20 Pieces of Noisome Marsh Dressing
While vast swaths of a noisome marsh may seem boring and unremarkable, travellers will—no doubt—encounter some things of minor interest.
A wide river flows sluggishly through the mire. An old wooden causeway crosses the channel mere inches above the water. After heavy rain, the causeway is submerged and only a large marker stone at either end betrays its presence.
Long bulrushes grow in this stretch of marsh in profusion. The rushes’s triangular head—almost eight-foot above the ground—sway softly in the breeze. Paranoid characters may think this is a good place for an ambush.
A crudely-crafted spear juts from the mud. Investigation reveals the spear is probably not of human artifice. Several brightly coloured feathers hang from a cord just below the spear’s head.
A track, bounded by low hedges of rushes and reeds, snakes through the swamp, along a low ridge. Here, the ground is relatively dry and the going easy, but the chance of randomly encountering travellers or swamp denizens is doubled.
The mouth of a partially flooded cave pierces the side of a low, weed-cloaked hill. A stream wends its way along the hill and pools outside the cave before flowing onwards into the deeper marsh.
A fallen tree, thick with lichen and moss, lies across a wide stream, forming a makeshift bridge. A ranger or druid examining the fallen tree can make out clawed footprints imprinted into the moss growing on the tree and in the nearby mud.
The remains of a campsite, partially sunken in the mire, overlooks a virtually stagnant river. The campsite stands atop a slight rise surrounded by stands of rushes and reeds. Investigation reveals the campsite to be an old one; worryingly, several large rips in the camp’s tents suggest a large clawed something tried to get at those sleeping within.
Thick mud interspaced with stands of rushes stretch for hundreds of feet before the mud gives way to a wide, sluggishly flowing river.
The blackened stump of a once immense tree juts forlornly from the swamp’s noisome waters. The tree’s exposed roots break through the mud of the low island upon which it stands, looking like frozen great worms or snakes. The blackened stump is 30 ft. tall and is visible for a mile in all directions.
Without warning, the straps on one of the characters’ backpacks snaps dumping the pack’s contents into the mire.
The rotting remains of a small hut set atop a near-flooded wooden platform lean drunkenly over a reed-fringed pool of surprisingly clear water. The prow of a sunken rowboat juts from the water near the platform. The rowboat has a small hole below the waterline, but is otherwise serviceable.
A slime-covered statue lies facedown amid the noisome swamp’s muck. The statue is man-sized and difficult to prise from the cloying mud. If the characters manage the feat, they discover the statue is a surprisingly lifelike depiction of a man with a look of ultimate horror upon his face. So lifelike is the carving that it hints at the subject’s insanity or terror…
A swath of colourful wild flowers grow amid the fetid mire. The flowers carpet the ground, but close examination reveals the ground to have the consistency of quicksand. To walk among the flowers, invites death.
An upturned, and rotting, rowboat lies on the banks of a wide river. One of the boat’s oars is tangled in the low-hanging branches of a nearby weeping willow.
The partially sunken skeletal remains of a humanoid lie tangled among the weeds and reeds bounding a placid pool. The remains could be those of a lizardfolk or traveller.
Footprints—slowly filling with boggy water—cross the characters’ path. A tracker can determine that whoever left the tracks was here mere minutes ago.
A small stone marker, replete with a chiselled arrow pointing to the west, is rendered almost invisible by a thick stand of weeds and creepers.
A huge tree stands hard against a stagnant pool of muddy water. The tree’s twisted, grasping roots break the surface of a muddy bank before growing into the pool itself.
The remains of a shattered wagon lie incongruously over several sunken boulders. Investigation reveals it looks like the wagon was dropped from a great height, and has not been here that long.
The buzzing of many insects comes from a thicket of reeds. Characters investigating the sound discover the rotting, disembowelled corpse of a lizardfolk
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This article is an extract from 20 Things #54: Noisome Marsh. Add the book to your GM’s toolkit today! Alternatively, check out the 20 Things Archive for more handy, flavoursome and time-saving 20 Things articles ready for immediate use in your campaign.
Design Creighton Broadhurst Art Dean Spencer
