Bitten Flats
Though the Bitten Flats are not the largest or most well-known of Greymantle's mudflats, it is undisputably the most unique, as well as one of the most inaccessible. After a gradual climb through some of the rockiest land found in the area, the flats themselves become visible quite suddenly as the vacant space that opens beyond an abrupt drop back to sea level. This sheer drop--a vast crescent shape inexplicably carved out of the cliffs along the shore--is the source of the location's name. Even in the native languages of the local denizens, the feature is known as Bitten Flats, refering to the fact that it looks as though some great creature took a clean bite out of the land.
Geography
The mudflat itself is protected on nearly all sides by sheer cliff-face, which reaches straight up for one hundred feet in most areas. This plane of this cliff is almost perfectly vertical, with a slight underslung angle in some places, making it more or less impossible for most creatures to climb. The only other way into the flats is on the seaward side, where a slim bit of shoreline shows at the bottom of the cliffs at lowest tide. Otherwise, the mudflat is entirely cut off from the rest of the marshlands.
Once the treacherous cliffs have been bypassed, the mudplain itself is relatively easy to traverse, compared to other Greymantle mudflats. The mud is dangerous, but it has a higher silt and sand content than many flats, and there are exposed slabs of rock large enough to hold something like a small temporary camp.
The danger of rising tide, however, more than makes up for the innocuous mud. Without a reliable way to get to a higher elevation, anything on the flats is quickly submerged as the ocean rises. Though not many have explored Bitten Flats, a daunting percentage of those explorers have met their fate drowning at the base of disobliging cliffs.
Ecosystem
Being that the mudflat is almost entirely cut off from the rest of the marsh, many of the creatures that live in this strange little nook of Greymantle are found nowhere else. Peculiar, flat, silt-colored leeches; quick-moving algae worms, and a unique variety of Mudwings are among the recorded oddities. The Bitten Mudwings in particular have helped this locale harbor unique life, as the dishes of seawater that they form when resting at low tide create miniature tide pools.
Along with these tide pools, the presence of rocks have provided anchoring points for several plantlike sea creatures and the little shelled and swimming things that live amongst the living shelter that they create. These plantlike animals seem to be variations of those that live entirely in the sea, now adapted to spending part of their lives out of water, and the creatures that live on them have either likewise adapted, or retreat to Mudwing pools at low tide.
History
Most mentions of Bitten Flats are in the journals of marshland explorers and as noted in lists of interesting features of Greymantle Marsh, with no map reliably showing its exact location. The area around it is so remote and inhospitable that very few aside from determined researchers are motivated to find it. Even among the Lizardfolk clans who are known for skillfully navigating the mudflats, there is very little reason to bother trying to travel here.
The exception to this is an antiquated (and only questionably legitimate) account of a settlement of humanoids who built a small community on the rocky land at the rim of the Bitten crescent. It seems that the group intentionally sought this area out to found their settlement, both because of the abundance of dry land and the mysterious nature of the mudflats below. No remaining trace of this settlement has ever been found, nor explanation of what had happened to end it. Some speculate that the settlement simply dried up, because the dry land that the founders had been hoping to exploit is little more then rocky slope with a scant layer of soil over it. A few wonder if whatever mystic significance they atributed to the Bitten crescent somehow became the death of them. More likely, the isolated group was slowly picked off by the numerous, spectacular dangers that Greymantle offers.
Type
Wetland / Swamp
Location under
Owning Organization
Inhabiting Species