Bottomless Bogs

The Bottomless Bogs were an extensive area of of cold swampland, foul mires, and smelly lakes in northwestern Vaasa.

Description
The Bogs were a swampland that had been left behind as the Great Glacier retreated northwards. They were fairly navigable so long as temperatures were low, but in the heat of the northern summer when the ice melted and the tundra became soft and muddy, the whole area became a vast sludgy soup where “the tallest horse would wet its belly,” according to a Damaran saying. More dangerously, summer also brought on the "bottomless bogs" from which the region earned its name: insidious pits of sucking mud that could entrap the unwary.

Using an experienced guide while traversing the area was highly recommended. During the summer months, thick fog could blanket the area, making it almost impossible to navigate. Paths and roads through the Bogs were laid with logs to prevent travelers and caravans from getting caught in the waist-deep summer mud, but these could rot and create pitfalls for unsuspecting travelers. The occasional rocky outcropping provided the safest places to rest or to fend off local monsters.

Geography
The community of Moortown was located in the southern of the Bogs. There was also a small community called Modurt located on the western edge. Dead Man's Walk, the main trade route through Vaasa, passed through the Bogs.

Geographical Features
The bowl-like area of the Bogs was bordered on the east by the Lugsaas Chain of mountains, and on the west by the West Galena Mountains. Mirror Lake and the open tundra below the Great Glacier marked the northern boundary, while the south and southeast abutted the highlands of central Vaasa. The western edge of the Bogs lying near the Galenas was sometimes called the Mountainshadow Bog.

There were several open bodies of water in the Bogs, such as Lake Throm and Moloth Caldera, and some were thought to be heated by volcanic springs. The Beaumaris River ran southeast from Mirror Lake through the western part of the Bogs until reaching the Clefts of Razack.

Flora & Fauna
During the summer months, the Bogs were filled with the smell of rotting trees and vegetation, and the occasional sweet scent of the carnivorous giant sundew plant.

The Bogs were home to boars, swamp deer, Giant leeches, rodents of unusual size, trolls, venomous snakes, and wolves. The buzzing of mosquitoes and flies was constant, along with that of giant wasps and giant boring beetles.

Rumors & Legends
Over the centuries, many explorers lost their lives looking for mythical hot springs deep within the Bogs. The waters of these springs were said to rejuvenate and enhance the body, or even to grant wishes.

Inhabitants
The only major Vaasan settlement within the swampland was Moortown, although it frequently came under attack from the local monsters of the Bogs and had been abandoned and reclaimed several times. These monsters were the true inhabitants of the Bottomless Bogs, most notably the so-called bog people&mdash;who could swam through the mud&mdash;and the Ring-nose orc tribe, both of whom were known for laying ambushes for travelers along Dead Man's Walk. Additionally, anyone traveling through the western Mountainshadow Bog had to beware of the so-called dragonmen who watched the Bogs from the mountains and would swoop down to attack caravans, thus leading the locals to dub this stretch of the Galenas as the "Peaks of the Dragonmen."

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Dungeon #53: "Steelheart" (not named)
 * Short stores
 * Realms of Shadow: Darksword