Vast Swamp

The Vast Swamp was an area of swampland in interior Faerûn that lay between Cormyr to its west and Sembia to its east. It was widely thought of as the most dangerous stretch of wilderness in the land. Ignored by surrounding nations, it had no proper name; "vast swamp" appears to be a nickname that stuck.

Geography
It was flanked to the north and east by the Thunder Peaks mountains, to the west by the Eastern Plains of Cormyr, and to the south by the Dragonmere, a body of water that poured into the Sea of Fallen Stars. Between the swamp and the coast ran the Way of the Manticore, the only overland route between Cormyr and Sembia.

The Vast Swamp was largely marshland covered with forest of middling density, making it appear more like a flooded forest than an actual swamp. One could rarely see far for the forest. The terrain was dominated by undergrowth and bogs with precious little clear, dry land to be found anywhere within its borders. The ground underfoot was soft and spongy, largely comprising thick peat. What paths there were to be found winding through the swamp were little more than muddy trails. The marshland itself was comparatively shallow, but very great in extent.

The wilderness was completely polluted by its various denizens and a long history of dark magic. While a natural marshland would filter sediments and toxic substances from a river, this barely occurred in the Vast Swamp.

The many deadly natural hazards of the swamp included insects that transmitted diseases, noxious clouds of gases, dense fogs that were utterly impenetrable, patches of quicksand and bogs that would suck the unwary down to their doom, and the freezing rain that fell thereabouts.

The borders of the swamp were forever expanding towards the Way of the Manticore, slowly but inexorably. When it finally reached the road, it might halt all overland travel between Sembia and Cormyr.

Climate
Weather in the Vast Swamp was unnatural and inhospitable, and made it a place of unending discomfort. Rain fell regularly, regardless of the season, seemingly falling whenever it would be most annoying. The annual total precipitation was 70 inches (1.78 meters). In summer and autumn, temperatures were oppressively hot, with peak temperatures of 90 °F (32.2 °C), while in winter and spring they were freezing cold, dipping as low as 40 °F (4.4 °C). It never saw snow, however.

Whether in the depths of winter or the height of summer, and even in bright sun, the marsh and forest were forever shrouded with a persistent mist or murky vapor. Thin and sticky, it hugged the branches of the trees, pooled in depressions and hollows, and flowed over land and around obstacles, moving almost like a living thing. The ever-present and obscuring mist made it hard to see more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) in any direction, even if one could see over or past the trees. Even fog from the Dragonmere coast constantly rolled inland towards the swamp. Fogs there grew thick and impenetrable.

Geographical features
The Vast Swamp was the source of the Darkflow, a river that flowed from the center of the marsh and south into the Lake of Dragons. It was wide and sluggish, and fed by marsh water. The regular rains caused it to swell, leading to floods in the lands beside the river. As the name suggested, the water was so dark that it was described as "inky". This was a result of sediment, filth, and pollution—the water was not filtered or cleaned as would happen in a natural marsh. As a result, the river-water was foul and stinking. The river also formed part of the border between Cormyr and Sembia.

Flora
Around the fringes of the swamp grew blueleafs and oak, typically gnarled and stunted. As one ventured further in, copses of more tangled trees grew more common and finally became predominant. A variety of trees grew in the heart of the flooded forest: black gum, cypress, water ash, water birch, gall oak, and willow and weeping willow. These trees invariably choked the region, their trunks were twisted and dark, and were draped in moss. There were even carnivorous trees that could be hazardous, like the black willow and thornslinger.

Other plants found growing in the Vast Swamp were common marsh reeds, swamp grass, and cattail. Meanwhile, duckweed floated on the waters. There were also a number of rare species of water lily; a few of these served as components for spells and potions, like healing potions.

Fauna
Even the ordinary animals were unnatural in aspect and behavior. They were highly aggressive, fighting each other for food or space. They also had no fear of humanoids, being ready to attack with great ferocity. There were foxes, otters, raccoons, rodents such as black squirrels, poisonous snakes (an ever-present threat), and even lynxes and swamp panthers. Many of these creatures were diseased, carrying rabies, swamp fever, and the like. Creepy-crawlers to watch out for were leeches and centipedes.

