The mud was thick and deep enough to come up to the average man's knees, making it difficult to wade through. Mosquitos buzzed all around and the sounds of frogs croaking and birds cawing echoes around the swamp, between the trees and through the fog. It was oppressively humid and even in the middle of the day, the trees overhead made it dark as if it was perpetually either dusk or nighttime.

Well, none of that really bothered Hylltywyll though as he rode along on Tsarra's shoulders, letting her deal with wading though the stinking mud for him. He didn't mind the darkness either. In fact, he liked it. He always felt more comfortable in darkness and shadow than in brightly lit areas. The only thing that got on his nerves was the occasional mosquito that tried to bite his face, finding it the only accessible part of the Fairy that was mostly covered with thick fur and a poncho. He just shooed them away with a wave of his hand if they got too close.

"I see something!" Hylltywyll exclaimed excitedly as he pointed into the distance with one hand while balancing himself on Tsarra's shoulders by placing his other hand on top of her head.

Up ahead, on a small patch of land that rose above the swampy waters, a stone building stood. It was little more than a rectangle made of three slabs of stone for walls and one for a roof, with an open front. But, it wasn't about what was on the outside. It was what was hidden inside that mattered.

Hylltywyll pulled a map out from beneath his cloak and looked at it, turning it every which way before finally figuring out the proper position. There, right where it should be, was a small illustration of exactly the same stone structure in front of them.

"That's it!" Hylltywyll said as he held the map in front of Tsarra's face for her to see. Honestly, the little Fairy had no idea how to read a map. It was one of the main reasons he'd called on the help of the fish lady. The other, of course, was that he didn't want to get wet travelling through the Marsh Flats and she seemed like the only person who wouldn't mind him riding on her shoulders. It seemed like a fair trade for a share of the treasure they were supposed to find with the help of the map he'd "found".

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Trapped!
Participants: Two or more
Location: Anywhere
Post Requirements: 5 posts per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +1 Mystical Archive Ticket, +1 Mysterious Reward
Description: You find yourself as the main character in a Black Harvest story! Write out a spooky or scary story where you find yourself trapped in a dangerous or suspenseful manner. The location, villains, and details of the story are completely up to you, as long as this year's theme is obvious and consistent throughout the topic.

Tsarra treks through the muck and mud with great effort. She's not a particularly strong or tall individual, so slogging through the marsh is not easy. She's sweating like crazy, but being a fish person means being a bit on the soggy side is not unusual. What is unusual is the fuzzy backpack the fish lady is hauling on her shoulders. Though upon closer inspection one would realize the fuzzy backpack is a fuzzy fairy. Normally, Tsarra wouldn't be one to give piggyback rides to others, but Hyll is an exception. Hyll's actually an exception for a lot of things, with Tsarra being more than willing to let the little fairy convince her of damn near anything at this point. Which is probably how she ended up in the sweaty marsh in the first place. 

Sliding through the mud at her heels is a slimy eel hound speckled with black splotches. The creature seems more than happy slipping across the mud's surface with its mouth agape in a goofy bug-eyed smile only made unsettling by its double row of needle-sharp teeth. 

I see something!

The fish woman looks up from watching where she's stepping only to have the brim of her hat pushed down over her eyes as Hyll pushes down on her head. 

"Aye, that's nice, would love ta be able ta see somethin' meself if ya don't mind, Hyll."

She pushes up on the brim just enough to peek out from under it and see where the fairy is pointing. Dear dead Salina, she's never been more happy to see some dry land. Mud really is the worst. Nah, scratch that, mosquitos are the worst! They're like sky jellyfish only dumber! She swats at a few that try to poke between her scales to get a fishy blood snack. 

Hyll then holds the map in front of her face. Yup. Looks like a map to her, and thankfully the landmarks do suggest they're in the right place. For once, she's glad she paid close enough attention to learn a thing or two about navigation, though she's much better at reading sea charts than land maps. Elevation is still lost on her, but luckily the Marsh Flats are, well, flat. 

