It Could Happen Here – CZM Book Club: Pathfinder: Dawn of the Frogs, Part Three

Date: November 16, 2025
Host & Players: Margaret Killjoy, Jason Bulman, Spite, Trant, Myrtie, Squash
Podcast Network: Cool Zone Media & iHeartPodcasts

Overview

This Book Club episode is the third part of a live-play Pathfinder 2e Revised campaign, “Dawn of the Frogs,” featuring both regular podcast cast members and Jason Bulman (Director of Games at Paizo, creator of Pathfinder). The session takes place in the swampy town of Bog Bottom following the group's recent triumph over villainous Boggards. The main focus here is a rescue-driven adventure as the characters try to save two villagers suffering from mysterious fungal poisoning.

Blending comedy, chaotic party energy, and creative roleplay with the rules and world of Pathfinder, this episode emphasizes both collaborative storytelling and tabletop shenanigans.

Main Characters & Players

• Margaret Killjoy (GM/Host): Narrator and coordinator.
• Jason Bulman (GM/Guest): Running the game, providing story and rules.
• Spite: (Revolutionary Melani worshipper, anti-cage crusader; played by Spite)
• Trant: (Explosives expert/“mad bomber”; played by Trant)
• Myrtie: (Sister Murdragona Bow, soup nun cleric; played by Myrtie)
• Squash: (Dog-person ex-bank-robber, recently rescued; played by Squash)

Key Discussion Points & Story Highlights

1. Recap and Introduction [04:19]

• Summary of last session: The party, stranded in Bog Bottom without money, rescued villagers from evil Boggards at a ruined mill, received loot, and enjoyed a hero's feast.
• Characters introduce themselves and recap their main quirks.
  • Spite: Fiercely anti-prison, with a penchant for hitting jailers.
    “I am very willing to hit people with spikes and stick until they stop putting people in cages.” [07:04]
  • Trant: Happy to blow things up when asked.
    “When you break into someone’s house and start setting off explosives... and everything ends well. And that’s the only moral lesson I need to take from this adventure.” [07:26]
  • Myrtie: Soup-powered healing.
    "Soup. That’s good stuff. I’m a soup nun..." [08:04]
  • Squash: Dog-person ex–bank-robber.
    "I'm a rowdy little dog man. I used to rob banks for the Revolution, a little bit for the Rev and a little bit for Daddy..." [08:21]

2. The Villagers' Ailment – Call to Action [08:39]

• Ledrusa (elven town healer) wakes the party:
  Halperin and Paneria (recently rescued) act strangely—obsessed with Boggards, amnesiac, wanting to return to captivity.
• Diagnosis:
  Ledrusa suspects a mind-altering fungus; needs rare ingredients for a cure.
• Party Comedy:
  • Wild, non-helpful solutions are proposed:
    • Fire, grenades, burning possible doppelgängers, and verifying identities via childhood trivia.
      “If someone’s not themselves, the best way to tell is by burning them, because that will burn away the false outer skin and reveal the true inner. Unless it’s just them, in which case they'll just get burned.” – Trant [14:59]
    • Myrtie suggests soup could work first:
      “Yeah, I hear you, but have you tried the soup?” – Myrtie [16:13]

3. Side Quests – Swamp Shopping & Gossip

Party splits to provision up before mushroom hunting:

A. Mudfly Supplies (Spite) [27:50]

• Spite buys swamp gear: waders, fishing nets, bug bombs, antidotes.
  "My plan is to leave here with a ridiculous amount of like, fishing nets...waders...I’m sort of in Pathfinder. I feel like a gold piece is worth a lot of money." [29:46]
• NPC Boggard shopkeeper hypes the importance of bait—eats it himself.
• Trant issues a nonsensical “bog survival guide” (short shorts, socks, no boots).

B. The Moss Pig Tavern (Myrtie & Spite) [32:11]

• Myrtie gathers rumors over turnips and mushroom soup.
• Local gossip: Water is rising more than usual (“Seems higher than normal” – Berna Cragborn, tavernkeeper [33:30]), hints of climate and environmental change.
• Swamp monster urban legend: Two Tusk, giant beast that drags travelers under (“…the terrifying swamp creature… size of a barge…many have lost their lives to Two Tusk…” – Berna [34:12])

C. Sinking Pony General Store (Squash & Trant) [36:19]

• Both stock up on bombs, alchemical fire, healing elixirs, oil, ceramic jug, and rope.
• Squash attempts to subtly score drugs, is rebuffed, but leaves with grog and other supplies.

4. Embarking on the Cure Hunt [45:39]

• Ladrusa provides a map and a barge: Party tasked with gathering three ingredients:
  • Lanternberries (faintly glowing berries on a hill)
  • Waning mushrooms (near a massive fallen tree)
  • Tomb flower petals (in a long-abandoned cemetery)
• Party chooses to head to the mushrooms first.

