The Mire of Sarkay

A poison swamp inspired by the works of Hidetaka Miyazaki

PDF and EPub can be found for free at yuigaron.itch.io, along with other games, modules and supplements of mine.

What is This

Firstly, this is for any GM who, like Miyazaki himself, loves to make poisonous swamps and just cannot help themselves. 

Secondly, this is a region to be placed within any map that needs a poison swamp. If placed upon a hex map, the hexes are not required for traversal and only indicate the space it occupies. The space this region occupies is unmapped and mysterious. It is also slow to traverse, so need not take up much room.

Lastly, this is built upon the procedure laid out in the post Flux Space by Nick LS Whelan and requires the rules presented therein.

Theme

Once the site of a great civilisation, now only the peaks of long fallen ruins remain above the sludge; thick grot drags at your feet, sapping at your will, threatening to drown those who do not traverse with care. The mud gets everywhere, wounds become infected with ease, and torches sputter in the damp miasma of the air. Dense clouds rise to blot out the very sun. 

Thick trunked trees—long ago petrified— block sightlines, not by proximity to each other, but by their sheer numbers and size. Their canopies are long dead and snap easily, making them no choice for traversal.

Lost somewhere in this treacherous bog is all that remains of Sarkay Keep. Rumour holds that it will one day rise again, dredging from the muck things long unseen.

Encounters 

Roll 2d4

2. Decaying Dragon

Its wings have long since rotted away, and so it adapted to slithering through the Mire. Large parts of its brain have died, and what remains is tethered by mycelium and roots; thinking beyond animalistic desire is ponderously slow and oftentimes not worth the effort. It can no longer discern the value of a thing, and so collects everything it can, keeping it pinned between the scales of its back. 

Feature: Belches forth vapours of rot that corrode mundane armour and weapons alike. It takes a whole Charting Turn to regain this breath.

Signs: serpentine tracks through the mud, fresh pools of rot formed by its breath, a petrified tree uprooted and smashed.

3. Mineral Backed Isopod 

These bugs wander the realm carrying mineral deposits on their backs. They roll up in defense and tumble towards attackers, the minerals cutting at exposed flesh. If they can be slain or pacified, then collecting their minerals can be valuable. Many smiths look for these rare materials when forging specialised weapons.

Feature: Can erupt some of the minerals on its back in a blast. Jagged chunks of crystal embed in the flesh of all those nearby.

Signs: a few worthless minerals, spiral indent where it once lay.

4. 1d6+1 Corvis

No one knows who or what they are. Some think them the descendants of the populace of Sarkay. In hushed fireside stories they are often said to be the people of Sarkey, having long shed their need for living. What is known is that feathers—with the appearance of having been tarred—cover their bodies and frail wings burst from their backs when threatened. They communicate via screeches, and often the air rings with the sound of their screams just before they attack.

Feature: Half of the times they are encountered, one of their number can breathe poisonous fumes that linger in the air; the corvis are unaffected. This same corvis also causes a rage in others of its kind when it spends a round shrieking. A limp pale tongue hangs from its mouth.

Signs: distant shrieking, a scattering of black tarry feathers.

5. 1d6+1 Mirelurkers

Tall, gangly, digitigrade humanoids of blueish skin and patches of white fur. Their heads are completely wrapped around with a tangled profusion of horns, giving their voices a strange hollowness. They communicate to one another through a series of haunting horn melodies. Incredibly wary of outsiders, though they hate the Corvis enough to hunt them to extinction. 

Feature: Weapons coated with a poison that causes momentary, painful paralysis.

Signs: the call of distant horns, corvis bodies impaled on stakes.

6. 2d6 Basifrosks

Those in the know stay well clear. Looking at a distance like large, malnourished frogs, they can be identified by what appears to be a single bulbous eye rising from the top of their heads. This eye is in actuality a sac, in which the basifrosk stores toxic fumes that build up in their body from eating the insects of the Mire. They can release this cloud of fumes when attacking, or simply when they are killed. 

Feature: Those who twice fail a save when  exposed to the fumes are known to die immediately. Resets after 1d3 rounds.

