Blighted Swamp

The Blighted Swamp is a region of the Morbog avoided by all but the most desperate. It is a realm of corrosion, decay, and the last vestiges of a dead, forever cursed civilization, buried beneath miles upon miles of stinking mire. It was once the most verdant and lively reaches of the Morbog before the wider region succumbed to the dark magics of Kusatta the Bloodied and his coven. Now it is a virulent swamp shunned by most travelers. The waters of the Blighted Swamp are thick and viscous, bubbling with burning acidity that is able to eat through most substances not native to the harsh thicket itself. While hostile to most forms of life, the brackish waters are home to a number of cursed creatures, both living and undead, that are immune to their acidity. The black, mutated trees of the swampland are also immune to the waters' corrosive properties and grow tall and twisted enough to swallow the sky, shrouding all beneath them with a thick, rotten canopy of barren, skeletal branches. Various expeditions into the Blighted Swamp have been attempted by the Gatekeepers in order to unveil what lies beneath its canopies, but few have returned. Their efforts have established a network of bridges and pulleys to navigate the swamp's burning waters, though few structures survive the ever-present corroding miasma that hangs in the cold, clammy air. The few scouts that do return bring rumors of ancient, forgotten cults—ghosts of a forgotten religion. Ritualistic drinkers of blood, weavers of primal curses, and worshippers of heathen gods. This small, but dangerous cult surrounds a coven of three hags determined to keep the last light of the Morbog extinguished. On the outskirts of the marshlands, shrouded by mystery and the swamp's thick canopies lies the abandoned necropolis city of Mortholme, now known as the Sunken Ruins; a vast network of tunnels and crypts spanning much of the underground caverns and caves running underneath the swampland. Mortholme may no longer exert its dominion over the Blighted Swamps and the wider Morbog, but it is still a formidable place of lost power.