Pântanos de Immoren
WILDERNESS REGIONS OF WESTERN IMMOREN — IKUnleashed
Montanhas de Immoren
WILDERNESS REGIONS OF WESTERN IMMOREN — IKUnleashed
Although dotted by the many urban centers within the Iron Kingdoms, western Immoren is still a wild place. Many people live in unspoiled regions of the natural world, as they did before the rise of cities.
Life in the wilds is not easy. With countless predatory beasts, natural disasters, and deadly hazards, even something as simple as securing a meal brings the likelihood of failure and the possibility of death. Nevertheless, the wilderness is home to many powerful, clever, and resilient peoples. These wild races have carved out a living in hostile environments, surviving and thriving in places citizens of the civilized world cannot imagine calling home.
GEOGRAPHIC DIVISIONS
This section contains information on western Immoren’s wilderness regions. It is broken down into four large geographic divisions: desert, forest, mountain, and swamp. Each division includes details about the regions and geographic features of western Immoren as well as information related to the specific forests, mountain ranges, swamps, and deserts found within it.
Only the largest and most prominent geographical features are described here. Innumerable smaller woods, glades, moors, hills, peaks, streams, and desolate stretches exist in western Immoren, their names not recorded on any map. Game Masters should feel free to invent new areas with unique features as needed for a campaign. The geography of an area can assume an important role in your story, whether as an obstacle, an area of interest for your PCs, a place to find allies and unexpected advantages, or a hostile location.
The marshes of Immoren are among the least hospitable of its environments. These regions are preferred by only a few races acclimated to these regions and are avoided by the rest. Viewed by most only as obstacles, swamps are noted primarily for their hostile terrain and aggressive predators. These dark places of primordial power teem with malevolent lingering spirits, and horrific creatures lurk here beneath otherwise still and stagnant waters. Most who do not dwell within swamps prefer to leave these unpleasant places to the bog trogs, gatormen, swamp gobbers, and swampies who call them home. This avoidance has allowed some of these same creatures to dominate these regions relatively unchallenged.
All swamps are predominantly covered in a layer of freshwater or saltwater. These dank, murky landscapes wreak havoc on arms, armor, equipment, and supplies. Due to the lack of natural resources, swamp dwellers compete fiercely for everything, and some are quick to expel any who might threaten their domain. The scattered settlements found in swamps are built on the few patches of land that rise from the water. A swamp village can be spread across many tiny islands separated by patches of slow-moving water.
Despite the inhospitable nature of these swamps, blackclads understand their value. When heavy rains cause flooding, swamps and other wetlands absorb excess water, moderating the effects of the flood. Swamps also protect coastal areas from storm surges that can wash away fragile coastlines, and saltwater swamps and tidal salt marshes help anchor coastal soil and sand.
One of the main advantages of the swamp, for those inclined to live in one, is a lack of natural resources to trade. Intrusions by human industry are far less common here than in forests or mountains, limited to those who harvest peat for fuel or alchemists on the hunt for rare ingredients. Most who trespass on swamp territories do so for the simple expedient of trying to get somewhere else.
WEATHER
High amounts of precipitation are characteristic of all swamps. The land is dank and the temperatures typically above average, and the combination of these conditions offers a unique setting for plants to flourish. A few exceptions exist to the north, however, where ocean conditions produce fertile wetlands.
Wind is seldom a concern in swamps, where a thick awning of trees, bushes, and wild plants typically prevents gusts from entering. A lengthy, light drizzle may serve as a prelude to more serious rainfall, although heavy rainstorms are rare. The proliferation of eager predators lurking just beneath the surface of the dark waters is a more immediate concern.
Once every few years, dry seasons affect the smaller swamps of the land. Depending on a swamp’s location, its water may recede enough to reveal the beds of its fens. These dry seasons can devastate the plants and animals of these smaller swamps, driving creatures into outlying areas where they come into contact (and often conflict) with those living nearby.
GEOGRAPHIC FEATURES
FRESHWATER SWAMPS
Freshwater swamps form around lakes, creeks, and the flood plains of rivers. Rains and spring floods cause water levels to rise. Water-tolerant foliage grows in the wet soil, helping preserve a soggy, swampy state.
