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Trudging The CessPonds

You are a penniless citizen in the kingdom of Gradrod. You are currently living in a large poor house with over twenty other people, taking odd jobs from the farms and plantations outside the kingdom's walls and barely making any money. You have always wanted to be an adventurer, but never knew where to look for treasure and even if you found a spot, it's usually too far from the kingdom to reach. Travelling far from the kingdom can cost you a lot of gold that you would need for equipment so you are stuck living with five other people in one room, saving as much gold as you can, hoping that some day you may have enough to make your way from the walls of the kingdom and find your true fortune. Until then, you are confined here, reading in your spare time the same worn out Creature Encyclopedia and drinking half your coin away, while they other half is stored up.

One day, word was going around the kingdom that a nobleman named Daxter Finch had accidentally dumped a chest full of gold and jewels in the area behind the northern walls of the kingdom called The CessPonds. The kingdom's sewage runoff runs right into the swamp and the rich dump any waste and junk they don't want into it. The entire swamp is also surrounded by a stone wall to keep it all inside with only a few small openings for sewer mantinance.

Daxter has apparently given up on retrieving the chest and declares it lost, so by law it is now for anyone to claim. You think this is the golden opportunity you've been waiting for to finally become an adventurer. Although it is not without dangers. The swamp is avoided for more than just the smell. There are old ruins, witches, slimes, leeches, hostile plant life, natives, and other creatures that rome the rancid waters and mud patches. You think it will be very risky, but you have to take risks to get anywhere. As they, "nothing ventured, nothing gained."

You take the gold you've saved up and spend it on a suit of leather armor, a hide shield, and a one handed sword. You make your way down to the entrance of the CessPonds. You can smell the stink from a mile away as you arrive at the open stone gate. You see yellow and brown waters bubbling under large lily pads, thick weeds, and decaying willow trees as a yellowish green fog limits your field of view into the swamp. Croaks from various frogs and toads can be heard along with insect buzzing and a few random noises (some even human-like) echoing from deeper within. This will be hard and a bit disgusting.

Before we go any further, are you a man or woman?

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