Shadow Swamp

The Shadow Swamp was an area of swampland in the Plane of Shadow. It was the shadow counterpart of the Vast Swamp in Cormyr in the Material Plane.

Description
Being in the Plane of Shadow, it was an even more dark and sinister version of the Vast Swamp, under eternal night. It was a wide black swamp, a flooded forest heavily wooded with stands of black cypress and blueleafs bedecked with moss and low hummocks grown over with dense foliage.

The Whispermere was the name given to the main watercourse that wound through the Shadow Swamp. It comprised many creeks and winding waterways and sloughs, as well as areas of open water and reedy marshes forming bayous averaging 200 feet (60 meters) wide and 25 feet (7.6 meters) deep. The water was cold and sluggish, almost still, and very quiet, hence its name. It was also murky with peaty detritus, with visibility underwater limited to no more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) and could be choked with stumps, snags, and the floating trunks of cypresses. The bayous were 10 feet (3 meters) deep on average, with bogs laying between the water and the firmer land.

Trails and paths looped around the swampland, traversing the hummocks that rose above the water and linking various locales or points of no clear interest. They were relatively safe, but often muddy and slippery. Crudely fashioned wooden footbridges and even just fallen logs led over the creeks. Small skiffs were left to cross wider bodies of water. Off the trails, low branches, marshes, and thickets impeded travel.

However, the quickest way to cross the Shadow Swamp was over the water, with a vessel such as the Necreme. To get around, the Sharrans installed some thirty-five beacons as channel markers between the Shadow Citadel and the Monastery of the Ebon Dome. These beacons were large bullseye lanterns burning shadowlight oil that glowed dimly but far in the dark swamp. One travelling the water could see only the next lantern in the darkness and the one behind. Not following the lit channel meant slowing to a crawl as one groped for a safe path through.

Notable Locations
In the west lay the so-called Shadow Citadel, in fact a dismal ruin and dark reflection of the Lost Refuge found in the Vast Swamp.

Not far from it stood the Shadowscale Warren, the fortified nest of Shadowscale tribe of undead lizardfolk.

At the eastern edge, a landing on the Whispermere met a path that led up into the hills. Here, overlooking the swamp, was the Monastery of the Ebon Dome. Beyond it, a short trail led to the Black Rift.

A quite unremarkable point on the Whispermere and the beacon-lit path was known as Black Tree Bend, but all the trees were black and the waterways bendy, so it was known only to experienced travelers like Sithierel. Here the Whispermere guardian lurked to obstruct those not part of the church of Shar's activities.