NA-10: Enter the Quagmire

Daybreak from Anshan into the Fens of Tor; overland to Imeryd’s Run and the Gnarley edge.

What this chapter does

• Moves the party from Anshan through the Fens of Tor to the Imeryd’s Run crossing and the Gnarley Forest trail toward the rumored Ancient Suel temple.
• Provides boxed read-aloud text, compact 5e mechanics, and set-piece scenes you can drop in order—or shuffle as needed.

Travel rules (5e, quick)

• Pace: Fast (–5 to Perception; +25% time saved), Normal, or Slow (+5 to Stealth & Survival).
• Navigation: One guide makes Wis (Survival) DC 13 each half-day to keep to the stream-side route; fail = 1 extra hour + roll one Marsh Mishap.
• Marsh Mishap (d6): 1 sink step (Dex save DC 12 or prone), 2 leech patch (Con save DC 11 or 1 bleed/10 min until tended), 3 insect cloud (Con save DC 10 or gain Fatigue at night), 4 quaking mat (Str (Athletics) DC 12 to pull free), 5 sudden fog (Perception checks at disadv. 1 hour), 6 false trail (lose 30 min).
• Noise Ward: Keeping continuous noise (rattle-string, kettle drip, hummed hymn) grants advantage vs. creatures that hunt silence and helps resist “Silence” set-piece effects.
• Exhaustion check: Each night in wet gear without a drying fire → Con save DC 12 or gain 1 level of exhaustion.

Daylight departure – “Enter the Quagmire”

Read-aloud

The sun is warm on your backs as the rutted lane runs out of certainty and into shine. Ahead, the road drowns into mirror-black water. Mud breathes under your boots; warm air turns heavy and still. Cypress rise on swollen feet; their low branches and vines make a green ceiling. Duckweed freckles every pool. Drips fall, rippling. Birds flicker and whistle somewhere you can’t see.

DM notes: From here, difficult terrain unless on planks or causeway. March order matters; point chooses whether to hug the stream path (safer, slower) or cut straight (risk of deeper water).

Set-pieces & encounters

1. Frog Choir (mood + pests)

Read-aloud

Your steps sink half a pace at a time, and the heat slides into your sleeves. Frogs take the measure of you—first a few, then thousands, a huge voice out of step with itself. Dragonflies scissor the air; mosquitoes find your ears and mean it.

Mechanics: Con save DC 10 after 1 hour or suffer Distraction (–2 to Perception) until a short rest. A smoke coil (1 oil + damp grass) suppresses insects for an hour in a 10-ft radius.

2. Gator Ambush (stream bend)

Read-aloud

The path sinks to the waist, weeds waving where the lane should be. Something sizeable knifes under the surface and vanishes. To your left, a heavy splash—then still water that’s thinking about you.

Encounter: Two giant crocodiles is overkill—use 1 crocodile (MM) at 3–5 PCs; add a second if they linger. Advantage on its first Stealth check in murky water.
Clue: A split rope and gouged post mark a recent drag—livestock or person.

3. Drowned Path (skill scene)

Read-aloud

The road is under, a line of paler water between reeds. Waist-deep, the mud sucks at your boots; to either side it goes dark and deep in three steps.

Challenge: Crossing at waist-deep requires a group Dex (Acrobatics) DC 12 to keep footing; each fail = prone + half-movement to stand. Str (Athletics) DC 12 to carry small folk/gear. To leave the road: water becomes neck-deep; Str (Athletics) DC 14 or a gator tests you.

Hook: A dangling rope with a bottle bumps the plank edge. Inside: 4 sp and a mold-blackened scrap (“…two nights… lights steady… ferry stone north bend.”).

4. Burned Island (acid sign)

Read-aloud

A bare spot interrupts the green—an island stripped to black. No grass, no vine, only slick, unnatural soil, piled in melted waves.

Clues: Investigation DC 12 identifies acid-burn residue; Nature/Arcana DC 13 connects to alchemical dump or acid breath (rumor bait toward “old black dragon” or cult experiments). Footprints (small booted) skirt the edge—someone came to test here.

5. SILENCE (Fen-Whispers pressure)

Read-aloud

Without warning the swamp turns to stone. No birds. No frogs. Even the leaves refuse their rustle. Only your own gear betrays you.

