Litchdare Swamp

Not all lawless places lie beyond the known lands. Some are just outside our door.

- Danrion Uave, Herbalist of the Embermyst Fellowship

The Litchdare Swamp is nestled along the northern fringe of the sprawling Thicketthorn Wilds past the Wildermist Lake. This is a dark, mist-shrouded realm, where shadows dance at the wetland’s edge. Whispers from events long past echo through the heavy air to rattle the uncanny stillness of the region.

These wetlands are not an empty or abandoned, but thick with life. It’s a place where unique and unusual plants, animals, and creatures call the swamp home. A land of ghoulish quiet, shrouded in mystery that has swallowed whole more than one traveler who wasn’t careful where they stepped.

A Sinister Serenity

This swamp is a paradox of decay and vibrant vitality. In that deadly place, life finds a way to flourish despite the most aggressive conditions. Plants, such as the haunting wraithwillows, cast long, gnarled shadows from their death-gray trunks. A warning and promise of not only physical threats, but arcane as well.

Stands of swamp mangroves, with their red and orange fruit, cluster on vibrant moss-islands in the wetlands. Nearby, sinister creeperjacks scurry over the water’s surface in search of their next meal, be it copper bogskitter beetles to tickercrabs. Meanwhile, the air hums with the soft, alluring croaks of eelkites floating in schools above the same water’s surface. An eerily serene sight of these winged eels glowing while they drift, in search of mates or dinner. Below them, spinehooks swim in the brackish water. A splash of color against the watery brown.

Litchdare Swamp by CB Ash *

Padgrass rustles nearby with the near hidden motion of bogfang wyrms. Scaled serpents whose mottled scales blend in with the murky colored grass. Ambush hunters with faintly glowing eyes and fangs that don’t hesitate to strike at anything unfortunate to cross their path. Meanwhile, a glow like a ghostly lantern is the only warning that one of the legendary mirewraith cats, considered omens of impending doom, pads nearby.

Realm of Summerdark

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Type

Wetland / Swamp

Contested By

• Shadow Council
• Wraith Swamp Coven

Inhabiting Species

• Bogfang wyrm
• Bogskitter beetle
• Creeperjacks
• Eelkite
• Mirewraith
• Padgrass
• Spinehook
• Swamp mangrove
• Tickercrab
• Wraithwillow

This swamp is a place of the arcane and forgotten. Where lost souls find their way to rest, or unrest, as their needs drive them. An untamed region on the edge of civilization with its own treacherous depths. A living metaphor for its most infamous inhabitants, the Wraith Swamp Coven that calls Litchdare home.

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Keepers of Unseen Power

Wraith Swamp Coven? The best I can say is that they dance with death while they play with fear. Their magic is like a sinister weed that has deep dark roots and bloody thorns.

- Danrion Uave, Herbalist of the Embermyst Fellowship

Despite rumors and truths of their menacing nature, the Coven plays a vital role in the swamp. These arcane practitioners relish this wild place that’s unfettered by any regulation or structure of society. They strive to harness the wild, eerie energies of the marsh for their arcane work.

They draw power from the spirits that dwell beneath the murk and moss. Raw, arcane energy from the wilderness that they harness to craft all manner of magic from potent hexes to powerful potions. Craftwork that is used for both good and ill, but always in keeping with the delicate balance of life and death, growth and decay. They are in many ways caretakers of this primal land and its most deadly protectors.

No matter what else can be said about them, the Coven is as much a part of the swamp as the swamp is a part of them.

- Danrion Uave, Herbalist of the Embermyst Fellowship

A Frontier of the Spirit

The Litchdare Swamp stands in stark contrast to the ancient, thriving greenery of the primeval Thicketthorn Wilds. Similar to the Wilds, the Litchdare also stands as a frontier of the spirit. A place that provides challenges for the brave, curious, and foolhardy alike. Land that challenges travelers against the arcane, the natural, and themselves. This untamed land has stood, and will stand, for countless generations as a sharp reminder of the primal energies that course through Summerdark.

If anything, the Litchdare is a hard lesson to respect the need for balance in all things.

- Danrion Uave, Herbalist of the Embermyst Fellowship