“Azure Lightning,” Knap says to Greta.

He then gently adjusts Azure Lightning’s top hat making sure it’s stable, 

Knap clears his throat, takes his own frog like posture and announces to the amphibious 4 in froggish, “mud, long grass, food soon…” he pauses, “hop straight and true…safe behind sky-skinned hopper.” Knap’s throaty croaks fade into the din of excitement and he winks at Mei.

"Magma Coulee," Quentillius repeats to Guardok as he names his frog. "Suppose that fits."  He straightens a bit when the Earth Genasi says it's great that he's announcing. "Yes, it will make this like it were an actual high-profile race with my exacting elocution and commanding voice." He tries to put on an authoritative look as he prepares. He does seem to hear the name Knap gives to Greta. 

Greta continues to work at getting the four coaches lined up with the frogs, which are mostly cooperative it seems at gathering near the start. "Let's get the frogs all lines up at the line for a fair start here," she says, leaving it to the coaches to figure out how to do that.  Before Quentillius steps away, he softly says to Mei, "Good luck to you. I certainly cannot play favorites, and I will not be kissing any frogs."  You hear Cadoras give a chuckle from just behind. "Hey! I'd kiss the frog and the coach!" 

Mina Lee, speaking with Malvyn, gives the Tiefling a curious look. "Frogs? They're going to race frogs in the cafe?" she asks.  She turns around as if trying to somehow see into the lounge where all the activity is happening. "Well, I'm stuck here for the moment.  Guess you can be the reporter on this one if it turns out to be an interesting tale." As Malvyn heads off she turns back to say something to one of the other employees. 

Aurora gives Mei a glance as she starts cheering for Knap. "So, your favor goes to the Satyr? Hoping to impress him?" she asks jokingly, giving her a nudge. 

"All right everyone! All right! Let me have your attention!"  Quentillius' voice booms out throughout the room. "We have our contestants!  Introducing the first competitor - Magma Coulee, an orange frog sporting a marvelous cape. He's coached by Guardok. Next we have the blue frog, Azure Lightning. Dressed in a fashionable top hat, he is coached by Knap.  The third contestant is coached by Rampart. It's Royal Victor, a violet frog wearing a dapper bowtie.  And finally, it is Sir Hops-a-Lot, Earl of Ribbiton. This red frog, dressed in snappy suspenders, is coached by Mei Fujimori. Welcome..."  He pauses a moment as Rosie runs up to him and hands him something.  He nods to the Gnome before continuing. "Well, I have a special announcement for the coaches!  No pressure, but... it seems that our crowd here today has taken up a collection to provide a prize purse for this little contest.  The winner of the race shall receive 30 gold for their efforts!  Alright everyone, let's get ready to cheer on our competitors!"  

He gives pause for the crowd to make noise for a moment, before putting up his hands to again call for quiet. He looks at Greta who gives a nod. "Ladies and gentlemen, the frogs are ready! On my mark... Ready... Get Set... GO!" 

The competition started, those not actively involved might notice Piero calling out in support of Rampart. "You can do this! I'm sure your keen mind will lead you to victory!"  

(OOC - Guardok, Knap, and Mei each need to make an Animal Handling (Wisdom) Check.  Guardok and Mei have Disadvantage on this roll. Knap has Advantage.  Piero's support of Rampart counts against you all. Knap has Mae's cheering for him and a bonus for his talking to the frog beforehand. Depending on the rolls we'll see if another roll is needed.)  

'The frog and the coach.' His words follow Mei to the starting line, ensuring she and her racer are clearly a pair. Did that mean he'd be willing to kiss any of the coaches? she wonders, glancing down the starting line at her fellow racers before shaking the images loose from her mind. It was just a joke. Get your head in the game, Mei! she chastises.

Lightly tapping on the luxodon's arm, Mei smiles up at the much larger student with well wishes, "Good luck to you both, Rampart," then leans forward to playfully narrow her eyes at Knap and Guardok. "But I hope you two like the taste of dust. 'Cause you're gonna--" she tries to keep a comically straight face but a bit of laughter pokes through "--gonna be eating ours!" Trash talk is clearly not her forte.

Crouching down to Sir Hops' level, she whispers, "You just do your best, okay? Winning's not important." Her fingertips trace a symbol gently atop the frog's head and a translucent butterfly appears, fluttering down to boop Sir Hops' snoot before disappearing. The frog might suddenly feel guided. She coos more words of encouragement until Quentillius' "GO" rings out. "You can do it, Sir!"


