Gulluvia - Misty Swamp musings
by Marc Saindon(B3 orange, p.4)
"Misty Swamp — No one knows exactly what lies behind the veil ofever present mist that hovers over the swamp. Some old timers say that the dwarves who make Anterian Brandy live in the swamp near their secret ingredient, the swamp water. This is speculation, as no one really knows what the secret ingredient of Anterian Brandy is."
There is more, but for the sake of concision, let's sum it up as "Misty Swamp is a wild magic zone".
Couple of retcons. First the Dwarves are replaced by Gnomes (Glantri nearby, plus Gnomes are setting appropriate for the Feywild). Second, the mists. Let's make it part of a geyser field. So in distant past, when trying to jumpstart the rain in the deserting region, powerful geothermic enchantments were weaved to create a geyser field that produce a bunch of steam from the aquifier deep below. That steam would rise, coalesce, and through wind enchantments those clouds would move towards the Silver Palace, producing the needed rain for irrigation (see my previous post on canals that explain away the bad river system).
Water produced is enough to irrigate the valley, but the field is drained of its water too frequently to become a lake, hence it's a swamp.
The chaotic faerie magic that allowed the creation of the hotsprings-geyser system and keeps it going makes a dangerous place to live, but some people might seek Wild Magic.
"Others whisper tales of an evil wizard living there in a massive tower of shiny black stone." (p.4)
This gives the opportunity for both the 5e Barbarian (Path of Wild Magic) and Wild Magic Sorcerer to get a background story. Maybe this dark tower is real, located in the Feywild, glitching back and forth into Mystara. The people from the tower aren't evil, but aligned with the unseelie court (which is still dangerous). They could form an extended clan of humans (maybe dutch metal-heads? Burning Man participants?), and while they go all out halloween style, they don't really have a grudge against the Silver Princess. The wild magics of the swamp that give them power tend to fizzle out once they're too far away from it, and the stability of normal is boring to them.
Maybe the Dark Tower is a magical school, specializing in both Wild Magic (scoffed at by Glantrian Wizard academia) and steam versions of fire-based spells (allowing a Fireball to work properly underwater, and by-passing some elemental fire immunities as the damage is water-based). As for the Barbarians that train alongside, they should get an odd signature weapon, like a scourge, instead of the battleaxe or great club, and dress differently than from conan emulators: perhaps like the Pack raiding gang in Fallout 4, colourful and carnival-like, with animal masks.
(image: El Tatio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Tatio#)