Monstrous beasts included dire boars, giant crocodiles, and giant constrictor snakes, as well as giant frogs, giant leeches, and monstrous centipedes.

Relations
The Vast Swamp and the Darkflow served as the de facto border between the realms of Cormyr and Sembia, largely because neither Cormyr nor Sembia had any interest in laying claim to the land, nor anything beyond. The myriad of monsters and other hazards made the Vast Swamp the most dangerous place in either land, people had no cause or desire to go in, and clearing it and draining it would be an epic undertaking, so both nations were happy to ignore it—at least until some raider or monster crept out and into their lands.

Thankfully, the savage denizens of the Vast Swamp usually stayed in its confines, content to war between themselves rather than raid the neighboring lands. Nevertheless, lizardmen dwelling in the Vast Swamp sometimes ventured down the Darkflow to raid villages. The village of Battlerise, which stood on the west bank of the Darkflow River, was once beset by lizardmen from the river and monsters emerging from the Vast Swamp. Long before the 1360s DR, its population had plummeted. The lizardmen also raided the monastic settlement of Monksblade further up the Way of the Manticore, contributing to its depopulation over centuries. By the 1360s DR, Ghars also lay within reach of Vast Swamp raiders, but was well defended. The town of Thunderstone was also well protected against the dangers of the swamp.

Nevertheless, the Vast Swamp enticed explorers who would brave the dangers and endure the difficult environment. Many famed explorers and adventurers, even whole bands, went into the Vast Swamp, and few were heard of again. However, at a national level, neither Cormyr nor Sembia themselves had attempted any major expeditions into the Vast Swamp before the late 14th century DR. Hence few people knew for sure what lurked in the darkest, dankest depths of the swamp.

History
In the Year of the Thirsty Sword, 900 DR, King Galaghard III's army, the Glory of Cormyr, drove the Witch Lords and their undead forces toward the Vast Swamp. They caught and trapped them there against the swamp's western shore and finally defeated them.

In the Year of the Dragon, 1352 DR, the Lost King Gondegal, who attempted to carve his own kingdom out of Cormyr, extended his reach as far east as the Vast Swamp.

In the late 1340s DR, the Thunderstone farmer Del Geery (whose farmland extended to the edge of the Vast Swamp) sponsored the explorer Hadley Erridge for a thirty-man expedition into the Vast Swamp to capture a live hydra. Two months later, they returned with an adult hydra in a cage of iron. Ultimately, Geery developed a variety of uses for hydra body parts and began to fund new hydra-hunting expeditions into the Vast Swamp. He was very successful at this new trade by 1367 DR.

Around 1357 DR, an adventuring group called the Moon's Twelve went into the Vast Swamp. The last surviving member, Sylara, returned to civilized lands ranting and delirious about discovering an elven ruin as old and as extensive as Myth Drannor but her group was ambushed and pursued by mind flayers and beholders. She died of a swamp fever before she could elaborate further and no one knew if what she saw actually existed.

Brother Twick, a knowledgeable halfling cleric of Chauntea who studied the marshes of Cormyr on behalf of the Naturalists' Guild, made a few expeditions into the Vast Swamp before 1367 DR. His aim was to further knowledge of botany and wildlife and to seek converts for the Grain Goddess. He found no potential believers, but plenty of experiences of horror. Nevertheless, he survived to become an authority on the place and its dangers.

In the late 1360s DR, the Dragonslayer lizardfolk tribe (so named for claiming to have killed several dragons over the decades) slew the black dragon Tyra and moved into her lair. However, Tyra's brother Despayr came and massacred many of the Dragonslayers, and enslaved the survivors. He then took her lair and hoard as his own. He had a daughter by one of the lizardfolk, Ketsarra Shadowscale, who became their new chieftain. In time, Despayr was visited by Esvele Graycastle, who retrieved from the treasure the shadow shard, with which Despayr transformed the lizardfolk slaves and even his daughter into the first of the undead Shadowscales. The Dragonslayers were no more.

