Flooded Lands

Features

• Fetid wetlands
• Dead trees poisoned by salt water
• Networks of sluggish rivers
• Ponds and lakes shrouded in clinging mist
• Beguiling ghostlights, drawn to the warmth of the living
• Biting insects
• Creatures, just beneath the surface, laying in wait

This is a low-lying region of bogs, swamps, lakes, and slow-moving rivers. Near the coast, the water is salty and riddled with dead trees. Further north, the morass of forested wetlands and bogs is interspersed with rare patches of higher ground. Through it all, twisting rivers make their sluggish journey to the sea. The smell of these lands is rotten and dank. It is the smell of slow death.

A few hardy Ironlanders live here in small settlements built atop hillocks, or in homes standing on stilts over the wetlands. Most fish and forage, making their way among the waterways on flat-bottomed boats propelled by long poles. Some dig through peat for bog iron—a cold, wet, grueling task.

Travel is precarious here. One step has you on solid ground. The next sends you plunging through a thin layer of peat into a murky bog. Then, bony hands reach out to you, grasping, pulling. “Stay with me,” a voice whispers. “Stay with me here in the dark.”

Quest Starter: Rising flood waters threaten to overwhelm an Ironlander settlement. Escape by boat is the only option, but there are fewboats and many people. What’s more, there is somethinghungry in the water, waiting to feed.