Although I'm not 100% sure what I'll run (currently leaning toward my own "kitchen sink HACK" that skews OS--or the Black Hack). Planning on a jungle/swamp region and you've got some true nastiness awaiting.  Given that, here are some things I'd like to throw in there:

The Arachnil: Spider Cult, like something out of Yezud (or perhaps a snake cult):
Lizard Folk and Gator Men, at odds in the "wilderness."
Militant halflings, at home in the wild.
Perhaps some lost cities and such, teeming with "riches?"
Challenges/terrors associated with travel, the environment.
Stuff from the Mystara MM's (been reading AC9 Creature Catalogue, which contains some great, weird shit).

Specially, I'd be appreciative of your own experiences/creativity in helping me generate the "lay of the land," as follows:

PLACES TO BE:
(1) A business, tavern, guild, trading post, group or individual, etc., operating in this area.
(2) Their agenda (perceived and/or actual)

STUFF TO DO:
(1) A adventure rumor/hook.
(2) The reality, once investigated.

Horrible twists and turns of fate are appreciated.:-)

An old man who will rent canoes/pontoons to visitors. His shack is decorated with the heads of Gator Men, whom he says he hunts in the night, wading alone through the murky waters. How he manages to survive on the edge of the swamps is a mystery, as surely this old man couldn't fend off the horrors on his own?


Note: based on an old Cajun man I met who lived on the edge of Jean Lafitte Swamp. He rented canoes from a shack decorated with alligator heads. And yes, he got them himself, wading through the swamps with a flashlight and an axe. Still pretty sure he was part of a Cthulhu cult.

We are still working through that swamp campaign as things gradually escalate. In fact what seemed like a simple scouting mission has slowly snowballed into an ever increasing set of plots that interlock. Lets see whats gone on so far.

Rumors of a city being built in the middle of the swamp. That it was being built by bullywugs?
Truth was the city rose up from being long sunken. A black dragon was the one doing the raising with dragon magic and some sort of artifact.
The bullywugs were her minions.

Hobgoblins building a fort at the edge of the swamp. There werent any local so where did they come from?
Truth was they were a faction exiled from a neighboring land and were setting up base at the behest of the dragon as a buffer/early warning system.

The local Yuan-Ti were up in arms over the city being raised and were hiring adventurers to investigate. Which was how my party got involved.
Truth was it was their old city and they sank it long ago to seal up some horror from beyond. It was dormant as long as the city was submerged.
Turns out it was a Neolithid.

There was also a local lord trying to build a pathway through the northern end of the swamp. This was by building an elevated wooden road/bridge through.
This attracted all sorts of trouble. An irate dryad over the trees being cut down. A druid sect irate over disrupting the ecology. The road was originally elevated dirt and rock. The lord was persuaded to switch to something less damaging, hence the walkway/bridge.
The truth was that the lord was also part of the thieves guild and was after the dragons treasure and using the road as a distraction. One of the other player groups dealt with that so this is all I know of that.

And an odd one. A farmer hiring adventurers to guard his farm that was adjacent to the swamp. It was being attacked every few days by shambling mounds.
Truth was this jerk was pouring poison into the swamp for reasons never revealed. (he died)
Turns out the poisons were creating the shamblers.

Quote from: Omega;965156And an odd one. A farmer hiring adventurers to guard his farm that was adjacent to the swamp. It was being attacked every few days by shambling mounds. Truth was this jerk was pouring poison into the swamp for reasons never revealed. (he died)
Turns out the poisons were creating the shamblers.

I REALLY like this one.

Quote from: darthfozzywig;965092An old man who will rent canoes/pontoons to visitors. His shack is decorated with the heads of Gator Men, whom he says he hunts in the night, wading alone through the murky waters. How he manages to survive on the edge of the swamps is a mystery, as surely this old man couldn't fend off the horrors on his own?


Note: based on an old Cajun man I met who lived on the edge of Jean Lafitte Swamp. He rented canoes from a shack decorated with alligator heads. And yes, he got them himself, wading through the swamps with a flashlight and an axe. Still pretty sure he was part of a Cthulhu cult.

This is going to be in there, somewhere, for sure.

Southern Comfort, the movie with Powers Boothe, but the Cajuns are Halflings.

Scenic Dunnsmouth would fit right in if you don't mind buying something.

The local wise woman/herbalist/hedge witch is a straight-up hag.  Yes, she's technically evil.  But she's not super-villain evil, just a kind of petty and cruel evil, that demands payment with an edge, but isn't really at war with the locals.  In fact, they've made their peace with her.  They've already paid, one way or another, and if they sometimes feel guilty about it, why stir up trouble?

In a small village near the swamp, the residents come home and lock up tight before dark each night.  Every night they hear a great beast sniffing and snuffling at their doors and windows, but it can't or won't break in.  [It is an ancient catoblepas of max hit points, bound out by an ancient treaty/binding dating to the founding of the village.  But anyone out after dark is fair game.]  The locals no longer know exactly how the deal works, and are strongly opposed to anyone upsetting the applecart by staying out or hunting it.

