Labenda Swamp

The Labenda Swamp is a darkened, tangled, thick swamp that surrounds the town of Berleben and the Ounterloch. It is at the base of the Silberquel Ridge and the Bromkiln Byway rus straight through it. At night, low, echoing howls can be heard coming out of it. The swamp is inhabited by gators, venom trolls, mountain trolls, and merrows.

Description
The air in the center of the swamp is humid and prevented sweat from evaporating. The ever-present hum of the buzzing insects permeats the atmosphere, while the musky stench of decaying plants and stagnant water grows stronger the further in one goes. Along the edge of the lake, it is mainly soggy dirt and sand.

It consists of a mess of twisted vines and plant matter. When the Mighty Nein encountered it, in the center was one large fern-type plant with three or four large leaves spread outward that puffed a large, 30-foot wide cloud of yellowish pollen in the air. This plant could move but not very fast.

There were a number of tall banyan trees and other thicker-trunked trees with gnarled bases and heavy, thick, vine-covered canopies. However, light could still come through and although bits and pieces overhung the Bromkiln Byway, there was still open sky.

The swamp has heavy puddles of swamp bog water which often have giant gators resting just below the water surface. Scattered across the swamp are thick tar-like boggy pools.

In the morning, a very low fog lies across the surface of the water that is exposed in patches between the thick roots and soft rotting vegetation. If a void is made within the ground, water begins to fill up the space.

There is a small collapsed gatehouse off the path to Berleben. The century-old stones from the gatehouse have long since been reclaimed by the roots and vines of the swamp.

Outside of the swamp at the northern peak of the lake where it curves back into a southern area is the beginning of a path leading northward into the swamp to the Gentleman's safe house and storage facility. When the Mighty Nein sought the safe house, the path was marked with six daggers with pearl hilts that were jammed about five feet off the ground into the trees.

The Troll's Hideout
The troll's hideout was in a thick tree that had broken and fallen over about ten feet from the base. The heavy roots rose up into a trunk that stood about nine or ten feet from the base of the swamp floor.

At the base of the tree was a carved circular hollow and a slightly-decomposing long weathered curtain of heavy scaled leather-like material that had a bit of moss and algae growing on it. The curtain was hanging down and pressed, bolted, or nailed into it and was partially blocking an opening into the tree.

Hanging from one of the branches was a cluster of old yellowed carved dried hollow bone chimes that were dangling from a piece of tanned or dried sinew. They banged into each other occasionally when a breeze came through.

There was a natural rot on the inside of the trunk that made it easy to carve it away. On the floor was a layer of bones of varying agew that were broken and chipped to the point where it gave a texture base to the floor. There appeared to be a matted pile of something in the corner.

The Troll The hideout was inhabited by a bulbous troll with a deep green-blue skin tone with little pustules and boils on it at the edges of the shoulder and arm. It had long stringy black hair going past the front of the chest. His torso was swollen, with its belly protruding beyond it. Hanging around his neck were other pieces of hollowed bone, very similar to the chime. The pustules and part of its body had thick green liquid oozing out in places. It had long fingers and was breathing heavy.

Trivia

 * "Labenda" (as shown in the episode title ) is occasionally spelled "Lebenda" in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount.