Grung

Appearance

Grungs are small, squat amphibian humanoids, standing about the height of a human child but coiled with springy muscle. Their bodies are smooth and glossy like freshly rained-on leaves, with vivid skin in shades of lime, jade, turquoise, sunset orange, or poison-bright yellow. Large, round eyes dominate their faces, usually with horizontal pupils and a permanent look of surprise or mischief. Wide mouths stretch almost from cheek to cheek, filled with small but sharp teeth and long sticky tongues.
  Their hands and feet are webbed, with strong suction pads on each digit that let them cling to bark, ropes, and even the undersides of branches. They favour light, practical clothing: woven leaf-wraps, bead-laden harnesses, and bits of scavenged jewellery that jingle when they move. Many daub their skin with extra patterns of sap-dyes, both as decoration and warning.

Culture & Society

Grung society revolves around the colony tree. Each colony nests in and around a cluster of enormous trunks, lashing together platforms, nets, and hanging baskets to create a vertical village that never really touches the ground. Life is loud, busy, and chaotic: constant chattering, chorus-song, slingstone practice, and arguments over who stole whose beetle-snacks. Despite the noise, every member of the colony has a role, from watch-grungs and hunters to poison-brewers and “jungle gardeners” who tend the strangling vines that protect their home.
  They are fiercely territorial. Everything within the reach of their nightly songs is considered “ours,” and anything that intrudes without permission is fair game to prank, rob, chase off, or in extreme cases quietly poison. At the same time, grungs have a practical streak; a few chosen “outside-frogs” act as traders or raiders, hopping out to nearby raft-towns to swap rare herbs, toxins, and jungle curios for tools, shiny objects, and gossip. Hierarchies are informal but real, usually centred on the loudest war-leader, the cleverest poison-brewer, and the oldest singer who remembers where all the good hiding spots are.

Biology & Lifespan

Grungs are fully amphibious, breathing air easily but needing regular moisture to keep their skin healthy. Their bodies secrete a natural toxin that coats their skin as a thin, slick film. This poison varies by individual and diet, but most causes paralysis, hallucinations, or overwhelming nausea in creatures foolish enough to grab a grung with bare hands. The grungs themselves are mostly immune to one another’s toxins, though they still treat certain individuals as dangerously spicy and only handle them with leaves or tools.
  They lay clutches of jelly-coated eggs in warm tree-hollows or shallow jungle pools. Tadpoles wriggle in these pools before gradually growing limbs and climbing out as tiny froglets. Growth is fast at first: they reach their adult size in only a few years, then slow, living around forty to fifty years if predators, rival colonies, or their own reckless stunts do not cut things short. Older grungs fade in colour and lose some of their jump, but gain an impressive knack for brewing nastier poisons.

Homelands & Environment

Grung colonies cling to the hottest, wettest patches of the High Seas’ jungle-forests. They prefer places where roots and trunks rise straight out of the water, creating a maze of branches, hanging moss, and hidden pools. These environments are perfect for ambushes, echoing calls, and quick escapes straight into the canopy or the murky water below. Many colonies also cultivate “poison gardens” of particularly nasty plants and insects, both for defence and for ingredients.
  Their territory usually extends in a loose five mile bubble around the colony tree, marked by subtle signs: carved frog-spirals in bark, clusters of hanging shells that clack in warning, and trails of sticky sap that only a grung would step in on purpose. Few outsiders know exactly where the colonies are, but most local sailors can point to stretches of jungle shoreline and say, with feeling, that they absolutely are not going in there.

Relations with Other Peoples

Most other peoples know grungs as rumours before they ever meet one. Raft-dwellers tell tales of invisible jungle spirits that pelt you with rotten fruit, steal your boots, and leave you mysteriously too dizzy to stand. Tritons, locathah, and lizardfolk who share their waters tend to treat grung territory with wary respect, knowing that a direct fight in the trees is a terrible idea. When relations are good, grungs can be valuable allies, trading unique venoms, rare jungle herbs, and sharp-eyed scouts in exchange for metal tools and entertaining trinkets.
  On the other hand, grungs enjoy bullying anyone who ignores their warnings. Traders who anchor too close to a colony wake up to missing supplies, sabotaged rigging, and boats mysteriously full of croaking tadpoles. Still, a grung who chooses to live among other folk can become a surprisingly loyal companion, bringing ruthless ingenuity, endless pranks, and a pocket full of suspiciously labelled poison vials to any crew brave enough to adopt them.