In the service of Esvele's scheme, Despayr sought to dominate much of the Vast Swamp. Their goal was to tear a hole in the Weave of magic and so form a dead-magic zone over all the Vast Swamp. It was to be a powerbase for the followers of Shar and an earthly homeland for their shadar-kai allies. In the Year of Lightning Storms, 1374 DR, at Despayr's behest, the Shadowscales made savage war upon the tribes of the Vast Swamp, particularly the other lizardfolk, who could hardly resist the shadowslain raiders. Many were slain and more were captured and carried off to the Lost Refuge, eventually returning as Shadowscales themselves to attack their own kin. However, the lowly Kessessek proved himself by turning the Shadowscales and the leaderless Sharptooths acclaimed him as their new chieftain. Kessessek adopted an aggressive but canny strategy against the mightier Shadowscales. He made an alliance between the Sharptooths and the Blackscales and Poison Dusks—other tribes attacked by the Shadowscales—and so they survived against further raids. Then, in early Eleint, he led a war party of Sharptooths, Blackscales, and Poison Dusks into Shadowscale territory around the Skull Staff. They hoped to slay some Shadowscales or their Shar-worshiping allies, or else capture some of the "dream walkers"—mind-controlled petitioners of a false Temple of Mystra—that regularly passed that way to the Lost Refuge. Kessessek and his kin recognized that these dream walkers were innocents and hoped to capture them, free their minds, and deny this resource to their shared enemy.

In fact, the next group to pass that way were adventurers in service to Mystra investigating the false temple and Sharrans' activities. Parlaying at the Sharptooth encampment, Kessessek aided and enlisted the adventurers to deal with the Shadowscales at the Lost Refuge. Afterward, as the adventurers went into the Plane of Shadow to end the Shadowscale and Sharran threats, the Sharptooths took over and guarded the Lost Refuge. When they returned, the Sharptooths feted them as heroes. In the following weeks, after War Wizards investigated the Lost Refuge, the kingdom of Cormyr made an alliance with the Sharptooth tribe. Limited trade even began between lizardfolk and human, and the Vast Swamp lost a little of its mystery and dread to the Cormyreans, though they still declined to go near it.

The Skull Staff
Just within the swamp on its south-western border was the Skull Staff, a 30-feet-high (9 meter) log jutting out of the ground, surrounded by many kinds skulls, with more mounted on spikes and stakes. Built by orcs, it was a territorial marker for them and other tribes who held the area.

The Lost Refuge
The Lost Refuge was a Cormyrean keep placed near the border of the Vast Swamp. It supported a town as well but nearly a hundred years ago the combination of the expanding swamp and an orc attack killed the garrison and Cormyreans subsequently forgot all about the place. It was shortly thereafter conquered by hobgoblins but more recently fell into the hands of Sharran cultists. Legend has it that the Dusk Lord of Sessrendale opened up a planar rift to the Plane of Shadow in this keep after fleeing from his former homeland.

Orvaskyte Keep
Sages agreed that Orvaskyte Keep, discovered in the 1360s DR by adventurers seeking missing comrades in the swamp, was built by members of the kingdom of Orva. The keep was believed to have been built around the 7th century before Dalereckoning, but was reported to be (in 1374 DR) occupied by fiends and other monsters, which abruptly ended all considerations of exploring the place further.

Elven ruins
As claimed by Sylara, last survivor of the Moon's Twelve, there was somewhere in the Vast Swamp a complex of ruined structures as old and as extensive as the famous Myth Drannor. This too was of elven architecture, with carvings and murals illustrating elven kings and mages, all of which seemed to point to a heretofore unknown and forgotten elf kingdom that had once stood in these lands before the Vast Swamp grew. The truth of this tale and the elven ruins is unknown, but a number of other treasures of elven make, bearing elven imagery and archaic Espruar script, coming separately out of the Vast Swamp supported the Moon's Twelve's discovery.

Other locales
Around 1374 DR, there was a frequently erupting boiling water geyser located in the western Vast Swamp. It was surrounded by several hot springs, and the area was misty, muggy, and smelled of sulfur. Lizardfolk sometimes camped here.