Cypress and mangrove trees grow in many freshwater swamps across western Immoren. Moss hangs from their branches, and tiny shrubs called duckweed cover the water, obscuring the tangled root systems and creatures just beneath its surface. Many bushes and plants grow beneath the trees. Bony knobs called cypress knees, outgrowths of the trees’ root structures, sometimes rise as much as ten feet from the water’s surface.
Alligators, frogs, and many other creatures live in these swamps, along with powerful blackhides, swamp trolls, and ironback spitters. The root system and cypress knees provide a rich, secluded habitat for nesting birds as well as fish, amphibians, and reptiles.
SALTWATER SWAMPS
Saltwater swamps form along the tropical coastlines to the south. These swamps begin as bare flats of mud and sand covered by a thin layer of seawater during high tides. Plants that can endure tidal flooding begin to grow and soon form thickets of roots and branches, making travel through the region extremely difficult.
Animals live among these trees and feed on fallen fronds and other material. Crabs, conchs, and other shellfish are plentiful in saltwater swamps, and many predators are drawn here by the abundance of food. The swamps are also home to a huge variety of birds, whose waste helps fertilize the swamp and begins the cycle of life once more.
Because the young of many marine animals find nourishment and shelter in saltwater swamps, these wetlands are often called “ocean nurseries.” Many ocean species enter coastal wetlands to spawn, and many fish swim into salt marshes to lay their eggs. When the eggs hatch, the young find plenty of food and some protection in swamp grasses and tree roots. Other species spawn in the ocean, and their young swim into the wetlands and live there until they mature. Young sea drakes, found in coastal waters to the south of western Immoren, inhabit these swamps, preying on the local wildlife until they are large enough to sustain themselves in the open ocean.
FORESTED SWAMPS
Forested swamps are found throughout Immoren; examples include the Widower’s Wood, the Wythmoor, and portions of the Bloodsmeath. They are often besieged with floodwaters from nearby rivers and streams and sometimes covered by many feet of slow-moving or standing water. During dry seasons, they often offer the only shallow water for miles, critical to the survival of species that depend on the wetlands. Shrubby flora also dominates these swamps, whose soil is waterlogged for most of the year and is at times covered by as much as a few feet of water. The dense cover of Immoren’s forested swamps makes them ideal habitats for solitary creatures such as swamp horrors and young dracodiles, which prey on smaller creatures before they reach full size and move on to larger waterways.
HAZARDS
Travelers unaccustomed to traversing a swamp will find its uncertain ground a major hazard. Apparently shallow water can hide deep sinkholes lined with heavy mud that makes escape difficult. The ground in a swamp is invariably treacherous, even on established trails, and circumstances that require haste — such as fleeing from a band of angry bog trogs — can result in unexpected injuries. Even worse, rotted wood and putrid water are catalysts for infection and disease.
Immorese swamps contain a variety of threats not found elsewhere, including swamp vapors that can cause unconsciousness, toxic plants and animals that can cause violent illness or death if consumed, volatile pockets of methane gas, quicksand that suffocates creatures unable to escape it, and living threats such as overgrown skiggs, packs of burrow-mawgs, giant swamp oysters, snakes, alligators, and worse. Although undead are a peril in many parts of Immoren, they are disproportionately common in the swamps. Dying souls have a harder time passing on here, and corpses sometimes attract malignant energies and rise from their watery graves.
Many intelligent creatures also inhabit Immoren’s swamps. Some of these races will speak with visitors, but others will react violently to any perceived intrusion. A positive experience with one tribe of bog trogs or gatormen in no way guarantees that a different tribe will refrain from devouring intruders rather than asking their business.
SWAMPS OF WESTERN IMMOREN
ARMAN MOORS
A small bog in eastern Ord bordering the Thornwood, the Arman Moors are best known for their bleak beauty. These moors are covered with heather, peat, and marshes. This region grows wilder to the south, where it expands into the untamed Wythmoor. The locals have long grown accustomed to navigating the firmer paths of the Arman Moors and are willing to guide trade convoys for a small price. Knowledgeable scouts know to look for and avoid the area’s hollows, which can swallow a man whole.