The prospect of some sweet undiscovered and long-lost treasure was more than a motivator to get the pirate to put up with being used as a mount and trudging through the insect-swarmed swamp. Especially since she's broke. Mostly because she's broke. It's been a long few months of being broke. She hates it, and can't wait to cash in some trinkets and treat herself to a stupidly unreasonable amount of drink later. 

"About time! Goin' ta hafta get new boots after we're outta here."

She slogs her way up to more stable ground and shakes the mud from her boots with little success. Looking around, the structure sure is unimpressive, barely having any interesting architecture or flourishes. It doesn't even have a door! Whoever built this thing is clearly a damned idiot. 

---

Bringing
Eel Hound (Counts against Pet NPC cap)
Tidal Serpent (Counts against Pet NPC cap; stored in Sea in a Bottle)

With some dry land finally beneath their feet, Hylltywyll dismounted Tsarra's shoulders to scurry over to the open entrance of the stone structure. Just inside, barely within the shadow of the roof, the floor immediately dropped into a stone walled hole leading straight down into the depths of the swamp.

Hyll didn't know what he was expecting. Maybe the treasure to just be piled right there, or some stone box, but not a hole. Looked like this treasure hunt would take just a little more effort than he'd thought, but it should be worth it for all the shiny little trinkets he was going to find. At least, he assumed he'd find based on what the previous owners of the map had been talking about before he'd borrowed it from them indefinitely.

"Hmph. Gotta go down." Hyll said with a hint of annoyance in his voice, looking back at Tsarra over his shoulder and pointing a finger down into the hole inside the stone structure. He looked at the slightly disconcerting eel hound. Tsarra hadn't had the thing last time he'd seen her and he didn't know how to feel about it. It wasn't as if he was jealous of it taking some of Tsarra's attention at all, he just didn't know if it might try to bite him or something. Mhm.

Hylltywyll cast a quick spell to create a wall of light floating horizontally inside the hole before hopping onto it and waiting for Tsarra and the eel hound to get on. Once everyone was aboard, though he was tempted to leave the eel hound behind, he began to lower the wall of light down into the hole.

---

Wall of Light

Tsarra leans over and looks down the hole. 

A hole. A hole into the black inky abyss. Unless there's water at the bottom of that hole, Tsarra isn't too keen on descending into the depths where she won't be able to see shit. 

"Aye, down it is." This better all be worth it. Fish belong in the sea, not underground. Well, most fish don't at least. 

She looks back at the doofy eel hound. "Alright, Slimy, behave."

The eel hound just stares back at her unblinking with globs of slime dripping from its perpetually agape mouth.

Tsarra turns back to Hyll and gives a thumbs up. "Slimy's ready to go. He likes holes."

She'd actually acquired quite the menagerie since the last time she hung out with Hyll. Animal company is easier to keep than people at this point, and she's basically given up trying to reunite with her old crew who all left her high and dry. Fuck 'em. She didn't need them anyway. She had Slimy the eel hound, Skittles the tattoo turtle, Spud the crab apple, and Slithers the tidal serpent now.

And her best friend, Hyll! Hyll's way better than all those jerks she used to hang around with. Hyll doesn't make her feel like she's a shitty person.

Tsarra steps onto the platform of light with Slimy following right after her and looking at Hyll with its dead-eyed stare. 

"I think Slimy likes ya, but it's hard ta tell since he don't exactly emote much, do ya Slimy?"

The eel hound just gapes more.

"Yeah, he likes ya."

Just then, the light from the platform under their feet flickers. 

"Is it supposed ta do tha-" Just then the barrier disappears and all three of them go into free fall into the dark. "AAAAAH!"

Hylltywyll just stared back at the eel hound, unblinking. He didn't believe the hound would actually like him. People liking him just wasn't something he ever expected, especially when most people who knew he existed tended to be the victims of his pranks or thieving. Having someone like him, even if that someone was an animal that looked like its head was empty enough to be used as a fish bowl, was an odd thing to hear.

