The Sunken Estate

Where brackish waters meet an expanse of soggy reed lands lies the remains of Count Drellan’s Estate—a great mansion swallowed by the swamp decades ago. Only the uppermost level of the crumbling structure remains visible above the murky water, tilted at a precarious angle. Twisted wrought-iron fences and waterlogged garden sculptures protrude eerily from the marsh, an opulent ruin clinging stubbornly to the past. The once grand structure has been reduced to narrow, slick walkways of moss-covered stone protruding from the dark waters where hidden predators lurk.
Deeper: Secca Ulhourte has spent his life collecting journals, restoring murals, and studying recovered objects from this site. Each summer, when heated winds from the Tarn drop the wetland water tables by meters, he and his crew of recovery specialists dredge the lower levels for what items of value they can recover. He makes no secret of his interest in making the orb his own and has promised a substantial bounty to the one who brings it to him. It is thought to remain buried in the mansion’s submerged vault, but attempts to retrieve it by Berrylmen dredging and diving crews have ended in disappearances or madness.
The tale of the Drellan Estate's misfortune is a well-known local legend. Long ago, Count Drellan created an artifact called the Lacuna Orb, a magical engine that he claimed would allow him to bend space and time, rendering his realm ageless and unending. But instead of preserving him, when it was activated, it destroyed him and his home, dragging the estate and its inhabitants down into the swamp’s watery depths. Treasure hunters and looters that come to pick at trinkets left behind commonly report strange lantern lights in the mist, apparitions of partygoers frozen mid-celebration, and objects flickering in and out of existence.
Strange occurrences plague adventurers who linger in the estate's periphery for too long: sudden aging or regression, voices calling their names, the unnerving feeling of being watched, and, of course, the fatal allure of the lights beneath the waters. The closer one ventures, the more fragmented reality becomes.
See Drellan’s Estate DEN