The Bridesmaids of Dowry Marsh

Up until the early third dawn era marriages at Dowry Marsh were a common celebration, so much so that it blossomed townships in an otherwise unwelcome area of the Reedlands. However, ever since a tragedy following the same day ceremonies involving four noble houses marriages in the entire district have been outlawed.

Although it has always been admired for being a place of idyllic beauty among the swamplands, Dowry Marsh has long been plagued with dangerous conditions. Nobody batted an eye when a downpour washed the area the night before two esteemed joint marriages, but the return trip proved too perilous for some of the carriages. Minstrels recount the story differently, uncertain if it was a mudslide or a nefarious creature that sent the coaches tumbling down into the lake shallows.

Scouts spent many days combing the site in efforts of recovery. No survivors were located, no civil remains were found. Two of the horses had rotted to a state they were barely identifiable, and they were each found a far ways from the incident. It was as if both carriages containing the bridesmaids had been swallowed whole. In the weeks following reports of maidens dressed in their likeness spread like gossip, but they were only ever seen wandering the lakeside.

Visitors lessened as time passed after the decree to stop ceremonies, and villages that once harboured a wealth of trades began to dwindle. Tailors and cobblers were first to find work elsewhere. Eventually even the clergy withdrew, and to this day only a small population of serfs and hawkers remain. They are the men and women that do not fear the ghosts of eras passed. Or, perhaps they have simply learned to live with lingering souls that walk the midnight mists.