The Cursed Lands The Cataclysm & The War of the Lance The current year for our Dragonlance campaign is set during 351 AC "After Cataclysm". Inspired By Trampas Whiteman

The Cursed Lands surrounding Xak Khalan are a testament to the enduring power of rot and corruption, a landscape where even the memory of a thriving city has been suffocated by decay. The air itself, a humid, cloying weight, tastes of rust and sulfur, a constant reminder of the poisonous bogs that lie in wait for the unwary. Underfoot, the ground is a deceitful thing, appearing solid beneath a carpet of sickly green moss, but quick to give way into a sucking mire that threatens to claim any who stray from the few treacherous, half-submerged paths.

Here, the remnants of Xak Khalan's street grid are like a skeletal finger-work beneath a veil of grime, with ancient, waterlogged stones occasionally breaking the surface like tombstones for a forgotten civilization. The flora of this place seems as cursed as the land itself. Twisted, grasping "ironclaw" trees stand like skeletal guardians at the marsh's edge, their bark perpetually slick with moisture and their branches ending in menacing, hooked thorns.

Aggressive, fast-spreading marsh grasses choke the waterways and entangle the ruins, their pale, fleshy stalks promising only entrapment and lurking beneath the surface of the stagnant, algae-covered ponds are unseen, dangerous creatures, their presence only betrayed by the occasional ripple or the sudden, violent death of a bird foolish enough to drink from the corrupted water.

This is a land of morbid stillness, where the echoes of the Cataclysm and the corrupting presence of the black dragon Khisanth have left a lingering miasma of despair. It is a place where every shadow holds a threat and every step is a gamble against the grasping earth.

The Cursed Lands are a breeding ground for foul and dangerous creatures, corrupted by the lingering evil of the black dragon Khisanth and the ever-present miasma of the swamp. While the great dragon herself is gone, her influence persists, twisting the landscape and its inhabitants into hostile, venomous caricatures of their former selves. Draconic monsters like the greedy Baaz draconians are a common threat, often encountered alongside their reptilian kin, such as mutated lizardfolk tribes who perform brutal rituals in the deepest parts of the marsh.

Enormous and cunning giant crocodiles lurk in the fetid waters, while giant, venomous snakes and monstrous blood-sucking leeches inhabit the murky depths and dense vegetation, posing a constant threat to travelers. The swamp is also haunted by the restless dead, including ghosts and revenants of those lost during the Cataclysm, and the dark magic animating these lands has given rise to bog mummies—soggy, corrupted horrors that shamble through the ruin-choked mire.

In addition, cunning and predatory froghemoths, catgators, and swarms of stirges now thrive here, joining the ranks of disease-ridden animals mutated by the swamp's corruption, ensuring that the Cursed Lands remain a place of constant peril for any who dare enter.

The region surrounding Xak Tsaroth and Xak Khalan is known as the Cursed Lands due to a confluence of two cataclysmic events: the devastation of the world-shattering Cataclysm and the subsequent, prolonged presence of the evil black dragon, Khisanth. The Cataclysm brought with it a divine punishment that submerged much of the area in a great deluge, drowning the city of Xak Tsaroth and forever transforming the landscape into a putrid bog filled with the restless spirits of the dead. In the wake of this initial blight, the black dragon Khisanth established her lair within the submerged, cavernous ruins, infusing the already damaged land with her potent and corrupting dark magic for generations.

Her malicious influence twisted the flora and fauna, attracting wicked creatures like draconians and turning the swamp into a toxic breeding ground for monsters and disease. Thus, the name "Cursed Lands" is a bitter testament to the enduring scars of the gods' fury and the lingering evil of a black dragon, a name earned through centuries of decay, death, and relentless corruption.