Blood Bayou

Blood Bayou is an expansive, enigmatic, and darkly magical wetland that lies in the delta of the Umenru River south of Drachenheim. Officially, Blood Bayou is named for the iron-rich clay that stains its waters a rusty red, but the name also serves as a warning against the innumerable dangers that call the Bayou home.

Blood Bayou defies all attempts to catalogue its mysteries or map its interior, as the swamp constantly shifts and warps. Many travelers have lost their way - and often their lives - attempting to navigate the bayou as landmarks appear, disappear, and move without any predictable pattern.

While there are many dangers in Blood Bayou, including enormous alligators, swarms of ravenous mosquitoes, cruel swamp hags, and carnivorous plant life, none compare to the horrors of the Carnival of Shadows. Located deep within the bayou, the Carnival of Shadows is a grotesque mockery of festive celebrations. Tents and pavilions in garish colors surround a castle that looks more like a child's dollhouse than a true fortification, its towers brightly painted and its walls festooned with tawdry banners.

Though its appearance invites ideas of festive whimsy, its inhabitants are anything but harmless. Undead soldiers, hulking alligator-men, and darkly mischievous jesters wander the never-ending festivities alongside stranger creatures, all beholden to the master of the Carnival of Shadows, the living enigma known as the Jack of Tears.