Eldritch Echoes - The forgotten Mire

They avoided the mire for a reason. Even before you see it, the air tastes wrong. Still. Heavy. Like the swamp is holding its breath, waiting. The trees lean away from the thing in the center, roots curling back as if the earth itself regrets touching it.

A doorway stands where nothing should stand... a perfect circle carved into a ruin that has no history. No carvings. No builders. Just a silent invitation. It doesn’t hum or glow or whisper. It waits. Patient as the deep.

People think a portal is a way out, a path to somewhere new. But this one feels different. This one watches you back. The reflection inside doesn’t show another world. A place almost familiar but not quite right, if not for the feeling in your bones telling you to turn around.

Most do.

But some step closer. And the truth is simple: the portal doesn’t lead to an escape...it never does.