Hyll reached into the shadows underneath his cloak and pulled out a bit of jerky he acquired from somewhere that wasn't important and offered it to the eel hound when the wall of light started to flicker. He looked down in confusion. He wasn't doing that. What was going on?

"No, it's no- AHHHHH!" Hyll started to answer, but his words change to a yelp and shrieks as the wall of light suddenly disappeared beneath their feet and sent them falling down into the darkness below. Hyll tried to use any trick he had at his disposal to stop their fall. Fairy dust to make them float. It didn't work. Teleporting back to the top of the hole. Nope. Any spell he tried to make, it was like the formular just refused to stay together.

He tried to just grab something to stop his fall, but the walls of the hole were too smooth. He barely managed to jam a claw into a crack in the wall, but all that managed to do was break that claw and he just kept falling, now in pain and bleeding.

Before Hyll knew it, there was suddenly three splashes and pain. They'd landed in some deep water down in the bottom of the hole that had broken their fall enough for them to live, but the impact on the water's surface still hurt like hell. The water tasted like mud as it filled his mouth and he tried to open his eyes, but even with his ability to see in the dark, he couldn't see a thing. And that just made his eyes hurt until he shut them tight again and just tried to swim back to the surface of the muddy water, but he still sucked at swimming. His lungs burned. He hadn't taken a deep breath before plunging into the water, having not expected to.

He couldn't use magic, he couldn't see, he couldn't even breathe.

---

Fairy Dust (failed)
Blink (failed)

Slimy's tail wags, or rather slaps against the light barrier's surface at the prospect of getting fed a treat by Hyll. As the barrier gives out, they just manage to extend their neck enough to snap up the piece of jerky before plunging down through the dark into the muddied waters below. 

Tsarra hits the water far less gracefully than the slick eel hound and is disoriented for a moment before she rights herself. The dirty water floods through her gills and makes her wretch. Looking around, she can't see a damned thing. Slimy would be fine even in this murk, but Hyll is another story. She clicks her tongue to try and detect where the little fairy ended up after they broke through the water's surface.^[1] Frustratingly, there is no returning echo. Odd, but the water is thick with sediment, so maybe that's what's stopping the spell from working. Blindly searching around, she does manage to find the soggy fairy after a few seconds. 

She boops him on the head, hoping to channel her magic into him and give him a chance to catch his breath, but nothing happens.^[2]

That's not good. She tries a few more times, getting increasingly freaked out each time it fails. Then she finally comes to a realization. Her magic isn't working. 

Grabbing Hyll, she swims upwards until they break the surface. 

"Hyll! Are ya'lright? Ya haven't drowned yet, right? I tried ta give ya gills like last time, but my magic isn't workin'!"

Slimy emerges from the depths next to them and finishes snacking on the piece of jerky, unawares, or uncaring about the situation they were currently in. 

---

[1] Echolocation
[2] Water Breathing

Hylltywyll thought for a long moment that this was how he was going to die. Drowning in muddy water at the bottom of a hole. He couldn't hold his breath anymore. He felt something touch his head. He felt water fill his lungs.

"KSBFIRBFKNAWIBCIUHAGMDSAKSHBVIREHA" Hyll sputtered unintelligibly as he coughed up water and mud, gasping for breath while flailing like a feral animal on the water's surface, unaware of his surroundings or just how he'd even been brought up to the water's surface.

It took his a moment to calm down, still hacking and coughing, recovering from nearly drowning. He saw and heard Tsarra holding him up, keeping his head above water.

"Ugh.. Your magic...?" He said between coughs. He shook his head. "Mine neither. My magic isn't working." He coughed.

But that was odd. He looked around now that he was above the water. He could see. But his sight in the dark relied on magic. So why was that working when none of his spells worked? He didn't know what to make of it, and he probably wasn't going to until he could clear his head and get out of this water and onto some solid land. Looking around, the chamber they were in wasn't that large. It was hardly wider than the hole they'd fallen down. It was more like a tunnel, leading off into the distance in only one direction with walls made of the same smooth stone brick as the hole.

