You trip...

For the most part, the bottom of the swamp is flat, and only slightly soft, which you find somewhat bizarre. That seems to indicate to you that there is no discernable life in the swamp, which seems impossible. However the predictable flatness of the swamp bottom allows you to make stead progress as you move along though, and you’re grateful for that.

Then you trip on something, and moving as confidently as you are, you don’t have time to check yourself before you fall face first in to the water. Thanks to a lifetime of agility training, you manage to get yourself back on your feet quickly by putting all your weight on your hands while you bring your feet back under you. Standing up, you’re now a little wet from head to toe, your short blonde hair now a little spikey thanks to the slightly brackish water.

You continue walking, but trading speed for caution. Walking more slowly, you start to occasionally feel things brushing against your ankles as you walk along. At first, you feel one every few minutes, then more and more frequently. As the brushes become more frequent, some of them become more firm as well, and once or twice you almost get tripped again. Before long, you notice that whatever the things are, they seem to be reaching out for you slowly, because the longer a foot stays in place, the firmer the contact is. You’re somewhat concerned, but as long as you keep moving, they aren’t able to stop you at all. You consider trying to examine one, but you don’t want to stop. For the moment, you assume that they are roots for some kind of underwater plant life.

You walk briskly but carefully, lifting your feet a great deal with each step, for another half an hour. Unfortunately, the roots seem to be getting denser and denser and you stumble once or twice before catching yourself. If you continue at this rate, you might be stopped, and then who knows. You consider turning around, but there is really no sense in heading back now.

You can either keep going, try to keep up the pace, and hope to breakthrough this patch of roots, or you can climb on of the pseudo Banyan trees to get a better view and think about how to proceed.