Many generations of cattle domestication around Armandor have given rise to a hardy breed particularly adept at navigating swampy ground. Herders in the area do not fear losing wandering cows to the deepest fens, but the cattle are tempting prey for hungry beasts from the Thornwood. A few of the Ordic Army’s soldiers patrol the border region, ready to gun down anything dangerous that emerges from the forest. They do not catch everything, though, and local herders have had to endure attacks by many creatures, including rampaging warpwolves and full-blood trolls.
BLINDWATER
Within the eastern Thornwood lies the imposing Blindwater, a name that refers to both the expansive swamp and the great, stagnant lake lying at its heart. The stench of death hangs heavily over the marsh, as constant as the murky water that floods the region. Sheltered by a canopy of twisted limbs and vines, the air is hot, humid, and unmoving, thick with the foul vapors that rise from the swamp’s surface.
Souls trapped in these fetid mists and waters are forever denied their passage to Urcaen. The energy of death permeates the area, strong enough to be felt as a lingering dread or a sudden chill despite the oppressive warmth. To those with the appropriate talents, such as the gatorman bokors, this spectral miasma represents a source of tremendous potential power.
Dark rites and blood sacrifice can bind these spirits to a bokor’s will. With the aid of bone totems and fetishes, bokors enslave such entities and use them to inflict curses on their enemies; some are caged in prisons of rotting flesh and animated as undead slaves. Necromancy is an inextricable part of gatorman culture. Throughout the reed hut villages lining Blindwater Lake, bones are everywhere, employed as totems and piled high into imposing mounds.
The gatormen of this region are bound together under the rule of the mighty bokor Bloody Barnabas, and this lake is the center of his power. He dwells atop a great stepped ziggurat of recovered Morrdhic and Orgoth stone that serves as both fortress and temple. Here he holds court, visited by lesser bokors who pay him tribute. Although most of them still worship the gatorman god, Kossk, they blend their reverence for that entity with religious deference toward Barnabas.
Despite the powerful gatorman presence, swampies dwell in several nearby villages, isolated groups who share the lake’s shores and tributaries with their inhuman neighbors. They have come to terms with living in the shadow of the Blindwater Congregation that serves Barnabas. So far, the arrangements between the two have held. As long as the humans stick to their territories and offer periodic tributes, they are allowed to continue their simple lives, fishing the rivers and tending to their own.
Deeper in the fen, some swampie villages have cohabitated with the gatormen for generations. The close quarters have led to cultural crossovers ranging from what an outsider might label as quaint regionalism to downright heretical ritual practices. Many natives wear small fetishes or necklaces of alligator teeth that mark them as allies or trade partners of the swamp’s reptilian denizens. The necromancy favored by the gatormen has prompted some unusual local variants of Thamarite worship among these human settlers, who consider it neither strange nor unholy to maintain shrines to Scion Delesle or the Dark Twin. Cults worshipping the Devourer Wurm are fewer in number here but not unknown.
BLOODSMEATH MARSH
In the northeastern Thornwood near the old Khador-Cygnar border lies the Bloodsmeath Marsh, a vast sea of murky water, dense reeds, and black mangroves. Tiny islands of peat moss are the only approximation of land amid the swamp, although hundreds of the spongy, waterlogged lumps dot the area.
The Bloodsmeath hums with life, much of it decidedly hostile. Clouds of biting insects darken the air, while an array of venomous serpents slither through the reeds. Massive reptiles watch hungrily from the water, where they war sporadically with voracious swamp trolls and other aquatic monstrosities. Bog trog hunting parties stalk the unwary with bone-tipped spears and barbed nets, relying on their peerless camouflage to creep close enough to strike.
The rugged, backwater swampies of the area have always lived beyond the edge of civilization, making do with whatever they can pry from the swamp without aid from (or contact with) the wider world. Their darker complexion, shorter stature, and distinctive dialect, which makes heavy use of colloquial sayings, set them apart from more civilized humans.
This region’s primary landmark is the battered border fortress of Northguard, which is situated on more stable ground just north of the marsh proper. It towers at the center of a sprawling complex of trenches, secondary forts, and bunkers that once served as the northern limit of Cygnaran military strength. Several supporting towns sprouted up just south of the compound, clustered around the way stations and military depots along the supply road extending south through the marsh and offering local wares and services to both merchants and soldiers making the trek through the swamp or on patrol.