"We can't go back up. Let's go down this tunnel. That way." Hyll said as he paddled closer to Tsarra to put his hands on her shoulders from behind. He pointed down the tunnel. It was the only way they could go. He just hoped there'd be some damn shiny treasure at the end of it and a way out.

Tsarra pats Hyll on the back to help the little fella cough up the sludgy water. 

"There there." 

Poor little scrunkle is not built for being in water. Though, to be fair, few creatures are built for living in this sludge pit. Even Slimy, for as happy as the eel hound appears, probably would get pretty sick if left in this cruddy water for too long. 

Tsarra tries to wipe some of the mud from her face, which is a futile effort, and just smears it instead. They'd both need a long hot bath after escaping, that is for certain. 

Hearing that Hyll's magic wasn't working either is not welcome news. The little guy had a lot of handy tricks perfect for escaping situations like this. Not having any of that sure did make things more complicated, and Tsarra is not a woman who does well with complicated puzzles the require quick or creative thinking. Or any thinking. 

"Is that why we fell? Well, damn. How the hell are we gonna get back up? Unless you've been part squirrel this whole time, I don't think there's any climbin' out."

She looks around, still blind as a blobfish down in the dark. Reaching out for the side of the hole, it's far too slick to get any real grip on. Maybe if they were octopi they could get out, but alas, they were not. 

Hyll then directs her attention down a dark tunnel. Well, darker. She still can't see shit. 

"Alright, better than rotting here."

She trusts Hyll's eyes and lets him direct her as she tows him along while she swims. Slimy follows not far behind. 

The tunnel seems to go on forever, especially as any light from above slowly dwindles to nothing. 

Aaaaaah, this is the worst. Well, no, scorching hot and dusty, dry deserts are worse. But still, a dark, dank hole wasn't much improvement. The darkness lent itself well to letting the mind wander from thought to thought. It's easy to imagine things lurking in the tunnel, or a long excruciating death in the mud. Then a different thought pops into the fish-woman's mind. A rare occasion indeed. 

"Hey, Hyll. Even if we find treasure, how're we gonna get it out of here without any magic?"

Another rare occasion happening at the moment, one that was practically unheard of, was Hylltywyll feeling so... powerless. He'd always had his magic to rely on before. Had always been able to escape or cause mayhem with his tricky spells. But now, he suddenly felt small. He always was small, but he'd never felt like he was.

Being pulled along on Tsarra's back, Hyll was as gloomy as the dark tunnel they were floating down. He was kind of glad Tsarra couldn't see now. If she turned around to peek at him, she'd probably think he was pathetic. A soggy, sad little creature that didn't know what to do. How were they going to get back out? They couldn't climb back up the way they fell down. The stone was too smooth. His finger still hurt where he'd broken his claw trying to stop his fall by scrabbling at the walls. He couldn't even use his magic to heal it. He was useless. He couldn't even swim on his own.

Hyll's chin came down to rest on the back of Tsarra's neck as his eyes teared up. He didn't have any answers. He didn't have anything right now.

"I dunno. Maybe there's another way out..." He finally replied to Tsarra with a shrug after a few moments of heavy silence while he tried to hold himself together and hide his emotional turmoil, but a bit of sullenness was still detectable in his tone.

It takes Tsarra a moment to realize that Hyll's tone isn't particularly perky or mischievous as it usually is. It could just be the mud in her ears or...wait, was Hyll...giving up?? Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. She can't let the little fella lose hope! They would figure this out, and find all the shinies which will make it all worth it. 

"Hey, hey, don't worry. We'll get outta here. We're smart, resourceful, and ain't no one better at getting outta shitty holes than us!"

Then something hard makes contact with the fish woman's knee. 

"GAH! OW! MOTHER! FUDASLKJFASKJDF!" Tsarra grabs at her knee below the surface. 

She was really starting to hate this damned hole. They needed to catch a break, and fast.