((Can absolutely retcon that if no magic is allowed! Or if she wouldn't have had the time to cast the cantrip. I realize that it's probably herself she should've cast it on since she's rolling, but she'd have cast it on the frog lol!
Animal Handling at Disadv: 16, 5+2 7 lolol))  

Knap closes his eyes in a moment of mediation, Mae’s words settle his thoughts, gives him focus. He begins repeating the words “come on Knap! Get your frog to go. come on Knap! Get your frog to go.” Chanting. He opens his eyes and smiles at Mae. 

Knap now lays flat bellied and eye level behind his frog. On Quintillius’ cue Knap croaks “hop now!” 

animal handling: adv 19+5=24 

Guardok carefully gathers up Magma Coulee and places them down on the starting line, then looks across at the other coaches and frogs.

"Good luck everyone".

He crouches down by Magma Coulee, and whispers, "You've got this, let's show those other frogs what you've got". He laces his words with inspiration before stepping back.

"We'll see who eats whose dust", he replies to Mei with a wink.

When Quentillius shouts go, he repeats the words softly behind his frog, "Go go go, Magna Coulee!".

Animal Handling (with disadvantage): (17, 7)+3=10 (+4 if bardic inspiration is allowed)

Mae looks at Aurora with a bit of an incredulous look and then giggles softly. "Knap? Oh, no, I don't think so. But I think my other floormate has enough going for her," she points to Mei, "so I'd rather support Knap and make it interesting. Besides, if I was going to try to impress anyone it wouldn't be him." She flushed slightly and then looked back toward Knap at the starting line. "But really I don't want to impress anyone. Not..." She suddenly stopped as the race began to get started, turning her full attention back to the frogs.

Coming back into the lounge just as the obnoxious actor starts the race, Malvyn quickly pulls up a notebook and a pen from his shoulder bag to take notes for his report to the Star, his excited fiery red eyes going between the frogs and his notebook as the colourful frogs sets off, the frog with the top hat perched jauntily on its head leaping into a clear lead while the red suspender wearing one merely hops around in small circles before following along with it's comrades down the track. 

"Aaaand... they're off!" Quentillius' voice booms out.  Except they are not all off in quite the same direction.  The red frog hops, getting good distance, but only marginally heading towards the Finish Line. The other three seem to have a bit better direction, although the lanes are completely disregarded.

"Royal Victor is off to a fast start," Quentillius says, speaking quickly and clearly. "Magma Coulee and Azure Lightning are a close second. While Sir-Hops-A-Lot is off the course! Watch out!" A small cluster of student have to jump back to avoid having the suspender wearing frog jump amongst them. 

"Azure Lightning is taking a small lead, with Magma Coulee right behind. Royal Victor falls back after taking a brief pause while Sir-Hops-A-Lot is still going... somewhere," Quentillius continues.

Rampart had managed to get his bowtie-wearing frog to get moving again after it had simply stopped and sat on the course for a bit. Mei tries to get her red frog on track, nearly crashing into someone as she chases after.  She seems to get the fellow headed back towards the race course, but is significantly behind the others.  

Quentillius keeps up his announcing. "Azure Lightning's lead is growing while Magma Coulee is not far behind. Royal Victor gains ground but is still in third. As they near the line Azure Lightning seems to have the race in hand.  Royal Victor gains on Magma Coulee and the two are neck and neck! Royal Victor takes the lead but Magma Coulee is just behind! It's a close race for second as Azure Lightning crossed the Finish Line!"

Mei's red frog is finally back to the chalk outlined race track, but well behind the others. The violet and orange frogs also cross, almost too close to tell the order. You then hear Rosie, who had been perched right at the Finish Line, tell out, "Violet!"

Quentillius calls out. "It's Azure Lightning winning, followed by Royal Victor and Magma Coulee! Sir-Hops-A-Lot is...  well, back on the course... wait... no, watch out, he's headed the other direction now!"

"You're doing amazing, sweetie! Just keep--oop, watch out for their--ah!" Mei covers her eyes as Sir Hops takes the scenic route and nearly plops onto someone's shoes. As the others finish the race, she hurries down the "track" to the finish line and calls encouragement to the little hopper, sending a waft of marshy scent their way to follow. "Come, come, this way, little one! What a good hopper you are," she coos. "Nearly--oh, well, you're... almost nearly there!"  

