Beartoggle (City)

The **city of Beartoggle** was the capital of the Beartoggle region. It was located in the south-east of the region, at the Beartoggle River delta.

## Description

The city is built right on the Beartoggle River, which flows through its centre in a southeasterly direction. North of the city, the Toggle Dam was built, creating vast Beartoggle Lake and much reducing the flow of the river through the city itself. As such any traveller arriving by river from the northwest cannot see the city until they are on top of the dam, which towers over the city at a height of 1,100 feet. The Toggle Dam itself acts as a dock for travellers arriving this way. The Grand Staircase descends from the dam down to street level in the city proper, arriving in the Scarlet Market district.

The areas of the city are: The Warrens, Scarlet Market, Green Grove, The Shade, Old Bear, Tinkertown and Highground.

### The Warrens

* 247: He Still Doesn't Know He's on a Podcast: The Warrens are primarily a residential district
* 249: I Need A Pedicure, Rainbow Trout :(: "The Warrens are off to your right as you cross the river. The Warrens are more of a residential area of town." / A sign in Tinkertown reads *"Tinkertown Guard Station. Temporarily closed. If in need of assistance please see nearest station in The Warrens."*
* 250: A Foil Bag of Cranks: The *Clock Shop* employee says that there's *"some sort of shady magic stuff over in the Warrens. You've just got to watch out for the Sooty Gang."* The group look confusedly at each other, wondering if anyone knows what that means. The halfling explains they're a group of neer-do-wells, primarily ibish, who've been around for a while. *"You don't want to cross them"* she says. Will asks if they control the Warrens, and the halfling says they operate everywhere and the town guard aren't doing much about it.
* 251: 50% Milk: Will asks Dean Kellerman if the gang are new in the city and the dean says they've been operating for a while, mainly in The Warrens district. If he had to guess, that's where he'd say their den would be.
* 252: The Pied Piper of Puppetry: Will asks the dean who would know anything about the gang and the dean tells them that the city watch probably would. He says that the guard station in Highground is probably open, *"A lot of money over there"* he says, and they could ask around in the *"shady back alleys"* of The Warrens for info, as that's where he guesses they're based.
* 254: I'll Hug Them Until They Enroll: Bellhop Mark says he lives in Beartoggle, in the Warrens. Will asks if he knows where the Sooty Gang's headquarters are, since he's from the Warrens and he says he absolutely does; it's an old rundown place in the northwest corner of the Warrens, up against the dam.
* 257: Majestically Boring: Will reminds everyone that they learnt the Sooty Gang's hideout was up by the dam, somewhere in the Warrens.
* 258: Raphina and the Woims: As the group discuss plans to infiltrate the Sooty gang hideout, Raphina explains that the Warrens are almost exclusively residential. She says it's more of a lower income area, the residences are very tightly packed together, sort of on top of each other.
* 259: Fred Greenman: Will in bat form flits over the streets of the Warrens, the huge dam looming up on his right. The Warrens seem very quiet, not many people about. It's also dark, compared to the rest of the city and Will notices that many of the streetlights have been shattered. He heads towards where they'd been told the Sooty Gang's hideout is, tucked up against the dam itself in the back northwest corner of the district.
* 260: Batthwack Yells And Then Smashes... \*gasp\*: Looking west from the Toggle Hotel window, Batthwack sees the Warrens, Tinkertown, the university, and the river below is gleaming in the moonlight.
* 268: Basement, Casement, Familiar Facement: The group are heading back towards the Scarlet Market in search of the *Hands & Fingers* puppet theatre. It's around noon and they're somewhere between Tinkertown and the Warrens. It's here they find Gorbis tied up in an abandoned house.
* 275: Am I Ever Gonna Make Any Friends?: The group heads across the river towards the Warrens, which is quieter than the rest of the city, being more of a residential district. They're getting closer and closer to where they think the Sooty Gang hideout is when they bump into Rosco!
* 304: We Can Get the Cold Mustard Out of the House! Eric describes the entrance to the Sooty Gang hideout following Savnok's defeat: "You go over there and you see a house that looks kind of like... the main difference is there's not a looming dam behind it. There's just more houses."

