You turn and run until the croaking of frogs is distant behind you. But as you leave the marshes, Haden stumbles and falls to the ground, coughing hard. You instantly fear the worst. "Is it the corruption?" you ask. 

Haden puts up her hand as if to allay any fears. "I don't think so I just need to catch my breath." But she didn't look good at all. 

Alster bends down. "Perhaps can use the slime to make a potion to heal her. Let's get her back to Breya."

You each take an arm and help Haden back to the Poison Frog leader's hut. "Told you of the dangers didn't I" She says to you gruffly. "Shouldn't have gone into the marsh should you. Lucky I have made this tea. Its not a cure but it will slow down the corruption in your body. If I go and get some slime I can make you a paste that will take out the toxin from your body over time but you will have to take it daily for a whole and it doens't taste good." You remember how bad her good food had tasted from the breakfast she gave you and felt very sorry for Haden but your concern for her outweighed any other minor worries you had right now. 

Alster said, "I collected this sample of slime from a blue green frog with unusual legs, can you use this? He gives it to her and quickly explains what the frog looked like and how he thought Haden had been poisoned.

"You work on that potion," she says to Alster recognising his abilities as a healer. "I'll make the paste, she'll have to start taking it right away. Can you imagine the Ridoan response if I let the chief's daughter die in my village? That's not going to happen! She said with determination.  Then she stepped back to Alster telling him what to add to the tea and then said "go and get the seeds of the purple marsh reeds on the edge of the marsh and I'll do the rest."

Alster summoned a sprite when he returned and he and his sprite help Breya concoct a special potion from the frog slime he collected and the old list of items from the ground and marsh around us. By the time Haden swallows it, she's feverish and nearly sick to her stomach. But she keeps it down. You let her rest.

Hours go by, and Breya shakes Haden awake. "You're looking a little better. I have a gift for you." She had been hammering and grinding outside for hours as you sat watching Haden. Breya presents a newly forged gauntlet crystal that she placed on a plate in the shape of a frog then takes the crystal and puts it  in the Guardian's hands. "I'm sorry I doubted you and your friends, I have cut this crystal to fit your gauntlet."

Haden equips the gauntlet, flexing her hand to test the fit. "Thank you, but you were right to be cautious. We need to stop the corruption before other habitats are lost, too."

Giant belligerent poison frogs are only the beginning. What other dangers lie ahead, far off in the Ruined Lands? With the gauntlet newly empower by a crystal that can hold back the corruption you could now enter the corrupt lands to the north and make your way to the tower. 

There is a path out of the Marsh told in the Tome of Knowledge, use it to describe directions R = right , L = left to exit the marsh.  Enter the word made of RRLLRL etc. in Thy Quests to escape. 

Next: E5Q3 The Frozen Caverns