Northguard is still the area’s economic driver to some degree, but times have changed, as has the identity of Northguard’s masters. The outer walls of the fortress were shattered in the border conflicts, but most of the interior buildings were captured intact and are occupied by Khadorans. The former Cygnaran stronghold now serves as Khador’s primary supply depot in this region, and Khadoran soldiers now march along these roads and avail themselves of the locals’ services. Attitudes in these towns vary. Those who are as comfortable with Khadoran coin as Cygnaran maintain the same lives they did before, while more patriotic locals furtively work against the invaders.
Although the Khadorans have demonstrated their willingness to retaliate against any open resistance to their control of the region, the swamp folk and cold-blooded races of this region are wily. They know the terrain better than the northerners, who often rely on them as guides. Gatormen and bog trogs in the area have learned not to provoke large and well-armed Khadoran patrols but will gladly set upon smaller ones. Territorial markings are taken seriously among these tribes, who do not allow the Khadorans to push even slightly toward Blindwater.
CLOUTSDOWN FEN
Between the Gnarls and the sea lies the Cloutsdown Fen, a malodorous morass of stagnant water and clinging mud. Rotting fish and putrid vegetation are common to many swamps, but here the air is laced with a sulfurous tang. Anything left in the murky water soon accumulates a thin, powdery layer of yellow-grey buildup; iron in particular fares poorly, rapidly becoming corroded and brittle.
The Twelve Day Road, which connects Ceryl to Orven and the rest of Cygnar, runs through the Cloutsdown for nearly half its length and is noted for its pervasive stench, muddy mires, and inescapable dampness. The Gnarls, even more dangerous, loom imposingly to the north. As if the chance of losing a wagon to the sucking mud or the creatures lurking in the reeds were not enough, any caravan attempting to make the crossing is likely to be waylaid by brigands demanding “tolls” for safe passage and use of the road. Although a sufficiently armed or blustery escort can see them off, many merchants have taken to paying these extortions as an easier and cheaper solution. Liegemen of the duke of Ceryl have launched attempts to stamp out banditry, but the outlaws simply melt away into the swamp.
Most of the bandits who prowl the Twelve Day Road are inhabitants of the scattered villages, desperate men and women struggling to eke out a living. The Gnasir and trollkin who live in Cloutsdown Fen do so in relative poverty, a fact not lost on them when they compare their lives to the lives of those who dwell in Ceryl. With few other means of providing for themselves and generations of envy and resentment making rationalization easy, many have become brigands — an accepted, almost honored, profession among the locals.
FENN MARSH
The southeastern coast of Cygnar is dominated by the Fenn Marsh, a massive salt marsh that covers a substantial portion of the coastal land between Clockers Cove and Mercir. A seemingly endless sea of yellow-green grass and spindly reeds rises from its shallow, brackish water, broken only by the occasional stretch of open, stagnant river or copse of scraggly trees and thorny brush. The water in the Fenn Marsh rises and ebbs with the tide, revealing bands of sucking mudflats at its lowest and forcing the streams and waterways to flow inland as it rolls in.
Humanity’s impact on the Fenn is limited. The bleak marsh is extremely inhospitable, and precious little fresh water can be found here. Only a handful of human communities dwell in the entire area, subsisting on what they can scrape from the muck or snatch from the shallows and surviving only at the indulgence of the gatormen and trollkin who rule the marsh.
Where the Fenn Marsh meets the Wyrmwall, a different sort of desolation takes over. The area known as the Ditches is a scar left on the face of Immoren by the cruel and uncaring Orgoth. Centuries of ceaseless strip mining in search of precious metals and harvesting of the stone used to construct Orgoth fortresses have left the region a barren wasteland of poisoned sand and broken rock.
The Fenn is the ancestral home to a sizable concentration of trollkin, although many from this region abandoned the old ways and migrated to Mercir. Better suited to the harsh environment and more tolerant of the pervasive salt, the trollkin of this region’s kriels have traditionally done well for themselves. In recent years, mounting pressure from increasingly aggressive gatorman tribes has begun threatening their existence.