Signs: A deep dark trilling, low hanging fumes that have yet to dissipate

7. Wraithguard

Once one of 8 swords that protected the rulers of Sarkay, now they wander the Mire killing all they see. Their cloak and armour has soaked in the dregs of the mire for so long they turned a purple as deep as black, and sprout pale roots. They tear the tongues from those they kill, for reasons they have long forgotten.

Feature: Their swords carry the sickness of the mire, infecting every wound.

Signs: a pale tongue in the mud, a group of mirelurkers put to the sword.

8. Feral Mage

They came here long ago looking for rare materials and forgot to ever leave. They search even now, though their satchel brims with the mulch of rotten herbs. If placated they can be a useful guide in the Mire, but it does not take long for them to forget once more and return to their feral nature (when rolling Deplete if they travel with the expedition).

Feature: Innately casts spells that control plants, forms fog, and causes frenzy in others. Sculpts elementals from the Mire to defend them.

Signs: clumps of rotten herbs, the signs of magic having been cast.

Local Effects

1. A Sapping of Your Will

Altered Circumstances: The expedition’s will can be sapped only twice. Each time this occurs, the Event Die adds d6 to the roll, and the lowest result is taken. 

If this Effect occurs a third time, the group gives in to the Mire and simply lays down in the mud—one by one—and lets it consume them. Other groups will surely find the gear to be useful.

This effect only resets when you take a week's rest outside of the Mire.

2. Crumbling ‘Bridge’

Minor Choice: An unmoving river of treacherous mud choked with the bodies of those who attempted to cross. Going around the river causes the expedition to suffer a \-2 modifier to the next Event Die rolled. A fallen ruin can be used to cross, but requires making a save to do so safely. Those who fail fall into the river of mud and begin drowning; after d3 rounds, they succumb. Climbing gear negates the need for a save for any individual who has their own, as does clever play.

3. Swamp Gases

Attrition: Naked flames begin to spark and sputter in strange colours as you wander into a pocket of swamp gases. Those close to any torchbearer must save or be consumed by the sudden fireball. The torchbearer makes the save with disadvantage. The torches are consumed in the fire.

4. Homely Ruin

Flavour: The ruin of a small house that has yet to sink fully into mud. The door and window hatches are barred shut from the inside. Several inches of water fill the one room interior. The air glistens with spores when light pierces the gloom. 

In the far corner, upon a stained bed, a family of skeletons huddles together.

Hidden within a garderobe is a shrine, a small clay statue of a raven with a beak full of tongues, all painted a pale blue.

Points of Interest

Shallow Locations

1. Perished Expedition

Nearby mounds of mud are revealed to be the bodies of an expedition group much like your own. They do not appear to have suffered any mortal wounds, but simply laid down in the mud and died. They carry with them a selection of gear similar to what you as a group own now, yet for each item roll 1d6. On 1-in-3 the item is useless and cannot even be repaired. All rations and torches suffer this condition regardless of the roll.

2. Infested Expedition

As the above entry, yet all the gear is discovered to be worthless upon physical inspection. When this occurs, it is also discovered that the bodies are riddled with holes in the skin. Any and all who touched a body must pass a save to notice in time that a small grub is currently trying to burrow into their skin; those who fail must apply fire to the wound or dig the grub out with a knife otherwise the grub burrows to the heart of the host, killing them d3 rounds later.

3. Cleansed Land

An area of the Mire that is cleansed of the rot due to a staff that has been plunged into the bog. The effects of the Mire here are reversed. Making Camp in this location restores any will the Mire might have sapped, though it cannot be used like this again for 2d6 Charting Turns. 

The staff is named numquam mori. If removed the effect is permanently lost. The staff belongs to the Feral Mage, who, if it is returned to them, recalls fully who they are and leaves, promising to—at some point in the future—lend any aid you need should you call upon their abode.

Numquam Mori: One end of the staff is decorated with a multitude of skeletons, whilst the other depicts hale and hearty humanoids. Sickness and wounds can be transferred from any creature holding the side of the living, to any grasping the skeletal end.

4. Old Camp

In a circular cluster of white petrified trees a campfire burns, a cooking pot of stew warming above it. Despite the campfire burning (whilst the food does not), the site looks long abandoned. The stew smells delicious and  is a hearty meal; there’s just enough for everyone in the expedition. A bowl of hot stew removes any exhaustion currently felt. The ghost of the one who set up the camp soon invades the mortal realm, seeking to chastise thieves and in return steal their warmth.

