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Ribbet

"The Bog was a city before your Bog was a district. We named it. Ask us what."
— Mwurra-of-the-Long-Croak, eldest Ribbet of The Bog

The amphibian frog-folk of the wetlands — native to the swamps of No-Dan-Kar, who arrived in Cadwallon centuries ago alongside the goblin trade and have since become the deepest-rooted population of the city's wet zones. The Ribbets of The Bog in Gamehead were there before Gamehead was a fief. So were the Ribbets of The Swamps in The Rampart. The Cadwës who renamed those districts did so in the Ribbets' century-old neighborhoods.

What They Are

  • Frog-folk — humanoid in upright build, amphibian in skin, limbs, and physiology; colorful skin in greens, oranges, and reds depending on lineage
  • Semi-aquatic — they live, hunt, and breed in shallow water; out of water for too long they desiccate
  • Long-tongued, wide-eyed, sticky-fingered — Ribbets are accomplished climbers and catch insects with prehensile tongues
  • From No-Dan-Kar originally — the swamp-empire is the racial cradle, but the Cadwallon population has been separate from No-Dan-Kar for at least four centuries and considers itself Cadwë
  • Modest lifespan — 60-80 years, comparable to humans

Where They Live

  • The Bog (Gamehead) — the largest Ribbet community in the Free City, named for them; ~2,000 individuals living in stilt-houses over standing water
  • The Swamps (The Rampart) — smaller population (~500) mixed in with the human wretched; the Ribbets are why Camelia Orrkrk's plan to fill in the Swamps is more politically explosive than she realizes
  • Buoyancy Bay edge — Ribbet salvagers work the shallow wrecks alongside Galapa deep-divers
  • The Sewers — wherever water flows underground, Ribbets sometimes follow

In Cadwallon

  • The Bog is theirs. The district was named by the Ribbets; the Cadwës who built Gamehead around them adopted the name. Most Cadwës don't know this. Ribbet elders consider this humorous.
  • Camelia's renovation plan to fill in The Swamps would displace approximately 500 Ribbets. Camelia has not consulted them. The Ribbets have noticed. They are not the kind of people who file petitions.
  • Circle of Explorers partnership — Ribbets are excellent wet-tunnel guides and contract with the Circle frequently. Many of the deepest sewer expeditions employ a Ribbet pathfinder.
  • No-Dan-Kar relationship — the embassy in Den Azhir maintains polite contact with the Cadwallon Ribbet community but does not treat them as nationals; the Cadwallon Ribbets are separate and the embassy respects this
  • The taste in the water — Ribbets taste contamination. Most of the upper city's water-quality monitoring is, informally, the Sewer Workers asking Ribbets what they're tasting today.

What They Know

The Bloody Creek taint

The Akkyshan Bloody Creek ritual (see The Akkyshan Offensive) bleeds into the Outskirts groundwater. The Bog's Ribbets have tasted it — three autumns running, the same wrongness in the same season. Mwurra-of-the-Long-Croak has reported it to the Guild of Sewer Workers and to Krenald's court. Neither has acted. Mwurra is now looking for someone who will. The Ribbets can trace the taint to its source by water. A free league escorted by a Ribbet pathfinder can reach the Akkyshan ritual ground by water route nobody else knows.

The Swamps cannot be filled

The Ribbets of The Swamps know something about the district that Camelia does not: the Swamps' deepest pools connect underground to the [[Outskirts|outskirts groundwater]] and, through a series of waterways, to the Marine Ruins approach. Filling the Swamps would not just displace the Ribbet community — it would seal off an underwater route the Circle has been using for sixty years to reach the Marine Ruins by stealth. The Circle knows this. They have been quietly funding Ribbet resistance through intermediaries Camelia has not identified.

Relations

The pathfinder

A Ribbet pathfinder, Krrahna-Quick-Tongue, will guide a free league through the Sewers-to-Outskirts water route — for a price. The price is safe passage out of the city for Krrahna's youngest spawn, who has been targeted by an Akkyshan elf operating in The Swamps who knows the Bog Ribbets have tasted Bloody Creek. The Akkyshan is gathering information. Krrahna wants the spawn out of reach. The escort itself is half the job; the guidance is the other.

See Also