False Swamp

Entering the Swamp

How Far Before Detection?

Starting Infection Strength

The base level of Infection is determined by the path your characters are taking through the Swamp. Refer to the following diagram.

Difficulty

Baseline: +1d20!

Time of Day

During the day, the Swamp is at its weakest but hardest to detect.. Lower the Injection level 1 step but add an additional +1d20! to the Difficulty.

Failure Threshold

8

Complications

Roll on the table corresponding table according to the level of infection. If there are two Complications, one is automatically spent so that nobody saw where the Complication came from.

Minor

1. Single attack by tendril
2. Wear on boots, pants, or the lower part of armor
3. Heard an upsetting sound (fish getting slapped against water, songbird suddenly cut short, grass rustling when nothing is there) 1d4! Stress

Major

1. 1d4! tendrils attack against random targets
2. 1d4! Wear on boots, pants, or the lower part of armor
3. Heard a very upsetting sound (an animal scream cut short, a hawk getting quickly strangled) 2d4! Stress
4. Cut off by water that wasn't there before: add +d10! to Getting Out Difficulty and +10 minutes to total travel time

On Failure

Someone falls into the False Swamp.

On Success

The players detect that something is wrong. Roll once on the following table and an additional time for each Boon.

Clues

1. Slightly moving earth
2. Desiccated tendril
3. Dark movement in water
4. Overflowed banks
5. Extra damaged boots when stuck in 'mud'
6. Total quiet in the forest

Complications can serve as Clues: these are just Clues that don't also come with some kind of penalty.

In Addition

On top of this, for every 2 Boons, lower the Infection level by 1 step. If this goes below Minor, that means that they've detected the Swamp before actually getting intangled and don't need to make a Check to get out. This is on top of the clues.

Getting Out

Getting Out is handled the same as detecting the Swamp but, on success, the characters are able to get to the edges of the Swamp.

Diving Into the Swamp

Diving into the Swamp to loot things because some players will, no doubt.
If they're not near the center of the False Swamp, they won't find anything. Otherwise, using the following Obstacle: Difficulty +d20!
Failure Threshold 4
Complication

1. 1d4! tendrils attack against targets
2. 1d4! Wear on armor, weapons, shields, and exposed equipment
3. 1d8! damage from having to hold breath too long

On Failure Get trapped at the bottom of the Swamp, wrapped in tendrils and drowning
On Success Find some bones & or metal. Roll randomly. Organic and otherwise are destroyed.

Table of Contents

Relationships

Black Brothers

Isn't spreading currently. Not due to the efforts of Tarbreaker Juchin, a WA hired by the Black Brother to keep it at bay.

Huhli dir Syndi

When someone refuses to make a payment on their debt or pays off their debt, the qwibs of Huhli dir Syndi throw them into the False Swamp. They have a safe way through the swamp to the Swamp's center.

Sunken Farahold

The creature spawned off a branch in Sunken Farahold. It was stolen by an adventure who later ran into a tackle eel; both were killed and the creature was let free.

Questions

What is the False Swamp?

A Zaurank: a branch from Sunken Farahold.
It has started to spread along waterways because the fish and eels are easy prey - displacing water as it grows.

Why Hasn't it Spread Further?

Sunlight
Not all waterways are infected - only those connected to the original pool and in enough shade.
It's pretty much reached its limit