Inhabitants
The Vast Swamp was known to be heavily populated by tribes of lizardfolk, hobgoblins and other goblinoids, orcs, gnolls, and trolls. Tribes of bullywugs were also reputed to dwell here, but this was unconfirmed. There were also reports of catoblepas, a few black dragons (mostly small), one or two insane beholders,   occasionally hydras, and even grell, as well as stories of even stranger monsters, like undead and mind flayers.

Only the common breed of hydra was known in the Vast Swamp, but they were well-feared by the humanoid inhabitants, owing to many deadly encounters. Surprisingly, these hydrae were profitably hunted by Del Geery of Thunderstone in the 1360s.

Of the black dragons, at least two young drakes laired in the Vast Swamp in the mid-to-late 1300s. These were Tyra and Despayr, and were the spawn of the great Skurge of the Marshes of Tun. Although Tyra was slain in the late 1360s, Despayr became notorious for allying with the cult of Shar and attempting to conquer the whole Vast Swamp in 1374 DR.

Will-o'-wisps were also found there, and were often sighted from the Way of the Manticore.

Meazels were widespread in the Vast Swamp. They lived out of crude shelters in the deep swamp and regularly preyed upon kobolds and goblins and even orcs that they could catch alone. Although not populous enough to serious affect local ecology or society, the goblins, and kobolds, and orcs saw the meazels as magical spirits who kidnapped humanoids to devour. In efforts to ward them off, lone orcs and goblins carried charms and fetishes, while kobolds tried to appease them by leaving their own kind, bound but alive, as sacrifices. The meazels took these offerings, and still hunted the kobolds.

Darktentacles were among the rarest yet deadliest predators of the Vast Swamp. They lurked beneath the water's surface and surprised and seized victims with their tentacles. When one became known to swamp denizens, they carefully avoided it. A darktentacles could eradicate all fish and birdlife in an area in weeks before it moved to fresh hunting grounds. Despite their rarity, however, their populations were apparently growing in both the Vast Swamp and the Marshes of Tun since the Time of Troubles of 1358 DR.

All kinds of restless undead were reported in the Vast Swamp, including revenants and mummies (normally a product of arid climes).

Lizardfolk
According to Brother Twick, the lizardfolk of the Vast Swamp were utterly savage, even compared to those in the Marshes of Tun, and matched all the worst depictions of lizardfolk. The evil atmosphere seemed to have affected these lizardfolk badly; they were said to be almost psychotic, attacking any outsider who even came close and relentlessly and obsessively hunting down humans, elves, and halflings. Rather than follow the traditional lizardfolk god Semuanya, they paid homage to evil spirits of nature and to fiends, especially the demon lord Sess'innek. Shamans of these lizardfolk fashioned strange altars and icons from the bones of animals and sacrificial victims, and there conducted brutal rites. He reported these lizardfolk gathered into tribal groups of only around a dozen members and that they were nomadic, erecting no permanent structures or shelters. They were led by especially cruel and wicked lizard kings who demanded the sacrifice of sentient beings like elves and humans, and would settle for killing and devouring their own followers.

The reality, however, was quite different when the adventurers in service to Mystra penetrated the Vast Swamp in 1374 DR and gained the aid of the friendly Sharptooth tribe and their allies, the Blackscales and Poison Dusks. Only the undead Shadowscales, twisted to suit a dragon's ends, were hostile. Ultimately, the Sharptooths even made an alliance and trade with the kingdom of Cormyr.

Some of the known lizardfolk tribes were:
 * Sharptooth
 * Shadowscale
 * Blackscale
 * Dragonslayer
 * Poison Dusk

Hobgoblins
Also according to Twick, the hobgoblin tribes of the Vast Swamp were also especially violent and xenophobic compared to their kin in other lands, assaulting all trespassers in their territory. There were several tribes who fought incessantly against each other. Most had enslaved goblins and kobolds to use as servants and fodder in battle.

Unusually, these hobgoblins followed the mad god Cyric. They believed their conflicts would ultimately unite them under a single commander, who would then lead them in a unstoppable holy war against the human realms outside the swamp. They believed Cyric himself would arrive to lead their crusade, wielding a weapon so mighty that whole armies would flee at the sight of it and that it could cause castle walls to fall with but a touch.

