The Beldum Marsh

South of the darach forest, not a day past the Southern Creagan plains, lies a marsh that, a century before, was not there. The Beldum Marsh sprang forth over a small number of months, just less than a year; its brackish waters slowly soaking the ground of Beldum Woods, building up the sludgy moor, and partially sinking the castle that sits in its southern tip. Most of the trees died, or fell into the marsh, fossilizing in the mineral rich liquids and forming a maze-like path through. For an unknown reason, the marsh stopped short of the Creagan Pass its north. But claimed the castle that sat just outside the old wood, to the south. When the castle had sunk partway into the muddy waters, the progress of the marsh stopped. The reason for its creation still remains a mystery, although few refute that it was likely magical in nature. With its rapid shift in environment, many of the species that made up Beldum Wood either died, quickly left to the eastern or western remains of the wood, or quickly adapted to the new space. A new ecosystem has built up over the century of its presence, but the marsh still remains too eerily quiet and empty for most people. The most prominent species is a newt that can be found over the entire marsh. Its psychoactive oils that are produced from its body, are known to make some creatures behave in highly strange ways, such as herbivores acting as carnivores, cross-species reproduction, and animals screaming into the night, or going catatonic. The Beldum Marsh is mostly uninhabited by humanoids, as the marsh is difficult to create permanent or even mid term structures. However, there is a small band of humanoids said to live in the marsh, existing through the use of Beldum Newt oil as a hunting weapon. There is also a small goblin tribe that, likewise travels the marsh, eating newts and small game that wanders in. To the south of Beldum woods sits The Sunken Keep; a castle that had once monitored the surrounding region. Its lower levels sit empty of civilization, while its top is used as one of the few stable spaces to camp or build within the region.