You may: 1. attempt to ford the river... (closed)

[Lanadyr]

Orb had been wandering the Deep Forest at a relaxed pace since she had arrived, at least at first, taking in her new home as it chose to reveal itself. She had met all manner of strange creatures from strange places doing strange things…but, perhaps, a walking pile of glass balls dressed as a witch hunting down magical artifacts had no business calling other inhabitants of the Forest "strange." In any case, it had been enlightening, though, unfortunately, a tad grim, given the stories that had been relayed to her from the myriad folks that she had met.

The rumors that Orb could find without trying too hard, rumors that had spread themselves far and wide throughout the Deep Forest through mechanisms Orb could not yet fathom, spoke of three-eyed monsters and some kind of ancient threat that had risen to threaten the whole of the Forest. And then there were the heroes, those brave inhabitants of the Forest that had chosen to fight this menace. They were, apparently, split between two groups at the moment. Those of their number that could fly had made their way into the mountains, while the rest of them were last seen marching towards the swamp.

Orb was still new to the Deep Forest, but there was a job that needed done, and she knew that she needed to help the inhabitants of her new home in any way that she could. And so, she began to make her way to the swamp, to face whatever challenges awaited her there with whatever meager talents that she possessed.

Being a non-living thing, Orb had decided to walk to the swamp in what was, basically, a straight line. Although the maps that she had seen had all indicated the presence of a bifurcated river, she felt confident enough in her shape-shifting abilities to creep across the river bottoms that would get in her way without too much trouble. Her clothes would get wet and her rucksack would become waterlogged, but they would dry, and she felt that time was of the essence.

And this was how Orb found herself at the river's banks…surrounded by a bizarre collection of dilapidated circus tents, watching a seemingly clear river emit large, foul-smelling, sulfurous bubbles that might have been outright poisonous to Orb if she was required to breathe.

Orb shook her head in confusion at the oddness that now surrounded her. She looked about the tents, and even inside a few of them, but saw nothing of use and little more of interest, certainly nothing that would indicate why it appeared that a circus had vanished into thin air and left their equipment behind to rot. She then walked to the river, knelt down, and placed her hand in the waters. She pulled it out almost instantly. It was boiling hot, but that wasn't an issue for Orb. What was an issue was the fact that it was acidic. Not enough to do immediate damage, but…

She looked at the far bank. No, she thought, too risky. This level of acidity would etch me like crazy before I made it to the other side. She then looked about the river banks and began to think to herself.

Okay, I've seen this same river before during my travels, and even dipped in once or twice, at other places besides this exact point, and the waters seemed fine. The heat and acidity must be coming from a local event, so all I need to do is go to another part of the river to get around it.

She pulled out her magical compass, which always pointed east, from her rucksack. She found her bearings and confirmed that east and south, and, hence, the swamp, were all roughly where she thought they should be. She then replaced the compass, then the rucksack, and began to walk along the river's edge. Fortunately, south of her present location was also upstream, so, regardless of whether or not the acidic conditions were natural or supernatural, Orb felt confident that she could walk around the problematic area, at least eventually, by going in this direction.

Orb had not gone more than a few hundred meters, however, before she began to feel the ground rumble beneath her. As soon as she felt as much, she knelt down to the ground in curiosity. She placed both of her hands on the ground, and pulled marbles from other parts of her body to spread the hands into larger, flatter, rounder masses of marbles, more capable of feeling the ground and, perhaps, even hearing what might have been below her feet. She had, of course, heard the stories of complex tunnel systems snaking about and around and underneath the river, and she thought that someone, or something, within these tunnels might have been the cause of the rumbling.

She remained quiet and still, listening to and feeling her surroundings...

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Orb stood back up after a time. Must have been nothing, she thought to herself. No matter, I've lost too much time here as it is. I must be off.

Orb made her way to the swamp as quickly as she could...

[Lanadyr]

[OOC: Bump to indicate major edit.

Hope no one minds, but I'd like to get Orb into the thick of things while there's still a thick of things to get into, hence the closing.]