A Possible End – Part I

It seems like Jayde is in a really tight spot. Well, she’s been in quite many of those during her last year but if I have to say so myself this is most likely the one with the highest probability for her to die in. I highly doubt that Jayde will survive this situation even though it’s possible.

To just sum up how she ended where she is. Before the fight in the arena Jayde accepted a shady guy’s offer to join him in his struggle to free Lanticka of the new alliance between the Magistrate and The Guild… or something like that. She later got a order to prove herself worthy of their loyalty and they chose to have her kill two whom she hates; Astrid and Gösta.

So there she was, in a forest in the middle of the winter planning an ambush with a tree. Yes, she planned to take out about eight guards, two coachmen and four noblemen with one tree, one axe, one long sword and one crossbow with only two darts. Well, nedless to say even though the tree did its part Jayde still wasn’t invincible enough to take on two Guild Guards with spears and swords. Already heavily wounded since the fight in the arena she just got more wounded and the only thing that left her standing was her enormous endurance but even Jayde knew when to flee.

Well, this is when she got into this death trap. She went straight towards Tesh. So let me tell you a little about this cursed area of Katia/Lanticka. The original story is from the end of the first epoch when Avielle and Raven was here with the Eye on a mission that ended in an utter failure and created a swamp. However, this place doesn’t have the same story after the remake and I’ve done this area to a forever cursed headland. The growth of the swamp has been stopped by the celestials but other than that nobody has ever managed to lift the curse.

As of late I seldom try to control the actions of my players. They are free to do whatever they like it’s only that characters tend to have much in their baggage. Agus put the group through one thing after the other and Jayde’s stupid behaviour always will put her in problem with the authoritys if she never learns that Yurin isn’t a world of anarchy. Well, this battle though she chose to flee in a certain direction, which just happened to be Tesh.

So, one thing lead to another and with the complete inability to tell where she was heading and so on she fled straight into the cursed swamp first curse. My original thought of introducing Tesh was when Jayde had prepared a little and to show a full group this thing. So just because of this I will tell you what is known about Tesh.

The curse is actually many curses and the one that caught Jayde is only one of few curses that plague this place. It’s called the Curse of Ignorance, one of the living sins. The spirits of Tesh are forever bound to relive their last two weeks over and over again and everyone that comes into the swamp will have to be one of them too. Nobody has ever been known to break the curse, but a few have fled from it only to find themselves in the dangerous swamp itself that is full of both evil as well as devious creatures.

The swamp is protected from weather so it won’t ever change season in there but it’s also know that it’s impossible to navigate there. No compass is known to work and you can’t trust your senses when the swamp is always moving nothing is ever at the same place twice.

The swamp is both of a natural as well as evil origin which has brought the creatures in there to be of several different natures. Both neutral creatures; that only care about survival and evil creatures; those that just kill and destroy everything that moves¹.

Many heroes have tried to go into the swamp to lift its curse but many have abandon and fled from the swamp instead and many have died. Others have gone into the swamp just to try to get their hands on some of all the treasures that sank with the swamp and to get some loot. It’s said to have the largest amount of treasures in the whole country. Though many say that most of the treasures in Tesh are cursed as well.

So the second curse of Tesh that is known is the curse that prevents anyone that enters to leave. That’s why the whole swamp prevents you from leaving, both living things as well as the dead ones. Another curse that is known is that Tesh actually is a Dark Centre created by Hadan, so people tend to become infected by the virus and died from it while trying to make their way out and due to the fact of the holy ward, evil creatures cannot escape Tesh.

So, Jayde is now trapped in the first curse and will most likely die when her spirit have been away for too long from her body that actually resides in the real Tesh. And if she manages to escape she needs to survive the evil creatures and break the curse to be able to flee. Not prepared and alone and now also without weapons, she will most likely not make it.

I will return with a second post to continue…

1. Like Jayde in other words ↩