By any conventional means, traversing a swamp is no easy feat on a good day, much less when you are in a hurry. Nonetheless, the three travelers begin their journey through the swamp in relative darkness. The swamp-travel was not relatively new to either of the travelers, as Borborymos could easily create a path out of stone, Zelinas could fly over and you would have found the locals for a better path. Sadly, none of these options were available in the swamp known as the Boggodan Trail. 

The Boggodan Trail used to be a well-traveled path for merchants that conducts their businesses from Dwendil to its neighboring region of Reighlin, but that all changed after the path became strewed with bandits looking to make a quick coin and rogue mages banished from their respective academies, now looking for easy victims as their next experimental subjects. It wasn't long before the merchants began to abandon this path. and for the bandits to then turn on the rogue mages and vice versa. 

Needless to say, the skirmish was largely one-sided, as after all, even the lowest of mages had various ways to conduct carnage that one would consider a form of artistry. The bandits began to retreat and the mages pressed onwards, it is from here that accounts vary depending on who you ask. Should you meet a bandit on the main city streets of Dwendil while they are relieving you of your possessions, they would say the mages had tried to wipe them out with a forbidden curse or enchantment. If you were to ask the wayward rogue mage who was about to disembowel you for a cheap Possession experiment, they would say the bandits found a cursed artifact and used it as a last resort. Regardless of the source, the outcome was that magic of a deep kind was used, the entire area became a void, and black matter spewed outwards, the trees darkened, and the creatures became demented, and for the years that came by after that, the path was seen to be condemned. All magic became null, the air still as death, and the swamp ever lurking.

This brings us back to the trio as they marched on through the knee-deep bog. Zelinas was on her 45th attempt to levitate over the bog, and you stifled your 45th laughter at her failure, while Boborymos lumbered through. 

"If I didn't know better, I would daresay we would take ages to reach the end of this damned swamp" muttered Zelinas. 

"The other path would have less muck, and definitely infinitely less mockery" 

She gleans over to you with a hateful look.

"I did tell you that all forms of magic wouldn't work here, and it was safer that way. It means if we were ambushed, we would all be on equal ground" you replied sardonically. 

A chill suddenly envelops the trio, and you stop in your tracks. 

"Impossible, the air here is supposed to be still as death"

You look around for any signs of abnormalities.

"Fools, look ahead, there is something there" whispered Zelinas

A sudden gush of air begins to pull us in as we looked ahead, a strange hue lightens the horizon. It's pull was gravitating towards an opening in the boggy woods. 

You attempt to unsheath your weapon but you find that it is stuck. That has never happened before, nor can it. Your sheath had no locking mechanisms and your weapon does not rust. Zelinas and Borborymos both share the same maladies. 

Just as you were getting closer to the edge, Zelinas suddenly grabbed you and Borboymos to the side, she was able to use her magic once again. 

The strange light dimmed, as the magical pull stopped as abruptly as it started. 

The bog brightened as a screaming ball of flame flew overhead, breaking into multiple pieces, illuminating the skies and the swamp. 

It was at this juncture that the trio realized the pull didn't abruptly stopped, rather, they were pulled there for a reason, and as the light shone, so too did it reveal a hundred robed figures surrounding them.

 As the fireball crashed in the distance, so too did our sight,  A clash of metal, screaming turned to pleas, and pleas turned to silence. 

The swamp was silent again.