Leap Day Leapfrogs

Fire Tongue Warriors

What few in the Iron Kingdoms realize is that the croaks who have come to inhabit the western swamps are but one of many different breeds of their kind. Across the Shattered Spine Islands in the east are dozens of different types of their kind. Among the most physically robust are the Bullcroaks, a subgroup of croaks known for their physical prowess.

The Bullcroaks are not common in western Immoren due to their fighting prowess. While other croaks were taken as slaves by the skorne empire and brought west, the Bullcroaks successfully repelled the slavers time and time again. Rather than throwing away their lives, the skorne silently agreed to leave Bullcroak-inhabited islands alone, preferring to take their captives from other, more easily seized tribes.

To the eyes of westerners, the Bullcroak way of war appears to be dictated only by tribal savagery, but this is far from true. They approach combat through a highly ritualized set of tribal laws and cultural taboos. They seldom seek to eradicate an enemy but instead are out to seek repayment for a wrong or to count coup against a foe. This is nonetheless marked by bloody and brutal fighting, and those who face off against the Bullcroaks are not soon to forget the experience.

The greatest warriors among the Bullcroak are the Fire Tongue Warriors, said to be descended from the hero Frawb, who was the first croak to tame fire.

Trollkin of the Southern Kriels encountered the Fire Tongue shortly after settling in Alchiere. The subcontinent has been a traditional hunting ground of the Fire Tongue for centuries. Hunting parties travel from their islands in dugout canoes to harvest the abundance of game and natural bounty the jungles of Alchiere have to offer. The meeting of these two cultures was unexpected, and initially there was tension between them. The Fire Tongue have had limited encounters with cultures other than the skorne, who they drove out of their islands, and suspected the trollkin to be similarly inclined, but care on the part of the Southern Kriels’ leaders allowed a mutual respect to flourish.

Fire Spitters

The islands inhabited by the Bullcroak tribes are rich in deposits of oil shale. The Fire Tongue distill a potent naptha from the shale, which they use in both rituals and warfare. The fire spitters are designated members of a tribe who perform elaborate fire dances on days of religious importance, but they are also the rank and file of a Fire Tongue war party. Carrying carved wooden reservoirs on their backs, fire spitters use their long, prehensile tongues to scoop out balls of naptha that they fling through the torches they carry, igniting the projectiles on their way to a target.

Fire Tongue Shamans

Leading the fire spitters in ritual dances, Fire Tongue shamans command potent croak magic. Each shaman wears a Te mask depicting Frawb, the progenitor of the Bullcroaks believed to be the first croak ever created. Each mask depicts a different stage of Frawb’s life, from his creation through his taming of fire, his creation of the canoe, and his travels among the Shattered Spine Islands to found each of the original Bullcroak tribes.

Each Te mask is a sacred relic and has been passed down through generations. Bullcroaks believe that a portion of each wearer’s spirit is retained within the shaman’s mask, making it a gestalt of the hundreds of souls to wear it in rituals and battles. Shamans speak to the spirits of their Te and go to them for wisdom, much as the tribe turns to the shaman.

Fire Guardians

At the heart of each Fire Tongue village is a great fire guardian, a stone totem the tribe keeps burning both day and night. Shamans ceremonially refill a fire guardian’s reservoir as a part of their sacred duties, because the flames the guardian protects are believed to have been lit by the hero Frawb when he first visited their island.

The sacred flame is central to the lives of the Fire Tongue. Every torch and cookfire in the village are drawn from this flame, as are the flames of the tribe’s warriors. It both symbolically and literally connects the tribe’s members. Whenever the Fire Tongue establish a new village or visit a new land, one of the Fire Tongue shamans is expected to construct a fire guardian. Flame is carried across the water in sacred canoes crewed by the most prestigious members of the tribe.

The ritual significance of a fire guardian gives it a kind of resonant arcane energy, not unlike the krielstones of the trollkin. Fire guardians that have been used in rituals for generations command their own potent energies, which can hinder the Fire Tongues’ foes in battle. War parties sometimes bring a fire guardian onto the battlefield, for the arcane support it offers far outweighs the difficulty of transporting one—while keeping its flame burning, no less.

The construction of a fire guardian at Tolok Fortress was overseen by Mawga’Bawza, cementing the alliance between the southern trollkin and their new allies.

The Art of War (Dancing)

Bullcroak warfare is dense with ritual when they wage it. The night before a war party strikes out in its canoes, it turns to the gift of Frawb, the flame. The warriors dance around the tribe’s fire guardians. Starting with the shamans, each member of the war party ignites his or her weapon from the communal flame. The Fire Tongue war party members are expected to keep their weapons burning from this ritual until the battle’s end. Allowing one’s fire to be put out is a mark against a warrior, and it is often done among rival Fire Tongue tribes to shame their warriors.

Extinguishing the flame is acceptable only to indicate a cessation of hostilities. Warchief Bagadibawm put out his flames at the feet of Chief Madrak Ironhide in 614 AR to bring to an end to the brief hostility between their people.

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