In the heart of the Drowned Forest, where the upper Dunwater River winds through black water and rotting trees, rises a grotesque forty-foot idol of a toad, a shrine to Wastri, the Hopping Prophet.

Fashioned nearly a century ago from packed and hardened swamp filth, the idol’s surface has petrified to a stony toughness, mottled with fungus and lichen. Local legend claims it was raised when Wastri himself first emerged from the Hool Marsh, leaping from the muck to preach his creed of divine evolution.

Around this vile monument dwell the Chosen of Wastri, a reclusive sect of Bullywug Bog Sages who practice strange amphibian magics. They live in crude mud huts clustered around the idol’s base and rarely stray beyond its shadow. The air is thick with the reek of decay, the croak of unseen throats, and the faint, rhythmic chanting that seeps through the trees at night.

The Chosen are zealous in their faith. They hunt demi-humans; elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings, whom they deem aberrations against Wastri’s natural order. Captives are sacrificed and consumed in ritual feasts beneath the idol’s gaping maw.

Humans, however, the Chosen regard as kin, “the dryborn children of the Marsh.” When encountered, they seek to convert rather than kill, offering initiation into “the Leaping Path” toward amphibian enlightenment. Some employ narcotic swamp-brews and spore-clouds to drug captives, who awaken amid the huts, surrounded by croaking priests daubed in mud and blood.

A handful of bandits and smugglers have attempted to treat with the Chosen, few return. Those who do come back changed: fevered, mumbling of chanting toads, drugged feasts, and eyes watching from the mud.

The Chosen believe their idol shields them from all harm. They never stray far from its sight, convinced that Wastri’s gaze lingers upon the Drowned Forest. At night, their croaking rituals echo through the Drowned Forest.

(See: Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Chapter 1 — “Drowned Forest Oddities #9”)

The Chosen of Wastri (Drowned Forest Sect)

In stark contrast to Gulpa’Gor’s broods, the Chosen of Wastri denounce the blood rites of the south as heresy. They see the killing or bleeding of humans as a sin against Wastri’s design, for both races are the Chosen of the Swamp.

The Chosen are cannibals, yet their diet reflects their creed:

• They will not harm humans or bullywugs except in self-defense, seeking instead to convert them to Wastri’s path of amphibian ascension.

• They actively hunt, kill, and eat the demi-humans; elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings, believing these impure “dryskins” pollute the land and must be cleansed through consumption.

• During the Blood Moon, they bleed demi-humans only, claiming this is the true offering that pleases the Hopping Prophet.