Pthlegaeos, The Boiling Marsh
In the distant East, there is a sprawling marshland, its waters simmering with unnatural heat, its ever shifting surface dotted with the ruins of immense raised highways. It is Pthlegeaos, the Boiling Marsh, an inauspicious place to be sure, but full of opportunity if one knows where to find it.
The marshes are inhabited by squabbling barbarian tribes who refer to their homeland as Pthlegaeos, living on the ruins that have drifted across its surface since time immemorial. Their oral histories claim that at the dawn of time, the great city of Pthlegaeos towered on stone pillars above the swamp that shared its name. The marshes once spoke the secrets of the earth below to those who lived above, oracles would inhale the vapors of the marsh and speak the will of Pthlegaeos. The people of Pthlegaeos revered the marsh, which was their king and their god. Then, one night, a shining trickster-daemon snuck into the city-temple and stole the secret treasure of the god-marsh, spiriting it away beyond the horizon. The god-marsh grew wroth, for it valued that stolen treasure above all things. In its throes of rage, great chasms opened in the earth and spat forth burning gases. The waters grew scalding with fury and boiled away the storied speaking manses and dueling pavilions Pthlegaeos was known for. In a single night, the city of Pthlegaeos was swallowed by its king and god, tens of thousands dying in the cataclysm. To this day, the barbarian Pthlegaelic tribes of the marsh claim their king and god still simmers with anger over its stolen treasure.
For centuries, the homeland of the Pthlegaels was regarded as an inhospitable backwater, populated by barbarians in crocodile-leather armor designed to protect them from gouts of deadly steam. The Pthlegaelic tribes live crude existences atop the ruins of their ancient city. The remains of the great superstructure constantly drift throughout the marsh, cyclopean columns pulled by the currents of Pthlegaeos's rage. Where there are no ruins to provide shelter, the tribes weave houses from the marsh grasses and build villages on stilts in the safer parts of the marsh, travelling by canoe when the waters rise. The Pthegaels farm the giant freshwater sponges that can be found within the marsh and hunt crocodiles and coral-horned swamp deer for food and materials. Insular and fractious, they often skirmish with each other over territory disputes, and headhunting is a common practice among them. They have learned to use the clouds of steam that cover parts of the marsh to great effect, blending into them for hunting animals and unlucky humans, leading to some outsiders to believe the marsh is devil-haunted. The greatest warriors among them wear armor with the insides smeared with a cocktail of drugs that dulls their pain and enhances their strength at the cost of long-term sanity and fertility.
The marsh sat neglected for aeons, avoided by its neighbors and far from any trade routes. Things changed fifteen years ago when the Guild merchant prince Blue Tea Sparrow discovered the three hidden gifts of the marsh, the Red Harlequin Flower, the Giant Tigers-Blood Snail, and the Century Salts of Pthlegaeos.
Guild Interests
The Red Harlequin Flower is a large insect-eating plant that grows within the marshes. The Pthlegaels use it to brew entheogens for their shamans. Blue Tea Sparrow's alchemists discovered that when the flower's stem and roots are ground to paste and mixed with certain plant based drugs, they increase the yield of the subsequent narcotics without diminishing potency or dosage, the paste taking on the traits of the materials its mixed with. The Guild Directorate has richly rewarded Sparrow after she enabled them to ruin the economy of a particularly willful kingdom with cheap harlequin paste opium.The Guild has tried growing the plant elsewhere, but they refuse to take root outside the Boiling Marshes, so Blue Tea Sparrow hires or enslaves the local tribes to bring her hauls of the flowers and is working on building a plantation within the bounds of the swamp.
The Giant Tigers-Blood Snail is a massive carnivorous snail that hunts within the boiling marsh. Pthlegaelic braves hunt the creature to make armor and building materials from its large shell, which can be ground and introduced to a primitive type of concrete to increase the strength. Blue Tea Sparrow has discovered that the snail secretes a substance that can be used in a dye that gives fabric a beautiful orange and black pattern reminiscent of tiger stripes. Clothes made with the dye are all the rage amongst dynasts and threshold princes, and Blue Tea Sparrow has made several attempts at domesticating the predatory beasts. She has met with mixed success, but has managed to get a pair of the creatures to lay eggs, which are now jealously guarded as they incubate within a fortified Guild trading post.