### Old Bear

* 246: A Pompion's Guide to Six Rivers: Raphina: "I just want to... I'm just going to express relief that the Old Bear centre of town seems to be intact. Old Bear is what we call it."
* 302: So Profound, and Yet So Unhelpful: Eric: "As described by Raphina, [the Desert Mothers] are in Old Bear." / "Old bear is essentially just a large structure. The structure is very reminiscent of an ancient Roman Colosseum. It's this huge round stone structure with nothing around, far away from the river. And there's a trickle of people moving in and out of the various entrances into this large round structure. [...] [Old Bear]'s like the general name of this area of Beartoggle. Not necessarily the building. There's no one taking tickets or anything like that. It's just people are going in and out. And you find yourselves up in the stands of what looks like, again, kind of like a Roman Colosseum. There's this open, circular expanse of sand before you. There's benches circling all around it, stands. The stands have people sort of scattered about just sitting. And then down in the centre of the sand below, you see two figures laying back on these chaise lounges. And they are passing a cigarette back and forth between them. And everybody in the stands are just sitting there in silence. And the people down on the lounges aren't saying [...] anything." [...] Abby: "Raphina climbs over the stands and a ladder pokes out that you couldn't see, it kind of blended in, but there's a ladder, like a rope ladder. It just camouflages and I sort of scramble down."

## People

The city was populated by a lot of halflings, the greatest density that any of the party had ever seen up to that point (except Raphina of course), but there were also other races: humans, elves, half-elves, tielfings, and a scattering of dragonborn.

### Desert Mothers

* 245: Meesa Mo: "Can you tell me if there are any Desert Mothers in the centre of town?" asks Raphina, but they don't seem to know what she talking about. "They're like the monks. The Desert Mothers?" The worker says that all the religious temples and things are in Highground. Raphina says the Desert Mothers aren't very religious. "They're the ones that run everything" she says, feeling slightly nervous that maybe they've been overthrown while she was way.
* 246: A Pompion's Guide to Six Rivers: Raphina says that her priority is to find the Desert Mothers. Sheemie asks her what they're all about. Raphina explains that the Desert Mothers are the monastic matriarchs of Beartoggle society. She feels sure they can't have gone, and if they can find them, they'd be sure to have answers for them. Sheemie asks "Are you a Desert Mother?" "What? No! Are you kidding? And give up my pockets?" replies Raphina incredulously. She says they don't like much of anything really. "The only thing they do is chain smoke. Aunt Bootie was a Desert Mother." Sheemie asks if the Desert Mothers run the city. Raphina says they're in charge, but they're not lawmakers or anything. "They just look at you sternly when you do it wrong and you want to die. It's very effective." Will asks what the desert has to do with anything, and Raphina explains it has its roots in the fact that less enlightened city folk consider all non-river parts of the city to be desert, not really being familiar with the real thing. She's sure the Desert Mothers will know she's not a serial killer, but Will points out that that assumes the Desert Mothers haven't completely changed into something else in this reality.
* 248: I'm Bloodhorn Leghorn and I'm a Sheep: The pink-haired elf Thalia says they should talk, but not here. She tells Raphina to collect her friends. Raphina asks if she's spoken to the Desert Mothers, but the elf replies "Don't talk to them. They're in on it. No! The Desert Mothers, they're good. They're in charge, they know what's... No! Don't trust the Desert Mothers." Raphina is concerned about this apparent duality in the elf's personality. She says she'll go and find her friends and the elf tells her to be surreptitious about it.
* 251: 50% Milk: Raphina, doing her best to disguise her voice, asks if the dean has heard of the Desert Mothers and if they're still considered to be elders of the city. He has heard of them, saying they're over in the Old Bear district, but he only describes them as "a couple of old women," and says he hasn't had much to do with them.
* 257: Majestically Boring: Sheemie is annoyed that there's no more candy to be had from Gwen's purple pouch, which is another thing Will's worried about. Again, Gwen insists it's fine, but Raphina's concerned that she mighty have eaten some candy from the pouch. "Maybe the Desert Mothers will have some wisdom on this," says Raphina.
* 262: On Your Marks, Get Set, STAIRCASE!: Raphina says "I really wish we could find the Desert Mothers."
* 300: Clearly Not, Based on This 2-Hour Conversation: Raphina: "Let's get out of this boat and head to the Desert Mothers" [...] Hilula: "The Desert Mothers? They're scary." Raphina: "Oh, yeah, they are. But that is where the knowledge comes. You have to be willing to seek it."
* 302: So Profound, and Yet So Unhelpful: Adam: "Does does Rosco know about... What does he know about Desert Mothers?" Eric: "You've heard maybe that phrase once or twice?" Raphina: "It seemed like in the other reality we were in, that people were sort of afraid of them. That's not usually the case." / Eric: "As described by Raphina, they are an Old Bear" / Mo: "Are the Desert Mothers gods?" Raphina: "They're more powerful than gods." Mo: "Oh!" Raphina: "Definitely more powerful than THESE gods." / Eric: "[Old Bear]'s like the general name of this area of Beartoggle. Not necessarily the building. There's no one taking tickets or anything like that. It's just people are going in and out. And you find yourselves up in the stands of what looks like, again, kind of like a Roman Colosseum. There's this open, circular expanse of sand before you. There's benches circling all around it, stands. The stands have people sort of scattered about just sitting. And then down in the centre of the sand below, you see two figures laying back on these chaise lounges. And they are passing a cigarette back and forth between them. And everybody in the stands are just sitting there in silence. And the people down on the lounges aren't saying [...] anything." Raphina: "Is that Aunt Bootie and Great Aunt Tootie? It might be." Eric: "It is. You all recognise Aunt Bootie. You've never met Great Aunt Tootie. [...] There doesn't seem to be an easy access point. The people aren't approaching Aunt Bootie and Great Aunt Tootie. They're just down there enjoying their cigarettes and everybody's just sitting in the stands."
* 303: This Is Going to Feel Very Unhelpful: Eric (describing how Great Aunt Tootie is able to gain magical insight via smoking a special cigarette): "[Aunt Bootie] reaches into her clutch and she pulls out another cigarette. This one is very, very small though. And in her other hand, she pulls from her clutch a flint and steel. And she definitely with one hand strikes the flint on the steel and lights this small cigarette. And she hands it over to Great Aunt Tootie. [...] She takes a very, very short drag on this cigarette, and then puts it out with her thumbnail and closes her eyes. She says," Great Aunt Tootie: "So, what do you want to know? [...] First of all, I can see this is very important." Eric: "And she like scrunches her eyes shut even tighter. It was someone's birthday recently, wasn't it?"
* 304: We Can Get the Cold Mustard Out of the House!: Alex: "I recorded the seed packet in my character sheet as 'Desert Mother Weed'. Is that accurate?" Eric: "That's acceptable."