After a few more moments of bumping around blind in the dark, there's a slight glow up ahead that illuminates the tunnel slightly. As they near the glow, it turns out that it's coming from some sort of green mold or slime that is coating the stone tunnel. Tsarra's skin crawls as they start to pass it. Something about this weird glowy stuff made her skin prickle. 

"You feel kinda staticky?" She asks Hyll. 

Slimy then rubs against the wall, covering itself in the bioluminescent goo. 

"Hey, Slimy, don't do that!" Tsarra scolds the doofy looking eel hound. "Could be toxic or something." 

The eel just gapes and stares unblinking. 

What Hyll wanted to say was "We're gonna die down here. I'm nothing without my magic.", but instead, he just let out a small "Hm." of agreement to Tsarra's encouragement. Making holes was much more his specialty than getting himself out of them, and without his magic, he couldn't even do that. Still, his pride wouldn't let him show his weakness, not even to Tsarra.

He held on tight to Tsarra's shoulders as she suddenly jerked around, evidently holding her knee after probably banging it on something below the water. Whatever it was, Hyll looked around but couldn't see it below the surface. The water was too muddy to see anything.

Soon after, the flooded tunnel started to be lit up by bioluminescent moss that Hylltywyll had never seen before.

"Yeah, I feel kinda tingly. You think it's this moss?" He asked Tsarra back, reaching a hand out to poke at the mossy wall curiously. His spirits were low from the whole situation, but he couldn't help acting like a curious child again after seeing the moss. Slimy had the same spirit, maybe. It was hard to tell with the eel hound's gaping expression.

Hyll pulled a patch of moss from the wall and gave it a sniff before putting it in his mouth and chewed. It tasted oddly spicy for moss. A hint of... was that lemon? No, lime. It was actually pretty good. Better than other mosses he'd eaten.

"This stuff tastes pretty good." Hyll spoke with his mouth full as he grabbed another clump.
"What might be toxic?"

"Aye, I'd say so. It don't seem natural." She comments before looking back over her shoulder at the fairy. 

Before she knew it, Hyll had already stuffed the moss in his mouth. He looks like one of those hollowed-out gourds people put candles in. She can barely keep herself from snorting a laugh.

"Well, if that glowy stuff is poisonous, you'll be the first ta know."

Though it's entirely possible that Hyll can survive ingesting all manner of weird things compared to a normal person. 

Tsarra looks around the area, able to see a bit easier now that there's some light. The tunnel seems to split into a T intersection up ahead. Wading over there and peering around each corner carefully, the right seems to slope upwards while the left slopes downwards before becoming submerged. 

"Looks like we can at least get out of the muck by goin' that way. Come on Slimy!" She calls back over her shoulder as she makes her way through the murky water to the passageway on the right. 

The eel hound gapes and swims after her, seemingly enjoying the whole adventure a lot more than either its owner or her fey companion. 

Dredging herself out of the muck, Tsarra struggles to keep from slipping back into the water while scaling the upward slope. She spreads her arms out to keep her balance and has to almost shuffle her feet inch by inch to keep from falling. Soon enough, she manages to get herself and Hyll clear of the water and onto relatively dry land. The passage continues beyond them, but the moss seems to stop past the edge of the water so they would be going back into the dark if they continue ahead.

"Maybe if that keeps goin' up we can get out," Tsarra suggests as she flicks the mud from her hands. 

Hylltywyll looked down at the bit of moss hanging out of his mouth, now a little concerned, but ultimately just shrugged and slurped it up like a green, soggy noodle. The little Fairy wasn't too concerned with poison. He'd found most poisons weren't strong enough to hurt him and even those that were didn't have much of an effect on him. He should be fine.

Finally on some land instead of floating in the mucky water, Hylltywyll scurried off of Tsarra and shook himself off like a dog, flinging mud in every direction and drawing a streak of it up the wall in line with his poncho that looked almost like a lizard's frill around his neck as he shook. His fur was still a mess, but at least he wasn't dripping anymore.

Hyll felt a twinge of pain from his broken claw as he pushed off the ground with his hands to get back up onto standing on two legs. He had a quick thought as he tried to cast a spell to heal it again, but it still didn't work. As far as they'd come from where they'd fallen down, they were still being affected by whatever was stopping them from casting spells. Maybe this whole underground tunnel was affected by it. Maybe they were actually getting closer to the source...

"Maybe we can find a way out, or, maybe we can find whatever's stopping my magic from working." Hyll said mischievously, looking up at Tsarra, a bit of his smile returning.

If they could find whatever was messing with them, maybe they could turn it off and steal it! Something strong enough to mess with Hyll's magic must be something powerful. Powerful things are always fancy gold or silver things, maybe even some crystals in it or something! Even if they had to break it to leave, it would probably look real nice added to his hoard. And a little payback at it for making them fall down a hole wouldn't hurt.

Hylltywyll started walking down the hall, his feet tapping on the stone floor and squishing through mud and gunk. He only went a few feet before turning back to Tsarra and holding his hands up like a child wanting to be picked up.

---

Controlled Immunity

Tsarra smiles. "That's the spirit!" She doesn't like seeing Hyll so down, not that she can really see him all that well even with the glow of the weird moss around them. 

They journey boldly ahead, hopeful that their luck is about to turn. After all, when you hit rock bottom, there's only one way to go, right?

As they come to a domed chamber at the end of the hall, the pair of treasure hunters are greeted by a promising sight.  There in the center of the room is a large, heavy, metal-reinforced chest with an iron lock securing the lid shut. 

Tsarra's eyes light up. "Oi! A treasure chest! Looks like that map wasn't just a trap!"

She approaches the chest and gives it a once-over. It looks in pretty good shape all things considered. Getting it down here must have been a major pain in the arse, but it doesn't look like there's been any rot. Huh. Actually, it looks pretty new and not like it has been down here in the wet mud for decades. 

Normally, a chest like this would be no problem to break into. But given that neither her nor Hyll's magic is working there was no easy way to get it open. They certainly couldn't carry the damn thing out of here. Especially not back the way they came. This thing would be a bitch to drag through the mud and impossible to haul back up the hole. 

Tsarra takes a look around the chamber. There's no obvious way to get out of here, but maybe there was a key or ledger or something inside the chest. Hells, maybe whatever is messing with their magic is in there. 

Alright, time to resort to good ol' reliable.

Brute force. 

The fish woman draws her scimitar and tries to jam it between the lid and the lower half. She grunts as she struggles to wedge it between the reinforced metal bands, and it's not long before she starts swearing up a storm in frustration. 

While she's distracted doing that, something moves from behind the chest. Appearing out of the dark, blinking each eye lazily as if just woken up from a nap, is a bright gold frog with long webbed feet. There's an odd shimmer around its body, almost like there's a veil or transluscent coating on it. It looks at Tsarra, then at Hyll before its throat swells and it lets out a tiny chippy ribbit.

Hylltywyll really wished he could just magically make a hole in the chest right now, but him not being able to use his magic was exactly why they were even trying so hard to find out what was in this chest in the first place. All he could do was try and help pry the thing open with what meager strength he could muster from his tiny arms.

He was dangling uselessly from the scimitar handle as he heard the sound of the frog ribbit from behind the chest. Peaking his head up over to look at it, that was clearly not a normal frog. He'd never seen a frog that had such a weird shimmer around it. It was kind of pretty. He didn't want a pet though, so this wasn't something he'd want to add to his collection of shiny treasures. Hylltywyll was at least semi-aware he wouldn't be a very responsible pet owner.

But still, there was something about this frog. He wasn't helping with getting the chest open, so he let go of the scimitar and scurried toward the frog which turned and started hopping away. He was gonna catch this frog! Who knew? If they were stuck down here for too long, maybe the frog would make a good emergency snack. That moss wasn't very filling and he didn't think Tsarra would be alright with eating Slimy.