5. First Ingredient: Waning Mushrooms & Sentient Leshy Encounter [49:50]

• Colorful swamp imagery, vibrant with life.
• At the rotten tree, the party encounters Leathercap, a sentient fungus “Leshy” guardian.
  • Demands reason for harvesting kin.
  • Spite and Squash explain villagers need a cure; party offers to spread mushroom spores with future “corpses” as a trade.
    • “Oh, we do make a lot of corpses in our line of work.” – Squash [56:38]
• Diplomacy/favor system:
  Leathercap agrees, provided party warns townsfolk to stop casual mushroom harvesting. Spore samples are gifted in exchange for party promises.
  • “You would spread my kin?” – Leathercap [57:29]

6. Lanternberry Patch – Skill Checks & Deadly Combat [63:23]

• Myrtie expertly navigates to the glowing berry hill.
• Climbing, the party is ambushed by giant swamp flies (each 3–4 feet long).
  • Combat ensues:
    • Squash takes a critical hit, nearly killed in one bite (brought to dying 2 in Pathfinder terms).
      “Blood, spots, spatters everywhere. As the fly lands on your body to feast. Are you at zero?” – Jason [74:00]
    • Myrtie heroically heals Squash. Soup is again front and center.
    • Spite, wielding an improved Morningstar (with glued-on alchemist fire), lands a devastating critical, destroying a fly in an explosion of ichor.
      • "You slam the Morning Star right in the middle of that. The alchemist fire shatters and burns its wings...You do take one point of fire damage." – Jason [78:07]
    • Trant loads his shotgun with harvested fly chitin, in true mad bomber fashion.
    • Dead flies now host Leshy spores, via Squash's short shorts.
  • The post-combat mood is a mix of humor and mild horror as the party bandages up.

7. Berry Harvest and Discovery [91:43]

• Party safely picks the lanternberries for the cure.
• Bonus loot:
  • Find the skeleton of a past (unlucky) adventurer clutching a magical-looking scimitar.

8. Setup for Next Session and Ominous Hints [92:44]

• As dusk falls, the party prepares to seek tomb flowers in the old cemetery.
• Tension mounts:
  • “Somewhere out in the swamp, something is watching you.” [92:44]
  • Ominous references to Two Tusk, raising suspense for the next game night.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• On party’s reckless logic:
  • "If someone's not themselves, the best way to tell is by burning them…Unless it's just them, in which case they'll just get burned."
    – Trant [14:59]
• Debate about healing powers:
  • “Yeah, I hear you, but have you tried the soup?”
    – Myrtie [16:13]
• Heroic moments:
  • “Blood, spots, spatters everywhere. As the fly lands on your body to feast. Are you at zero?”
    – Jason [74:00]
• After the devastating critical hit:
  • “I turn to Trant and give a big thumbs up. You are spattered just from top to bottom, boss.” – Spite/Jason [78:11]
• Swamp diplomacy:
  • “You would spread my kin?”
    – Leathercap [57:29]
• Chaotic energy:
  • “I cut my shorts even shorter and I hand them over to Leathercap.”
    – Squash [59:25]
• Foreshadowing danger:
  • “Somewhere out in the swamp, something is watching you. But that’s all we have time for here today, everybody.”
    – Jason [92:44]
• Meta-joke about future peril:
  • “If you come back next week, you’ll get to watch, I believe it’s called a TPK…just a terrible thing.” – Spite [93:35]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Recap, Character Intros: [04:19]–[08:39]
• The Villagers’ Ailment/Call to Adventure: [09:53]–[16:31]
• Town Shopping & Side Quests: [22:39]–[45:39]
• Setting Out (Raft Departure): [45:39]–[49:50]
• Leathercap Leshy Negotiation: [51:14]–[59:48]
• Lanternberry Patch Combat: [63:23]–[90:14]
• Aftermath, Dungeon Setup: [91:43]–[92:44]
• Closing Banter: [93:28]–End

Episode Tone & Style

Chaotic, witty, earnest, irreverent, cooperative.
The actual play is full of creative banter, genre-savvy jokes, anti-authoritarian humor, and slapstick party chaos. There’s mechanical crunch for tabletop fans, but it stays accessible and fun for newcomers.

Summary

This episode delivers a juicy mix of Pathfinder combat, roleplay, and anarchic teamwork. Listeners are treated to laugh-out-loud moments, heartfelt teamwork, and teases of greater danger—all without missing a beat (or a bowl of magical soup). With over-the-top personalities and clever use of game rules, the story sets up a tense cliffhanger as the party ventures deeper into the swamp’s creeping mystery… and perhaps toward their own doom.

Next time: Will the party brave the haunted cemetery? Will Two Tusk appear? Will the soup finally solve everything? Stay tuned for more Pathfinder mayhem.