See also:

* Aunt Bootie

### Sooty Gang

See also:

* Raa

## Notable Stores and Businesses

* 306: We’ll Put a Candle in a Fish: Adam: "Rosco knows a guy in Beartoggle. [...] There's a business in Beartoggle that specialises in items that you know start small and then if you press it the right way, or say the right incantation, it magically expands into its functional form. What it turns into, is a a really fancy materials, and sturdy, but fancy like, tent."

## Episode Appearances

* 245: Meesa Mo: The party cross Beartoggle Lake and arrive at the Toggle Dam, which towers above the city below
* 246: A Pompion's Guide to Six Rivers: At the top of the Grand Staircase, the group get their first proper view of the city
* 247: He Still Doesn't Know He's on a Podcast: The party descend the staircase and arrive in the Scarlet Market district
* 248: I'm Bloodhorn Leghorn and I'm a Sheep: The group head off towards the Tinkertown district, crossing the much-reduced river
* 249: I Need A Pedicure, Rainbow Trout :(: In Tinkertown, the party pass an absent guard station and visit *Michael's Mechanisms*
* 250: A Foil Bag of Cranks: The group go into the Clock Shop, before heading back to Tinker Tavern.
* 251: 50% Milk: At Tinker Tavern, the party "enjoy" a few drinks and then bump into the dean of Beartoggle University
* 252: The Pied Piper of Puppetry: The group visit the university
* 253: Only My FRIENDS Call Me Shortstack!:
* 282: Shrek 2, Shrek 2, Shrek 2, Shrek 2: Eric mentions that the abandoned house is down the street from the Guitar Center, which sells the sound holes for acoustic guitars. He said it came from something Abby mentioned years ago.

## Beartoggle Facts!

To be compiled into the article at some point...

