Do you and your players have an adventure through a gross, but otherwise mundane swamp? Spice it up by making the environment more engaging and meaningful. Here I have provided an active, swampy environment, complete with several threats and a new condition: Nauseated.

I originally created this expansion for the Curse of Strahd campaign when the party would be approaching Baba Lysaga‘s hut. where she would have further manipulated the swamp. Of course, my players had other plans, but I didn‘t want it to go to waste, so without further adieu...

The Swamp

When first reaching the swamp, the PCs should all make their first nausea check, due to the putrid smell. The swamp is also littered with various dangers, most of which trigger additional checks. Any character who becomes prone in the swamp must make another nausea check. Any fails on those saves will cause the player to be affected by the new Nauseated condition.

New Condition: Nauseated

A creature subjected to a nausea-inducing situation must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, or become nauseated. While nauseated, further nausea checks will move you to a different phase: fails will advance the phase, while passes will reduce the phase; criticals advance twice in their respective direction. Phase I can only be cleared by two successive saves, or one critical success.

Due to the volatile nature of combat, a creature who makes, or is the target of, an attack while in a nausea-inducing situation must repeat the saving throw at the end of its turn. The DC for these more frequent saves is 10.

• Phase I: A nauseated creature has disadvantage on ability checks.
• Phase II: A nauseated creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws.
• Phase III: A nauseated creature can‘t take reactions.
• Phase IV: A nauseated creature automatically fails all saving throws except those made to shake off nausea.
• Phase V: A nauseated creature is incapacitated by vomiting for the next round, after which they revert to Phase IV.

Swamp Threats

• Vines: Though they do no actual damage, they will actively try to trip and/or restrain the characters.
• Gas Bubbles: Periodically—especially as a result of stepping in the muck — gas bubbles will appear and burst, splashing the party, and forcing checks from any characters within 5 feet.
• Critters: Various tiny critters, such as frogs, rats, or swarms of insects infest the area. They pose no real danger to the party, but their sounds or movement may startle some characters, causing them to trip and possibly bring others down with them.
• Creatures: Much larger creatures, such as giant snakes and spiders, frequently inhabit these areas. Normally, they would not pose much of a threat to the party, but become more dangerous in this environment.

Photo by Markus Spiske.