Effect: For 1 minute, all Perception (hearing) auto-fail. Creatures relying on silence approach; impose Wisdom save DC 12 or a PC feels a hand on the back of the neck (frightened 1 round).
Counter: Any continuous noise (rattle-string, hymn, spoon-on-helm) ends the effect in 1 round. Reward players who remember Aggy/Waldere’s lessons.

6. Damaged Bridge (skill challenge)

Read-aloud

A battered plank-bridge arches over a pond of thick black. Boards creak; the mud below bubbles as if it means to eat the whole thing. Midspan yawns a gap where three planks should be.

Crossing:

• On foot: Dex (Acrobatics) DC 11 to cross; at the gap, jump (Str DC 10) or lay a plank (Tools: Carpenter’s DC 12).
• With mounts: At DM’s call. If allowed, group Animal Handling DC 12; fail = plank snap (stranded or in the soup).
• Under the bridge: Perception DC 12 glimpses a body caught in roots (cargo runner with an eel-oil stamp and 6 gp).

Complication: Each round someone is on the bridge, roll d6: 1–2 a plank gives (Dex save DC 12 or drop prone), 3–4 swamp gas bursts (Con save DC 11 or poisoned 1 min), 5–6 nothing.

7. Old Campsite

Read-aloud

A shoulder-high rope sags between two trees, green with mold. A tarpaulin lies balled in a root crotch. A fire ring of scorched stones sits on cleared ground where vines were cut back.

Finds: Survival/Investigation DC 12 = 3 days old; small party, no horses. In the tarp: a half-map (boardwalk marks; advantage on one upcoming Navigation check). The rope at shoulder height is a trip warning against gators—or ambush sign (your call).

8. Evening Fog (if they camp)

Read-aloud

Cool air sinks with the sun and broods in the water. Fog unrolls across the fens until the world shrinks to twenty feet of damp and your own breath. The frogs tune themselves like a mad orchestra. Somewhere in all that, a low humming answers back.

Event: Perception DC 12 (with 50% chance by sound alone; 75% if they look) spots three hovering yellow lights that drift when seen.
Encounter: Will-o’-wisps (1–2) toy; they only close if the party splits or douses noise. A rattle-string or steady talking imposes disadvantage on their Hide.

9. Moonrise (color)

Read-aloud

Moonlight pools in black water; moths stitch the air; a fast bat cuts and is gone. A frog trills and gets his answer. Fireflies take up their old quarrel as the wind forgets its business.

DM: Use as calm between storms or the moment a stealthy foe glides near.

10. Early Morning Fog (dawn scene)

Read-aloud

A white fog lies close as breath. Red-gold light seeps through it by inches. The mist crawls along roots and water as if it had a map of the place.

Feature: Out of a low rise, a tooth of stone juts—weathered, twenty feet, like a fang.

Ranger/Tracker:

• Smell and sign: orcs. Large warband from south Gnarley approached the Fang stone, milled, then turned east back into the tall trees. Wis (Survival) DC 13 to count numbers; DC 15 to note a heavy crate drag mark (relic? weapons?).
• Cult mark? Arcana/Religion DC 13 finds faint triangle-over-wave chalked on the stone’s lee side (Temple remnant sign).

Reaching Imeryd’s Run

(choose your crossing)

Read-aloud

The fen opens to a wide, slow artery of black water—the Imeryd’s Run. Reeds bow to its current; the far bank carries taller trees like a dark promise. A ruined ferry stone squats at the bend, scored with old cuts.

Options:

• Rope & board (10 min, Str/Athletics DC 12 group) to ferry packs; mounts swim with Animal Handling DC 12.
• Old skiff (Investigation DC 12 to find; leaks—bail or patch).
• Flag a boat (if you seeded pirates/smugglers): social scene or fight.

Rewarding prep: Parties using Aggy’s reed-map or Sherina’s sketch have advantage on the final Navigation check and save an hour.

First steps into the Gnarley

Read-aloud

Roots clutch the bank like old hands. Then the forest finds you—ipp and oak rising into a roof that steals the sky and gives you shade. The earth is spring and leaf-litter; the air smells like home you haven’t earned yet. Your eyes taste the dim, and your feet remember how to move quiet.

DM: From here, switch to forest travel rules. Drop the Orc Warband sign and the Temple cult scratchings as threads toward the Ancient Suel ruin.