Although the gatormen here have become increasingly dominant, they are more fractious and divided than their counterparts in Blindwater. They have recently begun pushing past their ancient boundaries and claiming new territory. This increased activity is largely due to the efforts of Calaban the Grave Walker, a bokor of tremendous power and influence who has risen to prominence. He has gathered a sizable contingent of local warriors and delivered them to the Blindwater Congregation, joining southern and northern gatormen into a single alliance. Not all tribes in the Fenn have committed to the cause, but few bokors have the will to stand against Calaban. Those who oppose him are sometimes killed and then animated as swamp shamblers to serve as a warning to others.
THE MARCK
The western coast of central Cygnar is home to the expansive bayous known as the Marck. One of the largest contiguous swamps in western Immoren, it begins at the base of the Wyrmwall Mountains south of Rimmocksdale Lake and extends well out into the sea as a marshy peninsula. Best known for the pervasive mists that shroud the entire region, the Marck exudes threatening mystery and dark uncertainty. The air in the Marck is hot, humid, and dense, held close to the murky water and muddy ground by a canopy of tangled limbs. Twisted clumps of hanging moss droop from the gnarled trees, whose sprawling branches keep the ground below in almost perpetual twilight.
The Marck holds an abundance of natural resources and a variety of wildlife. The soggy ground conceals rich deposits of coal and black, oily tar, while the dense overgrowth yields a number of rare, gnarled timbers. Giant armored turtles, fanged pike the size of a man, moss-covered swamp shamblers, and a host of other species swim beneath the stagnant water’s surface.
The Arjun have made their homes in the deep swamp for generations. These reclusive people have only occasional contact with Ramarck, the only city of note in the region, and the various towns and villages of the exterior. Locals hold the Arjun in low esteem, akin to swampies elsewhere. Regardless, there are no finer guides if one can somehow gain their trust.
Gatormen have never had a significant presence in the Marck, but its depths are home to a number of bog trog tribes that have remained free of gatorman oppression. The primary adversaries of these bog trogs are the region’s relatively numerous human inhabitants. Local Arjun have managed to negotiate truces with the bog trogs in some areas, but the two groups are more often violently at odds.
NORTH BERCK MOORS
The North Berck Moors stretch from the coast of the Sea of a Thousand Souls to the twin lakes of Mere Dorou and Mere Tagao in Ord. As such, the moors are primarily saltwater swamps, although some areas of freshwater swampland can be found nearer the lakes.
The northern moors are home to a wide variety of animal life, primarily amphibians, water snakes, birds, and large flying insects. Duckweed covers much of the water here, and large groves of cypress trees present frequent obstacles to travelers. Although mostly marshy, the northern moors contain some arable land.
The southern portions of the North Berck Moors are saltwater swampland. Muddy flats line the shore for miles, filling with water during high tide. Further inland, the salty water is host to a variety of trees whose root systems clog its surface and render much of the area difficult to travel. Hanging mosses cling to the broad canopy, limiting long-range vision. In the more watery areas, saltwater crocodiles, poisonous water snakes, and swarms of stinging insects are common.
In recent years, a population explosion among the gatormen of these moors has led to increased confrontations with bog trogs here. Forced south, the bog trogs have begun raiding settlements north of Berck in search of food and other resources. It is only a matter of time before these settlers retaliate.
WYTHMOOR
The Wythmoor is a large, swampy region of southeastern Ord. Adjacent to the Dogwood, as the eastern portion of the Olgunholt is known, it is a cold and dreary swamp with few inhabitants. The vast Wythmoor was once regularly harvested for lumber, but now only foggy moors and clustered groves of fan-leaved trees remain. Jutting from the bog are the skeletal remains of old, unharvested trees.
The Wythmoor contains vast stretches of sucking peat bogs, and incautious travelers can easily find themselves sinking into a brackish quagmire. Cryxian interlopers from the Thornwood have recently spilled over into this forsaken place. The Wythmoor had already been considered haunted, and now the risen dead prowl the fog, seeking to slay the living. This has become a problem for several small tribes of local swamp gobbers who had previously enjoyed a relative lack of competition.
