The harsh living of the swamp's inhabitants had reached a new low. The flooded forest had become a coin toss. Either you come back with a new tale of a gruesome display you found on your trek, or you become one. Something was engaging in a twisted form of play. Or somethings? The only reported sightings coming from feverish scouts at an obfuscated distance. Massive shapes lost in the dense canopy, shadows flying from overhead during heavy mist, echoing sounds of immense creatures. These things unknown even to the savvy locals.

    It is in the midst of this that we find the tumultuous shape of Baird, Mors, and Blithe. They had been far from any civilization for too long, struggling against the bare wilderness. The primary one in control, Baird, just got the trio back from a perilous journey through the Frost Gale. Mors has been brooding more than usual at having to endure the cold, it made his bare neck ache in the wind. Blithe kept up his post at the back of the beastman, equally glad that the bitter North was behind them. All three were relieved to be back home in the Marsh, but the journey was still not complete.

    They had not heard of the nightmare stalking the very area they resided. Coming in from the outside, they had yet to spot a sign of the creature or its malevolent dealings. While basking in the moonlight on a stone to take a break from travel, something indeed would spot the bizarre boar-vulture-eel. Only the last of those three would take notice that something was afoot.

---

Fear Comes Alive

SPOILER: Click to show

Incarnation of Fear	- Semi-Incorporeal - Teleportation - Telekinesis - Telepathy - Nightmarish Illusions - Incapacitating Illusions - Fear Aura - Immune to Fear - Immune to Mind Contro
Cephaloclops	- All-Around Vision - Magical Beams - Antimagic Cone - Mind Control - Immune to Mind Control - Floating
Chthonian	- Mind Control - Grasping Tentacles - Eats Brains - Spellcaster - Magic Resistance - Telepathic - Psionic Blast
Red Dragon	- Elemental Breath (Fire) - Elemental Resistance (Fire) - Protective Scales - Massive Size - Incredible Strength - Claws - Bite - Flight
Ziev's Sphinx	- Precognizance - Dreamwalking - All-Eye

There were weird rings of flowers, the bipeds had become more volatile, there was one time when the grass turned rainbow- colored. It was time to move. So as per usual, I picked a direction and went. For once, we were both in agreement that we shouldn’t be traveling into human settlements and nowadays, I gave them a wide berth whenever one of us sensed one. What we weren’t in agreement about was about where we should be going.

Shrooman is usually pretty non-commital about where we go. He likes to explore everywhere, but won’t actively take the lead unless it’s to find water or outwit predators. That’s changed within the last two months or so. He’s still really good at finding food and running away. It just that now he also likes to stick his metaphorical snout into magic stuff. And it’s not even the normal kind of “oh, I have magic now, I guess I’ll learn how to use it” kind of magic exploration, it’s also the “Oh, look at that poisonous looking massive bubble, we should go there” kind of death- seeking magical exploration.

I’m supposed to be the reckless one. If we’re both reckless then we’re really gonna die!

So, I’ve been carrying him in my mouth for the past few days after the bubble incident. When the field turned to dense forest, I pulled out my wings and flew. That seemed to snap him out of it. He wiggled ferociously in my mouth. No green glow, so no vines coming out of the ground this time. Just normal panicked wiggling. I looked for a decent spot to land around the twigs flailing around my field of vision. Unfortunately, even after almost an hour of flying with a slight tail wind, the driest things were the trees. By now, Shrooman had somewhat calmed down from panicked flailing to keeping my lower jaw in a death grip, and my mouth was really dry.

I’ll take my chances with the trees. It’s better than drowning, and I have to land soon. So, finding an area that seemed like there were slightly less trees and slightly drier mud, I dove (read: crashed) through the canopy.

    The feeling of resting their weary muscles and aching bones was intoxicating. It is normal for them to sleep in untamed wilderness such as this, but the village wasn't all that far away at this point. Baird would struggle internally about whether to get up or not. Mors would prefer the rest, but Blithe already was sending feeling of urgency to stick to the plan. They can have a good sleep once they get behind sturdy walls. Just have to get up and-

    Blithe jolts the others to attention. Something was coming, fast! Out from above the trees came a creature unlike anything they had seen before. It looked like a red-orange blur darting closer before landing with a hard thud onto the thick fur of their chest. The impact was a punch right to the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of them, but otherwise not causing lasting harm. The trio all groaned in their strange sounds.

    Mors first tried to pipe up, "Hey, what was th-!" before one of the four hands rose up and waved the vulture head away for a second.

    The boar opened his eyes to see the marvelous animal that had given them all a shock. Baird, speaking over Mors, "You weren't around, but being mistaken for a patch of mud or grass happened a lot growing up. Though never with something so unique. Don't go spooking the poor thing. Hello, little friend!" Baird would purposefully face sideways to appear non-threatening, looking down with one dark eye.
    
