorial. Grung are highly possessive of their own space and their property. It is delineated clearly within a tribe for grung, and they are never to overstep boundaries, lest they risk punishment. Outside their tribes, grung still are very cagey about their space. They don't like uninvited visitors nor being touched when they have not given permission. This also goes into how they interact in groups. The caste system for grung is somewhat ingrained in the way they think. In an adventuring group, grung like to know who is the top dog and what roles are assigned to who. It's simply more efficient to deal with people this way.

Belligerent. Grung are not afraid of creatures larger than them. They are spiteful and willing to fight on the drop of a dime. This ties in with their territorial nature, as they are more than willing to throw hands with those that cross them. Given proper backing with a team, a grung is never afraid to bare their weapons.

Devoted. To grung, their organization heads command their lives and actions. Their faith also controls their temperaments and morality. Basically, they are devoted to the orders established that they accept. In their castes, for example, most grung will never question their place in life. In an adventuring group, grung might be a bit looser and self-serving. However, they will fiercely defend those they see as their leader.

Grung Characteristics: Belligerent, territorial, rigid, sneaky, spiteful, engaged, devoted

Grung Male Names: Sowark, Gruuor, D'wuurk, Unuark

Grung Female Names: R'rorb, Gluork, Brulior, Thuorl

Grung Utility Powers

When your grung character gains a class utility power after 1st level, you can forgo taking a power granted to you by your class. Instead you gain a grung utility power of the same level or lower.

Venom Spread	Grung Racial Power
Disseminating your poison into the air and water around you, you create a hazardous area for your enemies to tread at their peril
Daily  Poison, Zone
Minor Action	Close burst 1
Effect: The burst creates a zone of poisonous vapors that lasts until the end of your next turn. When a creature enters the zone, they take 5 poison damage.
Sustain Minor: The zone persists.

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