The most prized of Blue Tea Sparrow's discoveries are the Century Salts of Pthlegaeos. Deep within the marsh, where the steam can kill an unwary mortal, there are pools where the divine ichor of the living marsh has crystallized into salt deposits along the water's edge. Blue Tea Sparrow has discovered that the salts act as a minor anagathic. When an adult human bathes in waters with the dissolved salts, they emerge looking and feeling years younger (though their bodies don't revert past the stage of adulthood). The effects wear off over the span of a few weeks, the grip of age reasserting itself, often painfully so. The Guild finds itself inundated with offers from vain, aging aristocrats for doses of the Century Salts, and Blue Tea Sparrow herself has not looked a day over twenty-five for almost a decade. Only the Pthlegaelic tribes know the swamp well enough to safely gather the salts (though a few guildsmen who have been with Blue Tea Sparrow for years approach their skill), trading it to Guild outpost in exchange for iron weapons, opium, and other foreign goods. Blue Tea Sparrow has yet to disclose the disquieting effects of prolonged exposure to the salts.
Intrigues and Mysteries
For her discoveries, Blue Tea Sparrow has attained the rank of Factor in the Guild. She wields immense influence throughout the East. She could rise higher in the Guild, but doing so would take her away from the Boiling Marsh. She has sworn to wring every last scrap of profit from the ill-omened place. Despite this, she's seen as a major player in Guild politics, lending her financial and social clout to those who make deals with her.
In ancient times, Pthlegaeos laid with the behemoth now called Mother Bog, and a child was born of their union, Acleos, the Lion of The Pit. A being of living quicksand, it is still in its millennia spanning childhood, wandering the southeast near the Dreaming Sea in search of its mother or father. Buried deep beneath its surface lie sandstone caverns illuminated by Acleos's will, inhabited by the descendants of those who survived being pulled underneath. At the center of the caverns lies its temple heart, where the Lion of The Pit speaks through its oracle and manifests its leonine insectoid avatar.
The Guild sells iron weapons and supplies to the Pthlegaelic tribes in return for labor and slaves, but some guildsmen have taken greater notice of the Pthlegael's skill in stealth and skirmish warfare. Visiting merchant princes and factors have recruited(or enslaved) several Pthlegaelic braves and used them as gladiators and mercenaries abroad. The bladder-lung, a crude underwater respiratory device used by the tribes, has also seen use among Guild affiliated smugglers and assassins.
The god-marsh fitfully sulks as it has done for centuries, sullen and bitter. It hardly notices the small beings that live within its borders, only occasionally manifesting its avatar, a towering, fire crowned giant of mud, among them to issue orders or demand sacrifice. Recently, its interest was piqued when a young Pthlegaelic woman discovered the ruins of the ancient city temple. It contemplates making her it's oracle, sending her dreams of future glories and hints at possible locations of its beloved lost treasure.
The majority of the artifacts of the ancient city of Pthlegaeos no longer function, requiring the blessing of the god-marsh to work. Despite this, there are a few wonders that continue to function as they once did, whether through an independent power source or by the whims of the marsh. One such artifact, a stone mace, has been discovered by the Pthlegaelic war-leader Six Bows, who's name is becoming infamous amongst the marsh tribes. Another, a brass automaton in the shape of a heron, has found its way into the hands of Blue Tea Sparrow, who consults it for advice and insights into the secrets of the marsh.
The Feasters of the Blossom, a mystery cult dedicated to the Yozi Metagaos, has sent agents to the Boiling Marsh, infiltrating the Guild workforce and some of the more open marsh tribes. The leadership of the cult believes that Pthlegaeos is a child of the All-Hunger-Blossom, and there may be some truth to that claim in the oral histories of the Pthlegaels.
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