The Spider Swamps

The Spider Swamps

Type	Wilderness
Government	Arachnopoly (rule by spiders, of the spiders, for the spiders)
Location	Amusa, surrounding Seawell
Inhabiting Race	Very few humanoids, primarily spiders of numerous sizes.

The Spider Swamps are a vast series of swamps, marshes, and bogs covering most of the area around Seawell, only ending a few miles from the westernmost outskirts of Galik. As the name implies, this area's land is primarily swamp, and the notable animals are spiders, especially giant spiders.

History

No textbook is sure when the Spider Swamps first came to be, as it predates humanity's arrival in Amusa. The first notable human settlement in the swamp was the future city of Seawell, on the coast, where an elevated sandbar allowed marooned sailors to survive on dry land and begin building.

Early inhabitants of Seawell ventured into the swamps to gather wood after they ran out of trees near the built-up beach. It was in these adventures that "The Swamp" became known as "The Spider Swamps," as lumberjacks encountered spiders of unusual size when they ventured more than a mile inland. The challenging environment led to more people from Seawell to learn combat and survival skills. What later became Seawell Community College originally started to teach these skills.

One day, a class of newly trained warriors ventured into the swamp with axes, ready to chop some trees and defend themselves against the eight-legged horrors. All seemed well, until a swarm of giant spiders appeared to be moving twice as quickly towards the group. The woodsmen quickly learned that the spiders could attack even more than they normally could. Only one survived, and he reported his findings back to the town.

A wizard from Seawell lost much of her family in this incident, including her oldest son, so she trained in magic to clear much of the swamp that following year, using magic. Claudia "Cloudia" Lonato, who had been a navigator and meteorologist one on of the many ill-fated ships that landed at Seawell, controlled the weather for the three miles surrounding downtown Seawell eight hours every day for a year. She prevented rain and alternating between extreme heat and extreme cold so the creatures - and their food sources - could not adapt. This led to environmental destruction for miles around the city, but that was the point, and it cleared out the spiders from that small section of the vast swamp. Cloudia was then unanimously deemed a noble of the city, and her family were then made the feudal lords of most of Seawell from then on. Most of the cleared land is now farmland which the people of Seawell use every day.

However, this magic came with a cost. In her old age, Cloudia ventured into the Swamps one day to find the source of the magic that enhanced the spiders, hypothesizing either some magical plants, fey nonsense, or a rare temple of Lolth on the surface. She ventured into the woods, never to return.

In the centuries since, the Swamps have stayed largely unsettled, as the heavy rain and rough terrain are unpleasant and difficult to farm or transport goods through. However, a few paths have been carved through the swamps, allowing brave or desperate people to travel on foot between Galik and Seawell. Still, only a few dozen are estimated to take this risk per year, and rumors about the dangers within swirl to this day.