Were-crocodiles are a thing.  Even in human form, they're temperamentally predatory, but lazy.  They've taken over one of the thieves guild, longshoremen's union or professional boatmen in the local city rather than being an auto-attack wilderness encounter.  Still, don't turn your back.

Old Gerald is a drunk, a gambler and a frequent caller at the whorehouse.  Also the town doctor, but he doesn't advertise, and you'll have to sober him up if you want his services.  A few know he's a disgraced knight, drowning his sorrows far from the capital.  None know he's a paladin, playing a long game.  He really was disgraced politically and exiled, but he never fell.  But when half the town and countryside is at least faintly evil, a man might choose to move slow, pick his targets, and encourage the good as much he hunts the evil.

Also ont of the Dungeon issues way back has a Masque of the Red Death module thats based around New Orleans and the swamps.

Issue 71. Dark Magic in New Orleans. A series of deaths of escalating violence and finally a kidnapping and an another that failed. Each with some sort of voodan fetish found on the victim or nearbouts.

All this ties into an old battle of wills between local Voodan a generation ago and the assumed end of that battle.

When I think swamps, I tend to think of the decay. Possibly you could have magical swamp gasses that glow at night, entering these areas could have different affects. Perhaps these gasses could be used by a cult that worships decay and scavange what the (vampiric?) gasses leave behind. The cult keeps giant hissing cockroaches as pets.

You might want to keep a mix of forest and grass lands in your swamp areas. The grassy areas could be a home land for a large prized herbivore with a nasty temper. And walking into the long grass to hunt it should be dangerous in itself because long grass is ambush heaven.

Finally, try some natural phenomenon, the swamps here in GA are currently burning. They do that every few years when a dragon hunts....errr lightning strikes.

Rumor/Hook:  Trappers operating deep in the swamp give the area around a specific muck pond a wide berth due to mournful sounds, like weeping and wailing, that can be heard late a night.  Every trapper seems to know a guy who knows a guy whose friend disappeared in the area, and a variety of legends have sprung up to explain the phenomenon.  Some say the human-like sounds are the cries of a cursed swamp cat, and to see it means death.  Others claim they're produced by the ghost of a lovesick bride who drowned searching for her missing husband decades ago and continues to look for him to this day.

The reality:  In prehistoric times, a child was hanged to death and thrown into the muck pond as a sacrifice to a dark god.  The bog mummy of the child rose from the dead to cause no end of mischief in a nearby settlement until a local druid staked it to the bottom of the fetid pond with whatever wood the local druids considered especially holy back then.  The mummy has grown attached to the pond after being trapped at the bottom for over two thousand years and now refuses to leave it.  It is so familiar with the pond that it knows the location of any creature in contact with the water, and it can move beneath the still surface without producing a ripple.  (Other abilities may vary depending on how much of a challenge you want it to be.)

Quote from: The Scythian;965427Rumor/Hook:  Trappers operating deep in the swamp give the area around a specific muck pond a wide berth due to mournful sounds, like weeping and wailing, that can be heard late a night.  Every trapper seems to know a guy who knows a guy whose friend disappeared in the area, and a variety of legends have sprung up to explain the phenomenon.  Some say the human-like sounds are the cries of a cursed swamp cat, and to see it means death.  Others claim they're produced by the ghost of a lovesick bride who drowned searching for her missing husband decades ago and continues to look for him to this day.

The reality:  In prehistoric times, a child was hanged to death and thrown into the muck pond as a sacrifice to a dark god.  The bog mummy of the child rose from the dead to cause no end of mischief in a nearby settlement until a local druid staked it to the bottom of the fetid pond with whatever wood the local druids considered especially holy back then.  The mummy has grown attached to the pond after being trapped at the bottom for over two thousand years and now refuses to leave it.  It is so familiar with the pond that it knows the location of any creature in contact with the water, and it can move beneath the still surface without producing a ripple.  (Other abilities may vary depending on how much of a challenge you want it to be.)

Okay, now that is pretty horrifying. Of course, you'd think the players would give it a wide berth...but, then, the groups I've run...

Quote from: MonsterSlayer;965403Finally, try some natural phenomenon, the swamps here in GA are currently burning. They do that every few years when a dragon hunts....errr lightning strikes.

Like.

Quote from: CRKrueger;965258Southern Comfort, the movie with Powers Boothe, but the Cajuns are Halflings.

I'll have to check it out. A brief glance at the wiki (National Guard hunted by Cajuns) would be a nice way to really mess with the players.

My DCC campaign had one swamp full of Hillbilly Giants, and another with a barbaric tribe of Nudist Mutants.

Quote from: RPGPundit;965985My DCC campaign had one swamp full of Hillbilly Giants, and another with a barbaric tribe of Nudist Mutants.

"Nudist mutants?" Is nudism a part of the mutation (or rather, "nude-tation" BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!).:-)