I proceeded northwest through the swamp, seething with frustration. Four days! How was I supposed to thwart Odriana’s attack in four days? There were thousands of nagas in Nagak-Thurn, so a solo attack was out of the question. I might be able to sneak into the queen’s tent and assassinate her, but nagas were hard to kill, and even if I succeeded, Odriana’s death might not halt the attack.

My hopes rested on Palomir. If he was as great a ranger as Captain Farrow had said, he’d come up with a peaceful solution. And if he couldn’t, I’d be happy to join him in taking the offensive against Nagak-Thurn.

As I continued toward Palomir’s temple, I was further frustrated by a lack of alchemy ingredients. Every recipe in my book required two flowers and a mushroom, and though I’d picked countless hyacinths and azaleas, I hadn’t encountered a mushroom in some time.

After twenty minutes, I found a patch of brown angel mushrooms growing on a rotted tree. I picked two and went to look for more, but I was almost clotheslined by lengths of sticky white rope. I tried to step away, but the cords clung to my shoulders, waist, and legs, holding me fast. I gasped as my predicament became clear. I was stuck in the web of a giant spider.

I unsheathed Ebonclaw and frantically struggled to slice through the gluey cords. Clicking sounds came from my right, and I turned to see a spider as large as a boar advancing toward me. It was jet black and had eight eyes the size of golf balls, all fixed on me.

I cut away the web sticking to my upper body, and when the spider came close enough, I cast my Flash spell. This halted the beast, whose clicks grew louder and higher pitched. Moments later, I managed to slice through the web sticking to my legs.

Tearing myself free, I sprinted north, keeping my eyes straight ahead. After about forty paces, I looked back and sighed—I’d left the spider and its terrible clicking far in the distance.

“RIBBIT!”

This wasn’t a friendly ribbit or a surprised ribbit. This was a ribbit that said, Hey guys, dinner’s here! I spun left and saw six frogs, each as tall as a dwarf, standing about thirty feet away. Most had mottled green skin and black eyes, but the largest had yellow-orange skin and strange red eyes.

One of the green frogs took short hops toward me. The others followed suit, with the red-eyed frog lagging behind. The fight was on.

“RIBBIT!” “RIBBIT!” “RIBBIT!”

I loaded my crossbow, lined up the jewel with the head of first frog, and fired. My bolt should have hit, but to my shock, the beast vanished with a POP, and the bolt continued flying past. The frog hadn’t become invisible—it had simply stopped occupying space. The other frogs, except for the one with red eyes, also popped in and out. They’d jump to one location, POP, and appear at another location moments later.

A POP sounded to my left, and when I turned, a frog’s tongue struck me in the head, nearly knocking me over. A second POP, and a frog appeared behind me and hit me in the shoulder. I fell onto one knee and strapped on my crossbow. Time to run.

As I struggled to get to my feet, the red-eyed frog jumped in front of me. It made a low coughing sound, and then it lurched forward and expelled a bony spine from its mouth. The goop-covered spine pierced my armor and entered my shoulder, lowering my health to 18. I shouted in pain, tore out the spine, and cast Flash, which momentarily blinded the frogs.

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I clambered to my feet, cast Blur, and ran toward the nearest group of trees, which stood about a hundred feet away. POPs and triumphant ribbits surrounded me, and one tongue hit me in the lower back. I used my once-per-day Speed Burst, and my running speed increased fourfold. Once I reached a tall tree, I climbed upward and checked my health—12 points left and dropping. My health bar was green, which meant the spine from the red-eyed frog had been poisonous as well as disgusting.

I didn’t have a Potion of Cure Poison, but I had the ingredients, so I climbed to a high branch and took out my mortar and pestle. Judging from the angry ribbits, the frogs couldn’t jump high enough to reach me. I put a hyacinth, purple crocus, and brown angel mushroom in the mortar and quickly started grinding. I continued until the mixture was evenly mucky, and then scooped it into a flask of water, which turned light brown. I drank the potion and sighed as my health bar turned red—my health was holding steady at 8.

I loaded my crossbow and smiled to see all the frogs jumping upward as though I was a butterfly just out of reach. They made perfect targets, and it took two bolts to kill the red-eyed frog (850 XP!) and three bolts each for the others (750 XP!). None of them made any attempt to flee, probably because they’d never encountered a predator before.

After the ribbits subsided, I sat in the tree and cursed my low experience level. If a handful of frogs could overpower me, what chance did I stand against a real threat? I thought about going back and fighting owlbears in the forest, but there wasn’t time—I only had four days to stop Odriana.

“Hello?” A voice called out. “Pardon me, but do you have a moment?”

I pushed a branch aside to see who was talking, and then my blood froze. A wrinkled old woman stood ankle-deep in the marsh, smiling up at me with a toothy grin. She had green skin, a greenish-gray robe, and a tangled mess of filthy green hair that hung far below her shoulders.

She looked harmless, but I'd played enough games to recognize her as a green hag. Green hags were masters of sorcery and capable of transforming themselves into any creature with green skin. The only thing that gave me hope was her demeanor—her smile, like the tone of her voice, seemed genuinely friendly. She waved as though we were old friends.

“I apologize for startling you,” she said, “but I was hoping you were an adventurer for hire. Would that be the case?”

I wasn’t an expert on green hags, but given their reputation, I decided to try to stay on her good side. That meant dead honesty.

“I’m an adventurer for hire,” I said, “but as you may have seen, I was almost killed by frogs. You'd be better off hiring someone else.”

She chuckled. “You’re not the first to underestimate blink frogs, but you’re one of the first to survive the encounter. And in addition to being a rogue, it appears you have training in Light Magic and alchemy. I think you’ll be quite suitable for my task.”

“What task would that be?”

“A sorcerer in a nearby cave has become an extraordinary nuisance. Normally, I take care of these matters myself, but now I require assistance.”

“The members of your race are famous for their wizardry. Why would I stand a better chance against a sorcerer than you?”

“A fine question! I am quite skilled at spellcasting, but my magic only affects the living. Zuvil is a necromancer, so I can’t harm his foul creations in the slightest. And he’s enchanted his cave with protections that prevent me from entering.”

A necromancer. I smiled. Here was a foe I understood. No poisonous spines or vanishing into thin air. Just nasty spells and the undead. And lots of experience points.

The green hag raised her voice. “If you’ll kill this necromancer, or at least remove him from the Baildril, I’d be happy to part with an interesting jewel I found in a bullywug’s lair. I haven’t used it myself, but I believe it allows its holder to seek counsel from their god. Would you be interested?”

The hag held up a glowing purple gemstone between her thumb and index finger. I’d never heard of a jewel that allows the holder to consult a god, but that wasn’t important. What mattered was that killing a necromancer and his creations was likely to get me to Level 7, maybe even Level 8. Despite my wounds, I leapt down from the tree and smiled as affably as I could.

“I’m very interested. And please, call me Dylan.”

A message scrolled at the bottom of my screen: NEW QUEST: EXPEL ZUVIL THE NECROMANCER FROM THE BAILDRIL.

“Splendid! My name is Phioren. If you’ll follow me, the necromancer’s cave is just a short walk away.”