Some of the known hobgoblin tribes were:
 * Kyara
 * Norgath

Grell
A colony of grell, numbering some sixty specimens spread over four hives, operated in the darker reaches of the Vast Swamp. Each hive was dominated by a patriarch of greater than normal psionic power. The grell's evil seemed related to the evil of the Vast Swamp, and they were feared and hated by all in the swamp.

The grell venerated the Imperator—perhaps a god of their kind—a colossal grell of enormous psionic power, who was reputed to lie under the surface of the whole swamp. The grell apparently believed this thing would lead the floating brains in a war of conquest and consumption. This also figured highly in local hobgoblin legends, which told of an enormous and highly cerebral grell lurking in caves under the swamp. The truth of this remained unknown.

Rumors and legends
The popular image that city-dwellers had of swamps and marshes—as dark and dismal place of danger and death, disease, and dismemberment—while completely false when it came to natural wildernesses, was completely true when it came to the Vast Swamp. If it was widely imagined that evil lurked and festered in such places, then it was entirely likely it did in the Vast Swamp, and even authorities like Brother Twick were inclined to believe it and fear it would spread. There was, as yet, no tangible proof of this, but neither was there a better explanation. Nevertheless, all those who lived outside the Vast Swamp, namely the folk of Cormyr, shunned the place and shared all kinds of horror stories about what went on there.

It was commonly claimed that at one time dark magic was practiced here or that forbidden gods were worshiped, and this was the cause of the evil, but this was unverified. Nevertheless, evil magic was rumored to lay about the swamp. According to one legend, early inhabitants of the area once gave refuge to a vile demigod and were cursed for their deeds. Some speculated this was in fact a stunningly powerful beholder or the Imperator of the grell. More recent versions of this legend (post–Time of Troubles) told that it was the god Cyric who sheltered in the Vast Swamp, and his evil lingered.

According to one legend, the notorious Dusk Lord of Sessrendale was not killed as history recorded, but instead escaped into the Vast Swamp. There, the story said, he plotted vengeance against all living beings in the Dalelands. The Dusk Lord was the most well known of the villains said to inhabit this land.

There were rumors of both mind flayer and beholders lurking in an ancient ruin close to the center of the marsh. This could well be the elven ruins reported by Sylara of the Moon's Twelve, who were ambushed and slaughtered by such abominations.

There was something to support the idea of an ancient elven kingdom once lying in this land, as several items of old elven design had been retrieved over the years. Furthermore, other treasures including elaborately ornamented crowns, amazing gemstones, scintillating armor pieces, and weaponry of exotic design and make had also been found, apparently created by different hands in different cultures and in different times. Perhaps these had originated elsewhere and been carried into the Vast Swamp by adventurers or raiders, but they hinted a number of lost and forgotten kingdoms that predated the Vast Swamp and were later buried in its bogs. Only a close archaeological examination could say for sure.

Necromancers were reputed to make their homes in the Vast Swamp. Some stories even told that, somewhere deep inside the swamp, there was a ruined necropolis or some other complex of ruined structures. Herein dwelled a lich or even a whole cabal of liches, in tattered black clothing and wielding archaic and exotic weaponry, alongside countless skeletons and zombies. From these liches, it was said, flowed an unremitting evil force that contaminated all that stayed overlong in the area.

Indeed, Cormyrean investigators theorized that not only was the Vast Swamp slowly growing, but it had a malevolent influence on those outside. Incidences of violent crime, such as arson, brawling, feuding, and murder were apparently increasing in neighboring settlements in the 1360s DR. However, it was hard to say whether this was due to the evil of the swamp or merely to the troubles of that era.

Worse still, a several humanoid tribes and inhuman monsters foretold of an impending unification and subsequent holy war against the humans of Cormyr and surrounding realms. For example, the hobgoblins believed they would unite and conquer the human realms in the name of Cyric the Black Sun, while the grell believed they would do so under the god-like Imperator. True or not, it seemed inevitable that an ambitious warlord or mage or other dominant entity would try to fulfil these prophecies to gather an army. (In fact, something like this seems to have occurred when Despayr attempted to conquer and control the Vast Swamp for the goddess Shar using the marauding Shadowscale lizardfolk in 1374 DR.