Legend of the Elements: Mud

Last night, we descended into the madness that is Legend of the Elements once again (I'm exaggerating, it's not really that mad). Here's last time.

Our heroes ride an ice floe, courtesy of Khatun, down the underground river. It emerges from beneath the Red Rocks and carries them towards the Great Stork Marsh, ending, as far as they can tell, between the village of Jasmine and the ruins of the village of Marn (side note: Marn is in ruins because Ember accidentally burnt it down). The river slows and then stops in the marsh, which is thick and sluggish. Gerda calls on her Earthshaping and makes a little island of solid ground they can camp on, but they have a couple hours before dark.

Feng summons Sable, the great Spirit-Monkey of the Seven Rings, to ask for help and advice. He's figuring that there are undead or spectral enemies here, and maybe he'll have to fight them. Sable, though, asks if he's sure that's what he'll need to do. After all, if someone is sick, can you punch the infection? Sable agrees to help Feng, but asks that he travel to Seven Rings before the new moon and bring Sable an offering of fruit, which Feng agrees to do.

Khatun looks around for edible plants that could be used to supplement the hard tack that she has to eat, and Ember makes a fire. Khatun notices that the marsh is dead - trees are barren, reeds are brittle, and there's no sign of animal life. She feels that the marsh spirit is battling something, but she isn't sure what. She decides maybe eating the local flora isn't a great idea. Ember meditates, meanwhile, and tries to focus on why she lashes out (with destructive results) when afraid. She remembers being terrified at the village of Marn, but not what exactly it was that scared her.

The characters come together around the fire and talk about what's happening. They decide that they need to keep watch as they sleep, but they have a bit of time before nightfall, so they poke around a bit more. Gerda looks into the swamp and tries to understand it through the earth, and steps out into the mud. She gets stuck, and sees the animals moving toward her (and they look dead and milky-eyed), but she learns that the marsh-spirit is devoting all its attention to the fight that it's in and that's causing the marshlands to die. Ember pulls her out of the muck, and Feng summons the marsh-spirit closer to try and figure out what's going on. The marsh-spirit laughs at his attempt, however, and a wave of mud pulls him out into the bog.

Khatun water-shapes and dilutes the mud in the area, making it harder to get stuck. Gerda focuses and looks for the heart of the marsh-spirit, and finds it in a rocky spring under the mud. Looking carefully, the characters realize that the marsh-spirit is fighting with something made of water...and also, night has fallen. The characters see human figures emerging from the dark, people who look gray and sallow and dead.

Ember, characteristically, panics, hurling fire at the walking dead, burning several. The campfire goes out, plunging the area into darkness. Feng focuses on the marsh-spirit, using mindwarp to control it and separating it from the other spirit, which it turns out is the spirit of the river.

Now free, the river-spirit rears up and threatens to drown out the marsh, the nearby village, and whatever else is there. Khatun tries to shape it, but the river laughs and floods the area, washing Ember away. The walking dead grab Gerda and drag her into the brush, but she holds fast. Khatun, defiant, sending in a gush of water to wash away the walking dead and Gerda creates a dike to form a barrier between river and marsh, and Feng and Gerda talk the spirits down.

Some distance away, though, Ember comes across a crowd of people from Jasmine. They've seen the walking dead in the marsh, and they're terrified and angry, ready to burn the marsh. Ember tries to talk them out of it, and they agree to come with her. They find an old man hung up in a tree, moaning in pain and covered in burns. Ember realizes with horror that this is the "walking dead" guy that she burned earlier; the dead are apparently returning to normal. The villagers get him down, and he doesn't remember what happened, but now the Jasmine villagers are all the more ready to burn this place down.

They emerge from the woods and see the other characters (and the recovering "walking dead" folks). They talk with the characters and demand to know how the old man got burned. Ember confesses, and the villagers get annoyed and hurl their torches, and one whacks Ember in the gut with a cudgel.

Khatun calls up water to put out the torches, and Gerda catches the cudgel on the upswing. They tell the villagers to settle down, that the warring spirits have resolved their differences. Ember promises to make amends, and the villagers accept this oath. Everyone trudges back through the marsh to the village of Jasmine.