The Soup Marsh

This lowland marsh is fed by the Danau River and the seas from Bay of Brand. It is a shallow boggy marsh with a truly foul stench. The salt waters from the bay mix in stagnant pools, and mud bars create an odor that can be smelled as far as the edges of the Darkenfold and some even say along the coasts of Brindisium.

The eastern half of the swamp supports little plant life and no large trees. There, thick, tall, reeds are mixed with a bushy, tangled, and knotty shrub that grows out of the briny water. Streams criss-cross the reed fields, roads for shallow boats and canoes. But they are dangerous for there is little order to them and one my find oneself deep in the Soup with no obvious way to escape.

The western half of the swamp is a mixture of large stretches of foul water, creeping with crocodiles, lizards, and birds, both large and small, of the most beautiful hues in all the known world. Trees too, grow here, tall majestic cypress that stretch hundreds of feet into the sky and which grow in large clumps as well as individually. The waters of the swamp flow with the ebb and neap of the sea and the flows of the Danau River.

Generally considered impassible, the river men and bargemen of Kayomar know the route the Danau follows through these swamps. But it is a shifting riverbed and its secrets are well kept, giving great power to those who travel through the swamp. Otherwise, the swamp is a horrible place, difficult to pass or navigate, a cesspool of disease and death. It would be avoided by all if it weren’t for the constant rumor of mysterious towers hidden deep in the muck and murk that house eldritch treasures and ancient magics of dwarven craft and construct.

~The Codex of Aihrde