From the outside, the swamp was looking strangely peaceful, at least as long as I wasn’t using Lenore’s sight. We had spent an hour in the morning with the dwarves, with me putting the finishing touches to my frozen Cottage and setting it as a respawn-point before heading out to the swamp. Now, the mid-morning sun was just visible above the mountains to the east of us, trying to burn away the mist lingering above the swamp. We considered waiting for the sun to do its job but Lenore, who had taken a good look the evening before, felt that it was pointless.

“The mist is magical, just take a look.” she mentally scolded me, pushing her visual perspective to my mind, showing me what she meant. And, even if I disliked the image it presented, she was right. The mist covering the swamp was quite similar to the mist I could summon with my magic, more grounded in water than ice but the basis was the same. What really ruffled my feathers was the fact that it seemed that every part of the bog was contaminated with small specks of magic, a mix of water, earth and death, making me hesitate to even step walk in there.

“Everything is.” I mentally commented, knowing that we’d have to be extremely careful.

“Rai, remember the spell I taught you earlier? I think you’ll need it, hell, I know you’ll need it.” I asked, looking at my disciple. The spell was a simple one, the idea was that his blades produced a shadow, which his magic could link to the concepts of devouring and magic, hopefully allowing him to cover his blades in an anti-magic field of sorts. We had tried it on the march here and it had sort-of worked against magically created ice, allowing him to cut it with a lot less trouble, but I had no idea if it would work against magically reanimated corpse. If not, he’d be reduced to his, sadly, quite weak curses and blades that were just not heavy enough to cut a shambling crawler apart or shatter them like Adra could with the butt of her spear, once I froze them.

“Yes, I remember. I’ll make you proud.” he promised, looking quite serious.

“I’ll be proud if you remember your limits. Everyone of us has their specialities and yours is the quick, sneaky hit, not trying to wrestle undead.” I reminded him, not wanting him to do something reckless that might get him killed. It would reflect badly on his teacher if he did something foolish. He nodded in reply, his stance lightening up a bit. Hopefully it would be enough.

“Let’s head in. Sigmir, could you take the lead, with Adra bringing up the rear? And be careful of your footing, there’s something going on here.” I said, getting the others into formation. Personally, I’d stay in the middle, keeping my eyes open for potential attacks from below. Visions of zombified hands, suddenly shooting from the soggy earth were strong in my head, even if I wondered just where so many corpses would come from, not like this swap was anywhere near an area where a lot of people actually travelled.

Sigmir, maybe sensing my disturbance, simply nodded, walking ahead with Rai following in her shadows, their heads searching through and fro, in rhythm with their movement but opposite of the other. It was almost comical to watch but they had their own system. I gave them a few meters, carefully watching the earth beneath them and the disturbance they caused in the local magic. I wasn’t certain that the strange magic was caused by a creature, sapient or otherwise, or if it was some sort of local phenomena, but either way, I was convinced that it was part of the problem we were here to investigate.

With every step, I let my magical senses take the forefront in my mind, relying on my group to keep me reasonably safe while I made sure that nothing was creeping up on them with magic.

We didn’t have to walk far for the first problems to materialise and, interestingly, it was Sigmir that spotted it.

“Over there.” her soft voice cut through the damp, silent mist and I saw her Lok’nar point towards one of the stagnant ponds where a few waves disturbed the water.

“What have you seen?” Adra asked while I kept watch on our footing. The dwarves had told me that the creatures that had attacked them came from below and I was not risking things by getting distracted.

Without really meaning to, I started to draw the runes for Ice and Cold into the air in front of me, my gut telling me that something was wrong. Just as I was half-way done with the second rune, a stench filled my nostrils, for just a split-second as if a noxious wind had passed me by and I felt myself react when Lenore’s sight showed me a disturbing picture, the magic in the ground concentrating into discernable forms.

“JUMP!” I shouted, barely managing to finish the rune I had been drawn while using my instant projection to add the third rune, causing the formation to flash with a silver light that was mirrored in my eyes as a sheet of ice sealed the ground we had just vacated. But the magical attack hadn’t been the only one, from the nearby ponds and even from a few deeper patches of mud, came creatures, jumping towards us with surprising speed. Fast zombies, joy.

Only they weren’t zombies, a small part of my mind managed to use Observe, telling me that they were Shambling Crawlers, the one I had was looking at was level 57, making it a lower level than we were but a combination of numbers, strength and surprise made the attack a serious threat. Especially with the streams of magic striking the Ice I had created, looking like skeletal hands made from earth and death. The sheet held, at least for a moment, while I had to focus on different things.

Sigmir took on one direction, her Lok’nar cleaving everything that tried to come close while Adra kept our rear safe. Between them, one of either side of me, were Ylva and Rai, protecting me in the middle.

Meanwhile, I focused on using the vines manifested by the Eisblumen, hindering the Shambling Crawlers whenever I could while using bursts of Ice-Magic to give the others an easier time killing them. A shambling crawler with a frozen knee was a lot easier to dispatch than one that could use both legs.

The fighting was brutal, my mind losing every track of time with only our surroundings and my comrades mattering. Only snippets made it into my consciousness, a moment in which Rai jumped forward, to take advantage of a crawler whose arms I had batted away with my Eisblumen, allowing him to cross his blades at his neck and, with a scissoring motion, take off its head. Another moment that registered was when Ylva leapt backwards, luring two of the crawlers right into the path of Sigmir’s Lok’nar, the massive weapon cleaving them apart in a single swing.

For a moment, I smelt the same noxious smell I had smelt, focusing on the ground beneath us, reinforcing the areas where more power was gathering, trying to break through so the crawlers would be able to get at us. My moment of distraction cost me, letting a crawler get closer to me than I would have liked but Adra was on the ball, the spear she had made from the crystal wood given to her by Kallista easily destroying the magic keeping the creature moving. But her intervention allowed another crawler to rip a deep scratch into her side, nothing that couldn’t be healed but we all had to push to keep up.

Finally, there seemed to be no more enemies coming, allowing us to take a deep breath and a look around. There were less corpses than I had thought, at least until I realised that they were slowly turning into the same inky blackness I had witnessed in the Barrow Den, their essence re-absorbed by the swamp around us. I pushed the image out of my mind, needing to stay on guard or we might get into another ambush.

“Let’s retreat for now.” Adra suggested and I realised that we were all worse for wear. Even I, who had been protected in the center of our formation, had a deep scratch on my neck and I had no idea how it got there. Looking closely at each of them, I was quite sure that none of the wounds were critical but that they all needed some healing, even the scratch on me seemed to be laced with some sort of Death-magic, slowly trying to make headway into my flesh.

“Agreed. We might need to refine a battle-plan.” I admitted, taking another look around, before shaking my head and following Adra in a reversal of our original formation.