The Hag's Whisper Chest

Half-submerged in a mat of black water and pale lilies, the hag's chest sits on a stump platform ringed with cattails and bones. Its copper bands are green with verdigris, its lid carved like a toothy grin, and every spoken word near it makes the whisper-reeds hiss and bow as if listening. When the correct answer is near, the swamp beads on the lid like tears of dew and a thin seam of light threads through the lock; when the answer is wrong, the water around the chest ripples backward as if the swamp itself is smirking.