Tha purple-skinned Tiefling can't help but chuckle as he watches Mei's quite active coaching of her less than focused colourful frog, although he carefully notes the names of both frogs and coaches and the order of which they cross the finish line. He felt glad for the success of his room mate, but also a bit sorry for the purple-haired oracle, although he was quite certain she wasn't one to take a thing like this too serious.

Mae watches with a suddenly rather amused look as the frogs do...actually what she supposed frogs might do. Hop. Erratically. She found herself snickering a little at the commentary but then clapping with another cheer as Knap's frog made it to the finish first and won. "Well done Knap!" She looked at Aurora and grinned, "You think it was my cheering that did it?"

Knap's face, eye-level with the frogs remained unfazed and focussed through the race, though his hips bopped along to the hopping rhythm. And for its namesake Azure Lightning streaks past the finish line – Knap leaps to his feat letting out something between a croak and a gloat. He send Mae a thumbs-up and does a bow for the crowd before walking over to the finish line and feeding each of the frogs a crispy cricket from his pocket. 

Guardok spends the whole race trying to coax Magma Coulee to the finishing line with little success, so when his frog does cross it he cheers excitedly even though he is only third.

Heading over to Knap, he gives his Satyr friend a bow, "Congratulations, frog whisperer. A deserved victory".

"That was really fun. What do we do with the frogs now though?".

Aurora glances over at Mae with a grin. "Oh yes, I'm sure it was your cheering. His druidic skills were likely unrelated." All of the frogs seem quite pleased with the snacks Knap had provided.  And no sooner has he distributed those, the last going to Sir-Hops-A-Lot who was a bit farther from the others, Rosie comes up and places a small pounch in his hand. (30 gp worth of assorted coins). "Congrats on the win! You clearly have a way with frogs!" she says. Finally, Cadoras can be heard bellowing out loudly. "Well, I said a kiss, so a kiss it will be!  So where did that Azure Lightning get to?"  He's about to lean down to actually kiss the blue frog when something starts to happen. 

Everyone can see the four frogs suddenly start belching strangely, and their eyes turn red. Students start to turn their attention back to them just as they start to grow to enormous size.  They have each become a giant frog, pretty much destroying the cute costumes they had been wearing. They jump in all directions, the blue one knocking Cadoras harshly down to the ground. The others furiously lash out at the crowd.  

Students are now scattering in all directions. Mei, Knap, and Guardok remain not far from the frogs and now find themselves nearly alone just a few feet away. (I'll say 20 ft.) Aurora has moved away, leaving Mae standing along the wall alone. (Perhaps 35 ft from the frogs.)  And Malvyn finds himself amidst a throng of students rapidly fleeing towards the doors. (About 40 ft. from the frogs.)  

(Everyone roll initiative. As will Blue Frog 4, Violet Frog 6, Orange Frog 13, and Red Frog 6! 3)

Mei hardly has time to wish she were named Azure Lightning before the celebratory scene turns to chaos. As Cadoras is knocked to the ground, she calls out but the words are swallowed by the pandemonium. 

Eyes wide and gripped with worry, her mind is filled with the same fear she’d felt in the face of the darkness and too-many-teeth weeks prior. Shs flicks open her card holster and tries to rush to her friend’s aid, but is shouldered hard by a fleeing student, nearly knocked down herself. 

(Initiative: 1+2 3 💀)

Guardok stares in wonder as the four frogs he currently looks down at suddenly grow and pretty much look him eye to eye. That wonder turns to worry as they start to exhibit violent tendencies.

Initiative: 8+3=11

Malvyn is so caught up in taking notes for the Star about the weird transformation that it takes a moment for him to realize the situation just took a dire turn.

Initiative: 5

“Thanks Rosie,” Knap jingles the coins “you can call me The frog whisperer, right Guardok. It’s got a ring to it…oh oh!” 

initiative: 6  

"I'm sure..." Mae starts to respond to Aurora before being cutoff by all the shouting and running. She looked over at the scene and blinked a bit. "What in the world!"

(Initiative 17+2=19 rolled in log)

A young man with dark hair is moving towards the frogs. He shouts out a magic word, casting Mind Sliver at the Blue Frog.

(INT Save DC 14: 6; 1 psychic Damage and subtract 1d4 from next Save)

Those who look see that it is Piero!

Initiative Order:

Piero

Blue Frog

Orange Frog

Mae

Guardok

Violet Frog

Knap

Malvyn

Red Frog

Mei