Adventure idea for swamp region

A swamp could confront the troupe with perilous challenges in a deadly environment. At its current state the following list is a chaotic braindump. Hopefully, it develops into a discussion of various aspects to flesh out an adventure module, eventually.

Names

• Deathmire
• Deadmarsh

Dangers

• hallucinogenic swamp gas
• mosquitoes/stirges/midgets
• putrid odour
• thick fog
• peat fires
  • Small, underground fires that can last for years, fanning into an infernal landscape during very dry and hot seasons, covering large areas in smoke from all the burning gases trapped in the soil.

Materials

Bog iron

From Wikipedia:

Iron is carried to bogs in low-pH, low-dissolved oxygen iron-bearing groundwater that reaches the surface through springs, along with structures of fractures, or where groundwater intersects surface flows. [...] [The] change of oxidation state causes the precipitation of fine-grained iron solids near the point of groundwater discharge.

Bog butter

Ancient waxy substance preserved in barrels, baskets or animal skins buried in peat bogs.^{1 2}

Maybe it would fit as a kind of ration for players? But how would it find its way into a hag's bog?

• Maybe it's been left from a human civilization, now gone.
• Maybe the gnomes like using the bog as a preservation-station, but then, does that mean gnomes keep cows? That raises far too many questions.
• Gnolls herd animals - maybe they could have left patches of Winter-food, then get into a territorial dispute with the hag?
• Local bards claim the hag produces it herself

Conflicts

At the Hag's Garden:

• Gnomes constantly steal alchemical Ingredients from the hag's garden.
• The hag protects her garden by summoning peat golems.
• The peat golems aren't too smart, and end up wandering off
  • The peat golems only attack gnome-sized creatures.
  • Peat has several valuable uses, as fuel, in agriculture, in metallurgy (bog iron is easier to process than mined iron), so if someone is extracting peat by forming it into self-moving, predictably simple-minded large heaps, that makes those golems fairly valuable

At Bogdown:

• Stirges plague villagers, they ask the PCs to go to the Bogwitch and ask for help.
• When the PCs get to the Bogwitch to help she will summon morphed carnivorous plants to extinct the stirges.
• Peat golems wander the bog, but only attack gnome-sized PCs.

At Drytop:

• The carnivorous plants overgrow the bog and start eating people.
• Peat golems kill children (assuming they are gnomes).
• The villagers ask the PCs to go to the Bogwitch and ask for help.
• When the PCs get to the Bogwitch to help she lets the carnivorous plants grow into the peat golems so they fall apart, eventually.

Encounters

• A 'swampspy' creeps out of a water hole
• 'Mirewalkers' (toad/frog like amphibious humanoid creatures)
• Half sunken hut of a hag
• peat golem is stuck in a swamp hole
• giant, carnivorous plant growing off a peat golem's back, with a gnome stuck in it, begging for help.

1. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/bog-butter-and-other-ancient-methods-of-preserving-food ↩

2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40975-y ↩

added beginner content labels

peat golum

I love this. Definitely need a peat golum.

...

On 19 November 2024 21:18:17 CET, "Anth0rx (@Anth0rx)" gitlab@mg.gitlab.com wrote:

Anth0rx created an issue: #29

A swamp could confront the troupe with perilous challenges in a deadly environment. At its current state the following list is a chaotic braindump. Hopefully, it develops into a discussion of various aspects to flesh out an adventure module, eventually.

Names

• Deathmire
• Deadmarsh

Dangers

• hallucinogenic swamp gas
• mosquitoes/stirges/midgets
• putrid odour
• thick fog

Encounters

• A 'swampspy' creeps out of a water hole
• 'Mirewalkers' (toad/frog like amphibious humanoid creatures)
• Half sunken hut of a hag
• peat golem is stuck in a swamp hole

-- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitLab: #29 You're receiving this email because of your account on gitlab.com.

Maybe the peat golum guards something? But what? And who or what created it? Maybe a swamp hag used a Detailed Wax Life, Mind spell to summon a peat golem to protect some artifact?

This needs stakes.

• Gnomes constantly steal alchemical Ingredients from the hag's garden.
• The hag protects her garden by summoning peat golems.
• The peat golems aren't too smart, and end up wandering off, and attacking human children in local baileys.

Scene 1:

Why are the golems attacking our children?

Missing Pieces:

• Something to establish the PCs cannot realistically just attack the hag head-on
  • Maybe people have tried this, and returned as twisted monstrocities?
• Why are the gnomes so intent on gathering these Ingredients? They could be fire Ingredients, or maybe air, or earth?
• What other leverage could the PCs gather?

• Something to establish the PCs cannot realistically just attack the hag head-on ** Maybe people have tried this, and returned as twisted monstrocities?

I like this. And I wouldn't assume anyone could reach the hag as the troupe needs to pass the deadly swamp first. Maybe the hag's hut is sunken and protected by the surrounding mud. Only the hag can lift it up to spawn new golems.

Why are the gnomes so intent on gathering these Ingredients? They could be fire Ingredients, or maybe air, or earth?

What about dwarves gathering swamp specific ores to craft tools and weapons?

On the subject of peat.