5. Fungal Cave

Hidden in a cliff is the entrance to a cave awash in colour due to the fungi that grows here. Spores fill the cave beyond; breathing them in causes death in 1d6 days unless treated. Further in, the mushrooms take on a more humanoid form. At the furthest reaches, the body of a woman in an antiquated gown of white and a golden crown of raven feathers clutches a glowing scroll. 

A huge crab has settled within the cave, burying itself, lulled by the presence of the scroll. It emerges in a fury if the scroll is removed from the woman's hands.

Scroll of Hidden Weapon: Causes a number of weapons based upon casters' prowess to become invisible for the same number of hours.

6. Raven Watchtower

At the top of a squat watchtower the corpse of a raven as large as any dragon lies curled up on the floor, incorrupt as any saint. A speck of old power resides within it, though it is weakened by the years. Those who take time to commune with the raven can choose to pledge an oath to it; it asks for the pale tongues of the Traitorous Dead of Sarkay. In return it will grant boons.

In return for the 1st pale tongue: You can swap any two of your Ability Scores.

After 3 further pale tongues: Raven Hood: A hood of raven feathers that extends like a beak to cover the face. The wearer finds themself with proficiency in all tool use, the ability to perfectly mimic a few recently heard words or sounds, and the desire to take any silver objects that don’t belong to them and gift them to others.

After a further 4 pale tongues: Bec de Corbin: A very finely crafted polearm. The hammer is a raven's head, with numerous tongues held in its beak. Feathers flutter out when it is swung. Once a day, you can transform into a swarm of ravens to fly across the battlefield and unerringly strike any one target of your choice. 

Deep Locations

The Marble Horn

Atop a rise spiralled by crooked stairs, three crumbling walls are all that remain of a tower. Within, a beautiful bone horn from some mythic beast curls towards the sky, shot through with golden veins like marble. 

As you climb the stairs, you see—carved into massive stone blocks—a mural depicting Sarkay Keep rising  from the ground drawn by the sound of three horns, all blown by the same individual. 

As they sound the first horn, they are wreathed in flames. At the second, their spirit can be seen blown from the horn. The third depiction is broken, the stone fragments long gone.

The horn at the peak of the rise is carved with fire at the mouthpiece. Those who sound the horn suffer severe burns within their lungs. It is an agony they will thankfully never know the like of again, though they are likely to survive. 

The horn, however, crumbles to ash and drifts away on the wind.

The Opal Horn

Four tall walls with arched gates form a square around a profusion of dead trees, snatching roots, and a dozen statues of wraiths and spirits. At the very heart of this dead garden, half buried in the mud and tangled in roots, is a horn of opal bone. The horn is painted with spirits and wraiths similar to the statues. Any attempt to uncover the horn releases all the murderous wraiths of their stone form. One round later, the healing spirits are similarly released from theirs. Blowing the horn returns them all to stone.

And whosoever sounds that horn, cuts their soul and a fragment is drawn out with the sound and thrown into the wind. They can no longer feel warmth, nor joy. Each of their attributes are worsened by 1, but—so long as that fragment of soul is on the wind—if they should perish then it will return and revive them.

The horn fades away, leaving only opalescent vapours to be carried by the wind.  

The Sable Horn

A horn of blackened iron, barbed and twisted coils around the spire of an ancient, crooked chapel that the mirelurkers have claimed for themselves. They number 30, less 2d6 who are out on excursions at any one time. They are led by an elder named Hararuum (the closest a tongue can get to their horn language), who knows spells pertaining to poison and death. The mirelurkers are initially unhappy to accommodate any requests the expedition may have, especially any concerning the horn above, which they revere. 

However, if the expedition gains access to the spire's interior—through charm, guile, or force—they can sound the final horn and dredge Sarkay from its depths.

No murals or writing warn of the horns' effect, though if one person alone has suffered and sounded all three horns, they find themselves cleansed from all negative effects they have suffered, and feel a growth in power. 

The sounding of the final horn causes the Mire to shudder as Sarkay Keep is exhumed from the sludge on a tor of oily black rock.

The sable horn cracks, shattering into shards that scatter on the wind.

An act the mirelurkers can never forgive.