* 286: Mustard Soup: On the lack of city guard, Boris says: "I've been looking for two hours to find one of you people." and the worried mother says: "I've been looking for a member of the guard forever." / The city guard are funded by taxes. Will disguised as a guard said he only earns 3gp a week. Boris: "...And that comes from my store's earnings" / We learn of the potion store: "Boris' Potions. The only potion store in town." / Discussing the response to the staircase collapse, Adam: "Do we have a sense of what kind of rescue efforts or crisis management efforts have been underway since the collapse of the staircase? Is there a building or a space that's been set up for victims or for people looking for survivors? If there was such a space, [Rosco] would probably have pretended to be a victim of this, just to get free soup." Eric: "They were well underway erecting at least a temporary... surprisingly high, [...] it was hard to tell from the distance you were at, if it was just scaffolding, if it was something at least that could be used, it was well up to the side of the dam. Otherwise there hasn't really been any kind of official... you might have even expected... you maybe wandered by that way, Rosco, to immorally take advantage of survivor and rescue efforts. [...] [Rosco] couldn't take anything that you needed, because there was nothing to take. There were some people working on construction efforts, but that was about it."
* 292: Is Condom a Condiment?: Eric describes the area by the river, near the dam: "There's a little set of stairs that goes down from the street level to the river." / KT: "Oh, so the stairs just go right down to the water?" Eric: "Well no, like down to a dirt... the river can change in height." KT: "[...] You're saying the stairs go down to the bank of a river." / Eric describes the river itself near the dam: "The water's not too deep here that you don't have light at the bottom. The bottom of the river here is relatively firm. And you see a couple of things scattered around. It's not perfectly clean. The water itself though does seem relatively clean for in the middle of a city. But you note on the bottom, some detritus. You see a bicycle, [...] You see a pile of spatulas, and you see a teapot. And there's some other random bottles and trash and things like that. But that's maybe some of the more notable things." / "Now that you're on the bottom of the river, you think that maybe you could go under water toward the spillway. [...] As you approach, you do find that, this feels odd, that your buoyancy becomes lesser and lesser."
* 299: Like a Zen Rake: Anglerfish: "You mean how like Beartoggle is like a different place than you thought it was gonna be, with like the dam and everything." / Anglerfish: "This being, this whatever it is, I'm pretty sure it's bad, wherever it is, in some other plane or whatever, it's got five of these slivers sunk into our world. Just dug in deep, like a fucking tick, just burrowed in there, suckin' out power, getting fat. Full of power blood. [...] One was in Beartoggle, right? Then there's one in Gully's End somewhere. There's one in Carnivar. There's one in Tapperdown. There's one in Bufflin. And it's fucking with shit." / Anglerfish: "I'm keeping this here for now so we can talk a little bit and maybe I can give you something if you want or whatever, but you can go if you want. But once you go up there, you'll be in the Beartoggle that you guys heard about. [...] It's like not the Beartoggle with the dam, you know? The dam was a weird change that these fucking slivers did."
* 302: So Profound, and Yet So Unhelpful: Eric (as the party sail into town): "This is a nice big wide river. The bridges across aren't there, because it's too big. But you see boats running back and forth. You could definitely see the need for a ferry business. [...] It's a much wider river than before, but from what you can see on the left on the right bank, it looks like the Beartoggle you guys had explored, but if there were a big fat wide river, as opposed to the little river running through it." [...] Abby: "You know, the river is not all that deep. It's kind of shallow." Eric: "It's pretty deep now. Certainly deeper than it was." Abby: "You remember the goblin fight?" Eric: "It wasn't deep at all. That wasn't in the middle of the city. [...] It looks like a big broad wide riverbed. You don't see any submerged ruins or anything like that, maybe another bicycle, but nothing that would indicate a huge grand hotel."
* 304: We Can Get the Cold Mustard Out of the House!: Adam: "What is what is south of Beartoggle?" [...] Eric: "Just like woods and shit. The river eventually leads to the bay, which leads to the ocean. [...] The main road heads northeast."
* 305: Zone of Mustard: "Definitely is a general guard presence as you would expect in a city, since you went down under the lake." / Eric (when the party are looking at the wanted board at the guard station): "Various sundry people. You do see a notice about people who had kidnapped a child, 12-year-old boy, with a description vaguely matching Mildred and Dean. Otherwise just minor crimes. Nothing really to be concerned with and you don't see anything that matches anything to do with the story you heard about Raphina as a serial killer." Alex: "Beartoggle is a generally safe place." Abby: "Lots of jaywalkers." Eric: "But it's actually Blue Jays. And then the fireflies."

## Quotes

Any memorable quotes about this location.

## References

1. ↑ 246: A Pompion's Guide to Six Rivers
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 245: Meesa Mo
3. ↑ 247: He Still Doesn't Know He's on a Podcast