Peat has several valuable uses, as fuel, in agriculture, in metallurgy (bog iron is easier to process than mined iron), so if someone is extracting peat by forming it into self-moving, predictably simple-minded large heaps, that makes those golems fairly valuable, and perhaps an easier way to collect peat, if you're just willing to use a child-size person to lure the golem to the edge of the swamp, into an ambush.

It also forms a layer that's very good for preserving most organic materials. Look at bog bodies. Now imagine if it was a lich. A lich builds himself a sarcophagus, or a small lair, and sinks it into peat, slowing his decomposition. He wouldn't use this method to preserve his servants, since the acidic peat dissolves calcium in their bones, but you must admit, the image of a boneless lich is amusing.

Peat fires are also something to consider. Small, underground fires that can last for years, fanning into an infernal landscape during very dry and hot seasons, covering large areas in smoke from all the burning gases trapped in the soil. See 2010 Russian wildfires for inspiration.

Peat has several valuable uses, as fuel, in agriculture, in metallurgy (bog iron is easier to process than mined iron), so if someone is extracting peat by forming it into self-moving, predictably simple-minded large heaps, that makes those golems fairly valuable, and perhaps an easier way to collect peat

I can see someone using them as fuel, though they probably don't have enough iron to be valuable...unless high-iron concentrations are required as an Earth Ingredient?

the image of a boneless lich is amusing.

Listen, old Betsy ain't shit. She has a couple of cantrips to extend her life, which is why she looks 50 when she's more like 70, but if she causes problems, the Night Guard can take her

Nobody touch betsy! 200 years ago, she put to rest a powerful lich. Maybe it's luck, but if she goes, Taph-Builder wakes up, and we all join his workforce.

That's just something Betsy says. She's only 70, so she never put the Taph-Builder to sleep.

Peat fires are also something to consider. Small, underground fires that can last for years, fanning into an infernal landscape during very dry and hot seasons, covering large areas in smoke from all the burning gases trapped in the soil. See 2010 Russian wildfires for inspiration.

Scotland just has the little burny-bits and rare fireballs, which may have given rise to the notion of the 'will 'o the whisp'. No surprise that Russia manages to one-up the ground-fires to the point of inferno.

It could make for an interesting Side Quest Segment: once this starts, the entire land must be unbreathable for days.

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Maybe we can extrapolate the problem with golems attacking children further.

Why would they attack children? Do children have something golems need to survive? Or is it more a 'attack small moving things' the hag 'implanted' into the minds of the golems?

Another scene could be villagers describing stomping noises they hear at night or sightings of 'peat guardians' around the bog.

If gnomes are annoying the hag, she'd send them after the gnomes. I figure golems can't make much in the the way of distinctions.

Stomping makes sense. Maybe an entire back story could be deduced from strange golem behaviours.

If gnomes are annoying the hag, she'd send them after the gnomes. I figure golems can't make much in the the way of distinctions.

I would assume children live inside protected baileys or towns. How would the golems get there? Or how would children get into unprotected areas where the golems can find them?

The farm fields are outside of the walls. I'm not sure how old would a child have to be to start working at them, but I imagine it wouldn't need to be too big.

What do you think about morphed carnivorous plants like the drosera rotundifolia growing in bogs and marshes?

That looks exactly like the kind of thing a hag could super-charge with enchantments to grow until it became a problem.

...or maybe it's there to solve the problem of stirges in the bog?

I'm suddenly thinking of that old nursery rhyme, 'I know an old lady who swallowed a fly', but instead of a fly, it's stirges, fixed by making the insect-eating plants massive...until they surround the place, but she can fix that by summoning more peat-golems...who start pulling up all the wildlife in the area, including trees. So she'll have to fix that by enchanting some griffins to keep them in check...

Could even put in the hag as a 'helpful' NPC - every time the PCs complain, she 'fixes' the problem with a new spell.

Fixing ecology problems by adding more ecology problems. That bog is starting to look more and more like Australia...

Maybe the problem with this place is that some villagers are coming to the hag, asking her to fix their problems, and then other villagers are asking her to fix the problems caused by her solutions.

Those stirges are awful! Can you help us somehow?

I can take care of those.

The plants are growing wild this season, I swear one of them ate my dog!

I have a thing just for that.

A huge peat-man stomped all over our crops! Help!

I got you, fam.

Whatever would we do without you, granny.

I also see an image of a giant, carnivorous plant growing off a peat golem's back, with a gnome stuck in it, begging for help.

a giant, carnivorous plant growing off a peat golem's back, with a gnome stuck in it, begging for help.

That needs to go in!

and then other villagers

Two baileys! Now it's an investigation.

• At Bogdown: we had all these stirges, and problems with gnomes, but the Bogwitch sorted us - she's great!
• At Drytop: we had these man-eating plants, and peat-golems killing children, but the Bogwitch got the plants to grow into the golems, and she says they'll fall apart soon

...apparently the Bogwitch just wants to be popular. Heaven help anyone who wants to turn the farmers against her.

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Do you think we are ready here to draft a first version in LaTeX? I think I'll create a boghag branch to get started.

Definitely! I'm doing a first draft of the intro adventure in the con branch (short for concurrency), but in Markdown. I've found writing in raw TeX can cut the flow a little, so I'll just translate it later with a bit of sed.

created branch boghag to address this issue