    Blithe would scan around to make sure nothing else was coming, then take glances at the new entity cautiously.

The wind rushed around me, I braced my knees in front of me in a controlled fall until I actually hit the tree line. The first foot of foliage snapped easily under my momentum, and then there were leaves, branches, I was probably screaming and everything was a blur.

UP UP UP UP U- is that a-? I felt more than saw that there was someone in my way since I body-slammed us both to the ground before I could finish the thought. I heaved a big breath, taking back all the air I’d lost screaming. My convenient cushion also let out a series of groans. That made me jump. I rolled off of him. Then I realized I was still on their legs. So I rolled again and stood, being careful not to step on their limbs.

It is a humanoid. A very big humanoid. When they sat up, I was looking them in the eye. And I was standing. I slowly backed away from them. Judging. At first glance, they looked like a predator. Big teeth, big muscles, and humanoids outside of their villages tended to get very aggressively defensive.

But this one didn’t seem like a predator, and he was much too strong to be prey. Then again he looked like a pig… And was that other head a bird? And there was a fish face on it’s tail too…

We’ve run into more crazy stuff, haven’t we?

At least this one didn’t disrupt the environment, and didn’t seem like it wanted to eat me, from the mellow rumble it was making ("You weren't around, but being mistaken for a patch of mud or grass happened a lot growing up. Though never with something so unique. Don't go spooking the poor thing. Hello, little friend!"). I tentatively sniffed it’s face as a friendly greeting when I realized:

Shrooman was missing. Did I eat him by accident? I panicked, licking my teeth for any wood dust residue. No. I must’ve dropped him on the way down.



I immediately started to search.

    The new entity before them was, of course, a bit wary of the unsightly giant. It did seem to warm up to Baird a tad, so perhaps a fortunate no-harm-no-foul. This will definitely be a sighting for the Storyteller when they get back! Perhaps she will have knowledge on this fantastic beast. Maybe it is a wonderful omen to encounter them.

    Sadly it would prove to be just the opposite for them all soon enough.
    
    For the moment, the animal suddenly started to dart about, looking around with apparent urgency. Blithe instinctively searched the water as the other heads craned upwards. Mors kept a look out along the branches above as Baird entreated the red furred wonder before them, "What's wrong little one? You missing something?" 

    Out from quite a distance, the rustling of the trees far out of sight gave the impression of either a large flock retreating into the sky or something quite large breaking through the canopy once again. Yet there were no other sounds. No wings, no caws, no buzzing. Only the croaking of frogs below and the lapping of the gators wading by. There wasn't any real reason yet to feel uneasy, but Blithe's fins tingled. The large humanoid lacked the senses to notice the faint giggling from somewhere high up.

I sniffed a circle around where we'd landed. Everything here smelled like mud, water and mushrooms. I put my nose to the air and smelled trees and birds with mud, I put my nose to the ground and I could smell water plants, animal droppings and mud, but the mud and water seemed to block out and wash off any subtler scents. I looked where the giant had been sitting to see if he'd been smooshed. I looked up the trees, down the trees, pawed the mud, but still saw no sign of waving stick limbs or wiggling chestnut body. Couldn't smell a trace of Shrooman’s distinct scent of dry grass, tree-ear and chestnuts.

The giant said something concerned ("What's wrong little one? You missing something?" ). I gave it a precursory glance to make sure it wasn't afraid of me. They were looking at me, concerned and curious, but not scared, so I was about to continue my search when I heard what I assumed he was concerned about.

Other humanoids.

Once I picked up on the faint sound, I couldn’t unhear it. It sounded like little humans laughing. Or was it sobbing? I couldn’t tell the difference between the two erratic breathing patterns without more context. I flicked my ears around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Up there? I peered through the mottled holes in the tree canopy looking for the humanoid that’d made it.

The branches rustled and I saw it: a human shape, not much more than a shadow, but detailed enough that I could make out that it was humanoid in shape. It definitely wasn’t a humanoid though. Too wispy and see-through to be anything other than some sort of magic entity. The sort of incomprehensible thing that we’ve been running into way too often lately. And its attention was directed at- something small dropped to the ground some ten meters away, and the shadow dropped to chase it, and in that instant I caught a whiff of a familiar smell- it was chasing Shrooman.

I gave the poor fellow I’d landed one last sheepishly apologetic tip of my head, I bolted off after my friend.

    Mors caught sight of the entity at the same moment as the stranger-animal. A feeling he had never felt, but deeply understood, began surging through the chimera's body. That thing he saw was much like his own essence, the malefic power that birthed the corruption that led him to fusing with Baird's soul. 

