20. March 22, 2015

On the fifth day in the swamp, we come across several tree frogs that appear to have been turned to stone in mid-motion. They have odd triangle marks on their bodies. There are also feathers as from a flock of birds, and “chicken bones”. It appears that they took each other out—except one vulture-like bird that survived and attacks us. In the course of the battle, Vethandra is pecked by it and over the course of a minute she turns to stone! Noooo!

In the creatures' nest in a hollowed log, we find the decades-old (we think) remains of a traveler in fine splint mail with a sling (both have the same heraldic device) and a map of the area with various pips on it.

We travel on in sorrow. That night, a golden, shimmery, will-o-wispish creature floats into camp, to the great alarm and anxiety of Shock and the horses. “What are you,” we ask. “Barely Contained Malevolence,” it replies. It confesses it is curious about our mother's dagger. It senses the power and wants to see it. It sees “death.” It says the dagger was created by death and is meant to cause death. The power that created the dagger was ancient. In the dagger, BCM senses the ability to create discord and malevolence.

We ask where to find people who can tell us more about the dagger. It says the Sixth Body of the Swamp Witch could tell us. It says it will lead us to the sixth body of the swamp witch if we will feed it. We say we'll think about it. As sustenance, it wants the final moment (the death) of living creatures. It really wants to taste a death caused by the dagger. It obviously intends to stay with us until we kill something with the dagger. Eeek.