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 alligators, venom trolls, mountain trolls, and merrows.

Description
The air in the swamp is humid and stinks of stagnant water and decaying plant matter, and buzzing insects hum throughout. The edge of the lake is made up mainly of soggy dirt and sand, and tar-like pools of bog water deeper in the swamp often have giant alligators resting within.

The swamp is covered in twisted vines and plant matter. In the heart of the swamp, the Mighty Nein encountered a large, slow-moving fernlike plant that puffed a 30-foot wide cloud of pollen in the air. There are a number of tall banyan trees and other thick-trunked trees with heavy vine-covered canopies; however, light can still come through and open sky is still visible.

In the morning, a low fog lies across the surface of the water. If a hole is made in the soft ground, water begins to fill the space.

There is a small collapsed gatehouse off the path to Berleben, the stones of which are well covered with vines and roots from the swamp.

Outside of the swamp at the northern peak of the lake, there is 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 stuck 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 tall from the ground.

At the base of the tree was a carved circular hollow and a slightly-decomposing curtain of a heavy scaled leathery material. The curtain was pressed, bolted, or nailed into the tree and was hanging down to partially block an opening inside.

Hanging from one of the branches was a cluster of carved 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.

The inside of the trunk was naturally rotted, making it easy to carve away. A layer of broken and chipped bones of varying age textured the floor, and a matted pile of something lay in the corner.

The Troll

The hideout was inhabited by a bulbous, heavy-breathing troll with deep green-blue skin. The edges of its shoulder and arm had pustules and boils that oozed thick green liquid. It had long fingers and long, stringy black hair going past the front of its chest, and its torso was swollen with a protruding belly. Hanging around its neck were hollowed pieces of bone similar to the chime.

Trivia

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