    "Baird- Baird! That thing up there!" Mors called. Baird quickly scrambled to his hooves at the sense of danger in Mors' voice. Blithe couldn't help but defy his instincts, staring with frantically waving fins at the monster above them. The discordant cackles of horror, sorrow, and cruelty grew louder as the shade descended. It held out a hand and ambulated its way toward a small brown lump that sits in the middle of a wide mound. Baird looked to see the animal make an interesting motion to him before it darted courageously, or foolishly, towards the lump.

    Mors saw that Thing head straight towards the Incarnate of Fear, "Baird-!"
    
    "On it!" Simultaneous to the call had their body curled into a sprint to action. But something happened right as his leg sprang them forward. The world collapsed into darkness, his momentum swung into a freefall through an endless night.

    In reality, the shadow-creature had adjusted its aim and flexed that same hand towards the giant. An invisible wave was sent that gripped his mind and he flopped onto the ground, waving and yelling as though plummeting into the unknown. A display that can be either haunting or hilarious depending on the viewer's own disturbed humor.

    Several harmonizing voices circled in and out of distance, heard within the minds of all nearby, "You are such.. heuristic playthings! Heh-hahaHAHA!"

I sprang into action, paws and hooves sliding in the mud, trying to get to Shrooman before the creature did. I’d almost caught up to it in a matter of bounds when the shadow creature turned around. I dug in my hooves and twisted my body so hard that I tripped, vaguely registering that I’d bumped into the giant again before the world turned pitch black.

I tumbled through the void, frantically trying to orient myself. Wings? Didn’t do anything. Eyes? I could tell they were open, but that didn’t change the wall of black that seemed to start right in front of my eyes. It almost seemed like I’d tripped so hard that I fell through the earth itself and into some vast underground chasm and all the ground above was pushing me down. The sound of humanoids continued, swirling around me as if there were hundreds of them surrounding me. They’re laughing, I decided. Definitely laughing, like how the mean keeper would laugh after looking at some paper while poking and pulling and stabbing a needle into my newly grown wings, or horns or tails. A victorious, exhilarated laugh that made my gut twist and churn for reasons that had nothing to do with my free fall. They said something mocking too (You are such.. heuristic playthings! Heh-hahaHAHA!). Mocking and laughing, like when I’d tried to join a herd and they’d nibble my second tail and step on my paws. I kept trying to orient myself, angling my wings and twisting my body to try and catch a wind that seemed to spin with me.

In reality, Shrooman slows down his running, shakes his head and turns around. He looks around to see the forest his friend and the giant. Thing is rolling around, wings flicking in and out from under his shell as he seems to writhe roll next to the giant, whinnying in terror. as a dark whisp swirls and covers both of them.

    No, not this again. No more hellish tricks and nightmares. Baird remembered the gorgeous elf and his unwavering confidence, how being plunged into darkness meant nothing if you simply forced away the terror. Mors remembered having done this countless times; the monster will not win if it cannot feed off their fear. Curling up with a deep breath, the heads bellowed a warcry in unison that both screeched and rumbled with a bone-shaking force.^[1] The cacophonous wave was deafening, practically knocking the Incarnation out of the air in discomfort.
    
    The darkness retreated around them as the creature angrily scrambled for a moment. Baird looked for the little animal and quietly apologized, knowing there wasn't really a way he could communicate the sentiment, even if the fox-bird-turtle may still hear him. Mors' swirling-vortex eyes were fixed on the Incarnation. He urged his body to get up and go in for a strike, but paused as he saw something he didn't expect. Flashes, glimmers of bright color and warped space centered on his target. In a swell of light and steam, where there once was a floating shadow came a snarling, monocular face adorned with just under a dozen undulating tentacles capped with multicolored eyes of their own.
    
    It called out to the characters before it, "You MONGRELS!"

    Mors beak drooped with bemusement, "What in the godsdamn is that!?" In response, the hovering sphere pointed an eye at the giant and unleashed a concentrated stream of yellow flames. The oafish beastman couldn't avoid it in time, catching this directly between Baird's eyes. Immediately a persistent fire spread over his face, sending the giant into panic to douse themselves. Blithe would wrap around a sunken tree root to pull their body into the deeper swamp waters.

    The burning over the boar's eyes would refuse to be put out for a time, the magical fire resisting the murky liquid long enough to deeply scar his face. All the while the eye-tyrant cackled relentlessly at the display of agony. It seems that such is what it is after, this shapeshifter revels in the pain of others.

---

^[1] Howl of the Damned 

SPOILER: Click to show

You let out a normal scream, triggering this spell on anyone who hears you scream. Their hearing will instantly be filled with extremely loud howling, crying and screaming, making them unable to hear anything else for the next two post. They will also find it hard to focus, losing concentration while the screaming persist. This spell can be cleansed by a mind altering cleansing spell. [Flavored into a deafening roar]